Year: 2008

well I’m inspired to rent it and in awe of your dedication to research 😉

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Thirteen Things about Memorable Sporting Moments Taking the idea for this one from The Bluest Butterfly, it was going to go up last week but I felt I needed to put up the Gary Gygax memorial 13. 1…. England regaining the Ashes in 2005. 2…. Every Monty Panesar wicket – they are followed by a wonderful outburst of sheer joy. 3…. England winning the Rugby World Cup in the dying second with That Wilkinson Drop Goal. 4…. Murray Walker and Nigel Mansell’s bruise on the head. 5…. Mansell’s rear tyre exploding costing him the world title in the last race (they don’t all have to be good things ! still remember this one) 6…. Getting wicket number 6 for me and winning a game for the team against all expectations, getting my best bowling in the process. 7…. Shelley Rudman winning a medal in the 2006 Winter Olympics Skeleton event (hurtling down a BobSled track headfirst on little more than a skateboard). 8…. Weirdest moment – Yorkshire supporter standing at the back of the stand shouting “I’m ashamed of you Yorkshire, ashamed” several times at the end of a day’s play at Scarborough. My dad and I had just watched Notts bat the whole day out to secure a draw against Yorkshire. 9…. Race 7 of the Americas Cup Final – thinking it’s all over, only to find that the NZ boat had dramatically recovered and was giving Allinghi a run for their money. 10… Kelly Holmes winning her 800m golds. Iron Lady ! 11… Helping my temporary workmates win a knockout competition on one of my placements. I contributed in all games as a key bowler and occasionally with the bat (they didn’t really need me there). Felt a full part of the team, was chuffed to be able to help out. 12… Staying up late to watch the underdog Marlins beat the Yankees in 1997 13… Every time a young cricketer gets a five-for or a hundred to prove to everyone that they can deliver the goods at the highest level. Cricket allows them to take that break to breathe in the applause. Fingers crossed for Tim Ambrose tonight 🙂 Others include the 1966 World Cup win but I wasn’t alive for that … Just going for stuff I’ve seen on telly or live 🙂

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It is kinda empty 😉

There’s no deep thought here, no will-they-won’t-they romantic interest, no big twist at the end …

But – it’s an excellent popcorn film with lots of action in it and some really twisted nasty humour in parts too.

My mum would hate this film and my dad would hide in the next room 🙂

PS There’s a bunch of documentaries about the stand at Thermopylae, it’s worth watching at least one to learn about what happened there – it’s a pivotal moment in world history.

“give them nothing but take from them – everything”

great line and yet I have no desire to see the film. saw gerard butler talking about it, saw dozens of clips, just fell empty for me.

Wonder why?

I’m currently watching the film 300 off dvd, with the aim being research of course.

(note – taken the images out – lots of spurious hits coming in and I’m wary about copyright)

I’ve been watching my dvds with more care than usual lately, as I’m trying to figure out whether or not Blu-Ray HD would be a worthwhile upgrade. At the moment, I’m not at all convinced. After all, I can see 300 off the telly in perfect quality, the detail is perfectly visible and I can still count the ribs on the dancing slave girl oracle.

300 is a cracking film. It has bone crunching action, it has an excellent pace and the soundtrack complements what’s on screen perfectly. Whether that be the low moan of the wind, the instrumental classical style music or the grinding rock guitar of the action sequences. The battle sequences are truly epic and give the impression of the Spartans being a disciplined group of warriors, born to fight and instilled with the knowledge that they are the elite of the elite.

I don’t think I’ll tire of watching this particular film, it’s just that good. I know it’s not totally historically accurate but it makes far more fun watching than any historical documentary about the battle of Thermopylae, where the 300 Spartans made their stand against the Persian horde.

(image taken out again)

Closing this entry with the line that made the name of this film : “Madness. THIS IS SPARTA !” and “Give them nothing but take from them … EVERYTHING”

So trying not to rant at the moment, I’ve already done that on the Mercs forums (hidden area). There’s issues there which are steadily coming to a head as people get irritated at inactivity by people who are supposed to be the leaders. I’m actually one of those leaders but it’s kinda like being the person that a pollster always goes to when they need to figure the pulse of what’s going on. Ok, I started the Mercs guild off with a suggestion on the work forums but had to give up the top job after about 9 months because :

It was causing me lots of stress
The time online contributed to …
The lack of sleep contributed to …
Time on forums contributed to …
The …’s being reduced performance at work. When a game becomes a job, that’s bad enough. I’ve known a few people who have been effectively trapped into having guild or corporation (in Eve) management effectively become a second job and they’ve hated that their game time is effectively for organising things instead of having fun. Where it gets bad is when the job/game starts affecting performance in Real Life stuff like your actual job or being free to do as you please in an evening instead of having to ride herd on the guild.

Just had a thought that if you replace “guild” with “kids”, then a lot more people may emphasize with the above ! But whereas you can step back from a game, you can’t step back from being a parent – you can however, have much more influence on your kid(s)’s behaviour than on people you only know online. Plus there’s babysitters for when you need a break.

I’ve stepped back from the Warcraft world a few times in the past, mainly because people still seem to see me as the person who leads. They just tend to see the results they’re interested in instead of the personal cost that comes from having a anti-fanclub that didn’t like being on the receiving end of being kicked by the Icey one. Sometimes, I get to look at what it’s really like to be a cop, warts and all. After a flare-up at the weekend, I even got a message saying “we should do something about this”, from someone who really meant I should do something about it. This came from someone who’s supposed to be Number 2 co-Leader in the guild to a person who’s not even supposed to be an officer.

I be rantin’ again 😉 But not for long because I’m missing the excellent Demolition Man.

The real questions I have around my impending withdrawal from Warcraft and the politics are :

Am I running ? Am I looking to focus on stuff that’s important like real life ? Am I looking to use the stepping back to try and get the other officers doing their jobs ?

Maybe I’m running, maybe I’ve accepted that the problems in the guild aren’t really my problems any more. I started the guild and therefore have a deep attachment to it but I also passed on the responsibility. Still feels like I’m running though. Happy to ignore problems but not so happy about running from them.

Hello Sleepypete, I would have to agree with Oldoladyof the hills. I think you’re beginning a transition with gaming. Maybe it’s because your wrist is bothering you periodically, too. But apparently there are other projects in your universe that want to be completed. I miss the luxury of being able to cheat sleep, drink caffeine, and eat chocolate to my heart’s content. Not to mention other things… Someday, when I don’t want it to be, my son will want anything but me…

Thanks so much for visiting me blog!

You sound like you are Majorly addicted to problem solving. I have never played a lot of on-line games, except a very few that I find relaxing…And talk about simple and something any idiot can do…(No I don’t always win, at all….but loosing is very pretty….lol) But you really seem to LOVE the chalange of figuring things out that are very difficult. Maybe you are at a place where you want to take these skills and place them somewhere else more meaningful to you…
I probably do not know what I am talking about, but—THAT is what came to me as I read this post.

Thanks so much for your visit and for your very dear words!

Hi Sleepypete. Followed you home from Michele’s to thank you for that kind comment on my blog – and for the great caption suggestions!

I think every game, like any free-time activity, eventually gets a little stale. Variety is the spice of life, and too much of anything eventually reduces the novelty of it all.

I’m not really a gamer: I remember having an Atari 2600 a whole whack of years ago and over the course of a couple of years, it galvanized my interest in computers. But I never got back into the console thing. We bought a Wii last summer for the kids, but despite the fact that I work at home and could easily fire the thing up in the middle of the day, I’ve never been tempted to even turn it on.

I know, I’m weird that way!

I’d agree there – the thing that kept me in WoW for so long was a select band of people who were great to know. It’s what keeps me hovering around the Eve world too.

I had a look at City Of Heroes a while back but unfortunately didn’t go past the trial phase, think it was a victim of me being anti-game again at the time …

PS Think I’d like some snow instead of the weather we have at the moment. It’s a gale outside, with the occasional banging noise …