Or at least, someone at ITV is a prick for hiring this guy to do commentary.
Thank you Will Greenwood for completely ruining the South Africa V Argentina game with endless references to the England squad, and selling Josh Lewsey’s injury the previous night like he’d been shot. I’m not the only one to notice this:
Thread moaning about him on ITV’s forums
The Will Greenwood Drinking game
If there’s any justice in the world he will never, ever be let anywhere near a microphone again.
Isabel, this one’s for you 
A bunch of people I know meant to watch the BBC Panorama documentary about Scientology, but everyone either missed it or only caught 5 minutes of it. Fortunately it’s available on Google Video.
No comments will be published. This really isn’t the venue to be discussing the issues presented here; I’m just posting the video in a location that’s easy to find.
I recently read an excellent Digg front page article referencing this website, an online repository of hundreds of documentaries viewable online via Google video. Through this site I rediscovered a fascinating documentary called Ghosts on the Underground, a special shown on Halloween 2006 in the UK, on Channel 5 if my memory serves me correctly. I only caught the last half hour of this show so I was pleased to find a place to watch the rest of the documentary online. As with 99.9% of paranormal documentaries, only anecdotal evidence is presented. However, I’m a sucker for ghost stories (even though they scare me), so perhaps you’ll find this interesting, but don’t have nightmares folks!
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.
As I write this, it’s gone 2 in the morning and I’m watching the WWE Royal Rumble live. (The first wrestling pay per view I’ve managed to see live in 5 years*)
Suddenly I’m a teenager again. I’m getting the feeling of “shit, I really shouldn’t watch this show until the end, I have school tomorrow”.
* Yes I know I saw Survivor Series 2003 on the night at Reef’s house, but with the constant Sky+ pausing of the action for fag breaks, bog breaks, munchies breaks, the cumulative effect was that I was watching the show on a 2 hours delay, so it doesn’t count :p
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.
I got a number 2 clipped haircut the other day, albeit accidentally – the guy mistook “four” for “two”. As you do. By the time I noticed he was using the wrong clipguard the damage was done. Not sure whether it suits me or not, probably because I haven’t really deviated from my usual haircut for about 15 years. (Not counting my ill-advised blond curtains I proudly sported upon starting university) That was 6 days ago and already my hair’s grown back sufficiently that my head doesn’t feel cold. Which is nice.
Had a weekend at the in-laws, which was a stress sandwich. The highlight was leaving the house to visit the local shopping centre – I had the dubious honour of returning to the car with 4 bags, all containing nothing but confectionary of some sort. They had a Thorntons and a Cadbury outlet shop… hence I snapped up broken Crunchies and abnormally-shaped truffles at bargain prices. They’ll last me about a week. Expect a less-streamlined Math when you next see him. Type 2 diabetes beckons.
At least when I was at their house I got to relegate myself to their spare room and get some work done. I have recently finished a site for a cleaning firm and a new site for my boss’s company, but I still have a bunch of sites to work on / begin, for the following people/organisations:
- botox clinic
- 2x sites for a dating agency
- greeting card manufacturer
- 2x sites for personal trainers
- and finally, a Flash photo gallery for a guy wanting to distribute his wedding photos online. novel idea
That’ll keep me busy for a while!
I was asked to produce a website for someone claiming to own “London’s biggest escort agency”. Two thumbs up! Except they wanted to pay me with “store credit”, so I passed up the opportunity, much to the chagrin of some (single) web dev friends of mine. One in particular was furious that I hadn’t thought of negotiating a good deal and referring the job to him.
Looking forward to seeing Tim Vine on Friday night. Also, I may be seeing the Wales vs New Zealand match at the Millennium Stadium on November 25. I’ll gloss over the fact that we don’t stand a chance.
Halloween and Bonfire night fast approaching… I really miss being a kid, then these nights were a big deal. This applies even more to Christmas, which the shops would have you believe is next week.
$ky Television have acquired the rights to Lost, right from under Channel 4′s nose. Either Sky have been unscrupulous shits, C4 have been poor negotiators, or both, but either way all parties are bastards for denying me some great TV for free. Some people would resort to downloading the episodes off Bittorrent, but everyone knows I’m not such a person.
I know I sound like a stuck record, but I really am looking forward to leaving London. 5 years ago, I was stuck record preaching the benefits of going to London. Now, older and wiser, the honeymoon is over. Unless you are earning a lot more than I am, or unless you have rich parents to leech off, London simply isn’t viable. It’s a shame.
I shall leave you with
something you don’t already know
Saw Mitchell and Webb at the Pleasance Theatre last Friday, and they were so funny it hurt.
Went to a signing of the Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace DVD. Garth, Todd Rivers and Dean Learner were all there in character. I ended up having a discussion with Garth about the benefits of equipping all NHS staff with firearms. Surreal.
Saw some weirdo masturbating on a platform at Canning Town station. As you do.
Got absolutely bladdered on Sunday afternoon and spent that evening heartily chundering and vowing never to drink again. I’m still hungover.
The BBC and Great Ormond Street Hospital are now involved in this medical physics video we’re making at work. Our producer, of all goes to plan, was one of the producers for Tomorrow’s World [/geek fanboy mode]
A morose Welshman who now lives in London, telling anecdotes about how behind-the-times things are West of the Severn Bridge.
No, it isn’t me down the pub, it’s Rhod Gilbert and his excellent show Knocking on Heavens Door. If stand-up comedy is your thing, I highly recommend you go see him at Soho theatre in a few weeks.
Being the only Welshman in the audience this evening I did make myself a target for each of his Welsh anecdotes but it was all good fun. We’ll be returning to the Pleasance theatre next week to see Mitchell and Webb (the guys off Peep Show), which I’m sure will be hilarious. I can’t wait.
The Missus bought a car this evening, so if you hear of a hit and run in East London involving a silver Ford Fiesta, it wasn’t us…
Work is getting steadily busier, those of you who think I’m a slacking bastard will be overjoyed to hear.
So I went to Teddington Studios last night to watch the taping of the new TV show from the people that made Garth Marenghi’s Dark Place. The show was called Dean Learner Man To Man and is a spoof chat show. It is, very possibly, the funniest thing I’ve ever seen. There’s a rant about Def Leppard being soft-rock bell-ends that has to be seen to be appreciated.
