Factor X

Yesterday I went for a nice long ride, headed off towards Shoreham and then took the Downs Link trail towards Bramber, but once there, stop I did not and carried on. The Downs Link is a footpath/cycle track that links the North and South Downs here in the South, is so pleasant to cycle along, peaceful, pretty, in the countryside. There was a large part where I was cycling between fields, recently ploughed and all you could see for mile and miles in either direction was countryside.

As I cycled, I kept thinking, I wish I'd taken Matt this way, when he was over, I would loved have shown it to him. Indeed I'm thinking that a lot these days, along with playing 'slug bug, punch Herbie' to myself every single time I see a little VW Beetle. I usually win, but sometimes I even let him get one in first, especially if it sneeks up on me. When I was over there, they seemed so small and compact, compared to other cars, yet over here they are normal size and indeed as long as some of the 6 seater estate cars.

There has not been much communication between Matt and i just lately, he's got uni and work and game playing and I've got work and writing, plus the 6 hour time difference doesn't help. So needless to say, I am therefore missing him like I would my left leg if it had been ripped from my hip and stolen in the night. There are times when my heart can not ache more, when my mind is filled with nothing other than him, dreams of the future memories of the past. Then there are other times that I am able to cover the huge hole that is my heart and continue with day to day living. It's hard to answer, when people ask how he is, my eyes moisten as I say he's alright, and explain, like above, that we've not spoken much. LDR's or long distance relationships can be so painfully hard, the distance can at times overwhelm you and consume your very being. It's difficult to reign in the terror of the unknown, the realisation that the present has to be endured if the pleasure of the future is to be attained. I so want to be able to talk with him, to hold him, to feel his breath upon my face, just to be in the same room as him would be such heavenly delight, yet such simple things, however it's those simple things that are so very elusive. Can I cope? Can he cope? What really is the future? Is there anyway to make it easier? Will I stop hitting myself when playing a solo round of 'punch Herbie/slug bug'? Is this enough questions? Find out next time!

X Factor !

So X Factor is back on our screens, has it really been a year since the last one? I'm sure those X'ers of 2008 are still on tour in some long forgotten village hall here in the UK, or doing the midnight show at Bognor Butlin's, maybe I'm getting confused the with 'never were's' from Britain's Got Talent?

But, yes, X Factor is back, with a new format, OK so it's been back a couple of weeks, but to be fair I thought I'd give it a couple of weeks before I commented on the new strange format. If you've not seen it, the good, bad and ugly sing in front of the smug four judges but also a 2000 strong audience and their family and friends back stage. Dermot O'shout-a-lot standing in the wings grabbing hold of each of the auditionees as they bound of stage either with joy of success or despondent with dismissal.

The fun for me in past shows was the bitch, funny, interesting, insulting judges banter behind closed doors after each audition. Also, now the journey to the final has been obliterated, after all in years past, the inexperienced singist passes audition, goes to boot camp, there they learn to cope with proper singing and performing in front of a live audience before they get through the rounds to the final. Now, of course, that's redundant as they've already done the audience bit in the audition stage!

Another reason why the 'open' audition audience things that pisses me off is the fact, and I believe we've already seen it, is an audience feeling sorry for a performer and cheering them on and pretty much forcing Simon and the est to put said performer through to the next round even if they are sodding crap and without the audience misplaced sympathy would never have gone further than the embarrassing audition.

Most people I've spoken to also hate the new format, indeed a lot now believe it's too much like the Britain's Got Talent show, one can almost see Simon reaching for that big red button!

Will the new style encourage the true talent of the hopefuls to shine through, or will it favour the cruddy karaoke singers, who know how to work a crowd a little ? I dunno, I guess time will tell, all I know is I dislike the new format a great deal, but I'll still watch, only to see the cringe worthy god damn awful tone death talentless tosspots that delight, embarrass and amaze the viewing audience.

So far, here's some to watch out for in the semi's:

1) Lloyd Daniels, 16 year old Welsh boy.

2) Lucie Jones, also from Wales and 19 years of age.

3) Jamie Archer - or Jamie Afro for obvious reasons!

Well, we'll also see more tonight!

Apple

I have to say, I was pretty disappointed by the news from San Francisco from the latest 'Rock n Roll' event from Apple! It was all high excitement, all ready for a 'One last thing' moment from a very weak and thin looking Steve Jobs, loads and loads of people expecting it to be the new iTablet computer - me included, but sadly it's just a camera in a iPod Nano. OK so that's pretty good, it's pretty flashy, but it's hardly the same as an iTablet, is it? Yes there were some other announcements, mainly about enhancements to iTunes, but on the whole, a bit of an anti-climax. Still, it was nice to see Jobs on his feet and back at work.

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