An End To Sensationalism?

It may or may not have come across, but my blog can often be seen to
over-dramatise and to indulge my tendency to self-pity. This is of course the
result of me attempting to put a humorous tint on some of the disasters I
stumble between as I go about my daily existence. Well, this is the sign that
the tide, or more specifically my tide, is turning, as I am now focussing on
the future, and a potential career path.

Writing is something I see as a form of expression and as entertainment,
So I don't intend to lose my unique writing style, but In my new blog, (details
to follow), I will be practicing my Journalistic skills in a more formal way. I
will of course continue to discuss all of the important topics in life, such as
the world conspiracy against me, but I will do so with the intention of selling
myself as a writer, as well as entertaining myself and whatever level of
readership I have achieved.

Golf’s Stupidity, Transfer Deadline madness and the fact that anything and everything annoys me.

I’ve taken up golf fairly recently, and I enjoy playing it and trying to get better at it, I even enjoy watching it, and I particularly enjoy the fact size and strength are not the most important factors for success. However, there is one thing dragging this particular sport down, and that’s the fact it hides nonsensical rules within it. During The Open Championship last month there were two incidents worth recalling that I think can describe the stupidity of these rules to anyone, regardless of whether they know about or care about Golf as a sport.

Rule 1: If you position your club behind the ball as you prepare to take a shot, and the wind then blows the ball any amount of distance in any direction, you are deemed to have made it move and get a penalty, you must then also replace the ball and play it from the position it first moved on, but with 1 point less, or in more correct terminology having dropped or given away a stroke. This effectively states then that you are to lose a point for the actions of the weather, and any advantage you may have gained because of it will then be immediately taken away as you replace the ball.

The 2^nd rule I’m going to question is a bit more of a grey area, so I apologise if this becomes a ramble. After you take a shot, the most basic interpretation of the rules is that you then must play the ball from where you hit it. There are some occasions where the ball falls into an unplayable position and you are allowed a free drop without a penalty and other situations where it is deemed to have been your fault and you drop a shot/ take a penalty when you replace the ball. My issue is with a tee-shot that went a long way left into the deep rough that cleared a rope that held back spectators and put the player in a tricky position at a tight angle and a long way from the hole. The rules however allowed him to take a free drop and continue from within the roped area, and back very close to the fairway and with a shorter and less complex 2^nd shot. Frankly that’s just barmy.

The chaos and drama of transfer deadline day…

That one day in the window when anything can happen and any club can pull off a surprising last minute deal… Or more realistically the day that results in everyone making up friends at airports and acquaintances at training grounds along with barmy rumors in a bid to get mentioned by Sam Lyon on the BBC live text as he sits in an office, filling himself with sugar waiting for the obvious 0.1% of the days gossip to come true, and for the transfers we already knew about to be completed. I do enjoy deadline day, I’m just realistic with it. A lot of my enjoyment comes out of the strange rumors and sheer desperation of the general public, and some of it from that small part of me that does hope for a genuine surprise, The Henri Camara to West Ham of that particular window.

Today though I am left even more disappointed than I normally am after a deadline day, and I can’t work out why. Potentially though, it may have something to do with the fact at 5 to 11 last night the biggest bit of news that we were still waiting on was whether Nicklas Bendtner had found a club, and the fact this nicely sums up the quality of the day as a whole.

One a completely different note, I am left once again asking the question, why does everything annoy me? I can’t scroll through a morning of Facebook status’ on my homepage without being annoyed by everyone, definitely can’t read anything without wanting to kill the author and just about every conversation I have leaves me in an irritable mood. What is the answer to this? Do I need to be heavily medicated, or should I simply stop all contact with the human race? All I know for sure is I make Jack Dee look cheerful and the Mafia look friendly.

West Ham - A long fall from grace.

As soon as I heard the dreaded words, "Too good to go down," I knew West Ham were screwed. No team is too good to go down until they have enough points to prove it, something that this season West Ham never looked like achieving. I don't take as much pleasure in West Ham being relegated as many non-West Ham fans around me, because I have a soft spot for a team that traditionally tries to play football the right way and have always entertained me. West Ham today though, is a far cry from the free flowing team of Gianfranco Zola's first year in charge, let alone the solid mid table team led by Harry Redknapp, or the former glory days of decades past. The club is a mess from top to bottom.

The boardroom should be removed or torn out for the sake of the clubs future, because the record of the various recent owners goes from bad to worse whichever way you look at it. Terry Brown, the man who sold the club to the Icelandic's, was far from popular with the fans, and having overseen the sale of prize assets including Ferdinand, Lampard and Carrick, without significant reinvestment, questions were raised about his financial competence and the direction of the club. What followed though was something else... Icelandic chairman number one was 'Egghead Magnu-lugs' and his financially record was even funnier than his appearance. He spent far too much money that wasn't actually his on far too many average players and between him and his 'director of football' forced Alan Curbishley into resigning and the start of a dramatic downward spiral.

Magnusson decided he didn't want to continue in the role for various reasons, and sold the club onto Bjorgulfur Gudmundsson another Icelandic chap, not that the name gives that away, the owner of the Icelandic bank, Landsbanki. Well more money was wasted, the clubs fortunes were tied in with the bank and when the global financial crisis occurred, Gudmundsson and West Ham list everything financially. Last season they struggled to 35 points and 1 place above the relegation zone, but the club was finally sold on again and many of the debts cleared by new owners, the 2 David's! Never short of a word or 2, Mr. Sullivan and his partner Mr. Gold arrived talking about a big future and financial improvement, neither appear to have materialised. Last summer some money was spent, but when Frederic Piquionne was signed as a 'squad' player, I feared they weren't exactly aiming high. Players spent periods out injured, inconsistency was the order of the day for the better players Green, Upson and Cole and many others flopped including Obinna, and all of the defensive purchases. The wage bill is still not under control, with players like Kieron Dyer earning astronomical fees to be injured, not good enough, and play for another team. Question marks can also be raised over what many saw as the premature departure of Gianfranco Zola, and the hiring of Avram Grant and his truly remarkable facial expressions, but when the players aren't showing any motivation or passion, let alone talent, the manager has a battle they're unlikely to win.

At the moment I wouldn't recommend putting any money on West Ham to come straight back up, because it looks pretty bleak. Relegation is finically crushing, and yet in a couple of years they will need to employ enough staff to run a world class stadium, and they will need to buy some proven players to get them back in the Premier League, and then probably some more to try and keep them there. The harsh reality is the better players will be sold for various reasons, and I'm not sure what's left will be anywhere good enough. I hope I'm proven wrong though.

Richard’s Top Tips – N.B. May not all be serious.

1. If you believe there to be glue on your scissors, do not check for glue by running your thumb along the blade of the scissors, spotting glue is considerably harder when there is also a fair amount of blood.
   
2. When Dunking Biscuits or Cookies into a cup of tea or another hot drink of your choice, 3 dunks will lead to optimum softness and a 4th dunk should be avoided due to the risk of a biscuit filled drink.
   
3. Before doing anything with potential consequences, think about 1 thing, would you approve if somebody else did this thing...
   
4. When there is a choice between eating a glazed donut and drinking fairy liquid... Always go with the donut however tempting the fairy liquid may be...
   
5. Contrary to the belief of many... singing in the shower does not sound any better than singing outside of it and merely helps to pass the time.
   
6. When playing tennis, or any other racket or bat sport, it is best not to let go of the racket/ bat during the middle of the game. This only leads to complications and in turn often results in a great deal of difficulty next time the ball gets to you.
   

The Alternative Vote and why it wouldn’t have benefitted our politics. – Written on the day of the referendum.

To call it a fairer way of electing MPs is ludicrous. The reality of a two party system may now have changed into a 3 party system with minority parties thriving in some areas, but AV isn't the answer. As there seems to be no call for Proportional Representation, an abandonment of constituency politics and the chaos of coalition after coalition, the 'middle ground' option as AV can be described seems the only possibility for change, but any change in this direction is a change for the worse. The benefits of First Past the Post and 'one person: one vote' politics remain despite our hung parliament in 2010. Only if this system continues to throw up this sort of problem should a different system be discussed.

If you go into an election with a party that you support in mind, and a party you have strong opinions towards, you are going to vote for them. I heard the YES campaigners during this referendum talking about AV stopping tactical voting, but this doesn't particularly stand up. Surely votes 2, 3 and 4 will be tactical as you list options that seem to be lesser evils rather than strong candidates, and will allow the voter plenty of chances to keep a certain party out. I find it astounding that this system could result in 49% of a constituency's votes being counted once, and some being counted upwards of 2 or 3 times simply because they originally voted for unpopular candidates. This is an extreme example, but by no means an impossible one, and it would be far from fair.

Both sides during the campaign tried to scare votes by mentioning the threat of the rise of the BNP in the same breath as the opposite campaign. Frankly they were both talking scare mongering nonsense and should be ashamed of their tactics, but I do feel mentioning the BNP is important. What concerns me is this. If a racist bigot, to use a rather controversial term, or extreme nationalist turns up at their local polling station and puts a 1 in the box next to BNP, do we think this person has the right to having their vote counted more times than those who voted for an acceptable and recognized political party? My other huge concern is along this line too. Is it a fair political system in which somebody who votes for a minority party and in some cases a racist and hate inciting party like the BNP, can be the person who swings the majority in a tight seat. I find this very hard to justify.

• AV increases tactical voting
  
• Encourages people to waste their vote in the knowledge they'll get another chance
  
• Allows voters of minority parties t play a more important role in electing an MP than those who initially voted for the most popular candidate
  
• It makes a mockery of all votes being equal, a principle which our free political system should be based upon
  

 

All that and I didn't insult Nick Clegg or put the future of the coalition government at risk.

Pure Sporting Theatre and The Cricket World Cup

Yesterday I was absolutely glued to my television from 7pm onwards as I watched the final round of The Masters golf tournament from Augusta. It was everything that live sport should be. It had none of the contentious umpiring/ refereeing of other sports and no cheating or diving. It was just the skill of individuals manipulating a tiny ball with a selection of clubs, and my god is skill the right word. I've only watched golf for a year or so and only closely over the past 6-8 months, but I will certainly continue to do so. I knew my life had changed and my perspective of the sport had changed during the Open Championship last year when I clapped a tee-shot by Tiger Woods, much maligned for his personal life, hugely questioned and lacking form, but he produced one piece of magic that made me clap at the TV... it takes something pretty special to get that kind of reaction believe me. Going in to the final round and the result was still wide open, and the drama started immediately. Tiger Woods began a charge that left him in the hunt, and at 1 point, having been seven shots back at the start of the day was tied for the lead at 10 under par. Ultimately this wasn't enough as Charl Schwarzel birdied the last 4 holes in a miraculous show of nerves and ability to take the much coveted green jacket. There was immense play, there were strange shots, and there was the horrid luck that saw Rory McIlroy, who led going into the final round, turn a bad start into a tragic story of what might have been. I look forward to the rest of the years majors and a test of Rory's character as well as more sporting theatre at its best. On the same theme, the cricket world cup has not long finished. Unlike the last tournament, held in the Caribbean, this one seemed to go down well. It certainly seemed to have everything, and most of it involved the England team. A dramatic high scoring tie against India, a dramatic high scoring throw-away against a hugely promising Ireland team, a dramatic turnaround in a low-scoring game against South Africa and they also managed to dramatically snatch victory from the jaws of defeat against the West Indies to make the quarter finals before being unceremoniously dumped out by finalists Sri Lanka. So one thing the tournament wasn't short of was drama... India were deserving winners and I'm pleased for Sachin Tendulkar who has achieved everything on a personal level and is now a world champion too. One final word on the tournament though; Ireland and the other associate nations won't get a chance to compete in the next tournament as the ICC looks to downsize, I'm sure they have their reasons, and the standard is one obvious one, but how will teams like Ireland improve if they're excluded?

Taylor Swift: Goddess

On Wednesday 30^th March I had the pleasure of seeing Taylor Swift at the o2 Arena. Words cannot describe how good she was. If I loved her this much before that night -------, It was this much afterwards! ------------------------------------------------. Singing a set made up of her biggest hits from her 2^nd album and the cream of her latest one, she had the whole audience in raptures for the whole thing. Whilst myself and my friend felt like the oldest people there when we arrived, we soon realised we weren't, and Taylor was adored by men, women, girls and boys of all ages. To think that 90% of the audience in a 20,000+ seat arena loved this one person was amazing, and the cheering and applause fitted that theory. She could have stopped singing after her opening song and just stood and received the love and attention of the audience for the rest of the night, and the show would have still lasted a couple of hours. Unlike Michael Bublé, who I saw at Wembley in October, her vocals are not world class, but they are still very good and her stage presence and personality more than make up for anything she may be lacking in that area. She acted out each song as she sang them and you could tell that they each meant something special to her. She was also very gracious in her acceptance of the love of the audience, and was either genuinely touched by it all or as good an actor as singer. Whilst I have a sneaking suspicion it may bit a bit of both, I believed everything she sang, said and suggested with her facial expressions. All in all a night worth every penny and a singer worth her weight in gold, who I will go to see again without a second thought. Brilliant!

Item 1: Apologies for Absence

Now I have a 3 week break from university and deadlines I have no excuse but to get back to writing this regularly and continuing the long continuous rant that my life has been so far. As well as being busy and lazy, there was also a third reason for this long absence of my usual nonsense. This was that I was starting to wonder if what I was about to write would be of any interest. Thinking more deeply into this and I realised that I shouldn't be considering this when writing the blog, because the blog was simply what I think, and as the title suggests I am wondering if anyone cares. So now that I have remembered that I'm sure my rubbish and drivel will become regular once more!

People were designed poorly...

Human nature is truly stupid. It is human nature to become annoyed at, and be wound up by things as you go about your day. It is also human nature to want someone to back you up or share in your annoyance because we don’t like to feel alone in our endeavours. So this all makes sense so far, but why then is it also human nature to be less annoyed at things that other people are really wound up by. I have repeatedly found myself in situations where something is annoying me and I begin a rant that simply goes over the head of people I’m talking to, and yet I also find myself in the other position where I feel there is no point getting myself worked up about the same thing as somebody else, as one of us has to stay calm. The end result is one person is left moaning to themselves and feeling pretty hard done by that nobody is joining in and the other one just wants them to shut up so they can have a bit of peace. Life’s a sod really.

Internet Shouting and 'The games gone mad'...

Someone said on Thursday, in the most derogatory way he could manage, that bloggers are ‘Internet Shouters’. Now having considered this I don’t actually think he’s wrong, but he’s certainly wrong to assume this is a bad thing and that the people aren’t shouting valid things. I for one am proud to be a shouter, and I happen to do as much of my shouting on the Internet as I do in person to those unfortunate to have to listen to me. I have seen the chance to put my views and opinions on a worldwide scale and allow anyone with the time and inclination to read them and make their own judgement. To anyone who thinks this is a bad thing, I would suggest you are out of touch with modernity or simply too stubborn to accept anyone is entitled to an opinion, and that a lot of different opinions, whatever the source, are equally as valid as the one you hold yourself. But each to their own I suppose.

Over the past few years I have heard one phrase over and over again as a football fan. Between incidents on the field, club ownership crises and transfers, all that many can say is, “The games gone mad”. Even Richard “Smash it!” Keys said it when discussing the role of women in football, and for the first time recently I’ve changed my view, that football is a great sport in which madness often lives to believing that maybe now the game really has gone mad. Whilst I have never subscribed to the view that money is ruining the game I am forced to admit it messes with the minds and attitudes of the people involved and as stupid fees are flying around for sub standard players, those at the top are losing perspective and it really is a different game being played by the Arab/Russian/Yank-funded gerzillionaire teams to the one being played by other clubs in the same league.
The deal that saw Fernando Torres leaving Liverpool for Chelsea for a British record £50 million in itself was a deal that summed up the state of the world game, the power of money and the influence that the clubs with super-rich owners could exert over the rest, but what followed made that deal look sensible to me. Liverpool responded to the loss of their talisman by spending 35 of the 50 million on Andy Carroll from Newcastle. This to me smacks of total panic and lack of thought as well as proof that real life is becoming more and more like a cross between fantasy football and a game of Football Manager with my friend Nathan. Nath probably won’t forgive me for bringing this up but he once sold Xabi Alonso for £20 million and replaced him with Jean Makoun for nearly £22 million. He saw the £20 million and his eyes lit up, not considering that he wouldn’t be able to replace Alonso with an equal or better player with that money and the result was a negative one. I think this will prove similar for Liverpool back in real life as Carroll is a young and far from proven forward who looks a threat in the air; he is not a World and European cup winning International footballer with an exceptional goal scoring record at the highest level. But I of course have sympathy for Liverpool because Torres wanted to go and in the modern game in the modern world this kind of situation only has one outcome. A club is too scored to keep an unhappy player because they will either be forced to sell at a lower rate in the future or risk losing a great asset for nothing at the end of the contract, and in the mean time they are left with a player showing very little commitment to the cause. It’s a sad world really.

To be honest I hope I’m wrong, if Andy Carroll does prove to be worth £35 million then England will have one hell of a player in the years to come and Rooney may well be able to play with someone with more talent than Emile Heskey. If the worst possible reality is realised though and he turns out not to prove his worth of such a price tag, he can simply point to all of the other huge waste of money deals that have gone through over the last few years, including some of the interesting signings by Abramovich’s Chelsea and Sheikh Mansour’s Manchester City.

A cheerful Thought

As I sit in McDonalds, eating a breakfast that is probably in the process of knocking 5 years off my life expectancy, killing time before an 11 o'clock seminar and typing my first blog in around 7 weeks I have been struck by the conclusion that I have a hatred and loathing of positivity. I was talking to a guy in a lecture yesterday and he was happily telling me what he already knew about most of the people we would be studying and I found myself getting more annoyed by the minute for reasons unknown. This morning I spoke to him again and he was commenting about the reading he was preparing next week in an equally positive light, I was annoyed some more. Initially I thought I was annoyed by his arrogance, but only when I thought about it again just now did 2 things come to my attention. 1) He wasn't being particularly arrogant at all, and 2) I like arrogance as a rule, you have to have a bit of it to be brilliant at whatever you do, look qt the best players in most sports, they have a swagger and arrogance as they do what they do. Messi, Ronaldo, Federer, Kevin Pietersen etc. It was then that I realised what was annoying me. His positivity! He was looking at his degree and the units in it with unswerving positivity and I hated this. Maybe it's the mindset I've got into, maybe it's too much of Jeremy Clarkson's influence, or maybe I just take great pleasure in finding the negative side of things and focussing on them... Whatever it is it's not a cheerful outlook is it?