Sometimes I feel good about the world. Admittedly this usually occurs after a couple of bottles of wine, but nonetheless it is still worthy.
Being married to Michele is good for so many reasons. Apart from her being beautiful, intelligent and all that, we also agree on a lot. The longer we live together, the more we tend to agree on things including politics, religion, and music. In fact, is there anything else ?
Now and again, we end up putting music on and dancing around like a couple of fools. It’s so nice to know someone else who loved Hip-Hop at 15 and Led Zep a couple of years later. The fact I bought my first Run DMC T at 15 makes me feel superior to most of the others in my age group 😉 The fact that Michele was also playing PE around the same time also makes me think happy thoughts.

OK, we’re in our thirties and have no assets whatsoever – but isn’t that something to be proud of ? Regardless, I’m still preparing for the great cop-out…
P.S. Michele used an Eric B and Rakim quote for her Columbia University Yearbook (no she wasn’t a little rich girl, she was just very clever)

Last night was Tellytastic. Firstly, I’d taken out copy of Viva Zapata. Superb, despite the unescapable Hollywood glitz.
Then BBC four’s take on the 60’s. “Why I hate the 60s” was the antidote to all of those nostalgic montages about sexual liberation, positivity and revolution. This was followed by a particulrly cynical episode of Steptoe and Son where Harold was attempting to be the local Labour candidate.
Finally, Dennis Potter’s excellent Stand Up Nigel Barton.
Oddly, and without wanting to sound trite, Zapata, Steptoe and Nigel Barton all seemed uncannily relevant to today, despite all being set in very different eras.
When people smugly slag-off TV as a whole, they really need to try flipping channels and shutting thier mouths.

As I was writing that last blog, News 24 went live to lisbon to bask in the friendly atmostphere among the England fans. The hack chatted to a charming bunch of our country’s ambassadors, all smirking when he asked them if they were concerned about violence breaking out. “pick on someone else..go on” quipped one as sweat dripped off of his fat shaven head onto the england flag tied round his bare, sun burnt beer-belly.
This went on for a while, until the interviewer started to wrap up. In the background, all of the bulldog faced fans were chanting and shouting some inaudible bollocks and punching the air. Then, after talking about how friendly everyone was and how there was no risk of hooliganism, he said, and I quote:
“a tiny bit of racist chanting there, but certainly nothing serious.”

It’s very comforting to discover that a serious social disability, such as hating all types of sporting activity with an almost psychotic passion, affects others too. So I’d like to thank Charlie Brooker for supporting the cause. I’d also like to echo his sagely words:
In summary, then: bollocks to sport and bollocks to everyone who likes it. Forever and ever. Amen.

So mote it be brother.

Ken won – no suprises there, but check the rest. The BNP got more than the Greens.

Ken Livingstone (Lab) 685,541
Steve Norris (Con) 542,423
Simon Hughes (LD) 284,645
Frank Maloney (UKIP) 115,665
Lindsey German (Respect) 67,731
Julian Leppert (BNP) 58,405
Darren Johnson (Green) 57,331
Ram Gidoomal (CPA) 41,696
Lorna Reid (IWCA) 9,542
Tammy Nagalingham (IND) 6,692

60,000 Londers voted BNP! Christ on a bike.. That’s almost double the vote they got in 2000.
I wonder if the proliferation of st george crosses everywhere you look these days has had an effect? Before anyone starts banging on about political correctness gone mad and how the English need to regain pride in their country and get their identity back, can I just point out that this is

BOLLOCKS!

and you really should just use your bloody head and belt up. The rabid, foam-mouthed ‘patriots’, or ‘nationalists’ as I prefer to call them, really don’t need to be encouraged and commended for blindly worshipping a symbol on a flag. We expect Germany and Japan to regret their history and learn from it, but when anyone suggests that we still haven’t learned from our imperialist history they get accused of thoughtless political correctness. Pundits, politicians and celebrities fight to be the first ones to publically defend flag waving. Even that ponce Morrissey has started wrapping his aging, worthless flab in the st george cross. No excuse. If you fly a flag, you are claiming to support what it stands for not what it is. What does the st george cross stand for exactly ?
I don’t even mind the American obsession with their flag so much, because at least it stands for something…it’s just a pity that most of the most vehement wavers of “old glory” clearly haven’t read, or just don’t understand the constitution.
Fans of George Orwell may like to read this article which describes the treatment a British journalist received on entering the US. The “Department of Homeland Security”, or the “Total Information Awarenes Project” as it was previously known, now treats foreign journalists, even from friendly countries, as a serious threat to security. Travel on the wrong visa, and you get to spend some time in the Ministry of Love. My favourite part of the article is the last paragraph:
I told the officer taking my fingerprints that I would be writing about it all. “No doubt,” he snorted. “And anything you’ll write won’t be the truth.”

Ribena are running a competition to win a donkey. I LOVE donkeys, but hate Ribena, so if anyone out there doesn’t mind the stuff, you wouldn’t win me a donkey would you ?

Well at least that warmongering simpleton Reagan is dead. Only a matter of hours (I hope) until the iron lady pisses herself to death too.
All of the recent eulogies about the moron describe someone that I don’t know. Even Gorbachev sung that twat’s praises. What ? He was a pillock! I only hope that Gorbachev was taking the piss….Reagan did indeed bring about the end of cold war. But only because he nearly brought about the end of the world as we know it. We should really be thanking Gorbachev for talking him into disarmament….that was never the idea of a cowboy after all…

Elections coming up in the UK. I’m still trying to find my cards. I’m buggered if I’m going to let our thieving bastard landlady get her dirty mits on them.
Tony Blair was nice enough to be interviewed on R4 today…on a train…on his way to somewhere more important. He was kind enough to remind me of how much I hate him and his duplicity. If only he and Jack “Two Faced Nazi” Straw could be killed in a car accident together. So many worthy lives would have been saved.

Work: shit
Life: OK
Telly: Good.
Apart from the spectacularly enjoyable goings-on on BB5, tonight there was a programme about the middle-class people who gave up their well paid jobs to become plumbers. How enjoyable to watch these morons realise what true labour is all about, by literally getting covered in turds. All the more room in the city for me I spose 🙂

Apologies for the poncyness of the previous blog.
From now on I will extend my limit on EUI (e-mailing under the influence) to include blogging and domain name registration.

Interesting argument on R4 this morning about ADHD and drug prescription. Professor Stephen Rose made a bloody good point that ADHD didn’t exist as a diagnosis in Britain up until about 1990, and now we know about it, we’re simply drugging 3% of all children…Something very wrong there.
The proponent of some new drug or other, armed with the usual dubious neurological evidence, argued that ADHD has always existed throughout history, and many successful, talented, people may well have suffered with it. Well, I wonder if they would have been quite so successful or talented if you’d been around to dope them up with ritalin ?
I have a feeling that this Stephen Rose may have worked at Goldsmiths in the past. I hope it’s the same guy, because I always thought he was a righteous bloke and a great lecturer.

Sometimes I feel proud enough about the results of my licence fee that I almost don’t mind paying for it. Tonight BBC1 (yes 1) showed a Botney artumentary about Edward Hopper. It seems that the BBC, despite being a public service, will whore themselves out for anything in the name of art. Tate Britain, Opera, Boy Bands, and “cinema” (if you count “the day after tomorrow” as cinema), the beeb will push it if you tell them it’s art.
But this was more than the usual set of trailers and hype. It was a fascinating example of what journalism should be. OK Yentob, I can see why we (the British licence payers) hired you now.
The news, local and national, magazine programmes, even “Today”, have all been hyping Hopper. Until recently I’d never heard of Hopper, although his work I’ve loved for years , and I’m not just talking about “Night Hawks”.

Anyway – they had many talking heads on this programme including Sam Mendes (director of American Beauty) and Jonathan Miller (general all-round clever bastard). Until this evening I’d always hated Miller because he seems to know too much to be real, and because his “intepretation of Alice in Wonderland” was pure bollocks, in my humble opinion of course. And I loved Jan Svankmajer’s version of Alice by the way. But I just wish Jonathan Miller would stop being so perceptive and….RIGHT. Everything he said about Hopper’s paintings made me look at them differently and he certainly had a point.
Whereas…Sam Mendes…I loved “American Beauty”, but Mendes was so, so, wrong, in everything he said tonight that I’m now concerned about my value judgement of AB. Maybe he just rolled a 6. Maybe I’ve been wrong about him all along. Maybe he was just talking bollocks about Hopper. Maybe I should stop blogging when I’ve had a bottle of 2-for-a-fiver vino collapso. Hmm.
Anyway – back to the diary.
A day in Birmingham with some Moodlephiles was suprisingly enjoyable, a pint in a pub with the world’s most uptight landlord notwithstanding. The Selfridges building (I’d give a link, but they really need to know about web accessibility) is even more bizarre in real life BTW. Do a Google for it – it’s sick and wierd.
Quote of the day goes to Edward Hopper:
“If you could say it in words, there’d be no reason to paint.”
Nightyall

Well, Leo, the SMTP server is back up. In reality, if I’d followed my instincts rather than go along with Dell’s (admittedly excellent) tech support, it would have been back up on friday…ho hum.
Today, a few of us tested wireless access to the Student’s Union. It was good enough for me to spend a while working on the mail server with negligible problems. The best thing about working up there, apart from the food and drink, is that I can’t hear the office phone ringing with queries that are either not important enough for a call, or down to plain stupidity. I actually managed to get a lot done there. By 6pm Leo was back up and seemed to be working ok. It was probably ready way before that (about 3pm) but I wanted to test the wotsit out of it before putting it live. Good boy Leo 🙂
Tomorrow I have the pleasure of going to Brum for a meeting of a few people who are are attempting to improve educational teaching in the UK and at the same time benefit the open-source community. As those who know me can imagine: I dig that.

C yall.

From the outside, religions appear to me to be a bizarre collection of paradoxical, nonsensical beliefs. I really want to understand where I’m going wrong, because surely there must be something I’m missing, or misunderstanding.
So, this morning I was reading a few on-line articles about “the Fall”, in an attempt to understand the subtleties that have obviously eluded me, and led me to the erroneous conclusion that it’s all a load of bollocks.
But now, it’s all so clear!
You see Adam and Eve eating the “apple” was a deliberate part of God’s plan, because otherwise Adam and Eve couldn’t have had children and would never create “humanity” in the way God wanted.
“It was part of the Father’s plan, being both foreknown to him and essential to the human family”. So God deliberately planned the whole thing! From the moment Adam and Eve were placed in the garden, God knew they would eat the apple and knew that he would then be forced to cast them out of the garden because he was so angry (oddly it turns out anger is one of the seven deadly sins..but that’s another story). Without this masterful plan, God would never have been forced to send Jesus in. In turn, Jesus would never be able to “voluntarily” fulfil the pre-ordained plan of giving up his life for mankind.
Well now that’s all sorted out, I’m off to church.