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Recommended Viewing

• 300†
  Does exactly what it says on the (comic book) tin. Loved it.
• Little Miss Sunshine†
  Very funny, disturbing (the beauty pageant) and completely messed up -- but in a good way.
• Laputa: Castle in the Sky†
  Story great, characterization a little on the weak side -- though the big robots are cool.
• Porco Rosso†
  Stylish, funny, exciting.
• Grave of the Fireflies†
  Very sad, which was a little unexpected since I didn't know much about it before watching it. Can be a little too slow in places though, otherwise it's very good.
• Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind†
  The story can get a little dense at times what with the various factions, but still really enjoyable, inventive and engaging.
• X-Men: The Last Stand†
  Opportunity, talent, money - all blown. Over 3 films X-Men has hinted of something great that could have been, this last one says "No, sorry - not going to happen". Bah.

flickr.com

@media 2006

I’m going to @media, I wanted to go last year but was too late booking (and I hadn’t enough money) this year I’ve saved my beans and will be there, hurrah!

2 CommentsJanuary 29, 2006

Shift Reload

Once upon a time, in a land far far away, a group of people lived in a house named for a King Alfred, and in that house many good things were done. It was here that this weblog began, along with another — in truth it was here that a lot of things began for a good many people.

In that time this weblog was called for a poem written by Robert Frost, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, and so when it comes to it and I have to think of a title to run in the header this is the one I choose.

Shift-reload (shift+f5 in windows, shift+apple+R in osx) if some images look funny, I was lazy and did not rename them.

Oh yes, and I know that little oblong button is horrible, but it’s a placeholder until I think of something nicer and more appropriate.

1 CommentsJanuary 28, 2006

George Galloway -- A short BB Obituary.

In the end it was rather an anti-climax, I think the only thing that could have escalated the tension from the previous night was if the ghost of Jack Ruby had burst through the crowd and shot Galloway as he made his way past the press on eviction.
It was interesting to note that when Davina said she had a special message from someone that Galloway instantly said “Tony Blair”, such is the blinding arrogance of the man.

Burns is a malevolent, contorted, disfigured creature but it is straightforward malevolence, Galloway is a wholly other beast. He is charming, loquacious, eloquent and even witty yet not far underneath you feel lies a darkness so deep and pitiless that it has a gravity of it’s own. This is a man of whom Nietzsche would be proud, he is an abyss that Rodman stared into and didn’t come back from.

In the end my overriding emotion in regards Galloway is fear, fear and a desire to understand the people who, like Rodman, fall under his spell.

1 CommentsJanuary 26, 2006

George Galloway

I’ve just watched George Galloway hang himself on TV. It has been most satisfying.

3 CommentsJanuary 24, 2006

Did they expect us to treat them with any respect?

A little song for Big Brother, written long ago by a bunch of fellows from across the water:

Take all your overgrown infants away somewhere
and build them a home, a little place of their own,
the ‘Fletcher Memorial
Home for Incurable Tyrants and Kings’
and they can appear to themselves every day
on closed circuit t.v.
to make sure they’re still real —
it’s the only connection they feel.

I note with interest that it’s only girls that get picked on in that house, and note that Galloway only defends those whom it is in his best interest to defend.

Of course there’s a strong element of hypocrisy and sanctimony in sitting watching people like George, Burns and Galloway while passing judgement on their character, but for the sake of argument let’s say they are fair game.

3 CommentsJanuary 21, 2006

Raffles No More

Raffles has closed. Once a vital part of the local lunch scene now a white washed windowed wasteland, Raffles decline was first noted early in 2005 when the chicken barbeque sandwich became a horrible gooey mess on a plate, resulting in a loss of patronage from the Fnorters.

Raffles: gone to be with Sandwich Plus (+) in the sky.

2 CommentsJanuary 19, 2006

Car Parks

Car parks, from a certain point of view, are interesting places. When the car park is empty people will in general fill the spaces allocated to them, disabled parking is largely left empty, mother and toddler bays contain the requisite MPVs, everyone obeys the ‘rules’. As the car park fills and space becomes a premium the disable spaces get taken by people who have no permit to do so, mother and toddler bays include the odd Mini and the ‘rules’ are bent and then broken. If the car park allows people to enter past the actual capacity you find cars parked on the verge, in the middle of cul-de-sac’s and in some cases entirely blocking throughways.

The rules of the car park, park your car only in the allocated bay, are finally broken to the point of making the car park no longer function as a design. Cars are parked but they can no longer get in or out easily; yet at no stage did anyone break a major rule as it appeared to them, each stage was a slight bending of the rules as they percieved them at the time. Neccessity pushes the later cars drivers to find more space in the car park — where they to park in the middle of a throughway in an empty car park this would be percieved as a major rule breaking, in a full car park it’s merely being practical.

It’s these little steps in bending then breaking the laws of a system that bring about ruin, it’s something I’ve seen in organisations as well as car parks but the car park makes a nice illustration.

Of course I could just be talking out of my ass.

1 CommentsJanuary 19, 2006

You podcasters are so last week, video is where it's at.

Stairs, moving (Quicktime required) is a little something I put together while waiting for my train last Thursday. I think it captures the waste and inherent futility of modern life while at the same time throws a few shapes in the direction of the De Stijlists.

No, but really, how much would we save in terms of energy and health bills if we outlawed escalators? Think of the electricity that thing is burning, think of how much fitter we’d all be if we had to walk up a few more stairs.

2 CommentsJanuary 17, 2006

'All Traffic is Gay' and other stories

Mostly this post is just an excuse to use Marsedit, a nifty little app which allows you to edit and post to MT from my desktop/laptop. Mostly.

The sights you see in Newcastle after coming down from the Mournes (tail between your legs because the wind and rain were a little too much): All Traffic is Gay. It made us laugh anyway.

I quite fancy that girl off the River Rock advert, the redhead who gets a taxi to her house and pretends she walked to her man, she’s hot. SWM will probably tell me otherwise but then he likes that trout Jolie.

I heard a rumour that IKEA was coming to Belfast, to the Holywood Exchange.

There’s a cafe on Brunswick Street called Xpress Cafe (I think) and they do great sandwiches, the brown bread they have is amazing. Also, you stand a good chance of seeing ex-BlackStar reprobates there so it’s good for the chat too.

And then they all lived happily ever after in a big castle by the sea.

5 CommentsJanuary 15, 2006

There's things I haven't told you

While getting on the trian to Bangor someone spammed my mobile with the URL to NIRsucks.com, now I’m guessing it’s the author of said site and he’s probably thinks he’s dead cool in spamming my mobile. I personally wanted to find him and throw him under a passing train.

In other news Big Brother has been fascinating, like watching a car crash in slow motion. Barrymore, Galloway have turned out to be 2 of the most hateful people I’ve ever seen on TV.

In still other news if that fella spams my mobile again the next rain from Portadown will be delayed due to a body on the track from Central to Botanic.

2 CommentsJanuary 13, 2006

January

You’ll excuse me while things look a little messy here. I took the Christmas decorations down with no plan for replacing the empty spaces. Will sort it all out soon as.

0 CommentsJanuary 12, 2006

Congratulations Steve & Michèle

Swing over to Deeden.co.uk for Mr. Rushe’s ‘A Series of Major News Events’, from the Reasonably Major to the Really Major.

0 CommentsJanuary 9, 2006

More Bad Jokes

A woman walks into the vets with a duck, a dead duck as it turns out after a quick examination from the vet. Distraught the woman asks the vet if she could have a second opinion, and with a nod the kind vet steps out of the room and walks back in a moment later with a black dog following. The dog hops up onto the examination table, sniffs the duck and then looks at the vet mournfully, shaking it’s head. The woman looks at the dog, looks at the vet and bursts into tears. Almost hysterical she asks the vet for another opinion, the vet sighs but agrees, walks out of the examination room and returns with a cat in tow. The cat leaps up onto the table and sniffs the duck, paces up and down, then looks at the vet and shakes it’s head signalling that the duck is indeed dead. The woman has calmed down and finally accepts that the duck is dead, she asks for the bill and is astounded when the vet asks for £200.
“How can telling me a duck is dead cost £200?” she asks in shock.
“Well,” replies the vet “had you accepted my word for it that would have been £20, however the lab report and the cat scan are £80 each.”

2 CommentsJanuary 7, 2006