Rounds discharged by firearms...

I sit here sipping a brew, listening to Rubén Blades and the firecrackers far and near. I'm not in a mood to reminisce cos I've since forgotten the value of such a thing. I'm in a vaguely somber mood regardless and it has nothing to do with the new year upon us and the old one fading into memory, no, it's not nostalgia that has me in a brooding state. It's firearms.

I was telling a friend last week about the practice some in this area have of firing guns into the air in celebration of midnight on 31 December/1 January. On more than one occasion, tragedy has resulted from these premeditated and negligent acts. A bullet will come through a roof somewhere and... well, you can figure the rest out. However, tonight, fate (and a psycho) decided to turn this on it's head. One fella decided to fire two rounds into the chest of a girl, who he had kidnapped the day before, in a grocery store. I don't know why this is having a particular effect on me, but it is. Perhaps it's age or the notion of impending mortality... who knows? I find it hard to try and pin-point exactly what it is. I don't even feel overwhleming animosity towards this guy either. Instead, I feel a vague numbness along with that question that's been floating about in my head constantly for the past two or three weeks- Where's the humanity?

Life is rendered so cheap sometimes.

And now I have to make it a point to write about something much lighter next time! I wasn't expecting all this. I was looking forward to harping on about what a travesty this or that was, or tell a story about when I went to this place or that. Life happens though... and has to be addressed.

Happy New Year.

The Start of Something... besides the new year.

After a few pushes and suggestions, I have arrived on this side of the 'internets'. I've always been intrigued with blogging, but I wondered if I fit in, if I had the prerequisites, the credibility... I truly wondered if I had 'the goods'. Well, after days of contemplation and rumination, I came to the conclusion that I really didn't give a shit. So, here I am. For better or for worse.

I'm now confronting the dilemma of where to take this. Should I make this a journal? Full of self-centered observations and expositions into the privacy that I otherwise guard with a vigilance that borders on the paranoid? Or, shall I make it a personal art gallery for my attempts at expressing something in a decidedly odd-ball fashion? Perhaps I could make it an outlet for information, spreading knowledge to the masses and educating others to the finer points that may have been missed. These are all serious considerations, truly something for me to mull over. However, the truth is, I'm not that complex.

To know me is to know a person wrapped in a cloak of security that has been stitched together with precision, made up of various obsessions which comfort and madden me in equal measure. Football (soccer, pronounced 'sawker' here in the States), in the many forms with which I involve myself with it, and Guinness Stout are the main components of my strategically placed shield. There are other things as well... music, film, books, the odd television show, but truth is, those interests seem to provide a set-up or background for the other two main things. There's no two ways about it. Then, when one adds the fact that my main activity is 'taking the piss' (joking around), it becomes quite evident what this minute corner of the web will consist of... A blog about football and beer. Ta-da! That's about as unoriginal as it gets, innit? However, the key is that even though there are LOADS of blogs covering the same sort of thing, this is the only one that I'M doing! Like I said before, for better or for worse.

So, it's Guinness (obviously) and the football team would the Arsenal Football Club of Ashburton Grove, London, N5. I am hopelessly obsessed and have thoughts and opinions on every aspect of what goes on with that club, as well as with others. I won't hesitate to complain or rail against something I see in any other sport either, but it's mostly going to be Arsenal and football in general, with a smattering of the self-indulgent musings I previously had the nerve to consider pretentious. I can do that too. Oh, I fucking well can.

Well, I'm off for beverages. It IS new year's eve, after all! I intend on being well pissed by 11pm my time.... We shall see.