TRF, Arsenal & Flickr

It's that time of year again. Yep, TRF starts tomorrow morning. (You can check out their hideous website for more info). This will be the first time in years that I'm not going down every weekend. Although Marita Beth is working it, I'm not and thus don't feel quite the need to be there. The reasons are many-fold.

• The TRF managmeent has so dramatically reduced the entertainment budget that I fear I won't be adequately, well, entertained. As much as I love Iris and Rose, I don't really see myself spending all day every day at the Sea Devil Tavern.
• Marita Beth is working. Kelly is working. Hell, nearly all my friends are working; which means they won't have time to hang out & drink with me.
• The drive is damned long.
• Boarding my Border Collies, 'Tia and Cormac, is getting prohibitively expensive. I can justify it a few times during the run, but if I do it every weekend, there goes the disposable income that I'm trying to set aside for Dickens on the Strand in December.

What a pickle, wot? Flagrant Disregard is brilliant! The Flickr tools built here are simply wonderful. I'm sure much of it is due to some SDK or other that Flickr/Yahoo has released, but the result is amazing. Below is my profile, as built by the FD Profile Tool.

Arsenal are going into the weekend without (again) their core defence. We sold Ashley to those fucks on the other side of London Chelsea and in return we got Gallas who's now out for a number of weeks with a hamstring injury. Senderos got injured at the World Cup and still isn't back and his compatriot Djourou is now facing a late fitness test. Arsene, for some weird reason, still has faith in that useless Song kid, and is talking about putting him or Gilberto in that centre-half spot. Gilberto I can deal with, he's capable enough, but Song *shudder*. If he plays Gilberto there, then hat could leave the door open to place Baptista and Fabregas in the middle of the pitch; that's a pairing I can't wait to see work. But, 10 years at the helm and he's not made that many mistakes. I've got to keep my faith with the man. Come on the Arsenal. That's it for today. Wastrel On! (Listening to: )Louie's Return by Brother)

Happy Anniversary, Arsene

Arsene Wenger celebrates 10 years at the Arsenal today. And what a ten years it's been. The man, now the legend, arrived from relatively unknown Nagoya Grampus Eight and brought with him unique insights and philosophies of the world's game. He brought with him dieticians and psychologists and a training regime that other English clubs have since adopted. It can be argued that Arsene has had the greatest impact on English football of any football manager in the history of the sport. He certainly is the most effective of the long string of Arsenal managers. Have some footy of my own tonight, but aside from that it's right dull around here. That all for now, Wastrel On! (Listening to Susan Tedeschi)

3 Points to the Arsenal

Arsenal took 3 more points and a giant step toward topping the group with a nice win over Porto at the Emirates. Thierry Henry scored his second header in as many games, that goal also being his 50th in European competition. Here's to 51. Alexander Hleb also stuck the onion in the bag with a long-range shot making the game a 2-Nil victory on the papers, but a massive morale boost in the heads of the lads. Elsewhere, but still Arsenal-centric, the FA passed down a nine-month immediate ban with a further nine-month suspended ban for Jonathan Barnett, the cheeky bastard agent that authored the move of Ashley Cole from Arsenal to Chelsea. I maintain, though, that Arsenal got the better end of that deal by acquiring William Gallas and £5 million. Although, sadly, it appears that Gallas is out having suffered an injury in the Porto game last evening. Apparently, a hamstring injury that looks serious enough that Arsene is a bit worried. Fine way to spend your 10th anniversary with the club, eh? Oh, and what do you know, but I finally agree with something that that banausic, greedy, self-effacing head of FIFA, Sepp Blatter said. He wants to get rid of penalties as a deciding factor in World Cup finals. I can't agree more. In fact, I've always considered a game in any competition ending in penalties or "sudden death" to be a "tragedy" (that's Blatter's word, too). In the case of penalties, it reduces a team-game to a one-on-one situation; there's no call for that. In the "golden goal" or "sudden death" game, one stroke of good, or bad luck can destroy the dreams of millions with no hope of recovery because all of a sudden the game is over. I hate this solution even more than penalties. Now, were I as vain or pompous as Blatter, I might think that someone was spying on me and my emails. I had a fantastic email correspondance with my father recently where he, too, was decrying the penalty system. He put forth a system wherein you would gradually reduce the number of players on a pitch over a period of time. This is exactly what Sepp Blatter is proposing. Blatter has indicated that serious discussion will begin very soon and that a solution will be in place in time for the South African games in 2004. Let's hope so, because once again, the current system of deciding a game on penalties is a "tragedy" and cant' be allowed to continue. Spelunkers unite! That's it for now, kids. Wastrel On! (Listening to: Moses (Live) by Coldplay)