Up the Rovers

Well done to Albion Rovers for holding out at Annan today and winning the second division play off on aggregate.

I know several of the Rovers directors, management team and players and I’m delighted for them.

The Big Bang

To enhance my iPod experience, I ventured to Clydebank today to buy, what the young folks call a ‘dock’. I.E. a speaker thingy in which to rest the iPod touch and let it play and charge.

The very helpful young chap at HMV let me hear and compare a few before I settled on one particular model, which is great quality and came in at a measly £50.

I am well chuffed listening to Spotify Premium at a fairly high quality of sound.

As a marvellous piece of symmetry regarding recent posts, here is the track that the said helpful assistant demo’d the docks with:

Innovations

One of these catalogues that advertise the weird and wonderful fell out the paper the other day.

What about this for an array of ‘solutions’?

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I’m obviously going for the big button phone and the talking bible. I can only imagine the admiring glances in Farmfoods if I bought one of the fleece jackets featuring rampaging stallions. The stretchy belt looks good but I think I might hold off for another 20 years or so. As for the Cozy Cuddler, I’m sure it’d be a wow in the adult bib wearing community – I knew I’d seen her face before!

Religious Stuff and Nonsense

As it’s Sunday, I thought I’d take one of my periodical looks at religion.

I wrote here about the possible business opportunities associated with the Rapture.

Of course, missed deadlines for the Rapture are nothing new. Man has been predicting doom since the beginning of time. In 1844 for example there was The Great Disappointment which saw people giving away all their possessions and preparing for the Lord’s return.

And so it was yesterday. It is easy to scoff at these eejits but really, it’s just a demonstration of how easily led human beings can be. I mean Harold Camping isn’t the first man in his 80′s to be literally putting the fear of God into his flock:

 
 
 

A friend of mine on his (private) blog makes the point quite succinctly:

Camping and the Pope agree that Jesus will return – they only argue about the date.

They are agreed that the Bible is holy writ – they disagree on precise interpretation.

They are both agreed that God can and does intervene in human affairs, though neither can offer even a scintilla of objective evidence in support of that belief.

When asked to justify their preposterous beliefs they would both ultimately ascribe them to ‘faith’.  In other words a fervent belief in something for which there is no proof whatsoever.

And those in much more powerful positions than Camping claim to have a hotline to Heaven

Ain’t there a universal truth here? It’s easy to make religious and political statements with no proof to back them up and which fly in the face of all the evidence, if you’re a persuasive talker.

That’s why, whether it’s Harold Camping, The Pope, Ian Paisley, Nick Clegg or Nick Griffin, George Bush or George Galloway, there will always be the sad and gullible who believe their rhetoric.

They will follow an idea, no matter how preposterous, to the extent that they are prepared to give away everything they own in its pursuit.

Great Headlines of Our Time

You may have to be Scottish to get the subtlety here. I suspect that the Herald editorial team did it deliberately.

Back!

Aye I haven’t had time to update for a few days. Staff holidays, two gigs and serious negotiations with bookmakers to see if they’d accept my house as a bet on the Rapture not happening, are the reasons.

We played the Rhu Inn on Friday night, followed by the Helensburgh Real Ale Festival last night. The event had around 500 visitors yesterday and most of them, suitably fuelled, seemed to be there last night. It was great and thanks to the organisers for having us back once again (was that the third or fourth year?)

Friday: Rhu Inn

Saturday: Real Ale Fest with Kenny as stunt double drummer.

It should be pointed out that Keith does have more than one guitar, and indeed more than one shirt!