Barcelona 0 - 1 Man Utd
res ipsa...
Wednesday 30 April 2008
Monday 21 April 2008
Rant...literally
Another sporty post. What are the odds that I'm going to really worry about missing the Champions League Final on 21st May because its graduation day? The odds are not on whether I'm going to miss watching it (I am going to miss it), but whether it will mean anything. Lets take a look:
Barca have now won 1 of their last 7 league games. We beat Schalke unconvincingly in 2 legs of a CL quarter-final. We've lost to Athletico (badly), lost to Villareal (who are now favourites to take away 2nd place in the League), drawn with Almeria, lost to Betis (after going into half-time 2-0 up), drawn with Getafe and Recreativo (relegation team) and drawn the derby match with Espanyol.
ManU are in impeccable form. On their way to another Premiership crown. Destroyed Roma in the quarters. Injury free'ish.
I liked it better when we were struggling for a place in the UEFA Cup a few years back. This is promising the world and giving you that little island which is the 2nd furthest from the Intl Date-Line on the Eastern side and which no one really wants to visit... C'mon...C'MON....C'MOOOOOON - for god's sake this is a ridiculous turnaround in the season. Its just annoying....
Here endeth the rant...
Barca have now won 1 of their last 7 league games. We beat Schalke unconvincingly in 2 legs of a CL quarter-final. We've lost to Athletico (badly), lost to Villareal (who are now favourites to take away 2nd place in the League), drawn with Almeria, lost to Betis (after going into half-time 2-0 up), drawn with Getafe and Recreativo (relegation team) and drawn the derby match with Espanyol.
ManU are in impeccable form. On their way to another Premiership crown. Destroyed Roma in the quarters. Injury free'ish.
I liked it better when we were struggling for a place in the UEFA Cup a few years back. This is promising the world and giving you that little island which is the 2nd furthest from the Intl Date-Line on the Eastern side and which no one really wants to visit... C'mon...C'MON....C'MOOOOOON - for god's sake this is a ridiculous turnaround in the season. Its just annoying....
Here endeth the rant...
Sunday 13 April 2008
Pull the Plug, will you?
I wish I had the inherent ability to BS. I'm in the middle of a dreadful drafting slump after the diarrhoea that ensured I got my previous paper out in time...
I'm hoping for at least 2000 words today.... please???
Tips are welcome...
I'm hoping for at least 2000 words today.... please???
Tips are welcome...
Friday 11 April 2008
Informed Worries
People who know me best will know that I have a severe institutional bias, particularly when I form a part of that institution. I came across two things that got me thinking about transparency in the system and the random janta's right to accessing information.
First, I logged onto Wikileaks for the first time. I had, of course, heard about the project previously but for some reason, had never really got on to take a look myself. After a quick browse, I got to the India page and found this, which it turns out is an MoU between Kingfisher Airlines and Airbus for the purchase of 60 aircrafts. Unfortunately, there is nothing on the document which indicates who the lawyers were, but I'd be sure that there are a few ulcers going around after seeing this document out in the public domain. (Unless it was deliberately released - unlikely, no?)
The second was this - which is a letter from the Editors' Guild to the IPL. Those with strong views on the BCCI's activities and other sundry concerns will now be pleased to know that they can bomb Lalit Modi and Sharad Pawar's personal inboxes.
When the Right to Information issue blew up in India, I was more fearful than excited. I have no sympathy for bureaucratic sloth and the RTI is a good way to keep a check on that, but at the same time it often becomes impossible to efficiently run an organisation (leave alone a country) where almost everything you do is open to the scrutiny of 'busybodies, wayside interlopers....' (can't remember the quote - awful). I know...I've been there. Even the best of motives always rub some people off the wrong way and that little curtain separating what you need to tell people and what you don't is often the critical difference between being able to achieve something or not.
For the record - I was excessively opaque...
First, I logged onto Wikileaks for the first time. I had, of course, heard about the project previously but for some reason, had never really got on to take a look myself. After a quick browse, I got to the India page and found this, which it turns out is an MoU between Kingfisher Airlines and Airbus for the purchase of 60 aircrafts. Unfortunately, there is nothing on the document which indicates who the lawyers were, but I'd be sure that there are a few ulcers going around after seeing this document out in the public domain. (Unless it was deliberately released - unlikely, no?)
The second was this - which is a letter from the Editors' Guild to the IPL. Those with strong views on the BCCI's activities and other sundry concerns will now be pleased to know that they can bomb Lalit Modi and Sharad Pawar's personal inboxes.
When the Right to Information issue blew up in India, I was more fearful than excited. I have no sympathy for bureaucratic sloth and the RTI is a good way to keep a check on that, but at the same time it often becomes impossible to efficiently run an organisation (leave alone a country) where almost everything you do is open to the scrutiny of 'busybodies, wayside interlopers....' (can't remember the quote - awful). I know...I've been there. Even the best of motives always rub some people off the wrong way and that little curtain separating what you need to tell people and what you don't is often the critical difference between being able to achieve something or not.
For the record - I was excessively opaque...
Thursday 10 April 2008
Phew!!
The title of this post is uninspiring, but there is no other way to describe this afternoon's football.
After the rubbish against Betis and Getafe, one would have thought today's game would be a good way to get back into some sort of flow. Instead Barca ended up finding a new low. Horrible, atrocious, disastrous, unispiring, terrible, DIRTY(!!) football - both up front and at the back. ManU is going to be a pretty stern test if this nonsense keeps up.
Puyol misses the ManU game at the Camp after a stupid yellow and Milito and Marquez will have to step up, because Thuram was absolutely terrible as well - he looked lethargic and just coudn't keep up with the Schalke forwards. Zambrotta is going have to pick his game up if he's going to try and contain Ronaldo. And Marquez is going to have to do very well to get back to full fitness to keep Rooney out.
Henry and Eto'o were absolutely pathetic up front. I don't think Henry has quite adjusted to the huge pitch at the Nou Camp and the 3-man frontline. I think Rijkaard might do well to give him a run out as sole centre with Gio and Bojan flanking or even Eto'o on the left with Bojan on the right.
Despite all the support that Rijkaard is getting from Juan Laporta, I think the only way he's going to keep his job is by winning the C.League. The League is lost after squandering one chance after another to overtake Real and one bad game put us out of the Cup as well. I'd hate to see him go - I think he's done a super job building this team- but something's gotta give...
After the rubbish against Betis and Getafe, one would have thought today's game would be a good way to get back into some sort of flow. Instead Barca ended up finding a new low. Horrible, atrocious, disastrous, unispiring, terrible, DIRTY(!!) football - both up front and at the back. ManU is going to be a pretty stern test if this nonsense keeps up.
Puyol misses the ManU game at the Camp after a stupid yellow and Milito and Marquez will have to step up, because Thuram was absolutely terrible as well - he looked lethargic and just coudn't keep up with the Schalke forwards. Zambrotta is going have to pick his game up if he's going to try and contain Ronaldo. And Marquez is going to have to do very well to get back to full fitness to keep Rooney out.
Henry and Eto'o were absolutely pathetic up front. I don't think Henry has quite adjusted to the huge pitch at the Nou Camp and the 3-man frontline. I think Rijkaard might do well to give him a run out as sole centre with Gio and Bojan flanking or even Eto'o on the left with Bojan on the right.
Despite all the support that Rijkaard is getting from Juan Laporta, I think the only way he's going to keep his job is by winning the C.League. The League is lost after squandering one chance after another to overtake Real and one bad game put us out of the Cup as well. I'd hate to see him go - I think he's done a super job building this team- but something's gotta give...
Monday 7 April 2008
For the Animal Lovers
AT took Kiddo's concerns about hitting penguins to heart. He scoured the cyberspace high and low before he found this game and asked me at least 5 times over the course of 12 hours to post it here. I find that it tends to be less addictive than the penguin game because of the luck factor involving those springs everywhere.
Saturday 5 April 2008
Maiden Photos
I've been meaning to do this for a while - but I've just been tied up. After due pressure in the cyberspace from SM and a throughly unproductive day, here are some of the better shots from the Maiden gig. I'll blog about the whole thing when I get some time. The photos are in 'small' because it takes forever in any size larger (the problems with 6-7 megapixel cameras), but click on them and they'll blow up on your screen for a better look.
2 shots during Rime of the Ancient Mariner - my favourite song for the evening.
Footnote for this photo - remarks on the hair are best left unpublished...
Iron Maiden - just before or after Eddie walked on
The Trooper with Mr. Dickinson playing jackrabbit and running all over the place dressed as an English soldier.
Iron Maiden - Eddie
2 shots during Rime of the Ancient Mariner - my favourite song for the evening.
An excessively excited me before the gig while we waited for the fateful bus (long story).
Footnote for this photo - remarks on the hair are best left unpublished...
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