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OK. I think I’m ready to talk now.

Life On Mars. Brilliant. No, beyond brilliant. Amazing. Wonderful. Magical stuff. Supreme. Superlative. Exceptional.

The last episode had everything. It certainly kept us guessing until the end, and even now there’s still some ambiguity as to which world was real and which one wasn’t. Until this morning I was convinced that 1973 was real and 2006 was merely the result of amnesia following a car crash – but maybe I’m wrong, and maybe he did wake up – only to go back again by jumping off Manchester Police Station. Matthew Graham thinks so, but then what does he know? He only wrote the thing after all.

Wow. I don’t think I’ve been so impressed with a TV show in a long time. But it’s over now, and the curtain has fallen on Sam Tyler and the rest of A Division.

But not for long. I’d normally be wary of a spin off, but I have faith in the Life on Mars team. And I certainly trust the Gene Genie.

The internet is a great source of unusual news. For example, it’s been reported recently that the number of boys being born each year is falling, and some people think they know why; apparently smoking during conception leads to more female births.

I can’t help but think this could form a basis of a new anti-smoking advert – “quit smoking AND SAVE THE HUMAN RACE!” It’s a bit more positive than “you may get cancer which will cause a slow agonizingly painful death”, at any rate.

Elsewhere, Charlie Brooker’s got some thoughts on the new “talking” CCTV cameras that are being tested in a few places around the country. I’m not going to go on for to long about it myself because his column is much funnier than I could ever be, but I do think the idea is slightly Orwellian, especially when Britain is watched so much by CCTV anyway. I could probably get behind Charlie’s alternative, though.

Adam’s put up a short piece about spam on his blog, specifically the “your mail will cost more if you don’t forward this to everyone you know” kind. His post may be rather blunt, but he has a point – there is no way that this stuff should be allowed to continue, and we shouldn’t forward it. Harsh, but perhaps necessarily so.

Cat rides bus every day. Not particularly newsworthy, but I couldn’t resist.

Doctor Who continues to be brilliant, and Martha “Then I can get sectioned!” Jones continues to be a great companion. “The Shakespeare Code” had some particularly good jokes, and perhaps the funniest reference to Harry Potter you will ever hear.

And finally, it’s the last ever episode of Life On Mars tonight. I’m sort of struggling with this because I know the show could easily have gone stale if it had carried on, and I also really want to find out the ending, but it also happens to be one of the most innovative shows I’ve seen for a while , and it’s a shame that it’s going to an end. There is however, a spin off to look forward to, and it’s not like we’ve seen the last of John Simm either…

One of my many startlingly average talents is to have long untimatly pointless conversations with friends. One such conversation happened on Sunday, where a conversation turned into a quest to find word for “fear of chip paper”

So far the search has proved fruitless. We have discovered many other phobias either from online sources, or our own limited Greek knowledge.

• arachnoandrophobia – fear of Spider-Man (my own invention)
• phobophobia – fear of being afraid.
• Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia – fear of long words.
• hellenologophobia – fear of Greek words.

Anyone else got anything interesting?

(title is random, may explain, probably won’t…)

Today’s been interesting. A lot of it was spent looking at this site and feeling nostalgic at all the old tunes…and some newer ones. Some people might consider a day listening to TV themes “wasteful” or “idiotic”, but I think we know that that’s’ just not true, right?

We also got an opportunity to indulge in some serious gaming with the Wii. A good time was had by all who participated, with Excite Truck, Wii Sports and Rayman Raving Rabbids providing the entertainment and hilarity.

It’s good to be home.

There’s been coverage recently about violence at the Man United v Roma match on Wednesday, with several fans ending up in hospital, and a lot of criticism being aimed at the Rome Police. Today the Chief of Police responded, essentially claiming that the British media and United were essentially exaggerating what had happened to undermine the police, with several jabs at the British being “out to get them” and some CCTV of United fans causing trouble.

I didn’t see the match, but have seen the reports since and comments from both sets of fans suggesting that some of the “Ultras” were being disruptive. This shouldn’t be taken as a means of defending the United hooligans, who shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near a football stadium, but to suggest that the violence was entirely the fault of United fans is not good policing. England does not have a monopoly on football hooliganism, and I don’t think it’s fair to the decent United supporters who just want to watch a football match to be hung out to dry like this, especially since it now seams the Italian police response was at best an over reaction, and at worst discriminatory.

The thing is of course, is that English football has a reputation, especially in Italy. The Heysel Disaster has plagued us since 1985, and it’s been hard to shake off even after 22 years. Not that I am suggesting that anyone should forget what happened and who was responsible, but this should not come at the cost of decent peoples entertainment.

Football hooligans are thugs disguised as football fans. If we want to to stop hooliganism, clubs must be willing to work together. The police should not try and shift blame onto the supporters, and the clubs should not continue to try and shift blame on each other. Instead, we should drop all the stupid prejudices and focus on making sure these people are not allowed near a match again.

EMI have announced that their entire download catalog will now be available without DRM. If you’ll give me a moment, can I just say what an excellent move this is?

Having recently put Ubuntu on my laptop, I’ve been intensely annoyed that the songs I’ve picked up from iTunes in the past won’t play simply because of DRM. For a start, it won’t let me play the newest Weird Al Yankovic album I got from the store. I brought that album legally (because Al told me to), so I should have the right to play it on whatever I like, but apparently that’s not the case. With this in mind, is it any wonder that so little people listen to Al’s advice.

The deal isn’t perfect. It sucks to think that I’ll have to pay an extra 20p just to listen to my songs anywhere, and of course EMI are not the only record label out there. That said, I’m optimistic about the future.

On that note, did everyone enjoy Doctor Who last Saturday? Good stuff. Certainly the best “opening” episode of the new series, and Martha (a.k.a. Freema Agyeman) looks likes she’ll make a good companion. This series looks particularly impressive, with Daleks in Manhattan, the return Captain Jack, and the coming appearance of John Simm from Life On Mars.

Enjoy yourselves.

Recently on Facebook, I created a group dedicated to the importance of North Warrington after some snob with a superiority complex decided to inflict his opinions on the rest of us.

One hates to sound smug but it is obvious that Warrington South, with its affluence, expensive housing, abundant greenery and better class of person, is a very different entity to Warrington North, with its grim little terraces and flats and its proliferation of drug takers, dole scroungers and criminal riff-raff.

Charming.

Anyway, more recently it seems our group has gained a rival group from the South, and they are quickly gaining forces (they may have just formed themselves, but I like to think I have influence in these things). So essentially, our group is about to enter the most dreaded of things…an Internet War^TM.

I leave this post to you as a memory in case I don’t make it back.

I was feeling pretty impressed with getting Ubuntu to work properly until I heard my stepsister has cycled along “Death Road”.

I need to get some more excitement in my life.