The completion of my Geography exam this morning concludes three months of revision. I can for the first time in a long while, look beyond January. But I don’t have to look far to get excited. Derby will host Forest on Sunday this weekened. The BBC – or anyone in the footballing industry – has finally picked a game to show live that actually means something to us and them – Coventry in three successive seasons, what is that about?
I wont lecture you on why I think Derby/Forest is the best derby there is. Because I would be wrong. It is not. It is like most other ‘great’ derbys. Two sets of fans from two different citys located just a few miles from each other. A bitter dislike between them, though mutual interest in each others fortunes and events. Two teams, tied together by former players, staff and history.
And thanks to a fateful last few minutes in a 1-1 home draw between the two sides back in 2008, the latest generation were started down the road of the dislike of the team in red.
There has been little doubt that in the past two seasons that Forest have been the superior side. They played the better football, they scored more goals, they won more games, they got into the playoffs twice. All the while, Derby continued to languish in an almost never-ending fight down the bottom of the table.
It’s not even a year ago that Forest were knocked out of the play-offs by the eventual-winners Swansea. Such is the way with the Championship, barely eight months later, they are trapped in the botton 3, 5 points from safety. Derby on the other hand, appear to have finally transformed themselves into a stable mid-league side. For the first time in five seasons, there is no immediate threat of relagation. Whilst this season has not been as straight forward as we may have liked it to be (including a five-match losing streak), the focus has been more on progress rather than ‘get the season done with’. I can tell you, it is such a relief.
And yet despite our progress, and Forest’s problems, I can’t help but feel Sunday will not be a simple affair. Though I say we are now something of a stable team, the Derby mentailty that has accumulated from our recent history has I and many others certain that we are about to collapse spectacularly. And derbys themselves often bare little resemblence to the form book. Portsmouth were not favored against top-of-the-league rivals Southampton who were separated by 17 points, but still scavanged a point.
In addition, we are often appalling when on TV. The moment a camera is turned on we seem to turn into the most mediocre of sides ever to have existed. We’re
Though I haven’t seen them play often this season, nor do I know enough about the team, I genuinely cannot see Forest going down, even if the odds are stacked against them, their form can only improve. They’ll find a win from somewhere at some point. And if they do go down, what a shame that would be. It’s a match which both sides look forward to, whatever the circumstances. And I’ll be damned if our most ‘bitter rivals’ in the Championship are Leicester.
Sunday could be interesting. The majority of Forest fans are no less than dreading the encounter, for all of England to see. To be honest, so am I. It wont be a classic (I always find the City Ground encounters appeal more to neutrals), but it will be a defining moment in both our seasons. For Derby, let’s keep going. For Forest, a cataylst to their revival?
I stumbled across Keek.com earlier this week. It’s a fast-growing internet startup, which allows users to record and upload micro-video updates, known as ‘keeks’, of up to 36 seconds. The service rivals Twitter, TwitVid, YouTube and Tout – all of which have comparatively vaster amounts of expereience.
Like its rivals, users can post updates, ‘follow’ others, like videos, comment on them and share them on Facebook, Twitter and by Email. It’s nothing we haven’t really heard of before, but Keek is certainly making headway in the social-media industry. Since commencing operations in September, the service’s user-base has grown rapidly and has attracted a number of high-profile users most notably Austin Mahone. In early October, it was able to secure a $5.5m in funding from a group of investors led by AlphaNorth Asset Management and Plazacorp Ventures.
Whilst I think Keek is a good idea, you get the feeling it’s rather late to an already-saturated industry. Videos are already covered at large by YouTube, and there is enough functionality on Twitter and Facebook to make vlogging – of any length – viable. These are the three big boys and if micro-video-blogging were to ever take off, you would have thought it would be with one of these. Keek has to do almost everything from scratch which includes quickly building a large userbase. It is currently dominated by users aged between 13-25 and whilst this group probably makes up the vast majority of the social-media base, it needs to extend much further beyond this.
And the thing with videos is that they work so much differently to written text. Whilst most can make a vaguely interesting sentance (even complete gibberish), there are far fewer who can record a video of themselves and have something interesting to say on a consistent basis, greatly limiting its potential. Looking through various videos, I find that the vast majority feature very little content. More often than not, the people are actually commenting on how little they have to say. That’s the main thing it seems that people talk about, how little they have to talk about. This might be ok for the odd photogenic person, but it’s not very gripping stuff.
The site calls 36 seconds “the magic number”. I disagree. For most people, it’s a tall order to tell an interesting story in 36 seconds. And as most people aren’t that great infront of a camera, this hinders the possibilities further. I find that the people who are good on camera, tend to like listening to their own voice and 36 seconds is probably just not enough for them. Those who talk, talk alot. Those who don’t, don’t at all.
What’s more, there is very little potential for companies here, another driving force to success. On YouTube, firms could post product media and competitions. On Twitter and Facebook, they could announce deals and provide customer support. Keek represents far fewer opportunities. Apart from smaller adverts (which we spend most of our time avoiding), there is little in the way of user-to-user interaction aside for in the comments and private messages, which are all quite subtle. 36 seconds is not a lot to play with so it will take some imaginative thinking from company marketing teams before this service becomes of any good use.
But don’t put it down just yet. Its early success speaks for itself. And if more high profile users register, growth will accelerate allowing it to firmly establish itself on the scene. It has a long way before being able to stand even at the feet of the other more established social networks. Though it has great potential, its success is likely never to be anywhere near the scale which others have seen before it. Nonetheless, it’s certainly one to keep an eye on.
Good grief, it’s exactly one month until christmas. Coca Cola and John Lewis have released their respective adverts, christmas albums are everywhere and the idea of two weeks off school is sounding an increasingly good idea.
And atlast, my much-anticipated christmas calendar has finally arrived. Its been many-a-year since I actually ate the chocolate inside, nowadays I buy these things merely as part of a tradition. This years features Homer Simpson, a classic, already hanging in the same place as the many which have gone before it.
Does that look familiar? It should. It’s the exact same one as last years. Why do I bother buying these commercialised objects with all but not connection to what christmas is actually supposed to mean?
I’m usually very excited about Christmas. I don’t have much care for the actual day itself (gift wise), but in the run up to the 25th I’m unusually happy.
It’s not so much the case this year. Being in my final year at College & Secondary school, I’ve spent the last few months looking back rather than forward. It feels like just yesterday I was sitting in the main school hall on my Year 7 induction day. I was told “these next seven years will go by very quickly”, and like 99% of other people, I dismissed his comment as lie. Seven years simply does not go by that quickly. I’m here effectively for the rest of my life.
And yet I blinked, and all of a sudden I’m 18, about to send my University application off and preparing for my working life.
Christmas represents all that was great in my childhood. Holidays, prsents, Grandparents, Snow (albeit very occasionally), just everything. This is my final christmas of my life as it is now. I’m changing.
But some things do not change. Christmas is one of them. Every year, the same 15-odd tracks are played over and over. Coca Cola plays a new advert with the same damn music. All these things and more, I’ve grown up with. The music, adverts, presents are all trapped in time, but I’m leaving without it. And that’s something which I find so disheartening. All that I think about the world is about to change.
But rather than see this as the beginning of the end, it’s instead the end of the beginning of the new. Despite how disappointing it is to be saying goodbye to young-me, I welcome the new me. This is my final Christmas as the former. I’ll enjoy it. And then I’ll get right on to enjoying the latter.
That’s why I buy those blasted calendars.
