Big day today. Best not dwell on that though.
Now I'm not really one for football. Most of the time I can take it or leave it. I flirted with Crystal Palace for a while and an experience like that is about enough to put anyone off it. I still occasionally take notice. I know a few Chelsea fans, the odd Liverpool fan, a "remains-of-Pompy" (or should that be Pompeii) supporter and living in the south of the country, hundreds of Manchester United fans. I see these people week in and week out during the football season loving the highs and despairing at the lows, while I, non-supporter that I am, get to sit back and enjoy the game when I can be arsed to take a fleeting interest.
Sadly this stance can be socially damaging for me when the conversation turns to the trials and tribulations of a particular team or a game that I have no frame of reference with. Still I count myself lucky that I can see it as 'only a game' while to others it really is 'life or death'.
And then there's the World Cup... Now that does keep me interested. The national team playing a national game (I can't bring myself to call it the national game - we invented most of them anyway) is something to get excited about.
They beat Mexico last night (3-1) in their last friendly before this year's World Cup starts in 16 days time, in South Africa. I will of course be glued to it, especially when it's England v Brazil in the final (you heard it here first). However, I managed to watch them score the first goal last night and then lost all interest. Not because it was boring and not because we were winning, but because it was a 'friendly' which to my mind might as well be a kick about in the park with jumpers for goal posts and all that. At one point, I swear I heard Wayne's mum calling him in for his tea!! Fish fingers if I'm not mistaken.
So instead of watching the match, Me and Mrs G had a couple of online games of Buzz - Quiz World. If you're not familiar with it, a quick explanation is in order. If you are, the next paragraph is not for you.
Basically it's a games console quiz show, much like most quiz shows you've seen on TV. It's hosted by a virtual bloke called Buzz (who happens to be voiced by Charlene's ex, Jason Donavon). Each player has a hand set with four coloured buttons and a big red buzzer. Buzz asks the questions and you press the appropriate coloured button that matches the (hopefully) correct answer. Simple. Here's the clever bit though. You can play online against your friends (if they've got the same setup) or against completely random strangers. Nothing is better than beating someone you don't know on a subject that they've chosen. Include some witty script for Buzz to abuse each of the participants with and you have a parlour game for the new millenium which is easily worthy a some of your down time.
Glad your back... Needless to say, we kicked butt (to use the parlance of our times)
Post Buzz, daughter arrived home and S not far behind her. Full of excitement regarding her new suntan and her forthcoming travelling which takes place on Wednesday. I'm still struggling to get excited over anything due to the Starfleet cloud (not the cloud I was referring to yesterday), but the pain will be over soon enough. Channel 4 had a celebrity 'come dine with me' which still continues to be entertaining followed by Davina McCall (who any red blooded male such as myself can't fail to enjoy watching) in her newest vehicle 'The Million Pound Drop' or #mpd if you're following along on twitter.
This leads me to finally mention a fairly new phenomenon that is the driving force behind such products as Google TV. If you haven't tried this and you have a laptop (or any web enabled device in view of your TV), I'd recommend it for giggles. Watch something on the Telly. Anything, it doesn't matter what, but you'll get better results when it's something that the masses are watching. Go to twitter.com in your web browser and search for whatever's just being mention or happening. The results are a bit like having the general public sat next to you on the sofa. Everyone's got something to say about everything, and some of it is very funny. Not always, it does very much depend on what's happening, but worth a look if your interested in social comentary on a buffoonery level.
This sort of thing is what you should expect from Google TV, but the funtionality will be built into your TV and not your PC.
It does sadden me a little (much like the death of narrative cinema) to think that this tech encourages you not to share the experience of something in person, but digitally instead. That said, it also enables us to share the televisual experience with friends and loved ones who could be anywhere physically, and yet emotionally right here. My other concern with it, is just because it greatly enhances the tosh that's on TV, the producers of the tosh mustn't be allowed to think this gives them carte blanche to keep producing tosh - but instead get creative with the tech and bring us some new tosh, that's better than their current tosh - if you follow me.....
Enough - I'm clearly in need of my second cup of coffee and I've taken up far too much of your day already. To the bat-cave!
Now I'm not really one for football. Most of the time I can take it or leave it. I flirted with Crystal Palace for a while and an experience like that is about enough to put anyone off it. I still occasionally take notice. I know a few Chelsea fans, the odd Liverpool fan, a "remains-of-Pompy" (or should that be Pompeii) supporter and living in the south of the country, hundreds of Manchester United fans. I see these people week in and week out during the football season loving the highs and despairing at the lows, while I, non-supporter that I am, get to sit back and enjoy the game when I can be arsed to take a fleeting interest.
Sadly this stance can be socially damaging for me when the conversation turns to the trials and tribulations of a particular team or a game that I have no frame of reference with. Still I count myself lucky that I can see it as 'only a game' while to others it really is 'life or death'.
And then there's the World Cup... Now that does keep me interested. The national team playing a national game (I can't bring myself to call it the national game - we invented most of them anyway) is something to get excited about. They beat Mexico last night (3-1) in their last friendly before this year's World Cup starts in 16 days time, in South Africa. I will of course be glued to it, especially when it's England v Brazil in the final (you heard it here first). However, I managed to watch them score the first goal last night and then lost all interest. Not because it was boring and not because we were winning, but because it was a 'friendly' which to my mind might as well be a kick about in the park with jumpers for goal posts and all that. At one point, I swear I heard Wayne's mum calling him in for his tea!! Fish fingers if I'm not mistaken.
So instead of watching the match, Me and Mrs G had a couple of online games of Buzz - Quiz World. If you're not familiar with it, a quick explanation is in order. If you are, the next paragraph is not for you.
Basically it's a games console quiz show, much like most quiz shows you've seen on TV. It's hosted by a virtual bloke called Buzz (who happens to be voiced by Charlene's ex, Jason Donavon). Each player has a hand set with four coloured buttons and a big red buzzer. Buzz asks the questions and you press the appropriate coloured button that matches the (hopefully) correct answer. Simple. Here's the clever bit though. You can play online against your friends (if they've got the same setup) or against completely random strangers. Nothing is better than beating someone you don't know on a subject that they've chosen. Include some witty script for Buzz to abuse each of the participants with and you have a parlour game for the new millenium which is easily worthy a some of your down time. Glad your back... Needless to say, we kicked butt (to use the parlance of our times)
Post Buzz, daughter arrived home and S not far behind her. Full of excitement regarding her new suntan and her forthcoming travelling which takes place on Wednesday. I'm still struggling to get excited over anything due to the Starfleet cloud (not the cloud I was referring to yesterday), but the pain will be over soon enough. Channel 4 had a celebrity 'come dine with me' which still continues to be entertaining followed by Davina McCall (who any red blooded male such as myself can't fail to enjoy watching) in her newest vehicle 'The Million Pound Drop' or #mpd if you're following along on twitter.
Davina McPhwoar
This leads me to finally mention a fairly new phenomenon that is the driving force behind such products as Google TV. If you haven't tried this and you have a laptop (or any web enabled device in view of your TV), I'd recommend it for giggles. Watch something on the Telly. Anything, it doesn't matter what, but you'll get better results when it's something that the masses are watching. Go to twitter.com in your web browser and search for whatever's just being mention or happening. The results are a bit like having the general public sat next to you on the sofa. Everyone's got something to say about everything, and some of it is very funny. Not always, it does very much depend on what's happening, but worth a look if your interested in social comentary on a buffoonery level.
This sort of thing is what you should expect from Google TV, but the funtionality will be built into your TV and not your PC.
It does sadden me a little (much like the death of narrative cinema) to think that this tech encourages you not to share the experience of something in person, but digitally instead. That said, it also enables us to share the televisual experience with friends and loved ones who could be anywhere physically, and yet emotionally right here. My other concern with it, is just because it greatly enhances the tosh that's on TV, the producers of the tosh mustn't be allowed to think this gives them carte blanche to keep producing tosh - but instead get creative with the tech and bring us some new tosh, that's better than their current tosh - if you follow me.....
Enough - I'm clearly in need of my second cup of coffee and I've taken up far too much of your day already. To the bat-cave!
a couple of minor points...
ReplyDeleteA. it is a Pompey fan - we are proud of our "E"!
B. England have another friendly before the world cup. The game against Mexico was the last friendly at home. The next friendly is against Japan in Austia on the 30th May
Just goes to show how much I "know" about football ;-)
ReplyDelete