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.

Disrespect

It isn't a bloody verb! why do people keep using it as such.

Musical Dreams

I dont know if this happens to everyone, but every few weeks or so I dream music. When it happens it's the best dream you can have, but I hate the fact that as soon as you begin to wake up it slips away, and by the time you drag yourself out of bed, it's completely gone - can't even remember a note. This is one of those days and it's also when I rue not being able to play an instrument, because even if I do remember something, I've no way of repeating that experience of the dream. Frustrating, but that's life I suppose.

First Chance Averages

Having just watched Andrew Strauss' terrific effort today, I'm completely cheesed off with various people who decide to ignore the importance of an innings due to the batsman getting a let off at some point. Its utterly ridiculous.

I've had this argument with someone before, who keeps banging on about first chance averages (FCA) (ie. a batsman's average if you take them to be out after the first drop in their innings). They are useless. Firstly, are we to assume that cricket follows some strange system whereby random events such as drop catches and lucky breaks arn't following random patterns? The only way FCA's can have any use (i.e. arn't relative to normal averages) is if one batsman has more luck than another - and luck by definition is random and therefore will not give one batsman more chances than another over a good sample period.

It is completely logical to therefore ignore these chances in the context of evaluating a players career as long as:

a) Fielders dont have some sort of agreement to drop more catches of one batsman than another.

b) Umpires dont have a vendetta against a player.

I think its safe to assume this doesnt occur.

Ive also heard it said that some batsman are more likely to spurn chances than others being an argument for FCA's usefulness. This is negated by the fact that players giving more chances will be out more quickly anyway! FCA's are a complete waste of time.

BBQ in march

Last night I decided to get the bbq out, needless to say it got dark and cold and I ended up cooking in starlight, then our outdoor lights went out and I was left with only the glowing embers to light me. Oh well, the bbq is going away til june now me thinks. Didnt help that the coals were shite as well.

More pope bashing

Click this link at your own risk, theres a picture of a dick awaiting you.

Evil Bastard.

More Cds

After a couple of months avoiding buying any cds, Ive finally sucumbed. Today I got a couple of discs Ive been waiting to get for ages. Rod MacDonald's 'White Buffalo' and John Gorka's 'Land Of The Bottom Line'. No more buying for another month or so now though, there's far too much to save for this summer. Lots of things on my list though; I was under the impression that staying away from amazon would at list stop my wants list from getting any longer, unfortunately it is growing by the day.

Another post on personal liberties

Interesting post on reddit today. As usual this sort of debate always sparks a war of words from both sides, but some of the arguments laid down there are nicely put and I think I'd like to summarise my favourites here for later heated discussion. I am a fairly hard line libertarian for the most part I suppose, though I wouldn't call myself conservative in any way other than the fact I endorse small government and individual liberty. Without trying to take the best of both worlds, I guess I'd like to see a government based around promoting a society of cooperation and community without inpinging on important liberties such as freedom of speech (which is so often where communism falls flat on it's face).

I particularly find the idea of illegal drugs absurd. I think one should be allowed to say and do whatever they wish as long as they do not compromise others ability to do the same. I do not find this statement to be a 'cop out'. There are many areas where total freedom to do as we wish would damage others social freedom - one example of this would be climate change - I don't consider someone to have an absolute right to have a gas guzzling car for instance. Drugs on the other hand are a completely different issue - and here's why: Every externality that drugs lead to are already illegal! Sure, some drugs may lead to violence and thats why we have laws against physical abuse. Using the logic of those who condemn drugs, we should make alcohol illegal, advertising of any remotely harmful product illegal, football matches should be illegal, short skirts should be illegal, in fact if you want to take away negative effects on society you should start banning any activity which reduces peoples productivity - maybe video games, mobiles and tv? The difference between drugs and other crimes is simple. Violence, for example, has a direct damaging effect on anothers freedom, drugs 'might' lead to an infringement of anothers freedom. If we start making all these 'mights' unlawful, where do we stop? It's a frankly scary and endless road towards complete control of peoples lives.

Having said this I'm not against regulation. Areas such as gun crime in the US is a prime example of where proper regulation of these 'mights' are very important. The idea that anyone could go and buy a machine gun is horrifying to say the least. 

Governments, in my opinion, are there to decide the way forward on large scale issues which cannot be decided on an individual level. I cannot speak for the nation on whether we should join the Euro, I believe that these sorts of decisions are questions best left to our democratically elected experts (not that we can't complain when they make mistakes). Individual issues, such as whether I drink or take drugs, as long as conducted in a responsible manner are none of the governments business in my opinion. If I then go on to commit a crime because of this, sure, you trial someone on that crime, but this should not be an issue if the population are well informed and regulated in an effective way. 

One may say that is easier said than done, yet it seems to work so well in other areas. We dont criminalise skirts because they incite rape? We criminalise rape. Why are drugs any different? It's not as if criminalisation actually has a great deal of effect. I havent discussed some of the positive effects of regualtion over criminalisation, I have been merely focussing on a moral standpoint. By legalising drugs, we would instantly cut the need for criminal enforcement, saving billions and remove the need for criminal organisations on the grand scale that we have now. Regulation removes dangerous cut drugs from the black market, allows better healthcare and education to be afforded to users and creates an opportunity for taxation for the government.

Reading

Well today Ive been doing some reading for my environmental management course; gotthrough a chapter this afternoon. Unfortunately this text has a very poor first chapter. I'm sure that it isnt particularly relevant to the rest of the course, but it doesnt exactly fill me with a great deal of hope that Mr. John Brady has edited the rest of the book to a decent standard. It's basically an introduction, but it is filled with factual inconsistencies (the first line states the the Earth is 10 Billion years old!). It goes on to adopt the same old falacy of arctic ice melt affecting sea level and is far too heavily laced with 'lovelockism's' for my liking. Still, maybe chapter 2 will be better; it is afterall, supposed to be a book on environmental management, not on the sad hopeless future we are all heading for. There must be some light at the end of the tunnel or they wouldn't have bothered with the book, surely?

Frederick Douglass Kirkpatrick

Im gradually working my way through the smithsonian folkways catalogue (it may take some time!). Discovery of the week is Rev. Frederick Douglass Kirkpatrick. Very bluesy protest folk from the late 60s, with a great voice as well. The guy is a bit of a hero of the civil rights movement, setting up Deacons for Defence and Justice in 1964 to oppose the KKK in the south. Give it a go, the whole album is up on Spotify.

Today Im planning a clear out of my room. List of suprise finds to be posted later.

Another Note

To add to my mention of American attitudes to food, the commentators have just been talking about how one goes about eating a 72oz. steak.

Baseball Has Started

Spring training starts today. At this very moment Im hearing the first ads of the season for "large pepperoni pizza". I love the American carefree attitude to snacking. They just dont give a shit. Fantastic.

The Phillies have made very few changes to their world series winning team of last year. Losing Pat Burrell was a shame as he was someone who was great to watch when he hit a hot streak, but theyve traded up in Ibanez. A few changes to the bullpen, which should hopefully not disturb the best pen in the league. All in all I think we're still better than the Mets. Also great to see Jamie Moyer still going for another 2 years. Hes going to be 48 and still playing in the Major leagues. I think it goes to show cricketers are retiring a little too early. No reason spinners like Murali cant go into their late 40s as long as they are up for it. Far too much pressure is put on the older players to 'make way' when they hit their mid 30s. In baseball, due to the franchise system, you play as long as you perform and want to. There are disadvantages to the franchise system, but Cricket could learn a lot I think.

Just recovering after a completely pointless day. Spent most of the morning gathering all my applications to show the jobcentre Im worth their paltry 25£ a week, which they refused to even look at. This is the so called interview you get every 3 months where you are supposed to prove you are looking for work. Of course I never had a problem as I've been a non stop application machine, but it slightly irks me that someone could have done bugger all in the way of job hunting and be earning 100's of pounds a week. Oh well...

Lastfm seem to have a lot of Tom Paxton, who is the only performer of note Ive had the opportunity or money to be able to see live. A famous product of the Greenwich Village scene, Tom writes about crack cocaine addiction and the lives of hookers, while looking like the sort of chap who should be dishing out Werthers Originals to his granchildren, while rocking in an armchair round a fire (maybe he does). Try his eulogy to the 9/11 firefighters who died in the twin towers The Bravest and this wonderful song. A true living legend.

Interview

Just got back from my agency interview. Seemed to go well despite having a nasty cold coming on. I'm back in bed now dosed up on painkillers. Most annoying thing was their excel test based on the 2000 version. I use 2007 at home and wow does that old version bite.

Ive recently got onto spotify, which is a bit like lastfm, but is a downloadable prog and has lots of different stuff on there streaming at 160kbs, which is plenty for my non audiophillic ears. I recommend a look at the smithsonian folkways recordings, which are there almost in their entirety. Broadside Ballads, Vol. 3 is a fantastic listen. They also have a near complete collection of the fast folk recordings, which was a musical magazine running through the 80s and 90s in greenwich village. Such distinguished names as Tracy Chapman, Dave Van Ronk, Shawn Colvin and the afforementioned John Gorka all recorded for the magazine. There really are some lost gems on there, interspersed with some weird shit as well.

Still jobless unfortunately. Might be getting some admin work soon if my interview on friday goes well.

Lots of new music recently too. Today I am recommending Mary Chapin Carpenter

Ahh I need to update this thing, too much to do

Album Of The Week

Hi Again, much applying going on today. Have six applications on the go at this very moment. Fingers crossed one of them will at least let me interview.

Today I was helping clear the hedges at Parks. We've overfilled a skip and filled 5 sacks with bottles and cans. Unbelievable what you can find in a hedge if you care to dig deep. There were broken windows, carpets, cans of unopened lager and car tyres. Fun stuff.

Currently on Rateyourmusic.com there is an album of the week group, sharing an album of any genre once a week. Next week it's my turn and I've decided to go with one of my favorite Canadian folksingers, Stan Rogers. Have a listen to Turnaround here. It starts with an Archie Fisher cover, but the rest of the album is self penned. It should make a bit of a change from the last few choices - electronic, straight up rock and some sort of instrumental kung fu hip hop.

Another Tip

Todays music tip is John Gorka. This album is the best Ive heard so far this year - which is saying something because Ive listened to a LOT of new music in the last month.

England Cricket Shambles

There was a sense of perverse pleasure as I saw the team of overpaid whinging gits get bowled out for peanuts agianst a West Indies side finally showing signs of life after all these years. I remember only the back end of the West Indies era of dominance. The 95 series in England was the first year I really followed cricket, Walsh and Ambrose were in their prime, Lara had just done the double and England were woefully inadequate. There were hints of that all over again here, and it isnt such a bad thing.

Now if we can find a big dark hole for Ian Bell and Steve Harmison we might stand a chance in the next game.

Pizza

Today I thought it might be an idea to try making a pizza, nothing particularly unusual about that. I'm far too lazy to actually make pizza dough, so I bought some bases and tomato puree from the local shop. While I think the exchange of a pleasantry or two is perfectly acceptable, I found myself in a rather uneasy situation.

The local corner shop is run by a couple who's son was in my class at school, which always leads to the inevitable 'how are you, what are you up to' sort of thing. I dont really know them from Adam though, and they have such a strong accent that I have a hard time picking up what they are saying half the time. Anyway, on seeing that I was making pizza, this kind old lady starts on a monologue with no turning back. I picked up several words, 'herbs' 'don't buy that puree, buy the jar'. Boiling and steaming was also mentioned. Unfortunately the only bit I got was, "we have that here" and that sort of look like, you ought to buy that. 

How you are supposed to steam a pizza I'm not sure, but I'm sure she mentioned the exact recipe somewhere in this conversation, it's a pitty I wasnt part of it. Knowing I had no money left, I made a complete arse out of my self, nodded and smiled and walked out. 

The Pope is a Tosser

Darth Ratzi as he obviously likes to be called, has just named a new bishop, a Mr Gerhard Wagner. This guy thinks hurricane Katrina was Gods way of getting rid of New Orleans brothels (a little bit of an unwieldly way to get rid of a few buildings considering he is all powerful) and that the christmas tsunami was Gods way of getting rid of gluttonous american tourists (never mind all the thousands of poor innocent locals that happenned to get in the way).

The pope is a giant inflateable turd, the sooner he dies and a nice senile moderate is put in his place the better. Git.

I think Im going to have to let off a little steam. I know people tend to think I am a glass half empty kind of person, which can be true about some aspects of my personality, but I really am fed up of listening to people whining about how terrible things are at the moment. These are people with money, family and friends. What is there not to be happy about? Sure there's not as much money about as there used to be, but we're a lot better off than most in the world. Get a grip people! Life is all we've got - enjoy it for fsm's sake. 

Right, back to bed.... I do love my bed.

This weekend has been fairly manic. It started with a a few too many drinks on friday night, followed by a bar shift on saturday and trying to deal with a dispute between my grandparents and the neighbours somewhere in between. I've again been in to town today (not feeling 100%) and am now catching my breath before the tedious and dull task of application writing begins in earnest again on Monday morning.

After nets I've also come to the realisation that Im incredibly unfit. A slight jog seems to get me out of breath. Im afraid Im going to kiel over before I can chase a ball to the boundary come April. The answer is to do some light jogging for the next few months. I absolutely loathe exercise for the sake of it, but if Im going to be any use whatsoever to the club this year I've got to get in to some sort of shape.

Canadian Folk 3

Today I am in a good mood, probably because I get to have a net tonight, first cricket since last september!

I was going to give a link to some Garnet Rogers, but unfortunately there are no streaming links. Have a listen to some clips on amazon, he's got an immense voice. I highly recommend At a High Window, The self titled album and Summer Lightning.

Free Speech to Become a Distant Memory?

Today I read an excellent article on freedom of speech, found here. It seems the UN's core values are being twisted to fit the whims of the religious; not unsurprising, but highly depressing. It's gotten me all riled up this morning. It is things like this that make me so annoyed when I see people taking free speech for granted. The fact is we are slowly losing our ability to challenge religious ideas in an age where that is exactly what is needed. It's always important to remind people how lucky they are in the west, to be able to criticise at will. Unfortunately it's not so simple in other parts of the world. 

I urge everyone to help this process. Whenever you hear someone told to back down on something simply because someone else is 'offended', ask them if we live in a society of free speech and then mention some of the abhorrent practices in the Middle East. The golden rule for a free society should be that any idea is fair game. Anyone should be able to say absolutely anything they want as long as it isn't slanderous or plain abuse, irrelevant of anyone's belief or religion. I once thought this was set in stone, but unfortunately we live in a world that is eroding these values to the point where some of us don't even realise what free speech means. It is an insidious process, brought about by the 'pc' lobby.

Even here in the UK we see free speech thrown out of the window for convenience. My mind goes back to the 'no platform' policy of the NUS for example. Are we so scared by extremists that we can't debate them. Are we scared they might win? If we are so sure our views are right, why can we not show them to be so in an open and honest manor? Unfortunately these extremists can them use these curbing’s of freedom in their own twisted exercises to create a stranglehold on society. Are they so unsecure with their religious views that they can't hear an open debate on them?

I urge a read of the article, it covers much more than I have time to drone on about.

Last night was the first Committee meeting of the year, which went on a bit and was combined with a fair few drinks afterwards. Upshot is I feel tired and grumpy this morning. More rejections in the last few days as well. 

Anyway, here are a few nice pictures to brighten up this really horrible morning.

I also urge a quick listen to this song by John Gorka. This album is just great, I cant recommend it highly enough.

Canadian Folk 2

Todays track is a recent discovery for me - James Keelaghan.

It's a historical song about the relocation of Japanese Canadians during the second world war.

A video and short interview can be found here

Canadian Folk

Winter in the UK has to be the worst time of year. It's not the cold so much, just that there's no cricket and everyone seems busy with something except me. This is strange, since it's also the time of year when I wish I was in Canada... I have this strange interest in Canada for one reason only, they seems to produce more wonderful folk singers than anywhere else in the world, bar maybe Greenwich Village. I've decided Im going to add some of my favourites here over the next few days.

To start, this is a video clip of the late Willie P Bennett, singing 'Music In Your Eyes', absolutely amazing song. The album version is great, though there is no stream available, it's pretty obscure.

Stan Rogers does a fantastic cover which can be found here. I often find myself singing this in the car, so if you see an idiot in a Ford Fiesta in the Ilford area singing this, you can be sure its me.

An insight into the mind of a californian voter

I will post something other than Rod, just happened to be playing this today and its pretty funny and pathetic at the same time (I should say exudes pathos).

http://www.last.fm/music/Rod+MacDonald/_/the+governator

Job Madness

Just received this email from an agency over a simple admin job I was applying for:

Dear Mr Bouquet

VACANCY: Administrative Officer, Communities and Local Government

Thank you for your application for the above post. All applications have now been carefully considered.
I am sorry to tell you that on this occasion you have not been selected for interview.

The application process was very competitive with over 600 applications received for only 7 posts,
many more than expected. 

Just imagine what a half decent job is getting in applications. It's a crazy job market out there at the moment, it's making me far too pissed off far too early in the day.

Mr Berlin is a sadistic genius...

Im not sure if I've been wise or incredibly foolish, but Ive just accepted a game on Good Friday, thats the 10th of April! Most county sides are still staying warm in Dubai, but Old Parks will be out on some no doubt frosty god foresaken Essex park outfield for a 1pm start. It's one of those things I will probably live to regret in 3 months time, but right now it just makes perfect sense, we are after all, going to need some preperation for when East Ham come at us with their 80mph Sri Lanka A fast bowler on the 19th. Dont ask... but rest assured I will be sending our youngest and bravest out to face the music while I strategically lower myself in the order for their spinner.

On a lighter note, I could end up working for Tesco in the not too distant future. Apparently they are on the lookout for someone like me. Im currently filling out one of the longest application forms I've ever seen, 250 words on how I work in a team and 250 on how I built a relationship with my last customer. Unfortunately I'm going to have to pad, as my last customer was a rather drunk git from Old Parks who I told to clear out of the bar for closing. I'm sure thats what the Tesco graduate scheme want, I'm just not sure how to phrase it without looking like a dick.

Since I want to show the world just how awesome my favourite music is, here is a link to an awesome track by greenich village singer songwriter, Rod MacDonald. Bit of a legend.
http://www.last.fm/music/Rod+MacDonald/_/American+Jerusalem