Just when you thought I’d managed to run out of song titles to use, I am back. Yes, this isn’t April 1, and you haven’t been rickrolled, Almost Honest is back. It’s incredible to think that it’s already the exact halfway point of 2008, and I have neglected the humanoids for so long. Truth is there’s been a mass shift in terms of online habits – least of all, mine. MySpace, like I predicted in my last blog entry, has jumped the shark and Facebook is the way to go, even outpacing MSN/WLM for usage in the past couple of months. However, every once in a while, just like an old girlfriend (so I’m told…) it’s nice to meet up and remember old times. So here I am. I’m in a unique predicament. Usually, I’d look at my blog to remember what I’ve done over the course of a year, but with no entries at all for six months, my memory is going to be patchy. You might want to boil the kettle for this.
The last six months haven’t been particularly exciting really. College has trundled along nicely. I’m close to finishing the year with straight distinctions, which in my course is the best I can achieve. I’m happy there, the group of people I’m with is diverse and unique, and they are probably experiencing their first (and probably last) mention in a blog entry. It’s been a bit difficult coming from Bridgend the last couple of months and all, having to deal with questions like “Do you know anyone who has hung themselves?” and “Are you going to be next?” (The answers to both are no, for those keeping score), but, that’s the way it goes. It has been terribly sad and awful to see my hometown get absolutely slated in the national press. Yes, Bridgend is a shithole. We know. But its *my* shithole, and I’m proud of who I am and where I am from. I posted on a Facebook group a while back that even had my parents saying “Bloody hell, that was impressive” (because some kid tried to say something that I summed up in a neat fashion). There’s not a lot else I can say about that other than what’s already been said – kids, just don’t do it. Think of who you’ll leave behind before you do something as dumb and stupid as that, please.
I dug up a blog entry I posted a while back and as it turns out, I had aims for 2007. Let’s take a look back at them.
#1 To get into a Uni to read Computer Science.
#2 To see as many as my favourite bands live as possible.
#3 To make the Summer of 2007 better than the Summer of 2005.
#4 To stay in a band for longer than 6 months and practices consistently.
#5 To find someone who cares about me.
Ahgahaha is all I can say. What a crock of shit. Let’s see how it worked out. #1 didn’t exactly work as planned. #2 was alright to be fair; I went to ProgPowerUK II which was AWESOME and saw Megadeth (again) and The Police, so that was pretty kool. In my post-Summer blog, I said that the summer of 2007 I thought was inferior to the summer of 2005 for a combination of reasons (but I still listed my favourite moments anyway). I ended up stopping playing bass in 2007, so #4 was never gonna happen, and #5 was a total stretch of reality wasn’t it. So all those who laughed at me for setting those goals can continue to belly laugh at my failure. Really, I don’t mind. Guess how many aims I have for 2008? Dim.
It’s been interesting to stay in Bridgend whilst everyone else I grew up with has gone away to Uni. I don’t know if they all got the same kind of stick I got, but then again, I guess they had older people to deal with than I did. I’ve learned a lot about myself in the past few months whilst all my good friends have gone to Uni. I’ve certainly learned to value the opinions of some people above others. In a moment of reflection earlier today, I realised that it will be 10 years in July since I made what was a life-changing decision. That might be some ridiculous hyperbole, but it’s true. If I hadn’t switched schools back in Year 4, where would I be now? Would this blog exist? Would I like heavy metal? Would Man United have won the double? All serious questions humanoids.
In completely un-friend/people related news, I made an outrageous purchase at the beginning of April. I now have a big black box sitting beneath my television screen. I went out and bought a PlayStation 3. So far, I don’t regret it. It’s been a lot of fun. I went out and bought GTA IV on launch night (yes, I’m a sad nerd who queued for it, but got it cheaper than most anyway) and it was worth it. GTA IV is a class game, no doubt. I haven’t played it nearly as much as I did Vice City (still best game I have ever played) and San Andreas, but that’s been due to time and the fact I’m not the social recluse now that I was back when those two games came out. I also own FIFA 08 and Burnout Paradise. The one thing that is pissing me off about the current generation of consoles is the lack of games for you to play with your mates. No, not your online ones. I mean actually over someone’s house with a few beers. It seems like only the sports games are the ones that do it nowadays, which is a real shame. It doesn’t bother me because I love sports games, in fact most of my console gaming selection are sports games, but a good beat-‘em-up or racing or shooting game is always a plus and ads some variety. Maybe there are and I’m just not looking for them? Answers on a postcard please.
Time I touched on music, so if you think my taste is shit, start scrolling down a little bit.
There’s been a couple of really good albums released already this year, which I will of course elaborate on fully later in 2008 with my annual Album of the Year blog. This year it looks like being a close-run thing between Jon Oliva’s Pain’s new album as well as Disturbed’s new record, both of which are nothing short of superb. Testament’s new record is also very very good, and I’ve enjoyed new albums from Ayreon, Opeth and Sevendust. My biggest disappointment so far is Circle II Circle’s new album which is a big downgrade from their previous album, Burden of Truth, which I thought was very very good. Weezer’s new one is growing on me too. Still some big albums potentially left to go. I haven’t listened to Judas Priest’s new one yet, and I suspect Metallica might get around to releasing a new one too. Still no sign of Chinese Democracy either. I’ve got into a few “new” bands in the last few weeks, namely Extreme and King’s X, both of whom are criminally underrated, almost as much as my Savatage are. Both Extreme and King’s X have new CDs out this year and I will check them both out, and they are touring together too.
Sport section…scroll down if you like.
Start with my double winning team. What a glorious night. The atmosphere in Tuskers/Barracuda was electric for the Champions League final. Practically all United fans in the pews upstairs and the moment Anelka missed is one I will treasure for the rest of my life, as everyone around me went absolutely bonkers. I thought the drama of 1999 could not be topped, but I guess I was wrong. My heart couldn’t cope with one more penalty. It was just incredible. What a night. Will we keep Ronaldo? I don’t know. If we can get a good replacement, he can go to Real Madrid, but only if he wants to. I was not his biggest fan after the Rooney incident in the World Cup, and he did sign a five-year contract last year, so to leave now would be a massive insult to the club and the fans. Think we’ll struggle without him? Maybe for a season or so, yes. But people said we wouldn’t be able to replace Eric Cantona or David Beckham.
Euro 2008 is now officially Euro Two Thousand and Great! What an AMAZING tournament it has been. The Netherlands’ dominance of their group came as a surprise to me and surely they must be favourites at this stage. Croatia, my dark horses, look a good bet for at least the semis now they have to face Turkey. I have yet to see this Turkey-Czech Republic game, but I’ve already heard it called an unbelievable game. The Euros tend to be competitive early on than the World Cups because there are fewer teams, and I’m happy with a 16-team set-up to be honest. Too many shit teams come in after that and it ruins the tournament I think. Germany were my original pick to win it, but I’m not so sure about that now.
Wales’s Grand Slam was another magnificent night. I was fortunate to have tickets to the game where we lifted the trophy and it was just brilliant. This is the team when I used to go watch them with my Dad at the old National Stadium, we were horrific. Wooden Spoon losses to Ireland come to mind. My free advice to the WRU of signing Warren Gatland was brilliant. Maybe they should pay me? I do think that winning the Grand Slam is going to be a curse in the long run. We could win the Six Nations next season despite losing a game, yet people will reflect on that lost game and say that Gatland will go. Our performance on the South Africa tour was amicable and I think it proves if Gatland is allowed to see out is contract, we could be serious contenders in 2011 (four years later than I said we would be, but hey, can’t win everything).
NA Sports paragraph…I’ll reserve judgement on Brett Favre’s retirement until August. I agree with my hero Mr. Tony, come August, he might get the desire to slip on #4 again and play. Another season of rebuilding? Yes. We’ll still be better than the Bears. The only team that I think is any good in the NFC North is the Vikings, but I think Adrian Peterson will struggle to re-produce his rookie form after his splendid first season. Good call on saying the Packers would lose to the Giants in the NFC Finals, I must say…. The Magic got one round further than they did last year in the play-offs, which is good, but we are still probably two seasons away from being serious contenders in the East. The West is stupidly strong, and the only two teams better than us this year were the mighty Celtics and the Pistons, so there is a fighting chance of a Conference finals appearance next year, but that will depend on the moves that are made in the off-season… my Red Wings are holders of the Stanley Cup again! Magnificent run, including the sweep of the Avalanche (the rivalry is over now I’m afraid), but the overwhelming feeling from everyone is that Pittsburgh is in a similar situation to when the Edmonton Oilers (lead by Gretzky) took on the Islanders in 1983. The Oilers dynasty was forged in that series despite losing it, because (I’m told) you could tell they were going to be good. Five Stanley Cups by 1990? Yeah, just a fluke really. I think now we’ll have the sucky season I’ve been talking about, I don’t fancy back-to-back cups simply because by the middle of next season half the team will need zimmer frames. At least they won’t do a Fleury did and fall as he walks onto the ice. Hilarious moment.
Oh, and mark my words, Kubica could win the F1 title this year. After all, Hamilton almost did the same. I did laugh when he ran into the back of Kimi. As much as I’m a fan of his, it was hilarious for him to have a go at his Dad for crashing at 30 mph when he ploughed his McLaren into the back of a stationary (and legally stationary) Ferrari. What a hypocrite!
You can stop scrolling down NOW.
There’s a fair bit coming up in my life soon I suppose. I turn 20 in October, which makes me feel quite old. I still remember my 10th birthday – it’s just crazy how quickly life goes nowadays. I’m just weeks away from another summer holiday, with lesser hopes than last year (so basically, if it’s crap, I can’t be disappointed like I was last year). I’ll probably fill in the days with some overtime shifts in work, although I’ve already heard that there’s going to be a Tenby reunion trip which will be great. Plenty of action to cram into the holidays there kids, lemme tell ya. But let’s just enjoy it.
After that, there’s the small matter of another Wembley trip. For both Man United and myself: United for the Community Shield against Portsmouth in August, and me for the NFL International Series in October. Should be a good laugh, more people going than the Wembley Six last time, so it has the potential to be a good laugh. Hopefully the action will be better than last time, as the game wasn’t fantastic, but the Chargers and Saints are two explosive teams and it could be a really entertaining game. Even if not, playing Madden over Lewis’s the night before will probably make up for it.
So that’s been another jolly jaunt through Edwardtopia and what’s been going down. At the current rate, I would say see you all at Christmas, but if the moment strikes me, there might be another blog entry before then. I should hope so. Please comment this if you can. I really want to see if this was worth resurrecting. If not, then it’s been fun (at times) to blog since December 2004 and I hope I didn’t waste too much of your time. Get in touch with me in some way about this if you’re really that bothered about it. Until the next time humanoids…this has been me sounding off.