Tigers and Cats

Tigers first:

[Bangladesh's] lack of form was enough for one gambler to stake ?7,500 on Australia duly consigning Bangladesh to yet another loss on Saturday.

The victory for Bangladesh was well deserved. The played well and it wasn't a fluke. Australia will be back though. Although Ponting just got out lbw first ball by Harmison. Corking.

I have been visited by a young tortoiseshell kitten. I have seen he/she along the road a couple of days but it has decided to jump in through my window and say hello. That was quite a while ago. Maybe it likes the cricket.

There was supposed to be a Ben Lairig trip to the North York Moors and the beach today but someone has broken the minibus we were going to take. It is a shame really, it is an absolutely gorgeous day. We are having the barbecue anyway.

Three wickets in four balls for Harmy.

Oh, I have forgotten to mention, I am the new Ben Lairig Safety and Training Officer. Sometimes I wonder about myself.

Twenty20

I am listening to the England-Australia Twenty20 match at the Rose
Bowl. It is so much fun. Tense, exciting and energetic. It is such
a long way from traditional four and five day matches but who cares?
Funfunfunfunfun. England have posted a corking total, unfortunately
I won't be able to listen to the Australian reply, I have to go
trampolining and sort out the knackered trampoline.

Hilda appears to have died and the 'dolphs still aren't poking their
heads out. I appear not to have green fingers.

I haven't updated on the Debian install recently, all is going well,
printing seems to installed, I am finding fun things, I have KMyMoney
set up.

For fans of Descent running Linux, check out D2x
(http://www.icculus.org/d2x/), a Linux conversion based on the
released source. It works wonderfully. I have no joystick and
really cannot believe that I used to play key board only. I was
probably better with a normal keyboard that this laptop one, but it
still very hard. Maybe my fingers are just getting old.

Boxes

An addendum to the previous post. I just opened a box which I
thought was empty and discovered that it is already mostly full of
books. Drat.

Packing

My packing is progressing well. I am currently in the state of flux
where one moment it looks as though everything should fit and then
there seems to be hideous piles of things everywhere. I have thrown
plenty out, which I am impressed with. I must press on with that, my
bed is covered in detritus at the moment.

I have been lent With Teeth, the new Nine Inch Nails album (a
temporary exchange for Mezmerize). I like it. The album is rockier
than previous NIN work, more song like, but still with the great
atmosphere. Definitely an album with a place, for those times when
you want the dark rhythms and feel but don't want to concentrate
quite so hard.

I have been playing a lot of patience recently. I had forgotten how
relaxing it can be. Stimulating as well. It is also great for
listening to new music as I can sit in the middle of my floor, in the
stereo centre, and do something at the same time as listening but be
so absorbed as I can get in a book and forget the music.

Old Friends

An old friend got in touch by the wonders of the internet. He used
to run the kids trampolining club attached to the University Club and
now is over in Japan teaching and enjoying life in a band. Have a
look at the Fish Tank TV website.

I saw Star Wars Episode Three last night. As a film, it was rather
poor, but I enjoyed it as the final piece in the story. Things could
have been handled better but some bits were superb and very
emotional. Yoda is my hero. If you are a science fiction fan with
no particular interest in Star Wars, don't bother. If you can
immerse yourself in the universe, it is worth it and worth seeing in
the cinema. That was the one thing that struck me afterwards, only
once or twice during the entire film did it strike me that most of it
was computer generated. I was so completely absorbed by the story
and the setting that I just never noticed.

I am loving Mezmerize (the new System of a Down album) more and more.