Month: April 2003

fuck. fuck. fuck. I’m going to leave it at that, otherwise I would get in trouble. I shouldn’t be made to feel like this.

Dave stomped my ass in chess yesterday (and well!), totalling the day at 3.5 games to 0.5. Not good, I managed a little better today with it going 2 games to 1 for me. Hopefully tomorrow will continue the same way.

Went to the pub for the actual last day of one of the guys in work. It was an interesting night, the cute girl who I neglected to mention I met (and got on well with) last week was there and we got on well again. hmmmm, nah ’tis all in my head I’m sure.

There comes a time when you just have to back off and acknowledge that your opponent has you. Those are the times where he or she gets a point and you just have to respect that. I was got good tonight, real good.

I don’t want to go to work tomorrow.

Shooting on Spider-Man 2 begins on Friday. Whoo hoo 🙂

The Matrix: Reloaded opens in just under 6 weeks. I actually think this could be the first sequel (excluding LOTR which is really just one long movie) which might just not disapoint. Holy Shit!. After I wrote this, I stumbled on this article

Todays listening has been Sigur Ros live in Hammersmith and it’s just so very awesome.
God I wish I understood music, I want to be able to be this piece. I want to understand it all, it’s not enough to love it, I want to be it.

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I HATE the word “unloaded”. It’s really fucking badly phrased and really fucking bad that it had to be just in the first place. Don’t children get to mean anything anymore? One side sends off it’s 19 year old girls to be taken prisoner of war and then unloads UNLOADs a fucking machine gun into a 10 year old? I mean jesus christ, what the fuck?

KERBALA, Iraq, April 7 (Reuters) – When a young Iraqi boy stooped to pick up a rocket propelled grenade off the body of a dead paramilitary, U.S. Army Private Nick Boggs made a tough call.

He unloaded machinegun fire and the boy, whom he puts at about 10 years old, fell dead on a garbage-strewn stretch of waste land

US troops face children, and hard calls, in battle
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It looks like JJ72 will be doing several of the festivals aswell. This just gets better and better.

Reading has confirmed Metallica and Blur as headliners with a sizeable number of noteable support acts. Mail has been sent to the usual suspects.

I find it funny to note the growing numbers of people with private/secret/hidden blogs. I have the urge (and perhaps even the motivation) to make some changes around here. I don’t quite know what yet.

I don’t want to blog anything more about the war. I do want to note that today I read about or watched footage of the incidents involving various BBC reporters and crews. They made me sad.

Check this out, it is well worth the read. For those of you whose immediate thought is of the “tii”s in AA like mine was, worry not and keep reading The Adventures of AccordionGuy in the 21st Century | The New Girl. Ah the joys of the interwebnet. A well written, humorous, sad, scary and true story.

But as always, a blunt soldier, in the 3 ID (infantry division) said it best on Thursday when asked what he thought about the Iraqis tactics in response to U.S. methods, “Well we have all the firepower, technology and airpower,” he said. “I cannot blame them for fighting this way, they have to find a way to respond.”

Daily Kos

It’s about fucking time. Thank you.

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There seems to be a common theme in different areas of my life at the moment. I think I first really noticed it last week, but it was something I’ve been expecting for a while actually. So while I don’t really think that using a Radiohead lyric to title my post the other day foreshadowed this thought so much as defined it.

there’s a gap where we meet / where i end and you begin

– memento mori
– I hope the weather is good tomorrow, I would enjoy another day like today.
– Oh it turns out a day I had booked off work is actually a bank holiday, so I don’t need to use a holiday up.
– I have no idea what to do about an actual holiday for this year. Not sure it will happen at all.
– Age is so much more than just a number.
– I know suspect I misheard or was lied to. I think either are possible.
– Parts of Battersea park have just reopened after being done up. They looked nice, I shall have to have a better look.
– “friend cull” is a concept that comes back to me every now and again that while I don’t understand, I do…just a little.
– I have no idea what to say to people I don’t know. I hate it. I really hate it.
– computer is still fucked. I think I shall give it one more try again and then just give up and live without sound if I have to.

I eagerly await the day where I can just think something and the essence of the thought will appear on screen and as you read it, you fully grasp my meaning and intent. I just can’t place into words what I’m thinking. I wish I could, then it might make a little more sense to me. Or perhaps it already makes too much sense to me. Damn you brain.

Lots going in here recently. It’s kinda strange I’ve been talking to a friend tonight and as it’s going on 2:30am she has been reminding me that I should be going sleeping. But I don’t want to, aside from not being sleepy (although that is changing by the second) I have an urge to type here and then once that is done I can go and sleep.

I did note with a lot of interest today that Donnie Darko is showing in Fulham Warner Village on Monday evening. I do really want to see it again and I might see if I can round up any of the troops and go see it.

Guess it’s sleep time now. Going to sleep in late in the morning.

Family were due in around 11:30 this morning. I had planned to wander through the park and meet them at Victoria station when they got there. Of course at 10:15 I get a call saying they will be there in 25 minutes and are running well ahead of schedule. So a very quick shower was called for and a fast walk through to park to make it to meet them. Collected them and got them back to the flat no problem.

It’s been an absolutely beautiful day and I was not going to let it go to waste (despite fighting off a hangover). Figured I would head into town and enjoy the weather. I also figured that it was about time I saw some stuff in London. Having been talking to Dave and John about some of the museums around London yesterday I thought it was a good time to start and if I started with the Tate Modern. Seen as this was a bit of a walk along side Embankment I thought I would wander along there for a while and then into the museum. Well, that was the plan.

Of course this ran into a couple of minor snags. The first being I thought I knew where the Tate was and I set off to walk to it. After about 40 minutes walking I realised that it didn’t seem to be where I thought it was. When I came off Westminster bridge, I should have turned left and not right. So I did a 180 and walked back the way I had come. Another 40 minutes later and I made it. Oops, it wasn’t ideal but the sun was shining and the music was going well.

Spent an hour or so in there wandering around, a couple of things struck me, in particular Cold Dark Matter – An Exploded View (online here) which blew me away when I walked into the room. That I could go back and see again, it was very impressive not to mention striking. I shall be going back aswell as walking along the river again there and I want to make sure I do the V&A aswell as the Natural History museum in the near future.

Wandered across the Millennium bridge and grabbed a bus by St. Paul’s back into the city centre to get some food. Hit Borders to pick up NME and Comic Showcase for the latest issues of Alias and Daredevil as they both end arcs and I didn’t want to wait for the next time I was going to make it into Gosh…which more than likely will be another few weeks. Neither issue was stunningly great, but they ended their arcs well and set up events to come in both issues.

London can be a very small city, as I was browsing in Borders I ran into a couple of the V regulars and boy I really do need to work on my social skills with people I don’t know very well. Really really need to work on it.

Other than that, it has been a good day for taking my mind off things. I realised whilst walking late in the afternoon and I had manged to loose myself completly in the day and nothing else mattered. It was pretty good 🙂

Never got any of the tidying I should have done, but I’m still covered by the we have builders in and out working on lots of rooms and a new kitchen so not having any food in and hving the place in a state had to be accepted at face value (result!).

Going to spent the night doing nothing I expect, perhaps watching some more SG1 and of course CSI is on at 9. Then I shall aimlessly surf the interwebnet for a while and see what’s going on.

I dislike being ignored at the best of times. But I really dislike and am very annoyed about is being ignored about things in work. When I say something on behalf of my department or I make a request on behalf of my department, I don’t expect to be ignored. I certainly don’t expect the request to be ignored and then to find out that exactly what I said was not to be done, was done. I’m very annoyed over that. I think I am entitled to be annoyed as all fuck about that.

I am exceptionally annoyed at myself for walking past someone this evening and not even noticing. Still I am SO very glad I didn’t say what I was thinking even though it took effort. However it is worth noting that when you walk down the street and walk past the cute girl who you have a tiny (ahem) crush on and not notice her… it’s time to stop drinking.

Work stuff is interesting, my door pass stopped working this evening, I had a moments panic. I wonder if they found out what I’ve done and I have in fact been fired. That would suck. I guess I shall have to get a new one on Monday morning.

Embarrassing incident #101 this week. On Wednesday I was thinking, you know I’ve not changed my password in a while, perhaps I should do that. It’s a good thing to change every now and again. So I give it some thought and pick something and I change my password. Everything is fine. Thursday morning I come into work, boot up my pc and try and sign on to grab my mail. Of course I type in my old password having been use to it for a while now. I am denied access, as I am glad to know when I realise what I typed in. The thought then strikes; I have no idea what my new password is. Not a single clue. I think it’s related to something pretty current (at least related in my mind) but I can’t get it. I must have tried about 20 different things and I got nothing. So anyway I figure at this stage there is nothing I can do but pick up the phone. Two minutes later, I’m online changing my temporary password to something which I will remember and just a little embarrassed.

I managed to win a single game of pool tonight but only because my opponent knocked the white off the table as he potted the black. I lost at least 6 last night and probably the same again tonight. It’s not been good. Yes, a few were doubles and no I wasn’t playing all that badly, but it just wasn’t working. I take some solace in a really good win at chess yesterday (checkmated Dave without him noticing) and two solid if unspectacular wins today.

Hail to the Thief is rocking my world more and more every time I listen to it.

Tonight, I ended up down the pub for a leaving do which I had completely forgotten about. One of the guys on my extended team is leaving us and so we had to have a couple. It was kinda strange, it was not the normal gang by any means. Well, it was, as in the usual last few but it was a lot of new people too, which is always nice.

With a bit of luck I’m about to do well out of a second crash on Blog Shares today, this one could do me really well. We shall have to see. I’m expecting the share price to drop from $135 to about $20 and I hope to make a few hundred on the cheap shares. Now if it would only go down so I could then sign off and go get some sleep.

I’m a little lost about some stuff and I just don’t know what to do. By a little, I mean a lot and in fact, I’m very lost. *sigh* All part of the real world I guess.

Dublin, Ireland, circa 1950: A couple have a young baby. It’s not doing too well, it has come down with what seems to be a bad case of flu. The mother calls their doctor, she’s very worried about the kid. The doctor promises to come around. Later that evening there is a knock at the door. The mother opens the door to find a black man standing there. He says “Good evening, I’m Dr xxxx. I believe you have a sick baby.” The mother slams the door in his face with the words “No sick baby here”.

Dublin Ireland, circa 2003: A granddaughter is back at home for a couple of weeks and she goes to see her grandmother. She brings her photo album to show her grandmother some photos from the past few months of her life. Being a dutiful grandchild she either takes no notice or chooses not to comment when her grandmother says “who is that nig…person with you in the photos”.

I heard the first story from my dad in Dublin a few trips ago. I heard the last story the last time I was in Dublin, from my dad. I really don’t know what to say to either of them. Well, the first one made me laugh, I don’t think I can quite put my finger on it, but I guess it’s the image of the person in question slamming the door shut that made me laugh. I don’t like either story, I really don’t. The first I can understand to a degree aswell as being in the 1950’s, it was in Dublin. The latter I just don’t like at all.

Another story, perhaps to add a little context to the understanding of Dublin in the 50’s. 1998 I believe it was. I had a friend over from Canada for a few days (there is a much bigger story here, those of you that know it, I’m talking about RC). We were out showing him the sights in Dublin and generally having a good time (man do I have some great photos of that night) but we were driving along the quays in the heart of the city. My friend notices something out the window and leans forward. He says “Fuck, there is another one, let me out so we can start a revolution”. (Pretty much word for word). He’s spotted another black man. Dublin has changed alot, but until the past 5 years (and still going), the term cosmopolitan did not apply.

I was reminded of those stories on the way home tonight. I don’t really know what I think about them, I’m not in a good position to think anything about them. I just don’t know.

On other notes, I got the chance to briefly catch-up with a friend who I’ve not talked to in months this afternoon which was really good. It wouldn’t be accurate to say she is someone who I have had a crush on for a long time, but I can safely say I have a soft spot for her. She’s a great person (and yes quite cute).

Today’s word of the day
marginalize (also -ise)
t verb [with OBJ.] treat (a person, group, or concept) as insignificant or peripheral: higher education continues to exclude and marginalize female students | [as ADJ.] (marginalized.) members of marginalized cultural groups.—DERIVATIVES marginalization noun.

For some unknown reason, I almost never mange to use “you’re” when I should and it always ends up as “your”. I do know about it and I had thought about it earlier today before someone pointed it out to me in a recent post. I can also almost never spell the word “completely” correctly, the spellchecker gets it for me most times.

Oh and the crash just happened, and the price dropped to $18. Suffice it to say I got myself a few at that price. This could work out really well. Should I be able to make a few hundred on that and cash in the stuff I made from the others, we might be looking good for some blue chip stocks. Don’t look at me like that, I know I’m addicted.

Sleep now, tis in need. More tomorrow perhaps.

I had to let the builder in at 7:45 this morning. Suffice it to say I made it into work early.

Sigur Ros are playing at Glastonbury. Now I am now looking forward to this so much more. Radiohead, R.E.M. and now Sigur Ros on the same bill 🙂

I finished Once More with Feeling last night. Quite enjoyed it overall, I wouldn’t go as far as to label it “charmingly inoffensive” as the blurb on the back does, but it was a good read and made me laugh. The description of one of the authors falling for one of their porn stars is done well, but it is conveyed more than words ever could in the smile on her face in a photo taken with him. Man, that smile just makes her look stunning and it’s so very sweet. (Yes I know, that is twice).

I started reading Everything’s Eventual by Stephen King this morning. It’s his latest collection of short stories, the first one in a long time. I think I’ve mentioned this before but I love his introductions. I love the way that in the first few lines he manages to make a connection with his “constant reader”. I’ve never seen better writing from him. I was reading it on the bus this morning heading into work and I found myself wishing that the entire book was just one long introduction. I didn’t really care what he was writing about, it was done so very well and connected instantly. That’s an impressive thing for an author. I really really have to pick up his On Writing at some stage. Looking forward to getting into the stories themselves, they can be often hit or miss, but when they hit….boy you’re in for a good time.

I hate hate hate the fact that a 19 year old girl can be called a prisoner of war. I know it’s not a very pc thing to say but I hate that a country would send 19 year old girls off to fight in a war. I hate it, it’s a shit world we live in.

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On the war front, I continue to be astounded that anyone can show outrage at anything Iraqi troops or civilians do. Their country has been invaded by an overwhelming force which they can’t win with strength, technology or numbers. So why not use anything and everything at your disposal? When your fighting for survival against odds like that, what else are you suppose to do? You do what you can to survive.

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I don’t really feel like writing anything else, everything pretty much pales in comparison..