Fade out again

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.