[martin scriblerus] here's an example for you

The joke is on Madeley because that is precisely the type we're looking for - the unclubbable free spirit. That's why it's not a club, Richard. You're entangled now, my boy. :)

By the way, do you like the right aligned text? No?

[christmas] yo! it's our holiday today

It's Christmas today and I say to you all - Merry Christmas!!!!

Hope the day brings you everything you deserve and/or hope for. Hope that from this moment on we can put all stress and pressures behind us and go into 2008 with an upward looking mood.

How's this for coincidence?

You know what I've been doing the whole weekend since 03:00 Saturday morning with the departure form Blogpower - I've been answering e-mails, keeping up the blog, trying to do my RL work on Saturday and so on. You know, I never even noticed that Christmas had arrived today.

Phone call just came from my mate with Christmas wishes. What???!!! Oh my goodness, I'd completely forgotten. He was not impressed. So I explained the events of the last 60 hours.

"Well, have you phoned ****** [my girlfriend] ?" he aked. "She can't get you."

'Oh, b---er." I knew I had to phone not only her but her mother and grandmother and I'd been invited for family lunch. Oh woe is me! So, first cab off the rank was the most beautiful girl in the world. Lot's of words, I love you, darling and so on. Then I said I had to phone her mother and grandmother.

She handed the phone across and it was her grandmother. Then the phone was handed to her mother. Though they weren't impressed with my memory lapse and I didn't even try to explain the blogosphere, at least I'd phoned. Well, I know it doesn't look good.

Her grandmother promptly invited me over and let me tell you - this lady can cook and how!

They are at this moment driving back through the forest from a resort town and she was [GF] describing the leaves and the snow and the atmosphere and I can feel it right now.

So, with a cup of coffee here now in my flat, with you out there reading, with matters having been set straight in the last post and in RL, dreaming of the forest and with one last day before going back to work, I'm now touching wood [or knocking on wood, as they say over here].

Merry Christmas, dear readers!

[disputes] it's the silly season

Earlier in the match

Have you noticed how many disputes there have been recently? I don't mean the international State v State type but the smaller type of niggling dispute. Tiberius Gracchus puts it this way:

The 90s and 00s have been the years of vitriol. Whether its Anne Coulter accusing Democrats of 'treason' or its Michael Moore accusing George Bush of being a Saudi puppet, whether its the mad bloggers of the right rounding on appeasers or its the mad bloggers of the left rounding on chickenhawks, its open season on the internet and in the newspapers.

The Croydonian writes:

Abstracted from an article about a spat twixt the Netherlands and Aruba, involving debt, sovereignty and a hotel: "A Freedom Party MP recently called Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles "a den of thieves" and suggested putting the six islands up for sale on the internet".

Then what about the India v Australia furore?

India's tour of Australia last night erupted when touring captain Anil Kumble attacked Australia's sportsmanship, Indian team management demanded the umpires be stood down for their incompetence, and Ricky Ponting reacted with fury when his integrity was questioned.

With tensions already high as Harbhajan Singh's racism hearing began at the SCG, Kumble was unable to contain his anger at his post-match press conference.

Kumble simmered as he delivered a line reminiscent of Bill Woodfull's famous Bodyline statement. "I think only one team was playing within the spirit of the game," Kumble said, causing the Indian media contingent to break into applause.

The bad blood between the two sides spilled over after the Australians snatched a 122-run victory with eight minutes left in the Test.

Something in the air or in the water, do you think?

Later in the match

[nice guys] sunday evening thought

Nice guy, no? Actually, this photo was taken minutes after he was found guilty of the mass murder of women with two other men.

The nice guys only seem to finish last, but really that is because they are the last ones standing. They last the distance, bad boys don't. And besides I like nice guys, that's not the issue. Nice guys with Bob Geldof syndrome who cry at Grey's Anatomy? They don't quite float my boat. [Oestrebunny]

This research here suggests that opinion is split, with 56% of women agreeing nice guys finish last but that women might see the nice guy as a "keeper" and the bad boy for the fling.

My thinking, therefore, is that if she does take a "keeper", then unless her moral principles are strong or she loves him, the nice guy will usually end up being cheated on. If she does love him, the question folows: "For how long?"

So either way, the nice guy is living on borrowed time, unless he can convince her he's a bad boy. :)

Bad boy, yes? He's a policeman called out to assist a battered woman. Here he holds a torch while the lady policeman attends to the woman.

[late for the sky] still we continue on

Jackson Browne had his detractors. Some thought his songs a little twee, the pathos overdone. Some thought much of his material music to slit your wrists by, a little like Leonard Cohen [different genre of course]. Some thought he became too much the journeyman muso. Some thought he was wonderful.

I met the man, with his girlfriend of the time, Daryl Hannah [Splash], sometime after the suicide of his wife. He seemed a nice guy.

This song I particularly liked - Late for the Sky:

Now the words had all been spoken
And somehow the feeling still wasn't right
And still we continued on through the night

Tracing our steps from the beginning
Until they vanished into the air
Trying to understand how our lives has led us there

Looking hard into your eyes
There was nobody I'd ever known
Such an empty surprise to feel so alone

Now for me some words come easy
But I know that they don't mean that much
Compared with the things that are said in a lover's touch

You never knew what I loved in you
I dont know what you loved in me
Maybe the picture of somebody you were hoping I might be

Awake again I can't pretend and I know I'm alone
And close to the end of the feeling we've known

How long have I been sleeping
How long have I been drifting alone through the night
How long have I been dreaming I could make it right
If I closed my eyes and tried with all my might
To be the one you need.

[martin scriblerus] first scribblings

The Logo

This is but a rough and everything can change. I'd like to see a parchment edge but don't have the tools. Copyright is not an issue with this logo but it was with the previous one.

Which do you like better - the pale or the bold version? Maybe you like neither.

Running this logo in your sidebar indicates you are one of the Martin Scriblerus Alliance [the name can be changed later].

The idea

The logo, such as it finally becomes when we can get a designer onto it, is to symbolize top blogging in no specific area. To sport the logo is a comment on quality. As there are no rules and it is not a club, then there are no prescribed limits to numbers. There is no specific home site but rather the discussion is shared round. This can alter as members see fit.

Criteria for invitation

Invitation is through the joint opinion of all members who care to comment. Anyone can put up a blog for inclusion, often repeatedly but this is subject to scrutiny by the alliance and to acceptance of the logo by the blogger.

You would have an established blog which is a main blog, you write excellently and enjoy fairly universal admiration for your blog in a cross-section of most corners of the blogosphere, you are also admired and respected as the person behind the blog.

On top of this, you have a point of view and a purpose to your blog of an elevated nature but not for recruiting of any nature - you persuade through your arguments. You're for the freedom of the blogosphere and committed to improving your blog all the while.

Your primary purpose on the blog is to write rather than to use any method possible to up your traffic. The writing is consistent and a broad cross section of readers come to your blog more or less regularly.

You haven't been subject to continued criticism from various quarters as to the ethical conduct of your blog - quite the opposite in fact.

You're known for caring for fellow bloggers. Apart from that, you can be as cantankerous, anti-social, individualistic and "unclubbable" as your heart desires.

Current state of affairs

We're up an running and gathering the first 10 members who'll form a "steering alliance" [there are 5 already], after which others will be invited jointly. Very small beginnings and steady and careful as she goes. Absolutely no hurry.