Life's a game of football...

 

Taken from the After The Fire Forum, a timely piece written by author and diamond geezer Roderick Williamson whose cracking first novel 'England Expects Yet Again' was published last year:

Latest team news announced for potential ATF giantkillers drawn away to Manchester later this year.

Peter 'I remember Gordon' Banks (player/coach) - known for all the clever little jinks and shuffles out on the right wing, creating all the chances for the front man to score. Known for his vision on the pitch, although rumours that this is not as sharp as previous seasons. Can be sensitive if the crowd gets on his back if there is no early sign of a breakthrough. Like Russell considered veteran status and now operating in the lower leagues but he has plied his trade at the highest levels. Has got the silky skills to waltz round any disrespectful Mancunians. Question on supporters lips - does he still retain the nippy factor?

John Russell 'athletic' - controls the middle of the park, known for hitting in a few screamers from left field. Big enough and ugly enough to be pushed forward to cause damage at set pieces. Now like his long standing team mate Banks, he plays at semi-pro level, opinionated likes getting up on his soapbox. Contributions in the past have been the difference between winning and losing.

Robert 'Bobby' Halligan - Young ball of energy up front, prepared to chase seemingly lost balls. Thrives off the support of the two experienced players around him. Offers another dimension with his own special moves. Fast enough to set the house on fire if he receives the right level of service. Can he last the full 90 minutes at this pace has been aired among the ATF camp followers.

Ian 'the grey ghost' Niblo - the Franz Beckanbauer of the team. Stays deeps, rarely seen in the opposition half. Quietly and efficiently playing the sweeping role and making sure that the man between the sticks is not under too much pressure. The quiet man that makes the team tick.

Tim 'Tiny' Turner - By all accounts likes to belt out 'Nutbush City Limits' in the shower after the match. Like Bobby and Nibs another graduate of the ATF youth development programme. Shows command of the 18 yard box. Early days so far but looks to be a safe pair of hands, press critics worrried that he may be susceptible to the high ball.

Subs - Faith, Hope & Charity. First two expected on early if the pre-match tactics fail to deliver.

The vocal contributions of the travelling faithful could be the sixth man at this fixture.

Cheers Rod!

Against the Machine - Being Human

 

I read with interest as certain bloggers nobly ceased their proclamations during Lent this year and, indeed, some have decided to cease altogether. The fear that the time spent reading, composing and publishing blogs drags you away from more worthwhile pursuits is definitely something I can relate to....

Stephen Siegel, author of 'Against The Machine, Being Human in the Age of the Electronic Mob' was one of the 'Talking Heads' on the excellent BBC TV series 'The Virtual Revolution' broadcast early 2010. Having been so impressed by his relatively short contribution I purchased his book which turned out to be an excellent read, full of illuminating facts about the last 20 years of the virtual world and the contributory factors to the successful aspects of the web. Certainly he reinforces fears and concerns many feel and although in interview he comes over as pretty cynical and sarcastic, on the written page his arguments are measured and totally reasonable.

Intriguingly the back cover sports Marshall McLuhan's famous quote: 'The Medium is the Message' which turned out to be at the core of the next book I chose to read, more soon!

So, what makes this book so compelling is, as mentioned, the confirmation that behind so much of what we may consider to be the worthwhile aspects of the applications available are specifically geared to 'capturing' more information about you. Now that might not sound particularly original, Google searches and online shopping forays are obviously giving merchants detailed statistics and buying patterns that they can tap into to attempt upselling you alternative or similar products that other folk with similar stats have bought. It is more how Lee Siegel reveals the poiltical and financial drivers behind our movement to what we now term as 'Social Networking'.

Bearing in mind this book was written prior to the Twitter explosion, so the main analysis is based on Blogging, MySpace and Facebook. What he is saying is that we are trading our privacy for popularity. In earlier times we would come home and have dinner and chill out together... now we tend to go onto our computers and start revealing more 'private' information for the rest of the world to absorb, not just our family and close friends. Whilst we may be careful about our credit card numbers common sense seems to evaporate as we pour out deeply personal information via our keyboard, sacrificing our identity and withdrawing into a world of physical solitude.

He then moves on to the sense that we are drawn into this world to the extent that if we are not repeatedly checking our Facebook page (and now, Twitter, of course) we fear we might miss something really 'important'. So now we move from a bit of fun to compulsive behaviour which then escalates the more we share and absorb.

Added into this equation is the vast and ever expanding amount of false information out there. He quotes examples of where large corporates are tweaking their Wikipedia entries to cover up their blunders and, indeed, to be fraudulent to bump up their stock and impress their shareholders. Even in the last few days I noticed some blogs that had fallen for some 'jokes' and considered them to be real, one which is now accepted as just a prank, the other is still considered 'real'!

Siegel is particularly scathing of corporate America where the multinationals will rent so called Social Media gurus who will charge obscene amounts of money to portray the internet as a magical world under its own independent control and destiny! He also puts into perspective issues which people perceive the internet has cause and effect, such as the Obama presidential campaign.

Finally I must stress that he is not saying all web, blogging and social media is totally wrong and, in fact, he highlights examples of where excellence and philanthropy is clear. What he does do, though, is highlight the 'copy culture' where information with scant provenance, a blog post, for example, gets re-circulated numerous times and perpetuates total nonsense or effectively re-writes our history!

I found this a fascinating read, both confirming and re-assuring and very challenging all at once. It has reinforced changes in my on-line behaviour that I had started and may well have more impact still and I give it a hearty 5 star recommendation.

Apple iPad - iPhone growing up

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

The story so far... details and video on Apple US website.

P

The Word was made into...

These guys are shipping Audio Bibles out with relief teams... not sure about the company name: Faith Comes by Hearing? What I am sure about is that engraving Bible references on guns is unbelievable.

Art and Christianity Part Four - Novel

This my fourth post on the Art and Christianity meme commenced by Jonathan Evens.

Artwork: Antony Gormley - 'Field for the British Isles'
Drama: Film 'Chariots of Fire' (1981)
Music: J S Bach - St Matthew Passion
Novel: Victoria Hislop - The Island
Poem: Wilfred Owen - The Parable of the Old Man and the Young


Novel: The Island - The 2005 work by Victoria Hislop is based around a quest by the main character to discover their heritage. This opens up to fascinating revelations of the mysterious island called Spinalonga where lepers are despatched once their symptoms have been discovered. On Spinalonga a microcosm of society emerges, then later everything changes with the advent of WW2 and subsequent advances in medicine. However, the island of Spinalonga does actually exist on which there is now a museum of the former leper village. Victoria's thorough research means the blur twixt fact and fiction is only maintained by the storyline and the evocatively described characters that play it all out in your imagination.

This wonderful book has many deeply touching themes which align it with the importance of sacrifice, devotion, committment and discipleship.

What matters now...

Seth Godin is attempting to break all previous records by providing a new e-book to download for free on his Blog site and inviting everyone to virally market the message of its availability. I think this is a really interesting experiment in itself with the added bonus of receiving the excellent ebook.
Essentially the book is a collection of inspiring short thoughts and anecdotes from some high profile authors including Seth himself, Acumen Fund CEO Jaqueline Novogratz, business guru Tom Peters and Greenbelt Festival speaker Karen Armstrong.

Wonderful stuff!

P

The world without us...

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While holidaying in Nova Scotia this summer I couldn't help notice how quickly nature reclaimed her own when land and buildings had been left for a while. So seeing this link promoting Alan Weisman's intriuging book about what would happen if the world was without human presence immediately struck a chord!