Here are some massive books ive had the pleasure of page turning this year... still no kindle so my shelves are busting (hint hint).
A Delicate Truth by John le Carré
This month you can get another fix of John le Carré with A Delicate Truth. A foreign-office minister's private secretary, counterterrorism and a disgraced special forces soldier - any more details would ruin the page turning.
The Wall by William Sutcliffe
Narrated by a 13-year-old child, The Wall is published as a book for adults and the young-adult/teen market, and bears comparison with classics written about other conflicts, where a child's perspective is sometimes the most profound.
Last Night at the Viper Room by Gavin Edwards
Its a biography of River Phoenix. Him off of Stand by Me and he was Indiana Jones briefly in a flashback. Brad Pitt said he was the best ctor ever. The book traces his roots back to the religious cult he was born into through his brief adventure in Hollywood and eventually the accidental overdose that tragically brought his brief life to a premature end. If youve ever read autobios from the likes of Slash and Jagger and thought those boys were rock and roll this quiet teenager makes them look like clergymen.
The Broken Man by Josephine Cox
Story of Adam, a twelve year old loner, whose abusive parents and bulling in school define the course of his life. His only friend is the school bus driver, Phil, who one day makes the decision to accompany him home, a decision that changes his life forever... Coxs' writing is so good it makes you sympathise with every character at some point and this one is the very definition of a page turner, could not put it down...
Thatll keep your eyes droopy for a few weeks wont it?
After a well earned hiatus from the blogosphere betterthancola is back! And, for the next twelve months we're going bigger, better, wetter and more opinionated than ever before.
Firstly this time I will apologise, as the hiatus was unplanned, but, very necessary. It isnt easy to spout so much tosh so often and occasionally I need some time to gather my thoughts and my strongbow.
Now then, first important bit of info for you little monsters...
BETTERTHANCOLA WANTS YOU!!!
At cola HQ we pride ourselves on tackling all the subjects, and, we want you to do the same... Have you ever thought of writing but didnt know how to go about it... Im looking for well (or poorly) written pieces on the things that you are most passionate about. Anything from sports to movies, tv to tvs, politics to cakes and everywhere in between!!
you write it, il publish it, if you like your experience il link your piece to any future blog you want to do for yourselves so the betterthan readers can find you again. If you dont like it, il anon you. Get me on twitter, facebizzle, email or whatever just start your scribbling.
Important information number dos. After two years and more free cake and champagne than i care to remember to work off I have come to the decision to knock picture taking on the head, in particular... no more weddings.
Ive have a lot of fun and for a long time it was a dream career, but, ultimately as much satisfaction as I got from it, it didnt make up for the fact that I was constantly a let down and no show for important moments in the lives of my friends and family due to work commitments. That coupled with my ever rising tax bill and insurance premium after two equipment thefts in twelve months and im back in the rat race. I'll probably still go out and have the occasional click here and there.
So in a final flourish this is just to say thank you to everyone has allowed me into the most special times of their lives and trusted me with such important matter.
So heres some of the finest moments ive come across in the last couple of seasons, CAUTION a couple of them are right heartwrenchers...
oooo, press play on the tunage first and then flick through them, music make things better...
Do you know what there was a load more I wanted to put up but i quickly realise they're on the other computer...
Theres a few more pretties from tinternet:
Next week for some actual stuff, maybe even a guest blogger.... we'll see.
For nearly three decades one man has presided over the first division of English football. In 1986 after a somewhat forgotten disastrous spell in charge of the nation team a young, wet behind the ears Alex Ferguson took charge of a Manchester United team that had all but forgotten how success tasted.
Now, after 26 years at the helm which saw him lift the most prestigious title in British association football no less than 13 times, and after a knighthood, Sir Alex has called it a day. His last game in charge in front of his beloved fans and admirers globally approaches with swiftian pace and an im perfect board of directors must now replace the unreplaceable.
Obviously Im going to jump on the football writers bandwagon and have a look at who the next manager sitting in the old trafford dugout will be, here's the candidates.
1. David Moyes.
When David Moyes was impressing the football community as a very green boss at Preston North End, he took some advice from Sir Alex when he was offered the chance to take over at Sheffield Wednesday. Sir Alex, always one to look after young managers, told him to wait for something better. Wednesday were relegated, Moyes was snapped up by Everton. That was over ten years ago, Moyes is still at Everton although his contract is due to expire in one month. He has been touted as a potential Utd manager for two or three years now. He has often shown signs that he could thrive given resources above the Goodison Park stature and he shares some of Fergies qualities.
If I were a Utd fan Id be weary of Moyles. Yes, he has done great things at Everton within a limited budget and he is a proven developer of youth talent, but, he has had his transfer nightmares, he signed Simon Davies, he paid £6million for james beattie and he brought Per Kroldrup in, this kind of disaster wouldnt be tolerated at old trafford.
Likely to attract; traditionalist fans... Could sign; Leighton Baines, Mauro Fellaini
2. The Special One
Jose Mourinho, Jose Mourinho. Where the chants from the Old Trafford faithful as Utd crashed out of Europe this season to the Special Ones Real Madrid. Jose is a born winner, he has enjoyed success at every club he has managed and at every level of the game, he has experience of delivering Europe trophies and he never made any secret of his admiration of Manchester United. He is equally loved and hated around the world.
But, he is no stranger to controversy and he has a history and reputation as a 'two season' manager, neither of which the united board will be thrilled at, lets not forget since they floated on the stock exchange Jose would likely have massive impacts on shares prices, especially if he were to criticise the board in anyway.
That said, the fans adore him, his reputation alone is enough to attract investment and players of the highest standard.
Likely to attract; typical utd fans... could sign; Cristiano Ronaldo, Michael Essien, Radamal Falcao
3; The Playboy;
This is Jurgen Klopp. I use playboy in the loose sense. He is without a doubt one of the most exciting young managers in the modern game. He has developed Dortmund really well on a shoestring and his side have had back to back Bundesliga wins and has led a young exciting team into the final of the Champions League this season. That said his talented Dortmund side are being torn apart by big money offers from other clubs that the outfit cant afford to turn down With starting striker Mario Gotze confirmed to be off to arch rivals Bayern and counterpart Robert Lewandowski the subject of further speculation and almost certain to seek his fortune elsewhere the question is does Klopp fancy starting from scratch.
He is a talented manager who can get the best out of young players and with a United squad full of emerging talent he could be a real threat domestically and abroad.
Likely to attract, football purests who want to see the 'beautiful game'... Could Sign; Robert Lewandowski, Sebastian Kehl
The baby faced Assasin;
Still fondly remembered at Old Trafford as the go to man, the super sub, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer still has the appearance of a youth team graduate. But, out of all the former players that have developed into talented coaches and potential managers under Sir Alex, he without a doubt has the best pedigree to take over. Steve Bruce, Mark Hughes, Brian McClair, Paul Ince, Gary Neville, Ryan Giggs and even le king Eric Cantona are all badged up, sparky, brucey and Ince all experienced, but, would you trust any of the above to take charge of arguably the biggest club in the world? When Ole retired prematurely due to injury Sir Alex took him under his wing, his ability didnt go unnoticed, quickly promoted to reserve team manager he enjoyed much sucess and delivered the likes of Danny Wellbeck and Tom Cleverly the experience they needed to make the jump up to the senior team. Snapped up by Molde he has won back to back league titles and had a taste of European competition.
The problem being that although the fans would welcome him back to Manchester it is unlikely he would be able provide the cannyness that Utd need in the transfer market, he could get the best out of the current crop of youngsters though, especially with the assistance of the likes of Neville, Giggs and Scholes should he get them to help out on the training field.
Likely to attract, the nostalgic and those hopeful of another decade long manager... Could sign ????????
Who do you want?
Ive had a cheeky tenner on Ole at 50/1, but my heart says the board will side with Moyes. Thats said Id love to see what Klopp could do with an already talented base squad and the financial backing of a transfer kitty.
"He plays on the left... He plays on the righhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhht,
ooooooo that boy Conway, makes Messi look shiteeeeee"
As betterthancola reaches relative middle age for a blog how better to celebrate the 10,000 view mark than by congratulating my beloved Cardiff City, on finally achieving promotion, and, as the cherry on the cake we go up as champions. So before I get into the meat of the post I just want to make sure that all you guys who asked for your money back at the start of the season when we changed kits and vowed never to support again, I just want to make sure you are still enjoying not being a Cardiff fan. Pricks.
As our thoughts turn now to how and who is going to make the current squad strong enough to survive the rigours of the strongest league in the world. Malky has been promised twenty five million, and, has already said he will be ruthless in culling an rebuilding the current team to keep us up. I for one cant wait to see, and, Id love a Kalou 8 shirt next season. So far the names Ive heard thrown around by 'serious' sources are: Hal Robson Kanu, Park Ji Sung, Bobby Zamora, Darren Bent, Yannick Sagbo, James Collins, Ryan Shotton, Adam le Fondre... the season isnt even over yet, for me Malky will steer clear of these bargain buys, who have already proven to be not good enough to keep teams up, he's a canny manager and I think we will be shopping abroad and relying on one or two loanees.
What a good segway into the topic for todays discussion... For me, there is no such thing as a one player team. Teams like Spurs and Swansea are getting a bad reputation this season for being just this. But one player, a Bale or a Michu or a van Persie or even a Messi cant make a team. People say spurs wouldn't be where they are without Bale, fine, where would you be without your top scorer?? Its not as if without these players any of these sides would be scrapping for relegation, and, at the same time adding Gareth Bale or Van Persie into the Reading side would not put them in a European contention place. It speaks volumes about the character of football fans (its not good) that instead of constructing a valid argument to bad mouth our fierce rivals (there are billions btw) we just rely on saying "yeah, well without soandso, you'd be shit"
How to best demonstrate that one player doesn't make a team...
This is Mr Loic Remy. He has eighteen international caps for his native France, unfortunately he has had to compete Karim Benzema and Thierry Henry for the majority of his career. He has played for and won trophies for Lyon, Lens, Nice and Marseille He is 26 years old, he has played two hundred and one professional games and has scored seventy four goals. In January he signed for QPR, since then he has played nine games, he has scored nine goals. Even though QPR were already doomed when he joined, even a full season with this man wouldn't keep them up, even a goal per game from this man wouldn't have kept them up. For me he is the best player that has ever been relegated from the premier league.
This is Mr Scott Parker. In 2011 he was relegated with West Ham Utd. he was 'hammer' of the year. He found the net 7 times (not bad for someone that doesn't actually know the goals are located at either end) and he credited as the sole reason the Hammers came out for a second half at WBA and clawed back a draw from three nil down. The next season he was snapped up by spurs and has enjoyed international call ups and adulation galore. Also relegated with West Ham that season was one Mr Demba Ba.
That's Mr Fabrizio Ravenelli. In 1996 Bryan Robson paid seven millions of pounds for him (in 1996 this was an extra ordinary amount of money for a footballer). He scored a hat-trick on his début against LOLverpool. The side also contained this gentleman:
That is Senior Juninho Paulista, he won a world cup!! He is widely considered to be Middlesbroughs best ever player.
These two players were among the best in the league that season, together they guided their ward to both domestic cup finals!! Despite this by Christmas relegation was a real threat, some might remember the squad was then hit with severe flu, and, manager Robson claimed he didn't have enough players to field a team, for this he was fined a meagre three points, but, it was enough to send the northerners down.
Oh they also had, Mikkel Beck!!
Four players that are amongst the best ever to grace match of the day... proof absolute that one player does not make a team, if one player could make a team, Juninho would have won a cup easily, Scott Parker would be England captain and people like Chris Kamara, Danny Mills, Attilo Lombardo, Stuart Pearce, Damien Duff and John Barnes would never have experienced the displeasure of having their teams relegated.
“The man who makes everything that leads to happiness depend
upon himself, and not upon other men, has adopted the very best plan for living
happily. This is the man of moderation, the man of manly character and of
wisdom.”
- Plato
Here's a little titbit for you my little titbits...
In 1997 a gentleman called Billie Harrell was living just outside Houston, Texas where he worked nights in a local supermarket as a shelf stacker. That was until he won $31,000,000 on the state lottery. Harrell was a deeply religious man who had struggled his whole life to pay his mortgage and put food on the table for his wife and two children, until in July of that year he received a check for $1.25 million, the first of 25 checks he would receive yearly. He bought a ranch, some horses and put away enough money for his kids education. He donated to his church and payed of debts and mortgages for his whole family. Two checks later in 1999 he locked himself in the study of his house, put a shotgun to his chest and pulled the trigger, The last thing he said to his best friend, 'winning the lottery is the worst thing that has ever happened to me.'
Christopher Reeve was born in 1952 to a wealthy family in
New York. Chisel-jawed and good-looking, the young Reeve split his time between
Ivy League schools in the US and traipsing around Europe. In 1978, Reeve scored
the role of Superman in a big-budget Hollywood movie about the superhero. He
earned millions and became one of the most recognizable celebrities in the
world.
Reeve made a fortune. He spent that fortune on nice houses,
nice cars, luxurious parties and a newfound passion for riding horses.
Then in 1995, Reeve fell off a horse and cracked two
vertebrae in his spine. He would never walk or breath on his own again.
Reeve became an advocate for the disabled and spent the rest
of his life fundraising for spinal cord research. He was the first celebrity
supporter of stem cell research. Reeve later claimed that his accident helped
him “appreciate life more.” It wasn't a joke. He noted that there were
“able-bodied people more paralyzed than I am,” and once remarked, “I can laugh.
I can love. I am a very lucky guy.”
Happiness is a perplexing topic to delve into, especially for a blog.
Don Draper of Mad Men fame stated in one of the series’
final episodes that the definition of happiness is “the moment before you need
more happiness.” As cynical as it is, the brilliance of this line lies in the
fact that we rarely notice happiness while we’re experiencing it, we only
notice a lack of it once it’s gone.
I think as people we massively over estimate the value of things we dont have, especially those of us that are particularly materialistic, while also over estimating the pain and feeling associated with losing things that we do have. It works in reverse as well, we think the happiness of aquiring something will be far greater feeling than remaining without it, I mean if you really really want the new iphone, is the pleasure of having it really going to be that much greater than the pain of not?
So before I ruin your day, and maybe throw a little controversy into the mix, by releasing my converted opinions upon thee, lets just clarify, everyone is hard wired this way, its how we choose to live our lives that ultimately derives how happy or unhappy we are at any given moment.
You are a terrible judge of what does and does not make you happy, and also remembering what did. Odds are those horrid times you had in school weren't that bad and those amazing times drunk with your friends weren't that good. There are times in your life that you remember being unhappy that are greatly exaggerated (of course there are exceptions, I know a couple of things in my life that were a really bad fit). The secret to being truly happy, I have found, contentment, that is having what you could describe as a 'baseline' of happiness, and, more importantly being able to recognize it. New cars, higher paid jobs, pretty shiny trinkets all fall by the wayside when you can return to your baseline.
My baseline is very simple, I have a modest income, the people that are important to me are healthy and remain a large part of my life, I have enough physical health to allow me to participate in sports, I regularly meet new people and the bbc continue to make exceptional additions to the Dr Who franchise.
I would share my wisdom with you and make you a little happier if you would read on...
Life is a big map, on your map there are vast amounts of destinations, some destinations are better than others some are downright awful. When we are young we have people emphasize how important it is to reach a certain destination faster than everyone else.
For me its not about how fast we get there or even about the places we go through to get there, its all about having control of how I get there.
You have to be responsible for everything in your life. You may not be responsible for things happening to you, but you can be responsible for how you react to it. You cant change your circumstances untill you understand that you control them. Stop saying why are these things happening to me and start saying what shall I do about it.
Drastic changes dont work, small changes add up. So set yourself small attainable goals. Every small victory inches your happy a little bit further.
Stop seeking external validation from other people and things. This includes making people think you are successful or popular or better off and culminates in the coveting of things that other people have that you perceive to be 'perfect'. I know several people who I dont think will ever be happy because they put so much emphasis on things that other people have and do, that they want.
There are a lot of things that you can do to get yourself some internal validation. Im of the opinion there is no such thing as a self less act. But there are enough things in the world to provide in infinite amount of validation without relying on the constant ego boost of stuff. I learnt the difference between need and want, I dont spend my time or money on anything or anyone that isn't important to me, anymore.
I dont claim to be perfect, but I have found some happyness, I dont mind sharing it and my rules for finding it, they're only sixfold.
1) Take only what you need.
2) Do what you love... as much as you can
3) Instead of surrounding yourself with material shit, surround yourself with good people.
4) There is no conversation that you cannot drop the comment "Roads?? Where we're going we dont need roads"
5) Do not be relentless in the pursuit of success in any walk of life, but, be relentless in assisting others to achieve.
6) Life is simple... stop over analyzing it
There you go, a little glimpse of what makes us tick. Remember small changes make big differences, I hope you all find your happy baseline. Its a shame that some people wont be able to.
Here's some niceness that might help though!!!
Big plans afoot over the next month or so, I'll update you all when theyre undoubtedly laid to waste
