We Interrupt this Historical Series for these words.

Google reader has changed my life. Never miss another blog post with Google Reader! Use it today! And subscribe to all your favourite blogs, for instance redbeardonredsox.blogspot.com! It's way easy and fun to use!

Ok, now with that shamelessness out of the way... I got an idea from the geniuses at Surviving Grady. Ok, actually it's the same idea, with different results. It's the Random iPod game!

Take your iPod/MP3 Player/computer music library and put it on random. List the next 5 / 10 / 20 how many ever tracks you want, I like seeing what kind of music people listen to.

Here are my random 10 to get us started:

1. The Shins - Pam Berry. Short 1 minute interlude track from an otherwise brilliant band.

2. Death Cab for Cutie - Brothers on a Hotel Bed. Fantastic track from their breakthrough album Plans.

3. Big Audio Dynamite - The Bottom Line. The first reincarnation of the Clash with their classic 80s post-punk anthem.

4. Santogold - Shove It (feat. Spank Rock). I love this newcomer, I never get sick of this album.

5. The Ramones - Beat on the Brat. Classic punk tune.

6. Foo Fighters - Monkey Wrench. Foos rock, they have never ceased to amaze me since Dave Grohl and the boys burst on the scene shortly after Kurt Cobain and Nirvana passed away.

7. Los Campesinos! - Sweet Dreams, Sweet Cheeks. Great new twee indie pop band out of Cardiff, give them a listen.

8. Death Cab for Cutie - Death of an Interior Decorator. I swear, they don't always sing about death! Still one of the most fantastic bands of the past few years.

9. Editors - Escape the Nest. Just brilliant.

10. Ned's Atomic Dustbin - Happy. Sort of a one-hit wonder from the 90s, I really had higher hopes for this band after buying their cassette as a teenager after seeing them on MTVs 120 Minutes.

Ok, have at it!

*Ted, I know you're musically challenged so you may obstain.

William and Morgan Go to London

Historical Series, part 1

William ap Ievan was an excellent Welsh archer. In those days, he was one of the best. So much so that he caught the eye of Jasper Tudor, Duke of Bedford who was the Lord of Glamorgan, sat in Cardiff Castle. William was from just outside present-day Cardiff in the Vale of Glamorgan, which to this day remains the more Anglicised part of Wales; partly due to its proximity to London and the heart of England, also due to its role in the Wars of the Roses, fought in part by Jasper.

You see, Jasper was a Tudor, before the name Tudor was made infamous by King Henry VIII. Tudor is an anglicisation of the Welsh Tewdwr, which was a common name in those days, which happened to be Jasper's great-grandfather's name. Jasper's father's name was anglicised from Owain ap Marededd ap Tewdwr to Owen Tudor, setting up what would be the Tudor Dynasty, and the lineage of the monarchs of England to go henceforth. Jasper and his father Owen laid claim to the kings of the old Welsh kingdoms of Powys, Gwynedd, and Deheubarth, having descended from Rhys ap Gruffudd (The Lord Rhys), among others.

Jasper's mother was the former Queen Catherine of Valois (valois meaning French for Fortune), who succeeded her husband King Henry V of England. Also Catherine was the daughter of the succession of French kings; her father being King Charles VI (le Bienaimé or le Fol) of France, being of the line of French kings that began with King Philip VI le Fortuné.

In the days during the Wars of the Roses, Welsh marriages were outlawed and were done in secret. Thus, Jasper's two daughters were considered bastards, although had it not been for the infighting in England between the Yorkists and the Lancastrians, and the Welsh struggle to show support for England after Richard III ascended, the marriage and the children would have been legitimate in the eyes of English law.

Anyway, this story isn't about Jasper, after all, it is about William and Morgan. William surely had impressed Jasper so much that he consented to the marriage between William and his daughter Joan Tudor. The Wars of the Roses were over at this point, their marriage legitimised, and they had a son, Morgan ap William.

Now with the ascension of Jasper's nephew Henry VII (whom much time was spent with Jasper in his younger years) to the throne of England, and William with his status of top archer, William made the obvious choice. He brought his family to London to join in King Henry VII's entourage.

As the years went on, Morgan grew up and married a woman named Catherine from Putney, just outside London, daughter of a brewer who ran his own alehouse in that town. Little did Morgan know in the years to come that her younger brother (13 years between them, as Catherine was 22 when she married Morgan) will come to work for the royal family and again alter the course of English history.

Great Britain Journey, part 4

Now to refresh everyone here's a link to
Great Britain Journey part 1
and
Great Britain Journey part 2
and
Great Britain Journey part 3

Day 22

-Depart Manchester
-Take the M56 toward Cheshire into North Wales.
-M56 to A55 through Conwy to Bangor
-Penrhyn Castle
-Snowdonia National Park

Day 23

-head south along the Welsh coast (A470 to A487) out of Gwynedd
-Pembrokeshire Coast National Park
-Pembroke Castle

Day 24

-A477 to A40 to A48 to M4
-All day in Cardiff
-Cardiff Castle

Day 25

-Stratford-upon-Avon

Day 26

-Oxford

Day 27

-Stonehenge
-Bath

Day 28

-Glastonbury

Overheard this morning.

::in car commuting with carpooler KC::

::driving past a man picking something up out of a puddle::

KC: Someone lost their money and this guy's picking it up. Hope it was at least a 10 or something.
RB: Yeah, I don't think I'd stick my hand into a dank puddle for a dime.

::pause::

RB: DANK. I like that word too, it's just fun.
KC: That's some DANK shit, mayne.

::laughter ensues::

--------------

Office speak phrase of the day:

"Let's get all of our arrows pointing in the same direction."

You may now commence with the eye rolling.

Some of my favourite words.

Filth.
Juggernaut.
Rural.
Plutonium.
Rubbish.
Titillate.
Douchebag.
Underwears. (yes, with the 's' on the end.)

There's my top 8. You got any words that you think are fun to say, just to say them to give you a giggle?

And there's a prize. 50 Redbeard bucks to the person who can write a sentence using all 8 words. Redbeard bucks only valid as legal tender currency in the Republic of Dalbonia.