Gerry and the dreamers

If you looked at the title and thought I was talking about a rock band then congratulations - you have just proved that you are old and British.

This post is actually about Gerry and his dreams - or rather nightmares. Sometimes Gerry doesn't sleep well and wakes up during the night crying. We always suspected he had nightmares but didn't know for sure until recently. Nightmares? Surely I'm mistaken! After all, what nightmares could a kid less than 3 years old be having?

One night, the missus and I were passing by his room at night when we heard him turning over in his bed and mutter something. We wandered into his room, gently so to avoid waking him up. He turned over again and muttered something which we barely heard.

"I want ... "

Eyebrows raised, I looked at the missus. What did he want? She shrugged her shoulders - she didn't hear either. Holding my breath for fear of waking him, I stepped closer to his bed and took a closer look at him.

He had his eyes closed and was still asleep. The covers had been kicked off, probably a result of him turning over repeatedly. His brow was covered in sweat and although asleep, he had a frown on his cute little brow. As I got closer, he turned his head from side to side - as if trying to avoid facing something.

"I want ... "

What was going on? What did he want? Was he thirsty? Did he want a drink? Anxiously, I looked around for his water bottle in case he woke up and wanted a sip of water. And then, finally, I heard him speak clearly.

"I want ... go play"

Of course! Everything clicked into place. The one thing that a kid less than 3 years old would be afraid of - not being able to go and play! I did the only thing I could do. I patted him gently and whispered in his ear:

"Its okay Gerry. We go play tomorrow. Go to sleep."

He gave a small sigh and settled down to sleep.

New blog functionality

Just a quick note to let you know that I have added a customised search engine to my blog. If you are looking for a specific post, then you can use the search engine on the right of the screen (it only searches my general blog and my gaming blog).

btw - you did notice that I had previously added an RSS feed to this blog, right? And you do know what RSS is, right? Right??

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

I'm sure you won't be surprised, considering I'm British, to hear that I'm a big fan of Monty Python. The Monty Python boys did some great work back in the day (arr, I feel old!).

One of their most famous pieces of work is the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail - basically telling the story of King Arthur and his search for the Holy Grail (duh!).

Anyway, if you are looking for something completely different, it turns out that Monty Python and Lego are a perfect match. Check it out.

Dr. Horrible

If you have been following the geek blogosphere at all, you would know about Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. It was a 40 minute (approx) show produced by Joss Whedon as a web exclusive and was really cool and funny.

The show itself was only available for a very limited time online (talking a period of days here) so by the time I heard about it, it was already on the last day of free viewing before being taken offline. Luckily, I did check it out that day. Unfortunately, it was taken offline the day after so I didn't bother blogging about it.

Recently, I found out that the show is still available on hulu. If you get a chance, go on hulu and check out the entire series here (only 40 minutes in total).

PS hulu only works for user in the US. If you need to mask your IP, you can use hotspot shield. It's not great, but it is free (so I guess I shouldn't complain).

Newcastle United

Just a few days into his reign and it looks like Joe Kinnear, and by extension Newcastle United, have completely lost the plot (or did Newcastle lose the plot ages ago?).

Kinnear recently had a press conference which he used to launch a tirade (filled with expletives) against the collected members of press. In particular, he picked out a journalist from the Daily Mirror for abuse. You can find the audio recording (note - trashy language warning) on the Daily Mirror website here and an edited transcript on soccernet here.

To be fair, the Daily Mirror is a particularly trashy newspaper but judging from the actual article (again - link to Daily Mirror website here), it does seem like the journalist, Simon Bird, is being unfairly targeted by Kinnear (which just makes it seem like Kinnear can't handle the pressure of the job). Also, despite Kinnear's claim that he wouldn't speak to the media anymore, he actually did have a press conference after their draw with Everton. I'm guessing he either spoke in anger and didn't really want to cut out the press or he was overridden by management at Newcastle. Either way, it really does look like he can't handle the pressure of the job.

And if the manager is losing it - the club is going to follow. Newcastle United for relegation? Maybe ... maybe.

PS I love how Newcastle's press officer is trying (and failing miserably) to salvage the situation during the interview by trying to get the press to treat Kinnear's comments as off the record.

Sarah Palin?

By now, I'm sure you know that Sarah Palin is the Vice Presidential nominee and running mate of Sen. John McCain. My initial impression of this was that it may be a good move by McCain - getting a young running mate to help counter the impression that he is old and out of touch. However, after finding out more about her and seeing the recent interviews that she has conducted, it is clearly obvious (to me at least) that this is a disaster. Clearly, she isn't ready for the role.

Quite frankly, there is no way that you can spin this so that any intelligent person will think she is a good choice. I guess its lucky that McCain only has to spin this for the Americans then (boom boom!!).

Oooh - that was low.

Anyway, in celebration of the stupidity, here are some videos for you to enjoy.
nonpartisan message from Palin and Clinton
interview of Palin by Couric
Head of Skate trailer (I love this video - you can find the inspiration for it here)

PS Can you find the real life quote from Palin in them? You can find the answer here.

Full disclosure dept - I am heavily anti-McCain (and this was even before he chose Palin as his running mate).