Graduation

Had my graduation the other day, finally after a year since finishing the course. I've never been that keen on those sort of ceremonies. To me, I know how much work I did (or didn't) put in, and a piece of paper and a round of applause really mean nothing when compared with that knowledge. Still, I went this time mostly because the family bugged me with the 'you'll regret it when you're older' stuff, which I highly doubt. Still, at least the photographers will be a hundred quid better off eh? I better get a gold plated frame for that.

Back Again

So the past few months have been incredibly busy. Ive done my IEMA coursework, just finishing my last week at the brain bank doing some of the most boring work ever and fitting in 2 games a week on top. Still, it makes a change from the winter, which had periods where getting out of bed before noon was an achievement.

I've been sleeping really heavily recently, which tends to give the best and wierdest dreams. Last night I woke up pondering whether anyone has written a sci-fi novel based on the idea that dreams are a window into parallel universes. Im sure its been done somewhere, but probably not at 3 in the morning. One for a spare few weeks in the winter maybe...

For those that dont know Im planning an ambitious trip to the states this winter, with the plan being to cross the continent on foot (crazy I know). Trying to work out how to string along some poor unsuspecting fool to join me, but that might prove tricky. It needs about 4 grand and 6 months to spare. Applications welcome.

Dissolving a brain is easy...

A busy last few weeks, my laptop is now up and running and I hope to update more often again.

This week started with an interview for an internship with an environmental charity on monday morning. I spent sunday and the train into London preparing for the various standard interview questions. I think I had some pretty good responses lined up, but I hadn't reckoned on my interviewer's personality. He was Irish and he lived up to his stereotype exceedingly well. In what was a short 15 minute interview, I barely spoke for 2 minutes. This chap loved the sound of his own voice, so much so that he practically forgot to ask me any questions. When I did manage to fire in a response in between the long monologues, he interjected with, 'uhu' or 'Isee where you're coming from' and then went off on another one. He was a unstopable talking machine...

Anyway, not sure whether it ended up being a good interview, if you could call it an interview at all. Tuesday night at selection was a little hectic, having helped with colts and kept the bar for a few hours for the footballers. 

The last few days Ive finally got some temping work in West London. Its basically preparing information packs for the Parkinsons Tissue Bank. Its extra busy this week due to it being Parkinsons week. Today we had an actually brain come in the mail. It really is very starnge, you get people ringing up when someone is on the way so that we can freeze their brain for transport to the lab. Apparently Jeremy Paxman is on our books, so if by some unfortunate happening, an interviewee on Newsnight were to give him his just desserts, I could well be looking at Jeremy Paxman's brain tomorrow morning.

Also, its possibly the only place in the world where repeatedly you hear the reassuring news that, 'its ok you're brain dissolves before you are buried anyway, so you might as well give it to us'.... Happened 3 times today!!

New Laptop

After having my motherboard fry the other week, I now have a shiny new laptop. Will be getting back to posting more soon.

Cricket is only 7 days away. I'm so fed up with the lack of cricket I think I'll play next week even if it snows.

Leafleting campaign for Parks starts saturday, posts of rabid dog bites to be posted sunday. I dont envy postmen, you have to be brave people.

More Dream Stuff

Ok, so again last night I dreamt a song, except this time it was very vivid, I mean the words just came pouring into my head, like they'd already been sung somewhere else. I woke up and typed up what I could remember (probably about 1/3 of it) and then filled in the rest as best I could.

Without being able to play a bloody instrument all I can do is stick the lyrics up. Have a look, don't judge... Im not saying they are any good, just that it's incredibly wierd to get something like that coming out of nowhere, especially when most of my dreams arn't particularly vivid. 

It's a homage to Phil Ochs (the man with the skull lol), my favourite folkie who had a very interesting life, one which has produced plenty of great eulogies over the years. The whole mtv thing has a couple of levels to it. He always thought that the best way to make a difference with music was to bring the words of the great thinkers and poets of our time and cross them with the elvis presley style mass pop music. Thats why he went through his gold suit phase and tried to find a way to appeal to the masses. I think a modern parallel might be if a political folkie of today like David Rovics were to play on mtv. Pretty much zero chance of it happening, but the same could be said of Ochs efforts back in the late 60's. The other side of it is that semi-selfish wish that maybe we would have another folk revival, like that of the 60's when the mainstream would embrace political music again...

BTW, he was never actually referred to as the highwayman, it was a song he adapted from the Alfred Noyes poem, but I think he might have liked it. 

Anyway here goes:

He was the man who fought for change,
 But for fortune he might have won,
He was the man who spoke for peace,
 Though Dylan had him shunned,
The movement slowly died,
 Sixty-Seven was history,
But he had no time for LSD,
 He was too busy trying to protect our liberties.

He was the man who told us the war was over,
 Long before the last troops left Vietnam,
He was there in Chicago,
 When the tear gas struck them down,
And it wasn’t just for him,
That the sorrow hit so hard,
In his rehearsals for retirement we let him be,
 Now Phillip David Ochs must rest in peace.

CHORUS:
You’ll march to no more battles,
 There’ll be no more sad refrains,
We all saw your crucifixion,
 You carried all that pain,
I wish I could have known you,
 But one day we all shall see,
The highwayman go marchin’ on mtv,
One day we’ll see Phil Ochs on mtv.

The man who hung in far rockaway,
 Was not the one who sung in Lincoln Park,
Now he’s just one more martyr,
 We’ve got too many of them,
A hero to us all,
 Though we didn’t see,
I still believe one day it just might be,
That the highwayman will go marchin’ on mtv.

Marketing not quite as dull as one might think

Ok, maybe i've not made a mistake in taking sports marketing as a degree, but tonight's lecture on how to promote your club was certainly worth the trip. I have to admit that years of the Old Parks attitude to the outside world has left me missing some of the important points that sucessful clubs take on board. There were several key things:

Welcome - since when do you see old parks welcoming someone they dont know who turns up at the club? It is simple and we need to realise it can help change the clubs image.

Funding - It's no suprise that we are struggling to stay solvent. We have no real idea of the direction we are heading and we just dont organise enough events that tap into potential growth areas.

The Neighbourhood - We really need to sell ourselves to the local area. There must be plenty of people in Barkingside who would be interested in some aspect of Parks, but I can't think of anyone that actually comes from there. Most of us live miles away from the place. I'm going to take it upon myself to do some door to door advertising - to let people know that we are there and that they are welcome.

The next few years will be very important. We really need to increase our retention rate (which is something I had been worried about for a while) and make sure we follow up lapsed members. Most of all we need to know exactly why people stay with us and what we can do to improve. I dont think Ive ever heard anyone ask members whether they want anything new before, its all been a matter of 'this is the way it happens here'. We really need to change if we are to survive the coming years and we need to bring the club together socially more. It's just not feasible to stay as only cricket club any more.