First. Woo hoo!

Blimey it takes a long time to get these blog things going, doesn't it? Everyone's like 'oh go on, start a blog man'. Nobody tells you it takes bloody ages of faffing around with fonts and images and layouts and whatnot.

So anyway, here we are, vaguely up and running. I'm your host, Solomon Grundy. You can read about me in that profile bit. Or I've got a fairly extensive Wikipedia entry

I've started to add a blogroll, which I'll expand on in the coming days. In fact, I'll probably expand the whole thing from day to day as time allows.

So what do you, new reader, need to know about this blog? Well... I like mouthing off about politics, rugby, music, books (less so on this one - I'm not very well-read) and the state of journalism.

Because I'm new to all this blogging, I thought I would just jot down some quick thoughts I've had today and see what sticks. Ready? Here we go:

• The Guardian has the right horn for Alistair Darling at the moment. I know he's not Gordon Brown and everything so it's ok to like him, but come on!
  
  
  
• This is a pretty good summary of why Rob Andrew is a waste of space
  
  
  
• This video makes me remember how much gloating I indulged in around the 1997 election. And I fully expect to see that paid back in spades this year.
  
  It also reminds me that I've always considered Ed Balls to have one of the most punchable faces in politics. But, lest anyone fear that I am being overly partisan, Antony Calvert looks like he could do with a slap too.
  
  
  
• I really like Sainsbury's Taste the Difference cheese coleslaw.

Good. That'll be me for tonight. I shall return tomorrow.