Given that every hearing related to the Mitchell Report seems to be put back on a weekly basis (perhaps all the players are going to appear on some kind of "Super Tuesday"), and given that very little else of note is happening in MLB or with the D-Backs in particular, I normally wouldn’t write an entry. However, it’s coming up to midnight and the people in the apartment opposite have decided that this is the ideal time to unload a large truck load of heavy furniture, so sleep is not an option (fortunately it is raining heavily which should ruin most of their stuff).

This extra awake time has also given me a chance to trawl through the music I downloaded for my trip here to Vancouver, so I thought that I would let you know that my current tune of choice is this.

Although why Jodie wears a hat when it hasn’t rained for 6 days still remains a mystery.

Given that it’s the Mets I predict that Santana will pitch 5 great games and then be forced to have season ending surgery (whilst maintaining the faint hope that he will be fit for any play offs).

More important is a detailed list of what I’m missing about England now that I’ve relocated to Canada. The main thing is the newspapers. Good Lord but the dailies here on the West Coast are  a dull bunch of wastepaper. How I miss my "Guardian" who’s comment pages provide more worthwhile reading than a weeks worth of what we get here. And don’t even get me started on the radio, it’s like listening to some elderly relatives talking about the state of the world,so here are just a few of the "Good Old BBC" podcasts that have kept me sane and I recommend;

In Our Time- a weekly discussion about ideas.

The News Quiz- a comedy panel show about the week’s news.

Mark Kermode’s Film Reviews- the best movie reviewer on the planet.

Start The Week- a weekly discussion about ideas.

On a final sporting note, I have decided to hitch my wagon to the "Vancouver Canucks" in the NHL and since doing so they have plummeted down the rankings, which leads to the worrying conclusion that I may be the Jessica Simpson of Hockey!

This seems as good a time as any to launch what I hope will become my annual attempt to improve the whole MLBlogs experience for we,the consumers. My last effort concluded with the idea that anybody with the word "Slough" in the title of their blog be the recipient of a large cash payment, this has been ignored by the powers that be and I therefore repeat the request, and I can promise that if this single demand is met all that follows can be ignored.

In the meantime, whilst I check my online account, here are a few ways to make the whole thing a little bit better.

1) Better links to blogs from the Official team sites- I’m aware that some of us are idiots and don’t aways toe the party line when it comes to the Official MLB agenda of the day but, hey, these are supposed to be "unofficial opinions" and, quite frankly, anybody who reads my blog and thinks that this represents the Official D-Backs position on anything isn’t smart enough to earn enough money to go to a ball game, and can therefore be safely ignored by MLB.

2) Discussion encouraged- Nobody’s heart beats faster than mine when seeing Alyssa Milano prominently featured on the front page of MLBlogs. But just occasionally it might be a good idea if there was a good old fashioned debate about a controversial subject that was actively promoted by the site. Everybody here loves baseball so we’re not all going to turn into rabid Lacrosse fans at the first sign of criticism. The really healthy fan sites are the ones where everybody’s opinion is welcomed.We are all adults here (or have access to an adult’s credit card) so let’s have some Obama/Hillary style debate

3) Blog Entry of the Week- Each week MLBlogs nominate 4 entries for the rest of us to vote on which we like the best. I for one haven’t got the time to trawl through all of your pointless meanderings, so this would be a good way to introduce people to blogs they haven’t seen before. It may also cook up some controversy (see point 2 above).

If these 3 simple demands are not met then I will demand the overthrow of the regime, and the implementation of a worker led collective that brings an end to a thousand years of suffering at the hands of the ****** **********

I also suggest that the spell check on this site be configured to recognize "MLB" as a legitimate usage (unless it’s just being sarcastic?)