I left work wanting to go out and do something tonight. Nothing in particular, just do something. There isn’t anything I want to see in the cinema until the weekend so I left it.
I was thinking about watching the Michael Jackson interview special thingy. I just flicked to it on the tv and Bille Jean was playing. That got me hooked. Man this is so awesome already. They just raced cars around Neverland and now moonwalking lessons followed by tree climbing.
Salon.com Technology | Embrace file-sharing, or die
Excellent piece on filesharing and record companies. Well worth a read.
Welcome to the 48th century. Yesterday was the first day of the Chinese New Year, in this case the Ram. There were some things going on in town all day today so I headed in for a little while. There was a fireworks display schedule for Leicester Square at 2pm so I figured I would catch that and wander around taking some photos. I did just that.
Just before the fireworks kicked off, there was an announcement that they would be very loud and those people in Leicester square should cover their ears. Of course this was laughed off, fireworks are not that loud when they are fired off. Well, I can only imagine the smile on the face of the person who lit them off. Thousands of firecrackers went off and fuck me were they loud. Hung around, took a few photos (nothing great) grabbed some comics and headed home.
I neglected to mention that yesterday I did in fact walk to the comic shop. It was a little amusing. I had decided to get the bus cause I was feeling lazy. But it just went past me as I came out of my place. So I figured what the fuck, I would walk. About a mile up the road as I’m just about to get to the comic shop the same bus has to stop to let me cross at the zebra crossing. And even better as I wasn’t feeling 100% and it was uphill I had not been walking at my normal pace. It amused and pleased me. Got some good stuff, notably the third Queen and Country volume, Captain Marvel # 5, some of Peter David at his best and the excellent X-Force Hardcover.
I rented a couple of movies aswell, Not Another Teen Movie was vaguely amusing and did provide a nice hour and a half distraction. So this afternoon I walked up to Blockbuster to return it. Then I headed into Starbucks and spent a couple of hours in there listening to the Spree and reading. It was nice and relaxed and quiet. It was good 🙂 It has left me in a surprisingly good mood.
I was talking (phone) to a friend last night and we didn’t really talk about much, we just caught up on some stuff and took the piss out of each other. It was fun. The night before I was talking (AIM) to her and we talked about stuff too. I hold her partially responsible for some of the thoughts about changing some stuff that I am thinking.
Related to that; red may have just become my new favourite colour. I have an idea. It might take a while to sort out, scratch that. It will take a while to sort out but why not?
There is an ad showing these days for Vodafone’s picture messaging / camera phone service. Its a really simple ad. A guy and a girl go out, he walks her home. Once she is through her door, he goes to the bus stop to go home. It obviously went well as you see the girl looking happy and making cup of coffee. She takes out her phone and uses it to take a photo of the mug of coffee, then sends him the photo. He get it while standing at the bus stop and goes back to her place for coffee. It is just a really sweet ad and a really good way of showing the advantages of photo messaging, etc.
I’m going to four gigs in the next two weeks. That is gonna be about £80 on t-shirts. I have this thing now where I get a t-shirt at every gig I go to, and a programme if they are available. Just something to remember it by I guess and I like it. I am really looking forward to the next couple of weeks, a lot of cool stuff going on in my personal life.
On a whole other note; I sent an email to my LCS last night requesting some orders. Some stuff I had been lax in order and wasn’t pre-ordering till the third issue or so. That is bad and I’m usually good at telling them what I want. It is easier for them to order and it makes sure I get what I want. I did find out and note with interest that if they don’t know anything about a comic (and we were talking in terms of Marvel) they order 10 for the shelf and see how it goes. It must be really tough with Marvel not providing any info in Previews. I’m usually good about knowing what I want and not picking stuff from Previews or off the shelf. Although I had been bad and missed CSI which I picked off the shelf yesterday. (It was hit and miss, dialogue seemed very off but the Ashley Wood forensic artwork was really excellent). Anyway I got an email back from them today, letting me know they had managed to order it all and not to worry about stuff like that as I am one of their best customers. It made me smile.
Right something that has been on my mind since yesterday. George W. Bush’s speech about the loss of Columbia. I don’t know if he wrote it himself, if he did he gained a little bit of respect. I would like to have seen it in full because I have seen it called moving and emotional in many places but he looked almost bored and certainly uncaring in the clips I saw of the first moments. I have read the full text of it (here) and it started really well. It is a moving speech and indeed a rallying cause the language used is sad and mournful but at the same time determined and hopeful. I do intend to stream the entire thing in work tomorrow, as I really do hope that he did a good job of it. They deserved no less.
However towards the end of the speech it went all religious and it was for one thing quite a big change from the tone of the speech so far. Actually I think I’m going to stop there and even apologise. Reading the MeFi thread at the moment leads me to believe I should in fact watch the speech and then perhaps I shall revisit this.
I know I’ve said a lot about the subject and I suspect there will be more but I beg your indulgence for a couple of more lines.
“They believed in what they were doing.”
Bill Readdy. NASA
Buzz Aldrin captured it this morning. He tried to read a poem about astronauts on television. He read these words: “As they passed from us to glory, riding fire in the sky.” And tough old Buzz, steely-eyed rocket man and veteran of the moon, began to weep.
Peggy Noonan.
Wall Street Journal Editorial Page
Saturday, February 1, 2003 3:38 p.m. EST
I woke up this morning and turned on the tv. As I flicked to channel 5, the news was on. They had a video showing the remains of one of the astronauts helmets found in a field in Texas. It was a really shit way to start the day.
In Warren Ellis’ blog he says: James Oberg on BBC: “Human remains are being picked up across north-east Texas”
The loss of the shuttle Columbia today was a tragedy, and yes it was a tragedy for America. But it was a tragedy for the world too. Curiosity alone has driven mankind to the stars, the shuttle was carrying an Indian, an Israeli and 5 Americans back from the International Space Station. Space does not belong to America, its exploration belongs to mankind. I am very glad to see that in his speech this afternoon, George W. Bush said:
The cause in which they died will continue. Mankind is led into the darkness beyond our world by the inspiration of discovery and the longing to understand. Our journey into space will go on.
The loss is more than a shuttle and 7 brave astronauts, the loss is our faith in space exploration. We cannot allow this loss to stop us moving forward, we cannot allow hope to be lost. Mars is next, people should not just be walking on Mars within my lifetime, they should be living on Mars, hell there should be people living on the moon.
One day we will go to the stars.
A CHILD’S DREAM OF SPACE [Rod Dreher]
I was deeply moved to learn this morning that Ilan Ramon, the Israeli astronaut killed on the Columbia this morning, had taken into space with him a drawing made by a child in a Nazi concentration camp. It was the child’s conception of what Earth looks like from the moon. That drawing survived the Holocaust and its aftermath, and was kept in Yad Vashem, Israel’s national Holocaust memorial site. Now it has perished, along with Ramon and six others, on its way back from space.
Think about that drawing: that Jewish child lived in a death camp, yet he was still able to dream of space, and these dreams no doubt brought that child some small measure of comfort in a world overwhelmed by tragedy, suffering and loss. My own son Matthew, who is three, told his grandmother on the phone this morning, almost cheerfully, “The space shuttle Columbia blew up, but that’s okay, because they’re going to build another one.” He’s on the floor now playing with some kind of foam lawn dart he’s turned into a rocket. “Five, four, three, two, one…blast off!” he keeps saying. Even this morning, he’s still going on, as he has been for the past couple of months (when he first became obsessed with Neil Armstrong) about how he wants to be an astronaut.
Kids and their deathless dreams. God bless them”
Holocaust-era Art from Yad Vashem’s Collection sent into space with Israeli Astronaut.
Man, that really sucks.
Below is Richard Nixon’s prepared speech in case the Apollo XI crew was lost. (via Instapundit).
Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace.
These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, know that there is no hope for their recovery. But they also know that there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice.
These two men are laying down their lives in mankind’s most noble goal: the search for truth and understanding.
They will be mourned by their families and friends; they will be mourned by their nation; they will be mourned by the people of the world; they will be mourned by a Mother earth that dared send two of her sons into the unknown.
In their exploration, they stirred the people of the world to feel as one; in their sacrifice, they bind more tightly the brotherhood of man.
In ancient days, men looked at stars and saw their heroes in the constellations. In modern times, we do much the same, but our heroes are epic men of flesh and blood.
Others will follow, and surely find their way home. Man’s search will not be denied. But these men were the first, and they will remain the foremost in our hearts.
For every human being who looks up at the moon in the nights to come will know that there is some corner of another world that is forever mankind.