Affiliate Marketing blog by James Little

I had a brilliant night on Monday; going to seeTom McRae once again. If you haven’t heard Tom’s music before then I wholeheartedly suggest that you have a listen to one of his tracks, Karaoke Soul.

The gig itself was hosted at The Lowry just outside of Manchester, it was quite small and seated (which was weird in itself) and not somewhere you would normally associate with a gig like this, but the music was good so the surroundings themselves hardly matter.

The thing I like best about Tom McRae gigs (apart from the music itself) is the banter that he has with the crowd, getting everyone to scream €œfuck€? as loud as they can, getting everyone to stand up for the last song (much to the annoyance of the ushers in the venue who were trying to tell people to sit back down, but gave up when no-one listened) and generally making people laugh. He’s on again in December in Liverpool, I’m still debating/trying to go, but babysitters are hard to find!

I really do love the articles by Aki, they are always a fantastic read.

Here’s his latest.

CALLING SOMEONE A n*****. Making monkey noises. Playing blacks-versus-whites when there are no bibs. Having three groups inside the team: locals, blacks and foreigners. Is this the world of football? No! I have not really recognised any of this during my career.

I’ve only read in recent newspapers that these things have happened somewhere. I was shocked and decided to write about racism. I’m a white heterosexual male who goes to Christian church. So there is my problem already. I’m not racist and don’t even understand it €” and being a white heterosexual Christian I have never experienced it.

I have asked questions and tried to find out facts and opinions. All I found out was that I’m still a million miles away from understanding the subject, because receiving a couple of €œblondie” remarks from the stands doesn’t mean I’ve experienced any such behaviour myself.

It is weird watching, reading and listening to white heterosexual Christians commenting and debating in the media about racism. It’s like vegetarians talking about what kind of meat they like with their kebabs. I bet if you’ve ever experienced racism you can’t feel anything about these comments. You just think: €œThere is another redneck hypocrite.€?

It was 1996. My team was playing a friendly in Tallinn, Estonia. The announcer started introducing our team: €œNo 8 Mikael Forssell, No 9 Rodrigo, he comes from Brazil, No 10 Obiora Aniche, he is a n*****, No 11 Aki Riihilahti . . .€?

We were all shocked and couldn’t believe what we just heard. But there was no malice in the announcer’s voice or intentions, he just didn’t know how to act. In many parts of the world people are not used to seeing or meeting anything different than what they come across in their own society. When they are brought into a new situation, they have difficulty processing their own actions and words. Spain is not one of these countries.

For me the events of the Spain-England game were surprising. And extremely disgusting. I don’t mean the way England played but the behaviour of the Spanish crowd. I just can’t understand why? It should be a civilised, multicultural country. What were people trying to achieve with it? And who are these people? I can’t put a face to this behaviour, probably because you never see a face behind these kinds of incidents, it is all about hiding behind a group. I ‘ve asked almost everyone I know and some people I don’t know, but nobody has really understood it. Or what we should do about it. People seem to be very uncomfortable talking about the whole subject. Except some of these white heterosexual Christians.

It is not just about skin colour. The amount of abuse different looking people get is outrageous. There seems to be no law against abusing, for example, fat people or ugly people. We’re so keen on pointing out everything that is different. We are all aware of something we have different in ourselves and are most likely a bit touchy about it. You can just imagine how it would feel if 40,000 people abused you about your bad breath! We have worked hard to kick racism out of football and this incident in Madrid should just encourage us all to work harder. I don’t even understand where the monkey noise comes from? Does it mean that someone is shorter in the evolution process just because of his skin colour? That is absurd. If anything, the world of sport has proved that white heterosexual Christians are physically least evolved.

In kindergarten, children of different colours and shapes seem to be play peacefully. There is no racism or prejudice of any kind. So where and when is this kind of behaviour picked up? My father would probably take the first flight out of Finland to come and beat me up if he ever heard me abusing anyone. When I see sons looking at their dads being abusive at football matches it is just a matter of time before the kid eventually does the same. You might be a good father bringing your son to the game, but your responsibility can’t stop just because the referee makes a bad decision.

I’m a white heterosexual Christian. I have been brought up not to prejudice anyone. I have never been prejudiced myself and I’m really the wrong person to talk about racism. I apologise if my article has offended anyone, except that Spanish crowd. Still I’m going to offer a solution for how to end this conflict.

We should all forget everything else and start picking on ginger-haired people. Just kidding. It is not their fault, they are actually strawberry blondes!

It’s back

Secret Santa 2004

I think i’ll create my Amazon wishlist at some point soon and signup.

As more and more people convert to CSS-based layouts, the need to test your work is increasingly important.

http://css.weblogsinc.com/entry/2126803923512113

I’ve used this toolbar in Firefox for over a month now, and since getting it my life has been made so much easier. Probally the most essential tool for web developers that there is.

I had a bit of a strange dream the other night - see what you think.

From what I can remember, I was talking to my dad in some kind of flat (that I believe I owned) - we were the only two people in the flat at the time. I looked out the window and saw someone jumping out of a window from another flat committing suicide. This shook me up, so I went across the road to see if there was anything I could do to help, as I was a witness.

I got across the road and it was quiet - there seemed to be no indication of someone jumping out the window, and no body. I went and asked in about and nobody knew of anyone being hurt.

Weird, I thought. So I went back into the original room where the dream had started. I opened up the window and all of a sudden I saw a boy (who must have been about 12) climbing up the building; before I knew it he was trying to enter the flat via my window.

The boy had face paint on (black and white) making him look quite evil, I was trying to stop him from getting in but couldn’t work out if I should be letting him in, or pushing him, letting him plummet down to what could be his death. Next, the dream ended.

For some reason, the following website only seems to appeal to men.

How to fold a T-Shirt, Kung Fu style.

There’s an MPEG of it as well.

What is it with my inability to stay at the same place more than a year at a time? Since moving away from home we rented a 1 bedroom flat, which we moved out of after almost a year. Next a 2 bedroom house which we lasted in for a year, then Lindsey’s parents for a while and lastly our current house, which we have lived in for a year and a half.

People tell me I should settle there - I should be happy, but the sad fact is I am not. Lindsey suggested that we should move back down south and we are now exploring our options, however I’m not sure I will be able to afford it unless I find a new job down there.

I’m not sure what I would do - stick the money that I get from the sale of the house in a savings account and rent for a while, or purchase a new house back in my hometown. Time will tell.

On other matters - I have made a complaint to EnergyWatch against British Gas since they decided to put a default on my credit history - they company seem to be very badly organised and do not speak to each other. I should hear about my complaint from British Gas themselves within 12 days; I’m intrigued to see what they will try and say this time.

I start a PHP course in 40 minutes though zend.com - I hope it will give me some more needed experience, however not sure how well an €œonline course€? will work.

An awfully sad thing happened today. AOL has got rid of more Nullsoft staff, leaving just 3 people working for the company that produced some monumental applications. Have a look at this article.

A sad, sad day.

Well, not the boys as such, just me. I have decided that I have neglected this site long enough and I should start blogging again. I’m using a default template from blogger at the moment but I’ll be updating it at some point.

Since my last post a two major things have happened:

1. I got married
2. We are expecting our second child

Marriage started off well - it felt different, we felt closer together and happier - then we got home from the honeymoon and things slipped back to their old ways! Seriously though, it’s nice that Lindsey now shares my name and now that it’s all official, however marriage has always been a bit overrated in my opinion!

So far so good with Lindsey’s pregnancy as well - the due date is May 17^th (not long after my sisters wedding, which is worrying!) and the first scan showed that everything is going as planned. The second scan (that tells us more about the baby) is just before Christmas - we now need to decide if we will find out the sex of the baby.