Caroline and I were returning home the other day when we were accosted by a fellow Pastafarian, who spotted my "Obey Your Noodly Master" t-shirt.

Nice to know that the word has spread as far as Herne Hill...

technorati tags:fsm, pastafarian, atheism

I haven’t blogged for a while, so this news is a bit out of date… but anyway, Tom Smith has a neat new project which lets you search the internet by price.
<p style="font-size:10px;text-align:right;">technorati tags:web, shopping</p>

I've had an interesting time over the last year at Sony, but recently I started to realise that it wasn't really going in the direction that I wanted, and so I started to look around for alternatives.

As it turned out, my old friends at Sports Interactive were on the look out for a programmer. Things have moved on a lot at SI in the last couple of years, and to cut a long story short, I decided that I was very interested in going back there - and so, that's what I'm going to do.

The decision was made a while ago, but I've been keeping quiet about it until I actually left Sony, which happened this Tuesday. So on Monday, I'll be starting back at SI towers.

They say that you should never go back... but then they say all sorts of stupid stuff, so what do they know...

;)

Soon after my post about QPR, they decided to relieve Gary Waddock of his role as manager, and appoint John Gregory instead.

I must admit to finding this a bit depressing - I've never been that keen on the idea of Gregory taking over, although it's been rumoured on and off for about the last three years, so someone at QPR obviously liked the idea.

Waddock does have a pretty appalling record, in terms of straight results, but I think that the style of play has improved this season, and on the whole he seems to be more decisive during the match, making substitutions earlier and doing less random tinkering.

Having said all that, the team certainly aren't performing as they should. Gregory may not be my first choice, but maybe he's what we need right now. I certainly wish him luck.

We've got a threadbare squad, but there's more than enough talent to stay in this division - let's hope we manage it.

I realise that I haven't posted anything yet about QPR this season (despite the fact that I've been to every home game, and have been carrying around nine tenths of a completed, albeit slightly drunken, match report typed into my mobile phone for about three weeks...

We're amongst the favourites for the drop this season, and when you look at our situation on paper that's understandable - no money, no massive signings, lots of transfer listed players that nobody wants, finished last season with a 10 game losing streak and a manager on gardening leave...

When you add to this a fairly undistinguished start, and the fact that we're currently second from bottom, you'd think that I'd be suicidal by now... but weirdly, I'm not.

The main thing that has given me hope is that a number of younger players have started to come through from the youth team who actually look promising. This is in marked contrast to the recent couple of seasons, when the likes of Marcus Bean were being touted as the next great thing...

Baidoo, Bailey, Jones and Kanyuka - they all look like decent players, and what's best, they look strong and competitive, they can play a bit, and they don't seem phased by a place in the first team. They aren't the finished article for sure, and if they play a lot this season they are going to make mistakes, and we are going to lose games - but most of them deserve a place in the starting line up despite that, ahead of older and supposedly better players.

The second thing that has cheered me up is that not all of our purchases during the closed season have been completed turkeys. Now this might sound like damning with faint praise, but when you consider recent seasons (the likes of Georges Santos, Dean Sturridge, Marc Nygaard and Stefan Moore spring to mind), perhaps you can see where I'm coming from.

The best of the new bunch seem to be Dexter Blackstock, Zesh Rehman and Egutu Oliseh. Blackstock looks quick witted and dangerous up front - the kind of player who will annoy people and make goals even if he hasn't scored many yet. Rehman looks like a good reader of the game, solid in defence and decent in the air, if not quite as good as Shittu was. And Oliseh looks, well, flashy - he's defenitely got some tricks, although whether he know when to play a simple ball remains to be seen... on the evidence of the Birmingham game I'd say the jury is out still...

So, all of this is pretty good news. Add to that lot the fact that Rowlands looks great playing in a defensive midfield role, and that Bircham seems to have a renewed spring in his step, and I'd say that all is not yet lost.

It will be a tough season, and we might even go down, but if one or two of the youngsters achieve their potential, I think we could yet manage a respectable finish.