BrainShare sessions appear to have cleared all the necessary legal, factual and whatever else (oh, design) checks, and we have a green light for go! It was a process I wasn’t looking forward to, as I’ve been speaking regularly for a couple of years now and never before has it been vetted to such an extent. I’m trying to create a reputation as a plain speaker, but at the same time approachable afterwards for a chat and possibly a pint about it.

I don’t even mind if people pick holes in my arguments, as long as it’s explained to me why that persons disagrees. The whole point of presenting in my view is to stimulate and promote discussion, not stupify people, or drop them harmlessly into a coma after 10 minutes.

Wigan v Everton tomorrow, if we don’t get a result then frankly I fear we might be bothering Championship clubs again next season. I explained to Matt earlier that I’m less bothered about this than maybe I should be. I’ve been a Wigan fan for the best part of 25 years, and most of those were in the lower leagues, so what’s the worry?

to add just before Christmas that I met the Pawn Shop Kings, who happened to be supporting Rocco Deluca in Manchester at the Life Cafe. I have to confess that I hadn’t heard of them before, but I enjoyed their set immensely. They had superb vocal harmonies, and took the time to keep it real by mingling with the audience afterwards.

I had the pleasure of a quick conversation with them and found them to be very down to earth and happy to talk. In every respect, the total opposite of paying top whack to sit in the roof of the MEN and watch some act three miles away from you, who you will never get to meet. Good luck guys, you deserve the best luck!

On the other hand, Lucky Jim, the other support act, really wasn’t my cup of tea at all. I just don’t dig songs about how depressing life is and how we live life “through the bottom of a bottle”. Fcuk me, I wanted to slash my wrists afterwards.

On another track, I read some disturbing things today about the place I’ve ordered by PSP from, hopefully it’s just a couple of people shit stirring, but you never know. I thought it suspicious myself, hence using the security afforded to me by Visa.

a moron, or so goes the song. From the 1st Feb, his hike in air taxes takes effect, probably much to the detriment of anyone travelling anywhere by plane. Badly thought through, retrospective and ostensibly to reduce the “carbon footprint”. Oh get a life. You’ve taxed like no Chancellor in history and spent it on stupid causes.

Raising taxes does not stop people from making necessary journeys, it just makes the good people of the UK want to go and live in a country that doesn’t try and put them on a guilt trip for having two weeks away in Spain with the family. I don’t really agree with global warming as a theory, on top of the fact now the UK press is verging on the hysterical, with the UK Government doing all they can to fuel it. It makes me want to rip my arm out of my socket just so I have something to beat them with ( (C) Joey, Friends).

Found out my BrainShare conference fee has been refunded owing to my new found speaker status. The boss will be pleased!

of the day yesterday, went like this :-

Bloke A : Here’s a question – how do I get more spam in my mailbox?

[long pause]

Me : Why don’t you join a swinger’s website?

[no pause at all]

Bloke B : No, that doesn’t work

Away from that, got some neat artwork from Novell to put into my presentations, hope I can do all of this justice. Found a website flogging new PSPs for £75. Don’t think it’s for real, but I’ve ordered one anyway with my credit card. Anything hokey and I’ll let Visa deal with it, it’s why I pay them 17% a year 😉

Beckham off to LA, good luck to him.

and against all odds, my two sessions at BrainShare have made the cut! So as well as it being my first time in the US, first time at BrainShare US (duh!), it will also be my first time presenting there.

It all seemed such a good idea back in November when the call for papers opened and I submitted my musings for the vote. I never thought in a zillion years that it would make it to the vote stage, less actually get voted for by real, living, breathing people.

My sessions are BUS222 and BUS226, hopefully they’ll have the mother of all graveyard slots later in the week when folks will come along to get away from the constant lure of the coffee bar!

Tuesday and back to work, nothing much feels different (should it?). Felt remarkably fresh and full of energy in the gym both yesterday and this morning, perhaps two weeks away from it all has actually done me good.

Registered everywhere I can think of for a PS3, looking forward to hooking it up to my new LCD telly. We now start to look ahead to upcoming exciting things, like BrainShare in March. Wishing the year away already!

Well 2006 is almost at an end, and I don’t think I’m sorry to see it go, not that in all reality it makes much difference. Like zillions of people worldwide, I’m going to attempt to blog on a more regular basis, but I’m certainly not going to commit to promising a daily rant, it’s utterly pointless. Same with New Years resolutions, what a waste of time.

In the news, Saddam is dead. Years ago in my much younger, more impetuous days, I used to believe in the death penalty. Now I don’t. Really, what’s the point. I know in the Iraqi culture, it’s more of an eye for an eye, but it doesn’t make things right. Do his victim’s families really feel a sense of closure, or do they just feel cheated? The people he gassed died in terrible pain, Saddam was apparently half way through a sentence when they dropped the trap door and snapped his neck. It must have been like switching out a light. Instead, why not let him rot in prison for 15 years or more, thinking about what he’s done and not making a martyr out of him.

Also, with the cult of personality these type of people tend to have, why not spend time chatting to him, getting inside of his head, learning what made him tick? These dictators tend to be garralous, so I don’t imagine you’d need thumb screws to find out much about him.

Not much else to tell apart from I miss the crushing normality of the daily routine, and look forward to getting back to work on Tuesday. Until that point, I’ll enjoy my new 40″ Samsung LCD telly!

Amazing how quickly you can forget to blog, or just not get around to it, or not even make an excuse to record your ramblings for posterity. I don’t know, maybe even one day someone will actually read this (most likely if I get hit by a meteorite on Peter Street tonight) and make some sense of it.

Just because I haven’t blogged doesn’t mean that there has been nothing going on. Family wise we are still getting over Nan’s death. I’m getting over it much better than I thought I would, although I’m sure it won’t be easy over Christmas. After the death of a loved one, life is full of little milestones you have to get past as part of the grieving process. I think the reason why I’ve taken it better than any other is that in all reality, she wasn’t the same person for the last year and I didn’t see much of her. Any nursing home really rubs your face in the fact that we all get old, and it’s totally pot luck what quality of life you will have by that stage. For the record, I’d rather be dead than a blubbering wreck who can’t control his own bodily functions.

Now that I’m out of bed after four days and barely holding down food, the last thing I probably needed was to be informed that Jordan and Peter Andrex have gifted a charidee album to the world. As if my stomach wasn’t tender enough!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Whole-World-Katie-Price-Peter/dp/B000JU8FXK/

You’ll laugh! You’ll cry! You’ll hurl! Check out the reviews, pure genius!

We lost our dear Nan on Friday night, and the feeling of loss is enormous. Don’t get me wrong, it has been coming, but it’s still hard to take and I’m not sure I’m dealing with it too well. We only have a small family anyway, but to see it shrink by one is difficult to take.

I worry for my Dad of course and how he will cope, being an only child and that’s both his parents gone now. I suppose all I can do is make sure I’m there when he needs me.

I’ve been lucky in that I haven’t lost a family member for a little while, and you do forget how it feels. Let me say, I don’t miss it one bit.