A confession: I was too much of a coward to watch the Black Caps test match. What little I saw made me want to hide behind the sofa like I did when I was six years old and the Daleks were on TV.

Ipswich Town - Crystal Palace - Home

Leicester City - West Ham - Draw

Southampton - Chelsea - Away

Manchester City - Notts Forest - Home

Newcastle - Liverpool - Away

Everton - Wolves - Home

Arsenal - Manchester United - Home

Aston Villa - Brentford - Draw

Fulham - Brighton - Draw

Bournmouth - Tottenham Hotspur - Draw

I got six right last week taking the running tally up to 50 percent right so far this season.

I’d like an AI service that could eliminate all incoming Black Friday spam emails, texts and webpage interstitials.

Brighton - Southampton - Home

Brentford - Leicester - Home

Crystal Palace - Newcastle - Away

Nottingham Forest - Ipswich - Home

Wolves - Bournemouth - Draw

West Ham - Arsenal - Away

Chelsea - Aston Villa - Home

Manchester United - Everton - Draw

Tottenham - Fulham - Draw

Liverpool - Manchester City - Home

Last week I got five right which brings the running total for the season so far to 47% right.

In 1970 I graduated from primary school to what was then called a ‘secondary modern’. Unlike the rest of the UK, Surrey had yet to switch to comprehensive schools. I had a weird form of dyslexia and couldn’t pass the exam to get into a grammar school.

On day one, a senior teacher gave us what can only be described as a demotivational speech:

“You’re all too stupid to get into a real school, so you are here for five years. If you work hard, you’ll get a factory job. If you do some work, you’ll sweep the streets. The rest of you will go to prison”.

I’m not kidding. This was my first day at the big school. I was 11 years old.

Has the angstrom gone out of fashion as a unit? I saw the word today in an old physics book and realised I had otherwise seen it in years, maybe even decades.

It’s great that Sky shows Nations League football matches, but I’d like to have seen the All Whites match too. Was it covered but hidden away in some dark recess?

Put the Red Hot Chilli Peppers on for a change from my usual late afternoon playlists and am instantly taken back to ferrying teenagers to school dances and parties.

Do people still have elevenses?

Had a dentist check up appointment this morning. For the first time since I came back to New Zealand from Australia in 2004 there was zero dental work. Not a sausage. No charge either.

Perhaps I should buy a Lotto ticket.

Today I finally deactivated my Twitter account.

I haven’t used it for two years, but kept it open just in case there was a return to sanity.

Also, there have been important personal messages sent there since I stopped using Twitter. But there haven’t been any for 6 months now

Writing for a newspaper, magazine or newsy online site is like a self-saucing pudding. The byline acts as a form of marketing that gets me more writing work. Hardly anyone knows about it when I ghost write something, so I don’t tend to get a lot of repeat ghostwriting business.

Track record so far:
Week 4 predictions: 6 out of ten correct. Week 5 predictions: 4 out of ten correct.

Week 6 predictions 5 out of ten correct.

Week 7 predictions 6 out of ten correct.

Week 8 predictions 5 out of ten correct.

Week 9 predictions 4 out of ten ccorrect.

Week 10 predictions 4 out of ten.

Overall so far: 49 percent.

About once a week a flyer, or an impersonal letter, from a local estate agent turns up in my letter box. And I think: “how stupid are you to expect me to trust a million dollar plus house transaction to someone incapable of reading a NO JUNK MAIL sign.”

Eliminated hay fever last year by chopping down the privit bushes near the house. Noticed eyes were streaming so checked and found there are two other varieties of privit still in this garden. Not sure what the previous owner was thinking when these were planted.

Annoyed that my personal data is among the material the New Zealand Inland Revenue Department gave to Facebook. Doubly so because I haven’t used Facebook in more than 12 years.

I doubt it is a popular opinion, but I feel New Zealand media is spending far too much time on an election in a foreign country.

Sitting here in New Zealand, my strategy for coping with the US election is to stick fingers in both ears and say “LA LA LA” very loudly.

I’m so pleased this had nothing to do with me. This was published in _The Australian _ 15 years ago and spotted by Mumbrella.

So let’s do some role playing. You’re a sub on The Australian.

Your boss has just given a speech about the health of newspapers.

You’ve got to put a headline on the speech.

Do you a) Check the spelling of the word “newspapers” in the headline or b) Not check the spelling of the word “newspapers” in the headline? Remember, your career may depend on the choice you make.

Do people outside the US still care about Chromebooks? Back in the day I’d get huge amounts of local traffic when I wrote about them, then, almost suddenly, crickets.

Am I alone in thinking Bing Webmaster Tools is utterly worthless or are there stealthy fans out there?

Earlier this year I looked at whether New Zealanders pay too much for broadband.

billbennett.co.nz/reflectio…

Although I mainly worked for newspapers, I spent a few years working in magazines too so it’s always sad to see one go. This was the last what might be loosely described as personal technology magazine I can think of. It’s certainly the last title I read. While there may be a few limping on unseen elsewhere in the world it feels like the end for the entire genre.

www.synthtopia.com/content/2…

From ten years ago on my site:

At the time Chorus struggled to pay for the fibre build.

billbennett.co.nz/chorus-au…

My track record so far is not great:

Week 4 predictions: 6 out of ten correct.

Week 5 predictions: 4 out of ten correct.

Week 6 predictions 5 out of ten correct.

Week 7 predictions 6 out of ten correct.

52.5 percent right so far.