Looks like I may well be playing for the first team on Saturday. Not the whole match. Maybe not any of it, but more likely to be a quarter, possible a half. But I’ve been asked to turn up avec kit. It’s a pre-season friendly so basically it’s a chance for the coaches to see everyone in action and to work out who is going to be in the running for being part of the first team squad for the rest of the season.

However, what I did also find out is the guy who’s currently the wing is leaving for Oz in January. Which means that in the new year I may have a better chance of being in the top team.

Yeah, yeah, I know that this won’t actually be of any interest to many you but it’s something for me to focus on. I have always enjoyed sport. I used to be one of the top rugby players in my year at school up until I quit at the age of 16 to concentrate on athletics. Saturday will be the fourth game I will have played since I left school.

I’m excited, but at the same time, filled with trepidation about playing a good game and not letting the side down. But at the very least, there’ll be beer afterwards!

Two new trailers for films which tickled me:

The Life Aquatic, starring Bill Murray, Willem Dafoe, Owen Wilson and directed by Wes Anderson (Rushmore, Royal Tenenbaums).

I Heart Huckabees An “existential” comedy by David O’Russell, director of Three Kings. Starring Jude Law, Mark Wahlberg, Dustin Hoffman and Naomi Watts (among others!)

Both look to be intelligent comedies rather than the usual run of the mill gross out hollywood crap.

Ian McKellen as Zebedee?

We can but hope.

Last week I asked you name the person who said

I am very concerned about our national heritage, and I am very concerned that the films that I watched when I was young and the films that I watched throughout my life are preserved, so that my children can see them

The answer was George Lucas.

As Ben mentioned in the comments below, “Who isn’t concerned with their national heritage and films?” and on the surface of it, Lucas is putting forward a very valid concern.

But I’m overpowered by the stench of his hypocrisy.

Next month sees the long awaited arrival of Star Wars on DVD. Fantastic. Except for one thing. This is not going to be the version of Star Wars we saw in 1977. Or the “Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope” version that we saw in 1981. And rumours are rife that it is not going to be the Special Edition version that was released in 1997. No, this is going to be something new. Something different - again.

However, any chance you might have of showing your kids the original versions as you remember them are slim as Lucas is preventing any version prior to the one he is releasing from being seen again. Ever. If you’re a sad geek like me then you probably have both the original set and the special edition set on VHS. (Somewhere I still have all three films on tape as recorded from TV which is historically interesting as even then there were differences).

Allegedly, from reviews I have read, Lucas has also made substantial changes to his first opus, the sci-fi classic, “THX1138″. The reviews, so far, are not favourable. Rather than an intelligent and bleak vision of a dystopian future, Lucas has dumbed down the film to cater for the McDonalds masses of the twenty-first century.

While I am not necessarily against Special Edition/Director’s Cut/Extended versions of films (and I’m thinking of Blade Runner, Aliens, Lord of the Rings and suchlike) what I do like to have is choice. Films such as E.T. and The Wicker Man were extended or changed but both the original and new versions of the films could be found in the same package. Lucas, in his decision to never release the original original trilogy again, is denying us that choice and, in my opinion, leaving us with a legacy of films that aren’t as good as they once used to be.

That is why I am incensed that he has the audacity to be hypocritically affronted by the news that someone wants to colourize the black and white versions of The Three Stooges and that films he watched as a child may not be preserved.

Forget the drysuit, I have got to get me one of these!

The eight men arrested two weeks ago by anti-terror police have all been charged. Amongst the possessions found were reconnaisance plans of the Stock Exchange in New York, IMF in Washington and other finincial centres. They also had notes and information regarding explosives, posions, chemicals and other weapons.

They’ve been charged with conspiracy to commit a public nuisance by using radioactive material, toxic gas, chemicals or explosives.

I reckon if they’d got away with it, it would have been more than a nuisance!

(via the BBC)

The first match of the season is this weekend.

Let me qualify that. The first rugby match of the season is this weekend. For our first team at any rate. It’s probably going to be three weeks or so before my first match. Unless they’re really desperate.

I still blame Huwge and Briggy for talking me back into this rugby lark. I wonder if they’re getting a cut of profits from my chriopractor and physiotherapist?

This is well old and probably did the rounds yonks ago but I thought it was amusing. It’s a screenshot of an online newspaper. Read the story, then look at the banner ad at the top.

And yes, it’s work safe.

While at my friends wedding the other weekend, I got distracted by the goldfish in the fountain. It had just started raining and I snapped off a couple of shots to see if I could get a photo something along the lines of M.C. Escher’s drawing, ‘Three Worlds‘

I have a medal winning hangover this morning after last nights frivolities. I watched the beginning of the opening ceremony and was quite impressed by it. Then again, I have a particular love of classical Hellenic art and sculpture and I loved the history of Greece parade with all the particpants dressed and painted in the style of the contemporary art of the period they were portraying.

The toga party was a scream with much drinking and many impromptu games suggested and played (mostly in the format of down a drink, run/roll/cartwheel to the end of the garden and back, down another drink). When it came to marathon sambuca drinking and lighting of the toga party sambuca torch, it appeared that I was on my own owing to no-one else liking sambuca at all. Life can be hard sometimes.

Today is rapidly turning into a non-event. I forgot to watch Trans World Sport but did watch some of the badminton and beach volleyball which was, er, nice.

What are you doing today?