I have downloaded a couple of pieces of software recently which have tweaked my irritable nature. The most recent being SetPoint from Logitech, a useful piece of software which drives some additional functionality on my cordless keyboard and this being the case, after accepting the Terms & Conditions, I would expect to just click through the install procedure. But not so. I just spotted a screen for Yahoo Toolbar with the install option already selected and it struck me there was a radio button missing from this screen, I didn’t want just ‘Install’, ‘No Thanks’, I also wanted a button along the lines, ‘No Thanks and whilst you’re at it just fuck right off attempting to clutter my machine with unsolicited crap that, should I be in need of software of dubious merit, I’m perfectly capable of searching for without having it shoved down my throat. And whilst I’m at it perhaps you would be good enough to stop sucking up my bandwidth by forcing me to download this crud in order to get the stuff I want as you seem to have omitted to advise me that it’s bundled in the download. Now, as I mentioned earlier, just fuck off’. Or words to that effect, give or take the odd ‘fuck’.

Er, not a lot going on then! Hadn’t realised quite how long it was since I last posted but not that surprised as there are not that many peaks or troughs in the waveform of life around here at the present time. Did drag myself off to the gym today for the first time in ages so I’m now waiting to seize up completely in the next 24 hours or so. Whilst I always enjoy a session there, the endorphin and adrenaline cocktail is a heady one, I can’t escape the feeling that there must be better things to be doing with the six hours of my weekend that I try to spend there when the bug bites.
I recently had to get a new FM transmitter for the iPod as I contrived, somehow, to lose the last one. Got another Belkin which seems to work very well indeed, set the frequency to be used via the ‘Clearscan’ function and the frequency it suggested, 87.7MHz, has offered great reception everywhere I’ve been so far. With it working so well I haven’t had the radio on all week and went looking for more podcasts to keep me amused, found a couple of very good ones, ‘The Bugle’ from The Times Online and ‘Skeptoid’, also found a pisspoor one in the form of the presciently titled ‘Pisspoor Podcast’ from one Martin Kelner. I first heard Kelner on Radio Five’s ‘Fighting Talk’ and he was very good, however his self regarding podcast is not, Kelner seems to imagine that as he is reaching his audience via a podcast, and therefore has licence to say ‘fuck’ every now and then, all he has to do is throw it into the dialogue at seemingly random intervals and this constitutes humour. Wrong. I suspect that his idiot sidekick with the arse achingly unfunny French accent could be far more entertaining than Kelner but it is too difficult to withstand the fingernails-on-blackboard levels of irritation from the pseudo accent. The free downloads take the form of a ten minute teaser of what is a sixty minute show, if you want the full version then money has to change hands, but try as I might I haven’t been able to find how it is that Kelner is going to pay me to endure this dreck.

Having had to rely on the radio for entertainment on my travels today I’ve been hearing much about the hot topic of the day, HM Govt’s ‘green light’ on further nuclear capacity. I’ve much persuasive argument on both sides but there was one glaring issue which I believe went unaddressed during Simon Mayo’s program on Radio Five Live, namely what the fuck were the BBC doing send some pillock down to Dungeness who takes his elocution from George W Bush? The word is ‘nuclear’ (nu-kli-er) not ‘nukila’ (nu-kil-er); see the difference fuckwit? I think we are all aware that the standards are dropping at the BBC and I guess the entry exam isn’t what it used to be; ah, Good Morning Mr Chinless-Crustacean, welcome to the oral examination for entry to the BBC, er no you can get off your knees, that part of the exam is no longer used. All that we require is for you to enunciate the one word you see on the board in front of you, ‘nuclear’.

Nu-kil-er?

Bang!

Next!

So Billy Beane has nuked the 2008 season for the A’s. This is Beane’s MO, his stichk, his signature play but when does the time come for people to ask, ‘can Beane put together a team that will contend over many years?’ By adopting this boom (most definitely with a lower case ‘b’ as we’ve only been to the 2nd round of the post season once, I believe, since he’s been pulling the strings) or bust mindset isn’t Beane intent on just perpetuating his own myth? Each time he blows it up he puts it together again with prospects, who may or may not succeed and if they do then it will be during a small window of opportunity whilst they remain under A’s control at the sort of price they like and yet there is still no capacity or inclination to bring in the sort of talent that would offer the possibility of maximising this opportunity. The gist of it is that each time Beane presses the button he puts it together again with the certainty that he’ll be reaching for the button again in 4-5 years time and he can feature again in the headlines whilst he blows it up/puts it together again. The old adage is that if you fail to plan then you plan to fail but Beane plans to fail, fail to put out a competitive team on the field for a period of longer than two consecutive seasons. I’m sure ownership must bear some responsibility in this regard but most GMs want to have stewardship of a dynasty, a la John Hart whilst in Cleveland, John Schuerholz, Brian Cashman, Walt Jockety and Theo Epstein and there are others, but I just don’t see this approach from Beane, he seems to be all about building it up only to tear it down again, all the time saying ‘look at me, look at me! Aren’t I the dog’s bollocks?’

I understand that the A’s are a small market team and are likely to remain so whilst the Giants keep hanging around like a bad smell but with the possible advent of Cisco Field in 2011 and the Giants in some disarray with the departure of Bonds, then the opportunity for a shift in the balance of power starts now and Beane, and ownership, appears content for it to be a crap shoot predicated on another clutch of prospects. In the event that the completion of Cisco Field is delayed, for as little as 12 months then we are back into Beane’s cyclical blow it up phase and the organisation will be faced with asking it’s fan base to travel to a new stadium, pay increased ticket prices and watch a Triple A standard team and the chance to take revenue from the Giants will have been pissed up the wall