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Saturday, December 31, 2005

bye

well that was 2005.

happy new year one and all.
a prosperous 2006 to you all and may the smile never leave your faces.

Wednesday, December 28, 2005

geldof

sir bob (as he is called) is going to be working with the tory party as part of their "globalisation and global poverty" action group.
apparently sir bob is going to remain non-partisan although cameron has said sir bob will help it "go in the direction that he and we both want to go", which strikes me as a different definition to non-partisan than the one i know.

i would hate to think that sir bob is doing this because he thinks the conservatives (when do we start calling them new tories?) are going to get into power and that this is his best shot at keeping his name and face associated with the poverty campaign for the years ahead. (not that i am suggesting for a minute that sir bob is foing this for his own benefit.....)

and is it just me that finds it odd to hear the tory party going on about caring for the poor and wanting to try to rescue the poor ? (ok give them props for making sure that their way of helping erradicate poverty includes having a pop at red tape culture and europe, but old hatreds die hard......)

poverty, the enviroment whatever next for the new tories - liberalising drugs? anti-war marches? coherent policies .... steady on old chap.....

over

well that was that. all over now.
back to work.
have spent too much time sleeping, the only positive thing i did was a couple of nights out taking photos (expect some examples soon).
almost looking forward to work.......

Friday, December 23, 2005

arrived

final disc turned up.
gotta love play.
now they have a sale on.
wooooooooo

Thursday, December 22, 2005

review

just come back from the whitchapel art gallery, had a chinese, watched a steven seagal movie (the patriot - very silly) and then decided to share a review of part of the show at the whitechapel.

currently the whitechapel is showing the paul mccarthy exhibition. it is a very very very odd show. he is one of the artists from the 60s and 70s who used his body as part of the art process - using a mixture of performance art and action painting. his work drawing from the vienna actionists.

the show at the whitechapel comprises of several elements: sketches, photos, models, models and film recordings of his earlier performances.

it was the films i was watching tonight. now i like the cinema as much as i like art, but when i am in a cinema i want mindless fun pure simple eye candy. but in a gallery situation i can, literally watch paint dry.

the films i saw of mccarthy are solo pieces of him using his body to create "art". so you have one where he dips his cock into a tin of paint and smears that on a plate of glass, or lets it drop on to the floor. then there is him dancing naked with his cock between his leg and a silly mask on. you can also see him spitting on a pane of glass and then rubbing his face and naked body all over it. and for those so inclained he also films himself having a shit and then rubbing it all over himself.

the thing with these films is that once you get over the curiousity factor or the ohmygawd feeling they drag and drag and it becomes an endurance test to see if you can last through to the end of the film. and once you have watched them you wonder just what the fuck was going on.

oddly i was thinking three things: when were they going to end. doesn't the woman in the row in front of me have nice boots on (she had them propped up on the seat in front of her). and finally isn't it weird that this is art, yet in a different circumstance it would be considered porn. that people can sit and contemplate the action and meaning of mccarthy's work and be seen as critics and experts but if you were to be viewing some of his work outside of the confines of the "white cube" you would be considered perverted.

perhaps context is everything.

i don't recommend the exhibition.

while i am in pervy art mode sometime in the next several days i will be off to see the araki exhibition.

play.com

the wonderful boys at play have managed to get me all but one of the cds i ordered just before christmas.
now that is what i call service.
of course me looking to check what i had still left to come i was confronted with the fact that they have a sale on.
oh well something to look forward to in the new year.

205

more experiments with the camera.
this time i am on the top deck of the 205 bus coming from liverpool street towards whitechapel.
long exposure time and nothing really holding the camera too steady.









Wednesday, December 21, 2005

cds

another cd turned up today.
will the remaining ones arrive tomorrow?
i hope so.
will i listen to them all over the christmas period?
don't be silly.....

confused

my blog has gotten all confused with some stuff i have put on here today appearing as if i did the earlier in the week.
go look for them - they are interesting. honest!

roundabout

another kodak moment that would have been beter if i had a tripod, but then i have been spending too much time taking pics at night....


plans

had several big plans for today. the main one was to get out of work early and go see some art.
the day started well as i got my first book from play.com. so now i have something intelligent to read over christmas. not that i will actually read it - just that i have it. the mood was somewhat ruined because i didn't receive the dvds from america that i ordered. furthermore when i went onto play to check the status of my order a lot of things had changed from packing to processing (which is the step before packing..... i don't want the stuff going back i want it in my hot sweaty hands now!!
so on both lots the clock is ticking and the days are running out for them to be my christmas gfts to myself .

the day ticked over. didn't do all i wanted to.

only just managed to get out at a reasonable time.
hopped on the bus (uneventful journey). rush down the strand, get to the heyward. bloody place was closed. it shouldn't be it's a late night opening night. annoyed i was, still am. will be contacting them tomorrow to see if they are open like they should be in the evening.....

so the day is a washout.
but i wander into waterstones and well hello dolly be stilling my beating heart what have we got here?
a new - yes a new, i know i know it's hard to believe but it is a new david icke book.
only the one copy and it is slightly damaged. i'll get it in another bookshop i say.
blackwells on charring cross road. mmm no they have a couple of icke's but not the new one, and the books are not where they say they are.
borders on charring cross road. have a few icke's but not the new one.
foyles on charring cross road - opposite borders. icke will be in the basement. go down to it, smells a little like a backed up toilet. foyles may be swanky and bright now but it still evokes memories of the old days when it was truly a treasure trove of books. find the icke's but not the new one.
it's a fucking conspiracy.
i am not a happy man, dejected, almost broken.
only one shop left waterstones on oxford street.
can't see it, not where it should be, oh no, hold on there is an icke and another one ...
huzzah!
success and i have the book. the clouds are lifted and i can see clearly now the rain has gone becuase the sun has come out tomorrow and i have kept my bottom dollar.

the annoyance of the heyward almost swept away by the new icke.
happy happy joy joy.

expect excerpts over the coming days

updates

the sistine carpark is finished. frankly for the time it took them to do it there is a feeling of disappointment from me. partly because there are places where they haven't managed to get the lines to join up, and from a distance it does not spell out some arcane symbol of power. all in all poor.

tescos are still not doing cheese and pickle sarnies. i am still annoyed at this.

my knee is feeling better. thanks for asking. didn't have to go over the fence today so not sure it is up to that just yet. but the fence clamber is crucial tomorrow so we shall see.

bus

had another couple of those bus days recently.
got to listen to two people talking about computer games in a way that would have had jay jumping for joy. both seemed to know what they were talking about. me i couldn't care less as i can't play the ones on www.popcap.com let alone the ones for xcubeboy2boxplayer. it took me a bit of time to work out that one of them was a girl as she was wearing a bikers jacket that hid her shape, a doo-rag (as i believe they are called - see i could be hip...) that covered her hair. i suppose the earrings should have given it away or the pouty lips in the end it was the voice that did it.
it took me even longer to work out that she hadn't known the bloke she was talking to any longer than she had been on the bus and was in fact chatting him up (again something jay would have appreciated).
the best part came when they were going their separate ways when the girl went over to her mate, who seemed less than pleases that she had been ditched while the other one was on the pull. it got worse as gamer chick was trying to talk her friend into letting the bloke join them. friend had to point out that this was their day out together as friends. they nearly came to blows.
it was sweet.
i liked both of them and to see them cat fight would have been fun.


on the bus going to work. it gets to almost work and then stops, over the tannoy we here the driver say everyone get off as there is no replacement driver. gee thanks, that didn't make me late or anything.
what annoys me about that is that the drivers of the 25 spend an inordinate amount of time getting themselve on schedule, this generally means spending an extra minute at each bus stop to the mounting frustration of the commuters. this is increased by the general knowledge that if you are a tad late for the bus and the driver has closed the doors there is no way he is going to open them for you, because all of a sudden they need to stay moving...
oddly the drivers now have to do less, but they have more frequent driver changes on the 25 than they did before.

sunday's bus was packed.
today was quite full, but also had a pissy tramp on it.
the joy of public transport.

Tuesday, December 20, 2005

church

here are some pictures of christchurch church.
they would have been great if i had had a tripod with me, i didn't so what you have here is art, moody, modern, edgy art. trust me i am right.
keep repeating they are not bad photos - they are not bad, they are not bad......










wait

the christmas rush is upon us. the last minute prezzie buying, the wondering have you got the right thing for the right person, is all the food in blah blah.
there were 500,000 shoppers in central london on saturday and probably will be that many again this saturday as they all try to get that very last minute present.
of course none of this applies to me as i don't really buy presents. i have done most of my treating myself, now the question is can play.com deliver on time? i am not that fussed about food, there is just me here and i will be sleeping most of christmas day or walking into the west end to take some pictures and see the tourists just hanging around.

but the one thing that seems to be consistent with all recent christmas gift buying is the over spending on something that is going to be at it's normal price in two weeks time.
the telegraph newspaper reports this:
"The most wanted gift of this year, the £210 Xbox 360 video games system, has sold out across Britain. Desperate parents and game addicts are bidding up to £1,000 on internet auction sites."
just wait, it will be available soon, save your money, get a bargain and a special deal, just wait.

in that badlt constructed sentance i have finally grown up.

Monday, December 19, 2005

sexsomnia

apparenly no more than 2.5% of the population sleepwalk, and according to sleep experts when you are sleepwalking you can carry out the same sort of things you would do when you are awake.
fortunately for a couple of blokes the fact that they were sleeping has prevented them from being convicted of rape. in both cases the people involved knew each other. from the woman's point of view they are saying that non consensual sex took place. lets hope that this doesn't become an "excuse" that gets men off the hook if they have attempted to force themselves on an unwilling woman.

interestingly of the few people who sleepwalk 4% of them suffer from sexsomia - having sex while they are asleep. in my time a few have nodded off while i was on the job, obviously the earth didn't move for them.

inquiry

the government will have an inquiry about a businessman being murdered by two felons. one who had been let out early and one who was on bail.
but it will not have an inquiry about the london bombings in july.

strikes me if one is needed for the murder of one bloke, that is due to a systemic problem in the justice system then it should be obvious that there should be one for what can only be seen as the failure of the intelligence services to stop the terrorist attack.

except of course we all know that nothing in life is certain and there will always be mistakes.
so while the murder of the businessman is a tragedy for his family and friends it is on balance less of a tragedy than those who were killed and maimed in july.

in both cases questions have to be asked and answers have to be given - but if an internal review is good enough in the case of the july bombings then it should be sufficient for the murder of one man.
unless of course the government is being very cynical and using this inquiry as merely a nice pr stunt and blaming public servants who work in the open, rather than let us look into the clandestine world of the spooks ?

owww

well the year is almost over and today i was given a big hint that old age is finally beginning to catch up with me.
where i work there is a big car park and it is a bit of a fag to walk around the outside of it when the door to the office is only 50 feet or so away from the fence. the pavement by the office is higher than the carpark itself. luckily there is a strategic gas shed right by the fence and it is a relatively easy job to climb the over the fence, step onto the shed and jump to the ground and walk to the office door. it shaves a couple of minutes off of the journey into work and when you are as late as i often am that is a good thing to do.
while i have never been elegant in my movement there was a time when i was quite supple and agile (stop laughing paul), but that was back in the day of regular running, regular martial arts and playing rugby.
these days the closest i get to exercise is the occassional huff and puff for the bus.
plus my terrible love of cream cakes means that i may have stopped growing upward but like the universe i seem to have no trouble expanding.

so back to the fence.
my climbing over is not a pretty sight, it is not filled with fluid balletic movements - oh no. it is a brutal thing to watch. often i get looks that say "what on earth are you doing up there you old man....." but still i continue.

today i was in work early, even so over the fence i go.
up, leg over, stop, get a grip, steady myself, other leg over, leg down onto the shed, other leg down onto the shed..... oh my good googlymoogly that was the moment my knee when POP. all day i have been feeling the knee just being wrong.... i have limped like some hip hop singer.
all bloody day my knee has been crying out to me "don't be stupid from now on old man - you are not built for climbing over fences......"

tomorrow is another day and i am going to give the fence one more go. lets see if the knee can do it.
looks like 2006 is starting with me knowing i am getting old and haggard.

Sunday, December 18, 2005

nottingham

here is the excellent lighting display that nottingham city council has put on.
amazing.


speed

while out and about took these from a bridge.
slow shutter speed. the joy of digital.
needed a tripod.








update

heyward was closed because there was not exhibition on. colour me stupid. it is the first exhibition i have missed there in 10 years.

my dvds from the states have arrived. wooo hoo. so i have a nice mix of bullet ballet and japanese porn to watch.

now where are the cds from play. where where where where!

update

heyward was closed because there was not exhibition on. colour me stupid. it is the first exhibition i have missed there in 10 years.

my dvds from the states have arrived. wooo hoo. so i have a nice mix of bullet ballet and japanese porn to watch.

now where are the cds from play. where where where where!

uncivil

the law that allows same sex civil partnerships came into force recently.
so lots of same sex couples are getting "hitched" in these partnerships (they can't be called marriage in case the moral fabric of the world disintegrates and we all become warthogs).
the pink pound is coming out in force here with lots of companies springing up to make money on the backs of these same sex partnerships.

for those living in same sex relationships it has been a crucial step forward as it gives the partners similiar rights to that extended to married couples. on that level it is a progressive move and is to be welcomed.
as for the fuss i just don't get it. i have heard various people argue that it is the end of moral civilisation as we know it. while i can see where some of these people get their ideas from it does sort of ignore the fact that many of these same sex couples have been living together for years. it also ignores the fact that many hetrosexual marriages are not exactly a bed of roses for the people in them either.

then there have been the radical gays who have welcomed the move but then argued that the hertro lifestyle is not something to be admired or aspired to. but it is ok you have to accept that an oppressed minority can use the sort of language that if it wa used against them would have them crying foul and calling the user bigots.

in amongst this you have to have a certain amount of respect for the boys and girls of the western isles in the outer hebridies who are doing the ceremony.

"What the local authority is quite responsibly doing is what it's obliged to do under statute.
"That is allowing people to register their partnerships but what it's not doing is providing the all-singing, all-dancing ceremony."

i like the fact that they are indulging in a bit of passive resistance, doing exactly what they are supposed to, no more and no less. (and if they do not extend ceremonies to hetrosexual couples then they are being even handed).

(a spokesman for the region implied that this was the case on radio 5 this morning.)

no one of course is suggesting that this is an example of scottish tightness.

why

it's another one of those that make you wonder whether some scientists are just making work for themselves, and really that some of them aren't all that smart.

you study years to become a scientist. you have dreams of winning the nobel prize, of being mentioned in the same breath as einstein or hawking. you want to discover something that can been named after you. be involved in a project that redefines the barriers of science.

instead you make up work to do, killing time because otherwise you might have to get are real job.
the thing you decide to research is agatha christie and her works.
so it seems she was popular because she wrote easy to read books. fucking amazing...

her grandson says it best: "It's not really a mystery. She was simply a writer of great plots."

cctv

a number of us, me included, are scared that we are entering the world of big brother.
lots of cctv, computer programmes tracking our every move on the internet (recent yahoo story), the bringing in of id cards etc etc.

well take heart me buckos with this story of the theft of a henry moore statue.

if the story is to be believed: a lorry and a crane were used to steal the statue. the whole thing filmed on cctv. total class.
whats the betting the firm involved was group 4 ?

the problem it highlights is that often the advantages of many of these new schemes to keep us safe are reactive. the cctv here is being used after the event, rather than preventing the event. id cards will be useful in identifying the terrorists after the event.

and given the track record of government sponsored computer projects and given the faith we all have in private companies when it comes to this sort of thing we can only hope that everyone in parliament sees sense and prevents the id card becoming reality.

penguins

just had to share this story.
made me smile.

now i have to say the idea of being made to walk around the place by a sweet japanese girl is on that appeals to me.

ah the things dreams are made of.

lights

some of the christmas lights that are out and about in london.

from carnaby street



from regents street



from oxford street
(i don't think the jerk refers to anyone in particular.... )


santa

happy photo alert - one for paul.

if you have been wondering where santa has gone, here is your answer. throughout london santa(s)have been out and about.
while not caught on pic there was a moment when one of the rather fey (but fay) stallholders in berwick street referred to the massed santas as being poofs. a case of the pot and kettle.

enjoy







not sure if this is an elf who has also come out with the santas...



cheer

no not feeling the christmas cheer.
nope not at all.
am feeling bloody cold though.
ho bleeding ho ho.

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

taxes

we have to pay them.
i don't begrude it - as i realise that the state needs to have finances to provide necessary services.

but while we have to pay them companies on the other hand try not to. marks and spencers have won a tax claim against the government allows them to offset their foreign losses against their uk tax bills.

now i don't know much about taxes - but i know that when i earn more my tax increases. and i keep hoping that one day i get to pay the top rate of tax.

yet it seems if you are a business your rate of tax is capped, but when you do not make profits you can claim relief on your tax. so while they all complain about the red tape they face they don't mind using that self same red tape to make sure that they can ease the cost of their business by squeezing money out of the state.

i wonder if when they post a loss like this do they contact shareholders and ask for money back? do they? i bet the fuck they don't.
for the simple reason that most shareholders would say - hey ho it's your business you invest and if it works you have made more money, if it fails well you lose. except of course in the mad mad world of the cbi's capitalism where it means that you can expect someone else to bail you out.
tossers.

i deal with several companies who try to get extra discount points from us because of the cost of their business. i am thinking of trying the same myself, oi abbey national i have gotten a bigger house, give me extra discount on my mortgage. what chance do you think i have ?

on the radio today there was a chat about the red tape that affects business. bod comes on says how he has a shop, he has been bailed out by a mate, but he is facing eviction from his home and is behind on his shop rent. he is finding it hard to make ends meet because woolies and blockbusters are selling games cheaper to the public than he can buy them.
seems clear what is going on there.
nope you are wrong.
he is in trouble because there is too much red tape for a small business.....
and do you know what, i realised at that moment that in a few weeks he would be working a macdonalds.

match

mentioned that i have been listening to air america radio quite a lot recently.
i am very sympathetic to their views, and i am often impressed with the presenters (well except al franken who thinks he is funnier than he is....) not only for their ability to remember the facts, their ability to talk for extended periods and maintain a thread and of course they can do it without swearing (that i really do admire!)
sometimes they are as guilty of "not listening" as they accuse the republicans, but hey i like their point of view and who cares about the republicans.

the ads are odd. my current favourites are the video club one in which one of the actors does seem to be very very annoyed that he has had to repeat his line, even though that is part of the script. but he goes for it, he acts, he thesbs and is probably very upset that star trek is not longer being made for tv.

the other one is the democratic dating agency, which makes the pitch of "you will never have to worry that you may be dating a republican...."
total class.

now thats what i call an ad.

txt

as many of you (well when i say many i mean the 6 people who read this)know i hate mobile phones.
mine gets used very very rarely, and mostly serves as an alarm clock.

i have been working late recently (so much easier to do than have a life i find) and while there i have been listening to air america radio, among the ads there is one for a recallable and self destructive email.
so i enjoyed this story today about texts that will self destruct after 40 seconds.

it's all about making sure you don't get caught out by incriminating texts. maybe it is me, if it is likely to get you into trouble then it probably is best not to send it to someone who might use it against you, or it could end up in someone elses hands?

the messages will not totally disappear as they will have to be logged on a secure server in order for that to be a data trail, that is in case you have been involved in some terrorist activity.

though i suppose you could get yourself a cheap pay as you go phone to do your texting on.

nothing to do with this but recently i have watched/ listened to two novel ways of using the mobile.
on the bus there was the chap who had his phone on speaker so we could all hear how dull his conversation was and he had to speak even louder so the other caller could hear him. trust me it was rivetting.

then on the dlr i watch a bloke hold his phone directly in front of his mouth, speak into it and then hold it to his ear for the reply. it was odd to watch.

i still hate the mobile.

Monday, December 12, 2005

letwin

there is an old song "its the rich gets all the pleasure and the poor gets all the blame..."
while there is that saying that money goes to money.
over on the daily telegraph site is this little nugget about oliver letwin, one of the more unctous new tories.

letwin is cameron's new policy chief, which he says is a full time job. when letwin was shadow chancellor he had given up this non-executive role, but now he has it back at nm rothschild. it is reputed to be worth £300,000 a year to him (or close on 10 years worth of my salary). he is not giving up the job because there is no conflict of interest.
letwin says "I think I will be able to manage." he went on to say the city job was "a tiny little part" of his activities.

ok lets step back here a little bit.
rothschild's are paying letwin £300,000 for a job he can manage with only a bit of his time devoted to it, yet there is no conflict of interest?
are they paying him for his charming good looks?
or maybe it's his sparking wit.
perhaps he has promised to get dr. fox to dj for them (that one is for you cliff).

no i don't think so.
you want to know what i think, of course you do. but i suspect several of you are way ahead of me.
they pay him £300,000 a year because he gets them the ear of the tory party, he gets them information from various parlimentaty committees, hell i bet he even pushes some of their ideas.

i am all for politicans working, it keeps them grounded in the concerns of the people they are responsible to. but letwin is living large on the fat of the land, getting cash not because he grafted for it, but because he can ease open a few doors.

what is worse after months of the tories talking about new labout sleaze none of them (including cameron) seem to say: "hold on a minute matey, surely you don't expect people to believe there is no conflict of interest? i mean just on the basic tax issue old fellah we have a conflict......"

old tory, new tory same old wankers.

moody






apparently i am a moody old cove. can't really defend myself on that one.
it might explain why i find this sort of sky lovely.

the street this lot was taken on is viner street. it is one of the streets in east london that is packed with art galleries including almer enterprises (always seems to have shit shows), modern art (with two galleries opposite each othe has had some storming shows and some so so shows), vilma gold (some odd shows, but more disappointing than wonderful), fred (a new gallery, spun out of rhodes and mann, and so far just class shows) and david risely (again a new gallery, and so far there have been group shows which have highlighted what is great about mondern art and what makes people think it is all emperor's new clothes).

a few minutes walk from here is the wilkinson gallery, a great space and more often than not great shows. then there is the showroom, an interesting space normally filled with utter tosh. and a little way around from that is the approach, a gallery above a pub, it's an established space so has had it's share of the good and the bad.

and just down from there is herald street which houses interim/maureen paley and herald street gallery.

all of which has nothing to do with the photos other than i was out seeing art when i took them....





me?

is this a homage to me?
or is it a timely reminder of the christmas story.
or perhaps a wanted poster for obl ?

two different versions:
one with flash:



and one without

wisdom

it's amazing where you finds words of wisdom.
seen on the streets whitechapel. a pearl of wisdom.
i think few would disagree.


updates

the work on the sistine carpark continues. there is now an assistant to help the painting. i think it has moved beyond art and is now a means of communication to alien lifeforms.

tescos still persist in not having cheese and pickle sandwiches. i am contemplating taking them before the european court of human rights. i believe it is a fundamental right that i should be able to have cheese and pickle sarnies whenever i walk into a tescos.

sainsburys are still shit.

i am still drinking many cups of coffee.

life goes on.

honeymoon

poor old ken clarke. he looks like being a sore loser. already he is having a go at cameron. calling him the most euro sceptic leader the conservatives to have had.
it also looks like that cameron has had the shortest honeymoon of all the leaders.
the new tory party (you know that is what they are going to be called soon) weebles and woobles but it still won't fall down.
the irony is that we need them to be a decent party in order to at least make the uk a functional democracy.
while the tories are hung up on europe they have no chance.

Sunday, December 11, 2005

block

i had lots of things to write but none of them seemed to be worthwhile.
so here i am, tippy tapping away.
i am listening to the stephen nolan show on radio 5. if there are two people who irritate me on the radio they are both on radio 5. one of them is stephen nolan and the other alan green.

i could read a book but the one i recently started "flicker" is pretty poor, going to give it another 50 pages or so. if it doesn't improve it is off to the charity shop with it.

it is very nippy right now.

kyoto

ooh the american's have sort of backed down.
perhaps even the american's have realised that climate change is very very important.
bill clinton has said that the official american reaction is just "flat out wrong".
bush and co is going on about how technology will solve the problems, which seems to accept that there is a problem, but that it is something that can be solved in the future. of course there is no idea of when the future is and so rather than deal with it now bush and co are now putting the future on a wing and a prayer.
but then given their belief in fundamental religion it might be that they have a word the big fellah upstairs and they know that it isn't going to be a problem, but for the rest of us we'd like to see something actually being done right here and right now.

Saturday, December 10, 2005

geeks

i am a geek and i an proud if it.
compared with some of the people i know i am a bit of a junior geek, but they arw the people who have an encyclopedic knowledge of their subject matter, or they have large detailed lists (hi kenny) that celebrate their geekness. we geeks see it as just a way of organising and categorising the results of our hobby, if we do not create the lists ourselves we know where to go to get the list so that we can make sure we the right thing, that it has the correct information and that we know what other ones we need to get to have a full set.
the list (in whatever form it takes) is crucial to the geek. it is the link between the wanting and the having, it connects the past with the future through the present.

for all geeks there is a hierarchy of geeks - i know bird spotters who look down on plane and train spotters (no skill in it..) i know film geeks who look down on people who do not have the uncut version of the movie, i know book geeks who disdain readers of paperbacks, there are competitions between fans of star wars, star trek and doctor who, geek comic fans who are dismissive of people who have anything other than near mint or look down on collectors of football programmes....

and so it goes.

imagine my surprise while looking through the guardian that plane spotters are responsible for getting the cia and the usa into shit over the extraordinary rendition of prisoners.
the plane spotters are the ones who spotted the fact that gulfstream v had been poppping up all over the place.
as one of them said in true geekness:
"It's not the CIA bit that interests us. You don't even know who owns the plane when you take down the serial number," he said, already distracted as something comes in to land through the grey drizzle. "You keep accurate logs, for your own records."

the uk planespotters linked up with other european planespotters and from a pointless hobby the usa and the cia are in the shit.

so from a bunch of bods with a penchant for copying down serial numbers from the wings of planes the world has been able to piece together the whole torture route thing.
the obvious next step is for the cia to employ these planespotters and have them try to track down osama, because they are going to do a better job than the cia. get a bunch of them together with their note books and pretty soon they are going to have all the terrorist cells in the world named and shamed.

and although the article ends with "The planespotters have been given first names only, as they asked not to be identified" that the cia should have learnt their lessons by now and in fact all of those planespotters are now recruited by the agency and are now working towards protecting our way of life.

more likely the reports of the planespotters have been mislaid.

Friday, December 09, 2005

hypocrite

because there are many times when i can, rightly, be accused of being a hypocrite so i guess i know one when i see one.
today at work not only did i get to see the avarice and greed of people (we were having a sale of some of the goodies we sell that are no longer available) and rather than get the things that they wanted for themselves it was pile it high and wonder who you could give it to for christmas presents. i should be used to it by now. perhaps the fact i can wait for the others to finish and then see what is left is a a sign of me growing up. (bout time as well.....)

we also have a tradition of people who are celebrating their birthdays bringing in cakes for everyone to partake.
generally i don't have any of the cake on offer for two simple reasons 1] i never bring cakes on my birthday (which fortunately seems to pass by everyone) and 2] most of the people in the office i don't really speak to that much (over and above the usual office talk) so if i am not their pal i am not eating their cake. i think both are fair reasons.
well today it was staff member a birthday, cakes were brought in, emails sent out. staff member b had often said in the past that staff member a was not a nice person, in fact a very unlikeable person. still staff member b decided to have two lots of cake.
yet staff member b will pontificate on the rights and wrongs of the world at the drop of a hat.
as the good book (no not jamie's school dinners) says mote in your own eye.

i am as guilty, but at least i can confess to it.

boris

boris (no not the japanese band) is back.
he has quit the spectator (probably no one left there to shag) and is now joining cameron's shadow cabinet.
politics has become fun again.

i remember boris johnson giving a speech during the hutton enquiry (or was it the butler one) and he was superb. we are so used to the genial buffoonery of the man that it is a bit of a shock to discover that he can actually give a good speech with little or no deviation or stumbling.

my favourite boris story is of how he nearly got arrested in a large bookshop when it was thought he was stealing magazines when in fact what he was doing was repositioning the copies of the spectator that they had on display.
closely followed by his "apology" to liverpool that went along the lines of "i have been told to come and say sorry, you all know i don't mean it (because i was right) and in doing it i have made micheal howard look even more of a tit...."

i like boris. it is good to have him back.
now with archer back on the scene all they really need is to get portillo on side and they might have a chance.
a very slim one, but it is a chance.

welcome back boris

bye

the routemaster has gone (well aside from a couple of heritage runs).
lets hope that the monach of the road is quickly followed by mrs t.
and shortly after that the tory party.

torture

just as the uk has "outlawed" torture as a means of eliciting information. so say three cheers and raise a glass for the british judiciary. (though i have to think that if you were going to be happy tp torture someone you probably not going to give much of a toss to a law that says no evidence from torturing can be used)

meanwhile the americans have to admit that they have prevented the international red cross from seeing some of the detainees that are in the "care" of the usa. now we all know that under bush america has taken on an almost messianic parental attitude "do as i say and not as i do!" but as more and more of their "mistreatment" of prisoners comes out the distrust must grow and grow.

they may as well admit that they are utilising torture and be done with it.
oddly i suspect most people would say "well done for keeping us safe".

but the secrecy aspect of it just means that they are ashamed of what they are doing because they know it is "wrong" even if they believe it is the "right" thing to do.
given bush's warped christianity expect the witch burnings to start soon.

proud

went into borders, blackwells, a remainders bookshop, my favourite porn shops and hmv and bought nothing.
there was lots i wanted but i resisted.
but then the sales will be happening soon.

plus i have just received 2 orson welles dvds from play. have 5 more on order with another company and my pal paul has sent me several discs of justice league cartoon to watch.

though i did buy some stuff in the tate modern....

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

rejoice

i know i shouldn't but here is hoping the next big obit will be for mrs t.

saddam

you can tell saddam has learnt a few tricks from his old pal george galloway.
saddam has started to boycott his trail

as the man says: "I will not return, I will not come to an unjust court! Go to hell!"

part of the reason he gave was the conditions of his confinement and how the trial itself was being conducted.
obviously this is a tactic that amnesty needed to impart to all those who did suffer under saddam. imagine those torturers being stopped in their tracks not by an appeal to their basic humanity, not by pleas or by begging but by a simple "oi you no torturing me until i get hot running (no not scalding) water and a tv in my cell..."
right there the torturers are stymied.

i have to make light of it as it is one of those situations where you find yourself knocked for six by the absurdity of the situation.
here is a man who we all know is guilty of some of the most heinous crimes against his own people, yet he is accorded the right to make a mockery of his trial. in doing so he partly proves the point that life without saddam is better. and many will argue that it is an unjust trial. (for me the trial is deserved, but the means to get there have been proved to be, well to be polite, false).

so there is a part of me that agrees he should be allowed to do his best to make a mockery of the trial, because that is part of the price you pay for a democratic freedom.
then there is the other side of me that thinks fuck it this man is evil, and frankly should be dragged to the court in chains.

but, especially in this case, justice has to be seen to have been done rather than the revenge that many want to see visited on saddam (and his cronies) head.

un-pc

ok this is not even remotely politically correct, but i liked it.

found on the web, so i thought i would share:

the british are at defcon 5
the british are feeling the pinch in relation to recent bombings and have raised their security level from "miffed" to "peeved." soon though, security levels may be raised yet again to "irritated" or even "a bit cross." londoners have not been "a bit cross" since the blitz in 1940 when tea supplies all but ran out. terrorists have been re-categorised from "tiresome" to a "bloody nuisance." the last time the british issued a "bloody nuisance" warning level was during the great fire of 1666.
also, the french government announced yesterday that it has raised its terror alert level from "run" to "hide". the only two higher levels in france are "surrender" and "collaborate." the rise was precipitated by a recent fire that destroyed france's white flag factory, effectively paralysing the country's military capability.
it's not only the english and french that are on a heightened level of alert. italy has increased the alert level from "shout loudly and excitedly" to "elaborate military posturing". two more levels remain, "ineffective combat operations" and "change sides".
the germans also increased their alert state from "disdainful arrogance" to "dress in uniform and sing marching songs". they also have two higher levels: "invade a neighbour" and "lose".
belgians, on the other hand, are all on holiday as usual and the only threat they worry about is nato pulling out of brussels

(the usual apologies to emma)

condi

she is part of my top tory totty (american chapter) list.
and i fully expect her to be battling it out with hiliary for the presidency in 08.
but this week she must have been thinking when where the chants of "liar liar pants on fire" going to start.
america doesn't torture. mmm ok i guess she is telling the truth there.
america just makes sure that the people they want to have tortured get to the place they need to be to have electrodes on the genitals and aligator clips on the nipples (mmm another career for her... she could open up rice's ranch of retribution...)

now there is a part of me that has no problem with the torturing of terrorists (and yes i know one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter...) in order to get information to save lives. but that torture has to be done quickly and efficiently and you have to confess to be doing it. the outsourcing of it just makes it seem like it is a branch of torture is us.
yes she has made all the right noises about the fact that america will use all the legal weapons at its disposal in the war on terror, but somehow i can't see them just stopping at the edge of the law. hell that's what they have the cia for (and why they are sending all these people aboard.....

so step up tp the plate the amecian civil linerties union. the aclu are suing the cia. only in america could an agent of the state be held responsible on the question of the illegal support and use of torture by someone suing them.... (meanwhile cheney is trying to make sure the cia is outside such laws that stops them from using torture....)
also deserving a mention if jack straw who is demanding information as to who have been on the 200 or so "ghost" flights that have landed in the uk to move on to a slightly less human rights friendly nature.

bothe seem to have gotten rice to admit mistakes may have happend and they may have been corrected.

like i said at the start of this i have no real problem with the idea of torture if it is going to get useful and time information, but when it comes down to something that seems to be no more than retribution it makes no better than the terrorist

sleep

can't sleep.
going to have another can of diet coke.
have another look at the various website i like, listen to some more music and hope i am asleep in less than 30 minutes or else i am getting up before i have had a kip.

i need order in my life.
maybe i will read some comics.

Tuesday, December 06, 2005

cameron

he shoots, he scores he wins.
david cameron has won the election to be leader of the conservative party.
he has a couple of years to get himself established and to begin to set out his stall as to why people should vote him and the tory party, rather than gordon (a big assumption on my part) and new labour party.

of course this is me believing that the the tories don't kick him out.

he has a couple of months honeymoon period where unless he kills hamsters live on screen he will be able to do no wrong, and everyone will compare him favourably to tony.

i don't see him lasting a general election defeat.
but hey i have been wrong before.

kelly

dame kelly has ended her athletics career.
to be fair she should have done it after she had won her double gold, thouh who could begrudge her the extra cash she earnt running those last few races.

her press conference was a bit of a train wreck though. listening to it on the radio even she seemed a little embarassed by it all.
but that could have been with the way she dressed up her retirement annoucement. rather than just say "that is it, i am bored with this now and i want to do other things with my life", she dressed it up with a story of a bloke she had just met dying a few weeks later.
this was then followed pretty quickly by a list of the commerical activities that she would soon be indulging in.

while i will miss her hot looks on the athletic track all i can say is good luck to dame kelly.

(but that is because there are a number of hotties coming up fast on the inside lane.....)

Monday, December 05, 2005

inspiration

inspiration comes in many forms.
recently i have had several things happen to me that have reminded me that i should get back to doing some of the things i enjoy doing.
while at a trade event in brighton i bumped into an old colleague who was shocked to discover that i wasn't still writing. it was interesting that he remembered that i wrote in the first place, and a bit touching that he even cared that i wasn't writing. (ok this kodak moment was ruined when he showed me some of the things he was working on and it wasn't very good...) , then while i was beginning the big tidy up i discovered a notebook that i thought i had lost, in it were a number of poems that i had written many many years ago. i was pleased to realise that some of them were not bad (don't worry you won't see them appear on here!) finally, today, i got a package from my frined, adam, and it was a package that brought a big smile to my face and included in it there was a small blank notebook included in amongst the goodies.
the blank pages have reminded me that i need to start writing and i need to start doing it now.

like i say inspiration comes in many forms and who would have thought that mine was like buses.

girls

there i was on the bus going to work this morning.
the route takes me past queen mary's college. there on the bus was a bevy of gorgeous babe students. they were either studying to be lawyers or doctors. they were all uniformly gorgeous and all very much part of the posh sloane set. "i was so over that question...."
as i stood there captured in their youthful beauty i was struck that these were probably very much the girl gang that were featured in the socially critical movie "mean girls" starring lindsey lohan.
they got off the bus and the day went grey again!

Sunday, December 04, 2005

enjoy

this is the sort of story that makes the internet worthwhile.
i laughed so hard at the thought of this happening that i shot webs out of my nose (about 2 people are going to get that reference).

i wonder what the reaction would be the reaction if the opposite has happened.

go here to enjoy http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/4494660.stm

Saturday, December 03, 2005

december

ugh it has only just started and already i hate december.
people in the office have already started talking about decorations and the christmas party. oh spare me.
soon it will be the constant jingle of sad arsed christmas songs.
just when the catholic church is about to get rid of the concept of limbo (because it is a theological rather than a religous construct) and i find myself being thrown into the limbo of christmas.

the only thing that makes it bearable is that i know i can wander one of the streets close to where i work and view the handy work of two houses who take the whole concept of christmas decorations to a whole new level. i am pretty sure that nasa uses them as a landmark by which to navigate.
never fear i will try to get pictures so you can all enjoy in the same way i do.

best

call me callous but i just don't get what the fuss over george best is about.
so he was a good footballer. but what has he done for the last 20 years aside from getting pissed and using a liver that could have gone to someone else?
in short i have no idea why it is so many people are so concerned or so worked up about the whole thing. perhaps it is the dianna factor that means that everyone has to join in with mass crying and mass hysterics. the radio 5 was full of it this morning.

interestingly (well for me at least) there has been no mention of best as being an example of the fact that you don't have to be a binge drinker for drink to do you damage. for best there was no need for 24 hour drinking laws in his local pub, he was either in clubs or he had drink in the house. oddly it was the same for my parents (both who died of alcohol related problems) they had booze in the house and they drank it. you don't need the pubs to stay open longer to get a serious skinful in you.

the other thing was the recent report about marijuana being dangerous, the usual old saws about it being addictive were trotted out. of course no one mentioned that booze is also addictive and is also something that can kill. but that sort of argument is not a good one because more people drink than do drugs,

i have argued in the past that drugs should be made legal because that gets rid of many of the undesirable aspects of drugs. the recent to do over marijuana just serves to add weight to my arguments.

and for the record i don't do either. my drug of choice is coffee and the sooner there is a 24 hour coffee shop in my area the better i will be.

noooooooooooooooo

oh well my run of bad luck continues.
it looks like i have a leaky roof. bugger. that means i will have no money throughout 2006, as i suspect it won't be cheap to get this repaired.
just when i was thinking i would be cutting down on the time i spend at work and do things i now discover that i won't be able to do that because i will have no money.......

Friday, December 02, 2005

confusion

my blog seems to be posting stuff wherever it wants to rather than where it should be. which is rather annoying.
oh well it continues my run of bad luck. and worse of all it means you, dear reader, might miss out on some great stuff from me.
(i doubt it but you just might....)

clutter

the leaky roof has meant i have to clear a huge amount of junk from the flat. it is something that i have been meaning to do for months (hell years...)so i made a start on it last last.
suddenly i am in admiration of my pal richard who has recently decluttered his life and buggered off to india.
i look around at the heaps and mounds of stuff i have and wonder why why why?
as i start going through it to decide shall i keep it or should i junk it, i keep getting stopped by something that i just have to keep. it is traumatic.
last night it was at 13 year old christmas card from my pal adam and a bunch of old black and white photos of various members of my mum's family, none of whom i know.....

tonight loads of bags of rubbish are going out, and sadly it won't make a bit of difference.

400

post 400.
a big wooo hooo to me.
a big thanks to my sponsors.

here is to the next 400.

prozzies

a recent study has shown that the number of men buying sex has doubled in the last 10 years.
interestingly i know several people who have used the services of prostitutes and their argument for using them was that it was cheaper and a lot less hassle.

this study lead to a phone in on the victoria derbyshire show on radio 5. they had someone on from the english collective of prostitutes who was going on about how prostitution should be made legal. i agree with her.

the reason she gave for making it legal was to do with trafficking of people for the sex trade. she made the point that because prostitution was illegal that women who are being forced into the sex trade were scared to go to the police.
have to say i thought this was a bit of a silly argument because the fact that the women are being forced to work in the sex trade probably means that they probably are not going to be given the chance to wander off to the local plod to say “pc pat we are being kept here against our will”. i reckon they are scared shitless to go to the police in case nothing is done about their situation and then end up spending some time in hospital recovering from the beating that they will no doubt receive at the hands of their pimp.

i remember a programme on channel 5 (when it was nice’n’sleazey) that was all about pimps. just as many of the streetwalkers matched the stereotype of the hollywood hookers, so did the pimps with their big hats, fur coats, spats, walking canes and truly dodgy hair styles. there was a cartoonish element about them, which was added to by the fact the programme was hosted by ice t
the smile was wiped from my face when one of the pimps was talking about how much his “bitches” loved him, he cited the example of one of his ladies who although she had been shot in the thigh, she skipped out of the hospital in order to get back on the street to earn some more for her pimp. now it might be me, but i don’t think she did that out of love, she did it out of cold fear.
of course all ice t could do was nod in agreement..

for that reason alone prostitution should be made legal, it will provide a higher degree of protection and freedom to the women who want to get involved in the sex trade.
of course one of the problems for the legalisation of it is the nimbys who might agree that it would be a good thing, but just don’t want it anywhere near them.

it, along with drugs, should be made legal; it will make it all above board and in the process allowing the sex workers to have more control. and the treasury will have a new source of taxes.
everyone gets to win.

random

here are some random pics from my camera.

this is canary wharf, taken from the platform of pudding mill lane dlr, a station that has a huge tall sign, that is so high you can barely see it. necessary for the planes that might need to land in the area.



an arty shot of the railings at pudding mill lane station. a bit of close cropping here and there and you have an art print ready to go. (place your christmas orders now....)



and the night sky from my office window, with an odd tinge thanks to the film speed i am using.

speechless

i missed this story the other day.
you have to admire the front of gerry adams.
the man knows no shame.

perhaps he should also be demanding that the amnesty being offered to ira members should be rescinded.

gotta love that sort of hypocracy.

treats

i have been expecting a couple of packages in the post this week.
neither of them came.
one i think will arrive on monday, the other i think has not been sent (last time i do that person a favour...)

instead i have to content myself with my absolute edition of crisis on infinite earths (comic fans out there will know what i am talking about).
my two marvel figurine collectors figures (hulk and silver surfer...)
a cheap copy of fetish files - the pervy photos of tom porta and very nice they are too.

so for a very short time i am happy happy joy joy.

Thursday, December 01, 2005

commericals

listening to air america radio on the internet.
al franken was talking to (ex) president carter (the exs can still be called mr president). it was interesting to hear jimmy's take on the current mob, especially given their disregard of human rights. just as it seemed to be getting hot, al has to say "sorry mr. president we have to go to the ads....."

i had to smile.
only in america.

galactus


this is a new toy in the mini-mate line. unlike the regular figures this is a large figure, more a (not so)mini-mate.

galactus is the creation of stan lee and jack kirby, the two men most responsible for creating comics as we know them today. galactus is the devourer of worlds, and for a time let the silver surfer hang with him. most often the earth has been protected from galactus' hunger by the fantastic four.
while galactus' hat is great sometimes his costume has been a little bit odd, but then when you devour worlds i guess you can wear what you like.

this particular galactus will complement my toy biz one that came with an ultimate nullifier (sadly it didn't work). i missed out on the heroclix galactus which looked really cool.

one of the reasons i like galactus is i empathise with him. he devours worlds, i devour chocolate. the difference is he doesn't put on weight and it is and essential part of his nature, me i am a pig and i have porked out like billy bunter.

exit

let's not beat about the bush here but dubya and co are fucked.
that means the republican party is probably screwed for the next presidential election (heres hoping anyway...)

bush has been talking about his strategy for victory in iraq. says bush: "when the terrorists and Saddamists can no longer threaten Iraq's democracy, when the Iraqi security forces can provide for the safety of their own citizens, and when Iraq is not a safe-haven for terrorists to plot new attacks on our nation".

lets leave aside the rights and wrongs of the war and lets leave aside the fact that the occupation of iraq is (now) perhaps the main reason that there might be attacks on america (and the west) and americans (and the rest of us).
let us just think about the fact that once they committed to war bush, cheney and rumsfeld obviously couldn't be arsed to really think about what happens once you won, what happened once you got the regime change you were so desperate to have.

bush can't pull out now because the whole place is a shithole and is ready to explode and the only way to keep it under any semblance of peace (and that is stretching the term) is to keep american forces on the ground.
but even then they can't quite get it right.
fuck hearts and minds - lets just torture and kill.
so the american's are there for a looooooong time or 2008 when the democrats win back the presidency and withdraw.
but the real question will be: will it be possible to withdraw the troops even if you disagree with the war?
currently i don't think you can.

but good to see straw demand that the cia and government declare wether or not they are using britain as a stopping point in order to get prisoners to places where human rights violations can take place much more easily.
back in the day of the thatcher government when they were privatising and liberalising everything they could, i am sure thatcher and co would have come up with a torture possible zone to go along side the enterprise zones they set up.

anyway jack i have the answer to the question: "of course they are". and apparently cheney is trying to make sure that the cia can continue to use torture if it thinks it needs to.

gotta love ameria.

why

this story has left me slightly bemused, slightly disgusted and somewhat disappointed.

proud (and very very very rich) dad celebrates his daughter's bar mitzvah in style. it's one of the important time of life for jews, it is their coming of age.
so dad being, proud and being very very very rich invites 300 or so guests, fills the rainbow room, a resturant on the 65th floor of the rockerfeller centre, and lets them all enjoy the entertainment he has laid on.
among the people who sang to the audience were: 50 cent, aerosmith, tom petty and stevie nicks.

i was a little bemused that these stars would play such a gig. but then 50 cent got £300,000 for his song. so maybe not so bemused.
i was disappointed that aerosmith and tom petty played such a gig - so much for being rock and roll rebels. 'smith even let the brother of the girl play drums through their set. money talks and it talks big. the toxic twins and the rest of the band pulled in $1.3 million....
i was disgusted (and i will admit it is tinged by a certain amount of jealousy) at the waste of money involved here. the kids who attended apparently got goodie bags worth $600 each. there is an old argument about the wealthy being necessary because their money trickles down to the rest of us. they are deserving of their money because they are wealth creators and we all benefit from it. but stories like this just remind you that actually money seems to go to money.

then i thought - what on earth is he going to do for her 21st.

sistine

i work in an office building.
it has a car park. the car park has been the object of much angst among my fellow workers. me i could care less - it's the 25 bus for me.
we have had another of those "you can only park here!" style announcements go around the various offices in the building.
in terms of timing this couldn't have happened at a better time, because it's the time when the lines on the parking spaces get re-painted.
now i don't know much about painting (and frankly i have no desire to learn - although recently someone told me i was a walking treasure trove to tv make over style programmes - they could come and clean my flat, dress me, teach me to cook etc, i am holding out for supernanny to come and spank me...)

get on with it pat, get on with it....

where was i?
oh yeah.
now i don't know much about painting but i reckon this can't be that hard a job. the lines are already there. you just have to paint over them. get one of those walking line things. and job done in a day or so.
nope. not us. we have a painter who obviously has the soul of one of the great masters. for him it is not a car park he is painting, oh no it's nothing mundane like that. our painter is da vinci, caravaggio and michaelangelo all rolled into one. i believe we are currently on day 4 of the painting of the straight lines.
each line is done with a fine brush, i am sure he is not using emulsion but in fact is using the finest oil paint he can find. on examining the lines we would all exclaim "perfect". better than giotto and his circle - this man does a straight line better than anyone has ever done.

i have seen perfection and it is a straight white line in a car park.

Tuesday, November 29, 2005

complete

ah those lovely boys at play.com. today i received my (very cheap) godfather trilogy dvd boxset.
i am as close to happy as i ever get.
it also means that now i have all my favourite films on dvd.

now all i need to do is get all the films of orson welles and john wayne and i can start obsessing about something else.

drat

david cameron must be thinking "shit what did i do to deserve that!"
he had survived the drug issue. he has seen off archer (big mistake i think) and it all looked to be plain sailing.
goodbye howard hello cameron - "i'm the leader, i'm the leader" (not that i am implying a gary glitter like element here).
but then this bombshell hits him

cameron is getting the support of the quiet man himself. yes the leader who almost roared is coming out and saying "cameron is my man."
i am sure cameron is thinking now i have ids on my side it is a slam dunk.

more likely he has his head in his hands and is gently sobbing.

going

well it is almost time for michael howard to step down.
he's been having a dinner with his mates at banqueting house (i wasn't invited, which was lucky as i don't have a black tie, i do think that not inviting me was bad form as i purposely decided not to stand against the boys).
so the party goers pay £300 a pop to sit there and listen to howard and a few others rabbit on about how much better things are looking for the tories. howard himself has said that he didn't get all he wanted to achieve done, but that they had made great inroads, positive steps etc etc.
but when you have friends such as peter stringfellow and chris woodhead turning up you just know that the party is always going to be one that is never going to get anywhere.

both the davids were there, their last chance to press flesh and make that dignified stand in order to show that they are the men to lead the party....

and frankly any dinner that has 400 people at it can't be worth £300 a head, surely this is just going to be posh canteen food.

if i ever win the lottery i won't be wasting it on posh food like that - think of the bloody pizzas i could have with that sort of money.
the fact that they can throw £300 down for a posh canteen meal shows how far divorced they are from the rest of us.

(oh and shed a tear for the republican who has had to quit his role in government for getting down for accepting bribes of $2.4 million dollars.... it is nice to see that sometimes the greedy and stupid do get caught.)

graffiti








some examples of graffiti from around the east end of london.
(oh ok one of them is not really graffiti but is really fly-posting, but very attractive it is too.)

Monday, November 28, 2005

review

you may be wondering what has happened to the reviews.
pressure of work has stopped them.
but work is clearing up. so guess what: the reviews return very soon. just as soon as i have done something to review.

oh ok one for jay and shep.

doom with the rock. dull and dumb. wait for it to be on itv in two years time. the rock had done such a great job in a very very very poor film "be cool" but he sort of shot himself in the foot with this one.
only watch if there is nothing else on, or you are with drunken mates.

smiths

what a con!
there i am thinking that places like the big chains abuse their buying power in order to get the lowest possible price so that they canundercut the local shop. put the local shop out of business and grow bigger and stronger.
you can see it with tescos. you can see it with sainsburys (even if they never have stock on their shelves). look at hmv and virgin (ok we know they can be cheaper but the principle is there). check out borders and waterstones - have the publishers over a barrel, pass the savings on to the consumer.

it all falls apart with wh smiths.
smiths is a chain of stores that sort of lost it's way a while back. has gone through many changes in order to get back on top. from line cuts to line expansions. it carves a big discount out of publishers and it charges for space on the shelves.

there i was in birmingham coming back from a show, needing something to drink. two bottles of pop, some chocolate and next thing i know i am lighter by £4. £1.19 each for the bottle. my local corner shop, who buys his pop from a cash and carry, is cheaper than that.
wh smiths must be the most expensive sellers of pop in the country.
they are making superprofit on the bottles they sell (even marks and spencers own brand stuff is cheaper and they are purposely expensive....)and who knows what else they are scoring high(er) profits on.

even so they are still not fully successful.

i tell you now wh smiths are gougers of the worst kind. boycott them now, except to stand around and read the magazines and steal the cover mount cds.
(oh and to buy copies of personal trainer for women)

still

here are two images of the city.
urban still lifes.







the bottle is from the shoreditch high street. and surprisingly hard to capture (it was late, i was tired. i was going to go for the blurry drunken view but decided against it).

the leaf is from hyde park.

ugh

my sleep pattern is screwed.
nooded off early. woke up at 2am for a drink of coke (oh and a bar of chocolate), drifted off again and then awake at 4am, more fizzy pop, more snooze and then awake at 5.30 am.
listened to the radio and guess what radio 5 live have someone on from the cbi. not only does this person from the cbi sound like digby jones but also has the same whiney not our fault nothing to do with us tone to his voice that digby has.
this time it's the government's fault that the transport system is crap. they should spend more money on it, but don't raise taxes (well at least not on the businesses and the rich, everyone elese is fair game....) not a word about the fact most of the rail is in the hands of private (for profit) companies, not a word of the fact that previously the rail infrastructuew was in the hands of a for profit organisation that wanted hand outs from the state while paying big bonuses to the bosses and dividends to the shareholders.....
yeah capitalism rocks when someone else is paying your bills.

think i am going to start listening to jazz fm in the morning.

Sunday, November 27, 2005

id

well it looks like more bad news for the proponents of id cards.
fraud, computer overload and costs are all being sited as reasons not to go ahead.

i have to admit i am not a great fan of the id card, although there have been times when it would have made my life easier. but i am one of those people who would rather not being leaving a large footprint of who and where i have been.
but we seem to be happy to use our bank cards, our loyalty cards and such like. our mobiles track our movements. we are under cctv a lot of the time.

perhaps it is because these are not associated with the state that we don't care?
more on this later.

gobsmacked

apparently blair was double crossed by the americans over the reasons they wanted to go to war in iraq!
they wanted regime change, but they didn't tell blair.
probably the only person in the world who didn't think it was about regime change must have been blair. everyone else seem to believe it was about regime change and getting the oil.

so blair made all the right noises but for the wrong causes.

what makes the american decision to go for regime change even worse is that they had nothing to put in it's place. what on earth were they thinking.
you make the decision to get rid of one ruling party and then have nothing to replace it.
no wonder it went tits up.

weekend

been a shit weekend.
nothing has gone quite to plan.
i have acted like a twat.
i need to destress and take a good look at myself.
(and no jay i am not signing up for a session or two with you...)

Saturday, November 26, 2005

pictures

so here are a few pics from the trip around london.


tower bridge. still loveley after all these years. i once did some arty blakc and whites on there, gave one to a mate, years later i asked him who did that it's really good - he said me. chuffed was i.




the greater london assembly building. london is having a bit of an image problem at the moment. on the north bank you have swiss re building or erotic gherkin (it is very phallic but would need very big batteries to get a decent hum out of it...) and on the south bank you have this. from the angle i have taken the picture it looks like something from power rangers, from the side it is a knob head. i think it says something about iconic buildings.




the wobbly bridge and st pauls. poetry on the thames.

foggy





i missed (geddit) the chance to post this the night it happen.
it was foggy when i was standing around waiting for a bus to take me from work to home.
when i got home (a couple of miles) it was as clear as night (and a very brisk night it was too, not quite brass monkeys but getting there...)

archer

he's back.
the man is back.
the world of politics is fun again.

jeff jeff jeff jeff.
he must have a book ready to publish.
it means more of the fragrant mary.
it means more scandal (and fun scandal at that - the tories seem to have fun when they get into trouble....)

now if only they have the sense to put jeff and boris in the shadow cabinet then they have a chance to win.
(not that i actually want them to, but it would be nice to have someone challenging the new labour party's slide into old torism.)

Thursday, November 24, 2005

binge

new licensing laws come in the day george best dies.
you can see the headlines now.
the red tops must love it when this happens.

draconian

some of the people i know get into a real tizzy about the current government comparing it to stalin's ussr, or hitler's fascists or just throw in orwell's 1984 for good measure.
i always have a rueful smile when they tell me this because it always amuses me that firstly that they think that the rights and freedoms they say have been (or are about to be) taken away where somehow there all the time and that somehow that this are naturally ours to have in the first place (mostly they have been granted us because of the spilled blood of a few noble people who fought for these rights and freedoms).
but for some people arguing in the absolute without historical thought is the best way, it makes more sense that way and a lot less messy....

anyway you ask what has gotten you worked up now pat?

well one of the recent governments rules has kicked in and now one of the first attempts to have a protest has been stopped.
a group of black cabbies have been told that if they try to protest the congestion charge outside of the houses of parliament they may face prosecution.

oh well who cares about democracy these days....
perhaps what the cabbies need to do is tell any mps who get into their cabs they are just not going south of the river!

or perhaps they should be able to protest outside the houses of parliament in a peaceful manner, as befits a democracy.

i think the smile has been wiped off my face.

guide

well what have i learnt on my few days playing tourist guide?
that london (unlike nottingham) is filled with wonderous things.
that some of these wonderous things are expensive and can't truly be seen in a day.
that i know very little about the place.
that it is very easy to spend money.
that my knees hurt when i walk too much.
that i am not the best communicator in the world (actually working life proves that every day - i ithink i am speaking clear english, but from what the results are my colleagues must be hearing incan!)
that i must go out and do it again.

as some have said: london rocks!

Wednesday, November 23, 2005

tourist

i am being touristy as i am taking an american colleague out and about the town today.
expect photos.
expect stories.
expect tales of consumerism.

7000

just reached 7000 hits.
woo hoo - sad to be happy about it i know.
the hits have slowed down, i have lost my audience they have all gone to cliff, jay and emma.
my thanks go to annoymous for making the blog a continued hit: i just love bookmarking you all.

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

irony

tony blair was being grilled by a number of mps today.
he is one of the few prime ministers to allow them to question him like this.

i heard him protect lord john "blue sky thinking deep wallets" birt from having to come before select committees, i suspect not because they would discover that birt adds nothing to anything but that they would be appalled he was being paid to be so useless. see new labour does indeed enjoy the working practices of the business world.

then he went on about nuclear power stations being one of the best ways to secure the uk's power needs, does that mean they will remain a nationalised concern? or does it mean that the uk tax payer will underwrite it all but within months the plants will be sold off to the highest bidder?

and on iran and their nuclear ambitions blair says of iran that they are "meddling in iraq". now i wonder who else that could be said of. if ever there was a case of the pot calling the kettle black this is it.
there is an eerie sense of deja vu as blair talks about iran - some of these reasons sound like the reasons used for invasion of iraq...
could it be?
could it be?

nah they couldn't.... could they.

sport

two sport stories from the bbc.

i love basketball, and i defy anyone to watch mj in action and not be in awe.

it is one of the few sports where your dominance in the game more often than not translates to a win. there is an ebb and flow with the game that is wonderful to watch. i have sat transfixed at games cheering my team on to triumph or supporting them in defeat. i just love the game.

many have argued that sports and politics are linked. think the sporting ban against south africa, think the americans walking out of the moscow olympics, think the black power salute at the olympics, think the principled stand we took against zimbabwe over the cricket (ok that one is a lie…)
in reality sport, like politics, is about money. no longer is the taking part enough what counts is the winning and the bank balance.

anyway it is nice to see that even the americans can extend the hand of friendship across the sporting globe and have a player in the iranian basketball league. far be it from me to say it’s because he is not good enough to get into any of the american leagues….

i loved the typical english understatement in this “he is a staggering 217cm (7ft 2in) tall - a giant by iranian standards.” because as you know round here we would be calling him titch! (actually in the world of the sporting nickname that is exactly what the sun newspaper would end up calling him…)

go here for it


the second one was about gym culture. now i used to like to go to the gym, i knew i was never going to be a lithe fit muscular chap, but i hoped i would put some tone on the flab, i have come to love the flab and have forgotten the desire to be a six pack phenom (unless it was a six pack of doughnuts!)

when i do go to the gym i am not the most fashion conscious of people. never saw the point of it especially as soon i was into the work out i would be pumping out sweat like i had sprung a leak. basically i am a sweat monster and a slob to boot.
so you can appreciate i feel sympathy for this bloke who had been told to wear a t-shirt and not a vest because he had hairy armpits and his sweat might damage the equipment.
there are only two things you can make of this story:
one he has gone to a girl’s gym because we know they only glow.
two this is so typical of new labour, yet another attack on personal liberty and freedoms!

other recent sports stories i nearly wrote about: the shocking revelation that humans may have reached the end as far as sporting records are concerned. what stunned me with this was that anyone thought that records could keep be bettered! i do recall a conversation where someone had suggested that all world records be scrapped and that they were started again. while a totally dumb idea, what i liked was the chance that you could scrap them and then quickly run a race and become a world record holder.
think of all the guinness book of records that would sell.

the other story was the bloke who is trying to get into women’s only golf tournaments, after the young american female golfer had been accepted into the masters’ tournament recently.
on a theoretical level i can see his point: equality has to go both ways (an argument also being made by a male nurse in a recent work tribunal) but on a practical level why bother – how are you going to face your mates on the tour when you have to come back and say you didn’t win….
he would have been better off arguing that there should be mixed events, but then he wasn’t after justice, he just wanted publicity.

beard

was growing it. decided against it. shaved it. back to being a goatee person.
pics of the shaving to come.

coast

i love the coast. i love the sea. i spent several hours at the weekend just sitting listening to the waves swooooshing against the beach.
sadly i didn't have a tripod so you will have to enjoy these slightly blurry pictures (it's art pat, it's art.... give that man a turner prize!)






check out how dark it gets out there at sea.

Monday, November 21, 2005

digby

i have written about digby in the past. i will write about him in the future (a deeply depressing thought that is...)
today he woke me up to complain about the price of gas and that the government should work out a coherent and integrated energy strategy.
mmm hold on digby dear chap - arn't the energy companies in private hands? arn't they just making profit as they see fit? isn't it all about supply and demand? surely these (often not english) energy companies should be looking into alternative energy supplies as part of their r&d?
no of course not that is what the government should do, with our tax money - because you and the cbi do not want to pay reasonable taxes.....
typical.

oh if that was not bad enough he has a whinge about the money the government might be spending on the unions because of the warwick agreement. the government shouldn't get involved there as it might upset a businessman or two (and digby is as two men) but when it comes to them doing somehting that might aid the workers then it should be hands off.

it wouldn't be so bad if he was challanged and questioned on this sort of stuff, but he isn't. he is just left to say what he likes.

hate him.
i really should stop listening to radio 5.

cold

was in brighton over the weekend for a work related event.
booked into a hotel.
i should have known from the start it was a mistake to go there as it was called the quality hotel. the only part of the q u a l i t y was applicable was the y as in "why am i here?"
it was very cold in the room. the heater defied the laws of thermodynamics. right up close it was the heat of the sun coming from it, an inch away artic cold.
i discovered that terrestial tv is shite, or is everytime i turned it on, (though fearne cotton is lovely).
but to sit and listen to the sea at 1am in the morning was nice (though i think the cold beach has added to my piles...)

relaxed

the work stress is over. i can almost relax now.
guts are still in a little turmoil. will be even worse shortly as i am off for a curry.
evacuate the area now.

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

booze

i don’t drink. i gave up when most people are starting, one of the things i can thank my parents for.
i have no problems with people drinking, most of the people i know who drink generally know when to stop, and when they are pissed are happy drunks.

as i am someone who has lots of trouble getting to sleep the idea that pubs might be open much later is an attractive one as it means there is somewhere to go in the early morning that isn’t a club with banging music and young hip clubbers.

it’s about choice.
so why are the tories so against it? they claim it is a law and order thing. they say it is a social thing – longer drinking hours means more binge drinking they say. they say it will lead to more anti-social behaviour and i think if you pressed them they would say that longer drinking hours is going to lead to a growth of satanism and was responsible for the sinking of the titanic.

as i understand it – the 24 hour licensing law is not compulsory and most pubs will probably close at their usual hour or maybe just a bit later. the fact that you have longer to drink will mean you will not rush to finish of a few drinks before last orders (and as the child of alcoholics i know that binge drinking takes place just as much in the comfort of the home as it does in the pubs).
plus those pesky teenagers who are binge drinking and being anti-social are generally doing it in clubs that are already open late.

for all their chatter about allowing people to have choice, for all their picking on new labour for being a nanny state: the moment that new labour passes a law that
1] allows people to have choice
2] that allows for liberalisation of licensing laws and
3] removes restrictions on the freedom of the people
is the moment that the tories get up in arms and complaining……

me i think that the tories are just a bit miffed that with 24 hour drinking their special little drinking clubs are not special anymore.