Poets Day US

It's been a while, not since I got a hug at work because I got one yesterday and the only reason I am not getting one today is that I am working from home, but it has been a while since I have put pen to paper (technically fingers to bluetooth enabled keyboard). 'Why James', you ask (or should that be 'Why, James') 'has it been so long since you penned your last blog?' and my reply, in all honesty is, "Have you seen the crap in the news these days?" I had decided last year to try and not talk about stuff I know nothing about (i.e. Politics) and instead tell funny stories and maybe write something relatable. Well unless you relate to rugby good ideas have been scarce as of late until the house of cards starting falling down :) Now, understand, I am in no way supporting any of the people in the news lately but rather am supporting all the people that are NOT in the news lately - all those people that right now are scared that the work hug that has...

“Things worthwhile generally don’t just happen. Luck is a fact, but should not be a factor. Good luck is what is left over after intelligence and effort have combined at their best. Negligence or indifference are usually reviewed from an unlucky seat. The law of cause and effect and causality both work the same with inexorable exactitudes. Luck is the residue of design.” - Branch Rickey I think I may have pontificated about luck as a concept in a previous post but as I cannot actually remember everything I have written I guess I might be writing about this again, however this time will be much better, by design :)  I was reading an article about the first World Series American Rounders game this week between the Astros and the Dodgers when the quote "Luck is the residue of design" was used and I thought, yeah, that makes sense to me. I am not someone who believes so much in luck as in putting yourself in the right place at the right time, and this...

Someone told me to write what I know about - which to them I think meant I need to stop writing altogether :) This week I decided I will write a post about something that I am passionate about instead of knowledgable, so if you want to read a post about rugby continue on, if not you might want to stop here :) I believe it was a certain pointy eared Vulcan that first said "Logic clearly dictates that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few" - to be honest I had no idea it was a Spock quote till I Binged it - but that is the logic behind this weeks word jumble. Yes it is about rugby,  more specifically youth rugby and what I believe needs to happen for the game to grow not just as a sport but as a personal development tool for youth in the US and other countries. 'But James', you say, 'rugby is all about big lugs with cauliflower ears and broken noses smashing into each other with nary a care for life nor limb'. Well, kind sir/madam, I have to d...

I was in the biggest army the world has ever seen. We were marching as one, on the road to the Holy Grail. It is not often that I will ever say something nice about the convict colony off the coast of New Zealand (not connected to us by the Sydney Harbor bridge but we are thinking of building a wall around it), however at one point in my life the music that emanated from that large island was, unlike their rugby team, pretty damn good (just like Jim Jefferies is now) The lyrics from Holy Grail by Hunters and Collectors (you can search for it on your Alta Vista search engine) popped into my head this morning after waking up pretty early on POETS day. No idea why, maybe just because I woke up this morning :) Started out, seeking fortune and glory. It's a short song, but it's a hell of a story, when you spend you lifetime trying to get your hands on the Holy Grail I think everyone has a dream of what their life should/could be when growing up. Whether it be a person in the ...

There has been quite a hiatus between me sharing the genius that I call 'me' here in my very personal and private diary blog, not only because I had problems getting inspiration on what to write about (that didn't relate to rugby) but also because I recently headed back to New Zealand with the kids and the chick, which is directly related to this weeks word jumble. Traveling halfway across this flat planet (no, no it's not flat but there is a Flat Planet Convention in Raleigh soon and I don't have any tinfoil to make hats with nor enough alcohol to deal with their stupidity so I will pretend to cater to their lunacy - yes the earth is flat, the moon landings never happened and the current president of the US is........nothing, got nothing) is quite a trip (the idea of using parentheses is to insert a new idea/comment into the sentence without breaking up the sentence thread seems odd when the bit in the parentheses (brackets) is longer the actual sentence itself ...

This Wednesday in fairly decent heat (about 90F so 32C for the rest of the world) about 24 hardy souls from the Cary Claymores and Coach Chris from the North Raleigh Redhawks turned out for a couple of hours of running around (with plenty of water breaks) to play some touch rugby. Kids ages varied from around 6 to 14 with about 8 parents/coaches joining in. Everyone got the touch the ball, everyone got to run forward (some sideways and backwards but we are working on that), everyone got to pass, most of the kids got to score tries and everyone had fun - why weren't you there? We do it most every week. Touch Rugby is the sport you want to get involved with, it is the sport you want your kids to get involved in and all they need equipment wise is shoes, clothes to run around in and the want to learn about the game that will help them hugely in life, especially when it comes to making decisions, teamwork and respect. This week we had a new Dad bring his 2 kids out for the first t...

And don't be afraid to call a person an asshole if they are an asshole (or arsehole depending on whether you celebrate the 4th of July or not). Y'know it can be tough to write a weakly blog (and yes, I know, it was deliberate and I shouldn't have to explain that). It has been a few years since I started using this secret personal public diary to occasionally impart words of wisdom (if they can be called that) to the multitude of people who read this (pretty much Mum and her book club) and sometimes inspiration hits me right in the feels and sometimes it just passes on by. Sometimes an article in the electronic news inspires me, sometimes it is a song, a passing comment or just something that pops in the grey squishy matter then suddenly I am off to the races. Lately there has been little that has popped hence the sparsity of brilliance over the past couple of months. I try to pontificate on subjects I have passing knowledge of or some passion for, but lately my knowledge...