If you have 5 seconds to spare...

Diver

2006-10-17T11:23:00.000+01:00

All you United fans who said Van Nistelhoff wasn't a diver...

I miss him in the premiership tho, along with Paul Parker he was great. Tho there are some amazing arsenal greats of seasons gone by which I will remember forever. Apart from the obvious Anders Limpar and John Hartson (harsh), I'll never forget the formidable back 4 of Bould, Adams, Winterburn and Dixon. For what felt like 20 years they were rated as the best defence in the league. And, they were 100% english! What's better is that when Bouldy retired at the age of 54, Norn Iron regular Stevie Morrow was drafted in, complete with dodgy tache.

Still think Le Bob Pires was a worse diver than this performing seal?

Halloween

2006-10-15T17:51:00.000+01:00

Well, it's that time of year again, were people take off/put on their masks (delete as appropriate), and tiny animals get blasted into space with the help of a few firecrackers. Hopefully my cat won't be caught up in the festivities. Strange things happen round halloween I've noticed, like Gayle looks like this for a start... Sexy.

Me and the lovely lady are headn to see the Goo's on Wednesday, which should be sweet. I've always had a likening for their songs, but never liked to admit it. It's like saying you like Del Amitri, or Bon Jovi. Or 5ive.

The seagoes are parents

2006-10-06T09:05:00.000+01:00

Who would've believed it, after only 6 months of marriage and the seagoes are parents. And what a lot of work it is, feeding, cleaning, keeping entertained! But he sleeps a lot of the time too which is a bit of relief, but mostly he's full of life, scurrying about the floor, trying to climb up my leg. He's called Bruce.

Memories

2006-09-25T16:10:00.000+01:00

Was thinking again today, while the radio was on and Saddam is being tried for genocide and continually he's thrown out of court, about all the wars that have happened in my lifetime, and it's strange that I can remember exactly what I was doing at the time. Like on the day of 9/11, I was looking for a house in Jordanstown for starting Uni. And when the Gulf War was on I was in P7, and we'd to bring in newspaper clippings everyday for a scrapbook. And the day of the Omagh bomb I was playing footy up at Graham McGuigan's, which we did most summer days off school.

Anyway I then thought how class must it have been to be a disciple of Jesus to have witnessed all these miraculous events, and be able to pin point their exact whereabouts when the event took place. Or even the general public in those days, when they heard the news that this mighty man Jesus, the Son of God, had performed another amazing feat. They would no doubt remember where they were that day.

Anytime I write something serious in this thing I strive to make a point, but I can't manage one here, not sure what i'm trying to say, if anything at all.

the Pope

2006-09-18T22:48:00.000+01:00

Was just thinking today when the news was on. In a speech, during a visit to Germany, the Pope quoted a 14th Century Christian emperor who said the Prophet Muhammad had brought the world only "evil and inhuman" things. In response to this, the Pope was reminded that there is nothing in Islamic faith that preaches violence against non muslims. Oh aye, and they built and burnt an effigy of the Pope, and killed a nun.

Way to get your point across eh?

reedstar*.com

2006-09-18T19:12:00.000+01:00

Yup, so it's been a while, but I've been busy.

Been working a bit on a website for reedstar* and you can see the progress here. It's even a .com would you believe?! Still working away at it, getting the lads to send me content etc so it'll be a while before she's lookin sweet.

Bought a few new CDs the other day, both by a band called Jars of Clay check their site out, and check their music out they rock. For the Kingdom. The CD's called Redemption Songs, and is class. No exaggeration. They've taken 13 hymns, some forgotten by the church, and put them to modern music. Not just modern music in fact, really catchy rocky country at times music.

For me it really works, because I find a lot of the newer praise and worship songs lack depth lyrically, and more emphasis may be on the emotion of the music rather than the actual lyrics. These older hymns just seem more focussed lyrically, but with the added bonus of the great music. And these guys are great musicians.

So buy it. Personal favourite on it is "I'll Fly Away", which was originally written by Albert E. Brumley, and Johnny Cash covered it once too me thinks.

Oh yea, and Arsenal beat the Scum 1-0, the unaging Nwankwo Adebeyor popping up in the '86th min for a well deserved victory. Jens took a nasty shot to the face, but at least he saved it. He's ugly anyway, didn't make much difference. Why Eboue wasn't marking him is another matter. Still think we should play him right-wing, cos anytime i look, that's where he is.

Rosicky shone again, Fabregas masterful (Patrick who?) and all this without talisman Henry. That'll show those who say we're a one-man team. Just wait till we get Senderos and Clichy back too. And Lauren! The back four will be Lauren-Senderos-Gallas-Clichy. Gallas quite clearly loves his new team, shouting for a good 5 mins after the match, he was well up for it. Lovely.

Super Norn Iron

2006-09-07T17:22:00.000+01:00

Well, I was wrong. Loads of times. When we went 1-0 down, 2-1 down. Wrong.

We won! Can you believe it? I'm still in shock. Lawrie rung the changes, brought in Evans and Lafferty for their first full caps, dumped Jimmy and Tony, and played Bairdy in defensive midfield. If Healy wasn't an idol before, he certainly is now with a splendid hat-trick. The first of his goals was what we as Norn Iron fans are used to seeing. His next two, against a team ranked 7th in the world remember, really were something special. You can check out some highlights from the game here. They're the BBC highlights from the English gits.

His second was obviously worked out on the training ground. We won a dangerous free kick on the egde of the box, right hand side close to the byeline. Sammy Clingan (whose head is actually shaped like a Klingon) cleverly cut the ball back to the penalty spot where Healy had made a run, and he absolutely rifled it into the net. Iker Casilla, yes, Casillas, Real Madrid keeper since he was like 12, had no chance. In fact, I hear he only saw the ball there now. Oh, he's just realised they've lost too!

His third was even better. Long ball out of Taylor's hands, Spanish defence think Healy's offside but he ain't, and he lobs the ball 25-odd yards over Casillas... for the third time that evening! Unreal. And it was a year ago today we beat England. Onwards and upwards.

Though why Roy Caroll started the game is beyond me, Taylor has had more matches and this showed when chubby Rob pulled up after 10mins with a strain. Also rumours about big Lawrie's future being uncertain are a bit worrying. This man's done so much for this team, broke the goal drought, got us a win, got us a goal away from home, beating World Class teams... hope he stays.

Up and down

2006-09-06T16:30:00.000+01:00

Since I last bloogered I have had a down. Then an up. I think tonight will be another down.

"I'd play George Jones at left back and put Capaldi in charge of the decks. It couldn't be any worse than Saturday's performance by the pair of them". - Bannsider

On Sat there I had the pleasure of watching the mighty Norn Iron (funny quote on main page, I have it above) take on the even mightier Iceland. Below are the current World Rankings taken from Soccerphile.

72 Northern Ireland
73 Moldova
74 Jamaica

...etc etc including duffers like Honduras, Oman, Uganda (do they even have a football team?), Cuba and Botswana...

104 Armenia
105 Benin
106 Iceland

So, I went along expecting a good game full of hard tackles, long balls, and dodgy defending. Not from us, from Iceland. I was however completely wrong. My prediction of 1-0 to Norn Iron was quickly dashed as Iceland had the game won in the first twenty minutes, before adding a third before half time. Capaldi was truly awful, constantly giving the ball away at the worst possible times, and any times he didn't give the ball away was when he was hoofing it back to the opposition defence. In the past I've been quick to jump to Jimmy Quinn's defence, which is more than I can say for him being jumping at the Iceland defence. Time after time we saw long ball after long ball lifted to Jimmy, and his feet were rooted to the spot. Changes will have to be made, though we're gonna struggle no matter what we do against Spain. I was present 2 years ago when we drew 0-0 at Winsdor, but that seems highly unlikely this time around.

Positives out of the Norn Iron game were pretty slim, though Healy, Taylor and Davis didn't put a foot wrong. Taylor could do nothing for any of the goals, defence were totally at fault. Stuarty Elliot played a good game too, even at one stage he looked to have picked up a nasty injury, but came back on with a tearing run down the left.

Anyway that was Saturday... Sunday was better. The mighty reedstar played a gig up in CFC in Belfast. And it was great! We weren't playing any of our own stuff, we just led worship, but the place was buzzing. Buzzing with the presence of God. There was something about it, probably something to do with the quality of sound in that building, but it felt so right playing there, was a confirmation that what we are doing is glorifying God. Sense. It's something I'm really enjoying, like a real purpose. Nice pic to the left, with Philbus looking deep in thought as usual. Robbie has more photos from the Summer Madness gig on his page here

So the other down, yea that's tonight when we get beat 5-0 by Spain. It's gonna be 'Spainful'? Bawd. Real bawd.

Deal or no deal?

2006-08-31T21:36:00.000+01:00

Tonight i've been sitting online on Eurosport website to see what's going down transfers wise for Arsenal.

West Ham have signed Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano. United, Chelsea and Arsenal were after these guys too! Ah well.

We have however, gotten rid of homesicker Reyes. Glad to see the back of him, biggest waste of £22mil (or whatever it was) ever. And he actually seemed like a decent player at times, his first goal against Chelski for example was a corker. but i really hope he follows the trend of all the other Arsenal players who have left to 'better their careers'. Like Manu Petit and Marc Overmars who both left for Barca and never achieved the same success at Arsenal. Vieira anyone? Yea, we knocked them out of the Champions League last season, and now the club's in complete disgrace over this match fixing thingy. Then there was Anelka, who went from Arsenal to Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain, Liverpool, Manchester City, Fenerbahçe, to Bolton Wanderers. Anyway, in return we've got Julio 'the Beast' Baptista. Let's compare. When Gary Neville hits Reyes with a cruncher Reyes cries and tells the press. When Baptista gets tackled by Gary Neville, Baptista will eat Gary Neville. Good deal if you ask me.

"I eat players like Gary Neville for dinner..." Julio Baptista

There's still just over 2 hours for us to get rid of problem child #2, Ashley Cole. Hopefully he goes, although it's looking less and less likely. Ah well, it's better having only 1 player that doesn't want to play rather than 2.

So that's it then. So far this season we've lost Pires, Bergkamp, Reyes, with Larsson, Bendtner, Lupoli and Gilbert all out on loan. We've got in Rosicky, Baptista. I fear for this season i really do, the youngsters coming through don't really have the experience i feel to do much this season but we'll see.

Update 10:01pm - Pascal Cygan is away to Villareal. He's pish, but who's gonna play in his place? We're so so slack for cover in midfield and defence. Screwed. Need something BIG to happen in next two hours, apart from Cole going for £30m. Argh!

Beck puppets

2006-08-28T14:13:00.000+01:00

Here's the URL for the actual video we saw last Thurs at Dublin, tho due to the dodgy Stevie Wonder camerawork and the plethora of obscenities contained, viewer discretion is advised.

Beck Puppets @ Dublin (don't be offended, I did warn you!)

:)

Music and more music

2006-08-25T18:50:00.000+01:00

So, Bebo is gone, still, and I'm coping ok. But I've been busy this week maybe that's why. People keep talking about it, but I choose to ignore them, a bit like when Gayle's great uncle Joe or Jehovah's Witnesses come to the door. Although none have visited since I got married, either that or Waringstown is their target for the next 10 years.

I'm waffling. I went to see Snow Patrol @ T Vital in Botanic on Wednesday night there, and to be honest I wasn't too impressed. For a band who've released 4 albums and to play nothing but the most recent 2 was more than disappointing. But then again what do you expect when they're playing to a crowd of people who are just there cos they've just bought a house in Belfast and fancy getting wrecked, paying £7.50 for a burger meal and pissing up the side of portaloos instead of in them. But anyway, I was there for Oceansize. Great band from across the water (that's England), who are very loud on CD, and even louder live. The wife didn't enjoy it too much, but I did. It's in my I'm listening to, so check it out on Amazon or summat.

Anyway, then came Thursday, and my matey John Boy 'the drummer' McMullen and Rob 'the robber' Freeburn headed down to Marlay Park to catch some Beck and Radiohead. Beck were absolutely awesome and have since placed a number of bids for a few cds on my beloved eBay. They were also playing at V Festival at the weekend and I'm informed by Rabert they were great there too. I was under the impression they were a rock band, but they play everything from blues/country/folk to the soul, funk and hip-hop! Tho I've heard they're a bit wierd on the ole religion front but I'll have to check that out. Flaming Lips wrote a song bout them too called "Free Radicals", must try and get this. Anyways, they had these puppets on stage, behind them, and they mimiked (*sp) everything the band did. Great show. Here's a wee vid, this is from Amsterdam so substitute the prostitutes and smoking weed for drinking beer, dancing riverdance style, trashing Radiohead's dressing room and pissing over their clothes.

Then came Radiohead (cool website check it out). I didn't really know how to feel about this gig. Before this most gigs I'd went to were either ones were I was definately gonna mosh (Manics, Metallica, Maiden etc) or actually buy a seating ticket and lie back and enjoy it (Counting Crows, Jamie Cullum, Jools Holland). This was sorta inbetweeny cos there ain't much dancing goes on to Radiohead songs. More like finding the nearest kitchen knife... and you know the rest. But nevertheless we perched ourselves right in front of the sound desk for optimum sound. To be honest I didn't know a lot of the stuff, I really only am familiar with Bends, Computer and would recognise tracks from Kid A. Anyways, they played what I really wanted them to play, Paranoid Android. But the best song of the night for me was Just. Was always one of my favourites of The Bends and didn't disappoint. Anyway, the gig was great, one were you stand mesmerised at the talent shown by all members of the band, and how they've had an impact on people's lives, whether they relate to the music, or it makes them feel happy that no matter how unhappy or depressed they are, they're not as depressed a big ole Thom...

And again, on Friday night the mighty reedstar tour continued in Newtownards. It's a crap photo I know, but it was with my phone and was the only one I took. If you look closely you can see Philly's new mascot Daffyd Thomas from Little Britain. Was a cool gig nonetheless, but more of a practice session. We rocked it out anyway. Think there were about 9 people there, but that included the sound men so that brings it down to 7. But as Neily said, be faithful in the small things, get ready for the big!

The person who is trustworthy in small matters is also trustworthy in great ones.. Luke 16v10

So We've just gotta trust in God, and that how ever WE felt about last nights gig, that it was part of God's plan. Who are we to argue?

That's all for now, I'm pooped.

Bebo begone!

2006-08-20T12:56:00.000+01:00

Start of the Premiership yesterday and Arsenal manage a draw against the mighty Villa. Not too disappointed, as I see Villa as a decent mid/top half finish this season with Martin O'Neill at the helm. He's a great manager, focused on solid defence, and hitting teams on the break and from set pieces. And that's what they did to us yesterday and it worked well. Arsenal these days are always looking for the perfect goal, to let everyone in our team touch the ball before Henry handstands and cartwheels the ball into the top corner, off the crossbar. But never the less, a good start. Walcott also got part of a game, coming on and setting up the equaliser, which was nice to see and from what I saw on the highlights, if he gets a chance this season he could be like Fabregas and Eboue who really came into their own last season.

Like the rest of the world, and other planets in the solar system with internet access, I succumbed to the pressures of joining bebo. For months now I have been addicted to this phenomenon, which has been the vein of my existence i am ashamed to say. It has been just another one of those distractions to keep me back from God, my wife, pro evo, friends... in that order. So today I made a massive step, and deleted my account. It's unbelievable, but I could have spent easily a couple of hours, browsing through friends pages, to see what photos they'd uploaded or what comments people had left for them. So this is Day 01 without bebo, you will be updated with my progress.

Anyway, that's enough for now, have got a Snow Patrol gig on Wednesday, Radiohead on Thurs and reedstar on Fri, does it get any bigger?

Reedstar on tour

2006-08-16T16:44:00.000+01:00

So I'm back to work after the whole broken toe and the scoots escapade (sp?) and back into playing bass in some shape or form most nights of the week. Getting back into wedding practices and also reedstar practices too. The lads have set up a myspace page, which at the minute don't really have much on it, but now big Neilly's got t'internet in it'll be packed full of goodies in no time.

So our next gig is this week, just out near Gilford there in Newmills Presby. Should be cool, will be good to get back on the road...

Sigur Rós

2006-08-11T11:39:00.000+01:00

Sigur Rós hail from Iceland, and rightly claim to bring you the beautiful landscape of their homeland with their music. It's impossible to fully justify it with words, so the best advice would be to check out their astonishing back catalogue. The video below is from their latest album 'Takk...', the song is 'Hoppípolla'.

Good band, great song. buy all their albums. Or download them. From iTunes.

Reyes to Madrid?

2006-08-08T19:57:00.000+01:00

So, Arsenal play Dynamo Zagreb tonight, and there is more than a Champions League spot at place. Firstly, Ashley Cole hasn't been named in the squad, which just adds to the speculation that he'll be sold to Chelski PLC by the weekend. Although it would have been great had Wenger named him in the squad so he'd be cup-tied, but that would probably take £5m+ off his value.

In addition to this it's been said on the BBC website that Reyes future at Arsenal will depend on whether or not he plays tonight. Though one thing did puzzle me,

"It's an open secret that Jose Antonio wants to play for Real Madrid."

An open secret eh? That's not really a secret then. In fact the rather damning image above right suggests that it's a little more than an 'open secret'. He has denied all interest in Real so far, but he can't have much of a comeback for this me thinks.

Ah well, understrength team for tonight, but hopefully the youngsters will come through. Bye bye Cole, and bye bye Reyes.

EDIT: 10:24pm - Who needs Cole, who needs Reyes. 3-0 to Fabregas. Great display with Adebayor, Hleb and Rosicky shining.

I do my bit for renewable energy?

2006-08-08T11:33:00.000+01:00

In my work I mostly deliver furniture goods, but now and again I get the hand took out of me and get asked to design logos. For free. Bargain, and I love it. Anyway, the logo/business cards/letterheads were for a new company specialising in solar panels for businesses.

Sun Renewables is all about "clean and sustainable power" and makes for interesting reading. Apparently "the sun transmits more energy to the earth's surface in just one hour... than the whole of mankind uses in a year". So SHARP are guilt tripping businesses into investing in solar panels for their lighting and overheads. Not a bad idea, and has the potential to catch on if you ask me. Bout time too.

Anyway, the website is here read more bout it. Logo design above, took me all of about an hour. Still think I should get paid. Anyone wanna give me a job? A chance? :)

Uganda '06

2006-08-07T12:03:00.000+01:00

Well, I'm a week back from Uganda, with a dose of the scoots and a broken toe. The trip was an amazingly fulfilling experience, however I left feeling I had more to give. So in a way it's reassuring to know that this trip didn't come to an end of sorts, it just took a break. Hope to be back someday soon to reunite with brothers and sisters in Christ.

This pic is outside their church, it was so packed there were kids who could not get in. If only the kids back home had the same passion for God's word. In fact, sometimes I wish I had that passion. If I wasn't guaranteed a seat in church at home would I happily stand? Or would I turn and go home? I wonder.

I'm still gathering my thoughts on the whole trip, but i know for a fact that there is something big going to happen in Jandira. With or without Emmanuel. With or without Team 1 and Team 2. With Pastor Richard. With God.

Reedstar rock

2006-06-27T22:05:00.000+01:00

Well, today was a complete bag in work but I got home in one piece. Then went for our last Reedstar practice where Neily showed us the banner he's been workin like a dog on for what seems like 4 years not nights.

So we got a run through the songs, and you get the setlist right here! Now!

1. Lift Your Name 2. The Mighty One 3. He Who Dwells 4. Hallelujah

So there it is! Come to Summer Madness on Fri night, and watch the Reedstars rock out from 10pm, till about 10:20... :)

Anyways, away to watch the Ricky Gervais video podcast here, it's spiggin' awesome!

A new blog, cd, dvd...

2006-06-26T16:29:00.000+01:00

So here it is, let's see what doot I can talk this time.
Well, at the minute I'm flat out, playing bass again nearly every night this week.

Next gig is on Friday at Summer Madness with the Reedstar guys, round 10pm
Check it out here

Also the wedding band is now operational and taking bookings, however we're still nameless, if you've any ideas let us know, I quite liked Dave Wylie & The Clouds, much to the amusement of my wife.

Also bought meself a new CD, band called Oceansize they did the music for the latest Orange advert. The song is called Music For A Nurse, great track but there are a load more good songs on the album, mostly heavier sounding. Also bought Blackadder "The Cavalier Years"! Such a show.