Another Return to the Toon

Sound familiar?

Well dear readers, it's been at least 4 games, so Newcastle are eligible to replace their manager again. Honestly though, how long ago did this stop being funny?

Last night in a complete shock appointment, Newcastle United replaced their interim manager to the interim manager (sound like a hit British-turned-American television show to anyone else?) with another interim manager. This time, it's the legend, the golden boy, the chosen one, the great SIR ALAN SHEARER.

This appointment brings a couple completely disparate thoughts to my head. First off, sheer and utter joy. Alan Shearer is a hero of mine. This is a local boy, born in Gateshead to an sheet metal worker. Grew up loving Newcastle United with all his heart. As he got older and his feet became more and more golden, he somehow turned up at Blackburn. Obviously, he couldn't stay there for too long, and that was when the great Manchester United came calling. And as much money that they would throw at the great man, as many songs that they would sing for him, he rejected the Mancs for his true love, Newcastle United. He stayed there for ten great seasons and became an absolute legend to the Geordie faithful, and the club's all-time leading scorer. Now, mind you, he never won a single piece of silverware during this time, but from all he said and did during and after his career at Newcastle, he never once regretted his decision and is still the biggest living legend in the Northeast of England.

That same lack of silverware in a striped shirt might be the biggest reason he is chosing to return to his beloved club - this time possibly opting for a striped necktie. A squad led by Alan Shearer will be a worthy squad in the eyes of a Newcastle supporter, and we will all have true faith in the fact that, while he may not have a lick of individual Premiership experience, he will bring a passion and fire to the game that not even King Kev can match.

This brings me to my next point. The inexperience. While I DO believe this is a very timely and wise decision by Mr. Ashley, to bring in a man who can galvanize a team and bring an energy to the club at a time when a few quick points are so desperately needed to just get us out of the relegation quagmire, looking at the future beyond the next 8 games, things get a little murkier. As I mentioned, he's got no Premiership experience apart from being Glen Roeder's right-hand-man while picking up the horrible Souness pieces. He's taking charge of a club in absolute crisis, with an ownership that has proven to be indecisive, obtuse, and difficult. He's doing more of a favor to the club than the club is doing to him, this can be sure.

So during the next 8 matches, one of two things will happen. 1) The Chosen One won't be able to steer the ship away from the iceburg that we've all been able to see since October, and we will continue towards the Coca-Cola Championship. If this does happen, it might be an actual blessing for Mr. Shearer, as he will have less pressure (this is an arguable point, since we MUST be back up after only one season), have a younger squad willing to listen to him, and after the year be able to come back into the top flight with a squad who is his, and is working as a unit. Or 2) The Golden Boy will turn out to truly be golden, and we will escape relegation. Then over the close season, there will be many, many, many decisions to make. The first - what happens to Alan? The second, in conjunction - what happens to Joe Kinnear, Dennis Wise, and all of the above's relationship to Cashley and Lambias? The third - what happens to the overpaid and underperforming players? The fourth - what happens to our current, fantastic youth squad? The fifth - what happens with bringing in new players? And so on. These questions are dreadfully obvious and vague - I'd hate to be in Alan's role when the specifics come into questions - since, keep in mind, he and I technically have the same amount of top-flight managerial experience....

So for the night, may my voice be horse and may my pint glass be empty. Over and over again. But we all know what happened last time Mike Ashley made an emotional decision to win over the Newcastle United supporters - King Kev tempted us all to believe and we ended up swallowing the trojan horse whole. Let's not let the same thing happen again.

HOWAY THE LADS AND HOWAY SIR ALAN SHEARER!!!

Plex Website

For anybody interested, we've updated the PLEX website. We'll be adding a few more things in the coming days, so check back.

Name of the Year

I hate to acknowledge the fact that there may be other blogs better, funnier, more informative, less offensive, bedder spellled, more interesting, or less blatantly plagiarized than mine, but I have to call attention to one of the funniest I've seen in a while. Enjoy.

Name of the Year

M-House

Man, it's been a while since I've posted, and even longer since I've posted on behalf of Plex. But here they are, in all their glory, the first construction photos of our first house. This house is located in the old area of Tokyo, in an insanely urban suburb. The old house was demolished and the clients rebuilt on the same lot, slowing the process down considerably. Now it's looking like they will finish everything sometime in April, and everything is moving along quite nicely, it would seem.
Hope everybody enjoys these. I'll put them up on the plexdesign.net website soon so make sure you check there for them soon.

Step 1

Step 1 in the new push to reorganize and renovate the condo has begun.
We are moving the furniture around so as to 1) make a more intimate, defined living space, 2) open up a certain wall in our great room which we have plans to partially demolish. We have moved the furniture and last night I removed some shelving from a wall which then required some patching and painting. I, the man that I am, immediately began patching and painting, and basically finished it all in one night. However, you can very clearly tell where I patched. The paint was fine. But the patching and sanding - not so much. This is something I'll have to work on.
Step 2 will be ordering a rug to truly define the cozy living space. We have ordered samples from FLOR (Yes, Flor, the annoying carpet tile catalogue that comes seemingly every 2 weeks to every house in america that never gets read) because the FLOR system actually is much cheaper than getting a rug at anywhere besides IKEA. And as much as I love Ikea, we've decided to say no this time.
We're truly pumped about this new venture in our living arrangement. It will be a big undertaking, but since the economy and housing market is limiting when or IF we'll ever be able to sell our house again, we figure we'll be here for a while, so we might as well enjoy it.