Wednesday, December 31, 2003

LunaNi?a.com | Unconscious Mutterings

  1. Seeker:: Thrill
  2. Mirror:: Mirror on the wall.
  3. Fire:: (dah de dahh daahhhh) some something burn.... some song, by (I think) Crazy World of Arther Brown
  4. Goblet:: of fire
  5. Empty:: basket (too much e-commerce programming)
  6. Secrets:: and lies (Counterpane: Secrets and Lies by Bruce Schneier)
  7. Defense:: strategy (Chess)
  8. Hatchet:: bury
  9. Vapour:: mist
  10. Ministry:: of defence
From The Firday Five

1. What was your biggest accomplishment this year?
Worldwide Co.

2. What was your biggest disappointment?
A distinct lack of sex.

3. What do you hope the new year brings?
Health, wealth and happiness.

4. Will you be making any New Year's resolutions? If yes, what will they be?
Yes. Exercise, work harder and enjoy life more.

5. What are your plans for New Year's Eve?
Stay in (looking after daughter), drink a bottle of wine, watch telly and do some programming
It's New Years Eve and rather than out drinking thousands of beers and throwing up I'm programming an experiment in Alternative Scoring for Football (Soccer).

I'm going to try the old method (1 point draw 2 point win), and several of my own using the current scorring (1 point draw, 3 point win).

  • Scores as above and 1 point for each goal - regardless of result (to encourage teams losing by 3-0 to still get a late goal)
  • 1 point no score draw, 2 points score draw, 3 points win.
  • No points for wins or draws, just a point per goal - (to damage boring teams that play for 1 nils)

Tuesday, December 23, 2003

I can’t wait for Christmas to be over. I live in the West End of London, which gets unbearably busy at this point with shoppers and drunks hunting presents and/or each other in packs. (Just why shoppers feel the need to travel to the West End I have no idea. We have EXACTLY the same shops as any major high street – it’s just that our prices are higher! Long gone are the days when the West End had lovely little boutiques and individual shops, the major chains priced out the independents years ago.)

Anyway, I picked up my 18-month-old daughter Maisy from nursery and went into the ever so slightly cheaper than normal book shop opposite as my almost-brother-in-law wants a “film book” for Christmas. (As another aside, he’s also getting a subscription to a chess magazine for 35 quid, some special shampoo he wanted and now he also wants this fucking book, at least another tenner. Do I sound mean? Well he said he’s going to spend a fiver on me. Cool fscking beans.)

So, I’m in the shop with a happily talkative Maisy in the pram being just about as cute as it is possible for a toddler to be; merrily chirping away, and I ask ever so politely for a “Helliwells or something like that”. In response I get a snide, over there under the sign and the Virgin is on the floor.” So, I wheel the pushchair through the shop, performing complex three point turns around other browsers and avoiding piles of crap art books, and get to the place where the shop assistant waved. I can’t see a sign for the Film Books, or the Helliwells, or indeed the Virgin book on the floor, but I must be in the right area as there are books on film noir, various actors and what-have-you. So I browse around a bit, check out the adjoining racks, and can’t find a thing. At this point Maisy has gotten as bored as me and starts to cry just a little bit. I keep looking over at the assistant, who watched me the whole way over - like I’m going to grab for a paperback and run for my life - but now he’s pointedly ignoring me. So after a while I just call across the shop for some help and he huffs across, pints and says “over there where I said, under the sign”. So this sign turns out to be the shop sign, the one pointing outside, not one saying film. Anyway, I had a brief look at the books, made a few disparaging remarks to another ‘shopper’, and left. Is it me? I don’t think so, he was deliberately rude, vague and relished taking out a little of his “man old enough to have a proper job but just working in a bargain book shop” frustration on me.

So anyway, I head home and as we cross over the main junction to get to the flat we have to bypass one of the busy corners with meandering tourists/shoppers/drunks milling about and this women pulling a suitcase and trying to edit a SMS text message on a mobile phone is weaving around the pavement in front of me, obviously walking a little slowly as she tries to do two things at once. I nip around her and am a little way down the street when the fscker steps on the back of my heals! She’s actually sped up, just to give me a little kick! And recall here that I’m pushing a child in a pram. So I turn to see who it was and by then I’m at my entrance to the flat anyway, so as she pasts I say something sarcastic about apology accepted, or whatever – then she actually says, well you cut me up! So the fucker really had deliberately stepped on the back of my heal because I had the temerity to walk in front of her. Argh!


How to waste an hour in two easy lessons:

Monday, December 22, 2003

Forces of Nature (1999)
Never forgot a birthday
Never wear your socks to bed
Listen to her like you mean it
Never ever hit
No matter what annoying habits she has, realise that she is dealing with a huge mountain of inperfections everyday, so you might just want to let it go.

Saturday, December 20, 2003

the friday five

  1. List your five favorite beverages.>


  2. List your five favorite websites.


  3. List your five favorite snack foods.

    • buttery toast
    • Cheese & Branston Pickle
    • Pistachio nuts
    • Popcorn (honey or salt)
    • Marmite on toast


  4. List your five favorite board and/or card games.


  5. List your five favorite computer and/or game system games.

    • Abes Oddysee - Playstation
    • Z - PC Dos
    • Safecracker - Mac
    • Unreal - PC
    • Timesplitters 2 - X-Box


Tuesday, December 16, 2003

He are some quite shocking pictures that will hopefully convince people not to Don't Drink and Drive.

Saturday, December 13, 2003

Monday, December 08, 2003

One of the other songs my mother wants played at the funeral is Nessun Dorma. This page contains a Commentary on Symbolism, Poetry, and Puccini's Turandot and in particular "Nessun Dorma".
My father, Victor James Delahunty died on Thursday 4th December 2003 at 7:30 am.

My mother wants a version of Danny Boy to be played at his funeral next week as he used to sing it all the time. So I've just downloaded a few and cried my eyes out!

I found a few versions on Kazaa, and here's another by The Three Irish Tenors as a free download.

Monday, December 01, 2003

My father is dying. He has pneumonia and is being kept in Ealing Hospital. The doctors say they that although are treating him he isn't responding.

He is occasionally awake, but can't comunicate - for one thing there's an oxygen mask in the way - but he sometimes smiles at us.

Tell your father you love him now.
Another great result from Fulham Football Club: "Arsenal 0-0 Fulham ". But even I (with my black-and-white eye) admit that we knicked the point. They had something like 24 shots to our handful! Here's a good report from ESPN and the game stats look scarey! click the link to the gamecast.

Blimey. We're fourth!

Thursday, November 27, 2003

There's a programme on BBC4 now called Fascism and Football, there's mention of the greatest footballer of his generation Matthias Sindelar 'The Paper Man' , who was (probably) killed by the Nazis.

Monday, November 10, 2003

Went over with Lesley and my beautiful daughter Maisy to Richards for his Jamie Oliver Five Hour Lamb. Got nicely drunk, then went home and watched the channel4.com - one hundred greatest singles Have to admit more than a tear in my eye at a couple, especially Nothing Compares 2 U, the Prince song sung beautifully by the gorgeous Sinead O'Connor and Whiter Shade of Pale - Procol Harum which was #1 on my birthday, 6th July 1967. Okay I'm pissed.

Saturday, October 25, 2003

Tell me mum I'm in the pub
and wont be home for tea!
It's Man' United 1
Fulham FC 3.

Thursday, September 11, 2003

Just discoverd this tiny motherboard project mini-itx.com - faq so you can have pretty tiny/cool computers. Such as this web server in a guitar!

Wednesday, September 03, 2003

Soul Train
Remember the GREAT song Soul Train? Well the some of the band - Swansway -went on to form Scarlet Fantastic and have the song for download. Nice.

Tuesday, September 02, 2003

Tuesday, August 26, 2003

I've been a fan of Fulham Football Club since I was a small boy. They were my father team, and I guess inherited them from him.
Welcome!
I'm Liam, I'm only trying this becuase I saw it on the new google toolbar.

Could be a bit of a laugh I 'spose...