Well I am feeling a bit less cynical now than I did during my last post.

But only a bit.

I'm not sure that Orwell had the 21st century connotations of 1984's final line in mind when he wrote it, but the amount of people recently who have told me that they "love Big Brother" makes me think, well, maybe the dystopia is now. Then I get on a bus and there's a tv screen in front of me with some indistinguishable stains on it. Then I go to Sainsburys and there's a TV there, too. Soon there will be daily exercises for us all to follow, and there will be nowhere to hide.... except, as I've said many times before, for Finsbury Park. It's a shame that we seem to be heading towards the Orwellian dystopia of grottiness and weary, resigned subordination - I'd be far more open to the idea of a Brave New World (a Huxleyan dystopia? He's never really been big enough to warrant his own adjective) where they keep you pretty high on soma and basically force you into mass orgies every day or so. Yes, it's a completely hollow existence, but, well, ignorance is bliss..... ("...but you're so ignorant you may even be ignorant of this" - it's from a song. Wish I could remember which. I think it's Aesop Rock.)

He is watching, you know

Not much time, actually, in fact I'm not entirely sure why I bothered writing that paragraph - my main reason for being on here is to paste a link, thus:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=z1iUMeQ4USA

to an online commercial an old mate of mine just made in Baltimore. It's pretty funny, and even if you don't think so then it's soundtracked by a classic RJD2 track anyway so you can't really lose....

Also I would like to Big Up my other blog - worldcupandthat/Joe Cole, etc - which I'm co-doing with robmartinique (now, presumably, roboval). It's a World Cup blog and it does pretty much the same thing as the BBC equivalent, except without the careful editing process or the exclusive interviews, and with a bit more swearing. I am determined to get its readership into double figures by the start of the tournament, and so am resorting to rather pathetic self-promotion: go on, give it a try.

Just played football again. This time, however, I warmed up - all the stretches of my Sunday League days came flooding back to me, although I still struggled with the quad one that involves standing on one leg. The rain once again gave the occasion an unexpectedly epic feel, although in reality it meant that I just slipped over a lot. Not too many Magic Moments to relate in painstaking detail, I'm afraid, except for a header from miles out which took advantage of the stranded goalkeeper. Also displayed a decent first touch for abotu 15 minutes again. And then fell over some more. Still - at least my legs don't feel like shit. Bravo.