OK - I give in!

A hypocrite. Somebody who pretends to have admirable principles, beliefs, or feelings but behaves otherwise.
I wrote an article 3 or so posts down from here entitled BBOB, bemoaning the decline in original thinking on our blogs, and deploring the pack mentality of some of our colleagues. My view was not received particularly well, and for that I apologise.

Indeed , in spite of my article - or maybe because of my article, I was tagged again! Wasn't I Toadie and Jadey?
So to prove that I am flexible in my opinions, and to appease some of my critics, I have decided to play along with the challenge I was proffered. Here goes!
1. You have to post these rules before you give the facts.

2. Players, you must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of their middle name. If you don’t have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had.

.3. When you are tagged you need to write your own blog-post containing your own middle name game facts.

D - DISCONTENTED. Most people think I have everything I want. A fantastic family, a lovely home and a great bunch of friends. But when I close my door it is very quiet . Some thing is missing.

E - EMPATHETIC. I have always had the ability to identify with, and understand other peoples feelings or difficulties. This has at times been like a weight around my neck.

N- NONCONFORMIST. I feel I have little or nothing in common with my peers. My generation bore me, so I refuse to conform the image that is expected of me.

I - IMPASSIONED. My post BBOB was the perfect example. If I believe in something, I have no problem with shouting it from the roof tops.

S - SYNERGETIC. I have always felt that the whole me is greater than the sum of the parts. What you see is not necessarily what you get. There is more to me than meets the eye! Be warned!

At this point I am required to foist this task onto 5 other people. But everyone who might be interested in partaking has already done so. So I am not going to. As I said, I'm a nonconformist!

BBOB!

I was blogging long before I discovered Helium. In fact, I only came across the site as a result of an Google advert on my blog.


Through the Helium discussion boards, it soon became apparent that we had several avid bloggers in our ranks, and before long we veterans where joined by an ever increasing army of keen writers.


Suddenly our articles were coming to life. We had photographs. We had colour, and a choice of fonts and sizes. The bland and clinical Helium presentation was replaced by something more visually attractive and user friendly.


One thing stayed the same. The quality of the articles remained extremely high.


A few weeks ago something changed. I was partly instrumental in this change of direction when I was 'tagged'. I had to provide a list of facts and create a pyramid effect by spreading the questionnaire throughout our blogging circle.

In no time at all there was a new kid on the block. On most of the sites, creative writing was replaced by another survey, in which we were all asked to provide 40 facts about ourselves.


Currently the sites are dominated by blog interviews. Add to this a new craze for downloading photos of zippers and dogs under the headings of Mute Monday, Toothless Tuesday, Wobbly Wednesday etc. No doubt this will soon be joined by ****ing Friday and ****ing Sunday!


So what went wrong? What happened to creative writing? Why do so many of our blogs look the same? What happened to individuality?


I'm starting a campaign for real blogs. I'll give it the acronym BBOB - Bring Back Our Blogs.


Let's get writing, and posting our own photographs. Let's get back to the age old tradition of story telling. Please.

Celebritas - 14th century Latin word meaning famous

Hands up! I am a Big Brother fan! Honest!
'Celebrity' Big Brother started a day or two ago.
Three or four days ago I wrote a piece about the celebrities I've met. I am sure that you will have recognised most , if not all the personalities I named. When these fine people hit town, they brought with them a host of supporting actors, musicians and extras. These I also met. Often they were long departed soap stars or members of bands from years ago. Z- listers. And whilst they were perfectly charming and lined my pockets with cash in return for gastronomic favours, I decided not to include them in my tome.
Lo and behold, they start turning up on celebrity reality shows!
What's going on? I have just sat and watched a 79 year old ex- film director who I had assumed long dead and buried (and on second thoughts he could well be, given the contribution he's making to the programme). Then there's the brother of celebrity Michael Jackson, the co-star of long departed Kenny Everett, a curly haired pop- star from decades ago and an American I've never seen before nor heard of. Add to this list a bloke and a girl from a couple of bands that were adored by children years ago and Bollywood film star! As for the rest, goodness knows who they are!
The only true celebrity is Jade Goodey. Ironic, isn't it, that she is only famous for having been on the 'Mere Mortals' version of Big Brother five years ago! And whatsmore, she didn't even win! What is going on?
Anyway, must get back to the tellie - it's just come back on again!

Sports reporters, weather forecasters, (except Kaddy) and other aliens

'What a goal!'. If you watched all the coverage of football matches on Saturday nights' telly, how many times do you think you'd hear that screeched?. It dosn't even make sense if you think about it, yet you hear it over and over and over again. But that's just one of the infuriating things comentators say.

'Owen's running back up the pitch and he's thinking "arn't I a clever young man - what a spiffing goal" '. Why do commentators put words in players minds and mouths? How do they know what they're thinking and saying? In any case, if he's thinking at all - which is debatable -it's more likely to be "that showed the f******* b*******s".

And why do they have to shout?. They're usually in a special booth away from the hoards. Surely the technology exists to provide a mike they can speak into at normal volume rather than bellow as if they've only been given a megaphone.

And what is their purpose in life anyway? If you go to the match you don't have a commentary. At Wimbledon you don't have someone bellowing - "andHenmannservestotheoffsidcourtforehand return - no - backhand(gasp) returnfromtheyoungScothenmanddoeatriplesalcobeforesmashingitintothenet.(gasp) My word, what do you have to say Jimmy?" .

Have you noticed just how many victories are 'famous' these days? 'Yet another famous win for Manchester United'. How can something that has just happened be famous? Waterloo was a famous battle - the Millenium dome was a famous flop. And sporting icons are created daily! What's that all about?

Nothing to do with the subject, but talking of microphone technology just reminded me of something, Can anyone tell me why Noel Edmunds, on his infuriatingly tedious Deal or No Deal, has two massive peices of electrical equipment strapped to his waist?. Presumably they are to do with communication between him and the control room, though in this age of miniturisation, surely it would be possible to provide something a tad smaller. After all, I can speak to someone the other side of the world using a devise the size of a fag packet!. And he dosn't need them to talk to the banker (whom I understand to be the associate producer) because he uses the good old dog and bone. Madness.

Weather forecasters. Now they a breed all of their own. Not all of course, there is one notable exception. But many seem to have been to a taught a method of delivery reserved especally for them. They like to insert the letter 'a' into sentances. 'There is an anticyclone out to the a-west which is a-likely to produce a-rain'. And that strange rhythm pattern. 'the north wind will make it .... feel........very.................cold'

Then there are polical correspondents who love putting words into politicians mouths' preceeding them with the word 'look'. 'Mr Blair met Mr Bush today and what he said was "look - blah blah blah" '. No he didn't. John Prescott may have said 'look - there's a pork pie', but generally policos don't start every sentence with 'look'.

And staying on the subject of telly, what about those continuity announcers?. You have just watched an amazing piece of drama which ended in a mindblowing climax. You begin to recover your composure whilst the credits start to roll. A piece of carefully selected mood music wafts over you when suddenly a voice booms out at you 'and next - the latest episode of You Wouldn't Believe What Your Neighbours Are UpTo'.
Or worse - they tell you about the programme after next, or one next month!

Don't it make you mad!!!