Month: April 2003

– I love my friends. Six o’clock today there is some people going down the pub using St. George’s Day as an excuse for some drinks. I did feel like going out and having some company but basically couldn’t afford it. Not paid till Friday and this month is tight. So I figured I could get myself a drink and stay for a while and just say to the lads that I wasn’t gonna be involved in rounds tonight. So I did, got a drink and chatted for a while. 4 drinks and 3 hours later that’s still the only drink I bought. First round on Friday night is mine but and I know it’s nothing special, we just get the drinks in for anyone who needs it at anytime, but I appreciated it.

– I found a new blog today. I’m a little thrown by it actually. I have to wonder various things but I shall keep an eye on it. I do have to wonder.

– Things change, sometimes for the better, sometimes not. On the for the better front my Dad is coming over this weekend. Work is sending him over for a conference on Tuesday. So he took Monday as a holiday and is having work fly him out on Saturday. It’s kinda strange I’ll be here a month shy of 3 years and it’s the first time he’ll have been here. I’m looking forward to it a lot. We are talking over im at the mo and just sorting out some stuff for the weekend. Gonna book tickets for the Art Deco at the V&A and take the rest as it comes. Heading into Waxys to watch the rugby on Sat. afternoon and then just see how the day goes. It should be good.

I can’t decide if you need to be locked up, or get out more.

Podge and Rodge | The Tea Tis better if you understand the context but it still works (250k Realplayer) 🙂

So on the good news front I’m downloading the last episode of Angel which I missed right now. That leaves me with two Angel and two 24 to watch sometime this week and new episodes on the way. This is a good thing.

I spent a couple of hours sitting in the park tonight reading. Almost finished American Tabloid and I’m now really enjoying it. Tomorrow night I think the cinema is calling. A cheap ticket in Shepherds Bush for something silly but fun..Phone Booth maybe…

gah, so many random and not so random thoughts running around. Everything is connected. It all links together in someway. Completely indefinable but it does. For each action there is an equal and opposite reaction, basic physics. It would be nice if the action wasn’t always so opposite but we can’t go breaking the laws of physics now can we Scotty?

Gah, ‘All I want to say is that they don’t care about us.’ For some reason that song and in particular that verse has been running riot in my head this evening. I was going to start by saying I don’t know where it came from, but I think I do. It’s similar to a line in one of the Radiohead songs I’ve been listening to (onto The Bends now), or at least my interpretation/hearing of it. So for some reason I have Michael Jackson pounding the chorus of They Don’t Care About Us through my head at full volume, it’s a little disturbing.

There is a Chuck Palahiuk quote which really seems to be defining my life lately. Before I get into it, he is a tough author. Read and loved Fight Club bought a few of his other books on the basis of it. I was able to finish Survivor with effort but Lullaby and Invisible Monsters stumped me. I couldn’t get into them. I didn’t care about anyone and I didn’t care what happened next. I can only think of two other books in my collection (Clive Barker’s Imajica which was just utter shite and Tad Williams’ Otherland Book 4 which was just too tough a read for the time but I will finish at some stage) which I’ve stopped reading. But as a whole he has some great soundbites/one liners. There is at least one in the tag at the top of the page, actually there is more now but he’s good at them.

Anyway the quote in question is from Survivor and it is:

more and more, it feels like I’m doing a really bad impersonation of myself

I feel out of sorts, and it’s not just feeling it. I know I’m out of sorts. I’m going through the motions in some cases but I’m finding it harder and harder to care about things which use to be more important to me than they seem to be now. I don’t think I like, but it could also be a good thing … in some cases. In other cases, it’s not such a good thing but I guess I shall have to take them as they come.

Interesting thing I heard down the pub from a friend. In his workplace there is some thought or indeed movement on a new behaviour policy. It’s not very specific but it boils down to this. In order to encourage respect and understanding, you won’t be allowed to take the piss out of anyone who is not on your team. It’s a little strange of an idea I’ll grant but you know I think I like it. Well, actually no, that’s plainly not true. But I think I like the concept behind it, it does make a little sense. I don’t know how it would work in a fairly loose working environment with lots of long-time employees or more importantly lots of long-time friends. Still it’s a thought to think about.

The weather was nice today. I would like to have spent longer sitting outside in the sun. Dave joked the other day that being who we work for wi-fi and laptops and working outside in the sun shouldn’t be all that hard. Roll on the day I can sit in the park with the sunshining on me doing my job.

Oh looks like a big new project got a kick-off (of sorts) today. This one could be ongoing for a while and promises to relieve some of the tedium of recent weeks. Now to just get that out of the way once and for all. That will certainly make work a better place…just don’t mention the deadline.

Boing Boing notes; one of the things discussed at the O’Reilly Emerging Technology 2003 conference, “Legal Issues and Emerging Technology.”

Vendors are including “handshakes” in their devices now: there’s only one reason to do this, so that they can block competitors from interoperating using the DMCA, which bans circumventing access-control. AOL Instant Messenger is doing this to get rid of Jabber and other interop technologies: it’s not hard to fake the key that AIM clients use to authenticate themselves, but faking it is illegal because the DMCA forbids access control circumvention.

I’m now officially a little freaked by some search engine stuff.

Oh some possible good news from a talk given by Raymond Feist in the US yesterday. He is now in talks for a Magician movie. I’ve often said (and indeed been told) that after LOTR made it so big that Magician was the next step. This could be good. But the casting will be crucial. Also on the same good news front, the Riftwar series will eventually encompass 30 books. Roll on Jimmy The Hand and Conclave Book 2

Wired News | Online, Some Bloggers Never Die
Good article which actually address some stuff I was thinking about last night and indeed posted about recently.

Ignore the time stamp, this was written over the past two and a half hours. There is another quote which I think I’d like to end this entry with. I don’t know which book (if at all) it’s from, but Philip K. Dick once said:

Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away.

Todays musical choice is Pablo Honey, the debut album by Radiohead. Personally I love it, I think that Thinking about You and Anyone Can Play Guitar are two of their best tracks. The rest is still good stuff but only really contains hints about where they would go in the years to come after that.

So other than that, there isn’t much going on. I’ve got two hours of calls lined up now and then another hour before I get out of here. Suspect there won’t be any nights out this week till Friday. I might hang around outside and read for a while. It might be good. It’s taken a while, I’ve been reading American Tabloid by James Ellroy for a week or so now and I’m finally getting into it. It’s not that it’s difficult to read, I just haven’t been following it as closely as it needs.

In other news; gah. Lunchtime was … interesting.

Josh: No, no, ’cause there’s the potential she’ll say no and then I’ll have to move someplace where it’ll never be spoken of again.

We had to admit defeat. Yesterday got the better of us. By the time the two of us who showed up tonight got onto a second pint it was a fight to keep the eyes open. So a couple in the Porterhouse (I was disappointed to find out that Vienna was for the winter season and not being served anymore) followed by just in the one in the Maple Leaf and back home by 9. Kinda shot the bank holiday weekend Saturday night plans to hell eh! The weather we had been promised didn’t show up. It was grey, cold and overcast with spots of rain all day. It wasn’t great and I got no reading done.

Well nevermind, yesterday was a good day. If for one factor alone, and one that we reminded ourselves of quite a bit. We were sitting on a boat on the Thames drinking beer in the sunshine and…it was a Friday afternoon. It did go on for a little longer than intended but it was good and we managed to cover a number of pubs throughout the day. Luckily enough there was some food a long the way (a nice pizza served by an even nicer waitress) and as it was all spread out, there was no hangover this morning. I think it in fact hit last night just before I went to bed and was gone by morning. This was a good thing. The sanding and painting and all the rest would have driven me over the edge had I been suffering the full effects of a hangover.

Some strange thoughts lately and some really weird dreams overnight. Really weird, I right now can’t remember then except in patches but I remember being a little disturbed and disoriented when I woke up. That’s kinda normal for me, the forgetting that is. I usually remember my dreams when I wake up and indeed I use to write them down. But give them a few hours and they are gone.

I suspect they were influenced by a conversation I had over dinner last night. The thought involved wasn’t a stranger to me of late but it did come a little out of left field. These things happen I guess. I don’t really know what else to say or think there. It’s just one of those things.

Something struck me last night while I was thinking about some other stuff. It’s been at least 6 months since I saw some people, possibly going on 8. In some cases it’s going on a year. Not necessarily a bad thing in all cases but in some, it’s not the best.

Do you ever clean out your phonebook? I don’t. I use my mobile mainly for all my numbers. It’s not idea but it’s handy and it means I always have numbers. I was flicking through it earlier today and I have a couple of numbers in there for a friend that isn’t with us anymore. I scroll past the numbers every now and again and in the odd times when I have been cleaning out my phone I’ve left them in there. Not for any useful reason i.e. I don’t call them, they may not even be numbers in use anymore, but just because I don’t want to delete them. Just one of those things I guess, but I’m not going to be deleting them anytime soon.

Been watching lots of Stargate over the past few days. Quite enjoyed them all too. Nothing special in any of them but some good fun and certainly nothing like as bad as I heard season 5 had been. I liked the ending of the season and I’m looking forward to the next. Unfortunately, I have no more to watch right now, I do have some 24 downloaded and ready to watch tomorrow. Not having much luck getting caught up on Angel. Missed a few episodes and it’s not as widely distributed as most other shows so it’s a stretch to catch up with.

I think tomorrow will be another sleeping late day. Katrina’s mother is staying with us tomorrow night and there has been painting going on. So there is quite a bit of tidying to get through. Gah that’s always fun. Ah well I guess I can’t complain, she at least has the sense (or indeed the chance) to leave the place when I have family over.

I don’t have anything else to say. I’m sitting here trying to find something else to write knowing that there is stuff, but it’s just not flowing. So here is a bad joke which amused me earlier today, for you all to appreciate.

Q: What’s the smartest thing to ever come out of a woman’s mouth?

A: Albert Einstein’s dick

damn spellcheckers!

damn people who decide to hoover and sand the floor outside my bedroom door at 9am!

At a slight update to my last entry

sunshine + bar on boat on river + good company = very good times.

Not got much else to talk about, I think that is for the best. I’m taking a memory lane trip now and I’m a little (a lot) unsure where it is leading to.

sunshine + riverside + beer = good times.