I went to Hastings

It appeared shut and I stubbed my toe kicking the light switch out.

Ricky Ponting: Great player, average captain

So Aussie lose two tests in a row to South Africa, putting in further context the series loss in India (and sadly for the black caps, that series win).

Ricky Ponting is on track to be one of the top 5 greats of the gentle game, so it's a shame he is an arrogant punk.

Ponting either hates his players or is Mr Inflexible - prefering to try an injured Brett Lee over fit players who have better form.

Some might say Ponting has inherited a weak Aussie team after the retirement of key bowlers in recent times and this reflects his performance as a captain. I say compare to Stephen Fleming who had a perenially sub par team yet marshalled them superbly, coaxing some great team performances.

While Ponting leads with class from the middle with the bat, when on the field, he appears to expect performance rather than coerce and coax. Perhaps this is the way of a hard task master but perhaps Ricky Ponting could mother the young pups just a little than leaving them at the SPCA to fight for themselves.

Of course I'm just an arm chair critic, enjoying the summer in a pair of jandals and it could be that Africa were simply a better team today..

Trent Reznor Told Me

That every day was exactly the same.

But I don't believe him.


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Key word of the xmas break: xbox 360 cache clear

So like it appears plenty of xbox 360 and game were given as Xmas presents as plenty of searches for how to clear the cache of the xbox are being made on The Optimus Prime Experiment daily.

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Stop! Hammer Time

Awesome day in sunny hawkes bay, sux to be you Auckland or Palestine. Went to a rose garden and ate some pie. Went to a wedding, saw people I haven't seen since I was 12. Going to eat some more ham. It's hammer time! Jealous? Muchmay bray !

Merry Xmas from Saint Helliers bay !

The sun was threatening to shine so Jaybee and I ventured out to where the folk drink latte and eat ice creams while dodging seasonal gifts from seaguls.

The pictures is of Rangitoto Island from St Heliers Bay, frames by the native NZ Xmas tree, the Pohutikawa.

Despite my grizzle grumps about Auckland, this area is quite nice.

Now, did u remember to get cream for the strawberries?!

Check out our trip to the Marlborough Sounds

Most over rated bands of 2008 and other finkings

Most overrated must be Kings of Leon. Good but not great. So hot right
now but so was Kanye West once and everyone hates him now.

What song should have been bigger ? Anika Moa's My Old Man. That song
had major potential written all over it. Shame Anika is not Dido or it
would have been a world wide smash.

Best cover of the year goes to Jay Z for Wonderwall at Glastonbury.
Noel was still right though!

Comeback of the year: can't decide between Metallica or R.E.M. So
Oasis get it for I'm Outta Time, a genuine classic easily up there
with the best of early 90s britpop mania.

Best blog about music set lists? Not sure . . .

Will Iain O'Brien's Cricket Blog make him Rich?

While everyone is going on an on about how great Kiwi Black Cap Iain O’Brien’s Blog is, I’ve been noticing the changes he’s been making to the blog's structure i.e. his Google Adsense advertising is now better positioned. Any earnings from these ads are a just return for what is an interesting read. You’d never have seen Richard Hadlee so candidly discussing his inner thoughts?! I reckon Jeremy Coney should have a blog. His turn of phrase is excellent. Where's his newspaper column gone?

Cricinfo, one of the best websites on the internet (not just cricket), has adopted Ian’s blog too. They’ve flashed it all up which is all dapper dandy. This version also has Google Adsense on the bottom of the blog. I was curious as to who gets the revenue, so I checked the publisher code for the ads on each version of the blog. To my surprise, they are the same – which means the advertising revenue from Cricinfo goes straight into Iain’s google account (as his blog was up first, presumably the adsense account is his).

This is a simple way for Cricinfo to pay Iain for his blog’s use of their website. They don’t have to add him to the pay roll and incur HR costs etc, they simply put his adsense code on their page and he reaps some reward, and they get some via page advertising. Seems fair. I wonder how wisespread this practice is?

I have no idea of the ins and outs (hahhhahahaha) of the contract O’Brien has (?) with Cricinfo but as long he keeps taking wickets and using phrases like "I want to hit him, but I’m going to bowl length.", I’ll be reading and he’ll clip the ticket.

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GNR to release The Spaghetti Incident Volume Two

Following the lower than expected sales of the new Guns N Roses album, Chinese Democracy, GNR front man Axl Rose announced on the MyGNRForum.comwebsite that he would be releasing The Spaghetti Incident? Volume Two as an itunes only release. The album will feature tracks leftover from the original The Spaghetti Incident? sessions and a new cover of the Eurythmics 'Sweet Dreams'.

Axl stated "I've realised that only the die hard fans have bought Chinese Democracy out of respect for my abundant talents as a producer. The release of The Spaghetti Incident? Volume Two is a signal to to the broader fan base that I'm heading back to what made Guns N Roses famous in the first place - namely covers of bands that were popular in the 1980s. With respect to the Eurythmics song 'Sweet Dreams' , I figure if it worked for Marilyn Manson it should work for me. My braids are just as scary as him, if not more."

Other tracks on the album include the little known Gilby Clarke acoustic version of Duran Duran's 'Rio' and an alt rock version of Warrant's Cheery Pie. No Charles Manson songs are to be included this time round with Axl saying his intentions were pure last time but that he was like Pink and simply "Mizzunderstood"

Former Guns and Roses member Izzy Straddlin is said to be unconcerned that he does not appear on any on the songs despite his long term committment to the band. "If Axl wants to play covers again, that's cool with me, I'm just going to tour my solo album in France and then maybe hit the studio with Axl in the fall."

Slash could not be reached for comment after apparently suffering a bizzare trouser snake accident while holdiday in Tahiti.

H/T : The Spaghetti Incident?

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New Halo 3 Muliplayer Map Screenshot: Orbital

The boys of Bungie have released on their weekly up date what looks like a screen shot of a new Halo 3 Mulitplayer map, Orbital.

I canz haardly wait. As that looks like a pretty sweet sniper alley....

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Where the wild things are

Does James Hetfield hunt you down all nightmare long? What about Big Bird. What would happen if Big Bird joined Metallica. Would he eat Lars? What about the Grouch? Why should Metallica get an oscar?

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We're a garageband

So like when I have a garage I have decided it will be filled with guitars, amps and a beat up drum kit, and some screwdrivers.

We come from garage land. 

Some thing should go here, maybe a beer

So like on the way home I had a totally awesome idea for a post. Now I'm home I have no bloody idea what it was. So you're in for a ramble tamble of ideas. 

Like Beer, that was a great idea. The Stanford Prison Experiment, not so much. Well actually it was kinda cool. 

Axl Rose releasing Chinese Democracy was an excellent idea. It's a pretty damn good record. No really. Releasing it and not doing one single review to promote it? Not so popular. Not so smart.

Letting Scott Styris retire from playing Test Cricket was the dumbest idea in the history of the IPL. The Pig was an anchor. The man could bat for periods of time. If Scott Styris was on the titantic it would not have sunk, you can be sure of that. Come Back Scott Styris, all is forgiven. 

Heh, with the poor as pooh performance by the Black Caps in Adelaide recently, I'm surprised no one has been talking about giving Matty Sinclair like his 7th chance. He scored more runs last weekend than the top 5 of the Black Caps did in the last two tests. 

With the wisedom of a 3 am talkback caller, I reckon the powers that be should drop Ryder till he actually proves himself at first class level consistently. Then Drop Fulton or whoever comes in at 6 these days for Franklin and pair him up with McCullum and Sinclair and you have a middle order that will last at least 10 overs. 

Other bright ideas? Lightbulbs. Edison was a freaking genius.