It's oh so quiet

The title pretty much says it all.  Things are pretty quiet at the mo here so I have not really had all that much to say.

Work

Work has been busy -its coming up to that time of year for us again, so we are now embroiled in project planning.  It is far from exciting so that is all I will say about it.  Generally feel like I am spending a lot if time at work.

Ok so other than that what else has happened.  Well to be honest - not a lot.  Had my hair cut short (wanted a change) and then pottered about the house.  Rob has been away a lot so it has mostly been work, home then bed.

In other news......

We watched the end of Rock Star Supernova the other night - the communal garden troll won (Lucas Rossi) - I bet Rob that would be the result - and I won.  It has to be said that throughout the whole thing I could see why different people would like all of the singers (even if they did not do much for me) but I was surprised he won.  Anyway - one of the ealier contestants had performed one of their own compositions called ladylike and it was cool so I have purchased that through itunes.  Its cool - if you wanna look for it - search for Storm Large and the Balls

Matt Hughes v's BJ Penn

It was UFC 63 the other night and the headline event was Matt Hughes v's BJ Penn (where BJ stands for Baby James).  It was a title match and Penn was there in place of GSP who could not fight. Last fight Penn had not looked in good condition and by the end had looked bored and tired.

Anyhow - come the fight night - Penn looked focused and in not bad condition while Hughes, as always, looked well conditioned and in excellent shape.

For 2 rounds Penn looked to be giving Hughes a brutal time of it.  I mean I have never seen someone stop Hughes from taking someone down the way he did that fight - it was awesome.  No matter what Hughes did the unnaturally flexible Penn just stopped it.  By the end of round 2 Penn had Hughes in an arm bar and a triangle choke.  It was unreal - you were watching the last 20 seconds of the round wondering if this was it - would Hughes loose his title to Penn again. 

Round 3 - Hughes comes out still looking relatively fresh (if a bit bruised and battered) while Penn looked tired and like he had lost focus,  Hughes then proceeded to demonstrate just why he is considered to be one of the most dominant forces in MMA - by taking the round and winning by TKO.  Man it was edge of the chair stuff - but once again conditioning won out

If you get the change and can only watch one thing on the card then that would be the fight I would pick

Well I am off now to chill out for a bit

Slater

Make me happy....When skys are grey

You know what things kinda suck at the moment.  There have been lots of cool things happening as well... but mostly I am stuck on the fact that things suck

Rob is working away from home again so it is just me, the cats and the fish - though it has to be said that they are not the most conversational company. 

In an effort to cheer my self up I indulged myself in a very girly pleasure - I bought some new nail varnish.  It is black and shiny and looks nice when it is on.  I know that people will think I am too old for black nail polish but I think it Rocks!

I have painted my fingernails black and my toe nails blue and now feel a little better about life.

Also on the upside I have changed the theme on my browser and my other PC settings so now I have a cool red and black theme.

Well it is late and I have to be up in the am to get to work

J

I've been sucked in .... Damn it!

Ok so we are not talking about black holes and quicksand here but non the less I have finally succumbed and been sucked into the experience that is reality television.   
Now normally I would avoid reality tv shows like they were soul sucking daemons (which if we are being honest, is a fairly accurate comparison).  I tend to find that they are either (a) utterly cringe worthy (b) utterly dull or in most cases (c) both of the above.  I mean really do we want to see someone making a grade a muppet of themselves or watch a group of people just sleeping.  To be honest it does nothing for me.  If I wanted to watch people doing regular day to day thing while being trapped in a house then I could just look at what happens in my own house. 

There have been some people that have argued the case for reality telly by saying that it is a psychological experiment to see how relationships change, how behaviours adapt over time etc but you know what - they are lying. 

The very first time that the genre was employed this may have been the case, as no one knew what was happening or what to expect but now these shows are filled with people that are playing up to the cameras.  This being the case your theory of psychological experimentation is kind of blown out of the water.  Lets face it really it's just car crash telly.

Anyhow as per normal I digress.  I have managed largely to avoid the whole thing until the other night.  My descent into pish telly started (as these things always do) by channel flicking whilst board.  Whilst in the midst of flicking I came across a show called Tommy Lee's Supernova.  Intrigued I sat and watched an hour of it, and now I am hooked.

The premise of the show is as per all of these things.  Take a group of people and make them compete for something.  In this case the thing that they are competing for is the chance to be a lead singer in a new 'super group'.  Now the one thing that is special about this are the other members of the group.  Who ever gets the gig (and the world tour that comes with it) will be up on stage with Tommy Lee (Drummer for Motley Crew) Gilby Clarke (Guitarist with Guns 'n Roses) and Jason Newstead (bassist from Metallica).  There are all well known guys who have been involved very successful bands. 

The show its self was used originally when INXS were looking for a new lead singer to replace Michael Hutchins following his death.  I did not see the show then but can see why people like it. There is little focus on what goes on in the house where the wanna be rock stars stay, most of the attention is on the performances that they give. 

For the first time when watching this show I was in a position where you could say, " You know what, while they are not all the right people to front the band - they all could sing in a different genre". Another thing that I liked was the fact that they have turned around the way that people get voted off.  Every week the group a presented with a number of songs from different genres that have been picked by the band.  There is one song per person they just have to agree on what they will sing.  Each person then gets a session with the house band to practice and then they are on stage.  After singing each person gets feed back from Supernova and Dave Navaro. 

So far it sounds same old same old but the change comes when it comes to voting people off.  While phone in calls will decided who will be in the bottom 3 Supernova will vote off the individual they think will not fit. Really it is much the same as all the other reality telly shows but some of the feedback provided by Tommy Lee et al is great- included "Dude.......you suck". 

It is nice to see the honest commentary and why they think that individuals will not work for their band. 

Anyway really it is much of a muchness with the other shows but for some reason I find it more entertaining that others.  Maybe it is the start of a slow descent into reality telly doom - but I hope not.  In saying that I will still be watching the hatchet man next week     

More on WYSIWYG - or rather WYSINAWYG

I was talking to Rob last night about my post WYSIWYG last night and he pointed out that he was not sure that I had managed to get the point across the point of the whole post.  So with that in mind here goes

A lot of the time people make assumptions and judgements about people in the first few moments of meeting them.  We all do this and we are especially prone to doing it when we want people to match the ideals we have of them.  I guess the most likely occurrence of this is when we see people in film and TV shows.  I mean there are a lot of people that consider themselves fans of certain celebrities based on what they have seen them do on the TV or a role that they have played in some show at some time. 

These shows and characters are no more a true reflection of the individual than the masks that we present to people on a daily basis.  There may be some element of the character that reflects a personality trait held by the individual but it is not the whole story.  A case in point for me was a conversation I had a few months ago when I was talking about Christmas and how much I like it.  A colleague seemed amazed that I would be such a fan of the festive season as I did not come across as someone who would like it.  Just goes to show that what you think you know, may not actually be the full picture.

Now back to the point - the two guys I mentioned in the earlier post Jason Miller and Evan Tanner.  Both of these gentlemen have blogs that they update quite regularly to let people know what is happening with them and any thoughts that they may have. 

The interesting thing about blogs is that people will often tell you things that they may not when they are face to face with you (- something to do with the relative anonymity of the method of communication I guess) and a case in point have been a couple of entries that these guys have posted that have really made me think about life in general and the way that I approach things.

A lot of people when they see you looking at an MMA or fighter sight often come out with one of 2 stock responses (a) What the hell is that, man it looks brutal or (b) why do you have sweaty semi clad men on your screen.  There is not a lot that can be said in response to b other than - Well why not but a is much easier to answer.  The belief that anyone who takes part in MMA must be brutal is not true.  In the same way that we all have jobs, fighting is just what these guys do and is a part of their psyche but it is not all they are.  A really good case of where WYSIWYG is more a case WYSINAWYG (what you see is not always what you get).

Take both Mr Miller and Mr Tanner.  Both of these gentlemen have had issues that they have had to work through, the only difference is that because in some circles they are well known, some of the working out has had to occur in the public eye. 

Miller in particular has talked about some issues he has been working through and a couple of his posts really made me smile.   The holidays are always hard, is actually a hard post to read.  It is moving and very thought provoking as mayhem talks about some tough learning experiences he has been through - it really does make you think.  You should also take a look at the Late Registration blog for much the same reason.  The same thing can be said for Even Tanners blogs on his myspace page.  These guys are not all doom and gloom and serious thoughts - Mayhem regularly makes me laugh my a$$ off with some of his posts, but this is only a part of what they are.

Anyway - what I was trying to say originally was this.  No matter who you are,  or what you do, remember life is never as simple as it seems.  What you see is not always what you get - guess it just took a long time to get there.

A sad loss

A few months ago you may have seen that I wrote a post on the Lord of the Silver Bow, a novel by David Gemmell which was a re-telling of the Siege of Troy.  In that post I talked about how much I had enjoyed the novel and how I was excited about the next instalment being released. 
Well it now seems that I may not get to read the next novel and definitely will not get to see number 3 in the series as David Gemmell has sadly died.

Now I never met Mr Gemmell in person so I cannot comment on what he as like as an individual, but I did read a lot of his books.  As an author he was a person who created realistic characters and environments that enthralled reader, carrying them through his tale. 
As a reader I will miss the way that he could take a tale and make you care about the character and then put them into a situation where the unexpected would happen.  He never let you get complacent about what would happen in any story.  Just when you thought that you had guessed what would happen to the characters he would do something unexpected (like kill them off). 

While I will miss reading his new tales I will take time to truly relish the works that are out there