Thought of the day

You are currently browsing the archive for the Thought of the day category.

Boot fair

July 24, 2008 in The other, This, Thought of the day | No comments

Yesterday evening I went o a boot fair (also called a car boot sale, if you’re wrong, like Wikipedia).  I have this vague dream that I will one day come across a Leica M6 + Noctilux and someone who doesn’t have any idea of the value of either.  Which I’d sell to someone who likes that sort of thing *, via eBay, and put it towards my (currently non-existent and fantastical) EOS 1Ds Mk III fund.  Instead I came away with thirty packets of pork scratchings (£1 per ten pack) and twenty packets of Pom Bear (“”) – a teddy bear shaped snack, and the following on DVD, for £5 in total:  A History of Violence, A Scanner Darkly, and series one of Rising Damp.  The Rising Damp DVD is a major win at that price, because I don’t think it’s available new anywhere now.

I was kind of reticent about going because it’s the first day in about a month that my hip has not had any problems. The worst thing is that it hurt to cough or sneeze.  Seriously hurt, like a flat-head screwdriver inserted in the hip joints, and harshly twisted.  The sneezing bit is a problem when you have hay fever, and live near hay.  I found that if I leaned forwards prior to a cough or sneeze, and grabbed my knees it mitigated the pain somewhat.  I don’t believe in jinxes so I’ll say now that hopefully yesterday’s quick burst of energy won’t lead to another severe flare up of the hip.  It doesn’t feel too bad.  But it didn’t feel too bad the night before the last major hip flare up started.

But enough pathetic raspberry-ripple whining **.

There was a really attractive woman on one of the stalls.  So staggeringly attractive that I was quite prepared to override my natural shyness, and try to strike up a conversation.  However, something got in the way – a tiny yappy dog.  I fucking hate tiny yappy dogs.  I’m not one of those people that thinks a dog has to have a specific utility (a gun dog, or guard dog etc.) but there is something so stereotypical about yapsters it makes my head hurt.  Then I saw the Daily Express  in her Range-Rover and thought (somewhat ironically) fuck-that, and lost my semi-erection faster than stumbling across gore on the Internet.

* Leica are very nice but I’d prefer a 1Ds Mk III.  A Nikon D3 would be OK also.
** Thought of the day: Apparently it is healthy to talk about that sort of thing.  I think it is fucking pathetic, and boring.

Tags: , , , , ,

Common sense

June 24, 2008 in The other, Thought of the day | No comments

Is it worth getting upset about retarded moon landing conspiracy theories? I think it is. They depress me. I watch them because I think it is good to watch things you disagree with (within reason). The primary problems with conspiracy theories are that they use common sense as a rhetorical device, and cornerstone of an argument. They promote the idea that common sense is an acceptable way to view the world, and they malign history. Common sense is often wrong because it is based on evidence known to the person(s) applying it. It’s like examining a stock market without reference to all of the incentives at play. It is a stab in the dark, borne out of ignorance, and it is good for nothing other than the most simple of situations.

For instance, when moon landing conspiracy theorists talk about film being too brittle to work in out of space – which is common sense – they overlook (or are ignorant of) the efforts NASA put into making film work in space. Etc. Conspiracy theories thrive on ignorance. And the lengths some people will go in order to disregard evidence that clashes with their theory is astonishing. No-one likes being wrong.  Especially when it’s pointed out, but, being able to hold onto a belief regardless of the counter evidence, requires conviction. And having strong convictions is good, right?

Tags: ,

Thought of the day

June 23, 2008 in The other, Thought of the day | No comments

Static electricity was described by Thales of Miletus on observing that if you rub amber it attracts minute particles. The word electron is Greek for amber (ήλεκτρον).  Jeremy Clarkson will never make such an observation, and is a twat. And so is Richard Hammond.  James May is probably OK.  Although, for all I know, he could be into badger baiting.  He probably isn’t.

Amber is cool.

Tags: , , , ,

PS World: Fuck you!

June 19, 2008 in The other, Thought of the day | No comments

I have no clothes awareness. By clothes awareness I do not mean taste or fashion, rather thinks like putting T-shirts on the wrong way around, and not noticing throughout the day. Or forgetting to wear underwear. When I put my mind to it I’ve got a fairly good memory, so it’s not a question of senility, or mad cow disease, or other awful thing. I just put T-shirts on the wrong way around, – occasionally forget to wear underpants – , and inadvertently put socks on that don’t match. It’s like my brain is elsewhere when I’m dressing, and once dressed I’m usually thinking about things, so don’t notice the mistakes. People have confused it with making some kind of statement. It’s not. My back is often so bad I have trouble sleeping, thus I am often awful in the morning. The morning is when I dress.

I ordered some clothes today. I need new kit. I’m beginning to look like Catweazle had he adopted the apparel of the modern bachelor. So I’m going to shave the goatee and maybe get a proper hair-cut. “The squarest haircut you have good man/woman!” is how I’ll greet my hairdresser. Although if they take that seriously I could end up looking like I have a rectangular head. A Muppet gone wrong. Then end up having to shave it and look like a footie hooligan. Or a shaven bollock pulled taut, adorned with a Mr Potato Head DIY kit. A bad back doesn’t affect your temperament. This post is a testament to that.

PS

World: Fuck you!

Tags: ,

Damnation and redemption

June 9, 2008 in The other, This, Thought of the day | 2 comments

It occurs to me that people who have never been wrong are either lying to themselves, arrogant pricks, or exceptionally boring people. I’ve been wrong loads of times. I pride myself on knowing that – because if you can acknowledge your own stupidity you have gone some way to rectify it (apart from the unknown unknown stupidity). Some of the things I did as a teenager, retrospectively, shock me*, and I’m pretty sure that applies to lots of people (I have a collection of funny anecdotes about various people that I’m saving for later to smuggle out in the form of fiction). My attitude towards things like youth crime and bad behaviour are borne out of the knowledge that people can change. Rather than people being lost causes – immutably good, or bad, or clever, or stupid. I believe in non-religious redemption. And I think the ideal society enables people to redeem themselves and, within reason, forgives.

And there’s an important caveat: I was lucky enough to have a good family network, to have gotten well paid jobs, to have been born with a bit of smarts and good memory, with people constantly pushing me back into education, and a host of little things many just don’t have. So don’t mistake this for an argument that given the will it’s easy for people to make something of themselves. A kind of “I did it, so I don’t see why anyone else can’t” argument. Such arguments are right-wing bullshit. Oft spouted by self-made men who forget they’re not normal. If idiot kids don’t have the support networks that are available to many people by default, then it’s a shame if they live in a society that offers poor alternatives.

* Can’t say I was ever a danger to anyone other than myself though. Other than the occasional punch-up.

Tags: , , ,

The good old days in Broken Britain – Save me Cameron! Save me!

June 6, 2008 in That, The other, This, Thought of the day | No comments

Let’s shoot the shit Internet public. If it’s the case that:

  • The behaviour of children is mostly influenced by their upbringing – which, for most people, is provided by their parents.
  • Said parents were children in the past.

It seems very strange to call for a return to the past in order to deal with moral panics bad behaviour among young people.  Maybe I’m saying is way out there illogical because you rarely hear it used as a defense against fucked up rose-tinted diversionary over-simplistic actively harmful nostalgia “things were better in the past”.  The good old days.

Cause there is no moral vacuum, people are generally less fucked up than the past (less: racism, wife-beating, children-beating, abject poverty, bad health, ignorance, and a lot of other negative shit, man),  and people that tell you otherwise should be birched.   The future, upcoming recession aside, is bright and I’m pretty optimistic.  Optimistic is not equal to complacent.

Just for the record Brown talks a great deal of bollocks too.

Tags: , , ,

Sod that

June 4, 2008 in The other, Thought of the day | No comments

I’ve just watched Hilary Clinton concede. But this is not specifically about her. To get that far in politics politicians must really want the job. With a burning passion. I think that is no more apparent when you see a politician spouting platitudes and clichés in order to win votes. Because, working with the assumption that most politicians are good people, with noble intentions, and intelligent, they must know how predictable and boring much of what they have to say is; the soundbites, staged impromptu style visits on demographically correct representations of voters, day after day. Promising to listen, to restore some aspect of a mythological past, or the promise of change. Thing is, they may very well mean it, and if they’re tolerating the bollocks machine to get elected, I don’t envy them in the slightest. That’s a hard world. Man.

Tags: , , ,

Fall in outstanding contracts, rising prices – and oil prices

May 23, 2008 in The other, Thought of the day | 1 comment

Alexander Kwiatkowski and Grant Smith on $135pb oil.

Tags: , , ,

Scientology: I was wrong – Jason Beghe/XenuTV censorship

April 18, 2008 in Media, The other, Thought of the day, Uncategorized | No comments

I’ve gotten into quite a few arguments about Scientology. Because, with a few caveats, I think adults should be able to spend their money on whatever they like and I think Scientology is a religion. As I outlined here. But now Scientology (or people acting in their name) have plumbed new depths of stupidity.

Do you remember the video of Tom Cruise (since hosted by Gawker here) that was removed from YouTube? The one that prompted global protests against Scientology?

A key point to remember here, the salient point, is that the removal of a newsworthy video sparked protest.

Well. The same thing has just happened to Mark Bunker of XenuTV fame (the guy that released the Jason Beghe video):

Mark Bunker’s statement.

I didn’t photograph the last anonymous protests in London because I had bad guts and third demonstrations are less interesting than first and second demonstrations. People are usually bored by the third demonstration (see second London demonstration pics by me here).

Removing Mark Bunker’s videos is an almost guaranteed way to reinvigorate the protests and bring in even more protestors.

Heck, even I feel like protesting (rather than just taking pictures) and I don’t even feel that strongly about Scientology. As for YouTube: This is yet another example of how they’ll cave in at the first opportunity rather than give their users the respect they deserve.

Web 2.0 is about making money from the talent of your users and showing them little or no respect over profits.

If this sort of thing is tolerated it could happen to you next. Send Mark Bunker’s video, as linked above, to people. They should know.

Tags: , , ,

Ephemeral self indulgent shit

April 13, 2008 in The other, Thought of the day, Uncategorized | No comments

I think there should be a general rule of blogging that when you’re depressed you shouldn’t blog.  Almost universally it comes across as self-indulgent shit.  Earlier today I posted a post that in retrospect was so mental it was potentially funny.  In a laughing at a mental tramp bothering people outside of Boots kind of way.  To give you a vague idea of what the post was like, at the end I compared the Conservative party and New Labour to a saggy pox afflicted arse.  I had a mental picture of diseased cheeks belonging to the same arse.   Thing is: I hate people that try to convince people of stuff. It’s not that I object to people expressing their opinions it’s just I think it’s possible that vehemence is a mask for ill-thought out ideas.  With stuff I’m sure about if people agree that’s fine and if they don’t they don’t.  I’m still right. If I’m being vehement it is a sign of not being sure I’m right.  So the long-winded psychiatrists wet dream of a post had to go.

Tags: ,

« Older entries