| Tuesday, May 6th, 2008 |
| 9:38 pm |
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| Friday, May 2nd, 2008 |
| 8:38 am |
Media Barons
That the UK media are not so much interested in giving people a realistic and honest image of what is happening in the world and more intersted in destroying anyone they can and making sure the country is run the way their owners want it run is something that most people I know will claim to be true. Indeed I agree with that but still most people seen to belive them anyway. They set the aggenda and push politics in a direction far more suited an Australian media baron than your adverage brit. Let us not beat about the bush, I fear we no longer live in a democracy but a mediocracy.
I've yet to come up with a perfect solution to this as a funtional free media (Something we don't really seem to have right now) is essentual to a properly functional democracy. however here is a suggestion (All be it with some flaws) Make it law that no person may own more than 25% of any newspaper. This is the simplified version after all there would have to be dinamics to stop people effectivly having more than 25% control by gaining control of two or three corporations that each have 25%. That bit is the easy part.
This is not a perfect solution. It would be great if papers were run by groups of four or so people making no one person all powerful it could come to pass that the media ends up run by a bunch of passionless corporations (A bit of a genralisation about corporations but such organisations are many). |
| Tuesday, April 29th, 2008 |
| 4:15 pm |
Tradion and Not This Time It has been a Tradion with me to do a Whitby Special strip on State of Anchovy around the time of the Whitby Goth Weekend. This year however a more important subject happened while I was away. |
| 12:20 pm |
The Whitby post
Wednesday: Loaded up the van. got in all ready to go and discovered that using dad's air pump to put a bit of air in one of the tires had flattened the battery just enough that I couldn't start the van. Fortunately I live in a damn fine village and two people turned up with jump leads very quickly and we were on the way. Deizel at Sainsburies just outside of Haverhill was £1.19 per lt on the M1 it was just shy of 1.24. Not only was it about £1.01 last Whitby but that's a 5p difference That's one hell of a gap. I really do think the OFT should take a look at costs of petrol at service stations it's a total rip.
We stayed over night at Amy's folks in Widnessea (Sp?) and I got to play on a Wii for the first time. I think I will stay a Play station boy for the moment.
Thursday: Over breakfast Amy's dad got a call that her gran had a bad case of some kind of bug and was in a bad way. Now given Amy's gran is in a home and in what can only be described as a permanent bad way to begin with this was very serious news and for reasons that are not really mine to talk about very hard on Amy. All the same we had to be on our way to Whitby. Once we were in our B&B and properly dressed for the occation we headed for the Elsie for an evening that did much for both our spirits Whitby is nothing if not a chance to catch up with many of our most brilliant freinds Something I always feel I never get to do enough. Around 8 o'clock I headed up to the leisure centre to get our gear in at the market and make sure we got our pitch. This was important because due to lack of continuety and organiseation by the Whitby staff in the past we have ended up in all kinds of odd and not so great places. This time was to be very different. This time Jon was running the leisure centre market. Normaly sombody says they will be running the leisure centre next Whitby and then disapears. Jon managed to put up with a winter of Whitby HQ and was there to run things. Normaly I am told I can have my regular spot by the door and turn up to find sombody else has it due to an organisational blunder. Jon however was not only true to his word but organised. It seems us leisure centre traders can breath easy for a while.
Then back to the pub to deliver an item of t-shirtness to Fury for wearing by an unsuspecting Wesly.
Amy's Hotness was proclaimed by many who know hotness when they see it.
Friday: Worked on the stall al day. We were aware from our landlady that it was a very quiet goth weekend and the first one in years where she hadn't been full. Certainly sales were not great even for an April although we seemed to be doing better than many other stalls. Rumours came through that the Spa was so undersold it was selling tickets at £10 (I've not confirmed this but the source is plausible) Still our goods were popular as ever so that was nice. Also I was worried that April weekends tended to do less well on the Saturday than on the Friday (A trend reversed for the October weekend). Also on the Friday the news came through that Whitby had sent out the edict that from October anyone wanting to work the Leisure centre would have to work the Sunday too. Now to me this is a big No no. I work Whitby to earn enough money to do Whitby If I don't get to do Whitby then there is no point. Fortunately Jon to the rescue again with a plan but he had to check it out first.
Friday night at the pub happened and went on for some time. It was very pleasurable and it really is great to see you all. Eventualy several more folks returned from the met where there had been a burlesque show that had happened two hours late lasted for fifteen minuetes and had not really been worth waiting for according to all who had seen it. There was some four way beard action and Ara showed me a picture that really is best forgotten.
Saturday: A very slow day for sales. It meant that the weekend was only profitable if you don't count the cost of the room we were staying in and that we would have been paying for weather we were working or not. On the other hand Jon was true to his word and has sorted out the Sunday thing for us. He is a truly good bloke and it's a relief that he's there doing the job. Word has gone round that the spa even made a loss. the source for this is plausible. It is only April but I think a time of change/crisis must hit the Spa part of the WGW soon What this will mean is anybodies guess.
Saturday evening saw Amy and I go out for a meal with Ara and Giola to a pakistani place on the waterfront. It was a tad on the expensive side compared to where we normally eat but it was worth the money. I had an Incredibly hot Monk fish Tikka. It was truly pleasurable as was the company.
We headed back to the pub but there were no spare seats and I really was to tiered to stand. Amy too was flagging apparently as she came back to the flat with me.
Sunday: Bimbled round in the morning. Despite having found her a wonderful dress Amy was not feeling well by the time it was Loughtons O'clock. All the same She was happy for me to go (I think she would have been very unhappy if I hadn't). It was another great night despite the fact that I had no voice (I lost that on Thursday). It was the last ever Loughtons as the club will be changing it's name but the WGW 80's night will go on in october at the referbished venue. All the same I had a word with the staff about buying the old Loughtons sign as a present for sexbat (The DJ and driving force behind the best night of the who WGW) It's still an on going process as The maneger wasn't sure if they were ditching the sign (In which case we could buy it) or pinting over the old one. He's going to contact me. Then I got a message that Amy was outside trying to get a message up to me. Her Grandmother had died. My appologies to all of you I did not get to say goodbye to I will see you all next time if not before I hope.
Monday: The journy home was pretty uneventful and the petrol exspensive.
I have to unpack and frankly need to rest now.
Have a nice day |
| Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008 |
| 10:55 pm |
Eartha Kit has just been on Jules Holland
From Which I conclude that the sexiest voice on the planet belongs to an 81 year old and she still knows how to use it. Her voice Still makes my finger tingle. |
| Monday, April 21st, 2008 |
| 9:12 pm |
WGW panic
Simple question: What have I forgotten to pack? |
| Thursday, April 17th, 2008 |
| 8:48 am |
Spelling
Now that I've got round to upgrading to Firefox 2 LJ's spell checking thing works in comments. This would be handy but it dose seem to have a blind spot with string instruments.
Today for instance i put in the miss-spelling (At least I assume it is I wouldn't know) Ukalaly (Referring to the diminutive Hawian guitar) It came up with Balalaika. |
| Wednesday, April 16th, 2008 |
| 8:23 am |
Update I've been quiet recently. I've been very busy recently and things have not been helped by something along the lines of flu a week or so back so Basicaly even on the occasions where I have had five minuets to my self my reaction has been to collapse and not do much. Of course this means I am a little bit behind on my plans for the stall at Whitby. It also Means I've been very remiss in not posting a huge thank you to ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) baratron for a really wonderful T-shirt. I really wasn't sure If I should frame it or ware it (But given I'm running low on wall space I decided to ware it) For those of you worried that you forgot to send birthday greetings till the day after don't worry, Most of my pressise (Including a Limited edition vinyl version of the new Goldfrapp album from sangluna) didn't arrive till the day after and I spent the day so busy I was glad to have things turn up on a day when I had time to breath. Huggs to All Now I'm off to work (Yes at this time). |
| Sunday, April 13th, 2008 |
| 12:21 pm |
Smart?
A lot of people think they are a lot cleverer than they really are. This is not normally a problem for me but recently I have come to realise that a lot of people seem to think me a lot cleverer than I really am and that since they assume they are cleverer than they really are assume they are on the same level of cleverness as they assume I am they assume I think as they do on the subject of how clever I am and there for that I think I am a good deal cleverer than I really am. This is only a problem when they suddenly realize I am not as clever as they thought I thought I was and think me arrogant.
Interestingly the realiseation that I am not as clever as they thought I was rarely inspires people to re-appraise their level of cleverness. Also when people for any reason suddenly do realise they are not as clever as they thought they were they ascribe their realisation of this to their great wisdom and quickly come to the opinion that they are a great deal wiser than they really are. |
| Tuesday, April 8th, 2008 |
| 11:39 pm |
Ouch
When I joined Quaff they said their old base player just played simple base lines.
It was admittedly only after he left that they decided Stepping out by Joe Jackson would be a fun tune to play.
The Orriginal had a very cool base line played on the synths. We don't use synths or any keyboard instruments (Or drums*). We is hard core. Seriously It's actually been quite a while since I played base in a serious way and this line was never designed for a stringed instument. Are most base players left handed or some such the right hand seems to have it easy on this track the left hand is having to fly all over the place and still manage to hit the strings down hard enough for a clean note every time. It's not that the Line was hard to work out but playing it well has taken a lot of effort thus far and It still needs a lot of polishing. Looks Like our first Gig will be Meadow lark in mid June which is worryingly close given the bands wide range of songs and another gig with a different set the night after.
...and we ain't even in it for the money.
*Which are often made up for by a solid base line |
| Sunday, April 6th, 2008 |
| 7:59 am |
Just curious
Given that before the chines took total control of Tibet the Dali Lama was leader of a theocracy, has he mentioned what his plans are the constitution of Tibet should the Chines bow to his demands and give Tibet autonomy. Has he stated that his plans include and actual democracy?
I'm all for china moving towards Democracy (All be it in a controlled manor unlike the chaotic way it came about in in the former USSR). I think other countries should encourage them in what ever manor would be most productive (I don't pretend to be any smarter than anyone else as to what the best method for that is).
It does concern me that if china allow parts of it's self to split of entirely it would be conceivable that richer regions of China will split off and leave the poor ones to fall in to an even worse state than they are in now (Which in many cases is pretty bad it's self).
Reforming China seems to me like a huge game of Jenga with bone china blocks. The Chinese do seem slowly to be playing it. They must be encouraged to continue playing it, but at the same time we must be careful not to wobble the table to much.
Sits back and watches kitty play with the birds. |
| Saturday, April 5th, 2008 |
| 2:57 pm |
I feel Like poo but... Managed to get up the topical bit of bitchiness I came up with from yesterday's headlines to My wonderfully amusing websitePlus I seem to be aquiering new gardening jobs for the summer which is a very good thing including at least one that I can start on at 9am in the morning because the boss will be at work regardless. This is all good. ...Apart from the feeling rather poo mentioned in the title. ...I am the Snot monster. |
| Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008 |
| 8:42 pm |
Some activism actually against somebody for a change. To often I have heard people tell me that they do not vote in elections because they "don't agree with any of the candidates" or "The're all as bad as each other." I have even known people to claim they are voting for the BNP to "Give labour a bloody nose..." for either Iraq or Europe or some such. I want you to first understand a simple bit of maths. If you do not vote for anybody you are in effect voting for the BNP. You may be only giving them a fraction of your vote but some of that vote you are throwing away you are giving to the BNP and other equally nutty parties on both the far right and far left. The maths is quite simple for every vote that is not cast for another party that is one less they have to achieve to get a candidate in to either the London assembly or Local government or parliament. Some people of course would say that in fact the BNP are different now and not like they used to be. This is what they have been trying to portray so that people who in fact know full well what they stand for can vote for them without having to admit to themselves that they them selves believe in everything the BNP has always stood for. In case you do not believe me look at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=552692&in_page_id=1770 *** This is a man even the Mail thinks is far right. Put very simply we all know what the BNP is really like so you have no excuse to vote for them and not excuse to let them in by not voting for who ever happens to be the least worst option. To put this all in one simple sentence: In a democracy if you do not vote for the least worst candidate you are giving your vote to the worst. Since most people who read my journal are sensible folk I ask you to spread this message in your own way so those still looking for an excuse to try and palm off responsibility for our country, out counties and our towns no longer has one. *Don't believe it can't happen the French didn't and they almost ended up with a nationalist** as president a few of years back. **The modern term for Neo-Nazi fascist ***Thankyou to arachne for the link |
| Thursday, March 27th, 2008 |
| 4:18 pm |
Cat Fight For the last couple of weeks there as been a kitty from some place around here sneaking in to the house. Until yeasterday I had no reason to belive it was coming any further than downstairs. Yeasterday I found it in the Front room and it scarpered as soon as it was sure it could get past me ( I was standing in the door way). Later on I heard our cats chasing it out from the same genral part of the house (By the time I got there it had scarpered). This gave me the clue that our cats did not concider this new guest welcome so [Bad username: sangluna"] and I set our selves to backing up our cats and despite the new visitor being very cute we decided that were it to return we to would chase it out as best we could. but it was not seen again for the reast of the day. At five O'clock this morning I was woaken by a very intens cat fight going on in the living room (This is a lot more in to the house than the front room). I was out there as quickly as I could gain control of my limbs but it must have scarpered the moment it heard my hand on the door because at that point the noise stopped and I saw our two cats chasing out of the room after what I can only assume to have been our visitor. It is good that it goes when I apear and that our cats know I can drive the intruder away but I'm very worried that it will get back in at night (Or in the early morning when the papers arrive and the door downstairs gets opened) when I am in bed and not about to protect our two. I don't want them to feel threaterned in their own home by this intruder and although they have not yet sustained injury I worry that they will. Any way that's my worries over I have also today got a new State of Anchovy Strip up. It was only after I finished it that it really struck me I could have done this in one pannel (The last one). with no real loss to the humour although I am very pleased with the art work for the second panel so I guess it was worth it. |
| Wednesday, March 26th, 2008 |
| 5:11 pm |
Quaff
It's been a Long time since I've played base. The reason is quite simply that no matter how you funk it up base guitar is really in most songs meant as an accompliment instrument and my other guitars are more versatile.
Last Time I had somebody to play base with was when a Madda, a former girlfriend of mine joined a gospel Choir. I was looking for something musical to do too at the time and thought a bit of singing would be good even if it wasn't music of somebody else's religion. Madda quit the choir after a few weeks because it was mostly spirituals which was not what she thought of as gospel music. I carried on though as I was really learning to sing well and found the music really good fun to sing too. Then as we were approaching the planed Christmas concert the drummer dropped out. Now the groups base player happened to be a pretty accomplished drummer so he moved in to that role and I offered to step in on the base. This was also a good thing as I had a Gospel Base player still about to teach me the ropes. That was a very long time ago now. The best part of a decade. I've not really played base since apart from one jam session last Christmas which lead to me doing a number with a couple of folks at the village carol service. One of them has for a long time been part of the only decent band in the village. They are called Quaff.
The Base player for Quaff recently moved to Cambridge and has now decided to quit the band. This after noon they asked me to replace him. I have provisionally agreed assuming I can come up to the standard they need. last time they played in the village They did a mix of Rocked up Folk and Folked up Rock and pop. It was a really fun gig and very enjoyable. Now they have moved very much more in to 80's stuff and a bit less folky apparently but I won't really know till I go have a play with them tommorow night. They have sent me a list of their repotuior (with lyrics and chords) and it has so much stuff I Love in it. I'm going to enjoy this I know. They seem to be very in tune with how I do things my self so it should be easy for me to adapt to their style and methods.
(Happy dance)
...I wonder if I can get them to cover Nelly |
| Monday, March 24th, 2008 |
| 12:15 pm |
The Phone man Cometh
Saturday was an annoying day to be in the shop. The Lottery machine broke down on Friday morning only because it was not the machine and actually it's dedicated phone line we had to wait till Saturday morning for anyone from BT to come out and fix the fault. He managed to fix the fault and left quickly before it had even rebooted at the exchange. This meant that we did not get the chance to tell him that although he had indeed got the lottery line fixed he had broken the phone line for the post office and shop.
This meant that despite it being Easter meaning that all the people who would normally come in to collect their pensions on Monday were coming in that day we could not give out any money because everything like that is run by computer these days. So we called them back. Fortunately our alarm for the shop is run by a subsidiary of BT so they forced BT to come out that afternoon and fix the line so our alarm would not keep going off all night. Not that this was easy. We called their help line which asked for our phone number and then gave us three options:
1) Faults
2) Sales
3) Billing
The last two were of no interest to us and the first one just looped us back to the asking about the phone number bit and then gave us the same three options. We tried this a few times and it was indeed a loop that went round and round and round. My dad tried it and so did I. Eventually we cheated and didn't type in a number at all. This got us strait through to the person we wanted to speak to in the first place. To really make us feel like valued customers they questioned if it really was the fault of their engineer and said that if it turned out the fault was ours and not theirs we would have to pay a special call out fee.
I sat there all afternoon waiting for him to fix the shop and break the house connection. As it was he managed to fix things properly. so I didn't loose my Internet connecting. Instead we got a series of Power Brown Outs so I spent Saturday afternoon with mu computer off anyway just in case. |
| Saturday, March 22nd, 2008 |
| 7:26 am |
The passion
I was watching the BBC's production of the passion last night. I've enjoyed most of it so far. I'm not a Christian but it's still got a lot in it for agnostics like me who are still keen to hear some of the things Jesus said because he did say a lot of very good things.
The thing that did worry me a little is that thus far they have cut out all the miracles. I Imagen the big one (The not being dead after all one) will be in the Easter day one but very noticeable non of the sky going dark for hours during the crucifixion. Now the reason I object to this is that they are obviously trying to make the story more plausible for a cynicle viewership but I suggest that is in effect lying about what is in the bible. People should not be given the impression there is nothing difficult or challenging in the bible; The BBC especially should make sure people having the Easter story told to them face the difficult with the easy.
I'm not sure I'm getting this point across very clearly but I hope you get the point. |
| 7:15 am |
Well done David Cameron You've Fucked it up for the rest of us.
As a cyclist (When possible) I've always made a point keeping to the laws of the road as I do when driving. There has always been a lot of bullshit about how most cyclists ignore the rules of the road. This is shit because I would suggest that as many motorists routinely break the rules of the road as cyclists, but nobody dare criticise Motorists because that would offend the vast majority of people. Git features Cameron has now fucked it up for all of us cyclists that do obey the rules of the road by making him self the most prominent well known cyclist in the country and then not just bending the rules a little but taking a sledge hammer to them.
Lets be honest about this however Cameron has demonstrated time and time again that he dose not give a shit about the rules society has built up to stop life being shit. He stands there every prime mister's question time and acts like the school bully. This says a lot more about Cameron than about cyclists. I imagine when he drives he acts like a tosser to. |
| Friday, March 21st, 2008 |
| 7:59 am |
Hypocrits all over the place
First bunch of Hypocrites for the day Lets get out of the way the fact that I am posting on the day some bunch have declared an LJ strike because frankly If I had a problem with LJ that was that bad I would not be here ever. I expect when all is over they will post some statistic about how much quieter LJ was today. This will of course be a totally bullshit statistic because it's good Friday and a Lot of people will be away from work and hence away from the Internet and will have no chance to post to LJ.
This segways neetly in to my other point tht I would like to be not working today. I had planned to spend the day with my girlfriend I worked really hard on a personal project last night so I could say to my self I had got some of it done this week and instead put down my pastels today and actually spend some time with my girlfriend. However a new customer came in to the shop yesterday to ask about my gardening services. I had a chat with him standing in the post office and mum was behind the counter. We agreed terms and I said I could start next week on Thursday because I was busy up till then and taking good Friday off (I'd already agreed to cover for my mum in the shop on Monday so they could have the day off). Mum then interseeds and says "Oh you can work on Friday your not doing anything are you you can take another day off?" and from there boxes me in to a corner where I can't say no to Friday with out looking like a work shy fop in front of a new (Very well off) customer (With a big garden). I was quite pissed off at this, but what really pissed me off was that this morning when a rep from a sweets firm turned up at the time he turns up every other Friday anyway mum waits till he has gone and complains about who this is the anniversary of the most important day in history and that he shouldn't be working and complaining about customers who dared to make mention of the fact that the shop had opened an hour late and how she wouldn't open at all if it were not for the newspapers insisting on going to print on bank holidays which in her opinion they shouldn't. Now that is her veiw. I'm not a Christian but I am sympathetic to that view as I think national days of benefit society and especially those in the lower echelons of society who have the kind of jobs where they get dumped on lots and days off of any kind are sporadic at best, but I think that also applies to Me I wanted to have today off. How comes that in my Mums eyes everyone should have today off except for me.
*That sentence was going to be "Spend some time on my girlfriend" but that that dose not quite sound right (although...) |
| Wednesday, March 19th, 2008 |
| 1:09 pm |
£550,000
I think it can be said that to a major Newspaper group £550,000 is nothing.
I hope the poor publicity will if not loose them custom then at the very least Shake peoples faith in news papers and put them on alert that the brutish press have no qualms about publishing things that are un-true when it serves them to do so. |
