Christmas baby named Jesus.....

Article from the BBC.

Merry Christmas everyone.

M

I wanted to know who was winning the election.....

.... so I asked Yahoo.

(click here for the BBC results map)

If i ruled the world......

Ever wondered how the whole world would vote if they were picking the head American honcho?

Click here to vote and see the results.

:)

Currently listening to:
Song:Mr President
Artist: Randy Newman
Album: Good Old Boys

I believe i can fly......

.... cuse the instructor said so!



I had a lovely morning. We had to cut it short because of bad weather, but i get to have another flight because of that :)

Loverly.

Currently listening to
Given to fly
Pearl Jam
Yeild

Autumn time is coming and so....

.... its time for me to start feeling sleepy all the time and overdose on downbeat Iron and Wine songs :)

I love the feeling of winter on the horizon, when it hits this time of year i get an unexplained magical feeling in the pit of my stomach with early nights and autumn skies.

Halloween sparklers, My birthday, Christmas, the potential for snow. These things are the fuel for my Autumn / Winter glee.

Maybe I should hibernate now.....

Dell Support Stairway (to heaven)

I was reporting a Dell server fault earlier this morning. I was both amused and horrified that the hold music was a version of Led Zeppelin's 'Stairway to heaven'.

I love that song, though the hold music was a 1980's rendering with no guitars, rather keyboard effects. It sounded much like it had been covered by Harold Faltermeyer that guy who did the theme to Beverly Hills Cop. Travesty.

Speaking of travesties, below for your listening and or viewing pleasure is another version of Stairway. Its by an Australian rebel youngster and his obviously satanic wobble board.

Goodnight LeRoi Moore

Picture credit : DMB.com

'Dave Matthews Band' saxophonist died today after complications in surgery, following a car crash.

Water water everywhere, but not a drop to drink. (have some sense, its probably mostly sewage)

This was a lot of water.

Yesterday was the Mad Hatters Giants Supporters Club treasure hunt and BBQ. Actually it wasn't. We had to call the whole thing off due to not being insane enough to BBQ in storm conditions. Some people eh?

Jo, Sarah, Noel and I decided to lift our spirits by having a nice lunch, then a drive to find big puddles to splash in. I love big puddles, I see my car as a big pair of welly boots!

Most of the Shore Road in Newtownabbey was flooded, but we ploughed through before the police finally closed it. We drove up towards the coast at Glenarm, then back to Bangor to drop off Noel, then to Dunmurray, to Sarah's house. Most of the streets leading off the Lisburn Road were flooded and the fire services were out pumping away the offending water.

I'm looking forward to work on monday. The last time we had any kind of heavy rainfall the builing beside my office flooded and needed to be stripped out and redecorated. Do you know what sewage smells like? I do! (uugh)

Currently listening to:
Track:Why does it always rain on me?
Artist: Travis
Album: The Man Who

Hararya Noah Harry Thompson?

The Thompsons have had a special delivery.

Welcome Noah!

So, what is it then?

Sculptures are appearing all over whiteabbey roundabouts.

But what are they?

I'm still not sure, even after the explanation.

New GTV

We (nearly) saw Catherine Edwards

We went to Auntie Annie's to see reasonably miserable songstress Kathleen Edwards on Thursday night, but sadly she was unable to perform for "medical reasons". It might have been 'cuse she was too sad.

Ok, she isn't that bad, but my favorite song of her's is called hockey skates: "I am so sick of consequence and the look on your face / I am tired of paying defense and I don't even have hockey skates." Everybody sigh now.

We decided to not be down about this, and instead go to the movies where we saw the latest Narnia flick Prince Caspian. I love these movies. When I was a kid my granddad read me 'The Magician's Nephew' and it did a lot to spark up my frequently overactive imagination. There will be no doubt some discussion if the films are true to the books, but I don't really mind. I didn't go in as a critic, I just wanted a few childhood memories stirred. Job done.

I love the parralells of Aslan representing the character of God, how in the first film he defeated evil by sacrificing himself for the 'sons of adam'. There are other life lessons in here based on faith and doing what is right despite what your friends think of you. Couldn't be more wholesome if it was wheaten bread. A good time was had by all.

On a final note I was watching the BBC iPlayer coverage of 'The Ting Tings' at Glastonbury, and as I was adjusting the volume level, i realised it went up to 11! Good work BBC.

(Picture curtosy of, (but lets face it, without any permission from) the BBC)

Currently listening to:
Artist: The Ting Tings
Song: Great DJ
Album: We Started Nothing

We saw Karine Polwart.....

....at the spring and airbrake.

There were lots of free tickets floating around for this gig as it was a Monday night, the least rock and roll of all week nights. We picked up some freebies and headed in. At the bar I got talking to someone a fella who was 'the only person who seemed to have paid in!' he was in a bit of a strop as a result.

The warm-up act, some chancer called Andy who was from Southern Ireland, would have had me wondering why I'd paid in, if I had done. Andy played 3 or 4 variations of the same song over and over again. He babbled incomprehensively. I made out the occasional word relating to death or loss or unrequited love, and then, just as we were all wondering if the drinks we had bought would be strong enough to get us through his set, on came Karine and band. The mood was immediately different.

By the end of their first song we were all grinning at the scottish lilt and lovely 3 part harmonies.

There was a wide and varied use of instruments. The songs were a mix of uplifting ballads and dark tales. My favorite of the darker tunes was "The Sun's Comin' Over The Hill" a story about love and loss and life afterward.

There’s some say you get what you deserve but they’re wrong
Sometimes you get what you’re given and then it’s all gone
And you are lucky if you are sufficiently strong
To daily decide not to die

Oh the nights are long
But life is longer still
Oh the nights are long
But the sun’s coming over the hill

Since we blagged free tickets, I thought it was only fair we bought a CD or two.

Probably my favorite song of the lot is shown below: "Follow the heron home"

We had a chat with Karine afterwards and told her we really enjoyed the show. She seemed genuinely humble and lovely even though we asked her to sign the albums we bought, a practice that usually makes me feel like a crazy person!

Back me up baby.....

Today I decided enough was enough......



I bought a 1TB backup drive to plug in to our home network.

I've been watching the price for a year now while simultaneously panicking that I'll lose all my stuff.

I've done it, I've taken the plunge........ I now fully expect to see the asking price for one of these babies to go into freefall as of tomorrow!

:)

Currently listening to:
"Sound Opinions" (podcast) - (the only rock and roll talk show in America)
Chicago Public Radio and American Public Media
(Free at the itunes store)

Bank Holiday Bizarro World

I was accidentally listening to Radio 1 today as it was on in our office.

They played:

Pearl Jam, Foo Fighters, Nirvana, Black Sabbath, Jimmi Eat World, Limp Bizkit and Queen all one after another.

How'd all that rock slip through, did someone hit their head?

Eeeeeeexcellent!

:)

Of the many things i'd love to eradicate from this world.....

...the main one would probably be Anastacia.

I hate the way she makes that terrible nasal-wailing-excuse-for-singing. She makes the kind of noise you expect to hear if a cat was being tortured.

I don't mean her any harm of course, i'd just like to have her removed from history so that local radio like cool FM would stop playing the same flipping song of hers (left outside alone) every lunch time. Cuttin' edge there kids.

I'd go about this task like red dwarf's "The Inquisitor" who has a special laser thing that deletes all record of you form ever existing.

And relax.

M

Currently listening to:
anything but anastacia.

All you snivelling little indy kids.... HOLD STEADY

On Wednesday night Raj and I went to see the Hold Steady at the Spring and Airbreak, Belfast.

A fine show from a group of international rock stars who seemed genuinely delighted at the reaction they were getting from the small, but tightly packed Belfast audience. All playing staff had grins from ear to ear. The room was bouncing.



Above is an example of their work. Enjoy.

M

Nice is Nice! (again)

If i haven't bothered you with this directly, then please check out the video below of Jo and I in the apartment in Nice.



Currently listening to:
'Brushfire fairytales'
Jack Johnson
Brushfire Fairytales

Nice is Nice!

Me and Jo are chillin out maxin, relaxin all cool in the south of france.



Were staying at a friend's apartment on Avenue Baquis, not far from the seafront.

We are taking a little video and will post later.

Au revoir

M

On the heap

This week I said goodbye to my old car.



My brother sold me this lovely Peugeot 306 when he was moving to Singapore many, many years ago. I put over 125,000 miles on the thing before it took early retirement in my folks' driveway.



About 2 years ago a guy turned up at my front door offering to buy the car. I was unsure as I wanted to do repairs and get it roadworthy just in case I lost my job, or, maybe I could have passed it on to someone. I ignored the fact that the car was damp, damaged and never to move again.



On friday night the guy from 2 years ago called back in desperate need of parts. I agreed to let him take it away. Everybody say 'Awwwwwwwwwww'.



I had some excellent memories in my little 306:

It ferried me and friends (at speed) back and forth for about 5 years.
I acquired 6 penalty points in it.
I went to the Giants Causeway for the first time in it.
I went on my first date in it.
I got to know the girl I love during long drives in it.
I drove to gigs in it (mine and others).
I spilled countless cups of coffee in it.
I had everything I owned stolen from it.
I sang in it. (sometimes I cried in it)
I got lost in it.
It was my living room.
It was my office for 3 jobs.
It was my personal space.

I've had several cars before and since, but really this is the car that I did most of my growing up in. The car did 125,000 miles, but It was me that did a lot of mileage.

Farewell old friend.

Playoffs 2008

It all started early on Friday morning. We were up at the International airport before 7am. Bleary eyed, we stumbled through the check in and security checks. Enthusiasm came in the form of coffee from Paul Rankin’s cafe, then a short walk had us on the plane and on our way.

At Nottingham airport we had organised mini buses to whisk us the short distance to Jury’s Hotel. We got checked in, and headed off into town.

Nottingham is the gun, (and arguably at this time of year), the ice hockey capital of the UK. Support from all 8 Elite League teams, numbering 8,000+ people, descend upon the town for the annual playoffs. This is a time of mirth, mischief and forgetting the rivalry you have for the other guys. We all get together and support someone, even if that someone is not your own team.

We are getting really good at supporting the other guys. The Giants did not make the cut this year (again). A narrow defeat in penalties edged us towards an early bath and sent the Newcastle Vipers to the semi-finals.

After a Friday frolicking on Nottingham’s big wheel, fine dining in their restaurants and sampling their cocktails we were relaxed and ready for a grueling Saturday packed with 2 semi finals back to back.

Saturday

We got breakfast in the hotel and headed out to get some supplies before arriving at the arena to watch the Newcastle Vipers play everyone’s favourite arch rivals, the Coventry Blaze.
On this rare occasion we were cheering for the Vipers, the very team who put us out of the tournament. Anything is preferable to cheering for the chavs. (Coventry).

The game started off with a goal from Newcastle Vipers, but the chavs won in the end. The most entertaining part of the show was the Belfast Giant’s mascot ‘Gordie the Gorilla’ strutting his stuff with the dancing girls, beating up the other mascots and being fed bananas by the management.

We rushed off to fill up on caffeine and arrived back at the arena just in time for the second game.

This time the Sheffield Steelers dispensed the Cardiff Devils, sending them through to the final to face Coventry.

Sunday

Sheffield was the team of choice to be cheering for in Sunday’s final. This fact did not go down well with most of the other English / Welsh fans as they have a long and bitter rivalry with the Steelers. We were really cheering for the Steelers’ coach Dave Matsos who is an ex-Giant who suffered a career ending injury a few years ago.

The Steelers owned the game from the start. Coventry rarely got a look in, and didn’t once get a goal in. The final score was Steelers 2 Coventry 0. There was much rejoicing in the Giant’s camp.

We headed to the hotel and freshened up and then back to ‘The Bunkers’ bar, situated just beside the rink. Many funny things went down here, but you know the saying: what happens on the road stays on the road!

The few things I can tell you are:

1. Someone managed to break the toilets in the bar, and so the bar had to be closed for health and safety reasons.

2. A small rebel group of Giants fans broke into the National Ice Centre. There were no arrests, just mischief. (lock your doors Nottingham!)

Nottingham in jokes: viva, au deir, panic at the Bickerstaff, ok now get to your rooms.

We stayed up chatting till about 4am this morning, until the staff of the hotel ‘sent’ us to our rooms. We were chatting in the lobby when 2 surly security guards came over and told us to leave. We decided we were going to finish our conversation, but we were overruled!

Oh well. That’s that for another year. Next year should be filled with chocolatey goodness as we just found out that we will be signing ex-Giant Steve “chocolate heaven since 1911” Thornton as our new coach. He’s one of the best players we’ve had the misfortune to lose.

Next year should be sweet. (groan). I’m off for a sleep.

Curently listening to:
Not in Nottingham
(from Disney's Robin Hood)

Busy day, with the odd blue screen....

I'll let Jo explain.

Currently Listening to
Track: Kick start my heart
Artist: Motley Crue

Bit of a drive...

On easter Tuesday Jo and I decided to take a little drive. The plan was simple; find a nice country pub, preferably in the Republic of Ireland and enjoy a nice meal and a long drive.

We drove to (London)Derry and then headed on north west. We passed Letterkenny and kept going. I was hoping we'd make the shore, but after an hour's travel from Derry we hadn't made it, furthermore we had no concept of our position.

Deciding that the coast must be still too far away we got a cheesy from some kind of indian fast food place and retreated.

When we got back I took a look at a map of our journey, we were about 5 miles from the beach!

Currently listening to:
Song: Road Trippin'
Artist: Red Hot Chilli Peppers
Album: Califonication

New Speakers

Many thanks to Mr Con-oid for donating speakers to my home computer.

George at Asda...... Again

George makes his second appearence:



Currently Listening to:
Song: The Girl From Ipanema
Artist: Walter Wanderly
Album: Talkin' Verve

New Wheels.....

Thanks to the lovely people at Fujitsu, I've been driving a hire car for the past 2 weeks, a lovely VW Golf. Its as solid as a rock to drive and has EPS skid protection to stop me frollicking around.

The only down side is, the first week I filled the (petrol) tank for about £55 quid and only got about 390 miles for my trouble. The second week I got a little more like 410 miles. I feel there is room for improvement.

Last night I was in Dun(fun)dalk watching the Giants play a very mediocre game. Thankfully they won, going ahead in the 3rd period after a few good goals. Roll on the playoffs, and hopefully playoff form.

I didn't get home till the very wee hours, and so I've had great trouble staying awake today. I was in a meeting first thing, then was working my considerable ass off all day. I've had a snooze this evening and now I'm off to Jo's to watch some West Wing. We're on to season 5 and rapidly running out of discs to watch. Eek.

Want to start writing songs and be good at it. Not sure either will happen at this point. So darn tired.

Laters....

Currently listening to:
Track:House by the sea
Artist: Iron and Wine
Album: The Shepard's dog

I knew Bill Gates was a Wab! (one for the geeks)

Inside the registry of every windows machine you'll find the following key:

George at ASDA (vol 1)

We have a new video, its good....



(the music is listed below just in case you are interested)

Artist: Walter wanderly
Album: Talkin' Verve

Good morning Steria, um, I mean Fujitsu.. Matt speaking...

The fun of my office for the last 2 days has been the fact that we all are trying to stop answering the phones with our previous company name. We've all been assimilated. Apparently resistance is futile.

All week its been:
Good morning Steria... uh.... actually its fujitsu, its matt here.
Good morning Steria slash Fujitsu? its matt.
Good morning Steria....... *someone makes fun of me* no that's right, I meant Fujitsu.

The Biggest question still remains to be answered of course, what do we rename the office garage band, formerly the "Steria-Phonics"?

We're aware that the Fuji's is already taken, Fuji-Phonics isn't catchy, so we'll need help, please reccomend suggestions in the comments.

Well, back to the grind, before they realise I'm a lazy, lazy man.

M

Currently listening to:
Tracks: Positive Jam / The Swish
Artist: The Hold Steady
Album: Almost Killed Me

Sleep through the static......

Anyone who has ever owned a Tesco "value" alarm clock and has trouble with early mornings will identify with the album title of Jack Johnson's latest offering. (the damn things always lose their tuning and attempt to wake you with white noise - i've slept through this kind of static more than once)

Anyway, you know what you are getting with Jack Johnson. Summer tunes and thoughtful, reflective tales, usually of love and loss. I can listen to this stuff all day.

"Brushfire Fairytales" was my sumer album of 2002. Ok, so I stole it from my good buddy Dave Allen. He bought it after we'd been impressed by the track "flake" on a computer we'd been servicing for a Canadian. It took 2 more albums for JJ to hit the bigtime in the UK, "In Between Dreams" got lots of airplay on BBC radio.

The elitist in me wanted to let go as his fame grew. The music wasn't just mine anymore, everyone knew a song or two, even the spides.

All this being so, the new album does not dissapoint. My favorite line is in the first track "All at once". After describing the state of the world and how it hangs a little heavy on us he says: "sometimes it feels like a heart is no place to be singing from at all...." I feel like that some days.

Some lines from the title track:

"Who needs sleep when we’ve got love?
Who needs keys when we’ve got clubs?
Who needs please when we’ve got guns?
Who needs peace when we’ve gone above
But beyond where we should have gone?"

:)

Farewell Team Steria

I've been working with Steria on a customer's site since 10th Jan 2005. The contract we work on is being taken over by Fujitsu. We are about to become Fujitsu employees. Before this event takes place we thought we'd have a final night out.

We've gathered together the folks from our office and some other people who have worked with us over the years and we're going out for dinner, a drink or two and then bowling.

I've never worked with a better, more interesting group of people. Some folks have left us already for other jobs and still some people will leave soon, so the dynamic of the office will never be the same for those of us remaining. I've had a great time with these folks, big characters all.

Tonight we celebrate. (tomorow i'll show off drunken photos).

In other news, i got my staples out today, but just so's you can see the horror of what it looked like before hand, here is a pic curtosy of my lovely missis:

Currently listening to:
Song: Mayonaise
Artist: Smashing Pumpkins
Album: Siamese Dream

Last night I nearly died.......

Actually, I didn't. I just wanted to quote Duke Special.

Before I go any further, I gots to tell you that there is a little bit of gruesome content coming up, if you don't like the sight of blood and gore - (that's you Sarah), then you really should ignore the rest of this post.

This week has been a little hard going. I've been quite tired recently and the odd calamity has occurred.

Let me start with my socks. I put on a pair of socks on monday and this happened:










Ok, so that was pretty much a space filler to hide the gore.

While working in a server room at work on friday I hit my head, pretty hard. I was sitting on the floor, as there are no seats, updating my contact list on my laptop. I was also building a new server, which was taking forever. Pete, my boss was leaving Steria for better prospects elsewhere and I was just packing up to go see him. I closed my laptop, put it on a set of plastic boxes beside me, realised that the install I was running required the next cd in the sequence, reached down to do that, stood up, and on the way hit my head on a server rack console.

I fell down holding my head thinking, holy crap that hurt. I took my hand away from my head and there was no blood. I was thinking, how stupid was that? How come I didn't see that console..... Just then I started to wonder why my arm and elbow weres wet. I took my hand away from my head to discover i was bleeding pretty badly, and now mostly all over the floor and my laptop.

There were some contractors in the room and I yelled to one of them to call a first aider or an ambulance. The guy looked confused for a second, at which point I decided to head to the gents' loo down the hall to find some tissue to apply pressure with and soak up the blood.

I got to the toilets and cleaned the blood off my face and out of my eyes and used some tissues to stop the flow. The builder came into the toilets and took me to the first aider, a lovely lady called Joanne who works on the switchboard. Joanne had never actually practised first aid, but was trained. I think she initially thought it was a wind up when the bulder came to the room to fetch her.

I was sat down in the switchboard rest room and Joanne came in with the first aid box. She looked concerned and asked if she could take a look at my head. I asked her if she'd like to sit down first. 5 minbutes later I was being driven to the hospital.

Here are some pictures:



I got looked at pretty quickly by the triage guy, and he was happy that the bleeding had stopped, about 2 hours later i was led into a room were i was stapled a couple of times, then glued shut.

Funny thing is, the stapler they use is not unlike a desk stapler, just the staples are sterilised first. The doctor explained that there was no point in offering me an anesthetic as it didn't usually work anyway. I decided to double check and asked her to tell me honestly did it make a difference, or was it a waste of time? she said waste of time and set about physically abusing me with her sterilised office equipment. It hurt like getting staples in your head.

The nurse said i could do with three staples, but by the time she had put in the second one i think she was fearing for her general safety. I punched the desk on the first and kicked the ground at the second, at this point she decided to use the glue rather than a third staple as i was running out of objects to strike.

That was fine and dandy, and before long i was on my way back to the office to fill out accident forms and such. I missed pete's leaving do, which is upsetting cuse I had prepared a presentation which featured may fine photo's of him in Father Ted scenes. (this is due to us calling each other 'father' in the office). I'll post them up here in a while for all to see.

To finish on a good note, the old woman across the road from me was hoovering her driveway today. Yup, you heard me, hoovering. And i'm supposed to be the one who's head's cut!?

Here is a picture, enjoy.

PS: I was wondering about all of this accident lark earlier, and I was mortified to think that if I had bled to death, the last thing I would have done would have been updating my contact list! Here's to a more productive life.

Currently listening to:
Song: Blood
Artist: Pearl Jam
Alnum: VS

Heading for the weekend.....

And this week has been a corker.

Driving home form work on Tuesday night, in the fog, something in the road struck the underside of my car.

I got out and effected a temporary fix to the shattered plastic engine guard in the driving rain. I was heading for a petrol station when I ran out of diesel, on a junction, beside a big puddle. Lovely. I got out of the car to get to the petrol can I had in the boot and was soaked by a van that drove through the big puddle I just mentioned. Now dripping, I decided to plod down to the pertol station, it was less than a mile away. A nice fella called Robert stopped as he saw me jogging to the station. He gave me a lift to the station and then back to my car.

I got the car to the petrol station, filled up a little and climbed underneath the car to re-position the bungee chords holding up the plastic gubins, and got a bit grubby.

20 mins later I was back home and Mum suggested I should get a bath, what with being so cold and miserable. I decided this was a good opportunity to get rid of a bath bomb that i had been giving Jo for Christmas, but it was a little damaged. I didn't realise at the time that this was a glitter bath bomb. As a result, for 3 days now I've had glitter everywhere. Also i managed to scald myself with hair straighteners. I've now got a perfectly square burn on my arm.

Wednesday was a day off this week. We had a Giants game which was being filmed by Sky TV for their sky sports extra channel. I wanted to get down an be set up really early just in case there were last minute hijinks. On arrival to the arena I felt the clutch pedal on the car loose tension a little and it started to squeal pretty loudly between changes.

One call to the car fleet people later and it was arranged that someone would come down and pick up my car and leave one in its place. I drove slowly and carefully to Jo's house and we got ready to go back out to the arena for the game. I called the breakdown folks to see if they were coming out soon and they said it would be the morning before they could make it. Jo was driving then!

At the arena I found out that our regular compare Paul "Big Paul" Maclean was not making it, and in his place Citybeat presenters would present the show. This was hassle, but we got through ok. The sky folks kept asking me to turn down the music, especially during the warmup, when the players need it to be the loudest. I did turn it down and was later surrounded in the bar by 5 tall Canadians asking "what the hell where you doing up there!?" I made my apologies and drank my beer, quickly.

Tuesday morning I got my parents to drop me to Jo's where my stricken car lay and I waited for the pick up guy. When he arrived he did not bring a curtosy car, but he had to take mine away and go get a replacement from his depot. It was about 11 by the time i got into work, but this gave me a rare opportunity to get acquainted with early daytime TV. I saw Jeremy Kyle for the first time and found his "not taking any crap" attitude to his knuckle-dragging, in bred, cheating , lying scumbag guests quite refreshing. (was going to link to a video, but ITV think that you can only watch video on a PC, in internet explorer)

Anyhow, on to today. Most of my work buddies had the dreaded Flu. I can expect that anytime then? I'm off down the gym to sweat out any toxins I've acquired as a proactive measure.

Till next time gadget.

Currently Listeing to:
Song: Angels of the silences
Artist: Counting Crows
Album: Recovering the satelites

American Presedential Primaries

I really don't have much of an opinion on American politics. Actually, I only wanted to post about them so I could read it back in my head like "24", season one, Keifer Sutherland narrating the hour changes.

The following takes place between 7am and 8am on the day of the presidential primaries...

Anyhoo, i just wanted to post this image of support for Sen. Clinton.


Please find this fine bumper sticker for sale here.

Currently Listening to
Song: Mr. President (Have Pity on the Working Man)
Artist: Randy Newman
Album: Good Old Boys

Hararya Leah Ramsey?

My good friends Dave and Cara Ramsey had a little girl.

Leah Ramsey is her name.

Hararya Leah?

Its a new dawn, Its a new day.......

Well kids, 2008 is here and already I'm getting behind!

I've decided to listen / read the bible cover to cover this year so that i may be better equipped to deal with life's fun day to day grind.

Because i'm a lazy man and a bad reader I've subscribed to the one year bible on radio podcast available here or at your lovely itunes store.

I spend most of my life in my car, listening to music or more increasingly radio shows like This American Life or Radiolab. Surely then there is time to at least then listen to the bible? I think so.

The question i have for you lovely folks is: Does anyone know any other listen in a year service that i can listen to the bible? I ask because, much as i enjoy listening to Tom Dooley's lovely radio announcers voice, there is more here than just the readings of the Bible. There is a also a short sermon and his thoughts on the passage to go through. I'd like to just get to the point.

Also there is an assortment of mood music on the podcast, ranging from anything near Chinese traditional music to some dude with an accoustic guitar adding a bit of tension. I'm not a fan of this stuff as it detracts from what I'm trying to listen to, not that I'm sure it doesn't go over pretty well with the American intended audiences, and I'm just glad the Bible is available to listen to for free, full stop.

Another option is to listen to the audio version of The Bible Gateway. Here, from a drop down menu you can choose between real audio or a flash player version of several bible versions. Once again I am happy this content is available for free, but this time the text is read by Max McLean, who goes at it like it is Shakespere, putting dramatic slants on key words. Also, this version is only available while online, you can't take it with you.

I am, of course, aware that I should not complain. Many people do not have access to any version of the bible, printed or otherwise. But, if you do happen to know of a site that lets you download the bible for playback later that has no bells or whistles, please let me know.

Happy new year folks, may God bless you.

Currently listening to:
Song: Firecracker
Artist: Ryan Adams
Album: Gold

the run up to the new year....

So i decided to run over to tesco and grab a few last minute essentials for the evening ahead. Everyone was there. I don't mean that like: I was at this party and everyone was there. I meant it like the whole world arrived at tesco to pick up some pretzels.

I hate crowds. People are rude and no one apologises. Why can't this be Canada?

I'm really glad to see 2007 leave.

Happy New Year everybody.

Currently listening to:
Song: Long December
Artist: Counting Crows
Album: Recovering The Satellites