I broked something ...

No post for a little while, which has been part out of lack of inspiration, part from me breaking things !

My current router annoys me because I have to power off/power on it every few days to make it go, so I thought I'd move my modem across the room to where The Next Router lives. I figured something might be a little screwy when I was plugging in the cable internet lead. When I touched plug to socket, there were quite loud (for interference crackles) clicks coming from my speakers ... Not a good sign, although mysterious due to there being no obvious connection.

Anyway - to cut the techiebabble, I plugged it back in on Friday evening and ... no internet. Tried putting it back where it was to start with and ... no internet. So I was on Internet Cold Turkey from Friday night to Monday :-( And this is someone who :

Keeps pressing F5 (refresh page key) on the hit counter to see if there's visitors.
Is permanently logged into MSN Messenger.
Has gotten used to being able to answer popup questions by Google.
Peeking on Imdb to see why I recognise that guest star.
Trolls various forums.

Internet-Bloke appeared Monday evening and proceeded to scratch his head, attempting to fix the problem by changing various leads and plugs. He got it going but it did the usual Annoying Problem thing of breaking again 20 minutes after he left. Cue a Sleepypete going a little nuts trying to get the internet going again until leaving for gaming !

No joy. But, as is usual for me and some time away from a problem, I figure out another way to attack it by the time I get home. Looks promising so far, just one connection glitch in the modem logs in the last 20 hours. Still have to see how my main PC adjusts to the change though, as it has migrated to connecting by wi-fi instead of a cable ... And that was a change that caused more stress than it needed to !

I've also been keeping an eye on the women's cricket, I'm still fascinated by the differences here. The women aren't as physically powerful as the men but adjust by putting more energy in. The description "keener than kittens with wool" came to mind when watching how they pounce on the ball when fielding. However, these girls are closer to tiger cub than ginger kitten. Some excellent catching too, better than what was on show in the last England v W Indies men's Test Match.

They also compensate by being more accurate and precise although, as in all sport, there are some more precise than others. There's a few Perfect bowling actions on show and some of them put truth to the "has the ball on a string" saying. One coaching technique is to put a small coin on the pitch on the ideal length and line and tell the bowler to hit the coin. It's tough ... At my best I was close to being that consistent (story coming!) but only at my very best. One of the England girls would have been hitting the coin every single time. Impressive stuff and the stats equalled that.

So what happened when I did the (virtual!) coin thing ? It was a practice session at school (i.e. way back :-) and the fella batting didn't really know what was about to hit him. First ball of the sequence - shapes in nicely and pins back his leg stump. Cue embarassment for the batsman and a "you got lucky that time". Next ball, same thing. And the next and the one after that ... I thought I'd go easy on him for the fifth by bowling it a little slower, which just made things worse :-) A little more swing, a little more accuracy and another Ting of ball on metal practice stump.

I think I made the poor fella give up any thoughts of playing cricket after that little sequence :-) In my defence, I will say that I had broken into the men's team by this point and was attempting to repair my bowling action after injuring my back the season before. So my technique was probably as "pure" as it ever got and as it was practice, I wasn't straining for extra pace, just for more smoothness.

So that's part of what I'm getting from watching the girls play cricket, I'm kind of watching how I used to play. Since dislocating my shoulder 12 years ago, I've had the occasional glimpse back to how I could bowl when I was fully intact. Watching the girls gives an excellent reminder that you don't have to be 6 foot 8 and built like the proverbial outhouse in order to do well at your chosen sport :-)

Plus there's a lot to be said for watching highly athletic young ladies running around a field doing something they are getting a lot of enjoyment from :-)

PS This post will lead to another one ... but I'll need a bit of help before I can answer the question "Do women batters wear the same protection as the men". Bit of idle curiosity triggered there and I'll leave it for readers to wonder exactly which bit of protection I mean ;-)