words XXIV

I went to see Buffalo Soldiers last night. It wasn’t bad at all. It’s a shame it got delayed for so long and is now categorised as an indie. Having three trailers before hand for foreign movies was funny. Anyway I enjoyed the movie, it made me laugh. This is a good thing. Great cast, Ed Harris was excellent as was Joaquin Phoenix and Anna Paquin was cute as ever.

I got home around 11:30 and only realised this morning that I missed The Shield so I’m a little annoyed about that. On Monday night I started Shutter Island; the new Dennis Lehane novel. It started off slow but built up really well. I was completely hooked by the time I read a few more pages on the bus going into town last night. So much so that when I got home I stayed up reading till I was finished. Best ending of a book that I’ve read in a long time. Within a few pages everyone you care about in the book changes and changes well. Great ending, absolutely satisfying. Great author.

Just received this email:

> Subject: Emergency…
> Date: 06/08/2003, 10:49
> From: Richard
> To: lots of people
>
> The Great British Beer Festival is on. Now. In Olympia. A mere 2 mins
> walk away.
>
> Anyone fancy a pint, or twenty, tonight?
>
>
> —
> Richard

Guess that’s the plan for tonight then. Some German white beer would go down a treat
, or maybe even some cider.

I was thinking last night about something. I find it very hard to explain why I like something. There was a(nother) thread on a board I visit about your favourite novels, list them and explain why. The listing part I can do but I can’t often tell you why. I often just fall back on something like “I really enjoyed it”, a phrase you have seen here many times I’m sure. Anyway, it’s just one of those things I guess.

Interesting lines of thought last night, touching back on a topic from a few days ago. I don’t even know how to approach it, I’m actually thinking that I don’t want to at all but it was strangely circular. I think I’ll just stand by my words last night: “No, I don’t give a fuck and you shouldn’t either”.

Hafssol by Sigur Ros is an unusual track. It begins with the bass guitarist strumming his guitar with a drum stick. The lead guitarist plays his electric guitar with a bow string as usual and then sings in Icelandic while the string quartet pluck their, well their strings. Pretentious? Perhaps stunningly beautiful, no question. It builds and builds and builds leading to a climax which is seems to be the entire intent of the song. The vocals are some of their very best and then they end and the music just goes up and up and up. A single
I’ve just got their Glastonbury set downloaded. It’s in RM unfortunatly and the only track encoded in high quality is Hafssol, but my god is it high quality. It’s sound and video and it’s just stunning. It’s really well done fade in and overs of the band members playing away. It’s an entire 20mb. I think I shall inflict this on various people. It’s so worth hearing nevermind watching the beauty. The rest are really bad and not worth it 🙁

It appears to be possible there is a boat in my near future. One of the lads on my team has his birthday on Saturday and the plan seems to be to hire a boat and go crusing for the day. Stopping off where ever we like before ending up in town for a night out.

>What are your “target features” on the gender you’re interested in, ie the ones that you notice and cause instant slobber factor?

The face, check it out and then work from there. Doesn’t have to be the prettiest girl in the world but sometimes you just know with a look that she got it.

>What’s the first comic book you remember reading?

Power Pack #1. It was in a Marvel UK printing of something, could have been ThunderCats. Bought the whole run on Ebay a while ago and it’s still fun.

>What’s the most bizarre thing you’ve ever had to do for/at a job?

Not sure this really qualifies (and I may have told it before) but the phone call was really bizarre until….

I use to work in a call centre and I was helping some dude out on the phone. He wasn’t able to connect to the internet and the call was dragging on and on and on. He had a Windows 95 machine and everything seemed to be set up perfectly. He was doing everything I asked, and I was getting the results I expected. It was very strange. After about 30 minutes talking to him my superviser was really getting on my case, calls should be less than 7.5 minutes. I was at this stage getting a little suspicious too. I was going to get him to give the computer manufacturer a ring and let them deal with him. I don’t remember exactly why but I asked him to click on the start button and then click on run. He went silent, now bear in mind we have already done this before several times in the call. He asked me where the start button was, so I said it’s normally in the bottom left left of the screen. Again, he goes quiet and then he tells me I have a little Apple in the top right, will that do?

I know he heard me scream at him before I threw my headset at the phone. Bastard was lucky I was in another country at the time, his address was right on my screen. He screwed my stats up for the week really badly.

>What’s the worst way to get rejected?

In public, for example in a bar with lots of people from work by a girl they all know too. Having them remind you of it every now and again is nice.

>What insect do you mind least, and why?

Ladybirds, mostly harmless.

>Name a “fashion don’t” that really peeves you.

Girls that wear cut off pants. The ones they stop just below the knee. Not attractive at all, in fact quite a turn off.

>What are your best features?

*shrug* Who knows, I like my sarcasm but it can often go down the wrong way.

>Aside from birthdays and major holidays, are there any calendar days of special significance to you?

Not really and not even the major holidays. I tend to go out for a drink on the day which I joined my company each year, it’s a tradition around here, but that’s about it. Oh and the 29th of February is more than worth a drink. I dislike christmas a lot so I avoid it as much as possible.

>What abstract concept has caused you the most irritation, worry and/or stress?

Um gotta go with religion too. Growing up I wasn’t a believer at all and I’m still not but that didn’t really tie in with my family. It caused some hassles every now and again, still does but a lot less often.

>Oddest thing you’d consider doing for a living?

I have a friend a few years ago who worked on a farm shoveling shit for IR£1.37 an hour, I was job hunting at the time and he said they were looking for more people. I considered it for about a second but that has to be it.

>and tell a story about one of your answers

See bizarre answer for story.

*sigh*

Last night didn’t quite turn out as expected. Headed down to Rileys for some pool to find all of the free 9 ball tables were taken. Deciding that we wanted to play we paid for a table for the night and off we went. It was good fun if a little too hot, the AC seemed to be off. So we played for a few hours till Nick got a call asking us to join some of his friends at a “classy” bar full of “students” in Warren Street.

So we did. Stayed there for about an hour before we were all thrown out at closing time. Headed home, finishing off Canal Dreams along the way. Not great, not great at all.

It’s hot here, hot hot hot. There is another heatwave across the country and it’s reaching to the mid 30’s in some places. Going to see Buffalo Soldiers tonight and looking forward to it. I’ve heard lots of good things about it.

Something I have meant to mention for a long time shall descend into a mini rant today. It would appear that a large number of people are completely stupid. Stop press, shocking news I know. There are large numbers of these people who cannot use a bus through sheer stupidity. London buses generally have their destination written on the front, and indeed most on the side and the back. Now sometimes a bus won’t be travelling the full route, particularly at peak times, so a destination partly along the route will be on the front. When the bus stops at this destination you do not have the right to shout at the driver or indeed to even complain at all at the driver. It is ENTIRELY your fault for not reading the destination printed in big bold letters on the front. Our second piece of evidence for stupid people; buses have bells onboard. If you want to get off at a stop you press the bell BEFORE the bus gets to the stop. This lets the driver know that a) s/he has to stop the bus and b) s/he has to open the door. If you don’t ring the bell and the driver goes straight past your stop or does not open the exit doors at the stop, again this is your own damn fault.

and from the old jokes home:

A couple of months after Custers famous “Last Stand”, his wife decided she wanted an artist to depict what her husband’s final thoughts were as he was slaughtered by the indians.

After a couple of weeks passed, the artist brought the finished painting to Mrs. Custer. She looked at it, and was puzzled. It was a painting of a golden cow and a bunch of indians having sex.

She then said to the artist, “This isn’t what he was thinking of. He was thinking about me and the rest of the family.”

The artist answered her, “No he wasn’t. He was thinking, ‘holy cow, where did all these fucking indians come from?'”

I don’t know what’s going on. I’ve been realising how much I’m missing some people not in my life anymore. It’s all quite strange. It’s been over a year since I saw most of them, hell it’s been about 5 years since I saw some of them and it’s only recently that I really realised that they were missing, no scrap that I always knew they were. I only realised recently how much it was affecting me. I guess some of it really struck home when I had some news last week and could only think of one person who would have had the same reaction to it that I did. It’s been a while.

Then there are others, people I grew up with, people I went to school with, you know the type of friends people normally make. It struck me the other day, and yes it’s plainly obvious, that’s how you make most of your long term friends and that’s what is missing from London. I’ve mentioned before that I don’t know many people in London outside of work and that’s a big part of it.

Goddamn, the absolutely haunting hafssól by Sigur Ros is accompanying this entry and I’m right back at Glastonbury where this was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard in my life. So very powerful so very beautiful so very perfect. The review of them at Glastonbury from dot music ends like this: “words mean nothing in the face of this.” I wish I was smart enough to have said that.

Anyway it’s a gap. I have some good friends in work and I appreciate them a hell of a lot (even if I don’t always tell them that), meeting some others tomorrow night the cinema. I don’t remember the last time I saw them. I may go back and check the archives to figure it out but it’s been a while.

I have to go now, there is 9 ball in my future. more anon

Bah fuckers. I lost an entry just now, fuck. *sigh* Let’s try again.

I feel a little out of sorts today. I don’t quite know why. Nothing particularly bad is going on today but nothing good is either. I guess it’s just the two of them combining together.

Q: So children, what’s our lesson for today?
A: Mulder was right, trust no one.

Chatting on the boat last night we were talking about age and someone said to me “So you don’t remember when John Lennon was shot?” The answer was of course no, but I thought it was a funny thing to ask. Others at the table did remember and complaind that Imagine went to number one for weeks.

Taking Bendis off Daredevil to relaunch it with Kevin Smith again is a fucking stupid idea. Nice one Marvel.

The weekend.

Friday was a quiet night. I went to High Street Kensington after work and picked up a book (not the intent but there you go). So I have a new Dennis Lehane to look forward to after I get through Iain Banks’ Canal Dreams. Not his best work, I feel very little for the main character which is unusual for Banks.

Anyway went home and watched some tv for the night. Then later on headed out for a walk. It’s a solid hours walk along the river through Whitehall up to Leicester Square. So I reckon that’s about 4.5 miles. Walked in, got a bus home.

Saturday was kinda quiet too. I met up with Nick and we went to Rileys for the night. Played some snooker for a while which was dire. The angles and ball speed just were not working for me and Nick took 3 frames without even a threat from me. However moving out onto the pool tables and the night was mine. Has to have been the extra work put in for the snooker as I was making every single shot on the pool table. I took the first 4 games comfortably, with only a few bad shots. I was quite happy with this.

Stuck around there till 11ish and then headed home to grab my discman and head off for another walk. The same again and it was all good, this time to some OK Computer by Radiohead.

Sunday was not a quiet day, however. I met up with Trev and Patrick around lunchtime at Hyde Park and we went off into the Red Bull Flugtag which was a good laugh. However it was very overcrowded and too hot so we only lasted about an hour there. We headed off to find somewhere quiet to get a cold drink and found our way to the Goat Tavern in High Street Kensington. After that it was into town, to HA! HA! in Charing Cross for food. This was the falling off the wagon point as they had some Leffe on tap and it looked real nice and it was indeed real nice 😉

After that we moved on to our final destination, The steamboat Tattershall Castle on the Thames where we ended the say sitting out in the warm sunshine with a few beers, joined by Nick and Andy later on in the evening. It was good fun. We talked about a lot of things and talked a lot of shite. Some sore topics covered all round I think, life the universe and well girls really. It wasn’t all good but it was good to catch up with everyone and we had a good day sitting there talking away.

Home by about 12 relatively sober, fell off a little but not all that much. Was disappointed to not have brought my discman with me or I would have walked back home, but it was not to be.

Finished off the third season of The Sopranos too and enjoyed it but it didn’t actually feel like anything happened. I may be back online at home shortly. Watch this space.

Tonight might be another night in Rileys. Tis a Monday so that means free 9 ball. It could be fun but I’d also not object to a quiet night in. Trev lent me some DVDs and watching them is high on the list of things to do.

Just when you think it’s safe to go back into the water…

Thought you would like to hear this.
Message on phone for me from Bank of I – ‘need to speak to you re your credit card’. Oops! – have I overspent? Rang them back. Eddie, by name, asks if I am sitting down. Did I enter a comp recently? Of course I did! Well, in short, I have won holiday(s) – to anywhere in the world – to the value of 6000euro, and also 1500 spending money ( which I can access as soon as (2) below is complied with!
Two conditions
(1) I have to use a particular travel agent ( so maybe no Ryanair bargains etc) and
(2) I must have my photo taken for their next promo!

No problem!
Funny – Dad has stopped making fun of ‘my little hobby’!

Talk to you again when I come down from cloud nine!

Mam

***
As you can imagine, I’m very very very jealous right now.

So some stuff as it comes.

Terminator 3 was good fun actually. I enjoyed it quite a bit. My thoughts, crossposted from The V
***
Caught a preview last night.

Enjoyed the ending a lot. Movies where the world ends and the heroes loose are good things and there should be more of them.

Best moment, the TX handshaking on her mobile. I saw it with a group of guys from work who are all ex call centre and hearing a modem handshake is a beautiful sound. It was a great little moment.

On the other front, where the fuck was the music? Credits roll and we get the voiceover and then it goes away and you still there waiting for the music. No music.

Terminator strides towards John Connor and you wait for the music, no music. What was up with that?

The humour was ok, some of it worked, some of it didn’t. The breast increase was shit, but the cameo by Silberman was funny. The coffin was a little disappointing. It was fairly obvious it would have lots of weapons but I was hoping for more.

Having Arnie having just killed John Connor was excellent and a nice moment.

It felt a little short but also fairly fleshed out at the same time.
***

Been talking about The Shield lots, it’s taking off in the office. John watched the first disc and ordered the box set. It’s funny listening to what Dave and John have to say about it and then it really struck me (stop reading here lads, I’m going to talk about the second season)…. Dutch is the tragedy of the show. It’s not about Vic and the strike team, it’s about Dutch. Looking forward to next weeks episode.

Thanks again to Shug’s taping, I watched West Wing last night and it was good. It was funny, the writers seemed to have buckled up a little. It’s about time that Charlie got some good screen time, but I don’t like the way they are doing it. Not a bad episode at all. Donna really needs more screen time.

Bloggings gonna be pretty limited for the next while, 9:30 – 6:00 Monday to Friday. So that’s gonna take a lot of things away. No sitting with an entry for a few hours and seeing how things go. It’s annoying. Joking around after the movie last night, there was some confusion over a plot point and I said to someone to go home and talk about it on the internet. Which of course I would have, had I had an internet to work with. Not good, not good at all.

Soundtrack for today is Once More with Feeling the Buffy musical episode. It’s really smart and done to good music. It’s a little nostalgic I guess some old times have been on my mind for the past few days. I’m enjoying it lots.

Oh more geeky stuff, new trailer for The Matrix: Revolutions last night which was excellent and a low quality but excellent trailer for Return of the King.

Played some pool last night and it was bad, I wasn’t playing very well at all and didn’t manage to win any full games. Won a couple of 9 ball but that doesn’t really count for much. Hope to get some playing in after work tonight.

[14:47:48] Iain: ‘The trouble people go to upgrade it, it’s comical. Someone will put a G5 in a Cube. I guarantee it ‘
[14:48:11] Dave: yep, and you’ll be jealous
[14:48:24] Iain: i’ll be doing it 😉
[14:48:30] Iain: maybe
[14:49:08] Dave: go for it
[14:49:15] Dave: then it can be a little super
[14:49:29] Iain: 🙂 it already is super
[14:49:38] Dave: of course it is
[14:50:12] Iain: CUBE1.jpg
[14:50:20] Iain: they have two iPod’s too
[14:50:48] Dave: pretty chess set 😉
[14:51:32] Iain: and a pic of jonathan ive too
[14:54:50] Dave: When you fall, I will try to keep from laughing.
[14:54:52] Dave: ha 🙂
[14:57:19] Iain: watercooler.gif
[14:57:47] Dave: that’s so very awesome
[14:57:51] Dave: you need to do this
[14:57:58] Dave: you need to do this
[14:58:43] Iain: no way
[14:59:00] Dave: awww
[14:59:06] Dave: you know you want to
[14:59:21] Dave: if you have it working in a bucket of water then it shall forever be known as a super computer

Are you tired of all those mushy “friendship” poems that always Sound good but never actually come close to reality? Well, here is a “friendship” poem that really speaks true friendship and truth itself:

Friend, when you are sad, I will get you drunk and help you plot revenge against the bitch who made you sad.

When you are blue, I’ll try to dislodge whatever is choking you.

When you smile, I’ll know you finally got some.

When you are scared, I will tease you about it every chance I get.

When you are worried, I will tell you horrible stories about how much worse it could be and to stop whining.

When you are confused, I will use little words to explain it to your dumb ass.

When you are sick, stay away from me until you’re well again. I don’t want what you’ve got.

When you fall, I will try to keep from laughing.

This is my oath, I pledge ’til the end. Why, you ask? Because you Are my friend.

Send this to ten of your friends then get depressed because You realise you only have two, and one of them is not speaking to you Right now.

And always remember: A friend will help you move house. But a Really good friend will help you move a body.