Tuesday 29 April 2008

Lord Bono Of The Sparkling Stream

I have nothing further to add:

Dad's Eye View

I can see I'm going to have to learn to do everything left-handed (quiet at the back...)

Monday 28 April 2008

Mathematically...

...Arsenal can still win the Premiership title if we beat Derby tonight!! However, it would subsequently require the unlikely combination of the following outcomes:
a) Manchester United get only one point from the last two games:
West Ham (h), Wigan (a)

b) Chelsea get only one or two points from the last two games:
Newcastle (a), Bolton (h)

c) Arsenal get six points from the last two games:
Everton (h), Sunderland (a)
We would then win the title by a point from Man Utd and by a point or on goal difference from Chelsea.

Ah, I can but dream (and think about all those drawn games in February and March :)

Saturday 26 April 2008

Horizontal Blogging

Theo + Me + Bed + Eee = horizontal blogging!!

You just can't beat a cup of tea and a bit of a lie-in on a Saturday morning...

Humph


Very sad. He was great.

Friday 25 April 2008

Golden Amen

Well how very really jolly interesting. Your actual classic breakbeat building block is a fundamental fractal structure! Coo, well I never, stap me vitals, etc:


Junglist massive indeed.

Dilbert Widget

Ooooh, look, Dilbert done gone all 2.0:



I think I might further clutter up my sidebar with it, unless anyone has any reasonable objections (or in fact anyone actually reads this nonsense :)

Thursday 24 April 2008

Overheard #39

In a discussion about birthday drinks:

Yes, well obviously that's backscatter diffraction...


I know, I know.

Sunday 20 April 2008

Theo In Da Crib

Sorry, but after taking this just now:

I just couldn't resist:

Word to your mother, indeed.

Friday 18 April 2008

Please Welcome

The latest addition to the Lightly clan:


Theo, born 7:20am on 18th April 2008 and weighing in at a strapping 8lb 7oz.

A somewhat dramatic arrival (of which more later) but for now, we rest...

Wednesday 16 April 2008

Overheard #38

After a month's hiatus, we're back with this from the kitchen table:
It's not 'Ally McBeal' just because it's got that woman in it...

Monday 14 April 2008

Just Send Me An Email On My Camera And I'll Text You The Address From My Calendar

I liked this: There's a Phone in my Phone?

"Of course, I could use my cell phone to call my wife and tell her how upset I am about the traffic jam, but somehow, that seems wrong to me."

Sunday 13 April 2008

They Think It's All Over...

...actually it is now:


A game that sums up our season; rampant for the first third, failing time and time again to take our chances in the second and then losing all semblance of organisation whilst continuing to play the most pure, stunning, visionary, one-t0uch and yet utterly ineffectual football in the third, er, third.

Oh well :(

One particular personal highlight was having my text read out on 606 following the match, of which I am quite proud and stand by every word:
Have we all forgotten that Wenger said this team was "not ready", way back in August? If they finish third, they will have outperformed both expectations and last season. It is maturity that we need, and that will come. No need to panic buy; just build up the squad around the proven talent which is already there.
All true. If you read some of the Gooner blogs, you'd think we'd just been relegated from the Ryman's Premier. Have faith chaps, this is the third young team AW has put together. Rome (or should that be Milan?) wasn't built in a day*...

* unless, depending on how long the rouble cheque took to clear, you're Chelsea**

** and if I am now found with a rolling pin embedded in my skull, look here...

Saturday 12 April 2008

11

Now this is worth building a shed for:

Butter Cutter

Is it just me, or is there something decidedly exciting about cutting a fat slice of butter off a pack with the wrapper still on?

I am of course willing to accept that it might just be me. Sorry for your time. Carry on.

Friday 11 April 2008

Homeward Bound

As an appendix to my previous post, bravo!

Why I Let My 9-Year-Old Ride the Subway Alone

"Was I worried? Yes, a tinge. But it didn’t strike me as that daring, either. Isn’t New York as safe now as it was in 1963? It’s not like we’re living in downtown Baghdad."

Thursday 10 April 2008

Some thoughts

Today I was idly flicking through some RSS feeds trying desperately to catch up with the 834...835...836 posts I had missed. This caught my eye and I lobbed it at Instapaper to read later:


A short time ago, having finished dinner, I was perusing bookofjoe which threw up this:


I mean, really?

As a father I find myself lurching inside, heart-in-mouth as Freyja hurls herself across the living-room/garden/stairwell yet again. But she manages to miss all the hard/pointy/sharp stuff with an insouciance born only of youth. I know I'd hate her to misjudge it and meet the still-about-to-be-painted skirting boards at pace. But I'd hate it more if she grew up not knowing what it was like to learn that life has 'bumps' and she needs to develop the skills to deal with them. And yes, I'll always be there when she needs me, but it's up to her to decide. With #2 almost certainly days away, she's going to have to learn to share a whole lot more; be that our time, our affection, our attention or our biscuits.

I'm utterly besotted with my family and completely up for the challenge of guiding her and the rest of our brood into, I hope, wonderful people who make judgements and mistakes but at the same time learn perseverance and independence. It's at times like this that you start to realise what your own parents went through and if I can be half as good as them, I reckon I'll be on the right track...

Wednesday 9 April 2008

TheOne, TheOnly, TheO

We may have been beaten on the night, but I could watch this forever:



Brings a lump to the throat. Simply brilliant.

Tuesday 8 April 2008

I Have Nothing To Say...

...that wouldn't be termed 'partisan', 'biased' or' sour-grapes' by many people who have not set foot on the left wing of a snowy pitch on a Sunday morning in February against a fat pub team of middle-aged cloggers from the arse-end of Tadcaster. I have, however, so I shall say what I like :)

Whilst tonight was one of the most entertaining games of football I have witnessed for a long time, the decision of the referee to award a penalty for the alleged 'tug' on Babel was an utter disgrace. I ask anyone who may have stumbled across this corner of the internet to look at the first leg and the Hleb incident on 65 mins (no penalty given) and then examine tonight's Babel incident on 85 mins (penalty given) and explain to me in no uncertain terms what the rubbery fuck was the difference? Eh? Nothing. Oh, apart from the referee. Either it is or it isn't a penalty. Yes or no. Black or white. Pinky or Perky. Cheech or Chong. Randall or Hopkirk (Deceased), etc...

For most of the game it was impossible to split the teams. I was discussing this at length with some Liverpool fans in the pub when the penalty as awarded; even they had the good grace to be embarrassed. The Guardian MBM commentary described it as "not entirely clear-cut". That should be in the dictionary under L (for Liberal). I know I'll almost certainly have calmed down by tomorrow but for now the result has a nasty aftertaste. Admittedly, us taking the lead on 13 minutes forced Benitez into a reluctant attacking formation. Perhaps we would have been better off scoring in the 89th minute. Now, for the purist, an almost certainly dour Liverpool-Chelsea semi-final does not fill the heart with glee. Oh well. Penalties, anyone?

Anyway, I keep reminding myself that Arsene told us in August that this team was "not ready". Having been top of the league and in with a shout of the semi-finals of Europe's 'super-league', all us Gooners begged to differ. Maybe he was right. Bring on 2008-09?And Theo...

Monday 7 April 2008

I Like To Moov It

So you know Lego and Meccano, right? And you know how kids can get a bit bored with their toys and bikes and scooters and that. Well...

Make It, Moov It!


Sorted.

Available June 2008; get to it, mens.

Sunday 6 April 2008

April (Snow) Showers

The barmy weather continues - is someone playing 'cloud bingo'? We've had tic-tac sized hailstones, full-on thunderstorms, umbrella-busting gale force winds and now 3 - three! - inches of snow, all in the last month. Still, we wrapped Freyja up well and lobbed her into the garden for her first real lark about in the white stuff. She absolutely loved it.

Cheered me up after Arsenal's (second) feeble 1-1 draw with the Scousers. We've been linked with Quaresma again, who is worth ~£5m of anyone's money; come on Arsene, get the chequebook out...

Wednesday 2 April 2008

Muxing It

Rampaging through your bandwidth like an RIAA spokesperson on crystal meth, it's Muxtape. Everyone loves making compilations, don't they? Here's what I had lying around at work on the top sekrit (shhhh!) Z: drive...

Enjoy it while it lasts :)