I love her face
Everything about her seems so worthwhile
I love her hair
I love her nose
I love the cute little dot on the end of that nose
In a State where women are getting themselves fake noses and fake tits I'm surprised that no one is getting themselves one of those
I love her full lips
I love her smile
I love the way she can be so shy and aware of my stare
Tuesday, 30 November 2010
Wednesday, 24 November 2010
For The Love Of....
Its funny how life turns out, had I not met the wife I probably wouldn't be sitting here today listening to Julieta Venegas. I always had a wide ranging taste in music long before I met her but despite having music from as far a field as Sierra Leone and Japan I had not been introduced to the music of the Mexican songstress until somechileanwoman showed me what I was missing out on. Now Julieta is one of my favourite artists, despite my piss poor knowledge of Spanish.
I, of course, introduced the wife to a new world in return. She loves movies so I made sure we got a copy of Dear Frankie, quite possibly my favourite Scottish film, and despite her 90's R&B upbringing she likes indie music so I slowly introduced her to all sorts of music that I thought she wouldn't have heard of but would enjoy including Aberfeldy's Love Is An Arrow.
Its in the world of books though that she has taken to more than anything. She probably reads more Scottish books than I do now. When I gave her a copy of Buddha Da I expected she might struggle with the Glaswegian dialect, apparently I got it wrong. She is now onto her 3rd and final Anne Donovan book all written in the very same dialect and she accusingly asks 'why don't you speak like that'.
For the love of God, if I spoke like that I'd have to repeat everything I said 4 times, instead of 3.
I, of course, introduced the wife to a new world in return. She loves movies so I made sure we got a copy of Dear Frankie, quite possibly my favourite Scottish film, and despite her 90's R&B upbringing she likes indie music so I slowly introduced her to all sorts of music that I thought she wouldn't have heard of but would enjoy including Aberfeldy's Love Is An Arrow.
Its in the world of books though that she has taken to more than anything. She probably reads more Scottish books than I do now. When I gave her a copy of Buddha Da I expected she might struggle with the Glaswegian dialect, apparently I got it wrong. She is now onto her 3rd and final Anne Donovan book all written in the very same dialect and she accusingly asks 'why don't you speak like that'.
For the love of God, if I spoke like that I'd have to repeat everything I said 4 times, instead of 3.
Monday, 15 November 2010
Not For The Weak Of Heart
Unable to watch the fitba or the rugby of back home I have been forced to take up new sport viewing habits. We tried to take in a Major League Soccer game a couple of months back by going to the home of Real Salt Lake. Throughout the game we were not impressed by the standard of play, its clear that Real are nothing like their Madrid namesake, but lets be fair we didn't expect that they would be.
For our first MLS game we could probably have chosen a better game to attend than the boring game against Colorado not helped by the tactics of the teams playing. The game only livened up in the final 10 - 15 minutes when it looked likely that Real were going to lose at home for the first time of the season. Finally the players found some urgency and seemed interested in playing directly towards the opposition goal.
Then came an incident in the box. The whistle goes. Its a penalty! The home fans are ecstatic. Right on the stroke of full time Real can score and keep their home record intact for another game. But no wait its not. It must be a corner! No. That can only leave a goal kick then. But no, the referee pulls back the players. The fans are confused. The players are confused. And so is the referee! He chickens out of making a decision and throws the ball up in the air and tells the players to work it out.
I've seen that happen in basketball, its part of the game. But in all the 27 years I have played and watched football I have never seen a referee do that. I was livid. That decision or lack of decision by the referee makes the current Scottish refereeing controversy look lame by comparison. It spoiled the game for me completely, the fact that Real got angry and went on to score a goal in injury time didn't improve my mood or opinion of Major League Soccer any.
We've tried going to the baseball, its the national game after all but the best thing about it seems to be the hotdogs and the end of the month fireworks display. Even the fans who go regularly don't seem to pay much attention to the game, they mostly seem to chill, hang out, talk with old friends and eat and drink.
I've tried watching football of the American variety, but even during the Superbowl my stamina levels have waned by the 3rd quarter. Too many breaks and my attention goes else where.
For me its in the NBA where the excitement is found. Over the past couple of seasons I've taken an interest in the Utah Jazz.
I wasn't holding out much hope for this season when they let two of their better players leave in the summer, and seemed to have no interest in spending money improving the squad when other franchises were showing just that level of ambition. Then preseason started and I was preparing to eat my words. 8 preseason games and 8 victories, including one against the LA Lakers which traditionally seem to have the help of a voodoo doll when it comes to playing against the Jazz. It was starting to look good.
Then the season started proper, with 2 losses from 2 games played. Ouch. But then they steadied the nerves with a couple of victories. Then promptly lost again. The jazz seemed to have no rhythm or fluency to their game, with one home game to go before four road games in five days things were not looking good for the season, and it was early yet, if the Jazz couldn't find some rhythm before they flew to the east coast the season might well be a write off before it had even begun.
The home game against the LA Clippers if played last season would probably have held no fears for the fans but this was a new Jazz side seemingly struggling for confidence. The Clippers took full advantage of this, getting ahead by as many as 18. Then the Jazz found some spirit and tied the game at the buzzer. Then Double Overtime resulted in a victory. It should have been an easy bankable win but I was left scratching my head trying to work out whether it was lucky or well deserved. In the end I was just relieved, The rest of the week was not looking good.
Miami was the next game on the agenda on Tuesday. Miami unlike the Jazz spent big in the Summer recruiting the likes of LeBron James, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade. And again Utah seemed to struggle getting baskets. Miami turned up the heat and built up a lead of 22 points in this one. But then it happened again. The Jazz found their rhythm, baskets were being made where earlier in the game they had been missed and it wasn't the big three from Miami that was destined to make the headlines in this game but Paul Millsap of the Jazz with a career high of 46 points including 3 threes in the last 30 seconds on the way to another astonishing nerve wracking comeback.
Utah couldn't enjoy that game for long as Orlando was waiting for them the very next night. Miami might have been the big spenders of the summer and they might have been having a good start to the season before the Jazz came to visit but Orlando had started the season with an even more impressive record.
The previous night's exploits seemed to take their toll on Utah, Orlando quickly built up a lead and the Jazz seemed powerless to stop it. They were down 18 points this time but then they came back again, to win by 10.
The Jazz became the first team in the shot-clock era to win three straight games in which they trailed by at least 10 points at halftime.
Two days later they had to fly to Atlanta. And this time they had a comparatively mild 11 point deficit to overcome. It was starting to look like it was a tactic to give the opposition a false sense of security before hitting them when they sleeping when they went on to win this one too.
Three unlikely victories on the road but at least the following game the next night would be easier. The Charlotte Bobcats weren't having as a good a start to the season as the previous three teams. But for the Jazz this was the fourth trip on the road in five days and the Bobcats took full advantage by building up a lead of 19 points in the 1st quarter. Yet again the Jazz had a fight on their hands if they were to get the win. And win they did, by 1 point with 0.8 of a second on the clock.
Is it any wonder I'm a basketball convert? But I'm starting to wonder if this isn't a young mans sport. There are still 70 odd games of the season to go and I'm aging by the day.
For our first MLS game we could probably have chosen a better game to attend than the boring game against Colorado not helped by the tactics of the teams playing. The game only livened up in the final 10 - 15 minutes when it looked likely that Real were going to lose at home for the first time of the season. Finally the players found some urgency and seemed interested in playing directly towards the opposition goal.
Then came an incident in the box. The whistle goes. Its a penalty! The home fans are ecstatic. Right on the stroke of full time Real can score and keep their home record intact for another game. But no wait its not. It must be a corner! No. That can only leave a goal kick then. But no, the referee pulls back the players. The fans are confused. The players are confused. And so is the referee! He chickens out of making a decision and throws the ball up in the air and tells the players to work it out.
I've seen that happen in basketball, its part of the game. But in all the 27 years I have played and watched football I have never seen a referee do that. I was livid. That decision or lack of decision by the referee makes the current Scottish refereeing controversy look lame by comparison. It spoiled the game for me completely, the fact that Real got angry and went on to score a goal in injury time didn't improve my mood or opinion of Major League Soccer any.
We've tried going to the baseball, its the national game after all but the best thing about it seems to be the hotdogs and the end of the month fireworks display. Even the fans who go regularly don't seem to pay much attention to the game, they mostly seem to chill, hang out, talk with old friends and eat and drink.
I've tried watching football of the American variety, but even during the Superbowl my stamina levels have waned by the 3rd quarter. Too many breaks and my attention goes else where.
For me its in the NBA where the excitement is found. Over the past couple of seasons I've taken an interest in the Utah Jazz.
I wasn't holding out much hope for this season when they let two of their better players leave in the summer, and seemed to have no interest in spending money improving the squad when other franchises were showing just that level of ambition. Then preseason started and I was preparing to eat my words. 8 preseason games and 8 victories, including one against the LA Lakers which traditionally seem to have the help of a voodoo doll when it comes to playing against the Jazz. It was starting to look good.
Then the season started proper, with 2 losses from 2 games played. Ouch. But then they steadied the nerves with a couple of victories. Then promptly lost again. The jazz seemed to have no rhythm or fluency to their game, with one home game to go before four road games in five days things were not looking good for the season, and it was early yet, if the Jazz couldn't find some rhythm before they flew to the east coast the season might well be a write off before it had even begun.
The home game against the LA Clippers if played last season would probably have held no fears for the fans but this was a new Jazz side seemingly struggling for confidence. The Clippers took full advantage of this, getting ahead by as many as 18. Then the Jazz found some spirit and tied the game at the buzzer. Then Double Overtime resulted in a victory. It should have been an easy bankable win but I was left scratching my head trying to work out whether it was lucky or well deserved. In the end I was just relieved, The rest of the week was not looking good.
Miami was the next game on the agenda on Tuesday. Miami unlike the Jazz spent big in the Summer recruiting the likes of LeBron James, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade. And again Utah seemed to struggle getting baskets. Miami turned up the heat and built up a lead of 22 points in this one. But then it happened again. The Jazz found their rhythm, baskets were being made where earlier in the game they had been missed and it wasn't the big three from Miami that was destined to make the headlines in this game but Paul Millsap of the Jazz with a career high of 46 points including 3 threes in the last 30 seconds on the way to another astonishing nerve wracking comeback.
Utah couldn't enjoy that game for long as Orlando was waiting for them the very next night. Miami might have been the big spenders of the summer and they might have been having a good start to the season before the Jazz came to visit but Orlando had started the season with an even more impressive record.
The previous night's exploits seemed to take their toll on Utah, Orlando quickly built up a lead and the Jazz seemed powerless to stop it. They were down 18 points this time but then they came back again, to win by 10.
The Jazz became the first team in the shot-clock era to win three straight games in which they trailed by at least 10 points at halftime.
Two days later they had to fly to Atlanta. And this time they had a comparatively mild 11 point deficit to overcome. It was starting to look like it was a tactic to give the opposition a false sense of security before hitting them when they sleeping when they went on to win this one too.
Three unlikely victories on the road but at least the following game the next night would be easier. The Charlotte Bobcats weren't having as a good a start to the season as the previous three teams. But for the Jazz this was the fourth trip on the road in five days and the Bobcats took full advantage by building up a lead of 19 points in the 1st quarter. Yet again the Jazz had a fight on their hands if they were to get the win. And win they did, by 1 point with 0.8 of a second on the clock.
Is it any wonder I'm a basketball convert? But I'm starting to wonder if this isn't a young mans sport. There are still 70 odd games of the season to go and I'm aging by the day.
Tuesday, 9 November 2010
Living Is A Problem ...... Because They Are Already Playing Christmas Songs On The Radio
There is a still a major holiday to go here (Thanksgiving) and they are already jumping the gun.
Bah! Humbug!
Its not the only thing that's messed up.
Lately the weather in these here parts has been getting its freak on. Last week I'd wake up to a cold early November morning only to find that by 3 in the afternoon it would be getting close to a balmy 22 degrees Celcius. Back in the home country I'd be lucky to see that in the middle of August.
Its been quite frankly a weird fall. Even though the leaves fell from the trees a couple of weeks back in the canyon where we live, in the city, a few minutes up the road, they have been hanging on like there has been no hurry to hibernate. Its been nice to see those autumnal colours stretch on but at the same time its been a pain in the derriere to cut those old fruit trees back when the leaves are still on the branches. I had been contemplating putting that kind of work off for a couple of weeks but living in Utah I wasn't sure that was wise, sure enough yesterday, just two days after the mercury hit 22, it snowed. It could have waited until we went to Vegas in a week a half's time!
Ah well I suppose its given me the time to finally figure out how Jango works. No Christmas music until December 20th, thank you!
Bah! Humbug!
Its not the only thing that's messed up.
Lately the weather in these here parts has been getting its freak on. Last week I'd wake up to a cold early November morning only to find that by 3 in the afternoon it would be getting close to a balmy 22 degrees Celcius. Back in the home country I'd be lucky to see that in the middle of August.
Its been quite frankly a weird fall. Even though the leaves fell from the trees a couple of weeks back in the canyon where we live, in the city, a few minutes up the road, they have been hanging on like there has been no hurry to hibernate. Its been nice to see those autumnal colours stretch on but at the same time its been a pain in the derriere to cut those old fruit trees back when the leaves are still on the branches. I had been contemplating putting that kind of work off for a couple of weeks but living in Utah I wasn't sure that was wise, sure enough yesterday, just two days after the mercury hit 22, it snowed. It could have waited until we went to Vegas in a week a half's time!
Ah well I suppose its given me the time to finally figure out how Jango works. No Christmas music until December 20th, thank you!
Thursday, 14 October 2010
My Apple Dilemma
On Sunday we finally had some a few hours to ourselves, time that wasn't taken up by work, peoples parties, or sabotaged by cars that that like to play broke too damn much. It gave us enough enough to go on a shooting spree (photography shooting that is, I'm not that American yet).
I'm eager to have a look at the results of a day well spent but if I was to load the images from the card to the computer I'd fill up this Apple to the point that that it would refuse to do anything useful anytime soon. It's finally time I got around to buying something new. And so with that in mind its not worth me loading the images on to this computer when in around a week i'll be swapping all the images onto something new. Why give myself even more work to do? So I guess I'll just have to be patient and wait until I buy that new computer.
I'd love to buy another Mac but the Scottish in me refuses. On the one hand I love how Macs operate I've never had a single virus issue with a Mac whereas I have with windows based machines, I also love how they look, I think Apple products look beautiful, but those machines are damn pricey. And thats where my issues begin with Apple.
I really don't want to spend $1400 plus on a computer. I'm Scottish, its not that I'm stingy but I do like my money to stretch as far as possible. And with Apple it doesn't stretch very far. I don't like how Apple as a whole does its business. It seems they have a policy to take every penny they can from their customer. Its not just in the world of computers either where they build stylish but expensive machines that are twice of the price of their pc competition its in other areas too.
I've long been tempted to get an iphone since I first saw someone demonstrate to me how they were learning Japanese on it. I was smitten. I've always wanted to go to Japan and here was a seemly simple way to learn the language. But I had to stop and remind myself with the reality check that Japan is a notoriously expensive country to go to and live in, there's no way I could afford to go there anytime soon if I was paying $199 for the phone and $99+ a month for the service line. Now you could blame A&T for the service line, or you could blame Apple for keeping the price artificially high by only sharing their products to one phone company per sales region. Whatever or whoever is at fault it seems to me to be yet another demonstration of how Apple does not look after the best interests of their customers.
The product that Apple really should have had me hooked from the beginning is the ipod. I am a huge music lover I have tens of thousands of mp3 files, literally gigabyte after gigabyte of music stored on my hard drive. I get bored with cds very quickly so when the larger ipods started to get produced I was excited, I wanted one. Then I realised that Apple weren't satisfied with just selling the ipods themselves they wanted to make money from the selling of the mp3's from itunes too. Well that was me out. At that point I had a tonne of music and very few of which was downloaded with the help of itunes. I really didn't fancy having to start my collection again nor did I want to go to the trouble of hacking into a brand new ipod and breaking its code so that I could play what I already had.
It seems to me that Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, has a a very old American West attitude to business. He spots his customer approaching from a far and can smell the notes in the wallet and he wants it all, but he once he has emptied that wallet he wants them to keep paying him afterwards too, until there is nothing left to give.
Whether its through itunes or apps there seems to be endless ways for Apple to continue to get your money once they have sold you the machine that you just couldn't do without. Most people don't have an issue with this I admit, I certainly seem to be making a mountain out of a molehill when there are a lot of happy Apple customers out there but it does leave me looking in at the Apple showroom window with drool dripping from my chin at all the shiny magical looking products that I know in my heart I would love to get my hands on but my head says a big fat loud "nawwwww."
I'm eager to have a look at the results of a day well spent but if I was to load the images from the card to the computer I'd fill up this Apple to the point that that it would refuse to do anything useful anytime soon. It's finally time I got around to buying something new. And so with that in mind its not worth me loading the images on to this computer when in around a week i'll be swapping all the images onto something new. Why give myself even more work to do? So I guess I'll just have to be patient and wait until I buy that new computer.
I'd love to buy another Mac but the Scottish in me refuses. On the one hand I love how Macs operate I've never had a single virus issue with a Mac whereas I have with windows based machines, I also love how they look, I think Apple products look beautiful, but those machines are damn pricey. And thats where my issues begin with Apple.
I really don't want to spend $1400 plus on a computer. I'm Scottish, its not that I'm stingy but I do like my money to stretch as far as possible. And with Apple it doesn't stretch very far. I don't like how Apple as a whole does its business. It seems they have a policy to take every penny they can from their customer. Its not just in the world of computers either where they build stylish but expensive machines that are twice of the price of their pc competition its in other areas too.
I've long been tempted to get an iphone since I first saw someone demonstrate to me how they were learning Japanese on it. I was smitten. I've always wanted to go to Japan and here was a seemly simple way to learn the language. But I had to stop and remind myself with the reality check that Japan is a notoriously expensive country to go to and live in, there's no way I could afford to go there anytime soon if I was paying $199 for the phone and $99+ a month for the service line. Now you could blame A&T for the service line, or you could blame Apple for keeping the price artificially high by only sharing their products to one phone company per sales region. Whatever or whoever is at fault it seems to me to be yet another demonstration of how Apple does not look after the best interests of their customers.
The product that Apple really should have had me hooked from the beginning is the ipod. I am a huge music lover I have tens of thousands of mp3 files, literally gigabyte after gigabyte of music stored on my hard drive. I get bored with cds very quickly so when the larger ipods started to get produced I was excited, I wanted one. Then I realised that Apple weren't satisfied with just selling the ipods themselves they wanted to make money from the selling of the mp3's from itunes too. Well that was me out. At that point I had a tonne of music and very few of which was downloaded with the help of itunes. I really didn't fancy having to start my collection again nor did I want to go to the trouble of hacking into a brand new ipod and breaking its code so that I could play what I already had.
It seems to me that Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, has a a very old American West attitude to business. He spots his customer approaching from a far and can smell the notes in the wallet and he wants it all, but he once he has emptied that wallet he wants them to keep paying him afterwards too, until there is nothing left to give.
Whether its through itunes or apps there seems to be endless ways for Apple to continue to get your money once they have sold you the machine that you just couldn't do without. Most people don't have an issue with this I admit, I certainly seem to be making a mountain out of a molehill when there are a lot of happy Apple customers out there but it does leave me looking in at the Apple showroom window with drool dripping from my chin at all the shiny magical looking products that I know in my heart I would love to get my hands on but my head says a big fat loud "nawwwww."
Tuesday, 12 October 2010
Craigslist We Love You
Looking back on how this year, and then even further back, has developed it's fair to say that without the invention of Craigslist the lives of Scotsman and Some Chilean Woman would have gone on quite different paths.
For us it all started over two years ago. Back then I was looking online for some cheap second hand camera lenses, trying in vain to get something for my Sigma, in desperation I tried looking on Craigslist for the first time. Craigslist you have to understand isn't really big news in the home country but I tried anyway. Unsurprisingly though as the camera I have is in very few hands I looked in vain. However before I logged off that day I looked at the personals out of curiosity, and there little did I know I found Some Chilean Woman who was looking for a guide for a holiday that she was planning. Rather than ignore her I instead gave her crap for the wordage of her advert suggesting to her that she may want to reword it if she wanted to get the right type of response. I didn't expect to hear back from her after that but rather than ignore me she seemed to like the asshole like response. A few months later instead of her going to Scotland, I instead made my way to Utah. Less than six months after that , I returned to Utah permanently. 3 short months after that I found myself getting married and all thanks to a chance encounter on Craigslist.
Before then I was skeptical of anyone finding love on the internet but having been converted first hand I started to wonder what else I could use Craigslist for. I soon found out that it had more than one use. My first job on US soil was found on Craigslist. Sadly it didn't last that long.
Earlier this year I started to place adverts for landscaping services, skeptical of its possible effectiveness.
The last time I started a business was back in 1998 and the internet was not as widely used. Then I mostly got my clients from flyers I delivered locally, people I knew and from word of mouth. In 11 years of working for myself I had never once got any work from the internet. In truth though I had never tried. This time around though we had little spare money for flyers, nor did I know enough people here in Salt Lake City in order to get my first few customers. Desperate times though called for desperate measures, I blindly put out my first adverts on Craigslist more in hope than anything else. In all honesty I was surprised to get my first response. But gradually bit by bit I got more and more customers from the adverts I was placing.
This allowed us slowly to transform our lives. No longer did Some Chilean Woman have to do all the working on her own, I was at last able to make a contribution. Soon after I was able to match her dollar for dollar, and it was all thanks to Craigslist bringing in the work.
Six short months later we were able to move into a new place. We looked on Craigslist, but to no avail, this time it couldn't take the credit. Piece of crap website!
But when we did find our new place we needed some new furniture and so we found a cheap dining table and chairs that might have needed some work but were still pretty much a bargain at the advertised price. As was the $60 exercise bike last week.
Love, work, and cheap exercise I've found it all on Craigslist and its safe to say that for us life would be quite different without it.
For us it all started over two years ago. Back then I was looking online for some cheap second hand camera lenses, trying in vain to get something for my Sigma, in desperation I tried looking on Craigslist for the first time. Craigslist you have to understand isn't really big news in the home country but I tried anyway. Unsurprisingly though as the camera I have is in very few hands I looked in vain. However before I logged off that day I looked at the personals out of curiosity, and there little did I know I found Some Chilean Woman who was looking for a guide for a holiday that she was planning. Rather than ignore her I instead gave her crap for the wordage of her advert suggesting to her that she may want to reword it if she wanted to get the right type of response. I didn't expect to hear back from her after that but rather than ignore me she seemed to like the asshole like response. A few months later instead of her going to Scotland, I instead made my way to Utah. Less than six months after that , I returned to Utah permanently. 3 short months after that I found myself getting married and all thanks to a chance encounter on Craigslist.
Before then I was skeptical of anyone finding love on the internet but having been converted first hand I started to wonder what else I could use Craigslist for. I soon found out that it had more than one use. My first job on US soil was found on Craigslist. Sadly it didn't last that long.
Earlier this year I started to place adverts for landscaping services, skeptical of its possible effectiveness.
The last time I started a business was back in 1998 and the internet was not as widely used. Then I mostly got my clients from flyers I delivered locally, people I knew and from word of mouth. In 11 years of working for myself I had never once got any work from the internet. In truth though I had never tried. This time around though we had little spare money for flyers, nor did I know enough people here in Salt Lake City in order to get my first few customers. Desperate times though called for desperate measures, I blindly put out my first adverts on Craigslist more in hope than anything else. In all honesty I was surprised to get my first response. But gradually bit by bit I got more and more customers from the adverts I was placing.
This allowed us slowly to transform our lives. No longer did Some Chilean Woman have to do all the working on her own, I was at last able to make a contribution. Soon after I was able to match her dollar for dollar, and it was all thanks to Craigslist bringing in the work.
Six short months later we were able to move into a new place. We looked on Craigslist, but to no avail, this time it couldn't take the credit. Piece of crap website!
But when we did find our new place we needed some new furniture and so we found a cheap dining table and chairs that might have needed some work but were still pretty much a bargain at the advertised price. As was the $60 exercise bike last week.
Love, work, and cheap exercise I've found it all on Craigslist and its safe to say that for us life would be quite different without it.
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