During todays trainign session, I mentioned again (as I seem to do with astounding regularity) the events of the past couple of years.I spent a coupel of years in a bad place, when my lfie fell apart. (Wife chucked me out, became homeless, had a mental breakdown, became a dad). Some seem to think I just rolled over and died. Had dealt with the situation as a bloody wimp.
I didn't. I knew that bitter confrontation would serve no purpose, and would only lead to me losing pretty much everything. Every day I couldn't take my vinyl and my books and my belongings from the flat I had once shared with my wife was another day in which she could have destroyed them all. But If I had gone to war with her, with so much at stake and so much to lose, I could have lost everything. I'm very lucky to have got back as much as I did. But I'll never forget, and I'll never forgive. I'll never forget being chucked out of my own house, and I'll never forget having to abandon pretty much everything I left behind, not knwoing if I would ever see any of it again, having to start pretty much from Scracth.And I'm incredibly lucky i did get any of it back.
I didn't roll over and die. I carried on. i didn't act like a wimp - I just knew I had everything to lose, and did as much not to provoke the person who could chuck it all out, destory it all, make sure I would never get any of it back. I got back on my feet - slowly, though. It took ages to get a place to live sorted, but I did get it sorted. I put my life back together, slowly.
I got stuck in a rut and I didn't get out of it. Not for a long time. It wasn;t that I was taking from society as much as just getting by whilst I put the pieces of my life back together. And they are back together, more or less. Still some work to be done though.
Nothing will ever be the same again as it was before January 23 2004.
one day I'll have to let go of that past. At the moment, when people want to know about me, they get the potted hisotry of the two years before. Thats who I was, not who I am. I feel like I'm giving back to society again. The Karmic toll of the job is immense, but its a job that does more for society than selling window glazing.But I got stuck in a rut for a while, and I didn't get out of it for a while, and Now I am clawing my way back. And thats the best thing I could have hoped for. I didn't have as bad as some, but it sure as hell was a bad place to be stuck in. I wouldn;t wish it on anyone.
Think of that again, before you accuse.
Monday, July 31, 2006
OK, Ok, lets make some stuff completely clear...Actually I don't know how much clear I could make it, Call me a bloody idealist, but here you go. It seems so patently obvious to me, but still...
i)Dear America, stop selling weapons to israel.
ii)Dear Israel, stop bombing and slaughtering the entire of Lebanon in an unprecedented and disproportionate Bombing campaign
iii)Oh, and while we're at it, just because you haven't officially annexed the land you took by force in the 1967 six day war doesn't make it any the less occupied. Return to your 1949 legally sanctioned borders, obey UN resolution 224, and then maybe, maybe your neighbours will stop being quite so nasty to you. After all, just because one side has done you wrong, doesn't make it any less wrong when you do it. Do you really think that creating more martyrs and killing more people will stop the violence? And until you do withdraw, you will be an outlaw nation. A political pariah to everyone except the US, who use you as a buffer state, a military proxy.
iv)Dear Hezbollah, attacking Israel with rockets is also wrong. Stop it.Immeadiately.
v)SO basically, the way to peace is to stop fighting. IS that so hard to understand?
vi)And standing around with your thumbs in your pockets pretending you can't make any difference is wrong too, Mr. Blair.
vii)And because I wrote that post on friday but only posted it online on Sunday doesn;t mean you get royalties mark. You can't have the copyright on thinking the Israel bombing campaign is wrong, can you? Pretty much every headline says that today.
And it does. Israel is continuing its ongoing intent to attack and destroy the lebanese state, which is , as mark points out, like sending B52s to attack the IRA for their attacks on England. The whole tide of the world realpolitik is turning against Israel, which carries on to do so ignornat and uncaring. is it because God told them so? is it because god told them they could live there? Does that give them the right to say Thou shalt must kill? Of course not. But lest Israel be turned into a social pariah, an outlaw state, as much of an agressor as any - and as much as Iraq had been when it rolled troops into Kuwait in 1991, as much as when hitler rolled troops into Poland in 1939 *, and all the good will in the world and political capital will be undone in a simple act of stupid God-driven jihad. If God wants Jihad, israel will supply. just tell me this, when will it end? How many will be dead? And will israel hoist it flag over these newly conquered lands, these lebensraum, as reparartions?
After world war two, the Jews got their promised land of Israel. Six million jews did not die because of their faith in wartime so their grandsons could kill and persecute othe rpeople becaus eof their faiths in wartime, did they? Is this really what it was all about? Fools hiding behind the words of a magical man in the sky, all of them who believe this.
This war must stop. Hezbollah atatcking israel with rockets is wrong. israel carpet bombing lebanon and killing thousnads is wrong. America selling them weapons in one hand and calling for peace with the other, is wrong. Its not too hard to understand, surely? Everythigne lse is minutae, and religious pride. it doesn't matter a damn thing as long as human lives are lost, needlesslya nd withotu point, without conscience or compassion. maybe I read my bible wrong, but didn't God once say Thou Shalt not kill ?
Israel has the right to defend itself. This isn't defence. This is a wholesale and unmitigated offensive against civilians, with carpet bombing, guided missiles, and thousands dead. Thats not defensive. That's a military offensive. And I do find it offensive.
There's Too much killing already. And what will be left, but blood upon the sand and tears in our hearts? There'll be be no peace as long as this war remains. And until people start talking again, people will carrying on dying.
(*p.s. this is a valid parallel, IMHO - not to mention a deliberate invocation of Godwins law, ok?)
i)Dear America, stop selling weapons to israel.
ii)Dear Israel, stop bombing and slaughtering the entire of Lebanon in an unprecedented and disproportionate Bombing campaign
iii)Oh, and while we're at it, just because you haven't officially annexed the land you took by force in the 1967 six day war doesn't make it any the less occupied. Return to your 1949 legally sanctioned borders, obey UN resolution 224, and then maybe, maybe your neighbours will stop being quite so nasty to you. After all, just because one side has done you wrong, doesn't make it any less wrong when you do it. Do you really think that creating more martyrs and killing more people will stop the violence? And until you do withdraw, you will be an outlaw nation. A political pariah to everyone except the US, who use you as a buffer state, a military proxy.
iv)Dear Hezbollah, attacking Israel with rockets is also wrong. Stop it.Immeadiately.
v)SO basically, the way to peace is to stop fighting. IS that so hard to understand?
vi)And standing around with your thumbs in your pockets pretending you can't make any difference is wrong too, Mr. Blair.
vii)And because I wrote that post on friday but only posted it online on Sunday doesn;t mean you get royalties mark. You can't have the copyright on thinking the Israel bombing campaign is wrong, can you? Pretty much every headline says that today.
And it does. Israel is continuing its ongoing intent to attack and destroy the lebanese state, which is , as mark points out, like sending B52s to attack the IRA for their attacks on England. The whole tide of the world realpolitik is turning against Israel, which carries on to do so ignornat and uncaring. is it because God told them so? is it because god told them they could live there? Does that give them the right to say Thou shalt must kill? Of course not. But lest Israel be turned into a social pariah, an outlaw state, as much of an agressor as any - and as much as Iraq had been when it rolled troops into Kuwait in 1991, as much as when hitler rolled troops into Poland in 1939 *, and all the good will in the world and political capital will be undone in a simple act of stupid God-driven jihad. If God wants Jihad, israel will supply. just tell me this, when will it end? How many will be dead? And will israel hoist it flag over these newly conquered lands, these lebensraum, as reparartions?
After world war two, the Jews got their promised land of Israel. Six million jews did not die because of their faith in wartime so their grandsons could kill and persecute othe rpeople becaus eof their faiths in wartime, did they? Is this really what it was all about? Fools hiding behind the words of a magical man in the sky, all of them who believe this.
This war must stop. Hezbollah atatcking israel with rockets is wrong. israel carpet bombing lebanon and killing thousnads is wrong. America selling them weapons in one hand and calling for peace with the other, is wrong. Its not too hard to understand, surely? Everythigne lse is minutae, and religious pride. it doesn't matter a damn thing as long as human lives are lost, needlesslya nd withotu point, without conscience or compassion. maybe I read my bible wrong, but didn't God once say Thou Shalt not kill ?
Israel has the right to defend itself. This isn't defence. This is a wholesale and unmitigated offensive against civilians, with carpet bombing, guided missiles, and thousands dead. Thats not defensive. That's a military offensive. And I do find it offensive.
There's Too much killing already. And what will be left, but blood upon the sand and tears in our hearts? There'll be be no peace as long as this war remains. And until people start talking again, people will carrying on dying.
(*p.s. this is a valid parallel, IMHO - not to mention a deliberate invocation of Godwins law, ok?)
Sunday, July 30, 2006
Oooh, bit of politics, bit of politics….
And at shame of quoting old Ben Elton routines, its time for a bit of politics. Foreign policy, International Relations. Israel and America and the end of the world.
I’ve made pretty clear my opinion on Israel. Withdraw back to the internationally recognised 1949 borders, stop occupying lands taken by military conquest in the 1967 Six Day War, and then maybe, just maybe, you might have some legitimacy in the international arena. Deliberating bombing Un observers and flagrant breaches of Un resolutions will not earn any credibility, or friends.
The other thing is that quite simply, who needs international credibility when you’ve got the US on your side? When the worlds biggest nation is refusing to condemn a homicidal and deliberate bombing campaign of another nations sovereign territory, you’ve got to wonder just how bothered they are by adhering to human rights and democracy. Especially when they’ve already unseated one government, invaded their sovereign territory and committed an act of war for just the possibility of possessing weapons of mass destruction ; much less firing them and slaughtering thousands in some Judeo-islamic religious war, sending in ground troops, calling up reserves, and deliberately targeting international observers, like Israel has done.
Now Israel believes it has been an international mandate to continue bombing whoever they want, whenever they want, simply because they haven’t been told off enough yet. The morals of this are absurd – simply, they won’t stop until they’ve been told off enough. Right or wrong doesn’t matter, the fact that thou shalt not kill odesn;t matter, what matters is they will only stop when the international community tells them off enough, when it calls for an immediate ceasefire. Simply stating that a “peace treaty is an issue of utmost urgency” , as the international community just has, simply isn’t strong enough. Oh no, it must be immediate.
Applying the ‘you’r either with us or against us’ statement, - the mutually exclusive either/or status commonly seen in nothing more highly advanced that logic gates on home electronics kits for six year olds – Israel states that “We received yesterday at the Rome conference permission from the world... to continue the operation," Justice Minister Haim Ramon said. Quite exactly how the world approved this whilst calling for a peace settlement I’m not entirely sure. Invoking the usual demon of terrorism to justify genocide is seeming to be a common tactic, especially given what normally happens with Us backed armies. (See Iraq). So Mr Ramon - a close confidant of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert - said "everyone understands that a victory for Hezbollah is a victory for world terror".. Quite exactly how that squares with with the mass extermination of Palestinations and Lebanese, I'm not sure. And then they flatten villages with air power before sending in troops into another nations sovereign territory. Which is in NO way a violation of international law, not in the slightest.
'All those now in south Lebanon are terrorists who are related in some way to Hezbollah," said mr. Ramon. How can be they all be terrorists? If you bomb the infrastructure and take out the roiads, how can they escape? Are they perhaps people scared to venture away from their homes knowing they will never see them again? Of course not. They are terorists.
The Us hasn't yet called for a ceasefire. After all, its difficult to call for a ceasefire when you are selling weapons to the combatants. bad for business. And the US has recently been chartering Airbus A130's to transport 5000lb daisycutter bombs into Israel to continue the slaughter, and using Galsgows Prestwick Airport to refuel. Member of the Parliament Margaret Beckett will apparently, be lodigng a complaint, though not because of this. Apparently, the US did not file the correct health and safety paperwork, and thus was endangering English civilians. Hmmmm. Nothign wrong with selling them the weapons then?
the problem iss this: if you make a weapons contract and sell weapons to countries, if you don;t deliver them, its bad for business. So we Can't get in the way. After all, how could the next country buying weapons from you trust you to deliver? They couldn't. After all, its bad for buisness. And As Yuri Orlov said in LORD OF WAR , "I never sold weapons for Osama Bin laden - his cheques didn't clear". Simple.
Airstrip one is a reality, so it seems, and we live there.
Heres some other links:-
i) Blog on the run
ii) 4 bedroom council house goes for sale – at £895,000.
iii) How to survive on Jobseekers Allowance , according to Urban 75.
iv) The Guns of London ....
And at shame of quoting old Ben Elton routines, its time for a bit of politics. Foreign policy, International Relations. Israel and America and the end of the world.
I’ve made pretty clear my opinion on Israel. Withdraw back to the internationally recognised 1949 borders, stop occupying lands taken by military conquest in the 1967 Six Day War, and then maybe, just maybe, you might have some legitimacy in the international arena. Deliberating bombing Un observers and flagrant breaches of Un resolutions will not earn any credibility, or friends.
The other thing is that quite simply, who needs international credibility when you’ve got the US on your side? When the worlds biggest nation is refusing to condemn a homicidal and deliberate bombing campaign of another nations sovereign territory, you’ve got to wonder just how bothered they are by adhering to human rights and democracy. Especially when they’ve already unseated one government, invaded their sovereign territory and committed an act of war for just the possibility of possessing weapons of mass destruction ; much less firing them and slaughtering thousands in some Judeo-islamic religious war, sending in ground troops, calling up reserves, and deliberately targeting international observers, like Israel has done.
Now Israel believes it has been an international mandate to continue bombing whoever they want, whenever they want, simply because they haven’t been told off enough yet. The morals of this are absurd – simply, they won’t stop until they’ve been told off enough. Right or wrong doesn’t matter, the fact that thou shalt not kill odesn;t matter, what matters is they will only stop when the international community tells them off enough, when it calls for an immediate ceasefire. Simply stating that a “peace treaty is an issue of utmost urgency” , as the international community just has, simply isn’t strong enough. Oh no, it must be immediate.
Applying the ‘you’r either with us or against us’ statement, - the mutually exclusive either/or status commonly seen in nothing more highly advanced that logic gates on home electronics kits for six year olds – Israel states that “We received yesterday at the Rome conference permission from the world... to continue the operation," Justice Minister Haim Ramon said. Quite exactly how the world approved this whilst calling for a peace settlement I’m not entirely sure. Invoking the usual demon of terrorism to justify genocide is seeming to be a common tactic, especially given what normally happens with Us backed armies. (See Iraq). So Mr Ramon - a close confidant of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert - said "everyone understands that a victory for Hezbollah is a victory for world terror".. Quite exactly how that squares with with the mass extermination of Palestinations and Lebanese, I'm not sure. And then they flatten villages with air power before sending in troops into another nations sovereign territory. Which is in NO way a violation of international law, not in the slightest.
'All those now in south Lebanon are terrorists who are related in some way to Hezbollah," said mr. Ramon. How can be they all be terrorists? If you bomb the infrastructure and take out the roiads, how can they escape? Are they perhaps people scared to venture away from their homes knowing they will never see them again? Of course not. They are terorists.
The Us hasn't yet called for a ceasefire. After all, its difficult to call for a ceasefire when you are selling weapons to the combatants. bad for business. And the US has recently been chartering Airbus A130's to transport 5000lb daisycutter bombs into Israel to continue the slaughter, and using Galsgows Prestwick Airport to refuel. Member of the Parliament Margaret Beckett will apparently, be lodigng a complaint, though not because of this. Apparently, the US did not file the correct health and safety paperwork, and thus was endangering English civilians. Hmmmm. Nothign wrong with selling them the weapons then?
the problem iss this: if you make a weapons contract and sell weapons to countries, if you don;t deliver them, its bad for business. So we Can't get in the way. After all, how could the next country buying weapons from you trust you to deliver? They couldn't. After all, its bad for buisness. And As Yuri Orlov said in LORD OF WAR , "I never sold weapons for Osama Bin laden - his cheques didn't clear". Simple.
Airstrip one is a reality, so it seems, and we live there.
Heres some other links:-
i) Blog on the run
ii) 4 bedroom council house goes for sale – at £895,000.
iii) How to survive on Jobseekers Allowance , according to Urban 75.
iv) The Guns of London ....
Friday, July 28, 2006
Yes, I live. But the internet connection at the library is very slow. And I won't be online much I suspect, as I am away on monday and tuesday. Well, not in the office.
I have awful lots to blog. Mainly about politics and the insanity of war. And a very very depressign day at work involving an ex-neighbour who also happens to be the local neighbourhood dealer.
'Oi! Gary! Lets us in! We've got the money for the drugs this time!' was what used to be the shouts waking us up at 2 in the bloody morning. Now there isnt an us, and now I dont live there anymore, its not a problem, except when I meet this gentleman who used to make teenage junkies pay for the drugs with their bodies in a decrepit council flat with no curtains ina professional sense. Grrreat.
I have awful lots to blog. Mainly about politics and the insanity of war. And a very very depressign day at work involving an ex-neighbour who also happens to be the local neighbourhood dealer.
'Oi! Gary! Lets us in! We've got the money for the drugs this time!' was what used to be the shouts waking us up at 2 in the bloody morning. Now there isnt an us, and now I dont live there anymore, its not a problem, except when I meet this gentleman who used to make teenage junkies pay for the drugs with their bodies in a decrepit council flat with no curtains ina professional sense. Grrreat.
Thursday, July 27, 2006
P.s. I did not forget you. i am merely having an exceptionally busy day.
I think mark beat me on the whole israel thing again. I'm thinking along the same lines, only he has a slightly more flexible schedule on which to write. Don't worry, i will report again...
Anyway, here's a nice little picture courtesy of the mighty wikipedia, and the interesting story of Ronan Point , the exploding tower block.
I think mark beat me on the whole israel thing again. I'm thinking along the same lines, only he has a slightly more flexible schedule on which to write. Don't worry, i will report again...
Anyway, here's a nice little picture courtesy of the mighty wikipedia, and the interesting story of Ronan Point , the exploding tower block.
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
I really, really, don’t get the whole culture of television.
Sure, I own a lot of DVDs, but that’s different. And how is it different? Its very different. I’m not the kind of person just to stick the TV on in the background, just to have something to do, something to watch. I choose what I watch, instead. I’m not a slave to listings or scheduling, to have to have the hours of 10-11 free twice a week to watch the latest instalment of LOST fOr 24 or whatever episodic television is on at the time…nor do I intend to TiVO it. Or anything.
So, maybe I’m a heathen for not being a slave to television. Ultimately though, in economic terms, the programme you watch isn’t the content. It isn’t the purpose of the television. It’s merely the bait, the lure, for the real content. Which is the viewer. The viewer is the content. Television programmes are merely a delivery system of creating a captive audience to advertisers. After all, how are these programmes funded? By advertising. The advertising sold in the middle of the programmes, the programmes being the lure to keep you from turning over when the adverts come on.
And I don’t use a television. I don’t watch television. I don’t get exposed to adverts (except for five minutes a week at the cinema), and so they have no influence on me. If I do want to watch something, I watch the DVD. No adverts. And I like it that way. I like not being a product to be bought and sold in slots of advertising minutes, with sports stars selling me sugar-water drinks whilst dressed as roman gladiators. If there’s something I want to watch, I choose as and when I get to watch it, and how I watch it, not being a slave to a TV schedule. I wouldn’t be the kind of person to get hooked into having to change my social plans every week to keep Wednesdays free so I can watch the latest episodic instalment of some 152 (give or take) episode story.
So, consequently, I really don’t get the appeal of the Xfiles, Buffy, 24, or anything like that. A hour long standalone programme? Which you can watch as and when? Fine. That’s Star Trek:TNG then. Every week a new adventure, as and when you want, not dependent on watching every episode like a junkie. That way I can dip in and out of it. Which is the worst thing for a programme based on advertising – no bait, no lure to keep the advertising audience watching. Mind you, I won’t make a commitment to lose an hour a week for a story to be frustratingly doled out and spoonfed to us with a perpetual cliffhanger. And why not? Because that way I’m not in control of my time. I’ve willingly given it over and surrendered it to advertisers. I won’t be part of that. Perhaps its part of some insane delusion I’m actually in control of my own destiny, but on the other hand, never willingly give up anything you want to keep – and I want to keep some control over my schedule, rather than slavering like some addict waiting for a fix, quivering in the corner trying the methadone substitute of internet messageboards discussing the exact detail of an XP37A phase pistol and fanfiction sories of the USS Retentive. Nope, give me something I’ve got control over. And don’t even get me started on Big Brother – a vacous waste of time with no narrative plot, just a voyeuristic spectacle of misery and mockery.
Bah. Maybe that’s why I don’t use a television. But when I do, I’ll be glued to the documentary channels instead. Why? They teach. They educate. You learn. That’s more than be said about watching Emmerdale and Eastenders and Ant And Decs Saturday night pileup.Anyway, who wants to hear about my pitch for an episodic ongoing sci fi series? One involving spaceships, aliens and phasers?
In the meantime, a nation of X-Files fans weeps…., now that Gillian Anderson is pregnant, having split up from her husband three months ago. That means in the past few months she has become single and entered the dating pool again, and somebody is that lucky man…And I'm sure that Simon Pegg, who in Spaced sleeps under a poster of her and dreams of her, will be very upset, I’m sure.
Sure, I own a lot of DVDs, but that’s different. And how is it different? Its very different. I’m not the kind of person just to stick the TV on in the background, just to have something to do, something to watch. I choose what I watch, instead. I’m not a slave to listings or scheduling, to have to have the hours of 10-11 free twice a week to watch the latest instalment of LOST fOr 24 or whatever episodic television is on at the time…nor do I intend to TiVO it. Or anything.
So, maybe I’m a heathen for not being a slave to television. Ultimately though, in economic terms, the programme you watch isn’t the content. It isn’t the purpose of the television. It’s merely the bait, the lure, for the real content. Which is the viewer. The viewer is the content. Television programmes are merely a delivery system of creating a captive audience to advertisers. After all, how are these programmes funded? By advertising. The advertising sold in the middle of the programmes, the programmes being the lure to keep you from turning over when the adverts come on.
And I don’t use a television. I don’t watch television. I don’t get exposed to adverts (except for five minutes a week at the cinema), and so they have no influence on me. If I do want to watch something, I watch the DVD. No adverts. And I like it that way. I like not being a product to be bought and sold in slots of advertising minutes, with sports stars selling me sugar-water drinks whilst dressed as roman gladiators. If there’s something I want to watch, I choose as and when I get to watch it, and how I watch it, not being a slave to a TV schedule. I wouldn’t be the kind of person to get hooked into having to change my social plans every week to keep Wednesdays free so I can watch the latest episodic instalment of some 152 (give or take) episode story.
So, consequently, I really don’t get the appeal of the Xfiles, Buffy, 24, or anything like that. A hour long standalone programme? Which you can watch as and when? Fine. That’s Star Trek:TNG then. Every week a new adventure, as and when you want, not dependent on watching every episode like a junkie. That way I can dip in and out of it. Which is the worst thing for a programme based on advertising – no bait, no lure to keep the advertising audience watching. Mind you, I won’t make a commitment to lose an hour a week for a story to be frustratingly doled out and spoonfed to us with a perpetual cliffhanger. And why not? Because that way I’m not in control of my time. I’ve willingly given it over and surrendered it to advertisers. I won’t be part of that. Perhaps its part of some insane delusion I’m actually in control of my own destiny, but on the other hand, never willingly give up anything you want to keep – and I want to keep some control over my schedule, rather than slavering like some addict waiting for a fix, quivering in the corner trying the methadone substitute of internet messageboards discussing the exact detail of an XP37A phase pistol and fanfiction sories of the USS Retentive. Nope, give me something I’ve got control over. And don’t even get me started on Big Brother – a vacous waste of time with no narrative plot, just a voyeuristic spectacle of misery and mockery.
Bah. Maybe that’s why I don’t use a television. But when I do, I’ll be glued to the documentary channels instead. Why? They teach. They educate. You learn. That’s more than be said about watching Emmerdale and Eastenders and Ant And Decs Saturday night pileup.Anyway, who wants to hear about my pitch for an episodic ongoing sci fi series? One involving spaceships, aliens and phasers?
In the meantime, a nation of X-Files fans weeps…., now that Gillian Anderson is pregnant, having split up from her husband three months ago. That means in the past few months she has become single and entered the dating pool again, and somebody is that lucky man…And I'm sure that Simon Pegg, who in Spaced sleeps under a poster of her and dreams of her, will be very upset, I’m sure.
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Quick linkees...
i) Nuclear plant thwarted by jellyfish. Jellyfish win.
ii)ept men, Japanese style. "Even though it's probably not the best way to put it, I'm nothing more than her pet" says one Man
iii)Ex CIA-girl blog here . Pretty interesting....
iv) Oooh, Confessions of a swinger , if one was so inclined.
Not very exciting, really. I'm still fming over Condoleeza Rice's statement about 'ur middle east', treating the wholeregion just as proxy nation to be fixed. Oh, and I really didn;t like that Flash thunderstorm on Saturday. Lets hope the weather than that is better a month from now...
i) Nuclear plant thwarted by jellyfish. Jellyfish win.
ii)ept men, Japanese style. "Even though it's probably not the best way to put it, I'm nothing more than her pet" says one Man
iii)Ex CIA-girl blog here . Pretty interesting....
iv) Oooh, Confessions of a swinger , if one was so inclined.
Not very exciting, really. I'm still fming over Condoleeza Rice's statement about 'ur middle east', treating the wholeregion just as proxy nation to be fixed. Oh, and I really didn;t like that Flash thunderstorm on Saturday. Lets hope the weather than that is better a month from now...
I, PROCRASTINATOR...
It was with great shame that I realised I was the last person from the shuffleathon not to have sent off the CD. Mind you, this had a lot to do with indecision of whittling it down to 12 tracks. Which I did in the end by deferring the decision of what track to take off to My brother. (BTW, the missing track was "Under My Wheels" by the Prodigy). And I still couldn't resist sticking in a hidden track on the end either.
Its sequenced so thats there's two similarish track together, then a change of genre. It works ok. And I can't wait for a review. But I have kept the recipient waiting long enough already!
Enjoy it, Stef!
It was with great shame that I realised I was the last person from the shuffleathon not to have sent off the CD. Mind you, this had a lot to do with indecision of whittling it down to 12 tracks. Which I did in the end by deferring the decision of what track to take off to My brother. (BTW, the missing track was "Under My Wheels" by the Prodigy). And I still couldn't resist sticking in a hidden track on the end either.
Its sequenced so thats there's two similarish track together, then a change of genre. It works ok. And I can't wait for a review. But I have kept the recipient waiting long enough already!
Enjoy it, Stef!
hypocrisy knocks for Bush and Blairs foreign policy.
Whilst Bush tells us that Iran is evil and needs sanctions for making nuclear weapons (that haven't yet been proven to exist, for which there is no evidence of thier existence), Pakistan goes full steam ahead, builds heavy water (aka deutorinium oxide) plants, and starts re-arming up with nukes. The US and China, instead of offering sanctions or invasions...sells them the bloody weapons. To both india and pakistan.And then Bush wonders why the international community doesn't take him seriously. (OF course, they say it's all China's - not americas fault for looking the other way whilst India expands its nuclear production....)
One rule for one, one rule for another, isn't it? the blatant hypocrisy is incredible. And its not like pakistan are hiding the plants - they can be found on COMMERCIALLY AVAILABLE satellite photos. Astounding. Iran? building no plants, and we threaten sanctions, war and diplomatic action. India and Pakistan? Not a peep. Its so blatant its untrue.
And don't even get me started on Condoleeza Rice and her middle east...
or the fact that the millenimum dome, the billion pound drain in London, is not benefitting society in the slightest courtesy of its new role - as Englands first supercasino. What a bargain for Prescotts Bingo-esque mates, a snip at a bargain basement price, a public subsidised building which the taxpayer paid for, lost lot sof money on, and private industry profits from. again. mmm
Anyway, Wikipedia tells us about SATAN! . Full of surprises, that Satan is.Or is santa?
Whilst Bush tells us that Iran is evil and needs sanctions for making nuclear weapons (that haven't yet been proven to exist, for which there is no evidence of thier existence), Pakistan goes full steam ahead, builds heavy water (aka deutorinium oxide) plants, and starts re-arming up with nukes. The US and China, instead of offering sanctions or invasions...sells them the bloody weapons. To both india and pakistan.And then Bush wonders why the international community doesn't take him seriously. (OF course, they say it's all China's - not americas fault for looking the other way whilst India expands its nuclear production....)
One rule for one, one rule for another, isn't it? the blatant hypocrisy is incredible. And its not like pakistan are hiding the plants - they can be found on COMMERCIALLY AVAILABLE satellite photos. Astounding. Iran? building no plants, and we threaten sanctions, war and diplomatic action. India and Pakistan? Not a peep. Its so blatant its untrue.
And don't even get me started on Condoleeza Rice and her middle east...
or the fact that the millenimum dome, the billion pound drain in London, is not benefitting society in the slightest courtesy of its new role - as Englands first supercasino. What a bargain for Prescotts Bingo-esque mates, a snip at a bargain basement price, a public subsidised building which the taxpayer paid for, lost lot sof money on, and private industry profits from. again. mmm
Anyway, Wikipedia tells us about SATAN! . Full of surprises, that Satan is.Or is santa?
Yes, I live. Still. Though, despite the silence, I do live.
Weekends? Interesting? Yes. And at pain of deja vu (because I thought It had crashed last night whilst trying to post, hence the duplication)
And its goodbye to the CHild Support Agency....
Sometimes it seems like all I need to do is write a blog post and my enemies are vanquished by the power of words alone, like some all conquering impregnable voodoo doll of words and hypertext*.Alas, this only works in instances of fatally flawed government agencies.Now, I'm not in favour of axing the agency...I'm in favour of just making sure it bloody works and does the job its supposed to. Better luck next time, eh? From what I read of the proposals, it certainly seems like the reforms are on the right lines in some areas, but not so much in others...Electronic tagging, taking away passports and so forth? What next? How are they gonna get to work to pay the CSa if they are under curfew or tagging orders? Hmmm? And won't somebody please think of the children, rather than punishing the fatehrs for being in relationships that don't work out? To me, that means making sure that every penny the fathers pay goes to the children, not giving 70% of it to some whitehall mandarin to stuff up the coffers for nuclear submarines, or anything, and making sure that income intended for the children is not treated as affecting benefits and entitlements, as well as removing the stupid insistence that if the mother is on benefits it goes through an agency rather than a private arrangement.
And why? lets face it, As the register says "Henshaw had found that the government's desire to make money from the child support system had impelled the CSA to interfere in the lives of those families who claimed benefit." In other words, it was a form of taxation designed at raising government revenues, but done so under the auspices and pretence that it is for the children. thats right, the government took the money straight form the childrens mouths for their own coffers, for their own jags and nuclear submarines. An utterly disgusting situation, but even the man appointed by government to investigate discovers that the CSA is little more than just...in more or less words - a tax you pay if you have sex, using the existence children to generate money and keeping most of it for themselves. So we've a chugger disgused as a government agency. Ludicrous and offensive.
Mind you, as the article states, the issue may not end up being sorted out for at least four years. Why? because the people who are responsible for the system which has caused all the problems have four years left of thier contract - until 2010. the article here makes that much clear, and no government department is going to want to write off any computer system upon which they have spent £153million, no matter how useless, and EDS - the supplier - promises to remain helping until another contractor is in place. Grrrreat.
(*Your mileage and reality may differ, of course.I mean, Because because blog posts just give me the chance to whinge, not actually do anything effective you see)
More later, ok? Interesting weekend. Involving thunderstorms and oxfordshire.
Weekends? Interesting? Yes. And at pain of deja vu (because I thought It had crashed last night whilst trying to post, hence the duplication)
And its goodbye to the CHild Support Agency....
Sometimes it seems like all I need to do is write a blog post and my enemies are vanquished by the power of words alone, like some all conquering impregnable voodoo doll of words and hypertext*.Alas, this only works in instances of fatally flawed government agencies.Now, I'm not in favour of axing the agency...I'm in favour of just making sure it bloody works and does the job its supposed to. Better luck next time, eh? From what I read of the proposals, it certainly seems like the reforms are on the right lines in some areas, but not so much in others...Electronic tagging, taking away passports and so forth? What next? How are they gonna get to work to pay the CSa if they are under curfew or tagging orders? Hmmm? And won't somebody please think of the children, rather than punishing the fatehrs for being in relationships that don't work out? To me, that means making sure that every penny the fathers pay goes to the children, not giving 70% of it to some whitehall mandarin to stuff up the coffers for nuclear submarines, or anything, and making sure that income intended for the children is not treated as affecting benefits and entitlements, as well as removing the stupid insistence that if the mother is on benefits it goes through an agency rather than a private arrangement.
And why? lets face it, As the register says "Henshaw had found that the government's desire to make money from the child support system had impelled the CSA to interfere in the lives of those families who claimed benefit." In other words, it was a form of taxation designed at raising government revenues, but done so under the auspices and pretence that it is for the children. thats right, the government took the money straight form the childrens mouths for their own coffers, for their own jags and nuclear submarines. An utterly disgusting situation, but even the man appointed by government to investigate discovers that the CSA is little more than just...in more or less words - a tax you pay if you have sex, using the existence children to generate money and keeping most of it for themselves. So we've a chugger disgused as a government agency. Ludicrous and offensive.
Mind you, as the article states, the issue may not end up being sorted out for at least four years. Why? because the people who are responsible for the system which has caused all the problems have four years left of thier contract - until 2010. the article here makes that much clear, and no government department is going to want to write off any computer system upon which they have spent £153million, no matter how useless, and EDS - the supplier - promises to remain helping until another contractor is in place. Grrrreat.
(*Your mileage and reality may differ, of course.I mean, Because because blog posts just give me the chance to whinge, not actually do anything effective you see)
More later, ok? Interesting weekend. Involving thunderstorms and oxfordshire.
Monday, July 24, 2006
And its goodbye to the CHild Support Agency....
Now, I'm not in favour of axing the agency...I'm in favour of just amkign sure it bloody works and does the job its supposed to. Better luck next time, eh?
Now, I'm not in favour of axing the agency...I'm in favour of just amkign sure it bloody works and does the job its supposed to. Better luck next time, eh?
Friday, July 21, 2006
Erm.....I think I had something really useful to say. And erm....I haven't.Except that wikipedia users don;t seem to like gary Lightbody of sanow patrol, judging by the old entry here that says that there are "Rumors of a sex video have recently surfaced (May 2006), lthough the video is apparently of an orgy involving Lightbody, his former lover Mark Curry, Aled Jones and TV Chef Ainsley Harriet. [1]" .Phew.And I thought I was bad, kicking myself because I bought a lunchbox, and keep forgetting to use it.
*Avoids obvious Linford Christie jpg* inserts this instead
Oh yes, here's that thing I meant to metion. Are there any Iron maiden fans in the house? Scream for me, the internet! Scream for me, THE INTERNET!!!!! Ok? This one's called...
TWENTY TWO AKKACIA AVENUE!(ok, perhaps the only time the mighty maiden get mentioned in the BBC news pages magazine section then?)
Was that thing I wrote about Israel completely boring then? Anm i really suffering from comment envy? Do I moan too much? Do I ask too many questions? really? do i? etc? etc? etc?
shut up Graham
*Avoids obvious Linford Christie jpg* inserts this instead
Oh yes, here's that thing I meant to metion. Are there any Iron maiden fans in the house? Scream for me, the internet! Scream for me, THE INTERNET!!!!! Ok? This one's called...
TWENTY TWO AKKACIA AVENUE!(ok, perhaps the only time the mighty maiden get mentioned in the BBC news pages magazine section then?)
Was that thing I wrote about Israel completely boring then? Anm i really suffering from comment envy? Do I moan too much? Do I ask too many questions? really? do i? etc? etc? etc?
shut up Graham
Busy day saturday.In fact I've busy wekeends every weekend between now and September. Anyway, tomorrow was originally planned as a decorating day, but instead, my good friend Bob rang me and asked me what I was doing that day, and now I have alternative plans - being part of his weddign rehearsal. Crumbs. All very exciting, I must say. Anyway, As hopelessly stolen from lithaborn....
What wrong with this picture?
Yes, obviously. The exact same thing that threw me when i saw it, and one that made me think EXACTLY What I shouldn't be thinking. Borg Cube? Picard? Enterprise? Must be A Star Trek fan. but WAIT! As Mr. Scott would say, Its The 'NCC-1701.No Bloody A, B, C or D!' which is WRONG WRONG WRONG! The original Enterprise NEVER faced the borg, Who would have carved it up like a sunday roast. So, yes, thats what wrong, thats what made me think it was the work of a rank amateur. pah! Did he really think no one would know?
Anyway, Please Note that the Copyright Investigation Comittee has lodged the following complaints and incidents of copyright infringement regarding the below article from mr. Mark Reed of www.mark-reed.blogspot.com:-
i)The use of an identical picture outlined here
ii)The use and misappropriation of the image and likeness of Sean Connery, refering the character portrayed in the Untouchables.
iii)The use of a quotation from 'Perfect Sense' by Roger Waters.
iv) An Ireland/Israel analogy has been credited appropriately.
v)That whole God thing.
The grumpy police have determind the following results of our investigation, specifically:-
a) Points i) and iii) were intentional referencing to the original article. Point i) has been amended and removed, Point iii) remains in use as Mark Reed is not copyright originator
b)Yeah, ok, me bad on the Connery thing. Didn't quite remember where I had taken it from, but I took it out because of grumpychops.
c)The israel/Ireland thing? Perfectly valid, but ok, not original, and it was credited anyway.
d)Oh, until a complaint can be lodged with God for lack of a proper duty of care for his chosen people, OR a complaint can be lodged by God for deformatory behaviour in not providing a big enough promised land for everyone who wants to live in it, Point v) remains a valid use of criticsm of the ultimate creator, for whom those who believe in him take the existence of penguins are the ultimate proof because they can't be the result of random chemical chance.
ta
graham x
What wrong with this picture?
Yes, obviously. The exact same thing that threw me when i saw it, and one that made me think EXACTLY What I shouldn't be thinking. Borg Cube? Picard? Enterprise? Must be A Star Trek fan. but WAIT! As Mr. Scott would say, Its The 'NCC-1701.No Bloody A, B, C or D!' which is WRONG WRONG WRONG! The original Enterprise NEVER faced the borg, Who would have carved it up like a sunday roast. So, yes, thats what wrong, thats what made me think it was the work of a rank amateur. pah! Did he really think no one would know?
Anyway, Please Note that the Copyright Investigation Comittee has lodged the following complaints and incidents of copyright infringement regarding the below article from mr. Mark Reed of www.mark-reed.blogspot.com:-
i)The use of an identical picture outlined here
ii)The use and misappropriation of the image and likeness of Sean Connery, refering the character portrayed in the Untouchables.
iii)The use of a quotation from 'Perfect Sense' by Roger Waters.
iv) An Ireland/Israel analogy has been credited appropriately.
v)That whole God thing.
The grumpy police have determind the following results of our investigation, specifically:-
a) Points i) and iii) were intentional referencing to the original article. Point i) has been amended and removed, Point iii) remains in use as Mark Reed is not copyright originator
b)Yeah, ok, me bad on the Connery thing. Didn't quite remember where I had taken it from, but I took it out because of grumpychops.
c)The israel/Ireland thing? Perfectly valid, but ok, not original, and it was credited anyway.
d)Oh, until a complaint can be lodged with God for lack of a proper duty of care for his chosen people, OR a complaint can be lodged by God for deformatory behaviour in not providing a big enough promised land for everyone who wants to live in it, Point v) remains a valid use of criticsm of the ultimate creator, for whom those who believe in him take the existence of penguins are the ultimate proof because they can't be the result of random chemical chance.
ta
graham x
Thursday, July 20, 2006
Get Your filthy hands off my desert ......
The entire middle east stands on the brink of war, that is to say if it isn't already at a defacto state of war. Troops, bombings, mass evacuations, and 500,000 homeless. The biggest crisis since Rwanda or, perhaps more accurately, since Bush and Blair rolled troops into Baghdad in direct and blatant violation of international law and the UN.
And Now, it turns out the 2006 Israel-lebanon war is going to end in just exactly the same quagmire.
Of course, the history of the region is long, bloody and extremely complicated. But what it basically boils down to is that the Jews say that they should have a homeland as promised to them by god , and five thousand years ago that magical man who lives in the sky and created everything wrote down in a book that they get a lump of dirt by the sea as a promised land. Sadly, God didn't appear to have the foresight to make enough land for everyone, which was a bit sloppy on his part, and therefore lots of people end up fighting over the same lump of arid desert in the Middle east. back in the good old days they did so with catapaults, and now they do with with cannons. praise God for his forward thinking eh? You'd think if he loved his own people enough he might make enough land for all of them, or maybe even choose osme land with grass rather than grit, give them a sea that wouldn;t kill everything, and so forth. Alas though , I Digress. God really didn't think this one through though very well, because he seems to have promised it to someone else too - the people who actually lived there at the time, and the muslims too. tut tut.
Anyway, courtesy of the mass homicide (aka holocaust) of Jewish people in World War II, the UN decided to create a homeland for them called Israel. (NB: Those of you of a jewish persuasion will note that this fulfils a prophecy directly required in Revlataions before the end of the world can take place. *ahem*). However, the people who already lived there when the UN gave their land away to someone else who wanted it because God told them to, weren't very happy, and have disputed it ever since. But Israel was born, and its borders defined in 1949.
However, as I say, there's been conflicts ever since because the people who already lived there who were pushed out didn't like it very much. Mind you, in 1967, the israeli Sinai war kicked off, and thanks in no small part to the fact that israel had been armed heavily to the hilt by the west (including the US giving it a few nuclear weapons in direct and blatant violation of the Nuclear Proliferation treatries), Israel repelled the invaders and began to expand into another nations sovereign territory. Upon conclusion fo the war, Israel did not retreat back to the 1949 agreement, but remained in land it had gained militarily in conquest, in DIRECT violation of international law. This is my main gripe - the acquisiton of land by military conquest is defined as invasion, and no civilised nation should be involved in that or profit from it. Israel did in flagrant and blatant defiance of the UN and internationla law, and as such, it is my position it should retreat to its 1949 borders. until then, it remains an occupying army in another nations sovereign land.
Anyway, Israel was told off by the UN, but nothing happened. Israel remains there, in these lands. There continues to be disputes and crossborder skirmishes, but now its escalated into war. A non-governmental group called hezbollah kidnapped two Israeli soldiers, and The Israeli government wanted them back. however, the best way to do this, according to Israel, is to declare a defacto state of war on the government of the land in which the group Resides. As Mark astutely points out, this is like invading Dublin with cruisers to win the battle against the IRA. Absurd.
You see, as far as I am concerned, whatever has happened regarding the origin of this particular conflict does not excuse Hezbollah of blame. After all, firing rockets across borders and kidnapping soldiers is wrong AND inexcusable.
However, thats not to absolve ISrael of blame either. To embark on a wholescale military campaign of carpet bombing and missile attacks and leaving thousands and thousands dead is not an appropriate response to a rocket attack and kidnapping two soldiers. The Code of war (if such a thing as war can civilised) has been ignored, and seemingly, used as a pretex for a massive military attack.
In the past when soldiers have been kidnapped, their release has been secured by priosner releases, never by military attacks.The Leader of Hezbollah stated this clearly and explicity that military attacks would not secure their release when he said “No military operation will return them… The prisoners will not be returned except through one way: indirect negotiations and a trade [of prisoners].” Which is makes the Israeli response even more absurd and provocative.
The response of Israel has been directly disproportionate and totally inappropriate , tantamount to and in all intents and purposes being nothing more than a wholescale military bombing campaign which is obliterating and destroying Lebanon, leading the largest humanitarian crisis since Rwanda. The Death Toll is in the thousands, and some 500,000 have had their home destroyed in bombing. From hillside villages to urban centres, what happened is that israel first bombed four sepearte intersections, and announced their intetions to flatten and destory every buildign within those four points, destroying the entire infrastructre and homes of thousands. This is not a proportionate response, this is not a rational response. This is little short of bombing your opponents back to the age of fire and flintlocks, and all with the approval of the international community. the G8 condemned Hezbollah, but turned a blind eye to the mass destruction as israel continues to pound its neighbours into obliteration.
As I write, Israel is involved directly in a battle, one that goes against the principles of proportionality and also the prinicples of protected persons. Israel has also invaded Lebanon, moving its troops into soverign territory of another land, Fighting within lebanese borders and meeting heavy resistance. After all, if an army bombed your city for days on end, killed thousands and then invaded, wouldn't you resist? Given the possibility of diplomatic exchange and negotiations, israel has instead chosen the path of war. Not the path of peace. The only way to avoid war is to not start one, and in invading and attacking Lebanon out of all proportion, what it has done is not a peaceful act. After all, how can you proceed on a path to peace and diplomacy by bombing the living hell of your neighbours? If, as karl Von Clausewitz once said, "War is nothing but a continuation of politics by other means.", then politics in this region is over. Only bloodshed and violence awaits. And America and England stand behind Israel giving carte blanche to the wholesale slaughter, by refusing to criticise Israel.
Now before you think I'm criticising Israel simply for being ISrael, or out of some znti-zionist zeal, I'm not. israel has as much a right to exist and to live in peace in any country. But the right to live in peace does not extend to making war on anyone else, or living in land taken from other soverign countries by force, ot bombing other nations with impunity and immunity, hiding behind a blank cheque of American and british approval, in defiance to international law. To blame hezbollah for Israels driving tanks over international borders in blatant ignorance of an established process of negotiations is absurd and hypocritical. To blame hezbollah is like stoning the man who fights back when the burgulars enter his home. And lets look upon it another way: if it had been iraq invading Kuwait, taking lands by force and conquest, what would the international response be? You only have to look at 1991 for the answer to that question.
The only way to secure a lasting peace - or at least to avoid all out war - is to recognise that the occupation of lands conquered in the 1967 six day war by Israel need to be returned, to return to the 1949 aborders as recognised in its formation by the United Nations, and only then cna Israel have legitmacy in the international arena. But until Britain and American do this, Israel will act like it has blank cheque to act with immunity to do as it damn well pleases no matter what the cost.
Is this in any way, that now the evil of communism has been replaced by terorism, that the next bogeyman - Iran - has been blamed for the attacks on israel? As outlined here, Israel has directly claimed that Iran instiagted the attacks by Hezbollah in order to divert attention in the international arena away from the issue of Iranian weapons programmes.Of course, the reality of the situation is just that its just all about the big bad evil islamist countries like Syria and Iran poking their oars in and trying to take over the region, which in US policy terms based on the idea of proxy nations under communism taking over the world one country by one, is true. This completely ignored the thousands of years of local conflict in favour of an existing anti-terrorism agenda which serves the same interests as US and British foregin policy. Hmmm.
And people wonder why Israel acts like it has a blank cheque to do as it bloody well pleases over there.Its because the US and Uk use it as a buffer state against the Middle Eastern islamic countries, and are perfectly happy to ignore the application of international law and military conflict when it serves their own, narrow, foreign policy interests. in doing so, the US and Uk and the west have no international legitimacy or credibility in the region, and consequently, wonder why they have trouble there. Its ismple. its because its one rule for Gods people, and another for the heathens who read to Koran. Because No mater what the Un says, it will remain a toothless tiger as long as the US and the Uk turn a blind eye to the acts of war that occur when israel respons to a rocket attack by flattening cities, killing thousnads, and turning a small skirmish into nothing more than a full on war. How will it end? With the promised land nothing more than a glowing radioactive chunk of dirt? But one thing is certain - many more will die needlessly, because Israel will talk with bombs and bullets and the ways of war , not words and negotiations and the ways of peace.
Incidentally, did you know that there are many prophecies (such as in the mayan calendar and Nostradumus) that state the end of the world in 2012 will be preceded by a war in Israel starting in 2006? If you believe such things, of course. Me, i blame God all along.
Militarily though, and with the support of the US and the UK, Israel has a superiority on the ground which means it may well be likely to win this conflict, but at what cost. As israeli historian Isaac Deutscher said, "The Germans have summed up their own experience in the bitter phrase 'Man kann sich totseigen!' 'You can triumph yourself to death'.". And what triumph is there in this? What glory? None at all. As long as people keep fighting, people will keep dying. And I don't think thats quite what God wanted when he came up with that commandment 'Thou Shalt not kill', do you? After all, the only way to peace isn't by starting a war, its though words not weapons. But As long as people put bulldozers and tanks through peoples homes, that won't happen.
Get your filthy hands off my desert indeed.....
"and the Germans kill the Jews, and the Jews kill the Arabs, and the Arabs kill the hostages and that is the news. Is it any wonder, that the monkey's confused?" - Roger Waters.
The entire middle east stands on the brink of war, that is to say if it isn't already at a defacto state of war. Troops, bombings, mass evacuations, and 500,000 homeless. The biggest crisis since Rwanda or, perhaps more accurately, since Bush and Blair rolled troops into Baghdad in direct and blatant violation of international law and the UN.
And Now, it turns out the 2006 Israel-lebanon war is going to end in just exactly the same quagmire.
Of course, the history of the region is long, bloody and extremely complicated. But what it basically boils down to is that the Jews say that they should have a homeland as promised to them by god , and five thousand years ago that magical man who lives in the sky and created everything wrote down in a book that they get a lump of dirt by the sea as a promised land. Sadly, God didn't appear to have the foresight to make enough land for everyone, which was a bit sloppy on his part, and therefore lots of people end up fighting over the same lump of arid desert in the Middle east. back in the good old days they did so with catapaults, and now they do with with cannons. praise God for his forward thinking eh? You'd think if he loved his own people enough he might make enough land for all of them, or maybe even choose osme land with grass rather than grit, give them a sea that wouldn;t kill everything, and so forth. Alas though , I Digress. God really didn't think this one through though very well, because he seems to have promised it to someone else too - the people who actually lived there at the time, and the muslims too. tut tut.
Anyway, courtesy of the mass homicide (aka holocaust) of Jewish people in World War II, the UN decided to create a homeland for them called Israel. (NB: Those of you of a jewish persuasion will note that this fulfils a prophecy directly required in Revlataions before the end of the world can take place. *ahem*). However, the people who already lived there when the UN gave their land away to someone else who wanted it because God told them to, weren't very happy, and have disputed it ever since. But Israel was born, and its borders defined in 1949.
However, as I say, there's been conflicts ever since because the people who already lived there who were pushed out didn't like it very much. Mind you, in 1967, the israeli Sinai war kicked off, and thanks in no small part to the fact that israel had been armed heavily to the hilt by the west (including the US giving it a few nuclear weapons in direct and blatant violation of the Nuclear Proliferation treatries), Israel repelled the invaders and began to expand into another nations sovereign territory. Upon conclusion fo the war, Israel did not retreat back to the 1949 agreement, but remained in land it had gained militarily in conquest, in DIRECT violation of international law. This is my main gripe - the acquisiton of land by military conquest is defined as invasion, and no civilised nation should be involved in that or profit from it. Israel did in flagrant and blatant defiance of the UN and internationla law, and as such, it is my position it should retreat to its 1949 borders. until then, it remains an occupying army in another nations sovereign land.
Anyway, Israel was told off by the UN, but nothing happened. Israel remains there, in these lands. There continues to be disputes and crossborder skirmishes, but now its escalated into war. A non-governmental group called hezbollah kidnapped two Israeli soldiers, and The Israeli government wanted them back. however, the best way to do this, according to Israel, is to declare a defacto state of war on the government of the land in which the group Resides. As Mark astutely points out, this is like invading Dublin with cruisers to win the battle against the IRA. Absurd.
You see, as far as I am concerned, whatever has happened regarding the origin of this particular conflict does not excuse Hezbollah of blame. After all, firing rockets across borders and kidnapping soldiers is wrong AND inexcusable.
However, thats not to absolve ISrael of blame either. To embark on a wholescale military campaign of carpet bombing and missile attacks and leaving thousands and thousands dead is not an appropriate response to a rocket attack and kidnapping two soldiers. The Code of war (if such a thing as war can civilised) has been ignored, and seemingly, used as a pretex for a massive military attack.
In the past when soldiers have been kidnapped, their release has been secured by priosner releases, never by military attacks.The Leader of Hezbollah stated this clearly and explicity that military attacks would not secure their release when he said “No military operation will return them… The prisoners will not be returned except through one way: indirect negotiations and a trade [of prisoners].” Which is makes the Israeli response even more absurd and provocative.
The response of Israel has been directly disproportionate and totally inappropriate , tantamount to and in all intents and purposes being nothing more than a wholescale military bombing campaign which is obliterating and destroying Lebanon, leading the largest humanitarian crisis since Rwanda. The Death Toll is in the thousands, and some 500,000 have had their home destroyed in bombing. From hillside villages to urban centres, what happened is that israel first bombed four sepearte intersections, and announced their intetions to flatten and destory every buildign within those four points, destroying the entire infrastructre and homes of thousands. This is not a proportionate response, this is not a rational response. This is little short of bombing your opponents back to the age of fire and flintlocks, and all with the approval of the international community. the G8 condemned Hezbollah, but turned a blind eye to the mass destruction as israel continues to pound its neighbours into obliteration.
As I write, Israel is involved directly in a battle, one that goes against the principles of proportionality and also the prinicples of protected persons. Israel has also invaded Lebanon, moving its troops into soverign territory of another land, Fighting within lebanese borders and meeting heavy resistance. After all, if an army bombed your city for days on end, killed thousands and then invaded, wouldn't you resist? Given the possibility of diplomatic exchange and negotiations, israel has instead chosen the path of war. Not the path of peace. The only way to avoid war is to not start one, and in invading and attacking Lebanon out of all proportion, what it has done is not a peaceful act. After all, how can you proceed on a path to peace and diplomacy by bombing the living hell of your neighbours? If, as karl Von Clausewitz once said, "War is nothing but a continuation of politics by other means.", then politics in this region is over. Only bloodshed and violence awaits. And America and England stand behind Israel giving carte blanche to the wholesale slaughter, by refusing to criticise Israel.
Now before you think I'm criticising Israel simply for being ISrael, or out of some znti-zionist zeal, I'm not. israel has as much a right to exist and to live in peace in any country. But the right to live in peace does not extend to making war on anyone else, or living in land taken from other soverign countries by force, ot bombing other nations with impunity and immunity, hiding behind a blank cheque of American and british approval, in defiance to international law. To blame hezbollah for Israels driving tanks over international borders in blatant ignorance of an established process of negotiations is absurd and hypocritical. To blame hezbollah is like stoning the man who fights back when the burgulars enter his home. And lets look upon it another way: if it had been iraq invading Kuwait, taking lands by force and conquest, what would the international response be? You only have to look at 1991 for the answer to that question.
The only way to secure a lasting peace - or at least to avoid all out war - is to recognise that the occupation of lands conquered in the 1967 six day war by Israel need to be returned, to return to the 1949 aborders as recognised in its formation by the United Nations, and only then cna Israel have legitmacy in the international arena. But until Britain and American do this, Israel will act like it has blank cheque to act with immunity to do as it damn well pleases no matter what the cost.
Is this in any way, that now the evil of communism has been replaced by terorism, that the next bogeyman - Iran - has been blamed for the attacks on israel? As outlined here, Israel has directly claimed that Iran instiagted the attacks by Hezbollah in order to divert attention in the international arena away from the issue of Iranian weapons programmes.Of course, the reality of the situation is just that its just all about the big bad evil islamist countries like Syria and Iran poking their oars in and trying to take over the region, which in US policy terms based on the idea of proxy nations under communism taking over the world one country by one, is true. This completely ignored the thousands of years of local conflict in favour of an existing anti-terrorism agenda which serves the same interests as US and British foregin policy. Hmmm.
And people wonder why Israel acts like it has a blank cheque to do as it bloody well pleases over there.Its because the US and Uk use it as a buffer state against the Middle Eastern islamic countries, and are perfectly happy to ignore the application of international law and military conflict when it serves their own, narrow, foreign policy interests. in doing so, the US and Uk and the west have no international legitimacy or credibility in the region, and consequently, wonder why they have trouble there. Its ismple. its because its one rule for Gods people, and another for the heathens who read to Koran. Because No mater what the Un says, it will remain a toothless tiger as long as the US and the Uk turn a blind eye to the acts of war that occur when israel respons to a rocket attack by flattening cities, killing thousnads, and turning a small skirmish into nothing more than a full on war. How will it end? With the promised land nothing more than a glowing radioactive chunk of dirt? But one thing is certain - many more will die needlessly, because Israel will talk with bombs and bullets and the ways of war , not words and negotiations and the ways of peace.
Incidentally, did you know that there are many prophecies (such as in the mayan calendar and Nostradumus) that state the end of the world in 2012 will be preceded by a war in Israel starting in 2006? If you believe such things, of course. Me, i blame God all along.
Militarily though, and with the support of the US and the UK, Israel has a superiority on the ground which means it may well be likely to win this conflict, but at what cost. As israeli historian Isaac Deutscher said, "The Germans have summed up their own experience in the bitter phrase 'Man kann sich totseigen!' 'You can triumph yourself to death'.". And what triumph is there in this? What glory? None at all. As long as people keep fighting, people will keep dying. And I don't think thats quite what God wanted when he came up with that commandment 'Thou Shalt not kill', do you? After all, the only way to peace isn't by starting a war, its though words not weapons. But As long as people put bulldozers and tanks through peoples homes, that won't happen.
Get your filthy hands off my desert indeed.....
"and the Germans kill the Jews, and the Jews kill the Arabs, and the Arabs kill the hostages and that is the news. Is it any wonder, that the monkey's confused?" - Roger Waters.
Oh, the Irony.
Liner involved with crisis on Atlantic Ocean, tables goes flying in a 40 degree tilt, Upper decks flooded with water... , and the Late night movie on board is Titanic. No, I'm not making this up, honestly. Imean, Someones got a funny sense of humour. Almost as much as Air Mexico buying Airplane! as an inflight movie....
Talking of movies, Saw My Super Ex-Girlfriendlast night. Which was lightweight, easygoing, inoffensive and quite funny, but certainly fun. Nothing you'll remember more than 2 weeks afterwards, but plesant and amusing. Plot is fairly simple: Guy meets girl, Girl turns out ot be secret superhero, Girl turns out ot be neurotic, Guy dumps girl, superhero Ex-girlfriend uses superpowers for revenge as she is jilted and upset, and in the backgroudn her evil nemesis Professor bedlam pulls the strings and uses his machinations for evil means... Good jokes and humourous interplay, a great cast in support roles (anna farris and the comedy sidekick Rainn Wilson espeically), but the male lead is a forgettable blank canvas of a sap and Uma Thurman woefully miscast. However, it is otherwise just a bit of dumb lightweight fun.
And sorry Giles, I did turn up late to meet you. Me bad.
Liner involved with crisis on Atlantic Ocean, tables goes flying in a 40 degree tilt, Upper decks flooded with water... , and the Late night movie on board is Titanic. No, I'm not making this up, honestly. Imean, Someones got a funny sense of humour. Almost as much as Air Mexico buying Airplane! as an inflight movie....
Talking of movies, Saw My Super Ex-Girlfriendlast night. Which was lightweight, easygoing, inoffensive and quite funny, but certainly fun. Nothing you'll remember more than 2 weeks afterwards, but plesant and amusing. Plot is fairly simple: Guy meets girl, Girl turns out ot be secret superhero, Girl turns out ot be neurotic, Guy dumps girl, superhero Ex-girlfriend uses superpowers for revenge as she is jilted and upset, and in the backgroudn her evil nemesis Professor bedlam pulls the strings and uses his machinations for evil means... Good jokes and humourous interplay, a great cast in support roles (anna farris and the comedy sidekick Rainn Wilson espeically), but the male lead is a forgettable blank canvas of a sap and Uma Thurman woefully miscast. However, it is otherwise just a bit of dumb lightweight fun.
And sorry Giles, I did turn up late to meet you. Me bad.
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Sh1t, its hot. So hot. Hottest day of the year, the hottest day recorded in a july ever. 36.3 degrees celsius, according to the BB . Thats 13 degrees higher than the average maximum july temperature.
And in the meantime, the roads melt, and gritters are dispatched so that the roads don't suddenly end up being melting onto wheels and tyres and causing road accidents.
It's an evil heat.
Evil. I don't like it.I really don't.
But on the plus side, me and becca had a little raspberry blowing context yesterday, and she won. I might have let her though. We blew raspebrries together and she smiled and giggled and laughed and crawled and explored and then cried when she couldn't see me anymore and she looked around for me. And then when she did see me again she was all smiles again. Bless her; even when she is punching me in the face and trying to take my glasses off, shes still the most beautiful person I've ever met.
Hurrah! A shufflethon review! of 'Untitled' CD Courtesy of Kaptain Korbold…
I’ll admit, there’s a lot of blogs I do read regularly. And a Lot I don’t. Normally when browsing at the library, I only read a select half dozen or so blogs regularly, and all the others on peoples appropriate sidebars , of which there might be about a hundred, I don’t tend to read regularly. Pop in occasionally maybe. And sometimes, I’ve never read their blogs before. For which, Kaptain Korbold deserves an apology, because when his CD turned up in the shuffleathon, I felt more than slightly embarrassed to think for a few moments ‘Who?’, because the name nor the blog didn’t look familiar at first glance. Even more embarrassing when I realise that the good Kaptain seems to do every meme I ever fill in.Sticking in the ‘untitled’ compilation, there’s a few thigs immediately obvious; and that’s that I suspect that the good Kaptain loves a fair bit of progrock...
Anyway….
01.Penguin Caf̩ Orchestra РMusic For a Found Harmonium
A low hum emanates from the speakers. Sound drifts in and out, gently forming into chords and apeggios. It builds…. It forms…It coalesces. Out of shapes comes structure. And then, a familiar pattern builds up and up, to a crescendo, a finish.I don’t know how old this track is, but I sure like it. Maybe that’s because it sounds almost exactly like Philip Glass would, if he went and joined tangerine dream and suddenly got a fetish for old analogue synths.
02.Nick Drake - Things Behind The Sun
Quiet, mellow, and yes, a lot like someone else. Nick Cave? David Gilmour doing Fat Old Sun? A Little bit of gentle, acoustic whinmsy, nicely bridging the stylistic gap between Penguin café orchestra and the full of power rock of ……
03.Rush - Animate
I love Rush. I can’t deny that. Especially in the years 1980-1990. After that though, they seemed to lose a lot of their texturing and subtlety to be replaced with a more bludgeoning and simplistic power rock approach, which I found thoroughly unexceptional, especially after the heights of the eighties.(I must be about the only rush fan who thinks this, though). So, sadly for me, much as I love the band, this is far from a standout track from rush ; If it was the only track I had heard from the band, it wouldn’t make me want to listen to anything else the band had done. But Still, I know all the words, like a melody so sweet, a strong and simple beat that you can dance to. Damn, can’t even stop quoting the lyrics to other rush songs, can I? Still Not one of their best songs, but it is VERY fitting to the rest of this compilation, in a sort of 70’s/80’s progrock sort of thing. As Rush songs go, it commits the worst crime of their back catalogue of the nineties ; Its Pedestrian.
04.The Enid - Sundialer
If the Pet Shop boys suddenly decided to meet the Levellers, chucked in a whole load of acoustic guitars and orchestral stabs a la 1991 Rave songs. Aha, might be the Enid. Oddly dated, yet oddly not. Quite quirky and unusual, in a outdoor folky megadog rave kind of way. *gets dog on string, drinks cider, and wears baggy overalls int he sunshine in a field in hampshire *
05.Yes - Roundabout
A low ominious rumble, a chiming acoustic guitar plays a spiralling pattern down the fretboard, while thunder rumbles in the background. It sound so , so familiar. Like a song I’ve heard a thousand million times. These times I think so clearly, this times I drift away, along the bus lines that meander along these valleys of the Green and Grey? I never thought yes could be quite so, good. And then…
CLANG CLANG CLANG
The rickenbaker bass kicks in and destroys the ambience. Aaaaargh, AAAAARGH. Please make it stop. Please. That clanking sounds horrible. And then the keyboard socme in, and we’re into the anonymous territory of progrock hell. Oh, I hate this. I don’t even think I make it to the end of the track, I press the Skip button. And I really really liked the intro too, shame, but I never realised just how much New Model Army ripped it off for ‘Green and grey’ back in 1989.
06.John Renbourne - So Clear
I seem remember thinking this was quite pleasant but utterly forgettable. Sorry!
07.Blue Man group - I feel Love
Quite possibly the finest disco song ever given a reworking with chunky analog synths and it is erm…pumpin and rinsin’. At least for the first half, until after then when it goes all rocksit again. A commendable cover that makes a disco cliché listenable and even fresh in places, though it does detoriate in the second half I feel. Would be put to great use soundtracking a car chase in new york in a Michael mann cop thriller, though it would only have to be used the 40 second chunks repeated over and over again….Overall, this is one I will be sticking on imaginary soundtrack ocmpilation album for that American cop thriller I’m working on about a pair of detectives who never solve anything because they’re too damn polite and have the manner of a English teaparty. ‘Miami Nice’, anyone? (it’s a better title than the A planned jerry bruckheimer re-imaginging called ‘Miami Vice:New York’ or, my particular favourite; “CSI: Doncaster”, don’t you think?
08.Sigur Ros - Saeglopur
Simply beautiful and haunting. The nicest surprise here, as it makes me want to listen to more of the band. Effective and lilting, This is truly the best kind of music you can have. The music that takes you away and to that other place……
09.Justin Sullivan - Ocean Rising
New Model Army were good once – mainly in the angry years between 1983-1993. (Thunder and Consolation, especially. However, after that, when drummer Robert Heaton left, Justin Sullivan took on the mantle of the band. Since then, NMA have been largely and mainly formless and uninspiring to me. Gone are the incisive and sharp lyrics, replaced with a more poetic and wistful approach, and the songs mainly unmemorable, meandering. NMA were always at their best when being angry – how many other bands do you know have been banned from top of the pops for wearing t-signs emblazoned with the phrase ‘only stupid bast*rds use heroin’ – but that anger here has been replaced with a world weary acceptance, a resignation, like an ocean rising and beating you down under the rising flood. It does make me mildy curious to hear the rest of his solo stuff, but sadly I don’t hold out much hope for it being anything other than more of the same. If Only they had continued to be as incisive and biting of the years 1983-1993, then maybe they would still actually be relevant. I know it’s a bit rich to use the Justin Sullivan / NMA tag interchangeably, but to all intents and purposes, they are now, and even being a big fan, I can’t tell the two apart stylistically at all.
10.Caterwaul - The Sheeps A Wolf
Being the long haired cider drinking grebo oik I was during the late 80s and early 90s (ahem, and metal head, and liking Back to the planet and a plethora of bad goth bands), I heard a long of bands for whom using a long drawn out echo pedal was about the songwriting tool they had. Oh, that and a exceptional ability to sound like a lot of other unsuccessful goth bands, in a mostly generic manner. Now all those bands seem to reform to play daylight shows and appear on dodgy compilations packaged together with titles like ‘The Darker Side of A Decade’ and ‘Now that’s what I call goth’.See examples such as the Bolshoi, Gene Loves jezebel, the Chameleons, and so forth. Sadly this track does not stand out except in its stylistic choices, which seem to be set onto the 80s dry-ice, flour and big black cowboy hats option. Nope, sadly this didn’t move, didn’t seem to stand out from the pack of a hundred other generic goth bands. Which is a shame, because it seems like a lot of the problems are an obsession with the stylistic trappings of the genre rather than writing songs which people might remember ; Its just like listening to the Field of the Nepehelim, without the good bits. (Also see: Every other goth band since 1993, especially Rosetta Stone). Shame, because I like goth stuff, I just think most of the bands are utterly devoid of originality, and this doesn’t change that perception
11.Sheila Chandra - The Struggle / the Dream
Erm, I really must say this made no real impression on me at all. Sorry.
12.Mike Oldfield - The lake (instrumental)
Oh, think you know mike oldfield? Is that why you’ve got tubular bells as your rigntone (bah, that’s only because you love classic old horror movies like the exorcist, isnt It! I mean, just ask the horror film buff security guard at my work about that) . Well, after that he made a lot of other albums which sold less and less and impressed less and less, mostly based on the similar pattern of side long ambientinsturmentals made with synthesisers. And then, the guitars kick in, the big ROCK guitar solos. There’s an awful lot of progrock from the time that’s very much like this, and now neglected, but that’s because its dated worse than the Turin Shroud. Again, an interesting end to the compilation – almost Jarreian in some aspects – but far too rockist for my taste.
Overall, its very much a throwback to a classic age...not all to my tastes, but some good stuff in there. thanks alan!
I’ll admit, there’s a lot of blogs I do read regularly. And a Lot I don’t. Normally when browsing at the library, I only read a select half dozen or so blogs regularly, and all the others on peoples appropriate sidebars , of which there might be about a hundred, I don’t tend to read regularly. Pop in occasionally maybe. And sometimes, I’ve never read their blogs before. For which, Kaptain Korbold deserves an apology, because when his CD turned up in the shuffleathon, I felt more than slightly embarrassed to think for a few moments ‘Who?’, because the name nor the blog didn’t look familiar at first glance. Even more embarrassing when I realise that the good Kaptain seems to do every meme I ever fill in.Sticking in the ‘untitled’ compilation, there’s a few thigs immediately obvious; and that’s that I suspect that the good Kaptain loves a fair bit of progrock...
Anyway….
01.Penguin Caf̩ Orchestra РMusic For a Found Harmonium
A low hum emanates from the speakers. Sound drifts in and out, gently forming into chords and apeggios. It builds…. It forms…It coalesces. Out of shapes comes structure. And then, a familiar pattern builds up and up, to a crescendo, a finish.I don’t know how old this track is, but I sure like it. Maybe that’s because it sounds almost exactly like Philip Glass would, if he went and joined tangerine dream and suddenly got a fetish for old analogue synths.
02.Nick Drake - Things Behind The Sun
Quiet, mellow, and yes, a lot like someone else. Nick Cave? David Gilmour doing Fat Old Sun? A Little bit of gentle, acoustic whinmsy, nicely bridging the stylistic gap between Penguin café orchestra and the full of power rock of ……
03.Rush - Animate
I love Rush. I can’t deny that. Especially in the years 1980-1990. After that though, they seemed to lose a lot of their texturing and subtlety to be replaced with a more bludgeoning and simplistic power rock approach, which I found thoroughly unexceptional, especially after the heights of the eighties.(I must be about the only rush fan who thinks this, though). So, sadly for me, much as I love the band, this is far from a standout track from rush ; If it was the only track I had heard from the band, it wouldn’t make me want to listen to anything else the band had done. But Still, I know all the words, like a melody so sweet, a strong and simple beat that you can dance to. Damn, can’t even stop quoting the lyrics to other rush songs, can I? Still Not one of their best songs, but it is VERY fitting to the rest of this compilation, in a sort of 70’s/80’s progrock sort of thing. As Rush songs go, it commits the worst crime of their back catalogue of the nineties ; Its Pedestrian.
04.The Enid - Sundialer
If the Pet Shop boys suddenly decided to meet the Levellers, chucked in a whole load of acoustic guitars and orchestral stabs a la 1991 Rave songs. Aha, might be the Enid. Oddly dated, yet oddly not. Quite quirky and unusual, in a outdoor folky megadog rave kind of way. *gets dog on string, drinks cider, and wears baggy overalls int he sunshine in a field in hampshire *
05.Yes - Roundabout
A low ominious rumble, a chiming acoustic guitar plays a spiralling pattern down the fretboard, while thunder rumbles in the background. It sound so , so familiar. Like a song I’ve heard a thousand million times. These times I think so clearly, this times I drift away, along the bus lines that meander along these valleys of the Green and Grey? I never thought yes could be quite so, good. And then…
CLANG CLANG CLANG
The rickenbaker bass kicks in and destroys the ambience. Aaaaargh, AAAAARGH. Please make it stop. Please. That clanking sounds horrible. And then the keyboard socme in, and we’re into the anonymous territory of progrock hell. Oh, I hate this. I don’t even think I make it to the end of the track, I press the Skip button. And I really really liked the intro too, shame, but I never realised just how much New Model Army ripped it off for ‘Green and grey’ back in 1989.
06.John Renbourne - So Clear
I seem remember thinking this was quite pleasant but utterly forgettable. Sorry!
07.Blue Man group - I feel Love
Quite possibly the finest disco song ever given a reworking with chunky analog synths and it is erm…pumpin and rinsin’. At least for the first half, until after then when it goes all rocksit again. A commendable cover that makes a disco cliché listenable and even fresh in places, though it does detoriate in the second half I feel. Would be put to great use soundtracking a car chase in new york in a Michael mann cop thriller, though it would only have to be used the 40 second chunks repeated over and over again….Overall, this is one I will be sticking on imaginary soundtrack ocmpilation album for that American cop thriller I’m working on about a pair of detectives who never solve anything because they’re too damn polite and have the manner of a English teaparty. ‘Miami Nice’, anyone? (it’s a better title than the A planned jerry bruckheimer re-imaginging called ‘Miami Vice:New York’ or, my particular favourite; “CSI: Doncaster”, don’t you think?
08.Sigur Ros - Saeglopur
Simply beautiful and haunting. The nicest surprise here, as it makes me want to listen to more of the band. Effective and lilting, This is truly the best kind of music you can have. The music that takes you away and to that other place……
09.Justin Sullivan - Ocean Rising
New Model Army were good once – mainly in the angry years between 1983-1993. (Thunder and Consolation, especially. However, after that, when drummer Robert Heaton left, Justin Sullivan took on the mantle of the band. Since then, NMA have been largely and mainly formless and uninspiring to me. Gone are the incisive and sharp lyrics, replaced with a more poetic and wistful approach, and the songs mainly unmemorable, meandering. NMA were always at their best when being angry – how many other bands do you know have been banned from top of the pops for wearing t-signs emblazoned with the phrase ‘only stupid bast*rds use heroin’ – but that anger here has been replaced with a world weary acceptance, a resignation, like an ocean rising and beating you down under the rising flood. It does make me mildy curious to hear the rest of his solo stuff, but sadly I don’t hold out much hope for it being anything other than more of the same. If Only they had continued to be as incisive and biting of the years 1983-1993, then maybe they would still actually be relevant. I know it’s a bit rich to use the Justin Sullivan / NMA tag interchangeably, but to all intents and purposes, they are now, and even being a big fan, I can’t tell the two apart stylistically at all.
10.Caterwaul - The Sheeps A Wolf
Being the long haired cider drinking grebo oik I was during the late 80s and early 90s (ahem, and metal head, and liking Back to the planet and a plethora of bad goth bands), I heard a long of bands for whom using a long drawn out echo pedal was about the songwriting tool they had. Oh, that and a exceptional ability to sound like a lot of other unsuccessful goth bands, in a mostly generic manner. Now all those bands seem to reform to play daylight shows and appear on dodgy compilations packaged together with titles like ‘The Darker Side of A Decade’ and ‘Now that’s what I call goth’.See examples such as the Bolshoi, Gene Loves jezebel, the Chameleons, and so forth. Sadly this track does not stand out except in its stylistic choices, which seem to be set onto the 80s dry-ice, flour and big black cowboy hats option. Nope, sadly this didn’t move, didn’t seem to stand out from the pack of a hundred other generic goth bands. Which is a shame, because it seems like a lot of the problems are an obsession with the stylistic trappings of the genre rather than writing songs which people might remember ; Its just like listening to the Field of the Nepehelim, without the good bits. (Also see: Every other goth band since 1993, especially Rosetta Stone). Shame, because I like goth stuff, I just think most of the bands are utterly devoid of originality, and this doesn’t change that perception
11.Sheila Chandra - The Struggle / the Dream
Erm, I really must say this made no real impression on me at all. Sorry.
12.Mike Oldfield - The lake (instrumental)
Oh, think you know mike oldfield? Is that why you’ve got tubular bells as your rigntone (bah, that’s only because you love classic old horror movies like the exorcist, isnt It! I mean, just ask the horror film buff security guard at my work about that) . Well, after that he made a lot of other albums which sold less and less and impressed less and less, mostly based on the similar pattern of side long ambientinsturmentals made with synthesisers. And then, the guitars kick in, the big ROCK guitar solos. There’s an awful lot of progrock from the time that’s very much like this, and now neglected, but that’s because its dated worse than the Turin Shroud. Again, an interesting end to the compilation – almost Jarreian in some aspects – but far too rockist for my taste.
Overall, its very much a throwback to a classic age...not all to my tastes, but some good stuff in there. thanks alan!
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Erm...
I don't feel very well.
it's very hot.
I love my life, but hate my feral, disorganised existance.
Don;t worry though, I'm getting there. Eventually.
Erm...
I'm typing in short sentences thats really not like me, is it?
oh, Alan, I listened to your Cd last night. proper write up in a couple of days. It was...ermn... interesting. Some great stuff on there. And some not so great too.
Erm... off now. its a training day.
*packs his AK*
G xxx
I don't feel very well.
it's very hot.
I love my life, but hate my feral, disorganised existance.
Don;t worry though, I'm getting there. Eventually.
Erm...
I'm typing in short sentences thats really not like me, is it?
oh, Alan, I listened to your Cd last night. proper write up in a couple of days. It was...ermn... interesting. Some great stuff on there. And some not so great too.
Erm... off now. its a training day.
*packs his AK*
G xxx
Monday, July 17, 2006
Erm, it was an ok weekend. Shall I do the usual itinery? No? Ok, then, I won't. It would be really dull anyway, it would just be be pub / KFC / Sleep/ Can't sleep its too hot / gets woken up by cats fcuking in the back garden / sleep a bit more / tescos / iceland / home / work
Interesting day chattign to a guy from glasgow about the SSP and the workplace. And a good couple of pints too. Nice blerk.
Oh, I didn't know the library staff could get away with wearing TNG shirts now. mmmm.
*gets chucked out of library, again*
Interesting day chattign to a guy from glasgow about the SSP and the workplace. And a good couple of pints too. Nice blerk.
Oh, I didn't know the library staff could get away with wearing TNG shirts now. mmmm.
*gets chucked out of library, again*
Saturday, July 15, 2006
I was supposed to be decorating this weekend. Doesn't look very likely now. ThinK I'll stay in tidying up a lot.
And you know you're getting on a bit when 'children?' is a legitimate and expected question from people you've never met before. its happened so much in the past six months, Its like we are now at our ages - late 32 onwards - wher eit is just expected. is it the median age for spawning a child? I really don't know. Might be.
I have lots to do - libraries, food buying, topping up the electric meter, and so forth - so thats why I'm so busy. And I was in bed for ten last night, and woke up at 5.33 (stayed back in bed), 7.33 (bloody alarm), and then 10.23 (ok, I really couldnt put it off any longer, could i?).
bah, off to do the weekly shopping. Who wants ice lollies?
And you know you're getting on a bit when 'children?' is a legitimate and expected question from people you've never met before. its happened so much in the past six months, Its like we are now at our ages - late 32 onwards - wher eit is just expected. is it the median age for spawning a child? I really don't know. Might be.
I have lots to do - libraries, food buying, topping up the electric meter, and so forth - so thats why I'm so busy. And I was in bed for ten last night, and woke up at 5.33 (stayed back in bed), 7.33 (bloody alarm), and then 10.23 (ok, I really couldnt put it off any longer, could i?).
bah, off to do the weekly shopping. Who wants ice lollies?
You gotta love those crazy scientologists....
This is XEnu, evil overlord of the universe!
And this is how he transported his victims, via Interstellar spaceborn Douglas DC-8's! How retro!
Bloody hell, those Scientologists are full of it, aren't they? Wikipedia is full of such fascinating things about the insane and inane ramblings of a man who decided the easiest way of making money was to make his own religion, but couldn't keep his own fictional sci-fi collobs out of it all. It'd be laughable it wasn't so deadly serious to most of their rather strange believers, who convieniently ignore all science fact for the science fiction of Space Opera But what would I know? Being a non -believer, I'm what they refer to as ' raw meat' or , in rather more worryingly, also was was referred to using a racial perjorative beginning with the letter N.
For other wierd crazy religions based iupon stupid conceits that appear vaguely legitimate, ask about Mormonism, and my ex-wife. Or maybe not, as the case may be. I really don't like Mormons either. Given that their principal act was a vision of the angel Moroni, shouldnt that then be Morons instead?
*scratches chin quizzically*
This is XEnu, evil overlord of the universe!
And this is how he transported his victims, via Interstellar spaceborn Douglas DC-8's! How retro!
Bloody hell, those Scientologists are full of it, aren't they? Wikipedia is full of such fascinating things about the insane and inane ramblings of a man who decided the easiest way of making money was to make his own religion, but couldn't keep his own fictional sci-fi collobs out of it all. It'd be laughable it wasn't so deadly serious to most of their rather strange believers, who convieniently ignore all science fact for the science fiction of Space Opera But what would I know? Being a non -believer, I'm what they refer to as ' raw meat' or , in rather more worryingly, also was was referred to using a racial perjorative beginning with the letter N.
For other wierd crazy religions based iupon stupid conceits that appear vaguely legitimate, ask about Mormonism, and my ex-wife. Or maybe not, as the case may be. I really don't like Mormons either. Given that their principal act was a vision of the angel Moroni, shouldnt that then be Morons instead?
*scratches chin quizzically*
Subject: Fw: "Dear Dad" letter
(And the latest chain letter is...
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2006 19:58:13 +0100
A father entered his daughter's bedroom and saw a letter on the bed.
With the worst premonition, he read it with trembling hands.........
Dear Mum and Dad,
It is with great regret and sorrow that I'm telling you that I've eloped with my new boyfriend. I've found real love and he is so nice. Especially with all his piercings, scars, tattoos, and is big motorbike. But it's not only that, I'm pregnant, and Ahmed said that we will be very happy in his caravan in the woods. He wants to have many more children with me and that's one of mydreams.
I've learned that marijuana doesn't hurt anyone and we'll be growing it for us and his friends. They're the ones providing us with all the cocaine and ecstasy we could ever want. In the meantime, we'll pray for science to find the AIDS cure, so Ahmed gets better. He deserves it.
Don't worry about money. Ahmed has arranged for me to be in films that his friends Leroy and Jamal make in their flat. Apparently I can earn £50 a scene. I get a £50 bonus if there are more than three men in the scene, and an extra £100 if they use the horse.
Don't worry Mum. Now I'm 15 years old, I know how to take care of myself and Someday I'll visit you and Dad so that you can meet your grandchildren.
Your loving daughter x
P.S.
Dad, it's not true. I'm watching TV at a neighbour's house. I just wanted to show you that there are worse things in life than ENGLAND GETTING BEAT ON F*CK*NG PENALTIES
(And the latest chain letter is...
Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2006 19:58:13 +0100
A father entered his daughter's bedroom and saw a letter on the bed.
With the worst premonition, he read it with trembling hands.........
Dear Mum and Dad,
It is with great regret and sorrow that I'm telling you that I've eloped with my new boyfriend. I've found real love and he is so nice. Especially with all his piercings, scars, tattoos, and is big motorbike. But it's not only that, I'm pregnant, and Ahmed said that we will be very happy in his caravan in the woods. He wants to have many more children with me and that's one of mydreams.
I've learned that marijuana doesn't hurt anyone and we'll be growing it for us and his friends. They're the ones providing us with all the cocaine and ecstasy we could ever want. In the meantime, we'll pray for science to find the AIDS cure, so Ahmed gets better. He deserves it.
Don't worry about money. Ahmed has arranged for me to be in films that his friends Leroy and Jamal make in their flat. Apparently I can earn £50 a scene. I get a £50 bonus if there are more than three men in the scene, and an extra £100 if they use the horse.
Don't worry Mum. Now I'm 15 years old, I know how to take care of myself and Someday I'll visit you and Dad so that you can meet your grandchildren.
Your loving daughter x
P.S.
Dad, it's not true. I'm watching TV at a neighbour's house. I just wanted to show you that there are worse things in life than ENGLAND GETTING BEAT ON F*CK*NG PENALTIES
Friday, July 14, 2006
"Rush:Replay" - the new 3 DVD, 1 CD box set - gets a review here.
It is of course, great, and the fact I must have watched these Videos hundreds of times over the past 15 years has no bearing on my review. In the slightest.
I really love Rush. Ok, I might be a little biased then. Anyway, Was I too gushing in my review? pah, I don't care....
*gets chucked out of the library at closing time*
*sneezes*
Erm...another dull day yesterday. Literally, nothign else to report, except that I watched the original of the omen last night to compare with the remake, and spoke on the phone for a little bit, and that was about it.
Dull as hell, but I was up late , because Mark rang me at gone midnight. he never rings that late, so thats is unusual behaviour, and that makes me worry. Turns out he was just not well, but I do worry though.
Blee. More Decorating tomorrow.
Anyway, here's some unfunny bits from the mailouts of the day:-
i) The top ten brands mentioned in r&b and hip-hop tracks in 2005: Mercedes, Nike, Cadillac, Bentley,Rolls Royce, Hennessy, Chevrolet, Louis Vuitton, Crystal and AK-47
ii)According to the wikipedia entry,Google Trends say that Birmingham is the city that searched searched most for the keyword "porn" in 2005 in the entire world, per total search, that is. Hmmm.
iii)And that steven seagal ad can be watched here
Erm...another dull day yesterday. Literally, nothign else to report, except that I watched the original of the omen last night to compare with the remake, and spoke on the phone for a little bit, and that was about it.
Dull as hell, but I was up late , because Mark rang me at gone midnight. he never rings that late, so thats is unusual behaviour, and that makes me worry. Turns out he was just not well, but I do worry though.
Blee. More Decorating tomorrow.
Anyway, here's some unfunny bits from the mailouts of the day:-
i) The top ten brands mentioned in r&b and hip-hop tracks in 2005: Mercedes, Nike, Cadillac, Bentley,Rolls Royce, Hennessy, Chevrolet, Louis Vuitton, Crystal and AK-47
ii)According to the wikipedia entry,Google Trends say that Birmingham is the city that searched searched most for the keyword "porn" in 2005 in the entire world, per total search, that is. Hmmm.
iii)And that steven seagal ad can be watched here
Thursday, July 13, 2006
It was my father's birthday yesterday.
I didn't get him a card. I did give him a ring. I was the first person he'd spoken to all day, and it was about 9 o'clock in the evening. 21 hours on his birthday, and he hadn't spoken to a soul, or seen the woman he lives with. A lonely life that, as our friends and neighbours turn away, and the days count down, gets lonelier.
I guess it will happen to me one day, but I hope not. It probably will, when I get older. I know I don't have many friends, but I hope they don't desert me in such a callous fashion as that. And thats the rub. You never know. But yet, the music and the movies and the books will never leave, like a little comfort coccoon. Bless, us humans are so easy to please with the trappings of security and consumer goods. Mind you, cars and stuff dont mean a damn thing to me. Give me a good book and a great album instead anyday.
In a slightly lighter moment, here's the news on the video game of Pink Floyd's The Wall. Honestly.
(And a interesting review of the final cut here too. )
I know I moaned about the 2 for 1 ticket prices, but still..it costs 47p to take part of the offer, so not quite so cheap anymore is it? And what if you don't have 47p in your phone? I often don't.
And here's another rubbish link, the greatest error message of all time. At least its a got a ring of truth and bitterness honesty in it!
I didn't get him a card. I did give him a ring. I was the first person he'd spoken to all day, and it was about 9 o'clock in the evening. 21 hours on his birthday, and he hadn't spoken to a soul, or seen the woman he lives with. A lonely life that, as our friends and neighbours turn away, and the days count down, gets lonelier.
I guess it will happen to me one day, but I hope not. It probably will, when I get older. I know I don't have many friends, but I hope they don't desert me in such a callous fashion as that. And thats the rub. You never know. But yet, the music and the movies and the books will never leave, like a little comfort coccoon. Bless, us humans are so easy to please with the trappings of security and consumer goods. Mind you, cars and stuff dont mean a damn thing to me. Give me a good book and a great album instead anyday.
In a slightly lighter moment, here's the news on the video game of Pink Floyd's The Wall. Honestly.
(And a interesting review of the final cut here too. )
I know I moaned about the 2 for 1 ticket prices, but still..it costs 47p to take part of the offer, so not quite so cheap anymore is it? And what if you don't have 47p in your phone? I often don't.
And here's another rubbish link, the greatest error message of all time. At least its a got a ring of truth and
I didn't sleep very well last night. I never do. I always wake up tired, and the traffic was horrific. Someone had abandoned a van right next to a major interchange, queuing traffic down to a single lane.
The fact I didn't sleep well had NOTHING to do with The Omen.. Which isn't that good. Being a pretty much shot for shot remake of the original (Ok,a couple of changes), it just seems exceptionally tame by todays standards. What was once spectacular is now mundane...OK, its got a couple of great sequences,and a fantastic death scene, but overall, its pointless. Devoid of tension, it comes across as cold, calculated, passionless, and pointless, where it should be everything but. However, there's some great casting choices, (Pete Postlewaite as the priest, David Thewliss as the photographer is particularly memorable), but liev Schreiber is cold, emotionless and flat. Actually, he's just replaying his almost identical role in another remake of an old classic - The manchurian Candidate - and hoping no one notices. Sadly, its impossible not to notice. the Same mannerisms, the same haircut, the same everything. Mind you, having said that, there's some really good bits in this, but the overall effect - uninspired, unengaging, but competent and workmanlike - outweigh that. File under unnecessary, but OK. Still, there's some bloody great decapitations and the ilk.(nb: And only one scene on an airplane. Which given the directors obsession with airplanes, is astoundingly restrained.)
Best part of the film was before it.Now, if you go to the cinema regularly, you see the same old Orange Wednesdays advert over and over again.Everytime. I can't remember how many times i've seen the Sean Astin One, so much so I end up mimicking it second for second. Nope, this is a new one. And its the best one I've ever seen.
Its Steven Seagal. Before you know it, we're in chopsocky Karate fights, car chases, exploding golf carts, and a guest appearance from everyones favourite ever on-screen helicopter. (whoops, did I spoil the surprise?)
Actually, its his best movie. Even better than Under Siege 2:Dark Territory. And thats saying a lot, believe me.
And then We wandered aroudn tescos, and i got incredibly, incredibly grumpy. Since midday on Sunday I've slept 19 hours (in over 4 days), and I'm really sorry if I've been in a grump, but I do get tired like everyone does, and when that happens I get irritable, tetchy, and grrr. Sorry. I'm only human, no matter how much more everyone wants me to be.
The fact I didn't sleep well had NOTHING to do with The Omen.. Which isn't that good. Being a pretty much shot for shot remake of the original (Ok,a couple of changes), it just seems exceptionally tame by todays standards. What was once spectacular is now mundane...OK, its got a couple of great sequences,and a fantastic death scene, but overall, its pointless. Devoid of tension, it comes across as cold, calculated, passionless, and pointless, where it should be everything but. However, there's some great casting choices, (Pete Postlewaite as the priest, David Thewliss as the photographer is particularly memorable), but liev Schreiber is cold, emotionless and flat. Actually, he's just replaying his almost identical role in another remake of an old classic - The manchurian Candidate - and hoping no one notices. Sadly, its impossible not to notice. the Same mannerisms, the same haircut, the same everything. Mind you, having said that, there's some really good bits in this, but the overall effect - uninspired, unengaging, but competent and workmanlike - outweigh that. File under unnecessary, but OK. Still, there's some bloody great decapitations and the ilk.(nb: And only one scene on an airplane. Which given the directors obsession with airplanes, is astoundingly restrained.)
Best part of the film was before it.Now, if you go to the cinema regularly, you see the same old Orange Wednesdays advert over and over again.Everytime. I can't remember how many times i've seen the Sean Astin One, so much so I end up mimicking it second for second. Nope, this is a new one. And its the best one I've ever seen.
Its Steven Seagal. Before you know it, we're in chopsocky Karate fights, car chases, exploding golf carts, and a guest appearance from everyones favourite ever on-screen helicopter. (whoops, did I spoil the surprise?)
Actually, its his best movie. Even better than Under Siege 2:Dark Territory. And thats saying a lot, believe me.
And then We wandered aroudn tescos, and i got incredibly, incredibly grumpy. Since midday on Sunday I've slept 19 hours (in over 4 days), and I'm really sorry if I've been in a grump, but I do get tired like everyone does, and when that happens I get irritable, tetchy, and grrr. Sorry. I'm only human, no matter how much more everyone wants me to be.
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Of course, with the forthcoming ID card database (59 pieces of biometric information and counting per person, FYI), there won't be any database issues, it will be completely secure, and certainly won't crash. EVER. So, nothign to worry about then? After all, we all know these things are 100% reliable, and never break down. I mean, if the passports agency is anythign to go by I mean. oh, dear, whoops , erm....
Its funny with the governments dependency upon tehcnological solutions and new fangled interweb access that its easy to forget that a lot of people Don't have access to these things. One of the current trends the government is working at by empowering the consumer and widening their choice by; giving the customer the chance tochoose for themselves their access to services. Which translates as, diversification in the mthod of delivery. Which is great in theory.
In theory. The reality is, disadvantaged people and those on restricted incomes may not be able to fully participate in these. Why? Because these things cost money. Take for example, the fact that they are encouraging people to search for work via the internet and local rate phone numbers.Thats great - 24 hour access to jobs, outside the 9 to 5 opening hours. Great, except for one thing.
If you're signing on, you're getting the bare minimum the government says you need to live on. the bare LEGAL minimum to stop you from hitting the poverty line - Which I'd like to point out, dips beneath that level if they take deductions from you, like social fund or CSA. So How are you going to afford that broadband connection to look for jobs on that little money? How are you going to be able to afford to ring upthe 0845 number at 4p a minute? Hmmm? You Can't, obviously.
Either way, according to their own publications, 60% of jobseekers have the internet at home. That means 40% of them are cut out of this loop by the governments reliance on it as a miracle cure all. There are no figures, incidentally, for how many of them pay their own internet bill, or how many of them share houses with parents, partners, or working people who pay the bill. So, the actual number of people paying for the internet out of their dole is unknown. Which convieniently fudges up the issue of just HOW someone on JSA can afford it. Simply, just don't ask the question.
So, so much for helping the socially disadvantaged. If you don't have access to these services because you can't afford them, well tough luck then, isn't it? And while we're at it, why not phase out and remove the Post Office card Accounts by 2010, which isn't going to help anyone who currently socially excluded. I had enough difficulty sorting out a bank account when I was working, let alone when i was not. But never mind that, just close down the ways of helping out the poor Mr Blair.
Its crazy. its insane. its not empowering the customer by giving them more choice, what it is doing is locking off the access to it by forcing them into routes of access to jobs and benefits in ways they can't afford. After all, if you haven't had any money for 6 weeks from the social, what makes them think you can keep on popping 30p into the phone to ring them up all the time? Where does that money come from, especially when you don't have it? The only option is to walk to your local jobcentre, and that can be five or six miles each way in some places, and then ring from there. Ludicrous.
And its not just the jobseekers and those on income support who suffer. No, there's a whole different catergory.The elderly. People who can't afford a computer, don't know how to use one, are unfamiliar with the intricacies of a 'Unexplained exception error' and if they can't afford these technologies, and don;t know how to use them, the government is effectively forcing them into this route they don't want, don't know how to use, and are beign excluded because this. As the BBC reports, only 28% of people over 65 have the net, and The research also found that more than half of all people over 65 voluntarily excluded themselves from internet access because they see no benefit to the net.
After all, People without access are missing out because of a government that doesn't serve the people, but makes the people serve them; rather than reaching and helping those people to back to work or look at government information, it is making the people reach to us. Sure its not that hard to type in a website address, but as I say, if you can't afford to buya computer or pay for broadband, well, that is harder. And some 40% are excluded from those seeking work, and over 70% of the elderly. And why?
because the government makes the same mistakes as a lot of corporations. Simply because those in the ivory towers of steel and glass on corporate budgets can afford to swamp bandwidth with flash animations, and the little guy does not simply always have that access. But because THEY have it, they assume everyone else has. And with more government services, including benefits, being offered online, its all too easy to leave behind those who need the help the most.And as one says "There is a real risk that technology won't reach the most excluded and as a result we will see more instead of less digital exclusion," . And how is that helping anyone, except for tony Balir to make soundbites about how we are empowering the customer and giving them more choice.
How are we giving them more choice by taking that choice away? How are we empowering them by removing their access to benefits and services?
Anyway we slice it, we're not, Mr. Blair. How can you answer that? Who do you think you're kidding, Mr. new Labour?
Not me, I'll tell you that. not me.
Its funny with the governments dependency upon tehcnological solutions and new fangled interweb access that its easy to forget that a lot of people Don't have access to these things. One of the current trends the government is working at by empowering the consumer and widening their choice by; giving the customer the chance tochoose for themselves their access to services. Which translates as, diversification in the mthod of delivery. Which is great in theory.
In theory. The reality is, disadvantaged people and those on restricted incomes may not be able to fully participate in these. Why? Because these things cost money. Take for example, the fact that they are encouraging people to search for work via the internet and local rate phone numbers.Thats great - 24 hour access to jobs, outside the 9 to 5 opening hours. Great, except for one thing.
If you're signing on, you're getting the bare minimum the government says you need to live on. the bare LEGAL minimum to stop you from hitting the poverty line - Which I'd like to point out, dips beneath that level if they take deductions from you, like social fund or CSA. So How are you going to afford that broadband connection to look for jobs on that little money? How are you going to be able to afford to ring upthe 0845 number at 4p a minute? Hmmm? You Can't, obviously.
Either way, according to their own publications, 60% of jobseekers have the internet at home. That means 40% of them are cut out of this loop by the governments reliance on it as a miracle cure all. There are no figures, incidentally, for how many of them pay their own internet bill, or how many of them share houses with parents, partners, or working people who pay the bill. So, the actual number of people paying for the internet out of their dole is unknown. Which convieniently fudges up the issue of just HOW someone on JSA can afford it. Simply, just don't ask the question.
So, so much for helping the socially disadvantaged. If you don't have access to these services because you can't afford them, well tough luck then, isn't it? And while we're at it, why not phase out and remove the Post Office card Accounts by 2010, which isn't going to help anyone who currently socially excluded. I had enough difficulty sorting out a bank account when I was working, let alone when i was not. But never mind that, just close down the ways of helping out the poor Mr Blair.
Its crazy. its insane. its not empowering the customer by giving them more choice, what it is doing is locking off the access to it by forcing them into routes of access to jobs and benefits in ways they can't afford. After all, if you haven't had any money for 6 weeks from the social, what makes them think you can keep on popping 30p into the phone to ring them up all the time? Where does that money come from, especially when you don't have it? The only option is to walk to your local jobcentre, and that can be five or six miles each way in some places, and then ring from there. Ludicrous.
And its not just the jobseekers and those on income support who suffer. No, there's a whole different catergory.The elderly. People who can't afford a computer, don't know how to use one, are unfamiliar with the intricacies of a 'Unexplained exception error' and if they can't afford these technologies, and don;t know how to use them, the government is effectively forcing them into this route they don't want, don't know how to use, and are beign excluded because this. As the BBC reports, only 28% of people over 65 have the net, and The research also found that more than half of all people over 65 voluntarily excluded themselves from internet access because they see no benefit to the net.
After all, People without access are missing out because of a government that doesn't serve the people, but makes the people serve them; rather than reaching and helping those people to back to work or look at government information, it is making the people reach to us. Sure its not that hard to type in a website address, but as I say, if you can't afford to buya computer or pay for broadband, well, that is harder. And some 40% are excluded from those seeking work, and over 70% of the elderly. And why?
because the government makes the same mistakes as a lot of corporations. Simply because those in the ivory towers of steel and glass on corporate budgets can afford to swamp bandwidth with flash animations, and the little guy does not simply always have that access. But because THEY have it, they assume everyone else has. And with more government services, including benefits, being offered online, its all too easy to leave behind those who need the help the most.And as one says "There is a real risk that technology won't reach the most excluded and as a result we will see more instead of less digital exclusion," . And how is that helping anyone, except for tony Balir to make soundbites about how we are empowering the customer and giving them more choice.
How are we giving them more choice by taking that choice away? How are we empowering them by removing their access to benefits and services?
Anyway we slice it, we're not, Mr. Blair. How can you answer that? Who do you think you're kidding, Mr. new Labour?
Not me, I'll tell you that. not me.
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
At pain of being repetitive and going banging on about things, I was incredibly tired last night.The four hours sleep the night before had something to do with it, I'm sure, and Im sorry to everyone I inconvenienced about that, especially when i was getting grumpy and getting hard drive crashes on the phone just before I went to bed, which was a quite early bedtime for me. I was being a bit...erm...duh. Exactly. Its nothing a good long nights sleep didn't sort out, which would have been even better if it hadn't been interrupted by something called morning. How inconvienient.
Nitzer Ebb were great. I was about to start a review, and then mark put one up. Collobs. (TM, my own swear box). But there again, the beat was pouding and relentless, the room dark and humid, and I was surrounded by lots of sweaty , bald, halfnaked men getting all physical, rubbing their bodies against each other. And you wonder why people you get the wrong impression about the ebb, eh? Hmmm. The focus of attention on a short, squat, bald man doing physical movements and a tall, lean man in uniform wearing jodphurs meant, of course, that any misconceptions you may have are even more astouding. lord knows why Doug from the ebb seemed to concentrating on doing his best impression of someone in Velvet revolver though.
And here's a damn fine article about ID Cards, courtesy of Henry Porter. CLICKY LINKY
Oh, and lets contrast and compare the following, shall we?
The new pink floyd dvd
Woolworths 20.97
HMV 19.99
virgin 19.99
Music zone 17.97
Sainsburys 17.99
and...
Amazon jersey 12.99 delivered. No wonder the high street retailers complain they are gettign a bashing, eh?mmmm.
No one comments anymore, do they? Bah.
Nitzer Ebb were great. I was about to start a review, and then mark put one up. Collobs. (TM, my own swear box). But there again, the beat was pouding and relentless, the room dark and humid, and I was surrounded by lots of sweaty , bald, halfnaked men getting all physical, rubbing their bodies against each other. And you wonder why people you get the wrong impression about the ebb, eh? Hmmm. The focus of attention on a short, squat, bald man doing physical movements and a tall, lean man in uniform wearing jodphurs meant, of course, that any misconceptions you may have are even more astouding. lord knows why Doug from the ebb seemed to concentrating on doing his best impression of someone in Velvet revolver though.
And here's a damn fine article about ID Cards, courtesy of Henry Porter. CLICKY LINKY
Oh, and lets contrast and compare the following, shall we?
The new pink floyd dvd
Woolworths 20.97
HMV 19.99
virgin 19.99
Music zone 17.97
Sainsburys 17.99
and...
Amazon jersey 12.99 delivered. No wonder the high street retailers complain they are gettign a bashing, eh?mmmm.
No one comments anymore, do they? Bah.
Monday, July 10, 2006
As stolen from elsewhere....
Pick 10 bands you really like. Do it now before reading on. Mine are
1.Pink Floyd
2.Whipping boy
3.Younger Younger 28s
4.The Wonderstuff
5.U2
6.Kiss
7.Rush
8.Iron maiden
9.Metallica
10.Nitzer Ebb
and then answer the questions.
What was the first song you ever heard by 6? Crazy Crazy Nights. On the long dead Chart Show, ITV, 12.30 on a saturday morning. its still utter cheesball nonsense, but were Kiss anything but?
What is your favourite album of 8? Live After Death; "SCREAM FOR ME, BLOGGERS! SCREAM FOR ME, THE INTERNET!"
What is your favourite lyric of 5? the entire of Achtung Baby. "You lied to me, because I sked you to; baby, can we still be friends?"
How many times have you seen 4 live? Eighteen times. (Pigeon park 1990, Birmingham AVLC 1994 (x2), Phoenix festival 1994, Dudley December 2000 (x2), london Dec 2000 (x5), London June 2001, Nottingham 2001,Wolverhampton 2001 (x2), Birmingham 2005 (instore), London 2005 , Birmingham (instore) 2006. Never again though . They were brilliant, but somethings missing for me now.
What is your favourite song by 7? The years 1980-1990. And 'Prime Mover'. (No, not the same as the one by Zodiac Mindwarp).
Is there a song of 3 that makes you sad? Impossible. Every single one is a pop nugget of forgotten gold.
What is your favourite lyric of 9? 'And it all crashes down, And you break your crown,And you point your finger....But there's no one around; Where's your crown, King Nothing?'. Its either that or "Die, Die, Die, motherfugger!" ( from the live versions Of Creeping Death, with Jayson).
What is your favourite song by 1? "Coming Back to Life" or "nobody Home"
How did you get into 8? First band I ever loved. Blame Chris Evans.(No, not that one)
What is your favourite song by 4? Right now? "unbearable". But they have millions I love.
How many times have you seen 1 live? In name, once, at live8. In reality , twice, inclduing the guets appearance at the Royal Albert hall a month ago. Astounding. I wept like a baby, both times.
What is a good memory concerning 2? Seeing them live. You'll never see them again.
Is there a song by 2 that makes you sad? The entire album, because they split up about 10 years ago. incredible, brilliant, underrated. Its the best album U2 and radiohead never made. And the best songs are all of them on that album. I can't recommend it highly enough. Still eleven years on, Im amazed by how good it is. ( I wrote a review here, btw)
What is your favourite song of 6? "Do You love me" or "Cmon and Love me". Ludicrously dumb and fun.
How did you become a fan of 10? mark took me to a gig, and it was completley unlike what I expected. I expected to see a band like depeche mode, but I got something heavy, intense, in your face and a moshpit bordering on the Murderous. Which from a bunch of synthpop guys, was a huge surprise. And then he lent me the records...
back to work...
Pick 10 bands you really like. Do it now before reading on. Mine are
1.Pink Floyd
2.Whipping boy
3.Younger Younger 28s
4.The Wonderstuff
5.U2
6.Kiss
7.Rush
8.Iron maiden
9.Metallica
10.Nitzer Ebb
and then answer the questions.
What was the first song you ever heard by 6? Crazy Crazy Nights. On the long dead Chart Show, ITV, 12.30 on a saturday morning. its still utter cheesball nonsense, but were Kiss anything but?
What is your favourite album of 8? Live After Death; "SCREAM FOR ME, BLOGGERS! SCREAM FOR ME, THE INTERNET!"
What is your favourite lyric of 5? the entire of Achtung Baby. "You lied to me, because I sked you to; baby, can we still be friends?"
How many times have you seen 4 live? Eighteen times. (Pigeon park 1990, Birmingham AVLC 1994 (x2), Phoenix festival 1994, Dudley December 2000 (x2), london Dec 2000 (x5), London June 2001, Nottingham 2001,Wolverhampton 2001 (x2), Birmingham 2005 (instore), London 2005 , Birmingham (instore) 2006. Never again though . They were brilliant, but somethings missing for me now.
What is your favourite song by 7? The years 1980-1990. And 'Prime Mover'. (No, not the same as the one by Zodiac Mindwarp).
Is there a song of 3 that makes you sad? Impossible. Every single one is a pop nugget of forgotten gold.
What is your favourite lyric of 9? 'And it all crashes down, And you break your crown,And you point your finger....But there's no one around; Where's your crown, King Nothing?'. Its either that or "Die, Die, Die, motherfugger!" ( from the live versions Of Creeping Death, with Jayson).
What is your favourite song by 1? "Coming Back to Life" or "nobody Home"
How did you get into 8? First band I ever loved. Blame Chris Evans.(No, not that one)
What is your favourite song by 4? Right now? "unbearable". But they have millions I love.
How many times have you seen 1 live? In name, once, at live8. In reality , twice, inclduing the guets appearance at the Royal Albert hall a month ago. Astounding. I wept like a baby, both times.
What is a good memory concerning 2? Seeing them live. You'll never see them again.
Is there a song by 2 that makes you sad? The entire album, because they split up about 10 years ago. incredible, brilliant, underrated. Its the best album U2 and radiohead never made. And the best songs are all of them on that album. I can't recommend it highly enough. Still eleven years on, Im amazed by how good it is. ( I wrote a review here, btw)
What is your favourite song of 6? "Do You love me" or "Cmon and Love me". Ludicrously dumb and fun.
How did you become a fan of 10? mark took me to a gig, and it was completley unlike what I expected. I expected to see a band like depeche mode, but I got something heavy, intense, in your face and a moshpit bordering on the Murderous. Which from a bunch of synthpop guys, was a huge surprise. And then he lent me the records...
back to work...
yes, I am tired. i got back at 3AM. And I couldnt sleep until just after 4, when it was getting light outside. So When i got up late (ie twenty past eight!), I rushed into work and finally made it.So all in all, thats about just over four hours or so sleep, interruptions aside.
But made it I did.Last night, was in london watching Nitzer Ebb play england for the first time since 1995 (well, thats the reformation tour for you), and very good it was too. In a shouty clangy industrial noisy way. But very nostalgic, if nothing else. Had a lovely dinner with Bob and Rachel, got a lift down, saw Chris G for the first time in a decade, came back, talked rubbish. Good days.
So much time has passed, yet it is like none has passed at all.
I might go home straight to bed tonight. I'm Bloody knackered!
G
But made it I did.Last night, was in london watching Nitzer Ebb play england for the first time since 1995 (well, thats the reformation tour for you), and very good it was too. In a shouty clangy industrial noisy way. But very nostalgic, if nothing else. Had a lovely dinner with Bob and Rachel, got a lift down, saw Chris G for the first time in a decade, came back, talked rubbish. Good days.
So much time has passed, yet it is like none has passed at all.
I might go home straight to bed tonight. I'm Bloody knackered!
G
As we grow older, it seems like everyone is having children. Everyone. Even me. Just reeling off the (smallish) list of my friends (Close and extended), Most of them seem to be reaching that time of life when birthing and becoming a parent is happening. I suppose, statistically speaking, the longer you go on, the more likely you are to have had a child. Which whilstit may sound bloody obvious, it is just the ways things are. The more time goes by, the more likely things are to happen. Which is why in the past 2 years, seven of my friends (Me, My brother, mark R, Chris L, Chris G,Andy A, Ross K, and yesterday Paula B, to name but a couple) have become parents.
Life is fragile and precious, especially when you are born seven weeks early at only 4lbs 10, like Paula B's. Sometimes its easy to take for granted until something like that happens and you're reminded of that. But yesterday when I found out about a friend giving birth a few days before and who spent two weeks in hospital recovering, and another friend doing the baby announcement a few hours later, it just hammers it home.When we were young, nobody died, and nobody grew older...,
Now, We're getting old and life is passing us by, day by day, minute by minute. Mortgages, Marriages and materity, thats the future for some of us.Bobs getting married next month, and these things are all comign to pass. I'm not 18 anymore. Hell, I'm closer to 40 than I am to 25. How about that for the onset of time? yet I can go back 10 years and still remember how old I felt then, seeing all the young un's going out and feeling disconnected from the scene, like a fogey. Now I am even worse than I was then.
The future is an unwritten book, but right now it seems to be a copy of 'How to grow up at last in your mid thirties, settle down and spawn' or something.
Time is marching on like an invading army, and I can't fight it. No amount of botox and bank loans and vanity will make me stay young. I don't want to, I want to embrace my life as it is. Don't fight it, feel it.
"A man who views the world the same at fifty as he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life. " - Muhammed Ali.
Life is fragile and precious, especially when you are born seven weeks early at only 4lbs 10, like Paula B's. Sometimes its easy to take for granted until something like that happens and you're reminded of that. But yesterday when I found out about a friend giving birth a few days before and who spent two weeks in hospital recovering, and another friend doing the baby announcement a few hours later, it just hammers it home.When we were young, nobody died, and nobody grew older...,
Now, We're getting old and life is passing us by, day by day, minute by minute. Mortgages, Marriages and materity, thats the future for some of us.Bobs getting married next month, and these things are all comign to pass. I'm not 18 anymore. Hell, I'm closer to 40 than I am to 25. How about that for the onset of time? yet I can go back 10 years and still remember how old I felt then, seeing all the young un's going out and feeling disconnected from the scene, like a fogey. Now I am even worse than I was then.
The future is an unwritten book, but right now it seems to be a copy of 'How to grow up at last in your mid thirties, settle down and spawn' or something.
Time is marching on like an invading army, and I can't fight it. No amount of botox and bank loans and vanity will make me stay young. I don't want to, I want to embrace my life as it is. Don't fight it, feel it.
"A man who views the world the same at fifty as he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life. " - Muhammed Ali.
Sunday, July 09, 2006
I'm at bobs. And watching TV, waiting for his mate chris to arrive so we can head off to London. It will be a late night and an early morning, and tomorrow will be a difficult day Im sure of it. And at the end of it I will be grumpy and tired and irritable and I wouldnt want to wish that on anyone. Even though Im supposed to be seeing Becca, I don't want to be grumpy with her. But how could I? Im so proud of her. Bless, Im gushing aren't i?
Saturday was dull, though I had a bath and did some food shopping and wandered around town and went to the library and got out a couple of books to dip in and out of of interviews and stuff like that, and then I came home and listened to music and started reorganising some stufff from boxes.pretty dull, actually.
I am the most boring guy in the world.
Oh, congrats to my friend Paula (no, not someone you might know from wonderstuff gigs) who had a baby boy a couple of weeks ago too.Seven weeks early by emergency Ceaesarian, and only 4lbs 10, though now down to 4lbs 2, which is never a good sign at all.I'm really worried about that, actually. Oh well, fingers crossed.
Seems like everyone is having babies nowadays, isn't it? Must be that time of life. Thirty something. Or is it thirty someone? I don't know. But as we get older, its more statistically likely to happen. And a child is the most important person in the world. Mine is to me anyway, coz Becca rocks.
Oh, shuddit graham, you're babbling.....
Saturday was dull, though I had a bath and did some food shopping and wandered around town and went to the library and got out a couple of books to dip in and out of of interviews and stuff like that, and then I came home and listened to music and started reorganising some stufff from boxes.pretty dull, actually.
I am the most boring guy in the world.
Oh, congrats to my friend Paula (no, not someone you might know from wonderstuff gigs) who had a baby boy a couple of weeks ago too.Seven weeks early by emergency Ceaesarian, and only 4lbs 10, though now down to 4lbs 2, which is never a good sign at all.I'm really worried about that, actually. Oh well, fingers crossed.
Seems like everyone is having babies nowadays, isn't it? Must be that time of life. Thirty something. Or is it thirty someone? I don't know. But as we get older, its more statistically likely to happen. And a child is the most important person in the world. Mine is to me anyway, coz Becca rocks.
Oh, shuddit graham, you're babbling.....
Saturday, July 08, 2006
i) Men to lose battle with robots, Future machines win, Women unaffected though.
ii)The rather fascinating Spy Blog
iii)Busy day goign to home improvement centres, supermarkets, libraries and greasy spoons planned. Waistline increases are possible. Future updates may be sporadic, due to intake of fatty foods and general
Snakes on a plane, man. Snakes on a plane. I mean, After the great poster below, how about this new one here for maximum suckiness? Its a load of asp!
G
Friday, July 07, 2006
EDIT:
Quick post to replace the now redundant one, now thats Ive rescued tyhe post about Le Serpens avec l'Avon!
Talking of french films, I Watched Rivières pourpres II - Les anges de l'apocalypse, Les (Aka Crimson Rivers II: Angels of the Apocalypse) too. Pretty good, but pretty ludicrous in places. Stars JEAN RENO as a Parisian police detective investigating a string of ritualistic murders of secretive religious figures who are part of secretive sect, an order of religious followers who are not what they say they are, and a mysterious religious secret which could certainly undo the power of the catholic church. Made in 2003, and therefore not at all like the Da Vinci Code (published April 2003) then. Not In the slightest, honest (though a good page on Davinci Code can be found here, btw).
No, this is actually quite interesting, not a two hour plus snooze fest with a mulleted version of that guy from Splash.Well paced and in places even quite good. (The martial arts action is a bit jumpy, but the gunfight in the tunnels at the end is seriously, one of the most impressively visual gunfights I've ever seen.Incredibly well done, and extremely visual). Sadly, the dubbing is a bit rubbish though - the subtitles are translations of the original french script, and the dubbing chosen to match the lip movements a little closer. So there's some glaring errors in parts. (A Week becomes a month, and a joke about ground beef becomes a joke about why are 6 and 7 afraid of 9?).
There's a pretty good review here , and it makes the point that just a few hints of Hellboy in the movie too. Sadly , it just needed another rewrite to make the plot make coherent sense, and it would hae been much much better. But still, pretty good, and as the original didn't make to much sense either, Its not that bad. But you know that the film company have given up on the entire of America and England when they don;t even bother redoing the title credits into English for foreign release, which smacks of cheap not-bothered release. Which is a shame because it deserves so much better. (And the two hours of making of documentaries are pretty interesting too, but completely subtitled as are in french).
Anyway...
Quick post to replace the now redundant one, now thats Ive rescued tyhe post about Le Serpens avec l'Avon!
Talking of french films, I Watched Rivières pourpres II - Les anges de l'apocalypse, Les (Aka Crimson Rivers II: Angels of the Apocalypse) too. Pretty good, but pretty ludicrous in places. Stars JEAN RENO as a Parisian police detective investigating a string of ritualistic murders of secretive religious figures who are part of secretive sect, an order of religious followers who are not what they say they are, and a mysterious religious secret which could certainly undo the power of the catholic church. Made in 2003, and therefore not at all like the Da Vinci Code (published April 2003) then. Not In the slightest, honest (though a good page on Davinci Code can be found here, btw).
No, this is actually quite interesting, not a two hour plus snooze fest with a mulleted version of that guy from Splash.Well paced and in places even quite good. (The martial arts action is a bit jumpy, but the gunfight in the tunnels at the end is seriously, one of the most impressively visual gunfights I've ever seen.Incredibly well done, and extremely visual). Sadly, the dubbing is a bit rubbish though - the subtitles are translations of the original french script, and the dubbing chosen to match the lip movements a little closer. So there's some glaring errors in parts. (A Week becomes a month, and a joke about ground beef becomes a joke about why are 6 and 7 afraid of 9?).
There's a pretty good review here , and it makes the point that just a few hints of Hellboy in the movie too. Sadly , it just needed another rewrite to make the plot make coherent sense, and it would hae been much much better. But still, pretty good, and as the original didn't make to much sense either, Its not that bad. But you know that the film company have given up on the entire of America and England when they don;t even bother redoing the title credits into English for foreign release, which smacks of cheap not-bothered release. Which is a shame because it deserves so much better. (And the two hours of making of documentaries are pretty interesting too, but completely subtitled as are in french).
Anyway...
Sacre Bleu! Des Serpens Avec L'Avion!
tired. Will be even more tired after the weekend. monday will be a bitch of a day. Sunday Im away and returning early in the morning, at stupid o clock, and i usspect monday evening all i will do is come home and go to bed. But its the day the pink floyd dvd is out, and ive been waiting about 12 years for a decent audio dupe of a single concert from that tour, because the pulse cd is shite, so buggered am i, oh yes?
last night? dull. walked around town and came home. fell asleep, chatted on phone, pottered around.
Tomorrow? Dull too. Might be going out, not sure yet. Probably not, though.
I so gotta watch that. Snake on a muthafuggin plane? Thats so gonna rock, man.
tired. Will be even more tired after the weekend. monday will be a bitch of a day. Sunday Im away and returning early in the morning, at stupid o clock, and i usspect monday evening all i will do is come home and go to bed. But its the day the pink floyd dvd is out, and ive been waiting about 12 years for a decent audio dupe of a single concert from that tour, because the pulse cd is shite, so buggered am i, oh yes?
last night? dull. walked around town and came home. fell asleep, chatted on phone, pottered around.
Tomorrow? Dull too. Might be going out, not sure yet. Probably not, though.
I so gotta watch that. Snake on a muthafuggin plane? Thats so gonna rock, man.
Thursday, July 06, 2006
Last night we went to see...Ultraviolet. From the direcotr of the much underrated and excellent Equilbrium, I would love to say that tfilm was, despite the generally poor reviews,a piece of kick-ass sci-fi.
I can't. because I didn't watch it. The screening had been cancelled and well, we couldnt see it because of that. Fact that it only opewned last week and is only on one showing a day does not bode well for watching it. Instead, the only thing we could find worth watching - and it was a very exhausting run to see it - was Hard Candy.
hard candy is erm.. interesting,. very very good, very interesting, and very well done. but exceptionally, extremely uncomfortable, with scenes of prolonged and sadistic torture. It all starts in an internet chatroom, but after that? Well, I can recommend it very highly, because it is taut, tense, and un nerving, but I cant say I enjoyed it much. because no light hearted, popcorn munchign blockbuster is this. Think The best comparison is something like One Hour Photo meets American Psycho. With balls.(Or without, depending on what really happens with that bag of ice)
I am reading this . Funny, especially for parents.
Back tomorrow.
I can't. because I didn't watch it. The screening had been cancelled and well, we couldnt see it because of that. Fact that it only opewned last week and is only on one showing a day does not bode well for watching it. Instead, the only thing we could find worth watching - and it was a very exhausting run to see it - was Hard Candy.
hard candy is erm.. interesting,. very very good, very interesting, and very well done. but exceptionally, extremely uncomfortable, with scenes of prolonged and sadistic torture. It all starts in an internet chatroom, but after that? Well, I can recommend it very highly, because it is taut, tense, and un nerving, but I cant say I enjoyed it much. because no light hearted, popcorn munchign blockbuster is this. Think The best comparison is something like One Hour Photo meets American Psycho. With balls.(Or without, depending on what really happens with that bag of ice)
I am reading this . Funny, especially for parents.
Back tomorrow.
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
Well, saw becca yesterday. She was so happy and just wanted to play, all over this big daddy-shaped climbing frame in the living room. And then she kept on taking my glasses off and sticking her little fingerprints all over it, and then giggling. bless her. And THEN she tried to do a jigsaw puzzle the hard way, which mainly involved trying to throw all the pieces out the box, exploring the world around the sid eof the sofa, dancing to music, and standing around by the sofa and laughing and smiling.
All she wants to do is explore and learn and play in a world full of new and interesting things. I sometimes wish i could still have that joy in amongst all the drudge of the daily grind. (Say Hello to the Grind! as it said on the back of that can of energy drink yesterday. Damn freaky stuff)
I know I didn't really accept the mantle of becoming a father very well, not at first. It was a shock and something I had difficulty with. I'd never been a father before. I didn't find it easy to get used to, this change in life. I didn't just change like a lightswitch. No one does. And It would be foolish to pretend I did. Or for anyone to pretend they did, just LIKE THAT. But I am trying to do good now, whatever mistakes I've made in the past. We've all made mistakes, but not every one is continually berated for them for the rest of their lives by others from their high castles. So what If I've made mistakes: Are you telling me you never have? Really?
Ultimately, the most important thing there is the relationship I have with Becca. And I think Its pretty good. Especially when she keeps on being such a wonder, and I just sit in tears watching her play because I love her so much. *awwwww* (I know, im such a soppy git)
Do I go on about being a dad too much? I don't know. All I know is thats shes the most important person in the whole world.
All she wants to do is explore and learn and play in a world full of new and interesting things. I sometimes wish i could still have that joy in amongst all the drudge of the daily grind. (Say Hello to the Grind! as it said on the back of that can of energy drink yesterday. Damn freaky stuff)
I know I didn't really accept the mantle of becoming a father very well, not at first. It was a shock and something I had difficulty with. I'd never been a father before. I didn't find it easy to get used to, this change in life. I didn't just change like a lightswitch. No one does. And It would be foolish to pretend I did. Or for anyone to pretend they did, just LIKE THAT. But I am trying to do good now, whatever mistakes I've made in the past. We've all made mistakes, but not every one is continually berated for them for the rest of their lives by others from their high castles. So what If I've made mistakes: Are you telling me you never have? Really?
Ultimately, the most important thing there is the relationship I have with Becca. And I think Its pretty good. Especially when she keeps on being such a wonder, and I just sit in tears watching her play because I love her so much. *awwwww* (I know, im such a soppy git)
Do I go on about being a dad too much? I don't know. All I know is thats shes the most important person in the whole world.
Tuesday, July 04, 2006
the quest for mad energy drinks continues...
With Relentless . Bottled under licence from the Coca Cola Company, sold in a 500ml can the same size and dark brown colour as a cheap bitter, and with a crazy mistranslated mission statement on the side that would be worthy of appearing on Japlish.
"Even genius has to pay its dues.
Its Goodbye to the shortcuts, Hello to the Grind
Nobody ever said it would be an easy ride.
So, Push more, Risk More, Feel More.
How Much is Just a question of Courage.
A Matter of Heart"
All that AND 160mg of caffeine. Strewth. Maybe my boss thinks im drinking lager at work with that can.
Its the sort of nonsense, non sequential, unconnected english that even a spammer would be ashamed of writing.I mean, 'Hello To the grind'? thats hardly a sales pitch to me. Its like writing "Welcome to Pain' and 'Intense suffering awaits you, Sinner!' on a pack of refreshers. Whats next , 'Mr Sparkle is disrespectful to dirt?'
Hmmm. mad crazy energy drinks rule our world. Can you imagine a world without taurine? I wish
With Relentless . Bottled under licence from the Coca Cola Company, sold in a 500ml can the same size and dark brown colour as a cheap bitter, and with a crazy mistranslated mission statement on the side that would be worthy of appearing on Japlish.
"Even genius has to pay its dues.
Its Goodbye to the shortcuts, Hello to the Grind
Nobody ever said it would be an easy ride.
So, Push more, Risk More, Feel More.
How Much is Just a question of Courage.
A Matter of Heart"
All that AND 160mg of caffeine. Strewth. Maybe my boss thinks im drinking lager at work with that can.
Its the sort of nonsense, non sequential, unconnected english that even a spammer would be ashamed of writing.I mean, 'Hello To the grind'? thats hardly a sales pitch to me. Its like writing "Welcome to Pain' and 'Intense suffering awaits you, Sinner!' on a pack of refreshers. Whats next , 'Mr Sparkle is disrespectful to dirt?'
Hmmm. mad crazy energy drinks rule our world. Can you imagine a world without taurine? I wish
Bloody hell, its hot. Really hot.
I think Im going to live in the fridge this summer, how about you?
Had a good phone call last night. I can't describe how I felt afterwards except as , well, a little relieved. Its not what you might think it is. But it was some vaguely good news which cheered me up a little. In a good way.
off to see becca tonight. I don't think she likes the heat. Can't blame her. I don't.
And yes, i did listen to RUSH last night. I really do need to listen to the CD Shuffle item though, thanks to kaptainkorbold!
I think Im going to live in the fridge this summer, how about you?
Had a good phone call last night. I can't describe how I felt afterwards except as , well, a little relieved. Its not what you might think it is. But it was some vaguely good news which cheered me up a little. In a good way.
off to see becca tonight. I don't think she likes the heat. Can't blame her. I don't.
And yes, i did listen to RUSH last night. I really do need to listen to the CD Shuffle item though, thanks to kaptainkorbold!
Monday, July 03, 2006
Later in the pub, It turns out I'm early enough to get a drink in first before anyone else turns up. Which they don't. Its only my mate Nic. Great. Its my birthday and I can't get anyone out except for one person. Looks like its gonna be a wash out. But Nic sees someone she went to school with on another table and we go over. Next thing we know, we're shitchatting for ages. A wider circle of friends comes along. None of them I know, but one looks vaguely familiar. Oh yes, one of our clients who comes into my work. I remembered he had a Nine inch nails shirt on when he came in the other day. Little things like that you remember.
After discussing the various topics that always ensue in the pub after a couple of pints - in this case it turns out to involve discussion of burning down Norweigan churches back in the good old days of 1993, and why it won't work in places like Wolverhampton. Mainly because Norwegian churches are made of Wood, and well, British churches erm... aren't. Stone isn't quite as flammable, you see. Oh, that and the fact that Henry VII burned a lot of them because he couldn't keep his cock in his pants either. Then talk turns to religion. organised religion.
"Well, I have a problem with organised religion because when I have had a run in with it when i was married" I say.
"You're older than I thought, then, if you were married", says one of Nics friends.
"Depends, how old did you think I was then?" I ask.
"24" She says.
Bless. I'm 33.
Somehow after many a discussion of how most porn is really just about male bonding and how they should just dispense with the women and start bumming each other - ( after all, when you see naked guys in close proximity to each other high fiving each other, you begin to wonder why they don't start high fiving their on-camera fucksluts too) , we proceed onward to the club. I haven't been to this one in a while, but everyone else here is going and it is my birthday. We walk in and I pick up a flyer, get the money off, and go in. its about as packed as it was for the Karl Bartos gig, which judging by the counters that goes up everytime someone pays in , is about 400.
Upstairs is closed off, downstairs fairly thin but active. The music is the thing, after all, but there's a lot of stuff I don't really know. This is the peril of having friends quite a bit younger than you but also at the same time, being convinced that they stopped making good music in the year 2000. After all, I know how entrenched I am sometimes, and well, I don't see anything new I haven't already seen before. I see new bands coming up, and I really just don't care anymore. I've seen it all before. I remember the great britpop wars, I remember the camden scene and the crusties, so forgive me if I don't go fucking doolally over every new band that shits itself into existence, or every bloody scene invented to sell fucking copies of the NME and the Guardian. I see where all these bands are coming from, I see their blatant influences and I tell you? So, You think you're some tortured artist with problems? It don't impress me much. After all, I remember Kurt Cobain, you lightweights. Come back when you've overdosed Mr Doherty, then we'll see how for real you are.
*rant over*
Anyway, I just prefer the old shit. I know I'm getting old too, but that's the law of entropy. Of change over time. I get less impressed by hearing the new shit nowadays. It sounds too derivative. Thats mainly because I remember who they are trying to rip off from the odl days. Music moves in cycles, in generations, of about seven years. Unless you can reinvent yourself every time you tour , seven years is about all youve got. By then a new generation of people has coem up, to whom they've never known a world without you. By then, you're one of the old school bands. Old hat. And there's always someone younger, better looking, and with sexier songs than you. You become consigned to the dustbin of more selective audiences, Spinal tap stylee, as you begin to be seen as unhip and as your audience has to pay for car insurances and mortgages once they move out of their parents at last. Its just the way it is. The wheel spins around again once more.
I walk around. Do a circuit. I drink. I dance. I see the casualties of the moshpit taken off to the medical room. In the middle of the room people fight. The rush at each other at speed, and fall over, sending people flying, hitting the floor, and then the survivors laugh and mosh, oblivious to the damage they've caused. On the floor two feet away is a girl, who got knocked down by a flying mosher. Hit at an angle, she hit the floor at speed. Hit the steel barrier at the front of the stage, straight down, propelled by a burly idiot drunk on the majesty of rock. Imagine having a metal lump hit your head at speed from six feet away. She's unconscious. Security swarm in and take her out to recover. And the idiots are still dancing, uncaring and oblivious.
I decide best thing to do is go back to the people I met earlier in the pub. The most amazing thing to me about this is no matter how old I feel, they don't care. They just accept me for who I am. No matter how out of place I am, I don't feel out of place. Even If I don't know the words or what the songs are, (they all have that vaguely nagging sense of familiarity that is along the lines of 'I should know this but....'). They just think of me as someone similar to themselves. Even if I do often mistake them for people about my age and get their ages all wrong. Even if I do end up dancing with girls I've never met before and having a great time, before shying away with insecurity and nervousness. Even if I do fall totally flat on my ass doing a windmilling air guitar solo during AC/DCs 'Back In black'.
Its very theraputic, though totally absurd, is playing air guitar in public. Though I promised not to inflict it on anyone, its is damn fun, and very childish. Thing is, I don't think I've ever totally grown up either.I do try to retain a little bit of that childish joy and wonder in my life, lest the adult world suck the living soul right out of me, which is maybe why I love it when becca takes me for little walks. But how childish and stupid it looks doesn't matter. not at all. What matters is the moment, the feeling of release. Of letting go, of leaving it all behind for a little while. (Good God, Graham, have you finally learned how to actually enjoy yourself for a change?)
Actually, I did enjoy myself. A Lot. A hell of a lot. Damn, I got some wicked style. What was I waiting for?
The night bus, thats what I waiting for. Had a damn good time though. Like I haven't had in a long time. But my feet hurt like hell. The music? I didn't know most of it. That which I did know was in that mildly ironic Its so crap, Its great, so lets rock camp, and I didn't care.(Btw, that was Europes The final countdown, during which it was air keyboards, ok?) .
I'm growing old. I'm growing older. I'll never be young again. But I don't care. I had a great night.
After discussing the various topics that always ensue in the pub after a couple of pints - in this case it turns out to involve discussion of burning down Norweigan churches back in the good old days of 1993, and why it won't work in places like Wolverhampton. Mainly because Norwegian churches are made of Wood, and well, British churches erm... aren't. Stone isn't quite as flammable, you see. Oh, that and the fact that Henry VII burned a lot of them because he couldn't keep his cock in his pants either. Then talk turns to religion. organised religion.
"Well, I have a problem with organised religion because when I have had a run in with it when i was married" I say.
"You're older than I thought, then, if you were married", says one of Nics friends.
"Depends, how old did you think I was then?" I ask.
"24" She says.
Bless. I'm 33.
Somehow after many a discussion of how most porn is really just about male bonding and how they should just dispense with the women and start bumming each other - ( after all, when you see naked guys in close proximity to each other high fiving each other, you begin to wonder why they don't start high fiving their on-camera fucksluts too) , we proceed onward to the club. I haven't been to this one in a while, but everyone else here is going and it is my birthday. We walk in and I pick up a flyer, get the money off, and go in. its about as packed as it was for the Karl Bartos gig, which judging by the counters that goes up everytime someone pays in , is about 400.
Upstairs is closed off, downstairs fairly thin but active. The music is the thing, after all, but there's a lot of stuff I don't really know. This is the peril of having friends quite a bit younger than you but also at the same time, being convinced that they stopped making good music in the year 2000. After all, I know how entrenched I am sometimes, and well, I don't see anything new I haven't already seen before. I see new bands coming up, and I really just don't care anymore. I've seen it all before. I remember the great britpop wars, I remember the camden scene and the crusties, so forgive me if I don't go fucking doolally over every new band that shits itself into existence, or every bloody scene invented to sell fucking copies of the NME and the Guardian. I see where all these bands are coming from, I see their blatant influences and I tell you? So, You think you're some tortured artist with problems? It don't impress me much. After all, I remember Kurt Cobain, you lightweights. Come back when you've overdosed Mr Doherty, then we'll see how for real you are.
*rant over*
Anyway, I just prefer the old shit. I know I'm getting old too, but that's the law of entropy. Of change over time. I get less impressed by hearing the new shit nowadays. It sounds too derivative. Thats mainly because I remember who they are trying to rip off from the odl days. Music moves in cycles, in generations, of about seven years. Unless you can reinvent yourself every time you tour , seven years is about all youve got. By then a new generation of people has coem up, to whom they've never known a world without you. By then, you're one of the old school bands. Old hat. And there's always someone younger, better looking, and with sexier songs than you. You become consigned to the dustbin of more selective audiences, Spinal tap stylee, as you begin to be seen as unhip and as your audience has to pay for car insurances and mortgages once they move out of their parents at last. Its just the way it is. The wheel spins around again once more.
I walk around. Do a circuit. I drink. I dance. I see the casualties of the moshpit taken off to the medical room. In the middle of the room people fight. The rush at each other at speed, and fall over, sending people flying, hitting the floor, and then the survivors laugh and mosh, oblivious to the damage they've caused. On the floor two feet away is a girl, who got knocked down by a flying mosher. Hit at an angle, she hit the floor at speed. Hit the steel barrier at the front of the stage, straight down, propelled by a burly idiot drunk on the majesty of rock. Imagine having a metal lump hit your head at speed from six feet away. She's unconscious. Security swarm in and take her out to recover. And the idiots are still dancing, uncaring and oblivious.
I decide best thing to do is go back to the people I met earlier in the pub. The most amazing thing to me about this is no matter how old I feel, they don't care. They just accept me for who I am. No matter how out of place I am, I don't feel out of place. Even If I don't know the words or what the songs are, (they all have that vaguely nagging sense of familiarity that is along the lines of 'I should know this but....'). They just think of me as someone similar to themselves. Even if I do often mistake them for people about my age and get their ages all wrong. Even if I do end up dancing with girls I've never met before and having a great time, before shying away with insecurity and nervousness. Even if I do fall totally flat on my ass doing a windmilling air guitar solo during AC/DCs 'Back In black'.
Its very theraputic, though totally absurd, is playing air guitar in public. Though I promised not to inflict it on anyone, its is damn fun, and very childish. Thing is, I don't think I've ever totally grown up either.I do try to retain a little bit of that childish joy and wonder in my life, lest the adult world suck the living soul right out of me, which is maybe why I love it when becca takes me for little walks. But how childish and stupid it looks doesn't matter. not at all. What matters is the moment, the feeling of release. Of letting go, of leaving it all behind for a little while. (Good God, Graham, have you finally learned how to actually enjoy yourself for a change?)
Actually, I did enjoy myself. A Lot. A hell of a lot. Damn, I got some wicked style. What was I waiting for?
The night bus, thats what I waiting for. Had a damn good time though. Like I haven't had in a long time. But my feet hurt like hell. The music? I didn't know most of it. That which I did know was in that mildly ironic Its so crap, Its great, so lets rock camp, and I didn't care.(Btw, that was Europes The final countdown, during which it was air keyboards, ok?) .
I'm growing old. I'm growing older. I'll never be young again. But I don't care. I had a great night.
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