My Favourite Goal

Ask any Scottish person to name their favourite World Cup goal and you'll invariably get this one. Archie Gemmil against Holland in 1978. A few seconds of genius that went a little way to restoring the nations battered pride.

My Lovely Horse

This has got to be the best music video ever made!! A bold claim, but watch it and I defy you to disagree.




The genuis that was Father Ted.

God Hates Everybody!

This Religious Group seem to encapsulate all that I detest in religious zealots. The rhetoric of hatred is available amongst Christians and Muslims alike. The two reporters are clearly incensed by the actions of this church but the woman just continues to justify their actions by claiming that it is Gods wrath and fury. Delivered mostly in a monotoned, brainwashed rant. They particularly hate soldiers, gays and Jews. The church is mainly made up of members from one family. I bet their family get-togethers are a right barrel of laughs. "Come sit at the table and we'll drink a cup of Gods fury and wrath........Then we'll play charades!!"

You may or may not agree with the war in Iraq. You will be aware though, that the ones who took the decisions and sanctioned the war are not the ones coming home in the body bags. It's the common foot-soldier and his family who are suffering the most. Apparently God wants them to suffer a bit more.

If you click on the link and then scroll down the page, click on one of the download buttons and you can watch the report.

The World Cup

It's not long now until the greatest show on earth gets underway. Even though my beloved Scotland didn't qualify I'm still getting hyped up for it. A big part of why I'm looking forward to it this year is, my 8 year old son has become football daft over the last few months. This'll be the first World Cup that he will be taking an interest in. He will be cheering on England with gusto. He and his mates are all Frank Lampard fans. They love him. Beckham and Owen hardly get a mention.

This took me back to the first World Cup that I can remember. Argentina 1978. Ally's Tartan Army. I'm halfway through a cracking book. 78 How a nation lost the World Cup. By Graham McColl. The nation in question being Scotland. It's interesting reading about the background to the stories that were so big on the day and in most cases blown totally out of proportion. That would never happen these days. Would it? For example when Willie Johnston was sent home in disgrace because of his drug scandal, It was reported as if he had been pumping steroids into himself and using every performance enhancing drug he could find. In reality he had taken a tablet no more performance enhancing than Paracetemol. The tablets were actually given out to all the players at his club West Brom as a matter of course.
The other thing that struck me was the total ineptitude throughout the ages of the Scottish Football Association. (SFA) The petty bureaucrats that run the game. These were the ones who refused to go to a world cup because they hadn't finished first in the home international tournament. How arrogant is that? No thought for the players who could have taken part in the best tournament in the world and possibly achieved something. They also sent Scotland to one tournament with only 13 players. They hadn't expected to qualify and by the time they did they had had their final meeting of the year. They couldn't authorise increasing the squad without going through the proper process and refused to convene an additional meeting to sort it out. Is it any wonder that people make jokes at Scotlands expense when it comes to the World Cup. What do you call a Scotsman in the second round of the World Cup? A ref!!
The modern SFA are no different. My own club Hamilton Accies had a strike for one game a few years back. The SFA, much to the disgust of everyone with the exception of Queen of the South fans, docked the club 15 points. Enough to relegate them from a comfortable mid table position. I wont mention the name of the club who should have relegated but were spared. (I've left a clue above) If that had been one of the big clubs they would never have dreamt of doing something like that.
Ah well back to the book. We've just lost 3-1 to Peru and drawn 1-1 Iran(Thanks to their own goal) I'm looking forward to reading about the Holland game.
I can't wait until the next time Scotland qualifies for a World Cup. I reckon we'll probably win it!!

In defence of Sir Clive

I read in the Sunday Times this week that Sir Clive Sinclair is launching another new product. It's a fold-up bicycle to be used by commuters. In this case it is obvious that comparisons are going to be made with his ill-fated Sinclair C5, they are both means of transport after all.
I do feel that he should not just be remembered for designing an embarrasing and probably dangerous failure. I can't imagine anyone ever traveling todays roads in one of those, inches from the tarmac and feeling anything less than being about to die. I like to remember him as the man who brought computers to the masses. I'm sure there are thousands of boffins out there who could list pages of his computers shortcomings. But as a teenager in the 80's, I saw my first ZX Spectrum and I was hooked. My brother and I shared a 48K version that christmas and I had more hours of enjoyment out of it than any present before or since. This includes our subbutteo set!! That's how good it was.
Kids today don't know they're born(later I'll be calling for the return of National Service) We used to crowd around the computers in John Menzies for as long as we were allowed. typing our name and making it fill the screen and feeling like computer geniuses. Whizzkids no less. The games were less about the graphics and all about playability. With some of the games it took 3/4 buttons to guarantee hours of game playing entertainment. (Manic Miner, Space invaders, Jetpac...) Admitedly other required tactics, skill and the co-ordinated use of 15 fingers. (Ant Attack, Escape from Warlock Mountain!)
We played adventure games in groups. Mainly TheHobbit. If you got it wrong you would have to unplug the machine and wait an eternity for it to reload. Thanks to my brother we found out if you attempt to "kill Gandalf" He actually kills you. Also if you're in a room with a box, and you type "Climb in the box" You can't get out. Heady days.