– THE END –

I’m currently working on the pre-writing parts of a book. It’s a history book. Yeah I know what your thinking, ‘I don’t care’ that’s cool.

But you know what I find the hardest thing to do is write the first word, the first sentence, the first paragraph, the first chapter. It’s tough. Once the opening is set up the rest of the book kinda pans ahead of you like roads on a map and all you have to do is travel down them until you reach, well –THE END–

The only two words I have so far are –THE END–

They are the only two words on the word count that are guaranteed, sadly you can’t write them with satisfaction until the previous thirty or forty or fifty or even hundred thousands words are down and ready to be pulled apart, edited to fuck and re-written so they no longer appear the same at all.

I want to make the book interesting, Tarantino-esque and almost like it has a made up narrative despite being based on real events over many decades.

Wish me luck, those two favourite words of any writer are as far off as ever.

Peace.

Syria – Why Is The West Watching A Country Implode?

Several months ago I wrote about how I was disgusted by footage of war crimes appearing on YouTube. I was sickened then to see such footage appearing on a website that is used by families all over the world to watch movies and TV shows and clips and entertainment. It’s still going on, on YouTube by the way and I don’t think it’s the place for it. They keep hardcore pornography in check, so why not this kinda stuff?

I’m all for freedom of the press though and I’m glad to see that evidence of crimes being committed is being collected and distributed through other journalistic means and websites such as LiveLeak and other modern news outlets online (even Wikileaks has an important role to play in modern reporting, making us aware of the things the governments of the world would rather we didn’t find out – you keep informing us Wikileaks!)

Yes – I’m again talking about the civil war in Syria. A war in which the West has done little to intervene in a meaningful way and continues to stand back and watch as two sides carry out the most horrific of crimes on each other leaving an embattled suffering population in the middle, screaming for help, running for the hills, and dying trying. Innocent men, women and children are being slaughtered and caught up in fighting and the Western governments, such as the shit-failing-sham-clueless administration that currently occupies Westminster in London, simply talk about it, do nothing, send strong words to the evil doers and then go for tea and biscuits. It’s disgusting.

We only have to look at the news that has been coming out of Syria over the last week or so (this war has many tales to tell, its now into its 3^rd year, it’s not so much an Arab Spring than a total fucking quagmire), many stories of sickening bloodshed and death already written across this conflict.

War Crimes by both sides

Last Friday a video appeared online that showed a Syrian opposition fighter mutilating an enemies corpse, he cuts open the mans torso and rips out his liver and heart and takes a bite at the heart (I’m not so sure he takes a bite out of it). That is a war crime, desecrating human remains is not just a war crime but is a sickening and wrong thing for anyone to do regardless of the circumstances, the law or the consequences. It is above derision. Although, and I’m not defending the crime, the man who carried out the horrific ceremony, Abu Sakkar, has today said in a second internet video that he is happy to stand trial for his war crime as long as the current President of Syria, Bashar Al Assad, also stands trial for his crimes against Syria and its people. This is a gesture made to unite the opposition and offer himself as a man of (some sort of) honour (he isn’t). But we have to accept that the regime is over and that the longer it clings to power the worse the situation will get (these crimes are not over, trust me). There is no future for Syria under the old regime, too much has happened, a lot of water has gone under a very dark and dingy bridge. We have to hope that the people who are fighting for the opposition are largely unlike this man Abu Sakkar and they truly are fighting for a free Syria and a better and a democratic Syria. There of course will be a few Radical Islamists along for the ride (the popular media calls them all ‘al Qaeda’), but that seems to be normal in wars in this part of the world. A few terrible people latching on to anything to carry out horrible crimes to satisfy their fucked up world view and hunger to end life for no reason (yes, I’m comparing Radical Islamists to psychopaths, because that’s what they are!)

And despite this crime, my flag has to fall on the opposition side. Of course there are a few people carrying out crimes in the name of the war, but considering it’s a civil war that engulfs two separate fighting forces that are both made up of hundreds of thousands of men we are seeing very few (thankfully) war crimes (apart from the government backed ones, keep reading…) but I’m not defending anyone, a single war crime is one too many for me and the people on the opposition side that have carried out murders and tortures in the name of the revolution must be made to pay, court and jail has to follow. Justice has to be done.

Do war crimes have grades? I’m not sure. But I feel that shooting a man dead is one thing, burying a civilian journalist alive is another and that is the news that has been coming out of Syria in the last 48 hours or so. It seems today that some news sources are saying that the footage might be a hoax or faked but why fake it? I’m pretty sure that men in the middle of a civil war have bigger things to think about than getting a viral video onto the news, but that’s just my opinion. The video itself shows a man buried up to the neck and Syrian government soldiers talking about him as he begs for his life, then they bury him alive in shovelfuls of dirt. If this is a hoax it’s certainly bad taste but I can’t help but feel that it’s real. Maybe I’m wrong, I hope I am but when I watched it (and the sound was on) it seemed pretty damn real to me (and I don’t speak Syrian).

Humanitarian Crisis

One thing that isn’t mentioned very often on the news is the Syrian refugee crisis. We have seen, according to the UNHCR, 1.5m people displaced as a result of the war in Syria. These people are now homeless and in another country. Imagine grabbing your wife and kids and leaving your home to run across the border, but then imagine doing it because if you didn’t, one, or all of you could end up dead for doing nothing wrong? As well as the refugees the UN also says that as many as 4m people have been internally displaced by the civil war. With a population of 22m people that means nearly a third of the countries population have left or been forced to move. We have no figures for how many out of the remaining two-thirds are fighting on each side but we do know around 80,000 people have been killed (that is a UN figure so is probably way off the true figure which will be much higher.)

Chemical Weapons and Al Qaeda linked groups

In March of 2012 in Khan al-Assal the Syrian government were reported to have used chemical weapons against its own civilians. We had reports that men were being brought to hospital with symptoms of exposure to chemical agents used in weapons of mass destruction. In late April of 2013 canisters that were similar to canisters linked to other unverified attacks in Syria were found in Saraqeb after what appears to be another chemical attack by the government on its on people, with more cases of people suffering symptoms to those seen in people exposed to Sarin nerve gas.

Russia arming Syrian regime

Russia have now armed the Syrian government with anti-ship cruise missiles that offer a better ground to ground and ground to warship capability and clearly offers Syria the power to repel advancing forces from abroad and avoid no fly zones imposed by foreign powers. My main worry here is why isn’t the UK or the US putting pressure on Russia or talking to Russia about this situation? Why are we sitting idly by, after our twelve years of being intervention loving war mongers? We made up evidence to go and get Saddam and yet we might have proof that Assad has chemical weapons and still we sit on our thumbs and simply watch. Why? Is there too little oil under Syria for it to be worth our while/blood?

Conclusion.

Many months ago I was drawn to the conflict in Syria and was sickened. Today I’m still sickened. Nothing has changed. People are dying day after day after day. Innocent people. The people with the power in the West do nothing but talk about supporting the opposition, the Russians openly support the Assad regime, in the meantime the tiny seed that is radicalism starts to grow ever so slowly and only our slow decisions to intervene can allow the rot of al Qaeda to prevail. No one on the ground or on either side wants that. Justice, rights, freedoms and democracy are what the seeds of the Arab spring were created from. Today in Syria none of those things are growing or prevailing, existing or even struggling. In Syria we only have barbaric civil war and it’s time we in the West stopped observing it like a disease in a Petri dish. Innocent Syrians are human beings, so why don’t we as human being act to end this war?

Justice, rights, freedom & democracy. Where are our morals and beliefs now?

Peace!

 

Alex Ferguson – Retirement

Everyone has an opinion or a view or a comment or a tweet or what ever about the end of the managerial career of the greatest manager the world has ever seen. I’m no different but I don’t want to rake over the trophies and the success and keep going on about how many league titles he’s won or the fact he won two out of three European cup finals and blah, blah, blah.

It’s very easy and lazy of journalists to keep trotting out the same few statistics in their tribute to a man who has done everything, won everything and is making way for an inevitable failure by his replacement. No one can compare or begin to compete with his contribution to British, European and World football.

So instead here I have compiled his most impressive statistics, his results against Wolves as manager of Man Utd and I’m not even going to include the friendly that we played after signing his son Darren (which Man Utd won 2-1 at Molineux). I express the results from the point of view of Wolves.

2003-04 Premier League

Lost 1-0 at Old Trafford

Won 1-0 at Molineux

2006 FA Cup

Lost 3-0 at Molineux

2009-10 Premier League

Lost 3-0 at Old Trafford

Lost 1-0 at Molineux

2009 League Cup

Lost 1-0 at Old Trafford

2010-11 Premier League

Lost 2-1 at Old Trafford

Won 2-1 at Molineux

2010 League Cup

Lost 3-2 at Old Trafford

2011-12 Premier League

Lost 4-1 at Old Trafford

Lost 5-0 at Molineux

And so in 11 competitive games against Wolves as Man U manager Sir Alex somehow managed to struggle through all of those epic meetings and scraped 9 wins. And that is why he is a great manager, for managing such a great record against such a great team as my club Wolverhampton Wanderers.

I hope Wolves fans, the tongue pressed firmly in my cheek hasn’t been missed as you read this rather feeble tribute to the greatest manager the world has ever seen. Happy retirement Sir Alex Ferguson, you damn well earned some time with your feet up.

Peace!

Being Odd & Other People.

Written half cut with my tongue firmly in my cheek, but I think I make a few valid points…. (ahem!) 

Most of my life I’ve been treated as a slightly weird guy. Among even my family and friends I’m just ‘that guy’ a person they like enough to hang around with and stay in touch with but at the same time being the guy who is fair game to rip apart, take the piss out of or wind up without reason or revenge, I’m that odd guy who likes things like astronomy, writing, nature and gardening at the same time as being the normal guy who has a job, drinks too much beer and loves the football, Those opposing normal and apparently weird likes are enough to make me, one man, odd for liking them both. It’s like you have to be a stereotype to exist in the world today, as many people really and truly are, and to defy that is weird or odd.

Ever taken a great deal of notice of reality TV shows, I did for maybe 1 season then I realised it was crap and going to be the same crap. Look at X Factor or The Voice or Big Brother back in the day. The same old formulaic crap year after year. Ever text voted one of these shows? If so, get help. Go for a walk, breathe some fresh air and maybe read a book or two, you’re an individual so enjoy it. Don’t take part in televised crap because everyone else is. (If you hate me for saying this, you are one of the stereotypes lacking in individuality, no one cares about your view on an X Factor contestant because you learned it from watching TV and a million other drones are saying the same thing).

I’ve never hurt anyone in my life, I don’t break the law, I pay my taxes and I keep out of everyone’s fucking way because generally I hate people as eventually they let you down, they always fucking let you down. People are like that. People are essentially ‘life forms with a selfish agenda’ who’ll try and string you along as long as it benefits them, they like to call this situation ‘friendship’ and odd types like myself who have no agenda other than where is the next beer is coming from sometimes fall for it and take a moment to realise. It’s the time between falling for it and realising you’re being taken for a cunt that causes the animosity that the same person who was taking you for a cunt will feel. Because when you realise, you stop doing the things that benefit them, and they get upset because they want the ego rubbing, and so you (the man in the dark) are the bad person, not them. See why I hate human beings? Generally you people are tools – This is a very general example but I feel it conveys how I feel about friends and certainly making new friends. I don’t think I’ve met anyone since I was about 18, apart from my girlfriend, who I could actually say is a friend, all of the friends I ever had I’d made before I was 18. Everyone else has been a self interested, self important, asshole looking for something I can offer them, cash to get them out of a scrape, a white van to move shit, my abilities with a garden rake/a computer/a creative mind.

The worst thing about other people, people who judge you as weird is – those people who treat you in a way that they think you deserve to be treated because of how they selfishly see the world and people in it. They are often jealous people. Jealous of you because you haven’t maxed out twenty credit cards and are being chased down the street by the men you owe the money too etc etc. (ever noticed how the very people who run up huge debts to support a lifestyle that they cannot afford are the very people who will judge you for having a cheap holiday for a week rather than an expensive two weeks away, who really has the fucking problem here?) So as they hate you, because of the jealousy, they judge you as a bad person, a failure, fat, ugly, single, etc etc just to cheer themselves up. These people are no threat, believe me, and I’m sure they’ll have fewer people at their funeral than I’ll have (see what I did there?) J They have the world in their head and that’s how it exists, they cannot see the world from any other point of view. Life is as they see it, end of! But of course it isn’t. The world is seen from billions of different views. Many people who view me as odd are very odd themselves but have such a high opinion of themselves and a world view that is absolute and right that anything else is WRONG and their view of themselves and me (and you) is RIGHT.

Everyone is odd, we all have a point of view and some of us who are loved so highly by the people they see so often who massage their egos have to accept that they are also hated and loathed and make people sick in other groups and circles and individually too.

So I accept being odd because I am, but only in the constraints of social normalness that we are taught and impose on ourselves, norms that are essentially bullshit. Like I’ve said before, if your life and your actions do not break the laws of the land and do not affect anyone negatively, get on with it.

Now go away and enjoy your life, I hate you. But someone loves you.

Peace!

Wolves relegation to league one.

Where do Wolves go from here? I can only imagine one successful conclusion and that is a total clear out. Steve Morgan is going nowhere, nor should he. He needs to pay for what has happened and make sure the parachute payments make there way to the managers transfer fund (which equates to £16m for 2013-14, and £8m per season for 2014-15 and 2015-16). As for the manager, sorry Deano you should go. I don’t think any Wolves fans have seen any real tactical aptitude with what are allegedly Premiership footballers and I think you should go, and replace you with who? I have to be honest and say I don’t know who I’d want. I don’t have all of the answers but I feel that Deano cannot achieve what we want the club to achieve. We turned down Curbishley maybe we should try for him again, it seems that we have turned down a lot of good managers under Morgan and Moxey’s current reign. I mean look at Steve Bruce, as we see our club drop out of the Championship the guy has taken HullCity into the Premiership. That to me looks like a bad decision. Solbakken wasn’t a bad appointment he just wanted to fundamentally change too many things too quickly with a team that wasn’t up to his plans. Deano, I have no confidence in a man who now has two successive relegations on his CV. You have to prove me and a lot of people wrong if you stay or face the inevitable backlash.

And with that we have to look at the players. Many of the current squad now have successive relegations on there CVs, and of course the season before the first relegation they only just survived on the last day of the season by the skin of their teeth. Who is going to want to buy these players? They earn a fortune and many are under contract which means they are either stuck at Wolves or will have to be paid off to go. Myself I’d be happy to see Morgan pay them off and fuck off a few of them… naming no names, but fans know who I’m talking about. (Roger Johnson now has a hat trick of relegations and yes he’s the most poisonous member of the squad and should be taken behind the barn like Old Yeller and made to stop his snarling and biting.)

The most painful part of relegation will be losing good players and that is what is likely to happen (although we don’t have too many senior ones). Big Wayne Hennessy is still injured but if he becomes fit at any point he’ll be a target for many Premiership clubs, and Bakary Sako a player who seems to have awesome potential (very much like Frimpong did before getting injured) will surely have to be sold, but it would be damn great if we could keep him. I think Doyle will be already packing his bags for a move to Celtic, I could go on but Wolves fans you know the score. On the bright side a lot of our youngsters are looking like future superstars and regular football in a lower league and a winning mentality might be what is needed to blood them for a future in a higher division.

Also, like many Wolves fans I read Steve Morgan’s statement after the match and I thought, ‘fair play’, he’s kind of admitting some fault and admitting bad decisions have been made which is welcome, but actions speak louder than words, and we need to see actions from him because lack of actions in the last two January transfer windows and only fair support of Solbakken in the summer means we have to ask what does he want from owning a football club if all he does is talk about what he’s going to do then do nothing, again and again and again. Investment in new players is needed and a few players might need to be paid off – to fuck off.

I suppose we can all talk a good solution and we all have our own answers and ideas of what should happen. Ultimately as long as next season offers us change, new ideas and better performances with a good league showing we can’t complain too much. It’s going to take a little while to get used to the situation we are in but crying over the milk now it’s spilt will change nothing. Onward and upward. The future is bright, the future is old gold! Forever We Are Wolves.

Peace!

Having to accept a situation because crying and sulking changes nothing.

Last weekend Wolves went down 2-1 at Molineux to Burnley in a game we should’ve won its one of three results in recent times that has contributed to our demise as a footballing power in the second tier of English football. Losing at home to Huddersfield was the moment our season turned; we should’ve won that game and of course didn’t, that was three points dropped in poor fashion. Also the late defeat away at Charlton the week before the Burnley fiasco was also an unnecessary kick in the teeth. That was a point in the bag if only our players had been hungry enough for it. Overall that’s seven points dropped in games that shouldn’t have been so difficult but ultimately were as our sour faced, slow, lazy, disinterested bunch of overpaid primadonnas ran around the turf like headless chickens looking to everyone else in the team to put in the effort.

In the last 10 games we have won 5 and are averaging 1.5 points per game. Multiply that as an average over 45 games and we’d be on the same number of points as Bolton in 6^th (67 points). I suppose sometimes the cookie crumbles like that for you. It’s a shame Deano took 10 games to get his first win, just another win somewhere amongst that run of failure would’ve been enough to give us some proper hope.

It’s not just been back to back relegations (yet to be confirmed) for Wolves but also back to back seasons where we’ve had two managers. Since Mick McCarthy has been sacked we’ve had 3 managers and only 2 transfer windows. That says a lot to me, the team is rarely and hardly the team that the ruling manager wants or chooses to have to pick and play. That has been a massive factor. A large portion of this squad is still Mick McCarthys and the fact that some of them have proven themselves against the best in the country and yet cannot pick up points against some truly average teams is extremely angering. But they are proving to be negative for themselves. Who will want to sign players that sulk and play badly because of changes at a club? Who wants to sign players who’ve been relegated two years running? Many of these players are clearly happy to sit on the contracts they have at Wolves until they run out regardless of whether they bankrupt the club or not. They no longer care and they aren’t playing football for success, they have ceased to be model professionals and are now no better than mercenaries milking the situation for what they can get. They have in many respects become failures who simply are leeching off a professional club for as long as they can get a fat pay cheque, then they’ll regroup and see if they can play elsewhere or get a spot on talkSport.

But this all aside we can still mathematically stay up, we won’t, but the maths doesn’t lie. It’ll tell the truth next weekend and we can all crack on with our lives as supporters of a league 1 crisis club. I’m not going to even have a go at Steve Morgan or Jez Moxey. I’ve said all I want to about those clowns and frankly Morgan has a role to play still. He has created this position that the clubs in and he has a duty to bankroll the club, pay the stupid wages of stubborn, failed footballers, and spend to get us back where we were when he took charge of the club – the second tier of English football. That is the least he can do, THE LEAST! If he wants to walk away he has to walk away with us in the same situation he found us in otherwise he’s just another rich asshole who cares little for tradition and history and instead favours a quick quid made stomping over footballing heritage. (Wolves – founder members of the football league and the first club to introduce floodlit European games and helping to establish a European Cup, Wolves who gave England the first man in the world to get 100 caps for his country, etc, etc)  How would he feel if someone did something similar to his beloved Liverpool? He should ask himself that question before doing anything rash in reaction to a few unrepresentative nutcase “Wolves Fans” who would try to cause him harm and damage Molineux during a pitch invasion.

Well with all of that in mind let’s remember the faint glimmer of hope we still have. We aint down (technically) yet! And so here are a few things I simply want to highlight with relegation as a fact (even though it aint yet):

* New stand built at a cost of £18m over team building and two successive relegations. Does that sound familiar to anyone? Would just a third of that cash spent on players have saved us?

* Roger Johnson has finally gotten a hat-trick, three successive relegations. He has also turned up to work drunk and is at the heart of the defence. Hmmmm. Is he a jinx or is he just shit?

* Since 2004-05 when the Championship was created only one team (Leicester in 2008 with 52 points) has ever been relegated with more than the 51 points Wolves have after 45 games. Are we destined to set a new record and go down with a win at Brighton?

And with that in mind we should all remember that the most important thing is the financial future of Wolves, the existence of such a great and historic club. We’ll manage in League 1 like we managed in Division 3 and 4 back in the 1980s. It’s a tragic situation and a mess that shouldn’t have happened, but regardless the most important thing is that Wolverhampton has its football team, with its loyal fans who’ll be around longer than any owner, chief executive, director or player.

That is what I care about, my club and its future. A strong and prosperous one that guarantees it’ll always be around. I love my club. I love it enough to forgive it this misdemeanour.

Bring on league one, bring on massive changes, bring me a league title and a Johnstone Paint Trophy too, bring me my Wolves. The one that wins again.

We’ll never die, we’ll never die, that gold flag will always fly high.

Wanderers will never die.

To the future.

Peace.

Social Networking: A Love/Hate Relationship.

In the last six weeks or so I’ve noticed a huge change in my use of this blog and social networks. I’ve occasionally found myself resenting and downright hating them. It’s not obvious to readers and followers of this blog that I’ve felt this way but I’ve had little motivation to write anything at all. I don’t fully understand why.

Facebook has become something of an annoyance to me. The fact I can only deactivate and not delete my account is the source of a lot of frustration. Recent changes to the mobile app which see the latest version becoming all knowing and unquestioning fuehrer in total control of your contacts, pictures and everything on your phone has seen me uninstall it rather than upgrade. It’s a step too far by a service that I find mildly boring at best and utter self indulgent shit at worst. I find that just deactivating leaves the door open to a return where as a deletion would be final. I want the deletion option as I always end up returning. Add to that the fact that recent members of my extended family have begun to block me without reason I find the entire thing just a frustrating exercise in futility and extreme boredom.

Twitter is my favourite website on the planet. I love it. But again recently being blocked by some family members has made me wonder what have I done to offend them? Surely unfollowing is enough? I might still want to follow them but now I can’t. I can accept that they no longer want to read the ranting and swearing and drunkenness I tweet but I might want to read their musings. It seems very petty of them, I haven’t done anything to piss them off directly and if they think it’s not seen as a passive aggressive ‘fuck you’ they are mistaken. I know its only Twitter but it aint going to be happy families any more, I know they don’t wanna talk to me or listen to me so in future it’ll be a lot of social awkwardness and total ignorance. Something I can live without and don’t want but people make their bed, so it’s better to let them lie in it than try and tuck them in properly and read them a story.

WordPress just happens to be my second fave website and I’ll always hang around here, reading my fave bloggers like Docdenbow who I recently annoyed with my own silly drunken private messages on twitter, and for that I apologise. Sadly for you and for wordpress, you’re stuck with me for now at this blog and my new blog too.

Yes, I’ve started a second blog. It’s about writing and my long historic association with UKAuthors.com and I’m finding that more enjoyable and I’m certainly more inspired to write about fiction and try and write fiction than blog here. I think the love of writing I have is to do with prose and poetry and scripts and the imagination more than blogging. I’m now trying to rekindle my love of the creative aspects of the English language and as I’m not getting any younger I have to try and get published or optioned by a major movie studio (yeah right) sooner rather than later. I aint got decades left in me, the men in the Bilstonjay bloodline rarely make old bones and when you add to my ‘live fast die young DNA’ the smoking and drinking and late nights and kebabs, I’m certainly up against it if I want to leave behind a proper legacy of literary averageness. On my deathbed I want to look back and think, ‘You had a go Jay, you had a go!’ You only live once and regrets are things I don’t want in my head as I draw my last breath. Many people have questioned my choice of hobbies over the years, some have scoffed and others have encouraged, ultimately I’ll write regardless of who knows and who cares. That is the way it has to be when you are an ordinary Joe Bloggs. You have to learn to give not one little shit.

I’ll always blog here, the Wolves will always give me a reason to moan and rant it seems, as will life, but I feel I owe it to the regular readers to understand why I’m absent more so these days than in attendance at this little old blog of mine.

Peace.