words XXIV

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.

***

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.

***

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

Jesus, I’m getting old.
I just used the phrase “That’s so sweet” and there was no sarcasm involved, I meant it.

shit.

***

On the other side I just got a little bit of good news which does in fact make me feel a little better…not by much but a little.

And tonight is a drinks night. One of the guys I use to work with way back in Dublin 3 years ago is returning to the fold. So tonight we welcome him back to this shithole.

Then home to get my computer fixed for good with everything back up to date and hopfully working as intended.

– Laptop problems hopefully all solved. Brought it into work, backed stuff up and cleared it. Going to make sure my drivers et al are installed in the right order.
– weather got cold but is looking good again.
– flatmate gone to Rome till Monday.
– Hail to The Thief is right this moment rocking my world. I am annoyed I could not listen to it last night. My conversion to a normal audio cd did not work very well.
– I’m really enjoying SG1. I’ve been catching up on some old (but unwatched) DVD’s again and they are good solid fun.
– One of the guys in work met a nice new girl and it’s going well. Catch being she does not drink (could live with that) and is a strict vegetarian. Ouch, not a good combination. But survivable I guess.
– I’m reading a book about the making of a hardcore porno movie. It’s very funny and well worth checking out (only an Amazon link). It had me laughing a lot on the bus to work the past couple of days.
– I have to get everything clean before Saturday morning, luckly I have the excuse that we are still having work done downstairs.
– Doing well(ish) on Blog Shares. Hope to do better out of the current crash.

And now the WEF is really back for 12 hours only.

It’s going quarter to two. I’ve been caught out once so far. It is true I could have been caught out many times and not yet realise it but I was got good once. There was a thread on the V this morning linking to what claimed to be a torrent for a work in progress screener of The Matrix: Reloaded. Suffice it to say I clicked it rapidly. I was wondering why the download only took a couple of seconds. Well it was just a text file with the name April Fools. So, yes I was got good and I should have known better, but as Iain did point out, it could have been worse. I could have ended up downloading donkey p0rn.

Blog Shares has been providing me with some amusement for today. It’s good fun so far and I’m not doing too badly.

I went out for that little walk earlier, not much of a walk but it was good to be out in the air for a while. I grabbed some food and read for a while. It was all good. Instinct is an interesting thing. I had a thought a few weeks ago which seemed to be a little out there and hit the nail on the head at the same time. The same thought struck me while I was out walking and I’m thinking that instead of dismissing it out of hand like I did, that in fact I’m going to do a complete 180 and go with it. It certainly changes a few things and something which despite the fact it could (and is more than likely) be 100% wrong, perhaps assuming it is true would be a good thing.

Watched some new SG1 tonight. Nothing really great but some solid enough stuff to keep me entertained. Just finished watching West Wing which was very enjoyable. I just wish they would show it at a better time which I am sure to catch.

Music wise, I need some light music at the moment. Ryan Adams has had a few listens and REM’s last Reveal but I still have this urge to listen to something new and light and something which I don’t have and indeed can’t put my finger on. I guess I shall just keep going.

Reading wise, I got through well over 150 pages today which is good because this morning was I looking at the book and realising that I wasn’t sure I really wanted to read the last 250 odd pages. So now with it down to less than 100, I am looking forward to finishing it and moving on.

I’m working from home in the morning which isn’t ideal but I don’t really have any choice. Hopefully they will come and go early in the morning. Seen as a lot has happened over the past few days and my boss is back from holiday in the morning, I expect there to be some major catch-up all around. There is also quite a deadline for early next week and we could be very rushed to get all of that done. Hopefully not but ya never know.

We use a piece of software in work called Meeting Maker. It’s very self explanatory, it’s used to invite people to meetings and book locations (or dial in numbers) for them. Increasingly I use it to keep track of my personal life aswell. When I know there is something specific going on, I’ll note it down and label it private. But it’s getting to the stage where I want to be able to access this anywhere. Unfortunately I can’t sync it with my PDA, they are not yet compatible and I can’t use the handy publish to web feature as there is too much information about work meetings in there. So I guess I am just going to have to stop and use something. I’ve sorta used AOL calendar on and off but not certain it does exactly what I need it to.

I don’t think I have anything going on this week, which to be honest would be good. Some quiet time at home reading would really work. The weekend should also be quiet too, my mom and sister are coming over to stay. It’s is Kate’s 18th birthday so she is getting a trip to London to go shopping. Shit, NOTE TO SELF; get her a present. So there will be dinner out or something like that I expect. My flatmate is away, she is off to Rome for a few days on Wednesday which would be really nice. Someday I want to be able to just drop everything and go off to somewhere nearby for a weekend break. Yes, sure I know that in theory I can do that now without many problems but that’s only in theory.

Hmm that kinda leads me onto something else. Well, probably only in the logic which falls for mine but … sometimes, and perhaps even all the time it’s easier to type out your thoughts. I know that in general it is for me here, but obviously there is a lot of things I leave out. But this goes for im too. I was talking to a friend in the US late one night last week and we were typing in mid-conversation she rang my mobile so that we could talk instead. Uh uh, it just wasn’t happening. The conversation wasn’t going to continue over the phone and about 30 seconds later the phones were down and we were still typing away at each other. I don’t think I explained that very well to her at the time but maybe I have now.

Do you ever feel like being selfish? Not necessarily going out of your way to be selfish but just that perhaps for a change it might be nice to put yourself first? I’m having that feeling more and more of late in a number of situations. I don’t think that it’s unfair and selfish isn’t the right word (well it is, but it isn’t at the same time). I never know what to do though. I guess it all works out at the end of the day, but it rarely feels like it does. I don’t know.

I don’t understand. I was chatting with a friend earlier today about domain names. he was annoyed that his .co.uk domain had been registered as a .com domain by someone else. I was giving him grief about complaining and he said perhaps he would register my .net domain as a .com. Well, it got me thinking and indeed got me over to register.com and unfortunately idontunderstand.com is already registered or I would have picked it up this afternoon. I’ve been thinking about some other domain names for a while but it’s just something I never really got around to. Sometime in the future I think.

The WEF is no longer open and all messages have been deleted.

No comment so far, but this on Die Puny Humans

Woke up early this morning as planned and got myself a Glastonbury ticket. Then promptly went back to sleep.

It is another beautiful day out and I intend to take adavantage of this again. I think another walk somewhere would be good. I really have to get some food too. Then tonight the plan is a very quiet night at home in front of the TV before back to work tomorrow. However having said that, it’s all changed a little. It seems that we may have some gas problems in the utility room. So seen as my flatmate is away I’ll be hanging around in the morning for the British Gas engineer to check it out.

I want to get some reading done aswell, I seem to be slipping back into books. I want to finish off the readable but not very good Tami Hoag crime book I’m reading and jump into the pile of about 50 books beside my bed waiting for my attention. Some of them, I am really looking forward to. Might sit in the park and read but I’ve never been very good at that for some reason. I prefer sitting in a coffee shop or as the thought has just struck a beer garden somewhere. Hmm the pub down the road has a garden out back. Or then again I shall more than likely wander for a bit and end up in the Starbucks across the bridge.

The WEF just re-opened. A slightly in advance April Fools Day event. Wow

Today was a little strange. I was talking to a friend online last night until late. 4:30 in the end as the clocks changed over for Daylight Savings Time. I slept until about 10am this morning and then I remember being awake and looking at my clock. Next I know it’s 2pm. I guess I nodded off again. I decided that I needed to go out for a while, the sun was shining and it was a beautiful day so I thought I would walk towards Sloane Square along the river and then wander back along King’s Road. And you know what? I did exactly that. It was pretty much the first day of summer as far as I’m concerned. I was walking along the river, I needed my sunglasses, there was the smell of freshly cut grass and I had some good music going. How much more summer can you get?

It was all good, I walked through some of the parks and by the water and it was nice. It was a good place to get lost in my thoughts. Or perhaps to even find my way in my thoughts. Not really sure how that turned out. I think I was walking pretty much like a zombie for most of the time, something I do tend to do every now and again and combined with the music and shades I was so in a world of my own. It was good I guess.

The music was also good (to say the least): The Essential Clash. I have to admit there seems to be a huge gap in my music knowledge here. I knew a number of these tracks, but I had no idea who they were and none that they were all by the same band. So that kept me going and indeed I’m listening to it right now.

Met up with a friend and we decided to go and see a movie. The timing was bad for what we wanted. So we booked tickets for a late show and then headed around to Riley’s to play some snooker for a change. Jesus we were shit. Really really shit. I’ve never played on a full size table before and they are fucking big tables. It was really tough to get use to and neither of us really did. It didn’t help that we were not sure on the rules and we ended up just playing a couple of games in general. Good fun tho, and something to bear in mind for the future.
And then the cinema, The Rules of Attraction was the pick for tonight. I enjoyed it a lot. It was like 10 short somewhat interrelated pieces put together and done with style. It was funny and in places (you had to look hard) touching. Having said that, the suicide scene was quite harrowing and somewhat uncomfortable to watch. All in all, well worth seeing.

Last week Radiohead announced details of their forthcoming sixth album Hail to the Thief. As it turns out preview copies were sent out aswell. Seen as we live in such a modern age and as the electric internet is everywhere, these copies have turned up online. 14 files of hopefully wonderful goodness. Now of course, the live recordings of some of these songs have been around for over two years, but that’s not what I want. I want to hear the clear and crisp studio tracks and then the live tracks. I’m really looking forward to seeing them in Dublin in a few weeks and I shall be stopping off on my way to work to pick up the album on it’s release date.