I thought I'd never bother writing here again; but seeing a few very-well-written blogs by some Iraqis ( http://messopotamian.blogspot.com/ , http://healingiraq.blogspot.com/ and http://iraqataglance.blogspot.com/ ), it made me remember that this place really can be the only voice some people get to have, no matter how happy, sad, blissfully-ignorant or glaringly-cynical. So, here we go again...

SINCE MY LAST WRITE-UP IN MY LIFE: Passed dissertation, failed Computing & Law. I'm retaking the latter, meaning I was too broke to go to British Uprising 2 in London last Sept; (by many accounts good, but inferior to last year's inaugural show). Am a little better off nowadays. My Darts & Cribbage skills are improving slightly; I beat my dad 4 games to 3 (but only after winning 3 in a row then losing 3 in a row. Insert cheapshot *here*). Kill Bill is a fucking awesome film, Matrix Revolutions got rid of all that existential crap that Reloaded baffled me with. Corny ending though.

SINCE MY LAST WRITE-UP IN WRESTLING: So much horrid stuff: 3 deaths within the last fortnight (Road Warrior Hawk, Stu Hart and Crash Holly), a slight improvement in RAW's quality and a MASSIVE deterioration in SmackDown's (thanks to yet another McMahon ego-trip: Shane has made a welcome return (and since worn out that welcome) putting himself over Kane, who is both un-masked and bald; Linda -months ago- just wormed her way out of shagging Eric Bischoff (AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH), and Vince just beat Stephanie out of the public eye in an absurdly narcissistic (sp?) feud, culminating in a No Mercy match with both Incestual and Domestic-Violent undertones.

Not many people's poison, and certainly not mine. Did ANYTHING good come of it? well... um... Paul Heyman's back (JOY!)

SD's strongest players- Kurt Angle (it's motherfucking Kurt Angle! all I can say is the doctor that fixed his neck must be worth every cent paid), Eddie Guerrero (awesome part-truth promo recently, focusing on coming back-on-the-wagon) , Yoshihiro Tajiri (He's starting to look like the old Evil-Green-Shit-Spewing-Heel, plus *ta-da* he's got sidekicks now), Paul Heyman (Your boss chews you out for screwing up your first night. What do you do in return- Accuse your boss of losing it and get inside his head!) and John Cena, who's just turned babyface after months of hilarious Tweener "freestyles" at the expense of both Faces and Heels.

At the Survivor Series this Sunday he's part of Kurt Angle's Team (alongside Bradshaw, Chris Benoit and someone who isn't Faarooq because he's injured) against WWE Champion Brock Lesnar's team (Brock- who by affilliation to Heyman is suddenly Big Show's pal again-, Show, A-train, Nathan Jones (crikey!) and Matt Morgan, a Roi... come on, be nice, he's probably straight-shooting. Can I help it if Vince WANTS to hire people based on nothing else but looks? what can I say, It's not *my* job to run a wrestling company into the ground)

I hope Cena doesn't have The Rock's problem of being a great heel but a shite babyface- as long as John keeps his stuff fresh, he'll have a whale of a time doing it and I'll have a whale of a time watching it. "Word Life" indeed.

Back onto the RAW side o' things: Goldberg is king, alongside on/off buddy Shawn Michaels (Awesome Comback #2) fending off Mark Henry. Yes, Mark Henry. And Evolution, who is WITHOUT Triple H (who -barring sleep, food & drink- is probably giving it to his new missus Stephanie around the clock. Lucky cnut.) but WITH Dave Batista back in the fold. Batista's much better now, and cuts a mean promo.

I'm going off Steve Austin a little, maybe because his Good Commissioner schtick, whilst being entertaining, is being watered down by the Ol' Stone Cold Kick Some Ass spirit. The outcome? Survivor series: His Team against Bischoff's team. Either Steve gets to beat people up without provocation, or he loses his Commish spot. MEH.

Other recent additions to RAW are Plucky Tag Team X- Garrison Cade and Mark Jindrak; and John Heidenreich- a Roid Boy with either an Anger Management Problem or a penile fascination, depending on the week. Talk about a mixed bag.

RAW's strongest players: Goldberg & Shawn by default- In 'berg's case it's not that good because even if he's absolute dross he'll still get pushed until he drops the title (back to HHH? probably), but Shawn can STILL have good matches with people. Heck, he can even make Mark Henry look talented! also Chris Jericho and Christian, firstly just because of who they are, and also because of their geeky subplot of indirectly trying to seduce Trish and Lita respectively. My last pick is Ric Flair, purely because (spotlights, orchestral music and 1000ft stone writing) HE. IS. RIC. FLAIR. Case closed.

SINCE MY LAST WRITE UP IN BRISTOL CITY F.C.: Scott Murray, our fastest player, buggered off to Reading. We missed out on ex-Gashead Jamie Cureton, who -when faced with a choice between City and QPR- prefered emmigrating to Korea. I don't know WHAT to say to that. Last season's failed promotion drive was City's finest chance, as Things Have Hit The Skids this season. City are not-far-short of the playoffs despite being without a League Win in several weeks, and Murray's absence HAS hurt- Chris Roberts is nowhere near as fast as Scott but he does try.

To replace Scott we picked up Lee Miller (who is a breath of fresh air in-that-he-isn't-Lee-Peacock, but is like Peacock is that he is CAPABLE of scoring but doesn't get many chances) and an Aussie called Luke Wilkshire (who -after being a creative midfielder- was stuck on the right wing by Danny Wilson until he woke up and realised Luke was -after all- a creative midfielder because he's slower than both Roberts AND Murray. Take that as a criticism, but that's not how I mean it)

Kevin Amankwaah is nowhere near the man he was before his car wreck last season, and despite scoring 2 within 3 minutes against Bradford Park Avenue, a non-league side, in the FA Cup last weekend he really doesn't look capable often. Brian Tinnion is Still Our Best Player after 11 years of our team's mediocrity, and Leroy Lita is now our Plucky Wildcard who gets few chances, mostly scores, is screwed over when fouled and gets crocked just before his moment comes. Whoopedy-bloody-doo.

Nothing else to say at the moment, so I'll see y'all in the wilderness.
- posted by Sephjnr @ 2:19 pm