31 May 2006

World Cup 2006

I watched the England game and was actually quite impressed by our performance, even against a poorly ranked team. There were several main points I think stood out in that game.

  • Beckham seems to be working on his passing and crosssing again, I dont think hes been world class for quite some time now, but I think he may yet again become a national hero, even though he is, lets face it, a bit of a wanker.
  • Cole brought out some very fancy footwork and DIDNT lose the ball, a huge improvement on his previous play.
  • Crouch made a absolutely precision shot, he knew where the goal was, an earlier lok told him all about the keeper and defenders then he just powered the shot in.

The poor play I saw in the game on Englands side was just because Sven had changed the team from its standard, I was also dissapointed that the new young'un didnt seem to make much of an appearance, im quite intrested in seeing how well he plays.

30 May 2006

Night out

So yeah, I got ever so slightly drunk this weekend, bumped into the aformentioned lass, which made me kinda feel kinda uncomfortable since she had told me she was busy this weekend. But yeah, it was definately a good night, foolish dancing at flares AND reflex, plus heavy drinking ni places such as the Evil Eye (Well known to have the best coctails in the UK)

As always one of us ended up drinking something with copious amounts of tabasco sauce in, to the amusement of his fellow drinkers, and I am proud to say that it was NOT infact me this time!

Im still head over heals for this girl and I do keep getting text messages off her, she wanted to meet me later that night but ended up going home with a mate. But lets face it, she knows how I feel and if she doesnt make a move then ive fooked it, sent her another message this morning just to double check like, but if we dont get together soon I recon I will be back onto the field.

Anyway Yeah, as previously mentioned, I live outside a pretty rowdy pub in York. I was privelidged to bear witness to a fight between two henparties, schoolgirls & nurses, which, Im ashamed to say, was absolutely fan-fucking-tastic. None of them got seriously injured, but it was absolutly hilarious to watch, especialy when a nurse pulled off a schoolgirls skirt and legged it down the street, genius.

Last week I saw a bloke jump out of a window, he lived in the end though, managed to make page 19 of the sun! Not sure what could go that wrong in your life to make you want to finish it all. I mean things go wrong, and sometimes you lose people you love, wether it be through death or just going of with someone else. But you will always find someone else, sometiems better, sometimes not. money wise the worst that can happen is that you go bankrupt, 6 years bad credit rating then your back in the clear, and the government is thinking of making it even better for borrowers because lets face it, bankrupcies have nearly doubled in the last couple of years, its hard for the government to make it look like we have a stable economy when that is happening.

25 May 2006

.

Im going to take a few days break from everything, will be on my lappy but wont really be blogging (at least not on personal blog)

I really need to get my head in some kinda order,

Inna bit y'all

24 May 2006

crap.

Im now being, in nice words, told to back off. Dont think she trusts me at all after last friday, just hope she can forgive me.

22 May 2006

Heads a mess

Ok, think its time for an update.

Things happened between me and this lass I liked, I kinda regret it because she was upset afterwards (She had a boyfriend) and I would have preffered the whole thing to have been on better terms.

Shes now single, after her bloke guessed what she had done, and I dont know if she would still want to be with me after all that has happened. She says she would have trouble trusting me now that im livnig in York, and she dont knows how I can trust her after she cheated on her boyfriend with me. She has a point, but I do trust her, dont know why but I dont think I couldnt, if that makes any sense!

Anyway, onto other news.

The houseparty at mine was pretty good, though it did turn jerry springerish towards the end, with a drunk blond lass throwing her boyfriend about and chucking chairs at him.

I have got nothing done that I was meant to have done this weekend, saturday i was hungover and sunday/today I have just been feeling incredibly ill. I feel detached from myself, and im aching everywhere, and I mean everywhere. so along with extreme stiffness in my arms and legs it feels like someone has taken their boot to my nutsack.

I think its possibly because I was out in the cold a lot of saturday, coulda been anything from dodgy food to picking up something at work though!

19 May 2006

Movie Critics

The Divinchi code was shown at Cannes this week, and unfortunately a lot of the critics seem to dislike it whereas the people who watched it thought it was damn good.

I think the problem with this, like the lord of the rings trilogy is that most film reviewers, are unfortunately, geeks. Don't get me wrong, I have more than my fair share of geeky friends, I know some fairly geeky stuff myself. However, I wouldn't let the fact that the movie doesn't follow a book change my perception of the movie, So whereas the film critics laughed at the turning point and sat in stony silence at the end, it was more down to the fact that they were disillusioned it was going to follow the book exactly more than the quality of the film itself.

The rest of us thought it was a pretty good film, so what if it didn't follow the book spot on?

18 May 2006

Hectic

Life is pretty hectic at the moment, so much to do so little time.

Cheers for the emails, trust me if it wasnt for this girl some of you lot would easily be 9/10!

She knows how I feel (I think) now I guess the choice is upto her, will have to see how it goes this weekend.

Also if anyone out there is wanting to get rid of a punchbag stand pass me a mail, I want to bring my punchbag from home but because I live in an old house there isnt really anywhere I can fix up a wall/ceiling bracket.

So Much Wrong, So Much Right

Due to the recent drop in the commodities sector I have lost going on for a grand the last week. not good, although the sector has been over inflated for some time should have pulled out when BG. hit 800p (Like I planned) shame it didnt work out, paper shares are a bugger to trade.

You would think a grand lost would put me in a slightly pessimistic mood, however the current situation with this girl has taken presidence over money (shock horror :O) and it takes a lot to do that. The shares will come back, I can wait, but considering my past with this one im gonna have to fight for her or i'll lose her forever, not something I want to happen.

17 May 2006

bleh

Dunno why but I cant help but think that me and htis new lass could work out long term, at least for a while. She is completely my type, and shes the kinda girl i could just hold in my arms forever. I dont know where its gonna go though, firstly she has a bf, and seems undecided on wether shes happy with him or not (One minute she will tell me she is happy then send me a text saying she isnt)

Whenever im around her I just want to be close to her, kinda strange for me to get worked up like this over a woman.

Il still have to check with her brother though, dont want to lose a mate over a woman.

Ladies... advice please?

Coincidence

Every so often I look through my life and notice the seemingly HUGE number of coincidences I encounter in everyday life.

For instance thinking about somebody just before they ring you, going abroad and bumping into a friend from school and my lottery numbers winning me £10 once every 4 weeks, i choose random numbers but win only once every 4 weeks i mean damn, I aint complaining but the pattern is pretty damn scary.

In futher news, I have, yet again, fallen for a woman. Unfortunately this this time its on dangerous ground, she is my mates sister, and if push comes to shove I will have to chose my mate over her, dispite the fact she is damn nice. I recon he will be alright with it, hmm, will see if anything happens first, but I would go out with this one like a shot!

16 May 2006

House Party

We are having a house party this Friday, cant wait, gonna get drunnkkkkkk wheheyyy

Too far away though, I cant believe its only tuesday!

Sony DSC T9

I have been looking for a new Digital camera for a whil now, to replace my old Fuji Fine Pix. I think I have pretty much settled on the Sony DSC T9 (UK
Or
USA), this seems a fantastic Digital Camera, its damn slim with a nice sized lcd viewer, a tonne of features and more stylish than Fonzi at a Nunnery. All I need now is a couple of hundred quid, and if you too want one of these beautiful cameras you can help me afford one by buying them here (UK
Or
USA). As always No downside for yourselves but I get a lil commision fee =D

Has anyone else seen any decent digi cams out there?

15 May 2006

Download Festival Here I Come

I will be heading darn south for Download on the 11th for Guns 'n Roses, Rumour on the market is that the full original band will be playing, although rumour isnt always right (Take the AC/DC surprise appearance/headlining that has meant to have been forth coming the last 5 years)

But yeah it should be good, will also be seeing the prodigy for a bit!

I still need tickets for Leeds festival, feel a bit worried about buying them off ebay (as always) but it looks like thats going to be the only option for another year running.

Tried to get tickets for Maximo Park (We are here) at Fibbers in York, unfortunately the queue was massive and we got no where near the ticket office before they were sold out!

Follow up

Just out of interest, could anyone who believes that the reason for the attacks on Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran is NOT down to them pricing oil by Euros instead of Dollars please leave a comment stating what you think the reason is?

My argument is that oil is the only thing supporting the Dollar, preventing recession, if oil was sold in Euros the American economy would collapse.

My arguments against are:

Terrorism (Afghanistan): Al Quida were blamed for the attacks, however America only went after Afghanistan, only one of the countries controlled by the Al Quida.

WMDs (Iraq): None were found, also when research was carried out on the evidence surrounding this by countries other than america a lot of it was found to be fraudulent, inaccurate or purely not related to Iraq.

Nukes (Iran): No evidence supporting the fact they are building nuclear capable weapons, however would not blame them as two of their most powerful neighbors have them (Made against non proliferation agreement but America didnt attack them?)

In fairness the reason for this backlash is that Iran has claimed it has had nuclear weapons for the past decade, probably to prevent invasion frmo its neighboring countries. However it has become clear it has nowhere near that capability and will not have it for sometime. Hwever Iran Does have a booming economy currently and there is a huge shortfall in power, nuclear power would be a good choice at this point, and would easily be paid for by the profits made selling oil that would have otherwise been used in oil power plants. (America tried to invalidate this by showing costs from an oil plant and nuclear plant, didnt mention the fact that nuclear provides a huge multiple of the power made by oil)

Dictatorship, mass killings etc (attributed to all)

This is one aspect of americas defence of its invasions I could agree with, the genocides commited by their leaders should not be tollerated, unfortunately this is NOT the reason America is invading these countries, I dont think that America should be allowed to hide behind such a Just cause when it is doing it soley for the protection of its own economy.

The first Dilbert Blog commenter other than me who seems to have picked up on the full economic impact of the Dollar-Euro change in selling oil, Congrats!


on March 20, 2006, that advantage may have disappeared forever. On that date, Iran opened the Iranian Oil Bourse...where anybody, anywhere can trade as much oil as they want...as long as they price it not in dollars, but in euros.
Keep in mind, when Saddam Hussein revalued his entire oil supply in euros in the year 2000, he made a fortune on this move, as the dollar plunged against the euro. We were shocked and awed. So on June 10, 2003, we set things "right."
We marched into Baghdad and switched all his oil accounts back to dollars...even though it meant losing billions on the transaction. Because it was the only way we could steer clear of what could have been the biggest dollar disaster in U.S. history.
Now Iran - an even bigger oil power than Iraq - has taken petrodollar dumping to a whole new level. If Saddam's move to the euro was a threat, this new bourse is like dropping an atom bomb.
Europe will benefit. Russia, China, and Japan will benefit. Iran will benefit. And to fundamentalist Muslims in more than 206 countries around the world, it tastes like victory. But it's a nightmare for the U.S. Federal Reserve and the U.S. dollar.
Does this mean military action against Iran?
Maybe, and maybe not. Either way, foreign investors get spooked.
Posted by: Bobby May 14, 2006 at 06:06 AM

12 May 2006

Jakes Plaice

After I moved to York I tried out the local chippy, had to be done!

Well the chippy is practically next door and i strike up conversation with Jake, who then proceeds me to give me his hours and life story. It is at this point I realise I am talking to the guy with the least business sense ever.

Jake: I might have to put my prices up soon, I dont get enough business.
Me: But your shops right in the middle of town, theres loads of people.
Jake: I dont open when it gets too busy, I dont like it
Me: *Stunned*
Jake: Your lucky theres any fish left, I normally close about 6
Me: Isnt it around that time a load of the local drinkers might want something to eat
Jake: I dont like serving drunk people they are all drunks
Me: okaayyy any way look at the time, gotta go!

Needless to say I now tend to stick to the chippy down the road.

Suits

Ok, forget the coffee machine, somebody make a decent machine washable suit, would save me so much fcking time and money!

US Democracy, The Nazi Regime.

The Nazi regeme was based on a perfect race of people, tall, blonde, blue eyed and strong. Unfortunately those ideals are not really feasable in todays world (Though since im tall blonde blue eyed and strong I would be ok =D)

The problem with this? The Nazis oppressed and killed people who did not fit in with their ideals, and had massive torture and concentration camps. They were condemned because they invaded other countries even though they at first did it under the guise of peace and making the world a better place

Recently we have America, who are forcing other countries to adhere to their ideals, killing people who get in the way, and it has been revealed, have a massive torture camp (guantanamo bay) and have been condemned for invading countries, though it is being done to make the world a better place!

Now I know comparing the American government to the Nazi Regime may seem immoral, there are at least differences, America isnt going on a mass exodus of a minority, a major failing of the Nazis, who may have been ruling a larger part of europe today if it wasnt for that.

But try looking at the situation from an objective standpoint, removing emotion and humanitarian thoughts and the similarities are quite astounding. The most notable being the economic reason. Germany wished to expand its borders primeraly because of a massive inflation that was gripping the country, they needed more resources and people to bring the value of their currency back up. So they invaded other countries under the guise of peace and helping the wold, spreading lies and propoganda to support the invasion, reminds me of WMD's and such!

America, and most of the westernised world is currently struggling with rising inflation, America imparticular who are under threat of the dollar being sold by Euros instead of Dollars (That would leave the dollar worthless as hardly any country would need it, and there is no other major backing behind the $!

So so far both the American And Nazis did the following

Encountered a recession
Decided to avoid recession by military means
Invaded countries to secure their economic position
Used lies and propaganda to justify the invasion
Forced their ideals on other conutries
Maintained control of the other countries

I have exluded torture and mass exodus, as while it does possibly exist (America has been accused of torturing and has killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people) It has not done it in completely the same way as the Nazis, who not only killed millions in their invasions, but began killing people simply because of their religion.


Dont get me wrong, I do not support a Nazi regime, but neither do I support the US incursions, which seem startlingly similiar in my view.

Of course the worst thing is that the US has not learned from Germanys example. the invasions did not help inflation, but propogated it, they became shunned from europe following the war for many years, and still suffer from a slight amount of tension even now.

America will suffer from a depression, as will the UK. Since most peolpe cannot afford to live, or buy a house. A vibrant economy cannot work this way, personal and business bankrupcies are booming, up 78% from the same quater last year and 12% compared to last quater in the UK alone, and the US is in a much worse position as they have jsut had to deal with Alan Greenspan who devalued the dollar enormously. even now the Federal reserve in the US is increasing its output of dollars, and for each dollar that is released into the world all the other dollars become worth that little bit less.

How to avoid the recession? Gold, or a foreign currency that you think will go up,

Golds current dramatic rise is not that dramatic, though it is rising in value it must be weighed against that fact that the dollar is falling against all currencies including gold.

11 May 2006

Cooking

I will be cooking a chicken stir fry tonight, mmmhhhhhh, sat here at work jsut wanting the food, gonna have to get it cooked as soon as I get in.

BG. has done badly for me recently, dropped from the 800's :(

Thinking of the pub again tonight, the weather is perfect for it, can ill afford to wast emore money though!

I am opening my doors for a new project, I will help get your website set up to be SEO optimised fairly cheaply, I dont mind doing it so it isnt a huge chore for me. I specialise in telling people what they need to do to improve their web rankings, and have got quite good at it over the years. Just remember to avoid the ones that say they will improve your ranking then search for teh name of your site, or even use the Site: or Link: commands in google, which will ONLY bring up your site. Cons the lot of them to be honest!

Hate to say I told you so, but it seems like the mind of on eof the cheif british economists agrees with my theories of recession

http://go.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=personalFinanceNews&storyID=1216145&src=UK_DskTopTkr/GetContent

Another day Another Post

I often wonder what it would be like to pack in my job and travel the world. I dont mean the whole world, just the places I have always fancied going, Australia, America, Switzerland, Germany, India, Africa and maybe pop by southern spain again.

It would be quite expensive but if I pulled some assets out of my share schemes I think it would be possible, travel the world for a few months, would prefer some company though, specifically someone who could talk in several random languages.

10 May 2006

Amazing site

I recently came upon a site through the dilbert blog, and I have to say it is one of the most entertaining and well written blogs I have read in a long time, quick extract below!
Visit him at I Am Livid.

I’m fortunate enough have sky+ so I can fast forward through most adverts when I’ve recorded something, but I have seen a few recently that I decided to test out, purely in the name of research you understand. Can you figure out which companies the tested products were from?

  • Well, you quoted me fucking miserable you lying cunts.
  • Oh yes it IS an ‘ordinary custard tart’ you overpriced fucking poncey bastards.
  • I’m lovin’ it? I can barely fucking digest it.
  • You’ve probably had your tongue removed if you think thats the best lager in the world
  • Kev, Bev, it’s a fucking Volvo. Get over it.
  • I don’t care how friendly your bacteria is, it gave me the shits.
  • It doesn’t exactly say on the tin “will fucking ruin whatever you’re wearing when you use it”, now does it?

Not often a blog reaches through my high standards!

Machine Coffee

I always think that whoever creates the first propper coffee vending machine will become a millionaire, seriously, how many times have you had machine coffee and had it taste like your breakfast, it just really isnt that nice.

Hence I am charging my (not loyal at all, dont think I get any repeat visitors yew bastards!) readers to devise and sell a machnie that makes decent office coffee, doesnt have to be filtered, you can make a nice cup of coffee by hand with instant, but it has to be nice, I think real milk may help with this, though I appreciate it has its down sides.

09 May 2006

Time to Save

It looks like in the next two days the Bank of England will once again raise interest rates in the UK. Good news for savers, bad news for debtors.

Its pretty good news for me, I have a bit tucked away and an increased interest rate will help hike the income from my ISA, for the economy in general though I think this will increase the number of bankrupcies by a staggering amount, personal and business.

Given the current situation in the UK, where the average age of leaving home is mid 20's and average age of buying a first house is mid 30's I think its fairly obvious that wages are well due for a hike. The probelm we currently face is that the government 'massages' the figures, making inflation look a lot lower than it really is, this means that though in real terms the cost of living is rising, as some experts believe, between 10%-18% (Mainly due to the huge increase in rental and property costs) wages only went up by 2.8%

Of course if wages go up property and rental prices will rise, creating an inflation spiral (never a good thing) Unfortunately we are already, nearly all british and american citizens live beyond their means thanks to cheap credit. Hate to say this but the americans are worse off, spending 3% more than they earn, though the british arnt far behind, saving jsut more than they are spending, I think the governments ISA scheme has a lot to do with this as it has encouraged many people to save when they previously would have thought their money better spent elsewhere.

Due to the above factors I think both England and the US will suffer corrective depressions, bringing what people buy back into line with what they can afford

08 May 2006

BBQ

I went to a BBQ yesterday, the spread was amazing!

It rained throughout the day, though this failed to put a dampner on the day it was quite amusing when as soon as we had finished cooking & eating the sun came out.

It seems like 'tis the season to have birthdays' as the BBQ was celebrating a 21st & there is another birthday coming up this week!

It seems like Mr Scott Adams is looking to invest in the stock market, cant say I blame him, though i dont think now is the right time, commodities seem a far better bet at the moments, and despite my initial scepticism about the gold market I have been proved wrong time and time again thinking it will end. Im guessing the constant rise is due to Americas current instability, but gold has been undervalued for a long time, will be interesting to watch!

My predictions on the housing market seem to be coming around, Brixton announced today it is selling 460 million pounds worth of property, a wise move in my opinion, a pull out now will gain them a healthy profit and avoid the downtrend that is becoming visible to everyone in the market

The good thing about property is that it does contain a very 'real' value, and one that will nearly always increase overall (Barring damage occuring to the property)

Which brings me onto my next subject, Buy to Let.

Buy to let over the last few years is rarely profitable if linked in with a mortgage. However with the increasing number of people filing for bankrupcies there will be a lot of people coming back into the rental market, I believe there will be a sharp drop in housing prices soon, and if we can find the bottom of that drop it would seem to me to be a fantastic time to buy to let, since the increase of rentals would push the renting price upwards.

This is pure guesswork, working through what I think will logically happen, does anyone have any other theories regarding the future of buy to let?

05 May 2006

Anti-Racism gone mad

I am amazed by the racial hypocracy that goes on in our current system, in teh media and in life i find the way people trying to make things fairer for people of different races segregate them, the way a black man can get a white mans job even if teh white man is more qualified, dont get me wrong, i have black, asian and indian friends, but I think that he powers that be should judge a person by his character and his qualifications, more than quota. Again in tv, references and jokes about a chinese person (Other races too) are sometimes cut out, one of the leather weapon films was put under preasure because of its character uncle benny, and the 'fwied wice you plick' gag.

Personally I think its funny, it may cause offence to some chinese people but the MAJORITY would take the joke, in the same way that a joke about a stiff upper lipped white man may cause offence to some white people, but the MAJORITY of us would laugh it off, I think people need to rememebr that a joke is a joke, nothing more.

I feel sorry for people who get crushed under stereotypes simply because the stereotype is pushed so hard as something that shouldnt be made, take the eastern problem at the moment, there are some perfectly aimiable iraquis, indeed most of them probably are. they are faced with a small stereo type of being rock throwers, where it gets stupid is when they start throwing rocks BECAUSE we call tehm rock throwers, anyone notice the irony, its a shame that a minority of the population responded with violence.

Though I do not agree with the war on Iraq, mainly due to the reasons, the saddam regieme was terrible, and I worked at a factory for a whiel with a guy who had run for his life from iraq, his own country, because of the regeime. Unfortunately there are hundreds of regmes like this throught the world, and while it would be nice to think that America attacked Afghanistan, Iraq and probably soon Iran for human rights and the fight against terror it seems to me an obvious smoke screen for Americas very real economic problems (See a few posts down)

Beer Garden Weather

The weather outside is amazing a the moment, and i would class it as near perfect beer garden weather, I think the pub will definately be in order tonight.

Apparently Islamist extremists are now changing video games to show arab crusaders against invading us soldiers. Fair play in my opinion, since we have more than enough games where the aim is to shoot them. I think this may get blown out of propertions, mostly because americans are two arrogant to be shot at in a vdeo game (in general) and secondly because the press will love this story. They dont seem to realise that on popular games (Like battle field 2 which they mention) you can usually choose any side, on battlefield 2 I play the US no more than any other faction.

My shares dropped like a stone yesterday, I believe they will pick up again shortly, its a bit of a downer on the day when you wake up and see youve lost £200 though ($400) especially since thats going on for a weeks wage after tax.

03 May 2006

Lotto Winnings

I won another 12 pounds ($24) on my lottery syndicate over the weekend, not too shoddy!

Just to the critic, while this is similar to a pyramid scheme it does have a product that works. I dont claim that this will make you a millionaire overnight, infact I would stress that to make money, or even play for free, you will have to advertise, and to make a decent monthly income you will have to give up some of your free time, personally I think its worth a shot, but why dont you try it yourself?

Read More Here!




YOu can join, and make money from this anywhere in the world, currently this has only taken off in the UK, but I think there is a Massive market currently untapped in the US, while it would be hard for me to access that myself, any Americans could give it a go, the same goes for China and Canada!

I am in this to make money myself, but theres nothing to stop you doing the same!

Click Here To Join Today, Or Find Out More!

02 May 2006

Growing in numbers.

I recently read that Japan is considering plans to launch an advertising campaign to increasethe birth rate in its country, this strikes me as rather strange, after all Japan is already an overcrowded country, this made me wonder abotu possible ccauses for wanting an increased birth rate, remember these are guesses in the dark, im not too clued up about the facts on Japans population.

a) Due to the growing economy Japan believes it will need a greater workforce in the future.

b) Due to a prior baby boom tehy will require a new genereation to pay taxes to support the elderly.

c) After realising they have little farmland and are dependant on other countries for food they decide to try out a new source of nutrition.

Second Job

Im begining to think that a second job might be in order, couple of nights a week to bring in a bit more cash. The question is, where?

My choices include

Jacksons - Will have to endure constant ridicule from my co-workers BUT i might get employee discount. Wages also look a bit on the shoddy side.

or

A local boozer - Nothing wrong with that, but the hours arnt fantastic.

Neither are fantastic, tempted to offer services as a freelance graphic designer, im pretty good at creating web sites & graphics unfortunately my knowledge isnt good enough to create a proffesional site for sale, graphics however I could do.

Does anyone have any other job ideas?

01 May 2006

Underground Atomic Detonation

Jesus christ this kicks ass, an atomic blast underground!