Apparently I’ve been a little weird lately. More so than usual. Or so I have just been told, but despite questioning I’ve not been told how so. I wonder if this is true, I certainly don’t think I can flat out dispute it, but I am curious to know in what way.
I wonder if this is subconsciously connected or indeed a conscious connection to some um … decisions or conclusions that I’ve come to recently.

I’m going to think about that and go watch Angel.

45 minutes later.
Well, that was cliched with some characters acting way out of themselves and a happy ending…and then boom. Even had I not known it was coming I don’t think I would have fallen for it, it was too fluffy and too easy. Roll on the next ep and the full Angelus.

So I wonder if specific things which have been bothering me and/or taking up a lot of my thinking shine through so much? I wonder how much of it can be traced back to thoughts about the inner person or indeed inner child.

Hmm I’m going to think about that and go watch Buffy.

45 minutes later.
Not a great episode overall, but had some really great moments. Some great acting from Adam Busch and a nice closure to the character of Warren. A good job from Aly Hannigan and indeed the writers for the Willow stuff. It actually worked pretty well.

Now that I think I’ve annoyed someone a little now at the least I am gonna go sleep. I was going to post a list of ten things going on but very cryptically. I guess I shall just leave it as; yes, Mary you were right about one important thing we talked about recently.

Alone in a crowded room

Last night. Well, lets start at the start. A rare offer of some beers came in from Shug ( ;p ) and we hit the pub for a couple of drinks. There was a big do on in a hotel up the road that some of the others were going to and the plan was to have some beers in the pub and move on to the bash. So, did just that. Met up with some people, went for a quick bit of food and then hit the hotel. Had missed Iain by quite a bit because we had spent too long in the pub but hooked up with the others ok.

Well, then it got interesting and jumps right back to the last post. The bash was a work thing…kinda whereby lots of people who do some stuff for us were all brought together. So there was about 5 people in the room who I knew and the rest were complete strangers. I didn’t do very well, the beer had not helped. Luckily enough I didn’t manage to offend anyone, but at one stage I think it was close. Some more beer and getting into the group containing three people I knew helped, but it was not great. Yes, I did meet some nice people, but I spent a while being completely lost and not able to leave for fear of being rude. It was not good.

Hence there is no way I’m going back for more tonight. I am considering a cinema visit. It can be summed by the following, P.T.Anderson, writer/director of Magnolia has a new movie out and I want to see it. Perhaps a walk to the Warner cinema in Fulham via that lovely pizza place at Earls Court I love. That sounds very very appealing, but having just checked with MapQuest (FQP), they are in fact nowhere near to each other. Perhaps just a hot dog and my local cinema.

I have some Buffy, Angel and 24 to watch aswell. I’m also thinking that I need to go out and get food soon and perhaps follow this with some sitting in Starbucks reading

It was a pretty shit week in work and I am very glad it is Saturday. Its not going to get any better straight away and that could cause even more problems. Nevertheless on Monday I’m going to see the Polyphonic Spree and on Wednesday I’m going to see Sigur Ros. I am eagerly anticipating both.

In other news, the kitchen is starting to all come together and will hopefully not take much longer and DareDevil starts next week. I know some people who have seen it over the past few days and the general consensus is that they did allright. Seen as these opinions are coming from comic book understanding people I am quite glad to hear it.

Hunter S. Thompson is inteviewed over at Salon. Anyone can now get into Salon Premium by watching a 15 second ad. I like this. It’s a good interview and you can read it here. Side note I’m almost finished the Laura Hamilton’s and I am eager to get cracking on Fear and Loathing ’72. Anyway back to the interview and touching on a topic I’ve read stuff from him about before, he says that the truth is ‘weired than any fiction’. I don’t think I can say I would out and out agree with him but I can appreciate the sentiment. Another thing he says about the truth kinda brings me nicely into a topic which has been on my mind for the day and will reverberate with a short recent posting; ‘Telling the truth is the easiest way; it saves a lot of time’

The V is of course made up of geniuses. It’s an accepted fact. There was a new thread yesterday in an attempt to balance this whereby you would declare three subjects in which you thought it would be good to know more about or have skill in which you were basically crap at, or had no knowledge.
This got me thinking and I entered my three:
– I cannot speak Irish fluently.
– I have very poor communication skills
– I have very little non proprietary technical know-how

The second one there was kinda replaced by something Jason listed. It’s word for word but I did localise the spelling, I just had to but it applies very much to me: “I’m utterly lost when needing to mix/socialise with a group of strangers. So very, very lost.”

The replies in the thread by others got me thinking about stuff too, so here is a longer list of things I am basically crap at.
– financial planning (also known as budgeting). I’m shit at it, it never works out.
– My handwriting is illegible.
– I am largely ignorant about politics anywhere in the world (past or present)
– I have less musical ability than a plank of wood. Well, that’s not quite true; I can play piano and the tin whistle and the flute. I have not in many many years and doubt I have any of it left. I use to be able to read very very basic sheet music. Now it all looks like gibberish. Put me in front of a piano for a few minutes I can probably play the theme tune from Indiana Jones but that’s it.
– Releated to this, I don’t know anything about the art of music. I don’t understand the stuff behind the songs or even in the songs. I don’t know if I really want to. Also I don’t know enough music, I can never know enough music.
– I know nothing about art. I know what I like when I see it, but that’s about it.
– Ditto for Architecture
– I cannot draw a straight line to save my life.
– I cannot cook to save my life.
– I do know my left from my right, but I have to think about it.
– My grammar is appalling.
– I dislike all vegetables
– I cannot sew or anything along those lines.
– Design skills. As you can see, I have none.
– I cannot drive. Although I intend to change this and the sooner the better.
– I find it almost impossible to ask for help and I hate doing it. For work stuff if it is something I know I can do or figure out I won’t ask till I have to. This can be fun for me around deadline times, but I prefer to just fucking do it and know I did it. For other stuff I just hate having to do it and will often delay what can be inevitable.
– I’ll put down that I’m shit at talking to girls I like, seen as that’s a given for the hetro guys posting in the thread.
– My willpower appears to have completely faded away
– I don’t always (often) think things fully through.
– I am often very reluctant to try new things. New food being notable in this category.
– Sometimes I just don’t know when to stop.
– I’m not exactly full of confidence. Sometimes I am but I have to be 100% sure I know what I’m doing (which I rarely am) or pretty sure I have a way to get whatever it is done.
– I never ever know what to say when someone passes away. Anything that runs through my head sounds so lame and insincere that I just can’t say it. Fuck, I hate the fact I had to just add this to the list.

And yes I’m sure you can add more to this list, thank you very much. It is not a comprehensive list and it of course leaves off the stuff I don’t want to admit to you or indeed to myself.
– – –
On whole other notes, I lost a game of chess today that should have been locked up by a very silly mistake. I won the later game leaving the score this week so far being 5 1/2 to me and 2 1/2 to Dave. I’m enjoying this a hell of a lot. I have some nice code stolen from Iain to add to the site at some stage.

This is so very pointless and a waste of time and money and effort but at the same time so very cool and inspiring and awesome:
The first notes in the longest and slowest piece of music in history, designed to go on for 639 years, are being played on a German church organ on Wednesday. The three notes, which will last for a year-and-a-half, are just the start of the piece, called As Slow As Possible.
First notes for 639-year composition.

And now as I’ve just ended up nice and depressed I am going to bed.

Quickly:

– V Pool good.
– Elbow Room bad.
– Skipping lunch having not had breakfast and then drinking beer for the night = bad.
– I am really shit at pool.
– Work is not fun at the moment.
– Iain is off this week not well, so no chance for lunch 🙁
– I’m tired, I need to be getting more sleep.
– I came to a conclusion the other night which I really don’t like. Somebody said something to me and it clicked.

Bah stalemates suck. That game was mine to win…or loose in this case.

Fuck.

Colin Powell’s opening line to the UN Security Council: “Security Council, I have this bundle of receipts here…”

Well not it wasn’t really, but it would have done (stolen from Tony on The V)

Right some stuff.

I have no idea right now who is mad with whom about what. I can’t even figure out who I am pissed off with other than myself. So there is just a little tension around the office.

Lunchtime yesterday was more chess. I won the first game, Dave took the second one easily and I took the third. I’m actually really happy with the third one, I didn’t play particularly well, but I managed to set myself up nicely to get out of a spot of bother and put some pressure on Dave. It worked really well and I’m going to see what I can do about working things like that again. It was a lot of fun. Allthough at one stage I must have spent five minutes thinking about a move. I had 5 pieces bunched uptogether on the top cornor. Whatever I did I was about to loose my queen. I had a pawn clear to his last row…and I never once thought hey thats a queen. Oops. Still it worked out, checked his king and took his queen leaving me in a much stronger position. It rocked.

Last night was Starsailor in The Astoria. I’m going to put some pages up for gigs I’ve been too over the next couple of days so more details there. It was allright, I was going to say nothing special but they did a run in from Lullaby into a cover of Where the Streets Have No Name which was pretty good. Other than that, a few new songs, a couple of really good versions of album songs and then the rest of the songs just played well. I enjoyed it, my ears are still ringing, but I wouldn’t be in a rush to go and see them again. Support acts were all noteworthy; Hope of the States, 22-20s and Nada Surf.

Michael Jackson is enjoying quite a renaissance in the office the past couple of days. Bille Jean has just been calling out to everyone and man does it rock. It is one of those songs that I just cannot stay still while its playing. Fuck, it is no way hard to see why Thriller is the biggest selling album of all time. This stuff is just amazing.

– – – –
From a NASA mailing list.

Feb. 4th, 2003: At the dawn of the space age some 40 years ago, we always
knew who was orbiting Earth or flying to the Moon. Neil Armstrong, Yuri
Gagarin, John Glenn. They were household names–everywhere.
Lately it’s different. Space flight has become more “routine.” Another
flight of the shuttle. Another visit to the space station. Who’s onboard
this time? Unless you’re a NASA employee or a serious space enthusiast,
you might not know.

Dave Brown, Rick Husband, Laurel Clark, Kalpana Chawla, Michael Anderson,
William McCool, and Ilan Ramon

Now we know. Those are the names of the seven astronauts who were
tragically lost on Saturday, Feb. 1st, when the space shuttle Columbia
(STS-107) broke apart over Texas.

Before the accident, perhaps, they were strangers to you. But if that’s
so, why did you have a knot in your gut when you heard the news? What were
those tears all about? Why do you feel so deep-down sad for seven
strangers?

Astronauts have an unaccountable hold on us. They are explorers. Curious,
humorous, serious, daring, careful. Where they go, they go in peace. Every
kid wants to be one. Astronauts are the essence of humanity.

They are not strangers. They are us.

While still in orbit Dave Brown asked, jokingly, “do we really have to
come back?”

No. But we wish you had.

The Science@NASA team, as does all of NASA and the world, extends
heartfelt sympathies to the family, friends and colleagues of the STS-107
crew. Please see the NASA Home Page (http://www.nasa.gov) for more
information on the Columbia Investigation.

–Tony Phillips, Ron Koczor, Bryan Walls, Becky Bray, Patrick Meyer.

A short list of things currently going right/well:

That is all.

Well except for this;
In a brief passage titled “Where Are the Real Space Aliens?” Bush’s budget document released today says several important scientific discoveries in the past decade indicate that “habitable worlds” in outer space may be much more prevalent than once thought.
Where are the Real Space Aliens?