Tag: NBA

bookmark_borderWhy the internet is wonderful

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Gather one, gather all, let me tell you a story, let me regale you with a simple yet powerful tale of the wonders achieved when the internet and compassion of (wo)man join in harmonious union.

OK, maybe not. But I do have an excellent example of how this interwoven online life we lead is actually a good thing… bear with me though, as this covers many tangents.

It all started with an RSS feed…

[cue wibbly wobbly dream sequence]
wibbly wobbly wibbly wobbly

[cut to dashingly handsome man, idly checking his RSS feeds]
Continue reading “Why the internet is wonderful”

bookmark_borderWe Haz Teh Kitchen!

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Laminate flooring is a bugger (or maybe it’s the instructions?). But, finally, it’s done!!

Kitchen is finished (1)

Well, technically speaking there are a couple of small jobs to do but that’s the big stuff out of the way. You should’ve seen us when we laid that last bit of flooring, high-fiving like a couple of NBA All-Stars we were.

Anyway, nothing else to say about it, just wanted to mark the occasion.

bookmark_borderSnippets

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What to start with, what to start with…

Ohh come on, you know fine well. Love it or loathe it, the carnival/freakshow that is Big Brother has kicked in and what a marvellous piece of car-crash casting it looks to have been this year. From the campest gay in Glasgow (Shahbaz AKA the “wacky Paki poof”) to “the one who may just be the most normal” Bonnaaughhh (Bonnie), the Vickey Pollard-esque (Nikki) to the geezer-ish wideboy (Sezer – rhymes with Caesar) it’s probably the most outlandish group they’ve come up with so far. And that’s before you consider the fact that they’ve included someone with Tourette’s Syndrome (Pete).

I’d imagine a lot of the initial focus will be on Pete, and I hope that they at least TRY and play safe. It would be too easy to reduce his condition and play him up as a laughing stock, although I fear the ratings may have some influence on this. Only time will tell.

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I have to agree with Jason, this year the NBA playoffs are all about the team (baby!). In the past the focus has always been on the individuals, the Michael Jordans, Shaquille O’Neals, Kobe Bryants and so on, but this year whilst the superstars are there the focus is switching to the best team. It’s been a gradual process with the Pistons leading the way and forcing the NBA machine/marketing department to start lauding teams over single players. I’d suggest that is simply because, whilst they are without a doubt the best team in the league over the past couple of season, they haven’t ever signed a superstar name, and even the league’s best efforts to try and pull some of their players up into that ‘stratus’ has failed because.. well… Big Ben just ain’t that charismatic.

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What would the world be like without the internet? OK, what would MY world be like without the internet?

I got a scary glimpse into the past last night as BlueYonder had a few connection glitches. Only lasted about two hours but it was slap bang in the middle of me trying to get some work done and, you know what, I couldn’t. I was stuck on one piece of coding and had nowhere to go to look it up! PANIC!! EEK.

Thankfully normality was restored and the first thing I did? Look up the BlueYonder support page and WRITE DOWN their telephone number!

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And finally, if you are bored here, scroll on down and pick a site from the list on the left. They’re all quite good and don’t feature as much “dross” as I do. Apparently.

Ach. To be honest I really REALLY don’t care if someone doesn’t like what I’m posting here. It’s very VERY simple, don’t read it. You don’t HAVE to visit here, you don’t HAVE to read all this. I’ll still post it anyway so there is little point in complaining. Ohh yes you may think this is a democracy but let me assure you of one thing, whilst I’m very very stunned and amazed that so many nutters of you keep coming back, what I do with and what I post to this site is none of your business.

Shocking stuff to end on but, frankly my dears, I was THIS close to “hiating” for a while. And for me that means this site closes until I’m ready to come back. The fact that you are reading this can be taken as a two-fingered salute to both my own attitude (which sickens even me sometimes) and to the fact that I don’t run this site to please anyone else bar me.

Phew. That feels better already!

UPDATE: Me and my big gob
OK, as ever I’ve jumped in with both feet. Yes one comment that was left yesterday irked me, but hey such is life. If I’m honest the comment isn’t that big a bother to me, and I was probably focussing on that as an excuse. What I should really do is take a break from this site. Which I will sometime soon, if only to provide a gap in which to upgrade WordPress, get the spam plugins sorted (lots of trackback stuff all of a sudden) and whatnot.

bookmark_borderSporting

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A gentleman who likes soft furnishings admits that he doesn’t understand why people watch sport.

Reading that it suddenly struck me how much sport I watch, on TV, and how little I mention it here (I don’t even have a “sport” category for my posts). Sure I comment on the footie now and then, basketball (NBA) gets a mention, as does my infrequent outings into the sporting arena, but given the amount of time I spend watching sport it’s probably the thing I blog least about (other than my work).

Now, let’s get this straight, I’ll watch pretty much ANY sport, even cricket. I’ve always enjoyed watching sport and I’m wondering why. I’ll watch football, rugby union and league, basketball, golf, cricket, badminton, squash, aussie rules, american football, baseball (still getting to grips with that though, it’s not on often), and all the more common sports. I’m equally happy watching anything from the Olympic events, X-Games and so on, currently battling an addiction to the Ultimate Fighting Championship (late night on Bravo). In fact the only “sports” I don’t watch are horse and greyhound racing (separately, as far as I know they don’t yet race them both at the same time… I wonder who’d win?).

I don’t really have many favourite teams or athletes, I just enjoy watching the competition I think. The battle of wills, call it what you will (pun intended!), can be fascinating, especially as it usually boils down to two individuals pitting themselves against other. Even in most team games it will be two people who usually are the focus and can influence things. I enjoy learning about the tactics and styles used in different sports, how american footballers learn all those codes, how you can start to see when a fighter is feinting with his head before shooting a straight left, the tiny adjustments to position made on a badminton court that can switch the advantage.

Part of it might be aspiration of course, and occasionally it may be in the hope of picking up a few tips to improve my own game (ever watched ten pin bowling? very informative!), but mainly it’s the competition I love. I’m fairly competitive myself and that allows me some form of projected connection with the athletes on screen. Yes, I think I’d be happy watching tiddlywinks on the television, either that or khabaddi.

bookmark_borderWhat are you doing?

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I’ll be working tomorrow, trudging to work whilst the majority of the country … don’t. I hope you all have something planned or you will be making a mockery of the fact that I’m in work and you’re not. It’s your duty to do something!

Sigh.

I’m distracting myself at the moment, NBA is on in the background, but I should really be working on Scottish Blogs. Progress has been zero as I’m increasingly struggling with PHP and I’m considering buying an off-the-shelf ‘member site’ package and customising that to help out. Mind you it’s the last thing I want to spend any money on as it’s, essentially, a hobby site. I’ve kind of lost the excitment of doing it to be honest, but I’ll keep pegging away.

One thing I DO want to spend money on is a new car. We still owe a few thousand on the current car, but I reckon that the trade-in would offset that. We’ll be getting something smaller as we don’t travel far anymore and the car’s main use is getting Louise to work, a 15 minute journey at most. Not sure what though. We’ve had Renault’s for a few years, but it may be time for a change.

So, what to buy? I fancy the new Mini but it’s a bit pricey when new, not mad keen on the Clio, the new Fiesta might be an option… not sure to be honest.

Ideally I’d like something top of the range but that’s not gonna happen – one of our reasons for changing is to try and save a little money. Guess I need to pick up a copy of Auto Express this week.