Daily archives: February 14, 2003


You can quote me

I was musing over potential entries in future compilations of quotes and came up with- “You can judge a man by the quality of his enemies.” I’m not sure it’s quite right, or whether I’d even stand by it. And it sounded a bit familiar, Like something Churchill or Wilde would say. So I went searching for lists of quotes.

Wilde actually said- “A man can’t be too careful in the choice of his enemies.”

Churchill had – “I have always felt that a politician is to be judged by the animosities he excites among his opponents.” Which is a far more eloquent version of my attempt. Oh well, I’ll try again later.

“Sire, you are like a stream of bat’s piss.”


Teacup in a Storm

It seems the New Gulf War is being fought so that we have the right to kill the planet through excess consumption. Environment Minister Michael Meacher is to deliver a particularly gloomy address on the state of the planet at Newcastle University. I’m thinking of using droughts/ floods as plot points in Soldiers, though they won’t be the main focus as in Heavy Weather by Bruce Sterling, where everyone is reduced to scratching a living between the storms.


Movie madness

The move to force broadcasters to show more British films may sound good but you have have to take a look at the state of our movie industry. Whilst not quite dead, I think it’s fair to to say it’s in a persistent vegetative state. If the life support system of the Film Council and it’s lottery funding were switched off it would pass quietly away and frankly I’m not sure if I would miss it. Most of the successful “British” movies are in fact US funded. There are a few noticeable exceptions and things have improved a little since the criticism of lottery funding in 2001 but do we really need more films that no-one wants to watch? The answer to the slew of bad American movies shouldn’t be to force us to watch more bad British movies. Film Four (at one time a promising production company) was shut down due to it’s losses from movies that were part funded by the lottery. They thought that the lottery funding minimised their risks but if no-one wants to see the films you’re still going to lose money, it just takes a little longer for the company to colapase.


It is Friday!

Nothing much happening today in the world. Although the New York Times reports an interesting survey regarding the American people and going to war. Despite Bush’s best efforts, a large majority of my fellow countrymen want to give the inspectors more time before making a resolution. Also in today�s NY Times, the lead article states that the US and Britain are going to ask the Security Council to state Saddam has not disarmed, e.g. America can lead the charge into Iraq without further approval. Interesting. Now the Washington Post has an interesting article about how schools in the DC area are stepping up the “duct tape”, or “gaffer” tape for you ignorant Limies, installations on school sites. Growing up the in the states my primary school dated back to the cold war days and we had a bomb shelter built into the basement, my question today is what was the f*ing point? In the days of a cold war we were talking several hundred nuclear bombs falling out of the sky onto you, meaning it makes sense for everyone to prepare for an attack, e.g. the odds aren’t in your favour. With the current terrorists, or lack of, the odds clearly do not dictate this current heightened state of preparedness for a nuclear or biological agent attack. Funny how things don’t change.

Business 2.0 has a great read on how McDonalds panders to anti-American feelings across the globe if it sells more burgers. Good for McDonalds. As the saying goes, if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. In other business news, Smith and Wesson has come out with .50 calibre handgun! Way! Let’s see, when I go rob the convenience store now, the .50 calibre hand gun will not only make the clerk pee his pants but give me all the money without pressing the alarm button. Thanks Smith and Wesson! Meanwhile, GM, Ford and BMW are lining up, no really, to buy a flying car listed on ebay. Please let me know if you think the guy in the flying car is a complete dork.

During this period of illness, I have been amazed to be a civilian again. Going to the library everyday, reading books, talking to locals, enjoying the time off even if I can only stand up for about 20 minutes a go. In support of all things civilised, I bring you the link we all can relate to especially in these days of uncertainty. I command you to click here and watch! My goodness, there is a tear in my eye after witnessing that link. Sniff.

I haven’t visited the Onion in a while, but it is still a fantastically funny website. Some of you may not know this, but the Onion was originally a paper magazine started in the university town of Madison, Wisconsin. It then spread to Denver, Colorado, and a few other cities. I remember every week when it came out all of us would practically be pissing our pants with some of the stories. The Onion also contained the AV section that not only told what was happening in the city for the week, but reviewed music, books and TV as well. The best feature of the Onion AV section has to be Savage Love, a gay man dispensing sexual advice to all in his own peculiar way. This weeks commentary isn’t that good, but go through the history and there are loads of chuckles, not to mention some great advice on occasion. He has become the antithesis of Oprah and very successful. If easily offended, don’t follow his link.

So long and thanks for all the lutefisk.


Quicksave syndrome

Well, I’ve had a shit day. It’s been announced that there will be redundancies at work and I’ve been lumbered with a project that got budgeted before anyone designed it (needless to say that I now need to fit a pint of work in half a pint of time). Over the last few days I’ve been playing Unreal 2. Like pretty much any FPS (first person shooter) you need it hit the quicksave key now and again so you don’t have to go back as far if you screw up. Today (actually yesterday now that I look at the time) I really needed to press reload and start over again, I’m sure that I could at least lose the pre-fucked project.