Loving Firefox Browser

I got the new Firefox Browser and it's working out really well for me.

I surf teh web a lot and also use lots and lots of strange web apps at work, I'm finding Firefox is faster than IE, Netscape 7.0 or Mozilla. I haven't found a web app at work yet that doesn't work well. It's packed with features, fast and I liek the look and feel also if you're worried about the security problems in IE this is a much better alternative.

Try it out yourself.

The Apprentice brings cliches to the table

So I watched that Donald Trump show The Apprentice. Why can't any of the contestants actually say anything of substance?

They all talk about being on the same page, bringing things to the table and stepping up to the plate, these are very old tired cliches and anyone who uses them ought to be fired!

I'm back...

Been away from this for a while, now I'm back. You might expect that I would be back with something interesting or important to say, but, I really don't have anything earth shattering to report or anything particularly exciting to say.

It's been a crazy rollercoaster ride following Everton Footbal Club for the last few months, enough has been said in other places about that. I'm just glad we have games to watch and listen to finally, which is what supporting a club is about after all. I'll be back in Blighty next month so should be able to make a game, I see we're playing Saints at home while I'm there so I'll try and get some tickets for that.

San Jose Earthquakes Vs Canada (Spartan Stadium San Jose, Saturday 5th June 2004)

I got free tickets to this game from my Southampton supporting friend Alvin, his company have season tickets for corporate entertaining - It wasn't an executive box with
Prawn Sandwiches, we had a six inches space each on a bench seat. The stadium was built for San Jose State University and clearly not designed for ‘soccer’ because you can't see all the way to the touchline on the near side; you actually miss quite a bit of the wing play. On the way into the stadium Alvin made some sarcastic comment like "Who is this Thomas Razzle-inski then?" So I reminded him of the injury time winner he put past Saints at Goodison last year, which shut him up pretty quickly.

After the national anthems beautifully sung by the 'Cisco Singers', we were ready
to go. There was quite a good crowd (7,013) a mix of Mexicans(who make up about
30% of Californians these days), some itinerant Europeans, middle class white Californian families (‘soccer mom’ types) and quite a few Canadians. Behind the goals were the hard-core fans singing and banging drums and tambourines; they did strange versions of all the favorite English chants.

Radzinski looked quite lively but the pitch was small and he didn't seem to have the space to open them up with his pace, after 20 minutes the ball was deflected to him in the box and he hit it nicely first time to open the scoring for Canada (The announcer said: Scoring play by Number 9 Radzinski for Canada with no assist). The Quakes had a goal disallowed for offside, which was a bit embarrassing coz they had already set off the pyrotechnics and we all got covered in streamers and confetti for nothing.

Soon it was clearly time for the home fans to get behind 'The Quakes' so a cheerleader on our side of the stadium held a up big card saying 'Go' and we all obediently yelled 'Go', on the other side of the stadium another cheerleader held up a sign saying 'Quakes' and so on and so forth until we had quite a good 'Go Quakes' chant going round the ground. When the cheerleaders stopped holding up the prompt cards, we all sat down and got back to our beer, hot dogs and nachos. 'Soccer' doesn't lend itself to US style of watching sport, it has no breaks for you to get on with the serious business of eating and drinking.

At half time we had fun watching the mascot (a huge blue furry Smurf like thing) catapulting free T Shirts into the crowd, it was probably the most noise the crowd made all night.

Ten minutes into the second half and the first corner of the game - the announcer
comes over the tannoy - "A corner penalty to Canada brought to you by Western Union Banks - Western Union there's always a branch right around the corner" - Priceless!

Canada got another, a shot that took a deflection and they gave it as an own goal, seemed a bit harsh to me (they didn’t say if it was with no assist). Then they got a third a nice move started by Radz beating a man on the right hand side and delivering a decent cross in. San Jose got a penalty so we got the pyrotechnics again and the Smurf Mascot did his dance and they played Blur’s song 2 on the tannoy and all was good.

Ten minutes later there was a power failure, I was quite impressed with the outrage the crowd showed when the Ref stopped the game and went to talk to the coaches. There was a spontaneous chant of 'Play, play, play" around the ground, this kind of fan initiative and spontaneity is almost unheard of in American sport. They did carry on the game for another 15 minutes or so, the only other interesting event was when Landon Donavon (closest US Soccer has to a David Beckham type superstar) came on to great cheers, he clattered into somebody on what would have been his first touch of the ball, had he not arrived well after it was played. Donovan did show a few good touches and looked half decent. On 75 minutes it was getting a bit dark so the Ref called it a day, nobody really minded, the beer and food stands were all closed anyway.

After 4 years living here it was my first 'Soccer' game in the US. It was very much like going to a baseball game, in that the events on the field are secondary to the Mascot buggering around, free T Shirts, being told when to 'make some noise', eating food and drinking some beer. Now I need to sort out tickets for the pre season games in Houston - I hear they do great nachos there – can’t wait!

Could Everton learn from the Giants ?

Went to see the SF Giants for the first time this season, I feel a bit bad for this because the ground is about 500 yards from my house. Still they won and Bonds hit homer number 670, so no complaints.

A pint of Beer cost me 7.75 which I'm told is the most expensive beer in the city, apparantly the concessions takings have been up this year, mostly because the team have been doing so badly nobody wants to watch so they go and stuff themselves with Garlic Fries and get drunk. Now this is a great idea and I wonder if its something Everton should consider. We have certainly got the bit about none of the fans being able to bear watching us sorted, now hike the beer prices and don't let anyone out early.

Breakfast to go

It never ceases to amaze me the things people do whilst driving a ton of metal at 80 miles an hour. On my daily commute on Highway 101, the new levels of dexterity displayed by drivers constantly surprise me. Mobile phones, cups of coffee, muffins, some paperwork from the office a whole manner of items can be balanced in two hands and sometimes they even keep hold of the wheel too. So here are two I saw recently.

1) A young girl driving a VW Jetta or similar, using the vanity mirror in the drivers side sun visor (why do car makers put them there? - it is encouraging drivers to drive and check out their hair and make up, our car even has one with a light on a dimmer switch so I can check out my hair whilst diving at night) to put on her eye make up as this was taking both hands she had to have her cell phone cradled between her head and shoulder to carry on her conversation. "You know, like... they put these, you know, like.. bends in the road, it is just SO not good for me getting my eyes looking good."

2) A guy in an SUV, doing 80 in the fast lane, in one hand he has a spoon in the other hand he has a bowl of cereal in the other hand he has a steering wheel, oh no that's right there was no third hand.

Please let me stay here Uncle Sam

So I am having to apply for a new visa, which means I have to convince the INS that
I am worthy of doing this job, as well as convincing my employer that I am doing my job
well and that they don't need to fire me.

Now I appreciate I am a guest in this country and to be honest I have to say I have
been made to feel very welcome here over the last four years by the overwhelming majority
of people I have met and the goverment officials that I have dealt with (not that they aren't
people too of course). However it is a real pain and it is strange to think that they could
tell me to leave and I would have ot leave my job, my home all my possessions, friends and
everything. Hopefully I will soon have a Green Card and can relax a little and stay here
as long as I want with a lot less form filling in my life.

My First Post

So I read an article today on Yahoo about BIll Gates saying blogging is the next big
thnig and how he is going to leverage it for business or some such rubbish.

So I thought its about time I created my own having heard a lot about them. Maybe it will
be interesting and maybe I will actualy keep it up.