14th January 2005 - 14:25 GMT
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I’m really having a laugh at Jackie Stallone today, I’ve made another picture, this time advertising the benefits(!!) of plastic surgery, check it out here.

I better stop all this, people might think I'm obsessed and love her - trust me I'm not into necrophilia!

14th January 2005 - 13:16 GMT
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All girls under the age of 10 today will be very distraught today as boy band Busted have announced they have split up – what a shame! The boy band will no longer make any more music (if you can call it that) together. :o)

Of course, most Busted fans won’t know this news yet as they will still all be in school. They won’t find out until they watch Newsround on CBBC this evening. They'll be crying all the way through Neighbours.

So Busted fans, this means NO MORE ALBUMS, NO MORE SONGS – EVER AGAIN! Hahahaha, God I’m cruel!

Still on the topic of entertainment news, it appears that Jackie Stallone has landed a film role since entering the Big Brother house. Director Peter Jackson is keen to talk to her regarding another Exorcist remake. Don’t believe me? Check this out.

14th January 2005 - 10:29 GMT
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Well I installed Service Pack 2 for Windows XP this morning, I have been putting off doing it for quite some time due to bad things I heard about software incompatibilities. So, after making a ghost image of my C drive I took the plunge and got the updates.

Everything on my PC appears to be ok; I’ve tested all the commonly used pieces of software. Nero had some issues but these were easily corrected by a software update. So now no more problems – until SP3 is released!

I’m one of these people who really dislike Microsoft and the only reason I use their operating system is… well because using an OS like Linux would simply cause me more problems, not due to quality but the choice of software available is limited (how arrogant and lazy!).

I never use Internet Explorer anymore, some of my friends frown upon this, but I find it very bug prone and even with security software and updates certainly has vulnerabilities. I use Firefox from Mozilla, a basic web browser but extremely effective.

Since I moved over from “the dark side” I have had no problems whatsoever. Most people who knock Firefox have not tried it themselves and therefore are not in a position to be critical.

13th January 2005 - 23:13 GMT
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Everything I predicted and feared for Leeds United moved a step closer to reality this evening when Sebastian Sainsbury pulled out of the deal to take over the club. Unless by some miracle somebody else buys the club, Leeds United will be in administration very soon.

From what I have read on the Internet and seen in the media the current owners have done very little to prevent this.

The current Leeds board have always appeared to be extremely hostile to anybody showing an interest in taking over and saving the club, making up excuses, appearing to be changing deals and being down right stubborn. They have sold almost everything of value to the club including their stadium and training ground.

It now comes out that they have paid more player agent fees this year than any other club in the whole of England; this includes Chelsea who have more coming and goings than Paddington Station!

The whole club is a farce and has been for so many years. Everyone who has run Leeds United across the last five years should hang their heads in shame as they have all committed such terrible atrocities. They have been so careless with money and looking after their own interests, completely disregarding the loyal fans, many of who were watching Leeds United while the board members were still in nappies.

The previous and current owners have totally destroyed what is a wonderful club. Not only is it a tragedy for Leeds fans, but it is a tragedy for football itself. Some rival fans may find the peril of the club amusing now, but where did the rivalry come from in the first place?

The rivalries came from so many fantastic games between their club and Leeds over a large number of decades. Now with Leeds in the lower division and facing the prospect of a consecutive relegation or worse (should administration come into effect) these glorious matches can not occur.

The only thing Leeds United still have is the fans. This is something that luckily can never be sold and while Leeds United still play they will attract them in their tens of thousands. Leeds are easily the largest club in The Championship and should administration rear its ugly head, the fans may be the only thing to keep the administrators from making the club extinct.

12th January 2005 - 23:02 GMT
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While looking on the DVD Reviewer forums, I found this brilliant website which lets you generate your own football headlines onto The Times newspaper. It certainly isn’t a resource to keep you entertained for any long periods of time, but it gives you a small amount of immature humour! Great fun, take a look at my efforts here.

If you want to see what my fellow WACCOE members managed to make from that website, check out this thread.

12th January 2005 - 11:04 GMT
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This time in 2003 both Leeds United and Chelsea had massive debts and looked in real trouble. Two years on Chelsea’s debt seems a thing of the past and are enjoying playing Barcelona in The Champions League. Leeds still have the debt and are playing Brighton in The Championship.

Many may argue this is very unfair, especially as Chelsea were only saved by a Russian billionaire willing to invest his fortune in the club and not by careful restructuring and asset sales (which Leeds have done to half their debt).

For over a year now Leeds have been linked with many takeovers, a white knight who will pile millions into the club, wiping debts, eradicating the threat of administration and bringing back glory days. There’s been rumours of billionaire Sheikh’s from Asia, rich Americans, grandchildren of supermarket founders and now the ex-Chelsea owner Ken Bates.

Unlike most of the rumours, the Ken Bates one was immediately wiped out, which is a good thing. Ken Bates hasn’t had great history with football clubs and as a Leeds fan even with their poor financial state I wouldn’t want Master Bates involved. Besides which he looks like Captain Birds Eye.

"Try my new fish fingers kids!"

Sebastian Sainsbury who gave all Leeds fans so much hope of a takeover back in November is back in the news. He is still discussing purchasing Leeds United (hopefully NOT with the intentions on building the worlds largest Sainsbury’s supermarket on Elland Road).

After everything I have heard though I will be really surprised if anyone buys the club in the state that it is currently in. I now believe that Leeds United will be in administration, sooner rather than later. I don’t think administration will equal the death of the great club due to the fanbase and revenue from ticket sales, but it won’t be good news at all.

It’s going to get worse before it gets better. But it will get better. One day.

11th January 2005 - 23:49 GMT
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I’m currently watching tonight’s episode of Celebrity Big Brother. I have to be honest I am shocked at the state of Jackie Stallone. She is totally repugnant, her face isn’t even a face, it has had so much cosmetic surgery it looks like a Halloween mask.

What are the odds on a zombie winning Celebrity Big Brother?

Poor Brigitte Nielsen! It was public knowledge that during her marriage to Sylvester Stallone Jackie really was the mother in law from hell. She wished terrible things upon Brigitte and sounded a truly awful woman.

It is certainly debatable as to whether or not Big Brother really has gone too far by introducing Jackie to the house. These celebrities are all being paid extortionate amounts to appear on the show (in fact if one tabloid newspaper is to be believed, Brigitte will receive £160k!) but at the end of the day, they are only humans with emotions like you or I.

John McCririck’s suffering is funny (he is only missing some fizzy drinks), Brigitte’s suffering is very personal and could easily affect her families life when the series is over.

Big Brother even asked the housemates to treat Jackie like a queen. Heating her bed before she went to sleep, escorting the toilet and warming the seat for her. Women at her age often need the toilet many times throughout the night. Is asking the housemates to fit in with the old hag’s irregular bladder movements also taking things to far? (I think that part is funny and really evil!) They seemed to think so and decided to revolt.

This series of Big Brother keeps getting better and better. It is certainly an improvement upon the previous two Celebrity editions!

Oh and last but by no means least DO NOT VOTE FOR JOHN MCCRIRICK! KEEP HIM IN THE HOUSE!

11th January 2005 - 12:59 GMT
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Another good episode of Celebrity Big Brother last night. John McCririck is still without his precious Diet Coke and is still not speaking to any of the housemates, blaming them for his lack of fizzy drink. Big Brother invited two of the housemates into the Diary Room to offer them a glass of Diet Coke, instead of taking the glass out to John, the drunk it themselves!

John McCririck.
He may have eaten all the pies but he hasn't drunk any Diet Coke.

Big Brother also proved he was not going to be any less evil to the celebrities when the new housemate Jackie Stallone entered the house. Jackie is the mother of Sylvester Stallone, ex-husband of housemate Brigitte Nielsen. Jackie looks a real bizarre character and to use the word “mad” would certainly not be too strong.

It’s nominations day today and I think it is a certainty that John McCririck will be up for eviction. Whatever you do, DO NOT VOTE FOR JOHN MCCRIRICK! He is the man making Celebrity Big Brother so entertaining. I’m sure he’ll go though; most of the Big Brother viewers don’t know entertainment when they see it and always vote out the interesting characters – Ahmed, John Tickle, Bubble…

Now, I have a made a really cool find on the net, a N64 music player and sound packs. As I mentioned on a blog entry last week, I was very keen on getting hold of a soundtrack for the N64 classic GoldenEye. I have now found it available for download on the internet along with many other games.

To get the soundtrack, you must first download a plugin for Winamp called 64th Note. This can be downloaded for free here. (BTW – you must have Winamp installed first, obviously!)

Once the plugin has been downloaded and installed go to a website called Zophar’s Domain where you can download sound packs for many N64 games including GoldenEye – great huh!

I’ve also found a plugin here which allows you to plays SNES sound packs which can be downloaded from this website. Nostalgic memories :o)

10th January 2005 - 20:24 GMT
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It all kicked off in the Celebrity Big Brother House last night. John McCririck was in a foul mood all evening because he didn’t have any Diet Coke or milk to drink (gripping stuff huh) so went to bed early. Hours later he is awoken by a pissed up Kenzie who he accused of being “the weakest in the house”.

Kenzie protested about being patronised and treated younger because he was only 19, but his tantrum made him look barely 6. Across a 2 minute period he threatened John McCririck with physical violence and used “fuck” over 20 times. He also talked complete garbage and repeated himself like an old record – how much had he drunk?

John McCririck was indeed very rude to Kenzie and had been to everybody all night, but surly he didn’t deserve that much abuse from the Chav? Judge for yourself in this clip of the incident.

For all those visitors to Sparkster.net who can’t stand Big Brother, don’t worry, the series ends next week and normal service will resume then - until Big Brother 6 starts in May!

8th January 2005 - 18:20 GMT
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Unsurprisingly Leeds were beaten by Birmingham, although they lost 3-0 it certainly wasn’t an embarrassing defeat by any means.

From listening to the game over the Internet it appeared Leeds had the better of the chances, it’s just a shame they couldn’t convert them. I suppose that is where the difference between Championship and Premiership sides really does show.

The only criticism I have for Leeds is in the defender Michael Duberry and the manager Kevin Blackwell for playing him! Duberry has just returned to Leeds from a loan spell at Stoke. Prior to going to Stoke he was a terrible defender and it was obvious today nothing had changed. Hopefully he will never, ever play for Leeds again!

Still, looking at the positives, now there is no more cup football Leeds can solely concentrate on the league and making the play offs, something that is a strong possibility.

One of the major aspects of The FA Cup is “upsets” - small clubs knocking out massive teams. There weren’t any major fallouts this year.

Scunthorpe certainly gave Chelsea a scare by taking the lead early on. It wasn’t until the second half when the Londoners took the lead.

League One side Oldham managed to beat Premiership opposition Manchester City 1-0 which must have surprised a lot of supporters (although Man City are almost as unpredictable as Leeds!).

The best result was for the conference team Exeter who travelled to Manchester United’sOld Trafford. Alex Ferguson acted like an arrogant tosser as usual and fielded a very weakened squad. He strongly underestimated Exeter though and the game finished 0-0. I bet he’ll put out a better team in the replay!

One final note, Sheffield United beat Aston Villa 3-1. This may have surprised a lot of people, no more so than the person who controls the scoreboard at Bramill Lane. Take a look at this screen capture of the score board – can you spot the obvious error?

8th January 2005 - 13:34 GMT
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It’s the FA Cup 3rd round weekend, arguably one of the most exciting moments on the football calendar.

Leeds travel to Premiership side Birmingham this afternoon. Birmingham are the obvious favourites (playing in a division above Leeds) although a wise man wouldn’t bet too much against Leeds pulling off a shock victory or forcing a replay at Elland Road.

Other interesting ties in this competition include non-league side Yeading against Premiership under-achievers Newcastle United. This game is really set up for one of the biggest upsets in FA Cup history.

Scunthorpe also play Chelsea and Exeter take on Man Utd. I cannot see anyone but the Premiership sides winning here but it would be very, very good to see the under dogs winning.

Celebrity Big Brother 3 is now on its 3rd day, unsurprisingly none of my recommended celebrities (see below) are in the house. John McCririck has probably been the funniest and indeed most interesting house mate so far. His sexist views and bodily functions really pissing off feminist Germaine Greer and model Caprice. Hopefully John can stay in the house for the duration and cause a lot of problems.

Something sad that just reflects the society we live in – a chav is in the Big Brother house! Kenzie from Blazin’ Squad is prancing around the house with his bling bling, talking like Ali G and secretly wishing the champagne from Big Brother is White Lightening Cider.

Yo Yo Yo Big Bruva!
I iz enjoying me time in da houze. I think I can win it innit!

That’s the lot for today, I’m sure I’ll blog again later if Super Leeds United win. C’mon Leeds!

6th January 2005 - 16:53 GMT
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Celebrity Big Brother 3 tonight on Channel 4

Celebrity Big Brother 3 starts on Channel 4 this evening for two weeks. If it is anything like the first Celeb BB it’ll be great, but if it’s like the 2nd it certainly won’t be worth watching.

Channel 4 hasn’t announced the celebrity line up yet, but no doubt it’ll be full of Z-listers and many most people haven’t even heard of. Most celebrities with any worthy status probably wouldn’t risk their career and dignity by going on the show.

If I could chose 8 celebrities to go into the house (assuming they would be willing to take part), I could make it an excellent show and definitely worth watching, even for the people who can’t stand Reality TV.

Robbie Williams & Noel Gallagher So they can actually go ahead with that infamous fight which was mentioned all those years ago. For a winner in the fight, my money would be on Noel at 1/100 (not a lot for your money).

Ron Atkinson & Mike Tyson Biggot Ron Atkinson famously called a black footballer a “lazy n*****” on television (disgusting I know). If that’s his opinion on black sportsmen let him meet Mike Tyson. He has achieved a huge amount in his career and would hopefully smash Ron’s lights out before feasting on his ear like Hannibal Lecture.

Mark Viduka Big, firey, self-opinionated ex-Leeds footballer. Rumoured to have had a blazing rows with managers who have questioned his attitude. It was even alleged he assaulted a fellow team mate who wasn’t pulling his weight. Of course this is only rumours, for legal reasons I must state – “This probably DID NOT happen”.

Kirsty Gallagher Well, they’ll probably have a hot tub…

Dido Another fit bird, great music artist. Again, if the tabloid papers are to belived has had her way with more than one Premiership footballer. Big Brother can get her drunk and maybe she’ll reveal all

Sara Cox Another hotty, very loud and won’t take any crap. I can see her really kicking off towards anyone pissing her off.

6th January 2005 - 12:55 GMT
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Water is just one of many things that people in the Developed World take for granted everyday when millions of people worldwide sadly having to do without. When you have to live without it for just a few hours it really makes you think, well it did me…

Yesterday the water in my house was turned off for the day between 8am and 6pm due to maintenance works – it was a real problem! I couldn’t fill the swimming pool and Jacuzzi, have models round for wet T-Shirt competitions or even flush the toilet. Had I needed to pass solids I may have needed to take a trip to the pet shop for a litter tray.

The litter tray. The perfect alternative to the toilet

Anyway, the water has been turned back on now but it has been declared unfit for human consumption, I suppose it’ll be ok to give to animals and serve in McDonalds.

Something I keep meaning to mention on here but always forget, I’ve found a great site for Video Game music. The site has a growing archive of music from Sega and Nintendo games. You can find the site for Sega music here and here for Nintendo tunes. It's great to hear those classic tunes again, some of them are over 10 years old. One soundtrack I’d love is Goldeneye for the N64, so if anyone has it, please get in touch with me.

Donkey Kong Country's supurb soundtrack available for download

I went to the cinema again yesterday to see Without A Paddle. I really liked this film. It was very funny and all the parts were played well. The film starred Dax Shepard (first time I’ve seen him in a film), Matthew Lillard (one of the killers from Scream) and Seth Green (Scott from the Austin Powers movies and the voice of Chris Griffin in Family Guy).

The film follows three friends who go on a treasure hunt into the forest in honour of their recently deceased friend. Things don’t go to plan when they run into a broody bear, highly aggressive cannabis farmers, vicious Rottweiler’s and torrential weather.

Another good film for 2005 and one I highly recommend.

4th January 2005 - 22:56 GMT
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Last night I went to see Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. Like a lot of the reviews have said, it is a very good film.

The characters have been very well cast and played their roles well. Jim Carrey played the lead part of Count Olaf. I’m not a massive Carrey fan but I thought he played his character well. Another actor I am not keen on is Billy Connelly. I don’t find his comedy funny at all but his performance of Uncle Monty was superb.

Proof whatever age you are, you can still be a Goth

The film was very well directed by Brad Silberling. The dark and gloomy colour scene throughout the whole movie worked very well indeed.

All in all a very good film which is nice as it’s been a long time since I have seen a decent one, these festive movies I have been watching lately certainly were disappointments. I highly recommend going to see this movie.

Now onto the topic of football again, all the top Premiership clubs were in action this evening and Arsenal’s hopes of winning the title were hit with a devastating blow as they failed to beat Manchester City at Highbury, the game ending 1-1. Chelsea on the other hand beat Middlesbrough 2-0 to put themselves 7 points clear at the top.

I really hope Chelsea don’t win the league as it will be a bad day for football. They would have bought the title not earned it over many years of team building.

Roy Caroll enjoys the odd game of basketball as well as footy

All the talk tonight though will surround the Manchester United game against Spurs. With only minutes remaining it looked to be a dull 0-0 game until the Man Utd keeper, Roy Caroll made a terrible error and put the ball into his own net. The ball must have gone two feet over the line but the referee and lines men waved play on. An utter disgrace! Man Utd deserved to lose that game, instead they stole an undeserved point. I hope it doesn’t have repercussions on the final league table in May.

Last but by no means least, Neighbours returned onto BBC One this afternoon. Now the hopelessly unemployable and house wives will have something to do at 1.45pm on weekdays (I of course watch it later on Sky+ when I have finished work).

The Lady and The Tramp
Sky of course has never been near a Big Issue in her life

In case you care what happened, "Jack the Junkie" had his court case, Steph’s having laydeez troubles and Lana is still a lesbian. Most importantly though, Sky returned and is still just as fit in 2005 as she was last year. Shame Cindy didn’t feature today though.

3rd January 2005 - 17:36 GMT
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Peter Reid AKA Monkey Head

Away in a manger,
No crib for a bed,
The little Lord Jesus lay down his sweet head,
The stars in the bright sky look down where
HEALY! HEALY! HEALY! HEALY! HEALY! HEALY!

David Healy, the Leeds United saviour scored the winner for The Whites today in a smashing 2-1 win against Coventry. Another 3 points, thank you very much!

The game also reminded us why Leeds sacked ex-manager, now Coventry boss Peter Reid. Not only does he have a monkey head but he’s a crap manager. Cheer up Peter Reid! Cheer up Peter Reid!

I’m very pleased with the result, Leeds are becoming a strong team now. Marching on together!

Oh, another reason I’m pleased, I’ve got two weeks off work now (when everybody else goes back after Christmas!), off to TGI’s for dinner and then to the cinema to see A Series of Unfortunate Events tonight.

3rd January 2005 - 11:22 GMT
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As I’ve mentioned on this site before, I’ve been playing the SNES classic Super Bomberman 2 lately. It was a great multi-player game 10 years ago and is still highly addictive today (far better than this modern day rubbish!).

Anyone who grew up in the 90’s and played a lot of video games would surly have played this game, or if not another game in the Bomerman series. Why not do what I have done and dust off the old cart and give it a go? If you’ve lost/sold/eaten your old copy then there loads going on Ebay for under £1! Oh and there is also a ROM available from various sites on the net, like here…

While you’re on Ebay, buying your legitimate copy of Bomberman, take a look at the auctions selling Blue Anti-Bullying armbands. Originally given away free on the Radio 1 website, sellers thought it would be funny and indeed a money making plan to sell them on Ebay. Unbelievably, one I found is going for £72.00 (and the price is still rising)! Thinking I’d like a band myself (I’m being traumatically bullied, not wanting to sell it – honest guvnor) I logged onto the Radio 1 website, annoyingly they’ve run out!

On a serious note, this seller has obviously made an easy £72.00 and deprived victims of bullying an armband which would have stopped them being bullied (yeah right). Many people would argue he should give the money made to some anti-bullying charity or the victims to the Tsunami earthquake tragedy.

Leeds United are playing Coventry City today. Coventry aren’t the best team in the division, in fact they’re one of the worst. Leeds could win this game easily, but as I’ve said so many times before, it depends which Leeds United turns up. If it’s the team who take no crap and get down to business they can win 3-0 again, if the team who couldn’t care less turn up then the score could be the other way round!

Saying that I think they will win today and am going for a 2-1 victory for The Whites.

Finally, take a look at the new O.T.B. section, here I’ll place any info I think is either too crap or too large to include on these blog pages. Currently there is my Fifa 2005 web log.

1st January 2005 - 16:52 GMT
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Bugger – Bugger – Bugger – Bugger – Bugger!!!
Leeds United. The most unpredictable team in England. A gamblers nightmare.

1st January 2005 - 13:01 GMT
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Firstly a very Happy New Year to you all, I hope you all had a good evening last night, if you drank too much and are bent double over the toilet bowl vomiting this morning – hahaha serves you right (don’t worry, you won’t die!).

I did go out last night although decided against braving it out in the city centre. I went out to town one New Year’s Eve and it was extremely busy. The pubs you could get into charged you over the top prices and then there were more people inside than normal so you couldn’t get a seat or a drink!

A typical night club scene on New Years Eve

Instead I decided to go round Daninthemix’s flat and have an evening of sophisticated recreation… including playing Super Bomberman 2 on the SNES emulator :o)

Moving on from last night, Super Leeds United are in action this afternoon. They’ve won their last two games and are at home to Crewe (not the best team in the league) so knowing the unpredictability of Leeds, Crewe will win!

If, now this is a big ‘IF’ Leeds did manage to win, it would be their third consecutive league win. The last time Leeds got three league wins in a row was in March 2002 against Ipswich Town, Blackburn Rovers and Leicester City.

I don’t want to get carried away, but after Crewe, Leeds play Coventry City away who are really, really poor – nothing to do with Peter Reid’s management skills I’m sure (hahaha)! If they beat them too, making it FOUR league wins in a row it would be the first time since March 2000 when they beat Coventry City, Bradford City, Wimbledon and Leicester City

BTW - you can get all of Decembers blog entries here, or as usual in the Blog Archives.