Speaking of the dead...

They say you should only speak good of the dead. He’s dead. Good.

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This blog has now moved to http://www.rablogs.co.uk/tirial, where the original article can be found.  Speaking of the dead... - http://rablogs.co.uk/tirial/2017/05/17/speaking-of-the-dead/ was published on May 17, 2017 at 10:02 am.

Hard to watch...

I haven’t posted in a while, due to it being very hard to read, but it looks like my eyes are finally clearing up.

Last night’s WCPW show was good right up to the end which was…disappointing. The group I watched with ended the evening seriously discussing whether to cancel our Whatculture Extra subscriptions and turned it into an overnight on video games.

It was fine up until the last match, where Martin Kirby received a (worked or real) concussion, and his opponent proceeded to attack his head repeatedly. It was not fun to watch. The crowd on site wanted the match stopped. We turned off. Twitter and Reddit blew up afterwards.

You see, whether it was storyline or real, the WCPW crowd is smarky, and what they showed was not taken as a heel beating an injured face, it was taken as a wrestler failing to know how to work a good match with an incapable opponent, or show the judgement to end it quickly.

Exhibit A: How to have the best match of all time with an opponent who is beyond concussed. Hell in a Cell ’98 after Foley’s second fall. Note the lack of shots to the head, the Undertaker taking time over moves to let Foley recover after the drop through the cage, and the fact the crowd are still completely into it.

[youtube_sc url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hf5c2VZ-pCo”]

Exhibit B: How to end things fast on an incapable opponent? Jeff Hardy vs. Sting at Victory Road. Was that a bad match? Yes, but the difference between Victory Road and this is that in this case the fact one participant could not continue was bloody obvious and the crowd wanted it ended.

[youtube_sc url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFNfv_ufizo”]

Otherways to end it fast include getting a submission hold on the injured man, grabbing his hand and tapping with it, or tapping with your own hand where the audience can see it is you but not the ref (Bad guys cheat. Who knew?), allowing a countout (no title, but no further damage to the opponent), punching the ref, outside interference, and a humiliation pin (foot on chest etc.). He chose “belt an injured man in the head repeatedly”.  He  got heat but as far as our group goes, it is what is called X-pac heat. We don’t want to see him win. We don’t want to see him lose. We don’t want to see him at all.

And whether real or storyline, seriously, there’s something from my TV days that applies here.

If you don’t show what people want to watch, they will turn off.

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This blog has now moved to http://www.rablogs.co.uk/tirial, where the original article can be found.  Hard to watch... - http://rablogs.co.uk/tirial/2017/05/06/hard-to-watch/ was published on May 6, 2017 at 7:51 am.

Updates

This is the first time I’ve been able to really get back to PC work, using a lot of assistive technology – a posh way for saying screenreader and Viavoice.

The eye? It’s not good. I have a plastic cornea bandage in the worst eye, and over the last couple of weeks things have finally stabilised enough for me to get sleep. By the time I wrote my last post I was on under an hour a night’s sleep, so not feeling happy with the world or me.

I’ve had to go private, as the NHS sat on things since June, I was warned it would be months at the same time I was told the dressing had to be changed by medical staff every three weeks… and I finally got my NHS referral after I’d already had the private consultation which was on the last day the dressing could be changed. It costs but seriously: running up credit bills against losing my sight? I think any one would make the same choice.

My computing time is limited and will be for the next four months. If I am lucky, treatment will not need surgery and they can fix the other eye the same way. If not, then really I don’t want to think about it.

The prototype is completely stalled. I did look for Venture Capital to fund a coder to finish the job. Oh boy. I got little response when I submitted it myself, having a chat that seemed promising only to be asked if they could talk to “the real coder” and didn’t believe me when I’d told them I had built it. I did have one ask to view the algorhythm for the AI component, and then back out when I asked them to sign an NDA first (guess what they would have done if they’d seen it – and you get no points for “hire their own coder and cut me out of my own project”). Having heard some of them had women issues I even submitted it under another name: “Les”. Good ol’ Les. Well ‘Les’ certainly got a lot more callbacks, apparently from people who didn’t realise Leslie was also a woman’s name. On the other hand, at least it makes it easy to spot the people I never want to work with.  So, anyone interested in a full flexible, scalable, ad system that can take sites of any size and doesn’t require intrusive person details, let me know. 

And finally David Cameron just quit. As an MP.

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This blog has now moved to http://www.rablogs.co.uk/tirial, where the original article can be found.  Updates - http://rablogs.co.uk/tirial/2016/09/12/updates/ was published on September 12, 2016 at 2:51 pm.

Life and everything

Well, I have SQLite working and the prototype is now running entirely off it. Billing and credit allocation is built and ready to be wired in. There’s zero validation of course, but then its still in alpha for the database and I want to be able to update things quickly. My computing time is strictly limited due to an eye injury. There’s an extremely good hospital looking into it, but it is going to take the next three months before they know if surgery is needed. Meanwhile I get very little sleep. And Suicide Squd is out. The problem is that I don’t want to take time away from the Labour leadership election to see it. With British politics in its current state, I suspect the Joker’s bodycount will have nothing on the bloodbath May just inflicted on the Cabinet.

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This blog has now moved to http://www.rablogs.co.uk/tirial, where the original article can be found.  Life and everything - http://rablogs.co.uk/tirial/2016/07/22/life-and-everything/ was published on July 22, 2016 at 6:55 am.

PM without mandate?

So Leadsom has apparently left the leadership race. It is somewhat unexpected after she fought so hard for Brexit and then to be the alternate candidate to May. However the person who should be really worried is Theresa May, as Leadsom quitting takes away May’ mandate to govern.

This was why May originally rejected the idea of a coronation. Now, no matter what she does, there will be doubts over her position and the party’s suitability to govern since it couldn’t even run a leadership election.

A Prime Minister gains their mandate in two ways:
1) From their party by victory in a leadership contest
2) From the people by victory in a General Election

May has said she will not call the second, and now has no chance of the first as she is running unopposed.

There has already been one PM in living memory in this position: his name was Gordon Brown. He didn’t see out a full term.

It is not enough for democracy to be done, it must be seen to be done. A vote with only one candidate is no vote at all, and we’ve already seen it causes voter revolts at the ballot box. On my own behalf, if we end up with a second coronated PM, whichever party I vote for in 2020 it will not be the one responsible.

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This blog has now moved to http://www.rablogs.co.uk/tirial, where the original article can be found.  PM without mandate? - http://rablogs.co.uk/tirial/2016/07/11/pm-without-mandate/ was published on July 11, 2016 at 12:30 pm.