tonygoodson

Black England

Thanks goodness that the most capped black England footballer has said what crap it is for England to withdraw their DVD.

Given his history, it must be fair to say Barnes speaks with greater authority than most on racism in sport. And those who leapt up and down in the condemnatory backlash of the FA in the past few days for failing to include any black players in a promotional DVD celebrating England's 20 best players of the last 40 years might like to consider his words.

When I first read about the DVD being withdrawn for not having any black players in the top 20, I thought it was PC crap, and I didn't think I'd have any black players in my top 20, but oops, I had a look at my all time England XI and realised, that I have Viv Anderson in my all time XI, and Rio Ferdinand, Sol Campbell, Paul Ince, and Paul Parker following up closely!!

Alfie - Man to Boy

Saw Alfie last night.  I loved it.  A good film, not a great one, worth seeing.
Beautifully shot and edited, with vivid colours.
The film was exactly as I expected it, so I didn't come out disappointed.
An updated (and watered down) version of the original with Michael Cain.
But over-Americanised to satisfy the financial backers, so it's set in New York, but with a very mid 90s Cool Britannia feel to it, as well as paying homage to the 60s.

Jude Law is good.  The script is goodish, but of course if it's good to speak direct to the camera in the original, then doing it more will improve the re-make.  No!

What strikes me is the the character has gone from Man Bastard ('66) to Petulant Sulky Boy ('04) over 40 years.  Couldn't we men have settled for something in-between over those 40 years of evolution?

Killer Pigs!

I've spent all day frightening people with tales of Killer Pigs.
I've been listening to Bruce Schneier, talk about risk.

"More people are killed every year by pigs than by sharks, which shows you how good we are at evaluating risk."

The obvious thing is to rant on about relative risk and how poor we humans are at assessing risk.
But what I've been worrying about all day, is just how does a pig kill you?
Charging wild boar yes, but Killer Pigs?

"Did you ever wonder why tweezers were confiscated at security checkpoints, but matches and cigarette lighters--actual combustible materials--were not?...If the tweezers lobby had more power, I'm sure they would have been allowed on board as well."

Scoop Blogging and 100 Bloggers

A funny thing happened to me the other day.
I was a having a (private?) chat with Cameron, inviting him to write for 100 Bloggers.
Johnnie Moore has invited me, and I in turn have invited Cameron to write, and he's now invited Mick.

I invited Cameron in an MSN Messenger conversation, which unbeknown to me, he was recording and then published in his weblog, I've been invited to write 2 page of a book.
Very Funny!  But just like a Scoop.

What concerns me is my private conversation being taken out of context, and I didn't know at first that Cameron was going to publish it.
So this is what I want to say;
1. It's exciting and daunting at the same time to have that done to you.
2. I am now more guarded in what I say to Cameron privately, because I don't know if he'll publish it.  Weblogs and Podcasts are one thing, but private chat is another.  But I'm not so naive that I can't expect any opinion I express about someone or something not getting back to them.
3. I owe Jennifer Rice an apology.  She's not a "Babe" (well actually I think she is looking at her photo!), and I have no idea if she's "Right Wing" What prompted me to say that was my own prejudice in reading an entry she posted nearly a year ago, And I'm a Citizen....Why?.
4. "Sucking up to Mark Cuban" is my English way of saying well done.  It had occurred to me to invite a well known blogger such as Chris Locke or Rageboy (same person), or Zoe - My Boyfriend is a Twat.  I'd already suggested to Cameron a while back that Mark Cuban would be a great person to get on the G'Day World podcast. So getting Mark Cuban on 100 bloggers is excellent Jennifer, Good on Yer, and I have no idea if you know him or invited him cold.

I love weblogs and the internet.  It cuts the bullshit out of the way.  However if it starts to move in the direction of trying to get "Scoops" then people aren't going to be so open, and we end up being like the conventional media where nothing is spoken and nothing is reported, because everyone is frightened of being quoted out of context, or they deliberately leak something to serve their own purposes.

So Cameron, when is our next little chat?
And I suggest a G'Day World podcast with you, me, Mick, Jennifer Rice, Mark Cuban, Zoe and Rageboy, fighting it out.  Get it sorted.

Doing Things in 3s

I've been re-doing some very big MindMaps I've created in MindManager, and it's doing my head in.
I just can't seem to look at the MindMap and take in all the information, even though it's my own map.

So here's an idea I've had.  Re-arrange the whole map so there are never more than 3 sub-topics, and then split them into no more than 3 sub-topics and keep drilling down in 3s.  It seems to be working well so far.  I've started with more than 3 Main Topics at the start, but I've kept the 3s after that.

It's something I picked up from a Presentation Skills workshop years ago.
Work in 3s.
Beginning Middle End
Aim to tell the audience 3 things, and have them go away remembering 3 things, and break down the 3 things each into 3 things when you're explaining the 3 things!

So to summarise (Ha Ha)
1. Limit Sub-Topics in MIndmaps to 3 things
2. Keep everything to 3 things
3. Go buy a 3 Mobile Phone to remind yourself!

Aussie Tennis Open

Went to the tennis this afternoon.  Schnyder beat Dementieva, and Dechy beat Myskina.  Both Russians who are good friends, just weren't up for it today.  No fight.  They hit the ball low and hard, with very little top spin, which means very little room for error, so today it just didn't happen.

And then the big one, Lleyton Hewitt v Rafael Nadal.  Many people in the crowd didn't know who Nadal was.  They do now!  He was a bit of a star last year, but too young.  Now he's grown taller and bulked out, and he runs and runs, even more than Hewitt, partly because he runs round to hit his left forehand from his backhand side of the court. Good enough server, not a natural volleyer, but probably the next Roger Federer.  Anyone who was there today realised that.
Somehow Hewitt hung in there.  Lots of unforced errors, lots of winning shots, quite a few volleys and moves to the net.
And I just watched Alicia Molik beat Venus Williams, on the TV.
Go Aussie!  It's good to be Aussie tonight.

p.s I was going to use my Tablet PC to blog the matches live, but I'm not that much of a wanker.....yet!!

Giggsy played Shit!

When I wake up on a Sunday morning, what's the first thing I do?
I switch my PC on and read how Manchester United went on, overnight.
I first look at the score on the BBC, and because I have no choice currently, I then read the match report which is as boring as......Cliff Richard!
I don't want a minute by minute, kick by kick report of the game, I want a biased, street language report, as if I'd called Matthew or Jules up, in London.
I haven't found that kind of Man Utd forum or weblog that gives me a totally biased game report, when I wake up on Sunday morning here in Australia, but I'm sure they are out there.

What I'm saying is, there is going to be a huge shift over the next few years away from the conventional media, and when I realise I want some biased reporting on Man Utd, then I can see how it's going to happen!

Let's Go Viral!

Seth Godin asks, "If there's a point, I don't get it. You decide." Numanuma.
I'll tell you the point.
If you added up all the great viral videos, PowerPoints, Programmes (Yatta, All Your Base, Squirrel, Yours is a Very Bad Hotel, Yours is a Very Bad Pension), then you start to have the content which is going to kick the fat dinosaurs (like Cliff Richard, and the Digital Rights people).
It doesn't take much multiplication of the current best free content, to create wall to wall content, 24 hours a day, especially if you throw in PodCasts as well.

And your trusted critics (your RSS newsfeed list) will tell you what's worth watching.

Resolutions 2005

Ditto!

Mark Cuban

Just had a listen to the Mark Cuban interview, the blogging CEO.
Some great views on the future of technology, and I love that he's technology driven.
He also said, to just leave the dinosaurs behind if they're not prepared to play ball with their content or formats.
And finally a great piece of advice which he'd been given, para-phrasing a bit here.
"If you look round the table for the sucker, and you can't find any suckers, then you're probably the sucker!"