I just spent the first 20 mins of the Forest game pissing about trying to get the godforsaken Microsoft DRM working according these already outdated and horrifically arcane instructions.

This is content for which I have paid, and I really don’t see why I should even have to consider the possibility that I have to dig around in the guts of my PC’s configuration in order to get it.

Whoever decided DRM was a good idea, I hope your rabbit dies and you can’t sell the hutch.

Well, that wasn’t the most pleasant way to while away the time whilst ironing. Yes, I am a new(ish) man: the ironing’s my job. It’s the least I can do. (As always, there’s a comedy quote – Denzil in the sadly missed Absolutely: “No, Gwynned, the least I can do are nothing at all!”. Great site at Absolutely Andy – including a petition to get them to release a DVD – I’d buy that!)

Aye:

[youtube]4W-tX_Bjbo0[/youtube]

So anyway, the habit that has developed is that I iron while I listen to Forest games on the internet, but of course Sunday’s FA Cup game was on the telly. With our league position being everything, we really could do without the distraction of any kind of cup run. Really. I’d rather we threw the game and got on with the business of getting promoted. Failing that, a nice easy win would be OK, but a replay is just another chance for your best players to get injured and less preparation time for the real deal: the next league game. Still, sadly, Charlton will probably present too much of a challenge, even if we win on the 12th.

I got so frustrated, I broke the flippin’ iron.

It’s weird not playing footy for the second Tuesday in a row. Instead I’ve been mucking about with the site and the picker script.

By popular request, it now picks based on the last 5 games of each player rather than their all-time average. Amongst other things, this probably means that it will be possible to balance the ages of the two sides more evenly, given there’ll usually be several possible choices of teams with the exact same averages.

The game and player pages have been rewritten and I think they look much better – certainly the game page packs in much more information.

The footy Christmas do was a right laugh. But rough as a buzzard’s crutch today, and I swear it takes me longer these days to get over a hangover. Full fat coke, junk food, it only dents the unpleasantness.

How the mighty have fallen. Having to play in the F.A. Cup first round is bad enough, but being taken to a reply by bloody non-league Weymouth is just toe-curling. I remember talking to my bro in law, the shame when I realised that because of our lowly position in League One that we don’t even get a break when it’s an international game weekend – the assumption is we don’t have any internationals, and it’s almost true.

I do wish Forest wouldn’t play in a Brazil looky-likey away strip. It’s just taking the piss.

I feel rudderless and without purpose. It’s Tuesday, and I haven’t played footy. My knees and ankles are not hurting, and I’m definitely down on the usual weekly dosage of pork scratchings, scampi fries and most importantly beer and banter. Pshh. A.P.U. Societies Fair has no right taking our footy away!

A few little asides:

Powergen are even more of a bunch of useless tossers than I thought. I didn’t even know that was possible, because I really believed they were the pits already. Don’t ask.

There’s a nice new walk for Desdog and myself out Bait’s Bite Lock way.

R.I.P. Ronnie Barker. Thanks for all the laughs.

The Reds lost to Barnsley yesterday. It’s beyond a joke. Who should take the blame? It’s far less easy than in the England case, bizarrely, because with England there’s we don’t go having to sell all our half-decent players (let alone the really good ones) every time they start to show some form.

So Rooney’s a left winger is he? And I’m a chuffing Dutchman.

Good luck to the Northern Irish – they played their hearts out and they deserved the win. It’s not just that they sneaked a goal and then hung on: they had the two best chances in the game and they took one of them. England were laughably bad. Several players went missing, but the manager must take the ultimate blame. Wright Phillips had the most pace and showed the most promise in the first half, skinning the NI left back every time he had the chance. Who did Sven substitute first? Wright Phillips. Tosser.

Can Sven keep his job after this? Yes. For the right reasons? No. Not at all.

Fantastic. Only seconds after winning the European Cup, Gerrard comes up with one of the classic footy phrases – up there with “over the moon” and “sick as a parrot”. How do you feel having come back from 3 – 0 down at half time to win? “It hasn’t sunk in yet.”

Good grief. I just finished watching the Sky coverage re-run because Sky Plus failed to record to the end of the ITV showing: twice. The first time it stopped mid-way through the second half of extra time, which was annoying enough, but when I set it to record the ITV re-run at 1.05, it stopped half way into the penalty shoot-out! Call me cynical, but it’s almost like Sky were punishing me for watching the ITV coverage instead of their own.

No better illustration of why I wanted to watch ITV instead is needed than the way Sky ended the programme. Stone me if they didn’t cough up the hairball that was Sean Connery doing a William Shatner style spoken version of The Beatles’ “In My Life”. Teeth-grindingly bad.

A great long weekend visit from the Parentals, with sunny weather just when we needed it and plenty of quality time (some snoozing on the sofa – marvellous). No blog over that time, of course, but never mind.

Tonight, though, I had the kind of rubbish game of football that I wish I could forget in a hurry. In front of goal, I couldn’t hit a cow’s arse with a banjo. Oh well, I shall do my pennance during the week in the gym.