A time to blog, a space to be blogged in....
The blog of John Harrison
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A time to blog, a space to be blogged in....The blog of John Harrison |
I wrote this to my Japanese colleague who had been confused about what to call me:
In Europe we usually like to be called by our given name, not our family name (surname).
I find it difficult with Japanese names too, because some of our Japanese colleagues here like to be called by their given name in the western way.
We have 3 colleagues in different teams who everyone knows by their first name, but most everyone else, including people who work closely with us is Family Name-san.
So I am never quite sure when I should call people by their first name (so I don’t unless they tell me they like that!)
I understand in Japan where family honour is highly important, it is considered dignified & respectful to refer to someone by their family’s name (which they are proud to represent & identify with).
To a European, where we are more individualistic, and tend to identify more with our own achievements than with our family's honour (maybe unless you're part of the royal family?), it can seem that someone is trying to be distant or unfriendly to refer to someone only by family name (like they’re talking to someone they don’t know).
It is like saying "you're one of the people in [such and such] family, but it's not important to me which one.". i.e. not acknowledging the person as an individual.
When I was at boarding school and in the Air Force I was called by my surname, often without title (e.g. just "Harrison" rather than "Mr Harrison" or "[Rank] Harrison" - which I wouldn't mind) and I didn't like it!
It would be normal here for even our higher managers, Human Resources & Security to address me as John, and not call me "Mr Harrison"
If I phone my bank or some government office, or some other business, then they would address me as "Mr Harrison" unless I asked them clearly and specifically to call me by my own name.
He said my explanation was clear.
Hopefully it helps someone else too :-)
posted by John 16:56
We walk a winding path
avoiding the painful memories
of mistakes we've made in the past.
posted by John 20:58
CostaBlueberry Muffin
INGREDIENTS
Sugar, Wheat Flour, Egg, Rapeseed Oil, Blueberry Filling (10%) (Water,
Blueberries, Sugar, Glucose, Modified Waxy Maize Starch, Acidity Regulator:
E330, Gelling Agent: E440(a), Preservative: E202, Antioxidant: E331,
Flavouring), Blueberries (8%), Water, Oat Bran, Modified Starch, Dried
Skimmed Cows Milk, Humectant: Glycerine, Wheat Starch, Raising Agents:
E450; E500, Whey Powder, Emulsifiers: E471, E477, E481, Butter Oil,
Salt, Vegetable Fat (Palm Oil, Rapeseed Oil), Preservative E202, Wheat
Gluten, Stabiliser: E415, Acidity Regulator: E330
THIS PRODUCT CONTAINS: Cows Milk, Egg, Wheat Gluten, Oat Gluten, Soya
(and lots of crap!)
posted by John 10:46
I have to recommend these guys!
I phoned Staples to tell them that when I was buying my new shredder from them on the web last week the checkout recommended that I buy shredder lubricant for it - as "an essential extra" for my shredder... but when opened my new shredder on the weekend and read the intstructions with it, I found that it said in the manual that I should not use shredder lubricant with it under any circumstances... if I did so it would invalidate the warranty!
(I'd actually bought the extra stuff because they give you free postage if you order more than £30 worth)
Their immediate response was to ask me to donate it to a local school or charity and that they would credit my account for the cost of the two cans of lubricant!
posted by John 13:57
Hmmm... I've just had a look and it's been a wee while since I've posted anything ;o)
I managed to get through another entire year without blogging anything in this blog...
This is kind of geeky, but not geeky enough for the geek blog, so it can go here...
Polyphasic sleep
Oh, and in reference to the last post...
I put it down to diet and lower caffeine intake, but I don't remember how long it's been since I've had a headache! (touch wood)
posted by John 01:27
Hmmm what a day!!! In bed with a killer of a headache most of the day...
Another one of those days when I think "I don't want to feel like this when I'm old!" - I don't know how an old fullah would have coped with THAT one!!!
Oh and... I found out today that VodaBone NZ had re-issued my NZ mobile number to someone else... bless their souls... apparently my contract got cancelled while I was in Scotland because my bill was behind and I wasn't reading my post... never mind the fact that I paid my bill up after that and it had actually been in credit since July... they gave away my number which I'd had since 1997 and had been chugging away paying them $30 a month for all these years to keep it active for when I went home again... because I had a very cool number... now I find that if I call it it says "... connection you are trying to reach is not permitted to receive calls." - I wonder if the new owner has let their bill slip too? Or was the guy on the phone at Vodafone spinning me a line? Perhaps it's still mine but in quarantine... the woman I spoke to first said that it was registered in someone else's name... oh stuff it - I guess that's one less bill I have to pay and one less bit of paperwork every month... get a prepay when I'm home next and sod them.
Today I signed up for this... yes I know it looks like a banner ad, and my initial temptation was to "Right-Click -> Adblock Image" but I clicked and... well it's geeky, but kinda interesting too... I wonder if there are any sad sacks in Europe who sneak write down every note they get and enter them ALL in...
posted by John 19:07
I found tonight that in my friendster profile I had (ages ago) put in my list of people I wanted to meet... Billy Bragg & Yasser Arafat... well, Arafat doesn't qualify anymore, and I did say hi to Billy in Edinburgh, sure it would be good to have time to have a talk to him, but I think that's close enough to cross him off the list... :o)
posted by John 17:23
Help Jacqui
I found Jacqui's site again tonight, I remember reading something about it a year or so ago... download and read the PDF file.
Then go to the PayPal link when you've finished :o)
Spooky, I've just realised something... "Early on Sunday morning September 19, 1999" right now it's early on Sunday morning, September 19th... exactly 5 years since her accident.
posted by John 01:16
Just to educate all those nice people who think that New Zealand is close to Australia...
Distance between Auckland, New Zealand and Sydney, Australia, as the crow flies:
1337 miles (2151 km) (1162 nautical miles)
(yes, those are the two closest international airports)
Distance between London, England, United Kingdom and Kiev, Ukraine, as the crow flies:
1326 miles (2134 km) (1152 nautical miles)
Distance between London, England, United Kingdom and Thessaloniki, Greece, as the crow flies:
1328 miles (2137 km) (1154 nautical miles)
Distance between London, England, United Kingdom and Malta, Malta, as the crow flies:
1298 miles (2090 km) (1128 nautical miles)
Distance between London, England, United Kingdom and Casablanca, Morocco, as the crow flies:
1297 miles (2088 km) (1127 nautical miles)
Distance between London, England, United Kingdom and Athens, Greece, as the crow flies:
1486 miles (2391 km) (1291 nautical miles)
Distance between London, England, United Kingdom and Tripoli, Libya, as the crow flies:
1454 miles (2339 km) (1263 nautical miles)
(Terima kasih indo.com for the numbers)
posted by John 12:38
I do get told off for "lecturing" smokers and for my extremely no bullshit views on it!
You know how they say that ex smokers are the worst?
Well maybe an ex smoker who
... sat on the edge of the bed in his 20s watching his dad almost comatose wheezing and gasping for breath on an oxygen bottle, because he was dying of Emphysema,
who managed to bring him back for 3 months by buying him nicotinell patches and seeing a near miraculous recovery and then having him go back saying "I'm not addicted, I just enjoy it"...
... grew up with his dad having regular trips to hospital to have cancerous growths cut out of his bladder via an instrument up his penis...
... finally lost his dad in 2000
... has lost several other smoking friends to cancer...
might be worse...
Words fail me when I try to describe my frustration and inability to understand how people can so blindly ignore what they are doing to themselves when all the facts are available to them.
If I sent most smokers I know a link like http://whyquit.com/whyquit/ they would be so bloody minded they wouldn't even visit the site, let alone look at the pictures on it!
If they did look they wouldn't relate them to themselves. And then they'd have a serious go at me for "lecturing".
It's not OK for me to discuss the facts of what they're doing to themselves and the people around them, because they know the facts and are in denial and will take it personally, but if they light up while I'm in a room with them I'm supposed to just accept them poisoning me along with themselves...
And I'm supposed accept all their pathetic lies and excuses they tell themselves about why it's OK to keep killing us and just humour them, even though inside it disgusts me that they can be so stupid.
I like to hang around with winners, and I'm sorry, but smokers are loosers.
Smokers are weak people who haven't got the guts to fight it and stop. No excuses.
Do you know why they write "SMOKING KILLS" on big writing on your cigarette packet?
Yes, that's for YOU dummy, not someone else.
When you are smoking you are killing yourself, which is normally called suicide.
If my friend consciously decides to poison themselves to death, should I take action while they are doing it to try and save them,
or should I just accept their choice and feel sad later when they have gone?
If I saw you getting ready to jump off a bridge or shoot yourself, it would be my duty to try and interfere and stop you.
Why when you choose to do it via a method which has a delayed outcome should I be expected to sit back and let you do it?
When you are smoking around me then you are killing me too! Why should I accept you trying to kill me?
Perhaps I should attack you physically when you light up around me, as your smoke is a form of assault and I am acting to protect myself.
Perhaps we should have gangs of vigilantes going around bars in town beating up smokers.
How can I feel sad for someone when it is self inflicted and intentional and they already know the facts?
To kill themselves knowingly someone has to be suffering from a mental problem.
If you drink too much you have a drinking disorder.
If you eat too much or not enough you have an eating disorder.
There is NO good reason to smoke, ANY cigarettes are too much and if you can't stop you have a problem, that's why I call it a smoking disorder.
And smokers expect to be considered "normal"? They're sick and should be treated accordingly.
You say "I'm not quiet ready to give up yet."
What? you mean you intend to give up one day?
Why would you do that? Don't you enjoy smoking?
Why not keep smoking? I'm sure you can find the money to keep paying for it.
What reasons would you want to give up for?
Today is the start of the rest of your life, if there are reasons, why wait till later?
It's not like stopping is something you have to save up for or take time off for!
I love this piece of writing: My Cigarette, My Friend, by Joel Spitzer
Think about this... If you dropped some food on the ground would you pick it up and put it in your mouth?
Have you ever seen someone drop a cigarette?
posted by John 16:03
Shihad - Spacing...
Because I can, get a little lonely once in a while
Because I can, I've become a victim of your smile...
Hmmm... encapsulated thought to chew over.
The first time I heard it I thought "man, what an unpolished bit of home-made jamming... the kind of thing you'd rattle out sitting on the floor in the bedroom with a guitar - I could have done better than that!" but it has kind of been growing on me...
posted by John 07:49
Web pollution...
It's great having Google... in the old days if you thought of something from years ago you wrote it up and put it on the web... today you Google for it, find that someone has put it up already, and leave it be... no point everyone putting the same roddicks up there!
posted by John 13:53
This is exactly what I thought of when I heard them using the word "Liberation" in conjunction with what we were seeing in the news... I'm glad Gilad put it into print...
The (sexual) liberation and freedom (from life) of the Iraqis.
posted by John 16:48
Is this where I put quotes that I like???
"Our task is not to overthrow globalisation, but to capture it, and to use it as a vehicle for humanity's first global democratic revolution." George Monbiot
Damn! I agree with THAT too!
:o)
posted by John 14:21
My boss Ken, had this impression of New Zealand to give, based on the fact that there seem to be so many Kiwis in the UK:
When you arrive in New Zealand, all you see is an empty terminal, a table, and a chair knocked over.
It's the Maori Celeste.
posted by John 17:12
Meme... umm yes...
posted by John 18:14
So far I think Linlithgow is my favourite town I've seen... it's just gorgeous, I'd *love* to live there!
posted by John 17:20
Northern summers are somehow kinda sneaky how they come & go with no momentous days to remember them by... if the weather is bad you don't get a summer... at home it doesn't matter if it rains on Christmas... you still know it's that time of the year (but who am I to be complaining when it's only May!?)
posted by John 19:20
I can't say I disagree with Darrin Chandler's take on womens' bodies
Science explains that there's a good reason for it!
Now, if I was just out for a shag then I shouldn't care about a woman's body shape, but as I'm aiming to find the right woman that I want to settle down and have my family with, I need to keep this in mind!
posted by John 15:51
hmmm...
The Phylecta Phyles.From Hitch Hikers Guide To DSM IV by debra lane
Oh yes... CrayZeePhy has a blog now! :o)
posted by John 17:31
When you wake with a start from a nightmare...
It's almost like if the level of violence/perceived threat is quite high your body does a pysiological state change to gain pespective...
It's not like you can just withdraw yourself from danger when you experience something that bad when you're awake... so it's interesting that it snaps you awake.
You could wonder, if one's intuition is finely tuned, what it could be that is sending such signals, is it a real threat?
Is there some reason your body NEEDS you to wake up (sleeping in a position that's blocking off your air or circulation, a dangerously low heart rate or something?)
Perhaps your brain just plays you the nightmare to get your attention.
Sweet dreams... :o)
posted by John 19:27
As I'm running through the rain
Each step down to the station trying to trip me
Wind trying to push me back...
Who's this lady on the stairs ?
She looks fine, she's rushing too, but not as fast as me,
'cause I've only got one minute, or I'll miss my train again.
I can't wait, I'm racing, as I round the corner and she dissapears
I wonder if I'll ever see her again.
Who's that in the corner of my eye ?
21 platforms, but there's footsteps racing behind me for mine
Hey hey, well I'm there now, so I can wait long enough to hold the door...
"Hah! a bit of excitement for the morning..."
She smiles and laughs... happy girl on the train.
How, she chooses her seat, right across from my favourite,
so I'm meant to be here, with the girl on the train.
She's probably only going one stop, but no, she buys a ticket for my station.
There'll be a chance to talk, so I can enjoy my time on the train with her.
As the countryside crawls past, there's the same landscape to behold
The way you toss your head and groom your hair gets me thinking...
What if you and I were the only people in this town
Would it be easier to talk to you?
Our stop comes too soon, and there's been no reason to talk...
Well we're at the door now, girl on the train...
"you keep leisurely hours..."
"I hate this shift"
"When do you finish?"
"10:30 till 6:30"
You tell me what you do and where you work,
I wonder if I time it right, will I see you again?
We'll be like old friends next time we meet.
"Well have good day" and I'm off again - racing for my cab.
Hah! and her cab's following mine.
Exhilleration in the afternoon, why am I excited ?
What's this running through my brain?
What if you and I were the only people in this town?
Would you come and talk to me ?
People like you don't stay alone.
What if I were the man, to whom if you told your wish it would come true ?
What if I were the man, to whom if you spoke your thoughts they would be real.
Hanging on at work, but I'll be late for the concert if I don't fly now.
No time to think about catching the right train to see her.
Taxi driver hopes I'll miss it, perhaps he'll get a fare to town.
So close, it's already at the platform, I'm out of breath, but I'm on!
Find my seat, and who is this ?
She looks similar, but she was wearing a cheque skirt,
aha, that black is her coat, it *is* her...
Hello again, girl on the train, but you're with your workmate,
and you're deep in conversation...
It's all about people, your pals and their foibles,
you mention that most of the time you stay over at David's
I start to wonder if you're the kind of person that I'd want to know.
Your workmate's being picked up, on the phone to his girlfriend,
Guess who he has with him?
It's Emma, is it alright if they give her a lift home?
So you're Emma, and you live with David, Oh well...
I'm getting off a stop early tonight, closer to my concert,
It seems so are you... as I'm racing for a cab,
I'm wondering, will I ever see you again?
- well I did... on Friday she was standing in the bus stop next to the station, must have been her day off...
posted by John 04:43
Yay! I'm back!
Marvels of modern codery!
I have a new job, and a new country!
Oh and... I wanted to say...
something that really bugs me (can you tell?) is when people use awhile when they shouldn't,
and use alot at all!
posted by John 18:02
I'm a web addict and I can't help myself... an information spunge, from the moment I wake up in the morning till the moment I collapse of exhaustion at the end of the day I want to be there, soaking it all up - I love tabbed browsers, so I can have 5 or 6 or more simultaneous chains of search going - because always things split off into side searches when you get going... jeepers, even seeing the Valentines logo on Google this morning, made me think about the Australia Day logo they had, and wonder if they ever did a Waitangi Day one, then I bumped into the page about Pigeon Rank again, which I hadn't seen for over 6 months, and then the link to pigeons piloting bombs lead me to halfbakery: bat bombs, from whence it was Plane killing homing pigeons and then Jose Delgado which lead me on to some heavy page talking about an email group (for some alien believing cult) Carlos Castenada, taking legal mind altering substances, argh!!!
There I was kneeling at the laptop on the floor, still in my towel not yet had my shower, and reading about the evolution of mankind and scientists who experimented with electric shocks to the brain in the 1960s... kinda heavy way to start the day or not?
Who puts all this weird shit on the web anyway ??? argh! and here I go again! I wasn't going to DO this today!
posted by John 14:55
geh! My mum saying to me as she was getting on the plane to fly to Jersey, not like she was killing time, but intent on making sure I knew, that there are beings from other planets on earth - not hiding, but secretly co-operating with certain human organisations... ummm like yeah mum... I've read that stuff too... poor things, I'd tell the damn stupid humans to sod off, I mean look at what was supposed to have happened at Roswell !!!
.mil says"Case Closed" but heck, ain't they the masters of mis-information and cover-up anyway ? so who do you trust ? Man, I need a website for ranting on! can't fill my blog with this stuff! Thought: these "aliens" are just WAY too damn human looking, if they're NOT fake, then my money is on their being either our future descendants come back using time travel, or some species from across the universe who came here to check up on their reletives (us) who they seeded here by crossing themselves with earth beings (apes) - nah - too weird - how could they be compatible enough with apes for that to work? - I'll stick with the time travel one...
Them humans are too damn stupid and careless, ignorant and under-developed... they don't have a high enough level of technology yet to let them mess with important things. They go around destroying everything trying to see how it works... like a kid who hasn't been trained... I mean putting drugs in their bodies, giving delicate brains electric shocks, irradiating themselves with radioactive materials and oodles of radio wave pollution, poisoning themselves and their planet with chemicals... killing each other, man, they could go so far if they got their noses out of their arses and stopped worrying about money and squabbling amongst themselves and used their resources wisely... there is more than enough food to feed everyone. There is enough medical knowledge to heal everyone. There is enough money to save everyone who is poor, there are enough resources and energy to explore space if we need to - though I personally believe we should focus on cleaning up earth - fix what's broken so far and tune ourselves so the technology we are using stops making the problem worse - using up and destroying what's here and then moving on to screw up the next planet is not the way to go. If we want more places to live then we could start by going and re-vegetating the Sahara!
From: Natural Fate Versus Human Control
"Major nations are constantly faced with the choice of how to use power, and conscious efforts are made to reach intelligent decisions which are expressed as national goals such as overcoming poverty, landing a man on the moon, or meeting timetables for industrial, agricultural, and scientific development. Because our resources are not unlimited, a major effort in one field, such as armaments or outer space exploration, restricts the development of other less-favored areas. The application of human energy to the control of natural forces is continually increasing, and perhaps it is time to ask if the present orientation of our civilization is desirable and sound, or whether we should re-examine the universal goals of mankind and pay more attention to the primary objective, which should not be the development of machines, but of man himself." - well I agree with him on this, but *shudder* what horrible plans he has!!! You don't do it by plugging wires into peoples (or animals) heads, you do it by spreading love & knowledge!
glow in the dark cells - would you trust them not to have long term side-effects?
- on that "too human" thought - most things we soak up as being alien, be it the whole mythology behind LOTR, (Tolkein re-assembling Viking Mythology - and I've heard people gush that he was so creative!) - and any media dealing with fictional aliens - e.g. Klingons on StarTrek their whole language is just so damn English speaking way of thinking (What's the word for the English speaking world? aha!: Anglosphere) based! my point is: look at the sounds and word order in some other real languages on Earth - and they can have a totally different philosophy and logic, and sentance structure, and hell, at the end of the day does language have to be based around parts of speech ? maybe there are alternatives to object oriented thinking and philosophy... do we need to think in nouns and verbs and adjectives ? - perhaps a civilisation could ditch adjectives if they didn't compare things and accepted that things just are... Compare for example costumes in Star Wars I with Mongolian traditional dress, compare Klingon language with some Asian or African languages... we're not THAT imaginative, heck if we can have this much ethnic, spiritual, linguistic, physical, speciel (species as opposed to special) you name it diversity on this planet in a few hundred thousand years (When we can easily remember back 3-4000 years - e.g. recorded history!) what the heck are we doing thinking alien beings are going to have two arms, two legs, a head, two eyes, a nose, a mouth, and walk erect and communicate with words? Nothing else on this planet has all this! - compare us with apes, or further back with dolphins, or further back with reptiles, or further back with insects - once we were supposed to have had a common ancestor and branched ???
What's REALLY out there? could we even see or sense them if they wanted us to ?
posted by John 14:32
ChavScum
"Posh and Becks, the quintessential celebrity chavs! ... Look up the term 'media whores' in the dictionary and you'll see their picture. The godheads of Chav culture!"
I always knew that was why I didn't like them, it's just hard to explain that to people who don't understand, maybe it's because the people I was trying to explain to were Chavs as well!
Do you know there is a whole house full of them living across the road ? complete with domestic incidents, and carrying on their family business in the street, they're DEFINITELY the loudest house on our road, you ALWAYS know when there's someone coming or going, because it's acompanied by much yelling hello and goodbye, banging of letter flaps and slamming of doors.
You should see them at Christmas - always their kids playing in the street with their new expensive powered scooter or football for a 1-year old who doesn't even know what it is. I could go on! maybe I will...!
I don't get how being a lumpen prole in this country goes with being right wing either... at home when I was growing up the right wingers were the land and business owners, not the bogans - far from it! Did my head in when I realised the Sun was right wing!
posted by John 10:38
From here I found: "Do have a look at the 1953 ad in which a woman is beside herself with delight at getting a vacuum cleaner for Christmas: 'Give her a Hoover and you give her the best.'" yeah flippin right!
Reminds me of someone who once told me about when her ex husband had bought her an appliance for her birthday (an iron) and couldn't understand when she wasn't pleased with the gift... I mean it's the closest thing a woman could have to a new powertool right ? and we'd be thrilled if she bought us a top-of-the-line powertool right ? hmmm, sorry mate, she don't look at it that way!
You just said: "My dear, on this occasion which I know is so special to you... here is my gift for your exclusive use... thoughtfully and carefully chosen to show you how much you mean to me is... a symbol of masculine oppression... now you can iron my shirts for me!"
posted by John 05:55
Argh, weak people! get them away from me!
People that seek praise for breaking up, then go back to their exes when they're lonely... people who break their diet and binge eat when they're depressed...
Then they expect you to treat them with respect in the morning!
Give me friends with willpower!!!
Face it, if your reaction to stress is to chuck weeks of strict dieting and pig out on shit food then you're doomed, you shouldn't be on your diet because you're just fighting your inner desire to be a porker... only he who can see fat food as his enemy, and eating good food as a reward will be resolute in times of weakness... why react to stress by further punishing your body and piling up the bad actions so that your stress will be compounded tomorrow by the guilt of what you did today...?
If you see shit food as your comfort in your hour of need then you should stop bothering others, and get real about the fact that you're self-destructive, that your mind hates your body... and that it's your attitude to yourself you need to work on, not your eating habits.
There's no point forcing yourself to go on eating food you don't want to eat, and not eating what you do want to.
If you can train yourself to like eating the food that's good for you and to have revulsion for the food that isn't then you have it beat and don't need to diet.
posted by John 02:16
A guy was busking on the train on the way home from work tonight...
he was playing Abraham, Martin, and John
which I somehow vaguely recognised from my dimmest darkest memories... but I didn't know what it was...
Next he played a Bob Dylan song (he had a good whiney worn out voice for it) so I got the genre, but he was half a noisey carriage away, so I could only hear snippets of it, sometimes that's best especially when it's soulful... because your mind gets in the mood but you aren't swamped by the lyrics... so you can go with it... and your mind starts to sing for you...
Babe, I know I...
...used to ca-all you
but I've got _no_ time
anymore (but I've got no time no more)
and I see you...
...sitting round your window (you sit round your window)
I've seen you weeping by your door
It seems some times
that people change you know
I think it's only fair you know the score. (just thought I'd let you know the score...)
posted by John 22:53
When you're on the tube, have you ever wondered (why is it always on the tube and not in a crowded lift?)
is there anybody out there who *can* read your mind... ?
If so, are there different ways of doing it, or do the same principles apply to all?
How does it work?
Do they have to be close to you to do it, or can they tune in on anyone anywhere in the world?
Do they have to know you or have a path to you?
Can they only read what's in the front of your mind, your self talk,conscious thoughts,
so can you block their access by thinking white noise?
(triggering endorphin release [giving yourself fuzzies] & focussing on that works great for me,
but you have to be in the right frame of mind to trip that off!)
As a person who deals with network security on a daily basis I wonder is it like them getting their own shell on your box?
While you may be twittering around doing whatever you like (or nothing at all) in your shell they could be scanning your memory, storage, code & processes...
i.e. can they step around your conscious thoughts and directly access your unconscious mind?
How do hypnotists work? How do psychics work? How can they tell us what's going to happen?
What are they reading? Is it our mind or our aura, or our destiny?
Or do they make it up and we take that as a program and live it out?
Are there so many possibilities in our daily experiences that we can be on the lookout for things that match what they have said?
Do we have a destiny? Do we have it programmed into us?
If so, do we make things happen to us, (if wel tell ourselves it's not going to work are we jinxing ourselves?)
Or is it written up in a big program that we have to run through?
If it's predictable, are we living out a program?
Are our thoughts stored in the language that we speak, or are they stored some other way?
If we speak in our mind in another language, where is the line between the words were are saying and what we are understanding by them?
or more importantly, what we are feeling about them or the concept they are representing to us.
Even if we did not know a spoken language we would still have feelings even if we were not able to express or describe them in words, therefore, is it just as possible to read the mind of an animal as of a person?
(is that the heaviest post ever?)
posted by John 22:25
It's funny that things worked out the way they did & that I didn't phone her like I'd been planning to.
I feel that I was really in the right place at the right time this weekend...
I wonder if the reason that I tend to sit back & not push things is the fact that I believe certain things are going to happen anyway.
I really feel somehow that there's not been anything really important in my life that I've looked forward to which hasn't panned out the way I've expected it to.
I have this feeling that even when things I've wanted didn't happen it's worked out that it's been for the greater good in the long run.
It is right to hope & dream for the future, because if it's worthwhile & right then it will happen to you.
- don't be a "jinxed" thinker.
posted by John 20:12
Picture this...
An aquaintance calls - they're not a close friend and they don't come to the point quickly about why they're calling you - you don't know if they want anything from you - so you worry that they might just be bored and calling you for a chit-chat... so you're annoyed.
You've got things to do and don't have time to waste idly chatting to someone you aren't close to... it's hard to be nice...
It turns out they wanted someone's phone number, so you're relieved, but after they're off the phone you wonder (and worry):
"Do any of the people I know feel that way when I phone them ?"
I'm sure some do... now to figure out who and take them off my Christmas card list!
Am I a terrible grouch ?
posted by John 15:59
Today I took Jacqui (my flattie) to the DWP office in Harlesden to get her NI number, on the way home we went to the library and both signed up (jeepers, I've been here 4 1/2 years, been in the library numerous times, and never actually applied for a card!!!) then we looked in LeMoss and the other pound shop and there I finally found what I've been after for ages, a gorgeous Cast Iron Frying Pan!!! :o) it's the 101/2" one, it was actually the big on in the set of three at the top of the page, but he said he was selling them seperately, and I'm buggered if I need the other ones!
It snowed last night - the first(only? - touch wood!) proper snow this winter, and it was pretty damn slippery out!
posted by John 13:23
I've just decided that I'm not taking anywhere near enough photos lately...
Problem could be lack of disk space to hold them prior to burning... and the fact that I'm always at home !!! but still...
Check out this guy's phone photos!!!
fone1 - Jofish Galleries
That is wicked!!! 640x480 in a phone!!! that's the stuff, the same res as I was taking with Chris's old camera back in 2000 !!!
Awesome stuff matey, I wonder if he's got the same Panasonic phone I played with at Vodafone...?
(It was a Panasonic, was it a Panasonic GD87 ?)
Camera. It is the most interesting feature in the phone. The quality of the pictures in the phone is much better than in all other products on the market today. It is really so, at least for the images on the screen (it was impossible to transmit information on the PC). The camera is activated by the double pressing the OK key in the standby mode, the display is used as a viewfinder. The images can be recorded in JPG format (Fine, Normal, Economy) or in PNG format (for the first time in GSM phone). You can't choose a picture resolution, it is always maximal and equal to the resolution of the screen (132x176 pixels). The average size of the usual shot is about 5 Kb. It is possible to store more than 100 images (dynamical memory - 780 Kb).
That must be a VERY old review... "The quality of the pictures in the phone is much better than in all other products on the market today." with 132x176 ? but they might be talking about the true colour TFT display...
"optional VGA camera attachment that offers photos with a resolution of up to 640x480 pixels."
I've found other phones which do 640x480 resolution as well, but they're mostly external plug-in cameras, and Sony Ericsson - which I won't touch with a barge pole...
posted by John 02:51
Lots of places evoke memories of places at home for me...
Some places throw me though: Lynmouth harbour, Exmoor, North Devon
but you know I *could* say that the hills remind me of looking up the valley the road comes down into Port Fitzroy...
posted by John 01:38
I'm quite consciously aware of the fact that I've not written anything for days & days.
I don't feel bad about that, just a bit sad that I'm leaving gaps.
I've been thinking about lots, but mostly not the kinds of things I'd feel comfortable about blogging or qhich I think it would be wise to blog.
My thoughts have been taken up with job hunting &with things to do with people I know.
Oh yeah, I didn't put the soulmate thing in...
thought: "soulmate: a term invented by 35+yo women to encapsulate what they hope to find in a person and think they're getting... it is actually a mythical creature which exists only in their imagination..."
posted by John 05:32
Some people start out in life thinking .o0(When I get older I'm going to...)
Then sooner or later they find they get to the point they're thinking .o0(Gosh, that person's young to be ...)
it's about getting stuck in and doing it and not waiting for "older"...
posted by John 22:26
I think people who would consider living in South Africa should move there, and people who would like Australia should move there, and leave New Zealand for the rest of us :o)
posted by John 01:34
Cyberpunk - Wikipedia: "Cyberpunk's world is a sinister, dark place with networked computers that dominate every aspect of life." [ Aha, the essence of my life distilled! ;-) ] "Giant multinational corporations have replaced governments as centres of power."
John Dewey asked in 1931, what is politics other than 'the shadow cast on society by big business?'"
hmmm... "have replaced ... as centres of power"? isn't perception a fancy thing!
It's amasing what we can condition ourselves into considering to be "reality"
posted by John 02:16
Saw LOTR ROTK at Marble Arch on Dec 30th... wicked... I agree with the people who said it has about 5 endings, and I wasn't impressed by the special effects at times, but all the same... it was great, very satisfying to complete the trilogy, I'd happily do an all-dayer watching all 3 on DVD - un-cut.
One of the thoughts I took away from the movie was that back at the end of 2001, anything that even vaguely referenced aeroplanes, or New York, or tall buildings was pulled from the movies, radio and TV... now it seems we are allowed to go the other way...
I felt Peter Jackson luxuriously endulging in images of a tower crumbling, twisting, shattering and falling, and it was good to be able to experience him expressing that...
That thought was triggered by watching Eminem's "The Way I Am" video on the big screen at Long Island Iced tea Shop (see my rant below...) in which he leaps off a skyscraper and keeps falling and falling... Eminem must have premonitions of the future, AFAIK that video was made in 1999, and it's not just off one, but between *two* towers...
God the Long Island Iced Tea Shop has gone downhill over the 4 years I've known it!!! We had a really nice birthday party there for Julie in 2000!
Kind of indicative of low times when my crappy photo page gomes up at numberEIGHTFIVE of176233 hits on Google...
They're in a BRILLIANT location in town, they've been around long enough that most people know them, and yet they don't even have a homepage...
That place could go off! but it's so run down... it's got scruffy bits of guilded plaster, it used to be nice to sit and drink around tables, now it feels like there's not enough seating and it's all scruffy... It was said there on Saturday night "This place is like a gay bar, but full of straight people" - 3 years ago it was full of cute young oriental chicks, now, on a Saturday night, there's random bunches of tartily clad Essex girls (did I need to classify tartily?)
let's pick one to look at: long blonde hair, straightish nose, but just a bit too strong, not cute, too long, and with a slight hump that would suit a greek god, but not a blonde babe... made me think of Michelangelo's David... a look on her face that says she thinks she's gorgeous and knows it (while she doesn't cut it), but it's that look on her face that makes her look un-attractive...
Her top could be sexy, it looks like a cross between a corset - in that it's making bits bulge here and there where it pulls in - and a creme satin handkercheif... anchored only by one corner in the middle at the front... covering breasts that don't do justice to the size of her butt... hipsters with a fluffy top that look like they're painted on the bottom of her bum and a belt with big chrome letters saying "S E X * A N D" draped across her bum... classy...
The toilets were not working... I went downstairs to the Gents - there was a guy there turning us away "use the ladies' upstairs" - so I went back up to find that there was a queue in there, probably because two of the toilets up there (the only two you could see from the doorway - at the back of the queue) the place STANK of blocked sewers, My thought was that the council should close the place down till they got it sorted! So I gave up and left in the pouring rain.
I think (hope) that it's on its last legs and is about to be sold to someone who does something totally different with it! what a waste of a great venue!
posted by John 14:15
I keep meaning to come and blog, putting off thinking I'll do it later and then realising the next day that it never happened... mind you my whole to-do list is going that way at the moment!!!
I'm glad that they have the "Change Time & Date" button on this screen, because I'm needing to put lots of things in retrospectively!
(Jan 8th the word retroblogging pops into my head, I Google and as I thought I wasn't there first!)
posted by John 12:42
MICHAEL JACKSON NUMBER TWOS...
I relate! ( and 3 days later I get stuck in and embody my original idea which I had when I first saw the poster on the tube)
Michael IS in the number twos!!! dirty kidf*cker! lynch him!
What sick parents send their kids to sleep in the same room as a known dodgy weirdo?
I would expect that they just want the fame and possible wealth that they might get through their kid associating with the "king of poop" - they are either not paying mind to the fact that it might screw up their kid's like like MJ's was screwed up as a kid... or they don't care if it does, because it's worth the risk if it makes them rich themselves...
If their kid hangs around with a guy pushing 40 who is so messed up he thinks he's a kid and can't sleep withouth having kids in his room... is that gonna help their kid turn out normal ?
They're giving their kid a weirdo as a mentor and his messed up world as a peer group, thereby teaching/reinforcing in their kid that being a messed up weirdo is normal and OK!
posted by John 18:35
(This'll be while I'm on my way to a job interview at Liverpool Street)
Oh yes, you know when you're sitting on the tube bored off your skull because you've groomed all the contacts in your phone and archived all your old SMSs and you don't have a book with you so there's nothing left to do but stare at the walls...
On the Metropolitan line there are strange letter codes on the walls above the windows...
Here are some examples: BRV EPBIC TVIC IL DIC DV
One of those things I saw and thought "Hmmm, pop a note in your phone and Google on it one day, you're bound to find it..." well guess what ;o) the Tube Prune Abbreviations Page has just that...
Although I found that on the Jubilee line the codes are different and are not listed there...
BattIS ComS ICs DML
By the looks of the other ones it seems like they're talking about Battery Isolator Switch, Compressor Switch... ?
Not wildly exciting... but for he who wants to know everything... feel gratified and fulfilled!
posted by John 10:45
Yay! Ralu finally has her own website!!!
ralu.jaws.net.nz
very cool, well done guys, it looks great :o)
posted by John 04:37
What a busy day... we've had people doing assignments, people working on boilers, new flatmates moving in, people changing rooms, no hot water, multiple calls to landlord and heating engineer... talked to friends who've just gotten home to NZ, talked to friends in Czech Republic who would rather move there than go home to NZ, talked to friends who are coming over here from NZ... I'm almost getting to the point where I want to scream "IS THAT ALRIGHT WITH YOU!?" after I've answered "I don't actually have any plans yet" when asked "What are you doing for Christmas?" jeepers, I've even been asked that today by an ex workmate who is Muslim and won't be celebrating Christmas himself, in fact he's working right through... there must be something I'm missing here, even he's interested to know what I'm doing, and Christmas means nothing to him...
Oh, umm and... I put advertising for someone else's website on my blog for the first time...
There are a few notes which I recorded in my Communicator on Thursday night last week and I'm wondering if they're safe to put on here... hmmm... OK... I'll think about it...
posted by John 23:59
Hmmm... I just thought of something else...
There have been lots of times in the past when something has happened and I've spent time and energy typing up what happened and emailing it to someone... nice for them, all that work, an audience of one person, may not be kept, then they feel obliged to write back and your over full inbox gets bulged by one more straw on the camel's back...
If I blogged it instead, it would be there to read for all, easy to to find again, and I wouldn't be obliging anyone to contribute to my email mountain!
posted by John 13:14
My helpful tip for today is this:
Have a shower before you let the heating enineer do any work on your boiler.
Even if you know he's a great engineer, even if he's bought the parts he needs for the job be has to do, and even if you're sure there isn't anything else wrong with your boiler.
What happens when he discovers something else is broken and needs a replacement part, they don't have the part available, and that it's dangerous to re-assemble the boiler and use it with the broken part - because it will leak gas and may cause an explosion...
He hopes he can get the part today, but it may not be available till tomorrow...
The dangers of getting work done first thing in the morning!
posted by John 13:06
Oh yeah... AJ came out with a great word tonight it was... incringing ... hehehe ;o)
posted by John 02:35
When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life: Samuel Johnson
"Why, Sir, you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford."
� Samuel Johnson
posted by John 20:11
Fantastic, I just typed this all up and then wiped it by hitting a bookmark button by accident... rats!
Gone are my added thoughts...
These are the bits which I typed up in my communicator in between conversations at the Office Christmas Party,,, and aren't Office Christmas Parties just one of the SCARIEST things!!! I mean here are 350 of these normally quiet respectable and well dressed people, dressed up in slag rags, getting shitfaced on free piss and doing their level best to make utter twats of themselves... snogging, shaking tits, having open air sulky lovers tiffs with workmates, (some things were better not even suspected!) and not to mention standing sooo close inside each other's "bubble" that they're almost rubbing groins as they stand and talk for hours... and stare occasionally deeply into each others eyes in the most understanding way, and hold that glance like they're listening intently to the other person's words... Yes, I'm sure that's just a manager and his PA catching up on some important work discussion too, aren't you ???
OK, here it is, plucked safely from the communicator... I won't be asking you to forgive me for being a (currently single) guy who drinks alcohol, notices scantily clad chicks cavorting true to form now that they're profoundly in touch with their innermost drunken bimbo after necking what they could of the free piss... and wants to record his self musings on the sight... If you don't want to read that kind of stuff then I guess you shouldn't be here innit!
Own texts\blog this
--------------------------
Brevity due to time constraints, not due to inebriation...
.oO(The trouble is I met *her* first...
Can't go trading logs in mid stream... you know wha' I mean ?
She may be the über beatch 'n all.)
...what happens when the woman who has been flirting with you for the past 5 weeks, and who you have been thinking for the past week about asking to swap details with on your last day because you're leaving and won't be seeing her again, but after going and talking to her and finding it feels less natural than you had been expecting it to, (either she's not interested now or too dumb to make it easy for you to ask) so not wanting a scene you decide "NEXT" and to flag it...You turn up looking forward to getting a chance to chat with her again without being in a work setting... and lo and behold she's ripped off her ditzy skull, can't even stand straight and shaking the tits that she doesn't have like they're a skipping rope (and whoops keeping stopping to pull up her top because it keeps slipping because there's nothing to hold it up!) hmmm can't help thinking that she's exercised them away with all that shaking!!!
What did they tell me when I was chasing sheep as a young lad ? (oi! no racist jokes about Kiwis and our sexual preferences you!)
"Pick one and tail it till you nail the sucker!"
Well no, sorry, this is where I bow out!
Isn't better judgment a fantastic thing ? ;o) (sobriety is the bane of next day regret ?)
...I thought later to coin a phrase... (with apologies to Henry Vth) "Discretion is the greater part of honor"
(while I was looking it up I found:
The pride of youth is in strength and beauty, the pride of old age is in discretion.
Democritus (460 BC - 370 BC)
(isn't that indescretion?)
Some things are better not shared (does that include these thoughts!?)
oh um yeah... and I think my number one visual image to take away for the evening was a woman on the couch wearing a SHORT pink miniskirt, and a top which laced up (very loosely) at the front with laces...
"Nice of the bimbo to turn up wearing some pieces of string and a bandaid innit..." ;o)
posted by John 00:12
Chief Tecumseh, Shawnee:
"So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart.
Trouble no one about their religion; respect others in their view, and Demand that they respect yours.
Love your life, perfect your life, Beautify all things in your life.
Seek to make your life long and Its purpose in the service of your people."
I don't think I've ever before stumbled across someone's words and felt that they so succinctly expressed my own philosophy on life. This would be more relevent to have on my homepage than the Johnson quote which I have at the moment, but it's almost too revealing an insight into my way of thinking and living to put it out there up front.
They are each pure, just and honorable pursuits, and it could appear on the surface that they would be things by which all men could live, and which would lead to a life of peace.
I can vouch, for having striven and at times struggled to live by this same creed, I have the experience to say that these actions will arouse strong opposition in some people, even lead you into conflict, may estrange you from those around you, and will be the source of your greatest challenges. If something is worth doing, it will require great effort.
Still, I believe that these points are 100% right, and that for me, they are the only way to live my life.
posted by John 12:59
such a busy boy!!!
Oh boy! what a week! I finished at 23:15 last night, and 23:20 the night before... and the two days before that I was working out of town and didn't get home till after midnight... thank goodness it's the weekend now, but I have to go away again!!! no rest for the wicked they say!!!
posted by John 11:45
Hmmm do I really want to have geeky programmery bits in my blog ? It probably makes the blog less relateable to non programmer types...
What kinds of people read blogs anyway though ?
Please feel free to let me know...
Jeepers I'm such an eratic blogger... jump from 2001 to May, then May to November... (I've actually back-filled a bit now, grateful for the "Change Time & Date" button! with thoughts I've recorded here and there and put a date on - because this is the most relevant place for them) guess I've got more pressing business in my life than to be blogging all day huh ?
Update 09Dec2003: I've now made a Geek::Blog... so now there's somewhere safe for the techy bits, and I've moved the original techy bit of this post over to there :o) (and back dated it!)
posted by John 12:46
The things we do when our Wiki is inacessable due to our webserver being down huh ?
I know, it sure was scarey !!!
I somehow managed to make it through a weekend with no Aotea !!!
Notice I haven't said anything about the Rugby ?
I've been getting some *cool* pictures this week!!!
posted by John 10:46
Great to be home!
I've just got back from my first week of a new job, working away from London, I'll be out there for another 2 weeks yet, which means I can't get online during the week. It was SUCH a relief to get home this afternoon, have a cuppa, a shower then curl up in my nice warm bed and get a couple of hours sleep!!!
posted by John 11:45
I started a job in Swindon on Monday, and I'll be working there for another 2 weeks as far as I know.
I've not made it as far as Bristol this year, but I'm staying in Swindon during the week (until the 7th of November) it's SO nice to be out of London and getting some fresh air, I had forgotten how much cleaner it is over there than in London!
The new job is very very busy and I've been working CRAZY long hours.
I finished "yesterday" at 4:30 this morning, having started at 11AM yesterday because I'd worked 9AM till 2:30AM Friday on "Thursday"...
I hope like hell my boss is going to give me some extra days pay for all the hours I've put in this week, otherwise I'm dropping back to a 10 hour day and will make the most of being out in the country instead of slaving my guts out for him every night when I should be dining out or sleeping!!!
Aha... restaurants around West Swindon! I went to the 3 Crowns in Brinkworth last night for dinner with my boss and 5 others from work, the boss paid, and it was delicious! (I had half a duck) I was really relieved that A) we found it, and B) they had room for us (it was 9:30 when we got there) because I'd recommended the great Indian I'd had delivered the night before, the 7 of us downed what we were doing at work (very busy still) piled in the car and drove around in the countryside for 15 minutes trying to find the place... when we got there we realised they didn't have a restaurant, only did takeaways!!! so back in the car I thought "Hmmm, the 3 Crowns is great, but where the hell is it???" - I've been there 4 or 5 times over the past 3 years, but always at night and I don't know my way around there, so I had to play "phone a friend" :o) - the first two calls were not home, and I made it with the third... boy I was staking my reputation on that place being a success, as nobody else knew the area, but luckily everyone was very impressed with the place! :o)
On Monday my friends who I am staying with took me to The Cold Harbour Inn, in Blunsdon which had great food too :o)
It's been a week of excellent dining!!!
posted by John 22:05
That's an interesting technique - to come out at the start with something so (I want to say "offensive/shocking/sensitive") that one's immediate reaction is to be put on the defensive and start fighting to justify their position... so much that one would wake to the realisation at some point that they were fighting for something that they were not even sure they had a position on (or were interested in), and not realise how they came to be in that position... or perhaps never awaken...
posted by John 09:38
Thoughts from the Barrier...
If you pit yourself against the weather it is bound to beat you - if you leave your options flexible you should be fine...
What is your reason for living...
It was to be happy - now there needs to be something more -
To do good things.
posted by John 12:49
I made some changes because...
I wanted to make sure my complication wasn't too situated.
posted by John 17:31
I'm sorry, but today was the day... that "posh" look ... shiney shades ... straight highlighted hair & denim stuff... JUST went out of fashion! it's BROKEN! ugly pig!
Yes, that's right, a perfect example of the look, but instead of a thin Mrs Beckham look-alike... hmmm here piggy piggy piggy... AND she was ugly!
posted by John 12:00
Why does Monday always seem to be a good day for getting motivated to do paperwork ? (does it?)
It is because I'm meant to be doing something else and am procrastinating ?
posted by John 09:52
The closest thing to a diary that I've kept over the past 4 years it all of the receipts which I've kept (hoarded?)
*there* is a record of almost every holiday I've been on, dinner I've had, clothes I've bought and so on, each of which has memories attached, and from which I can piece togther where I was and what I was doing.
Some days I've needed that! - and it's nice to be able to reconcile it sometimes!!!
posted by John 12:00
What have I re-affirmed this week ?
You cannot be insulted by someone you do not respect.
It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.
It is important that if you are to be a success that you love and respect the person that you are and have faith in yourself, and your ability.
You need to realise something... that is that you are the sum total of all the experiences that you have had and all of the descisions that you have made.
Look back on the you that you were and love that person.
Whether a descision that that person made in the past was right or wrong, they made what they thought was the best they could for their future, for what would become the you that you are today. They did that out of love for YOU - this is more love, more care for you than anyone anywhere else ever had had or ever will have for you.
You can not look back on anything that person ever did and think that it was stupid or condemn them for it... based on what they knew and felt at the time they made the descision they made... you must love them for it - because that person is a part of the you that you are today - and if you hate or condemn them then you are hating or condemning a part of yourself.
posted by John 01:38
The other week I was thinking... It seems all that the British are interested in now is the football...
And then the Riyadh bombing happened... but now it's all gone quiet again...
...and the F.A. cup is over and the Scummers lost to the Gooners, and ... blah...
posted by John 01:06
I love the sound of the wind in the roof and the trees now
In London it's so rare that you get to hear it
Normally it's drowned out by cars and planes and people talking and stereos playing...
I just heard it for a moment now, it's such a lonely sound, like I'm on a hilltop somewhere way in the wilderness, either at home or up in Scotland somewhere... then there were cars and motorbikes again...
posted by John 14:17
It's been rather interesting to me to read my thoughts from October 2001 and contrast my view of Islam at the time with how I feel now.
Back then I guess I had very little first hand experience, an ex workmate who wouldn't really discuss it with me, an aquaintance who wasn't religious but who would have people pray out the back of his shop, and my sister in law who I have met only 5 or 6 times over the past 20 years and who as far as I know is not practicing...
Over these past 18 months I've stood shoulder to shoulder with many Muslim, and gone from tolerating to caring about, being interested in and standing up and acting for.
I guess this is one good thing that my living in London and the pain of being around through two wars in this time has done for me.
posted by John 23:07
My goodness, what a shock! Did you realise I actually had a blog somewhere on the web???
Yes, that's right, I have to admit, I'd almost forgotten ALL about this...
I had been thinking "blog...?" and I was thinking... "Didn't I write in a blog for a while back when I was working at A-Z?"
What ever happened ??? I'm so sorry, jeepers, it's over a year and a half since I even came here...
I wondered today "wasn't it blogspot.com that I used ?" then I thought "Ah, this looks familiar, now, what would I have called it?" - and then I found it... oh boy!
In the mean time, I've actually been writing (occasianally) things on a Thoughts page on my website instead... it's not much more hassle for me than using this, and to tell the truth I prefer vi as an interface to some tiny little window in an html page (Opera gives me 15x2 characters!!! - ehrm, do I wanna admit to using a non-free web browser? - Mozilla seems to work fine)
But, here we go... I'll at least link to this from my homepage now, so that I don't loose it again!
posted by John 19:50
The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he, who in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who would attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee.
you just can't beat that can you?!!!
posted by John 14:37
I shudder to think how much info there is about us all on the net now that we haven't intentionally published!
It's only Joe Public's lack of knowledge of how to get at it that protects the illusion of relative anonymity that we still live under !
posted by John 18:28
The Egyptian hair dressers across the road from my flat where I used to get my hair done got their big plate glass front windows smashed in on Wednesday, and it was on the news today that last night an Afghan taxi driver in town got beaten up really badly.
It's scarey when there's so many mixes of religions and nationalities together when the shit hits the fan because everybody gets scared of everybody else and the normal acceptance breaks down.
They're talking about more terrorist attacks and if George Bush goes attacking Afghanistan (who didn't do it themselves - so their women and children will be innocent victims) which it looks like he's going to do.
It's just as likely that the attacks will be here as in the US because Tony Blair has made a big song and dance about saying "we stand shoulder to shoulder with the US".
I was really worried last week because I knew my friend Leanna was in Manhatten, and also Mike and Bianca who I stayed with in New York live really close to WTC (they're inside the zone that's blocked off) and Bianca works so close to the WTC her work is within the danger area so it's been closed all week.
The worst thing was the phone networks were all overloaded so I couldn't phone them - and I emailed - but didn't get mail for 2 days, I got an answer from Leanna's husband Joe saying she was there but was OK, and the next day got a mail from Bianca saying they'd watched it all happen from their house but they were OK - thank God.
The brother of the guys from Great Barrier was working in the WTC and last I heard he was in Intensive Care in NYC.
That's the building I went up for sushi and a Bombay Saphire & tonic when I was in NYC. I've been in the restaurant on the top floor and looked out those windows - I've sent friends to do the same - I recommended that to everyone.
When I watched people jumping out the windows on TV and falling to their deaths and watched the building collapsing crushing and burning everyone inside, I was thinking about the chefs and waiters that had served me in that restaurant and the people I'd had lunch with and that that could have been me up there - and I could really feel it happening.
It wasn't like watching war pictures from WWII or Beiruit on TV - it was a building I had been in fairly recently and still have strong vivid memories of and met people who worked in it.
That building was a part of my life and my memories - one of my best memories of my amasing week in New York and there it was dying before my eyes.
I'm totally fed up with all the american hype on TV and on the net, and I'm really discouraged about the way it's going - it's like it's a landslide racing towards disaster, it's beign steered by that fucking idiot who's a real "good ole boy" ignorant shit for brains cowboy who's got about as much idea of diplomacy and negotiation as a brick. He doesn't seem to realise he's dealing with the most violent and fastest growing religion in the world today which covers half the earth and most of the unstable nations in the world, and that if he pisses them off there's going to be even worse attacks than what we've seen so far - he's just pouring petrol on the fire because he wants to get someone for what's been done.
I've just been totally stunned feeling for days - it's all too much to take in.
It would be really nice to be back home right now and a world away from the troubles.
Mum phoned me on the weekend, and said she had some really important advice for me - to pack a back pack with the things I might need and leave it behind my door so I could get out of London in a hurry if I had to. I thought "what a crazy crackpot she is" but as the week goes on and the more I read the less crazy it seems - the only problem is - when the shit DOES hit the fan, there will be no good me having a bag packed - because all the public transport will be the first thing to stop working - like usual, (you can't even get a train some normal days!) and there would be no way TO get out of town.
You couldn't fly anywhere either, plus there's massive queues for airports now because of the new security and most airlines are starting to cut back on flights and lay off staff. This means that the airfares are going to go up massively too. God know what it will cost me to come home next time.
Basically if anything DOES happen here it's going to be a case of "hang on and hope for the best"
posted by John 18:26
I watched a bit of "The Prince & the Pauper" on TV earlier this avo...
It looked pretty cool but I didn't want to sit in front of TV all day, also my flatmate came home from work sick...
It was good - I've just had a Google about it an find it's the 1937 version...
I find out it was written by Mark Twain - thank God it seemed to have mainly English actors though...
This version (there's a 1977 one starring Charlton Heston that doesn't get very good reviews)
stars Errol Flynn. (Very cool dude at the time, but appears to have lost the plot later in life...)
I thought his accent sounded strangly Kiwi like (In a very old fashioned way - Like Pete Sinclair or Selwyn Toogood used to sound)
They were all English - but he didn't sound English...
And I find out - sure enough, Errol Flynn was born in Tasmania...
He grew up in Striner town (You don't know what Strine is? - I mean Sydney)
and even lived in PNG for a while...
( Read here http://www.blockbuster.com/bb/person/details/0,4487,BIO-P+90030,00.html? )
I'd like to watch the movie some time.... just not today...
The real story looks kinda different...
http://www.britannia.com/history/monarchs/mon42.html
http://tudorhistory.org/edward/
And of course here's the Official Tudor homepage...
http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/Page11.asp
11 May 2003 (yes, that's right unfortunately they've hired a web designer who has gone against the great advice from W3: "Cool URIs don't change" and to using URIs which are meaningful... it *used* to be called http://www.royal.gov.uk/history/tudor.htm - what the heck was wrong with that ? - short of changing it to /history/tudor/ it couldn't have been much better, but now it's much much worse) :-(
posted by John 14:53
It can be difficult to talk to a new woman without referring to your exs
when a greater part of your memorable experience has been shared with exs...
Instead of saying "my ex" I now say "I had a friend who"...
and then when the pieces have clicked together I've been asked
"You did THAT with someone who was just a friend?"
- well OK, so she was my ex...
posted by John 17:36
Thursday morning's thoughts... got to my notebook, but not as far as the blog...
Feeling rather elated this morning... (if EVER so hung over!)
Kicked off in style, I don't believe I've ever taken a lady out for dinner before and invested �100 on a meal for two - especially not on a first date!
That blows Logan Brown out of the water!
I hope she doesn't think I'm a flashy bastard!
Thank God she didn't get to see the bill!
(She did off to help pay though - which is nice - perfect lady she was.)
(Umm, never did see her again though did I?!)
posted by John 14:58
I saw this cool but very weird movie on the weekend...
http://blake.prohosting.com/bamzone/LAWNDOGS.htm
Not quite as weird as that 7 1/2 hour Hungarian black humour movie with subtitles in black and white with all the mud and rain and gloom that I watched in Auckland in 1994, whose title I managed to track down again after all these years (it's Sátántangó)*, but still...
It's got that kind of Truman Showesque or Edward Scissorhandsesque look to the buldings... and you are just aching because you KNOW that the film is going to have a terribly tragic ending but you don't know quite which one of the possible scenarios you're fearing is going to pan out...
Sátántangó (If you ever get the chance then GO and see it, but I warn you, there were only very few of those us that started watching that actually saw it out.)
- http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/film_review.asp?ID=847
- http://www.moviemartyr.com/1994/satantango.htm
- http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Metro/9384/films/satantango/INDEX.HTM
- http://www.filmlinc.com/archive/programs/07-96/satan/satan.htm
- http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/00/11/tarr.html
- http://pages.prodigy.net/zvelf/satantango.html
posted by John 12:00
Haha! Did evolution ever think it was going to end up here?
Pump us full of hormones and reflexes and THEN give us a mind to think up chemicals to fuck them all over again...
Squeal piggie squeal !!!
posted by John 12:19
Wandering in this wasteland of the heart...
I feel like a Big Issue seller of the soul...
"Big Issue - Honey for the loveless..."
posted by John 15:55
He said "I can relate
- in fact I know the feeling well,
I've come on a Harley Davidson
from the far side of Hell..."
I had him pictured...
"The Artist as a Boy"
posted by John 13:26
Where would you be?
Would you even see?
when you found love....
If love is blind, would it see you ?
Would it stand transfixed by your beauty ?
posted by John 13:24
Looking for love in all the wrong places
reaching out to cold empty faces
that you thought you once knew (used to know)
posted by John 13:23
Why is it that nobody over here knows what a feijoa is ???
posted by John 12:22
Thinking... hmmm, this could be a bloggable thought...
Hands up who's stopped and read the contents label on a can of IRN BRU after taking a sip?
(I expect probably everyone that's had it!)
What other drink would even provoke that reaction?
Thinks... .oO(Oh my GOD! Have I just swallowed a mouthful of battery acid???
... oh no, that's alright then, checking label, hmm it isn't marked "not intended for human consumption" like they put on cans of pet food, so hopefully I'll be OK...)
Hands up who thinks we should make it a purity point?
"Having read the contents label on a can of IRN BRU:"
"Before drinking" = 1 points
"After drinking" = 10 poiints
Perhaps having ever drunken IRN BRU should be a purity point in the drugs category...
To me IRN BRU has the delicate flavour of the rusty orange water poured off a can of rusty nails which has been sitting in the rain in the back yard for 6 months... but it's obvious that my palate just has not yet aquired the taste... and to the person that told me on Saturday night that to then it tastes like watered down Tizer... what the hell do you think it IS???!!! (read the label and see who it's made by!)
If you don't know what IRN BRU is then you've not lived in the UK (especially Scotland)
If you don't know what a purity point is then you can go back to sleep...
posted by John 12:47
as we set our thoughts like concrete...
and let them harden with time...
posted by John 16:11
Do you care about London
While you're not here ?
Do you care about
The
great
white
United
States...
and what's happening there?
The thing is
that some things happening
in those places
affect us everywhere.
posted by John 16:01
Sometimes I admire the way that you go out of your way
to show me that you really don't care...
(Directed at noone in particular)
posted by John 15:59
OK, what to blog about ?
How about some writing ?
posted by John 15:55
Chris sent me this tonight, www.hairytongue.com
I think it's very cool... laughed more than I've laughed for ages !
I don't want her, you can heve her, she's too fat for me...
the homepage of the Frank Yankovic Polka... I see Weird Al mentioned on the page and wonder if he's Frank's son... then I find this:
Alfred Matthew Yankovic was born October 23, 1959 in Lynwood, California.
An only child, he began playing the accordion at age seven, following in
the tradition of polka star Frank Yankovic (no relation);.
at Weird Al Yankovic Biography on the ARTISTdirect Network
Did you know that that song "Midsummer's Day" by Men at Work ISN'T "Midsummer's Day" at all ???
this page told me it's actually "It's A Mistake"
- No WONDER I couldn't find it on Napster !!!
posted by John 02:39
This is the blog of John Harrison (a random Kiwi?)
< ? kiwi blogs # >
Since "all the other bloggers" (I *so* don't feel like a "blogger") have theirs on their blog... here's My Amazon Wishlist
