the bearded wonder

Was literally joking to Dave about TMS, only to open NetNewsWire and find out from the TMS feed that Bill "The Bearded Wonder" Frindell passed away during the week. My open-mouthed admiration for the broadcasting anomaly that is Test Match Special has been alluded to before, and the joy to be gained from listening to a group of people lounging around cricket grounds tossing out stats and commentary willy-nilly on Radio 4 LW is unique in itself. However, Bearders was one of the best; it was a recurring highlight every time he came out with the answer or factoid that no one else could land on, delivered with pitch-perfect timing and wit.

Here's some Bearders gold that TMS have pieced together.

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stuck in a moment you can't get out of

Also, I got stuck in a lift for over an hour yesterday. Ironically, to abate my panicking I settled down to watch the next episode of The Office on my iPod... only to find it was this one!

Only cottoning on that The Office: An American Workplace has some amazing folks directing... the last three episodes I've watched in season three have been directed by Josh Whedon, J.J. Abrams, and Harold Ramis respectively. It must be a great exercise for these guys to do something so completely different (apart from Ramis, obviously), that it does in a twisted way make perfect sense...

Anyway, yes. Stuck in an elevator, suspended between Ground and First. We had a go at the alarm button. "Press 3 for jammed doors. Press 9 for trapped persons." Except the building only has 8 floors, leading to distinct absence of a 9 button. So that took a while to actually get a person to shout at a few times. In between we got enough reception on my mobile to phone upstairs, and thankfully not everyone had gone home for the weekend.

By the time we got out, the maintenance on-call guy still hadn't arrived. A couple of the hospital maintenance technicians had decided to go up and physically worked the mechanism to lift the elevator up to first, and then hauled the door open (this could not be done between floors as a safety device kicks in to - and this is the genius bit - seal the doors closed for the safety of the passengers stuck inside.)

A particular moment of humour occurred when the only way back down to Ground was in the other lift. Decided to use the emergency exit stairs instead.

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water is essential

If you were at T in the Barn last year (one of my favourite days ever) then this is especially for you; if not, pay extra attention. The main charity your money went to that night was the amazing charity: water. Watch the new promo below, and then go to the website to find out more about the priceless, and selfless, work they do.




Also, if you're a twitter enthusiastic (like myself) charity: water are organising a unique bit of fundraising in the form of Twestival, so find out about that too.

further up and further in?

Now for goodness sake, stop aiming it at ignorant toddlers!

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out of africa

Credit goes to Giggy for flagging this one up on facebook: Times favourite son Matthew Parris, writing brilliantly on a topic entitled "As an atheist, I truly believe Africa needs God". Parris is has previously borne no falsehoods on his negativity towards religion as such, but as a quality journalist making honest observations, he's delivered a great piece of comment, worthy of more than five minutes of your time.

'Christianity, post-Reformation and post-Luther, with its teaching of a direct, personal, two-way link between the individual and God, unmediated by the collective, and unsubordinate to any other human being, smashes straight through the philosphical/spiritual framework I've just described. It offers something to hold on to to those anxious to cast off a crushing tribal groupthink. That is why and how it liberates.'

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loss of record

Yikes... there goes the (old) neighbourhood. Hope Ben realises that people have worked out how to get past such new innovations as password protecting computer files.

On the plus side, they're probably at the back of my "office", along with everything else that's missing in the NHS...

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reconfiguring

Dave was on at me today for not having updated in over a week; apparently, this makes his work days longer. Since joining the 9-5 cycle, I have to admit my time management has been nothing short of mad. I've been trying to relish free moments, but they've been few and far between. Embracing this new era, I guess it's probably a good idea to try and work out where to go from here.

1] Mediatree needs an update as a concept, and a facelift as a website. If said update includes sticking with the nomenclature opted for a few years ago, it's about time to get a proper domain and switch this whole bad boy to something that's probably not blogger! Truthfully, I've always been a bit bereft of ideas for any other names, and moreover am still piddled off that mediatree turned out to be so popular with so many other random organisations - as did its predecessor, Room One. (Although room one records remained for gig organising purposes, including the night of joy that was T in the Barn - more on that in a minute.)

2] All the creative stuff. In theory, a no-strings 9-5 should free me up for a lot of time to work on the creative business ideas. This hasn't happened - haven't even managed to catch up on the couple of editing projects I'd promised to fit in for people. Very hard to do.

3] T in the Barn followup. There is an idea. It's very experimental. It would be completely untried and untested, and to my mind, unlike anything that's ever been attempted by anyone I know before. This is very exciting. Even better, it will probably happen in the next six to eight weeks, so if you like good music (and conveniently probably in Belfast this time), watch this space.

I'd write more, but I've a whole lot to do before... going out tonight! Gah. Was in Bristol over the weekend, so here's a nice picture of the Clifton Suspension Bridge to finish...



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new ways to play old songs

Interesting blog post by Krist Novoselic upon encountering his own song in Rock Band 2, and finding himself rendered hopeless trying to play it. I vaguely recall reading Billy Corgan stating something similar, and famously Lars Ulrich is a Guitar Hero nut...

From personal experience, good old Ringo rocks the socks off a real drum kit, but put the time I joined in for Rock Band action, he was a mess... only joking...

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we will be watching the watchman

To a collective sigh of relief, Fox and Warner have kissed, made up, and the world is still due to burn on March 6th. Read the BBC explanation here.

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take me now and end this pain

Props to techcrunch for flagging this up... Can't decide which item makes this more appallingly appalling:

a) They're using Macs in the ad - for an exclusively Windows-based product;
b) These actors have clearly walked in from a self-help class entitled, "So you're rebounding from losing your soul";
c) They're SINGING.

Dave reckons Microsoft must have sued the makers of this advert for something shocking. What distresses me most is that some people actually sat around a room at some point and thought this was a great concept. Even without all the above, it would still suck. Someone was paid an exhorbant amount of moolah for this; and I'm working as a 'file manager'.



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coleraine house of prayer

An amazing project (that has followed on from previous worship efforts in the town) has been the development of the Coleraine House of Prayer - or C-HOP - and last Friday I finally got to join in with Simon and the amazing Psalm Drummers as some of the guys led a drum circle to kick off C-HOP's New Year, and even better, its transition into a daily routine of intercessory worship for the town and communities.

Anyhoo, Andy Rogers was sneaking around behind a camera for much of it and has stuck it up on d'Tube... picture's obviously dark, but the rhythms are somewhat awesome. It's also worth hearing Ian's statistics at the start, amazing stuff.


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primark linked to uk sweatshops

The national chain says it is very concerned about the allegations.

I think they were as shocked as we are to discover that their clothes are fabricated (bong!) by workers paid £3.50 p/h - and not, as previously assumed, outsourced to armies of slave children in the Far East...

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work

Check out the new workplace.

So many lost pieces of paper, so little time...

Just out of shot: another few billion unfiled piles of personal details, lots of dumped equipment, and some fun trollies.

Still - large, airy, 'well-lit' office, clear job description, responsibility and all the coffee/tea you can drink/beg/steal from the conference room across the hall.

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KP's out to a low bouncer

Just confirmed that Kevin Pietersen has resigned the England captaincy, following the ultimatum he laid out after the public spat with coach Peter Moores. It seemed from here that aside from a personality clash, the situation with Vaughan's exclusion may have been the final straw. Moores is also to resign.

My money's on Andrew Strauss to take over, as he was the other main choice before KP's appointment. Hopefully England won't be silly and will get KP back for the Ashes, as his batting prowess will be much in demand...

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wheely good: keyboard-free computing

[Courtesy of the Onion News Network]


Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Laptop With No Keyboard

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giggs to retire?

...say it ain't so!

Thrice before I have felt such a chill down my spine: firstly, upon finding out via Teletext that Cantona was taking early retirement; secondly, when the BBC reported that Peter Schmeichel, upon winning the European Cup, had decided he'd achieved everything and so was moving to Portugal; and thirdly, when the inevitable became reality, and the greatest substitute known to man, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, was finally forced by his multiple injuries to call it a day.

No doubt, after what will probably be over 800 appearances, Ryan is perfectly entitled to slow down. Despite only playing every other game over the last couple of seasons, he still shocks and surprises with his pace and capacity for assists and goals (re: Wigan last season - who better to score the one to win the league?) But all good things must come to an end...

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bomb voyage!

I knew it! I wonder how many people in the country spotted this particular reference in their Christmas day entertainment.

"Somedays, you just can't get rid of a bomb!"

Amazing...

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tomorrow's world

Came across this BBC/YouTube beauty in my RSS inbox, courtesy of neal... I consistently surprise myself by not only agreeing but sometimes internally cheering whenever Dr. Williams has something to say; his three-minute-wonder of a New Year's Message was no different.

Children should be taken seriously, not just as tomorrow's adults, but as fellow inhabitants of the globe today, and from whom we ought to learn. One of the most damning things you could say about any society is that it's failing its children.

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