The Book Tower

Here are my favourite songs, a list I am now making public following Jack Pickard’s latest post. It’s a list that’s until now existed partly in my head, partly in email exchanges and partly in drunken conversations. This is the first time I’ve actually written it down. As I’ve no Sue Lawley asking “and why your affection for Syd Barrett?” or Ken Bruce enquiring “The Smiths?” it’s up to you to rate my musical tastes.

A Day in the Life (The Beatles)
See Emily Play (Pink Floyd)
This Charming Man (The Smiths)
Waterloo Sunset (The Kinks)
This is a Low (Blur)
Someone Saved my Life Tonight (Elton John)
Eton Rifles (The Jam)
Under my Thumb (The Rolling Stones)
Strawberry Fields Forever (The Beatles)
No More Heroes (The Stranglers)
Atmosphere (Joy Division)
Dark Globe (Syd Barrett)
Heroes (David Bowie)
True Love Ways (Buddy Holly)
On Days Like These (Matt Monro)
What Goes On (Velvet Underground)
How Insensitive (Frank Sinatra)
The Killing Moon (Echo and the Bunnymen)
Sense (Terry Hall)
Rent (Pet Shop Boys)

What, heroes and no more heroes? What a crazy guy!

Comment [2]

I’ve surprised myself recently with how pathetic my reasons are becoming for not going running. Some spoilt running opportunities over the last week:

Friday evening. Friends staying. Eating and drinking.

Saturday morning. Hangover.

Saturday afternoon. Take my daughter to see Cars. I really enjoy it, although the flashing animation at the beginning brings on a mini-migraine, so I spend the first half of the film thinking I’m going to pass out. I regain some normality for the second half.

Saturday evening. Friends still staying. Eating and drinking.

Sunday morning. Hangover. Greasy breakfast.

Rest of Sunday. I seem to have bought three times as many Sunday papers as usual. Reading them puts off running.

Bank Holiday Monday. Trip to Weston-Super-Mare.

Rest of week. Too busy working.

Friday night. Other activities prevent running, such as eating, television and internet.

Saturday morning. Shopping and updating blog.

Saturday afternoon. Schools sports activity day (note: I am cast as an observer only).

Saturday evening. Finish reading Syd Barrett biography. Telly. Curry.

Sunday. Friends visit. All day taken up by them, although we briefly chat about running.

So rather than continue to keep this fool’s diary I decided to get out there and run.

Read on

I used to love Top Trumps when I was a child. I had aeroplanes and tanks and superheroes, all that kind of stuff. My daughter has now discovered the game. She has Top Trumps for The Simpsons. The Simpsons work very well for the game, with categories including huggability, IQ, personal hygiene and prone to mayhem. Homer scores badly for IQ, Maggie highly for huggability. Most of the characters in The Simpsons score highly for prone to mayhem.

I’m working on some new Top Trumps games. Here’s number one:

Flash Harry is from the Top Trumps game Salesmen. He is involved with IT sales. Bits of software, web applications etc. Stuff you don’t really want.

Huggability
You won’t go as far as wanting to hug them, but an IT salesman will be your best friend in the world. They’ll use your first name as much as they can and they’ll laugh at your poorest witticisms. That is until you sign on the dotted line. Then they’ll probably have trouble placing you when you call.
Harry scores 7 out of 10.

Bullshittability
This is also twofold. They’ll have the gift of the gab telling you how wonderful their product is before you buy. After that, the bullshit is reserved for why it’s not working properly. Or why it hasn’t yet been delivered at all.
Harry scores 139 out of 150.

Reliability
What can I say? There are deadlines, but unfortunately they are Flash Harry’s.
Harry scores 2 out of 10.

Usability
Let’s just say you get your product delivered hassle free. Is it what you really wanted? Would you use Flash Harry again?
Harry scores 3 out of 10.

Prone to Mayhem
Harry scores 45 out of 50. Hmmm, think I might stick with The Simpsons…

Read on, and see new Top Trumps! [1]