Dave's random mumblings…

If you don’t recognize it, it’s a quote from Planet of the Apes. It’s kinds relevant and the Charlton Heston original is a great movie.

I’ve mentioned that we need to be ready to face anything, and that my money was on a Zombie Apocalypse, but this week I’ve been reconsidering what the source may be when it all goes pear shaped (however, I do recommend Max Brooks  “World War Z” to help you prepare).

I think we’ve been ignoring the animal kingdom, with a little hindsight I think we’ve had plenty of notice that something is afoot (“When Animals Attack” and the entire Planet of the Apes series). We saw these as entertainment and almost totally ignored the warnings they contain. It all changed this week, I think we may have seen the animal kingdoms William Wallace make his presence known (and the real one, not the Mel Gibson version).

This week in Spain a bull jumped into the crowd during a bull fight. Considering these people went there to see a bull tormented it’s difficult to have much sympathy when the bull decided to join them in the expensive seats. The bull gored a couple of people and gave a few others a bit of a kicking before he was brought under control.

Was this the first step towards us living on “Planet of the Bulls”?

While Hemmingway famously felt that Bull Fighting was one of a handful of real sports, many people disagree today. Even Spain is split about the future of Bull Fighting, it’s a rather bloody spectacle that I don’t see the appeal of and some provinces, most notably Catalonia, have banned it. This movement seems o be gaining momentum, the traditionalists talk of history, while a majority see unnecessary suffering.

Friday night out was easy, Black Happy were playing at The Crocodile (great music venue in Bell Town formally known as The Crocodile Café). I’ve heard of Black Happy, not sure I’ve ever seen them before; they were to be the next “big thing” band out of Seattle in the mid 90’s and just never made it.

They were playing the Croc over the weekend and friends were telling me this would be good. So Friday night I went with a couple of friends and saw one of the best shows I’ve seen at a local bar in a long time. Seattle and the Northwest has a very rich music scene and a modern history that stands with any city in the country and I understand Black Happy were something of a contemporary of Sound Garden, just with a bigger sound.

Last night they showed it, the Croc was sold out and they played a great set, really fun band that looked like they were having fun. Think heavy metal with horns, a unique sound and a great concert.

Had a little poke around iTunes and brought the Black Happy album Peghead. A little rough around the edges, not as heavy the more polished band I saw last night, but worth the purchase.

Saturday brought forth a huge number of options. Hempfest had a concert going on, Lady Gaga was playing the Tacoma Dome and Ida Glass was talking at Benaroya Hall.

Hempfest is not really my scene. I got offered a Lady Gaga ticket yesterday, but I really don’t want to be around screaming pre-teens right now and I’m not sure I can stand for two hours on my rough knee. As talented as she is, and despite the potential people watching being almost as good as Vegas, I decided to pass on a big night at the T-dome.

That left Ira Glass, and it turned out to be a good choice. For those not in the know Ida Glass is the host of the long running This American Life radio show. Each week the hour-long show is broadcast on NPR and explores a particular theme. The content varies from the provocative though to the rather humourous. Current events are occasionally explored and a lot of the time a very personal first person narrative is the format.

Ira Glass talks to a full Benaroya Hall

The content is always well done, interesting and thought provoking. Over the last couple of months I’ve got into the This American Life Podcast, very entertaining and the top download on iTunes for good reason. This had the potential to be a rather interesting evening and certainly quite the change of pace from the previous night.

Benaoya hall was sold out tonight, Ida e was introduced by Dan Savage. Dan’s three proudest moments – licking doorknobs, Santorium and being a regular contributor to This American Life. If you want to know more about the first two Google them, it’s worth it.

Ira Glass spoke for eloquently for almost two hours and took time to show his skill in making balloon animals…

He talked about how the stories come to their attention; the programs are structure and how the themes come about.

The highlight for me was the stories. He shared the background behind a few of his favorite stories. The common theme was that they were personal, involved very few people and had something of a resolution at the end.

He shared the breakdown of what he feels makes a story compelling. A religious service, the bible, my racing stores along with radio stories about vending machines on an aircraft carrier or software end user agreements are all structured in the same way. Action, action, action followed by a pause for thought or reflection. Then repeat until you close with a good line.

When put out there it’s remarkably simple and effective. I get this was probably understood by everyone that’s studied English in any depth. I’ve not formally studied English language since leaving school at 16 (I think my writing and certainly my limitations with language make that clear) and one of the reasons I started doing this was to improve my writing, lets see if this helps.

I got a call to let me know I missed out last night, apparently the Lady Gaga concert was rather good. I’m still happy with my decision.

I grew up playing rugby, it’s a great sport and unfortunately is largely responsible for my damaged broken down body. I’ll admit it was ably assisted by a few race cars into tree moments, but I’m primarily blaming rugby.

In the decade or so that I played with the odd shaped ball I’ve never see anyone do what Australian Kava Lumanuvao did. He pulled a knife out during an ill tempered game.

Everyone who’s played the game has taken part in a game or two that was not played in strict accordance to the rules. The occasional punch is thrown in the scrum, maybe a high tackle or two and even a surreptitious stamp of boot on thigh during a maul.

They are a not big deal and afterwards in the bar everyone has a pint and it’s all forgotten untill we play again. All forgiven, but it does get filed away should the opportunity to get even present itself in the future.

It was during a big game, the league semifinal where Lumanuvao’s team, The Chaffey Titans, were taking on Mildura Tigers for a place in the Sunraysia Rugby League final in Victoria, Australia. It seems a Tigers player laid a late hit on a Lumanuvao and in finest Australian/rugby tradition a brawl broke out involving all thirty players on the field.

Unusual, but ultimately nothing that AP is interested in yet.

Then Lumanuvao walked to his car, grabbed a knife and returned to the brawl with it in his hands. With all the testosterone and adrenalin flying about the urge is understandable, actually walking to your car to pull the knife out shows very questionable judgment.

Before he got back to the brawl with the knife he was stopped and disarmed by his coach and team mates. I imagine everyone was very, very focused on stopping the fight when the knife showed up. No one was injured with the weapon, but the game was abandoned and the Tigers awarded the win and a place in the final.

Lumanuvao quite rightly received a lifetime ban, the player that started it with the late hit was banned four weeks and a third player than ran onto the field to take part in the fight (and played for neither team on the field) was banned for 17 months.

Victoria Rugby League chairman Greg Brentnall said violent behaviour will not be tolerated in its leagues. “Whilst it is disappointing that an incident such as this occurred in the first place, we are fully supportive of the strong, decisive and timely action taken,” he said in a statement.

A player pulled a knife in response to an on-the-field incident and the league chairman is “disappointed”, I love Australian understatement.

I’ve lived through something over 15,000 days and the indicators are there that I’m growing up – ear hair, friends who don’t wear sneakers all the time, mortgage, fewer t-shirts with rude messages on them and perhaps most telling of all the thought that perhaps I should get a practical car.

The last one was a particular surprise to me, especially as one of the reasons I tried to justify it with reasoning that only added to the already high WTF value. I thought it would be great, “I’ll be able to haul stuff back from the DIY store…” This was particularly shocking, Dad hauls stuff home from the DIY store. OK not recently what with the whole in hospital thing, and certainly not in his tiny Hyundai, but he used too and he’s old…

Old people do that and I’m not… The pause was followed by an out loud “oh fuck” as the denial bubble burst, I might just be… Middle age…

So now I‘m through the denial, what sort of “practical” car to get. It will be sharing space with the Miata once it’s repaired after being hit and vandalized. And lets be clear, that’s not the manliest car around so it needs to provide a little more “Arggg! me man” credibility than its stable mate.

I have these bizarre pretensions of being an outdoorsy manly man, there is a certain amount of evidence that it’s just not me now. Exhibit A is the fact that I’m not a huge fan of camping. I went through that phase in my teens and early 20’s, when I did all sorts of adventurous things like hiking portions of the Appalachian Trail in Tennessee after watching Deliverance and staying under nylon in the jungles of Malaysia.

OK, so back to the car – it’s got to have four wheel drive and proper off road credentials, so thankfully we’ve eliminated mini-vans, most SUV’s and boring regular cars. Although I do think an ex-police Crown Vic would be a fun car to own, people would let you out into traffic more often for a start.

I can’t afford a newish Range Rover, actually not true as I was once again shocked by how much the bank was willing to trust me with when I applied for a loan. So I could afford a new Range Rover but the idea of a $1000 car payment every month is so ridiculous to be inconceivable to me.

A Jeep wrangler would be OK, I’ve known people who own them, not really what you’d call super practical but with the back seats removed there is a little room back there. I’m not sure I qualify for one as I don’t own a dog, judging by those I know it seems to be a requirement, for some reason it’s almost always a golden Lab.

My boss owns a Grand Cherokee and hates it. The car has spent more time being fixed than it has on the road in the last year. That’s out, though he did snigger when he found out what I ended up buying.

When I start thinking about proper 4WD off-roaders, it turns out the list is actually rather limited. Nissan X-terra is sort of there, but a little basic inside. Some models of the Toyota FJ have off-road pretensions, but the interior looks like it came out of the Fisher Price toys for 3-5 year old catalogue.

VW has the Toureg, the only ones available around at a price I’m interested in paying are clearly thrashed or have frighteningly high mileage (how do you put 175000 miles on a 4 year old car and not be a sales rep?). Much the same story for Porsche Cayenne, there are a few around the top end of what I want to spend on a second car. But the same stuff that applied to the Touregs (and they are essentially the same car) but more so, with the added bonus of buttock clenching insurance rates.

The best 4X4 by far

So with a certain inevitability we are back to the Land Rover stable, in the mid 90’s I shared a student house with Mark, a former Land Rover mechanic from Jersey (the island, not state) and he swore everything LR made other than the Range Rover was junk.

I totally disagree, I’ve run a mid 90’s range Rover, most of the time was junk. It was not a well maintained version when it arrived and spent its days marking its territory with a succession of oil leaks, head gasket failures and suspension problems. However, on those rare moments it was working it was awesome and maybe the best car I’ve ever driven.

I do recall Mark having a certain begrudging admiration for the second generation Discoveries. The off-road credentials are very certainly there (its got a proper transfer case), the interior is rather nice and it’s practical. Reliability was not perfect, especially on the early ones, so finding the right car is important.

The DNA of the car can be traced back to the original Range Rover (known as the “classic” in RR circles) and that must have been doing something right as it was in production for 25 years. Incidentally, the depreciation on most Land Rover cars is absolutely astounding, but in this case it works in my favour if I can find the right one.

So a late Discovery, with full dealer service history, all recalls fixed (and there were a few), clean car fax report and lowish miles. Should not be too hard.

Famous last words…

Actually the right car turned up at a local dealer after a few weeks, only problem was the dealer wanted stupid money for it. I spoke to one of the salesmen who said they might find a little wiggle room on the price. I wanted them to find a shit load of wiggle room. The test drive showed everything was in order, it looked good and except for the price this was exactly what I was looking for. I told the dealer what I thought it was worth, he tried to bargain to see what they could do to get me in that car on that day.

I made it clear what my offer was and told them to call if they can meet it.

My Discovery II

There are all sorts of stats about what happens once a customer walks out of the dealership, essentially the chances of them coming back is remote at best. We had a couple of phone conversations over the following days, I said I’d come in at the end of the month and see if they were more willing to deal then.

Unlike previous dealer experiences, my bargaining with Bellevue Land Rover and Jaguar was nothing but professional. They knew I was serious, had the loan lined up and was not in a rush. Eventually they met my price. They sold a used car and I had what I was looking for. Everyone was happy.

So now I’m the proud owner of a 03 Land Rover Discovery. In typical Land Rover style it’s quirky, things are slightly different to keep the LR traditions alive. I’ve already had my first spate of warning lights; (ABS, Traction Control and Hill Descent Control) coming on and just as quickly going away.

As Jeremy Clarkson believes owning an Alfa Romeo is a requirement to call yourself a petrolhead, I think owning a Land Rover should be on that particular checklist too.

Today was the All British Field Meet at Bellevue Community College. For those not in the know this is a chance for all the owners of various marques of British cars to come together and bitch about reliability and discuss the minutia of restoring and keeping British cars running (as I’ve said before, some of the worst cars ever built came out of British factories from the late 60’s through to the early 80’s).

It’s an anoraks paradise. The place was wall to wall with Astons, MGs, Hilmans, Morgans, Rolls Royces, Rovers, Austins, Minis, TVRs, Jags and even a lone Sterling (a British car model never actually sold in Britain). There were over 200 cars there in total.

There seemed to be two types of owner, those that appreciated and drove their cars, and those who had slightly lost the plot, were deep in discussions about matching VIN numbers and trailered their cars everywhere.

I should add now the Land Rover owners were all in the first category, every one of the 15 or so Land Rovers were driven, some daily.

The second type of owner does scare me slightly. I’m guessing it’s probably a good outlet for the OCD of the world, continually fussing over the lightest detail in order to make their car perfect, to make it the same as the day it rolled out the factory. Truthfully, I don’t think the factory fully knew what they were building sometimes, and the more “exclusive” the marque, the less likely they were to leave the factory exactly per the spec sheet.

The Land Rovers were well represented by the Pacific Coast Land Rover Group. There were Series II, Series III (I learned to drive in a Series III, a long time ago) and Defenders along with various models of Discoveries and Range Rovers in all sorts of states of modification. A couple were set up for long overland adventures; impressively one had been to Argentina and back.

The car you need to survive the Zombie apocalypse

I’m happy with my purchase, but it’s time to get it dirty and the Pacific Coast Land Rover group seem more than happy to help with that.

Something fun, Rubens Barrichello takes the reasonably priced car around the Top Gear test track.

If you are not familiar with the concept, the TV show puts various drivers into a standard car, gives them a little tuition and sets them out to make a fast lap on the track laid out at Dunsfold in Surrey.

There is also a separate list with a number of Formula-1 drivers, who happen to be some of the most competitive people around. Enjoy as Rubens adds his name to the list.

Big day for live sport yesterday. It started with the first real, all day long Alpine stage on the Tour De France. There is something just awe inspiring about cyclists doing 20KPH along steep alpine roads, and I mean inspiring in a “WTF, are you serious” kinda way.

The end of the live coverage of Le Tour dovetailed nicely into the start of the live coverage of the British GP. A very interesting race that Mark Weber led from lights to flag, the first corner saw the two Red Bull cars going at each and giving no quarter. Vettel came off the worst, but clearly not all is happy between the two Red Bull drivers (and both are under contract for next year at the same team).

Weber won, Ferrari had a disaster, Vettel drove from the back of the field to finish 7th and Rosberg beat Schumacher once again. Hamilton finished second and is still the championship leader, 12 points ahead of his McLaren team-mate Jenson Button, had a great drive to finish fourth after driving through the field after qualifying a disappointing 14th.

As the champagne spraying slowed down the pre-game for the World Cup Final was just starting up. A lot has been written elsewhere about this game, the best team won. Not sure if Holland’s coach, Bert van Marwijk, took inspiration from the way Inter Milan beat Barcelona in the Champions League final, but the Dutch went out to throw Spain off their game and get something. They came close, going forward the Holland looked good at times. Ultimately Spain was too good, the goal superbly taken, a tough chance made to look easy.

One story that’s got more press than it probably should have done was Paul the physic octopus. He continued his perfect record at picking the results of World Cup games involving Germany, and after Germany was eliminated, the final.

After Paul predicted an Argentine loss in the quarterfinals, Paul got death threats and recipes for braised octopus sent to him. German fans repeated this over reaction after he called the semi-final, correctly once again.

At this point I went into work for a couple of hours to finish a couple of things for meetings today. Nothing interesting, but to round off the day of sport was Seattle hosting Dallas at Quest Field. Seattle needs to the points, is yet to beat a team in their conference (home or away) this year. Dallas is one of the teams that are fighting for a play off place and need the points as much as Seattle does.

There were a number of changes, both forced and unforced. Ljungberg was out with an ankle problem (hopefully real, not a “transfer window is almost here” ankle problem), Noonan, Marshall and Vagenas were dropped. Seamon, Sturgis, replaced them and Jaqua got his first start of the year after his return from injury.

These changes along with the inclusion of Montano provided a very different look, and they played with a lot of energy and for the first half played some of the best football I’ve seen all year from Seattle. They played far better as a team that last weeks big loss to LA (a very good team by the way).

Seattle went in at half time 1-0 up, good possession and some nice passing meant the lead was well deserved. Riley connected with Seamon, who swung in a cross into the box for Montero to head past Hartman. It was a well-worked and finished goal. Seattle looked comfortable coming in at half time.

Things changed shortly after the restart when Montaro was sent off, there was a hard tackle by Dallas’ Shea, and the two players had a big coming together. The ref said Montaro threw an elbow and he was sent off for retaliation. I was in the bathroom and caught the replay on the TV’s and did not see a sending off offence on the replay.

The call seemed very harsh, especially after watching the Dutch play earlier. Had there been a MLS referee in charge of the World Cup final there would have been 7 or 8 players left on the pitch.

Seattle 1 - 1 Dallas

Seattle played down a player for close to 35 minutes, the team defended well, defended in depth and worked very had to keep the lead. It took a very well taken goal in the 87th minute to equalize.

Another result they probably should have had, the defending was good enough that I had some confidence they were going to hold onto the lead despite being down a man. Keller made a couple of good saves and it took a very good header to beat him.

There are a lot of positives to take from the game, the improvement over the LA game was clear. The younger players did themselves no harm and hopefully gave Sigi something to think about for the game at DC United on Thursday.

Todays WTF moment is coursesy of Sears in Alderwood Mall.

It’s July 8^th (and only 169 days until the big day) and Sears has Christmas decorations on the shelf, WTF…

Not reduced, not on sale, but at full price…

WTF?

“BP notes the fall in its share price in US trading last night. The company is not aware of any reason which justifies this share price movement.”

No seriously, that’s what BP had to say today. The press release is here and quite frankly, what are these guys on?

I thought I was ready. Cross of St George up at work, TV schedule mapped out, British pubs in Seattle area known (I admit, that research started quite a few years ago), Three-Lions on my iPod, traditional wall chart up, England shirt washed, parking at work for my late arrival sorted, Twitter and RSS feeds set up, and so on, and so on…

As I said, I thought I was ready. Then I was sent this…

http://www.weebls-stuff.com/songs/footy/

How could I be so naïve? I have dancing Badgers in England shirts scoring at will… Now I’m ready.

We need more Badgers...

This is what the smart people had in mind when they invented the internet!

I stopped to get petrol on the way to work this morning and noticed this on the pump. It brought up three immediate questions.

1) Does this really happen often enough to need this warning? I mean do people really drive off with the pump hose still in the car?

2) Do we really need to let warn people that they are responsible for the damage they cause?

3) Someone in the office did not suddenly decide to add these warnings, something was clearly the catalyst for this.

There was then a repeat Q1, seriously what sort of dumb arse drives off like this?