Truth.
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The evolution of Daft Punk’s Get Lucky. A look at how it might’ve sounded through the decades.
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This is how Jason Freeny makes his cutaway pieces.
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Top 10 tennis players in 2018
Originating in L’Equipe, Yahoo have published a predicted list of what the top 10 mens tennis players could be in 2018.
Coincidently, I’ve just watched Grigor Dimitrov getting his arse kicked by Lleyton Hewitt, at the Aegon Championships.
- Grigor Dimitrov
- Benoit Paire
- Andy Murray
- Milos Raonic
- Novak Djokovic
- Kei Nishikori
- Bernard Tomic
- Ernests Gulbis
- Jerzy Janowicz
- Jack Sock
It’ll be interesting to see how Jack Sock does over the next few years, especially considering the current lack of US mens tennis talent.
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Countdown to the Edinburgh Marathon, week 3 of 52
It’s 49 weeks until I put myself through the undoubtedly tortuous 26.2 miles that make up the Edinburgh Marathon.
Why? Because in 3 years time, I will turn 40 years old.
I started thinking about this recently and decided to start one of those 40 things to do before I turn 40 lists. The first thing I wrote was, “run a marathon” and almost as if the Gods themselves wanted me to do it, I received an “early-bird” email from the Edinburgh Marathon Festival, offering me a place in next year’s event, at this year’s price.
This year’s price happens to be around £50, but you can forego that, if you agree to run for charity. I’ll be running on behalf of Macmillan Cancer and I’ll be looking for your support.
Before I’d decided to run the marathon, I’d already made up my mind about putting my running shoes back on, and had booked a couple of 10k races for later in the year. As I mentioned on here previously, I’ll be running the Paisley 10k in August, and then the Strathaven 10k in November. Between now and then, I’ll be training for each, but with half an eye on the marathon that suddenly appears a mere 6 months after that second 10k.
The plan is - basically - to run around 10 - 15k per week, starting a few weeks ago, and finishing sometime in November. I say “finishing”, but it’s at this point where I then need to start increasing the mileage (kilometerage?) with a view to putting as much distance in my legs as I can.
A friend of mine, with several, very quick marathons behind him, recently told me that my only goal should be to go the distance; forget about setting a time goal. That’s what I’ll tell you I did, when I crawl over the line 8 hours after starting. In my head though, I’d like to do around 4 hours, and if I get under that by even a fraction of a second, I’ll be delighted.
I remember the way I felt after completing the Glasgow Half Marathon a couple of years ago, and it wasn’t great. I certainly don’t think I could’ve ran another in the same day. Of course, I tell myself that I only trained for the half marathon, but it still worries me every time I look at how long 26.2 miles actually is!
So, there are 49 weeks to go until the big day. 49 weeks until I put myself through the pain of completing my first marathon.
It could be worse, though. I also wrote something about a triathlon.
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See that bit where it says “times tracked 8”? Why can’t I click that to see all 8 attempts at this route?
This post sponsored by Endomondo UI rage.
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Food and marketing
Glasgow has seen a recent increase in food-related small businesses. From Cocktail and Burger in Sauchiehall Street, to Buddy’s BBQ and Meathammer at Nice ‘n’ Sleazy, to name just a few.
Quite a few of these new eateries are burger-based and have been given a great deal of visibility due to the rise of Glasgow burger reviewer James Lees, at his site, James vs Burger.
All these new places are doing wonders for the Glasgow food scene. As the number of good restaurants increases, the competition and quality does, too. Another new place on the scene is MEAT on West Regent Street; hopefully we’ll see more and more young business continuing this trend.
I work in Paisley, just outside of Glasgow. As a town, it’s been on the decline for years, but recently, a few shops in the West End have appeared that make me think that perhaps there are some young entrepreneurs willing to try and revive their home town. Along a similar vein to these Glasgow food venues, there is Malatso to Go, and The BBQ Shack. I’d love to see these places succeed, and to bring back some valuable business to Paisley.
I ordered takeaway from The BBQ Shack last night. Between Claire and me, we had a Crazy Cow burger, a pulled pork sandwich, chicken wings, fries, and mac and cheese.

It all tasted great.
Afterwards, I got to thinking about how these types of eateries market their wares. A good review from the aforementioned JvB must drive a lot of business in the direction of a burger restaurant, but these small businesses have got to be communicating constantly with their market, and driving business their way.
Which is why it was frustrating to see The BBQ Shack making schoolboy errors in this area.
On their Facebook page there is an argument between The BBQ Shack and a disgruntled customer. From what I can see (and I’m not sure, because they might have been deleting messages with which they didn’t agree) someone complained about an undercooked burger and the shop took offence. They briefly thought about removing the Facebook page, but seemed to have had a change of heart.
The fb page is being taken down… If you would like to know the weekly specials contact the shop. The page is being used for complaints which should be made on the phone if your not happy with the product and thats not ehat it was made for… It was for giving our customers information which you can now only get by calling in…. sorry for any inconvenience cause
Rule number 1 for any new business should be “never argue with a customer in public”.
They’ve also taken to their Facebook page to get quite defensive on the appearance of their food.
there seems to be some confusion as to what we serve… Its not burnt its char grilled… fair enough if its solid then its burnt… the chilli dogs are supposed to be messy…its chilli on a hot dog so its not going to look perfect… were very sorry a few of you havent been happy in the past but this is our style of food and im afraid if you dont like it then our establisment is not for you
Rule number 2 should probably be, “don’t patronise the customer”. I’m well aware of the difference between a piece of meat that is burnt and one that is chargrilled. Rule number 3 should probably be something about not telling your customers that your “establisment (sic) is not for you”.The BBQ Shack serve tasty food. Honestly, it’s pretty good. Visually, their meals could probably do with a bit of tidying up, but that’s not a huge problem. They do seem quite defensive about this though (see earlier statement about chilli dogs).
I spoke with them on Facebook, and suggested that they get some pics of the food to help customers understand what they’re getting. Apparently, pictures don’t do the food justice. I can understand the difficulty in taking pictures that they’d want to display on their page - hell, that’s an art in itself - but the main thing that’s going to appear on James vs Burger, should Mr Lees take time to visit, is a picture that he has taken, and over which they would have very little control.
Going by previous experience, I can see them getting their knickers in a twist if they don’t like it.
Don’t take this the wrong way, I like The BBQ Shack, and I genuinely hope it does well. I just hope that they can take the kitchen skills they clearly have, and match them in the marketing area.
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Robbie Rogers makes his debut for the LA Galaxy and becomes the first openly gay male athlete to compete in a major U.S. pro sports league. Respect.
Does Justin Fashanu’s time in the U.S.not count?
