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the most important decision of my life

…lies in your hands, dear reader.

Another baby when my wife is 57 years old ? - discuss.

My job title when I joined Siebel in April 2003 was ‘Junior Architecture Specialist’. Four years later, it transpires that I am now officially entitled to call myself ‘Principal Architecture Specialist’.

However, I have elected not to change my business cards and .signature as I am simply not worthy. Please remember that I have worked with some very talented individuals (past and present).

Manchester City announce new manager

I always had a lot of time for the outgoing Manchester City manager, Stuart Pearce. Well his press conferences and musical tastes, anyway.

However, I have a horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach that, in seven weeks, Manchester City Football Club are going to appoint a foreign manager.

This appointment will come after the City board initially go after ‘big Sam Allardyce’ and offer to rename him ‘MASSIVE’. City are shocked to be rejected by Allardyce who has already signed up at Newcastle and is merely arguing over additional ex-gratia payments in brown bags to be exchanged at Washington services on the A1.

Darwin Awards nominee

Amusing story in Friday’s Torygraph about how a Sat Nav system left a poor, helpless 20- year old female student marooned on a level crossing in the face of a high speed train.

Thankfully, this woman escaped with her life and will probably sue TomTom, her boyfriend and Carlos Tevez. However, Paula Ceely is so unbelievably stupid, hopefully she will manage to secure an early nomination for the Darwin Awards imminently.

The online version of this story omits a crucial section - the picture of the warning sign that was clearly displayed on the level crossing that was included in the newspaper edition.

moving house

Please update your bookmarks and feeds with immediate effect.

don't Ask

Many years ago, in a parallel universe, I created a Web page that proclaimed:

‘The fastest, most comprehensive Web search engine - AltaVista’

With the increasing domination of Google, it really is difficult to remember life back in the days when AltaVista was the only search engine in town and you were even considering sinking 500 quid of your hard-earned into the rumoured IPO. Maybe one day, another startup will come along and usurp Google’s #1 position but somehow, I sincerely doubt it.

Praise be to the Lord !

Henry Spencer’s unforgettable ‘10 Commandments for C Programmers'

Once more, with feeling just for West Ham.

‘He plays on the left, he plays on the right…’

MUFC > England.

a triumph for slothful indolence and lethargy

Like most newly born WordPress.com bloggers, I keenly played with all the features and tirelessly experimented with the rich variety of horrendous 1, 2 and 3 column themes.

Then, I left home and bought a domain name from a geezer in the pub. The downward spiral continues into self-hosting and mixing with the wrong crowd. Inevitably, I stayed up late, dabbled in alcohol and drugs while installing every single plugin and widget ever created for WordPress.

MUFC - Champions

The Guardian’s Rob Smyth has a fascinating article where he eats humble pie and ranks Manchester United’s nine Premiership titles.

Curiously enough, I have also given this matter a lot of thought over the weekend. I place this title second after Alex Ferguson’s very first Premiership victory back in 1992-1993. Not because that team was better (it wasn’t) but because of all the history, the expectation, the broken dreams, the false dawns in preceding 26 years and the satisfaction of lifting the title and finally knocking Liverpool off their perch.

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Donncha showed me his so now I have to show him mine.

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open letter to Paul Scholes

Dear Paul

You are 32 years old and a fantastic footballer. You are still producing moments of breathtaking brilliance (lobbed pass for Rooney versus AC Milan).

You are one of my favourite players at Manchester United. However, let’s face it. You can not tackle to save your life. If you get booked and United beat AC Milan tonight, you will miss your second European Cup Final.

This would be hard for me to take so God knows how you would feel. Remember how it felt to walk around the Nou Camp in 1999 with Roy Keane in those grey suits.