Mathew Browne

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For all the smug English fans who were boasting all week long that victory on Saturday was in the bag

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/6454287.stm

Wales 27 - 18 England

It was my first rugby international and first time at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. What a day! A more detailed report soon.

I’m at work and thoroughly exhausted. My New Years Resolutions have burnt out. The exercise thing hasn’t gone well, mainly because of the amount of work I’ve had - so at least one resolution has gone to plan.

The dwindling frequency of my posts makes me wonder if I should post them to one central location and just duplicate them here. Myspace is awful, Facebook less so but still not good nonetheless, but most of my non-geektastic friends would rather read my messages there. Their lack of feed support does not help my decision.

I’m not looking forward to the Wales-England rugby game I’m going to see in 3 weeks - Wales have been abysmally poor and England… well, they’re a one-man team. A good one-man team though, and so far playing better than we are. The cunts.

Escaped unscathed the other side of a work-related drama, in which I figured I was either going to get myself sacked or hand in my notice before a cooler head prevailed. It’s a long and probably uninteresting story that I won’t bore you with. Office politics, people sticking their oars in, too many cooks spoiling the broth, and many other cliched proverbs spring to mind.

Watched the entire third series (or ’season’, if you insist on being a Yank about it) of The 4400 in one day-long sitting last weekend, and it was great. I highly recommend it.

I also loved the Mike Judge film Idiocracy, which paints a pretty grim portrait of what society will be like in 500 years: Benefit-leeching council house dwellers breeding irresponsibly create a dumbed-down society such that a guy with an IQ of 100 is the suddenly world’s smartest man, the President of the USA carries an machine gun and has a harem, the top rated TV show is called “Ow, my balls!” in which the star just gets kicked in the nuts for half an hour, one can buy 6000-calorie burgers from a family establishment called Assfuckers, and no-one drinks water anymore, just soft drinks (and the soft drinks manufacturer employs over 50% of the American population). Watch it, laugh a little, then die a little inside knowing it could happen. Never mind climate change, address the human stupidity issue first and everything else will fall into place.

Now that rant mode is switched off.

Currently watching/recently watched:
- Robot Chicken :: excellent call Barney
- The X Files :: bought the complete DVD box set, feels like its 1994 again
- Dark Angel :: not bad, though Jessica Alba’s character way overdoes the pretend-black-speak. Did James Cameron forget his lead character was white along the way or something?
- Creep :: Not the greatest film, but still enjoyable to see Lola running again, this time from Token Horror Monster un the tunnels next to Charing Cross tube station (factual error: Jubilee line trains don’t run through Charing Cross)
- Taken :: Was a bit slow-paced for Louise’s taste, but I found it utterly absorbing. Spielberg done good again. Dakota Fanning, however, is almost certainly Satan.
- Rugby, lots of it :: Got to watch these things while they’re on BBC and not nicked by Rupert Murdoch. Last weekend of it coming up, and my boys are taking on the All Blacks. By ‘taking on’ I mean ‘trying, probably unsuccessfully, to stop’. I’ve had a moderately successful run of bets on the games too, thanks in no small part to my good friend Tom who is now offically my personal rugby pundit and tipster.
- Random people videoblogging on Youtube :: I don’t give a damn about these people or their videos in the slightest, but it’s quite comforting to have in the background when you’re working. (I’m one of those people that works best when there’s background noise)

What I haven’t been watching
- Lost :: Sky have now got the rights to show it in what is a genius business move (let Channel 4 build up the fan base and shell out on promotion, then outbid them when the contracts up for renewal). On a personal level, however, I’m gutted. I’m sure there must be *some* way I can watch it…

I found a cracking website (albeit not bookmarked on this computer) which has all of my old MS-DOS favourites: Commander Keen, Jill of the Jungle, Wizkid, Captain Comic, The Incredible Machine etc. They have not aged well.

…is this.

I’ve had my parents staying for the weekend, which has been nice. Despite being our guest my mother has insisted on cooking, then criticising the weight I’ve put on in recent years. Joyous.

I was pleased to hear that a good friend of mine (and reader of this blog) has finally plucked up the courage to ask out his crush, and is waiting eagerly for their first date. How very Dawson’s Creek.

My father and I were out shopping on Saturday, passed a generic electrical retailer and were rather pleased with ourselves at Wales’ 8-0 lead over Italy. We weren’t so pleased when we got home to find we’d drawn the match 18-18, at home no less. We were equally unimpressed by today’s cack-handed performance by England against the French. What a load of bollocks this Six Nations tournament has been. However, it must have been great for the bookies.

Speaking of sport, rumour has it that Joe Calzaghe will headline a monster night of boxing in the Millennium Stadium, sharing top billing with Ricky Hatton. Looks like I’ll be in Cardiff on July 8th then… Of course, barring a sudden lottery win or the abolishment of airport taxes, this will certainly put paid to my plans to see Guns N’ Roses in both Dublin on June 9th and Paris on June 20th. Nevermind. Speaking of Guns N’ Roses, Gilby Clarke is playing in London in May. I must get myself a ticket.

On Friday I’m at Guy’s hospital manning a stand promoting the site that I’d made for work, in the company of a Nobel prize winner, no less. I also need to somehow find the time to get the medical image database up and running, which is a tall order considering I know fuck all about databases or web servers, and my go-to guy leaves his job on Friday.

Ooh, and I won a Wrestlemania T shirt. If good luck comes in threes, then I’m due my third soon…

I have been spitting venom all morning because - for the second month running - UCL have screwed up my monthly salary. Resultantly, I hurriedly arranged a bank transfer from my parents to cover my rent (due tomorrow) and various bills that have been piling up. I got through to the HR department a few moments ago and asked them to put the money in pronto. I won’t hold my breath for it.

Wales v Ireland was a depressing affair…

On my way in to work I was stopped by a Frenchman (who couldn’t speak a word of English) requesting directions to Rotherhithe from where he was (near London city Airport). My A-level French finally came in useful for something. That, or I told him something like “The library is open. Grapefruit. Go there under car. Ice cream. Eric Cantona. ”

I watched the first 8 episodes of Family Guy series 4 last night. Easily the best cartoon series ever shown. “Quick! To the Hindenpeter!” You haven’t seen it? Bah, the reference is wasted on you.

I was forced to get the Jubilee line to work this morning. It goes through Canary Wharf. Thankfully, rush hour had been and gone, so there weren’t as many mergers-and-acquisitions types about, guffawing about the “bullish second quarter performance”, and how Piers in the next office “only drives a Jag”. That isn’t to say there weren’t any (there always are at Canary Wharf), but their comparative absence was heartening. Did I ever mention I really don’t like Canary Wharf? Not the buildings themselves, but some of the people who occupy them. They’re such… Oh, I did this already…

I have to give a presentation tomorrow, which I am not looking forward to. It’s all about this database I’m supposed to be implementing. Except I haven’t yet. So I’m hastily throwing together some mock-ups in preparation, then making a powerpoint (and working out just what I’m going to say) this evening.

Guns N’ Roses (my favourite band ever, if you’ve never noticed) are going back on tour this summer. I notice that they’re currently scheduled to be playing in Dublin on June 9th, and at the Download festival in Derby on June 11th. I’m crossing my fingers and hoping that they schedule a London gig in-between, which would also happen to be my birthday. ROCK!

My tickets for the WWE Smackdown taping at Wembley Arena arrived yesterday - 11th row! Woooo! (Tumbleweed rolls by). Speaking of Wembley, just how fucking stupid are Paddy Power (the bookmakers)? They start taking bets on whether or not Wembley Stadium will be finished in time for the FA Cup, and what happens? A steady stream of men in hard-hats in the Wembley area place huge sums of money against it. Oh, and they don’t receive a SINGLE BET on it being completed on time. And they’re paying up! Excellent job, Paddy Power. By the way, I have some magic beans for sale, if you’re interested…

Can’t wait for the weekend. 48 hours free of work and stress. Looking forward to the boxing on Saturday, though I fear the Skelton-Williams match will descend into a shitty hold-and-grab contest. On Sunday my friend Tom is visiting to watch the Wales-Ireland game. Should be a good’un.

If I was to say I had 2 tracks from “Chinese Democracy” by Guns N’ Roses (over a decade in the making) on my playlist, you’d probably call me a liar. You’d be wrong. God bless CD leakers.

Here is an abridged version of what I’ve been up to lately:

Saw the Superbowl with a bunch of friends from halls. Unfortunately, the owner of the bar acted like a self-indulgent prick who kept giving his own horrendously one-sided commentary, given he was a Pittsburgh Steelers fan. (And I was supporting them too, thanks to a £20 bet)

Saw the Wales-Scotland rugby match with a friend I went to school with, which was nice.

I have to make a presentation about a database I’m working on. Snag is, I haven’t done anything yet - in fact, thanks to a slow moving tech support group I don’t even have the server to play with yet. Unimpressed.

Work is plodding on. I suppose I’d enjoy it more if I had the certainly of a permanent job, but thanks to the glacier-like progression of grants within the funding system, I still have 3 weeks to wait until I know either way.

Generally, life is a little boring. Need something like a lottery win to spice it up. Having said that, I did win £32 on Euromillions last week. (I bought a ticket despite the fact that - according to the bookies -  Elvis Presley is more likely to crash a UFO into the White House then you are to win the Euromillions jackpot. I think I believe them.)