Month: July 2002

Only a draw in itsagoal today, so it looks like another season in division 12. sigh.

Luan has been having problems with text on a t-shirt that doesn’t align with her breasts. Or rather, problems with a bloke staring at it.
Robyn had men-staring-at-breasts problems recently as well if I recall. I have to admit, I’m not sure why it is that breasts are attractive – they just are, and in a way that is attention grabbing (although I find friendly eyes and a warm smile to be just as attention grabbing). Or at least, mostly they are. There are some unattractive breasts around, but I think it’s fair to say that they are in the minority.

I’m really digging a hole here. I think it’s best that I stop now.

I’m considering shaving. There are several reasons for this, and I may yet decide not to. But one reason in particular is pushing me towards this (more on that *much* later).
I’ve been stubbly in a three-days-growth kinda way for about two years now. I just got bored with shaving, and Andrea (with whom I was almost living at the time) said she liked it – that was enough to induce me to forget the whole effort of shaving, and purchase a natty beard trimmer to keep it all reasonably tidy. If memory serves well, I’ve only been clean-shaven on one occasion since then, which was Brenda’s 40th birthday party. I was seeing Marianne at the time, and she said she rather liked the shaven look, although we stopped seeing each other about four days later (not sure that these two facts are linked, but I’ve never let that spoil a story).
Of course, the most important person to please is me. I have to admit that I hate shaving. I’ve never been one for wet shaving, as that’s just too much of an effort for a lazy bloke like me. So it’s always been dry shavers, and they are ok but boring. And whatever method you use, if you’re going to be smooth, you need to shave at least once a day. And that has always been the big advantage of the whole stubbly look – I can leave it for a day (or four) and it doesn’t really look that much different, which is great.
Full beard or goatee options are out as far as I am concerned. My beard has a healthy hint of ginger to it, and somehow I don’t think that would look right on my face. But it has to be said that (in my opinion) the stubbly look suits my face shape, which is a little more round than it was a few years ago (rather like my belly, which is a lot more round – a development that is undoubtedly not related to beer, and is more to do with changes in atmospheric pressure, global warming or something). However, since Bren said I looked like Wilf Brambell, the situation has been under review.
Whaddya reckon?

Tom has a new recent referrers thingy. The only problem with it is that since plasticbag.org is a popular site and the thingy lists all people who have provided two or more referrals within the last 24 hours, the list of referrers gets quite lengthy, and I’m not sure it does any favours for Tom’s recently implemented design.

With PITP2 this Saturday, I’ve been trying to read some of those blogs that I occasionally read, but not often enough, largely to catch up on what those people have been talking about so that when I get into conversation with them on Saturday, I don’t appear a total fool. I can cope with appearing a partial fool; that’s normal. But total fool? Oh no.
I recommend that you do the same. And are you going to be at PITP2?

Another top 30 UK blogs, this time compiled by Fraser. Really quite different results on this list, although I’m more-or-less in the same spot, ranked 23rd.
These things are interesting, but how useful?

I know that at least a few of my regular readers listen to John Peel’s programmes on Radio One, so may be familiar with the work of The Caretaker. It’s extremely hard to describe – an ethereal, bewitching, slightly spooky and disturbing sound created from distortion and remodelling of old 20s and 30s ballroom and dancehall music. The closest to anything like this I have ever heard before is some of Vangelis’ music for Bladerunner, or Angelo Badalamenti’s music for David Lynch – I say “closest”, but neither are really that close at all, but you might begin to guess the atmosphere that is created. John Peel likened it to being stood in the rain outside a thirties speakeasy.
Olli Siebelt in his BBC review describes it much more succinctly than I could, and the BBC kindly provide a couple of RealAudio samples for you to listen to.
Admittedly, a whole 50 minutes of it may not be to everyone’s taste, but I don’t think that there are many who could resist “Cloudy Since You Went Away” thrown into an evening’s listening. And “Consigned to a Yesterday” should put the spooks on just about anyone.

Must say that my chances of promotion in itsagoal are looking slim. It’s very tight at the top, with just four points separating first and seventh. I lost today moving me down to fifth, two points behind the third place team (the top three are promoted), with just three matches to go. So whilst any of the top seven could be promoted, my remaining matches are all very tough, my away form is shaky, and I have major injury worries. Gah. Nico on the other hand, is cruising.

There is nothing worse than when my father gets a bad attack of Cleaning Enthusiasm. He has one now. How he succeeds in creating so much dust whilst cleaning, I’m not sure.

Pah! Anyone can have a black credit card – all you need is a can of spray paint from Halfords.