I finished reading:

"The Old Man and the Sea" written by Ernest Hemingway.

-Richard

Drew Carey gets it, although he does have one flaw in being an LA Galaxy fan!!..



-Richard

I finished reading:

"Travels with Charley" written by John Steinbeck.

-Richard

I listened to:

"Piesni Spiewaja (..songs are sung) String Quartet No3. Op.67" composed by Henryk Gorecki and performed by the Kronos Quartet.

-Richard

David Beckham is here in case you missed it!!!

I am already irritated by the "saviour" of American Soccer that we are hearing about. The ignorance or deliberate bias of the main stream sports media in the States and back in England is staggering. Some facts:

1. US Soccer does not need saving. It is growing at a slow and steady rate. This may help it make a slightly quicker move forward due to the media presence. My concern however is that he will not score a lot of goals and he will not beat 5 men on the dribble. It is the intangibles that he could bring if he plays well that will be missed or misunderstood.
2. MLS is a good league. Of course it is not the Premier League, La Liga, Seria A etc... but, no other leagues are.
   
3. Is MLS slower than other leagues, especially Europe. Yes. However, put any Premier League team in Houston in the summer or Denver etc... they would soon struggle.

I think the negative media is due to two causes. The first in the States is that there is a threat from the World's most popular sport on the traditional American Sports. I don't think they have anything to worry about. Those sports all have their own niches and I myself am a massive NFL fan. Soccer is not an American sport so why support it? Neither is Golf, Tennis, Ice Hockey etc... For most of the World for the World's largest and most powerful country to be considered a great sporting Nation they have to be successful at soccer. This is the fear the rest of the World has, therefore, the constant picking on the sport over here. They are afraid that America will embrace the sport and turn the talent and potential into success. I think that really scares the traditional powers.

Time will tell how this is going to play out, and it's going to very interesting. At the end of the day I want MLS to be a success, but, hate LA so want them to fail. It could be an interesting conundrum.

-Richard

I finished reading:

"The Prince" by Niccolo Machiavelli.

-Richard

A taste of home!! Jenn took this photo when I took some folks from work to a traditional English Dinner at the newly opened London Fish and Chip Shop in Cary, NC. This is also our pre-game haunt before going to Saturday Carolina RailHawks football games. Some fish n'chips with Curry sauce, what more could you need before a football game?

-Richard

Say no more!!

-Richard

According to Soccer Silicon Valley and Sports Illustrated my Quakes are back in 2008!! I am still being slightly "superstitious" and not going to start celebrating until I hear it from Don Garber's mouth tomorrow it looks good!!!

-Richard

I finished reading:

"The Winter of Our Discontent" by John Steinbeck.

-Richard

Powaqqatsi

The rhythm sounds,
Louder,louder.
Faster, faster.
To a crescendo,
A peak of intensity
Culminating in brass
Peeling above
In chords of passion
In harmonies of pain.
And tension.
Releasing
A melody singing
Out above the chaos
Bringing calm,
A resonance
And peace.
It's over.

17th July 1995 - Uxbridge, Middlesex, England.

-Richard

Score Update:

Again, due to the fact that I am way to busy at work and have been out of town so again am working on an abridged version of the score update.

International Cricket: England lost the one day international series to the West Indies 2-1

International Football: USA won the CONCACAF Gold Cup.
USA got knocked out in the Group Stages of The Copa America.

Cricket: Durham are in 3rd place in the County Championship Division 1, 17 1/2 points behind leaders Sussex.
Durham finished in 5th place in the Twenty twenty cup: North Division.

Football: The Carolina Railhawks drop to 10th place in the USL Division 1.

Rugby League: Bradford Bulls stay in 3rd place in The Superleague, 2 points behind leaders St. Helens, despite having two points deducted for Salary Cap Violations.

Baseball: The Houston Astros are 39-52 dropping to 5th place in the National League Central Division, 11 1/2 games behind leaders, The Milwaukee Brewers.

-Richard

I listened to:

"Scorched" composed by Mark-Anthony Turnage and John Scofield. It was performed by John Scofield (guitar), John Patitucci (electric bass), Peter Erskine (drums), The Radio-Sinfonie-Orchester Frankfurt and the HR Big Band conducted by Hugh Wolff.

-Richard

I finished reading:

"The Persecutor" by Sergei Kourdakov

-Richard

I finished reading:

"The Liberal Hour" by John Kenneth Galbraith.

-Richard

I finished reading:

"The Presidency" by Marcus Cuncliffe.

-Richard

Texas

Long straight roads,
Driving on the wrong side
Mile and miles of pasture,
Interrupted only
By factory and smells;
Sulphorous or manure
Speed past at fifty-five.

Glorious sun, hot and humid
Surrounds us until suddenly
A blackness descends
From nowhere bringing
An almighty storm
Wicked but refreshing
As the visibility disapears.

Texas, The Lone Star State,
A low unto itself,
Just like the movies
J.R. appearing at every corner,
With a welcome ever so friendly
"Howdy - Y'all"
The rain is London, the welcome not.

18th June 1995 - Edna, Texas, USA.

I wrote this when David, who was my best man and I spent a couple of weeks on a trip to the US to visit friends. Two single guys having a good time on holiday together. We were went to Texas first to visit my friends and then to West Virginia to visit him. Well, just before we left David started dating Ruth, to whom he is now married and by the time we left Texas for West Virginia my relationship to Jenn and definitely changed. She would become the girl I would marry. It's a funny old world!!!


-Richard

A couple of weeks ago we encountered two different cases of animal abuse that came into Snowflake.

The first was a 5 month old black Lab that was hit by a car. The owner just chained him up to a post even though the poor puppy was screaming in agony. He refused to take him to the vets and it was only when a caring Snowflake volunteer agreed to pay $100 so that the owner would surrender him we could take him to the vet. He had a broken let and badly bruised neck and face. Fortunately he starting to recover. Although Snowflake is essentially a cat rescue we cannot see suffering such as this without doing anything about it.

The second was the case of a Mom cat and her kittens that came to our attention. The Mom cat was surrendered to a rescuer after the owner was threating to smash her against a wall. When we got her in she was no more than 5 or 6 months and weighed only 5 pounds and was badly bitten by fleas (pictured here a day after she came in). She is called Pixie and is really sweet and doing well in the Foster Home We could not get the kittens at this point. After two had died we finally got the third, but, it was too late. By then the little guy was far too aneamic after being almost "eaten" alive by fleas and didn't make it. Fortunately they experienced love at the end as they died in the rescuers arms. We named him sprite.

We did manage to rescue one little miracle kitten. Someone called Snowflake saying they had found a little kitten with a leg stuck in a hole in the ground in a strawberry patch. He thought the leg was broken. He agreed to take the little girl to our vets, where it became apparent that the leg had been bitten by a snake. After a brave attempt to save the leg, it had to be amputated. Strawberry, as she is not called is doing fantastic and you would never know that she had a leg missing. She is now 6 weeks old and recovering well. The photo was taken just after we got her home from the vets.

It's hard to understand how people can be so cruel to helpless animals and makes one think about how much this really goes on.. It says a lot about them and the world we live in, but, there also so many people out there willing to help which give us the happy stories of those that are rescued.


-Richard

I listened to:

"One God - Spring Harvest Live Worship" performed by Graham Kendrick, Tim Hughes, Geraldine Latty, Leigh Barnard, Kate Silber, Sue Rinaldi, Kristyn Getty and Martyn Layzell.

-Richard

I finished the book of "Numbers" in my reading a chapter of the Bible each day before I start work.

-Richard

I listened to:

"Mid Winter Songs" composed by Morten Lauridsen and performed by Polyphony and the Britten Sinfonia conducted by Stephen Layton.
"Les Chanson des Roses", "I Will Lift up Mine Eyes", "O come, let us Sing unto The Lord", "Ave, Dulcissima Maria" and "Nocturnes" all composed by Morten Lauridsen and performed by Polyphony conducted by Stephen Layton.

-Richard

I listened to:

"Requiem for Adam" composed by Terry Riley, performed by The Kronos Quartet.
"The Philosopher's Hand" composed by Terry Riley and performed by Terry Riley (Piano).

-Richard