I was followed down the street today by a group of tiny sinister men who hacked at my heels, ineffectually for the most part, with small swords and axes. They were dressed in long dirty coats and dark green stetsons from beneath whose filthy brims their red eyes gleamed fiercely. They picked up my trail on the way back from the shops. I had walked hurriedly past, where they had been gathered around a dead cat, poking it with their blunted, pitted weopons. As I past the little gaggle they had looked up at me, and I had turned my gaze quickly away, staring with apparent, but feigned interest, at the butchers ship opposite. Where torsos hung, headless and legless, in the window. I had only walked a few steps when I became aware of the curious looks that salarymen and washerpeople where casting in my direction. I looked behind and saw that the little group of men were now skipping after me, the metal segs on their boots throwing sparks from the pavement as they pursued me. I increased my speed but they kept pace with me, and I was laden by my purchase of cogs and anchorchains. When I neared the leafy silence of my street they suddenly attacked, slicing at my felt and leather shoes with their tiny weopons. Only one blow did any any real damage, a lucky strike slicing into a corn on my middle foot, otherwise I was unhurt.
So now I lie in my cradle, its gurning lines and joy harness untouched, as I listen to the little people tapping to the window and scrabbling at the flue, seeking an ingress. Seeking a way in.
Monday, January 31, 2005
Saturday, January 29, 2005
I'd love to blog in excess this evening as K is out and E is fast asleep in the sofa (never fear, theres milk defrosting in the fridge) but I feel somewhat tired.....had a good workout earlier, lots of slapping on the finger board, nice. Pleasent walk in Malmö earlier, saw a great crested grebe in the canal, looking thoughtful. We're contemplating the whole moving thing at the minute, currently waying up the delights of buying a farm with land (sounds very grand but its real cheap to buy a lot here, but the downside is having fascists as neighbours), moving into a larger flat in town or a house in the 'burbs. All very exciting, the flat is getting valued on monday so we'll see......must dash, hunger.
music: Ned Sherrin, twat, but hes going to be interviewing Patrick Stuart.
weather: -5, blue skies.
last movie: Dawn of the Dead, bloody excellent and quite scary. Worth viewing just for the start, where we see a housing estate going to hell (some great aerial shots) before we get back to familiar ground of the mall. So, DotD gets a worthy 7 out of 10 - it would get more but theres just too much of 'why the fuck would you do that?' in the script (even for someone like me, who suspends belief on a regular basis). Excellent soundtrack by the way, and if you watch the directors cut dvd you get more gore and character development and some quite amusing, though a little amateur, short movies - I liked the one about Andy the gunshop owner, cool.
Speaking of movies, I notice, that Alone in the Dark' is coming out and Aliens of the Deep'-looks good.
site: So in a great celebration of geekness and general fanboy activity, ladies and gentlemen the greatest Britons 2004 included Tim Berners-Lee (inventor of the WWW) and Phillip Pullman, author of His Dark Materials. BBC NEWS UK Web inventor is 'Greatest Briton'
music: Ned Sherrin, twat, but hes going to be interviewing Patrick Stuart.
weather: -5, blue skies.
last movie: Dawn of the Dead, bloody excellent and quite scary. Worth viewing just for the start, where we see a housing estate going to hell (some great aerial shots) before we get back to familiar ground of the mall. So, DotD gets a worthy 7 out of 10 - it would get more but theres just too much of 'why the fuck would you do that?' in the script (even for someone like me, who suspends belief on a regular basis). Excellent soundtrack by the way, and if you watch the directors cut dvd you get more gore and character development and some quite amusing, though a little amateur, short movies - I liked the one about Andy the gunshop owner, cool.
Speaking of movies, I notice, that Alone in the Dark' is coming out and Aliens of the Deep'-looks good.
site: So in a great celebration of geekness and general fanboy activity, ladies and gentlemen the greatest Britons 2004 included Tim Berners-Lee (inventor of the WWW) and Phillip Pullman, author of His Dark Materials. BBC NEWS UK Web inventor is 'Greatest Briton'
Friday, January 28, 2005
Bloody knackered, up early this morning posting to the work website and then into C'hagen for a meeting. I was under the impression we had a drinks party afterwards but was, to my relief, found to be mistaken. Everytime I go drinking in Denmark it ends in disaster, with me getting so drunk I almost shit myself - really. Thus, quite a relief to be going home in the early afternoon feeling quite sober.
Slow as usual but I found out about this cool google search term which is, in effect, a hack into live feed video cams - I did not experiment too much but try inurl:"ViewerFrame?Mode=" as a search term and you'll get loads of cameras coming up which can be accessed through the net, I expect by now that most people will have put in a blocker against this....incidently the inurl term allows you to search for a text string in the url's in googles index. hours of geek fun.
Weather: Dark
Bad news: apparently global warming will reach the point of no return in about ten years...we're one degree away from a 'danger threshold', nice.
music: the sweet hum of the 3 fans in our pcs cab
good night, sweet dreams.
whats really cool about this is that they watch it all the way to the end, and so quintessentially british about is that they 'settled down with a cup of tea', brilliant....presumably this story provoked lots of lonely old men to go hunting through similar bargin bins of DVDs BBC NEWS | England | Somerset | Sex movie mix-up shocks couple
Slow as usual but I found out about this cool google search term which is, in effect, a hack into live feed video cams - I did not experiment too much but try inurl:"ViewerFrame?Mode=" as a search term and you'll get loads of cameras coming up which can be accessed through the net, I expect by now that most people will have put in a blocker against this....incidently the inurl term allows you to search for a text string in the url's in googles index. hours of geek fun.
Weather: Dark
Bad news: apparently global warming will reach the point of no return in about ten years...we're one degree away from a 'danger threshold', nice.
music: the sweet hum of the 3 fans in our pcs cab
good night, sweet dreams.
whats really cool about this is that they watch it all the way to the end, and so quintessentially british about is that they 'settled down with a cup of tea', brilliant....presumably this story provoked lots of lonely old men to go hunting through similar bargin bins of DVDs BBC NEWS | England | Somerset | Sex movie mix-up shocks couple
cool or what, if you read the whole article it turns out Arthur Dent (Dent, as in the late DentArthurDent - its meant to be threatening, but I'm not very good at that kind of thing) already has an asteroid...TheStar.com - Hitching a celestial ride: "And there, orbiting between Mars and Jupiter 358 million kilometres from the sun, was the perfect rock � already designated as 2001-DA42. That's the year of Adams' death; his initials; and 42 ... revealed in his books as the answer to 'the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything.' No one ever did figure out what the Ultimate Question was."
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
Tuesday, January 25, 2005
So Ks off to Växjö for the night with E in tow - its rather wierd, and a little lonely, not having them around but part of me is thinking purely of self indulgence. So, pull ups and then a video I think - which may involve facing my fear and getting zombie related nonsence out from the store. Tommorow should be interesting, I'm off to Copenhagen for a meeting of the Nordic council...I managed to blag a place for myself which is cool, thing is - because its the Nordic council it means the lanquage will be (not surprisingly) Danish, Swedish, Norwegian and Finnish - not a hint of English. The theme of the meeting is biotech so hopefully the presentations will be in powerpoint, as my reading in Swedish is better than my listening.
music: Love and Rockets, Alive
weather: -1, a chill lazy wind
purchase: a nice sensible grown up coat
music: Love and Rockets, Alive
weather: -1, a chill lazy wind
purchase: a nice sensible grown up coat
The ship tumbled out of the wormhole like a dying animal. Its white, brick like, shape was studded with glowing craters from the broadside of fusion torpedoes it had endured from the recent conflict. The wormhole had spat it out in a lonely piece of forgotten space, well away from the galactic hub and the vicously fought over shipping lanes. A single solitary planet turned in front of the ships blunt and battered bow, the cold light of a dying dwarf star illuminating the scene. As the 600 metre length of the ship slipped away from the wormhole terminus, which had already begun to close, its uncontrolled spin began to improve. Jets of internal atmosphere spouted where its hull had been punctured and arcs of electricity silently leapt across the remains of its hard light drive. The ship still towed the tattered remains of its sensory array, the two kilometer long tensile strands of carbon now tangled and useless.
As the ship drifted towards the planet the running lights on its starboard hull flickered and then went out. Navigation lights on its forward arrays continued to blink quietly but there was no other outward sign that the ship was still alive. The short, but fierce conflict the ship had endured had also taken its toll on its human crew. Heavy metal virus bolts had been fired into the punctured hull. When the superheated metal had impacted into the ships bulkheads the viral load it carried had been injected through the metal and into the still habitable portions of the ship. Skin mange, once thought irradicated hundreds of years ago had spread rapidly through the ship, airborne and silent, killing slowly and with deliberate, genetically engineered, malice.
On the bridge, deep within the ships central core, there was almost no activity now. The frenetic minutes of the ambush, the struggle to activate the damaged hard light drive as the crew began to choke on their own blood, and the nausea of unscheduled faster than light transit was over now. Most of the bridge crew were dead, drifting gently at their posts as lights flickered and died in the cramped spherical enclosure. What had been a cosy haven of quiet control and efficiency was now a slaughter house. Globules of blood floated in the air, and eddies of smoke drifted randomly in the zero G environment. In the centre the captain slumped in his command seat, emergency medical equipment strapped to his dying body. Such was the level of medication pumped into his body that he did not recognise the scabbed bloody hands which still, automatically, authorised commands and procedures. Prerecorded messages echoed around the silent ship, the soft voice of the tannoy filling the lifeless corridors and rooms. He took over helm control, calling up a schematic of the remaining online thrusters, and eased the ship back into a steadier flight path. Using all his experience, and with a little help from the ships half mad AI, he layed in a course which would deliver the ship into a centuries stable orbit around the planet. This last effort exhaused both him and the ship, and as he slumped deeper into his seat the lights on the bridge failed entirely. He fumbled in his flight suit pocket, his slick fingers finding a small sheet of battered plastic which he clutched for a while, before it escaped his limp hands and drifted into the dark.
The photograph, of a man, a woman and their children, drifted into the centre of the silent bridge where it hung, motionless.
As the ship drifted towards the planet the running lights on its starboard hull flickered and then went out. Navigation lights on its forward arrays continued to blink quietly but there was no other outward sign that the ship was still alive. The short, but fierce conflict the ship had endured had also taken its toll on its human crew. Heavy metal virus bolts had been fired into the punctured hull. When the superheated metal had impacted into the ships bulkheads the viral load it carried had been injected through the metal and into the still habitable portions of the ship. Skin mange, once thought irradicated hundreds of years ago had spread rapidly through the ship, airborne and silent, killing slowly and with deliberate, genetically engineered, malice.
On the bridge, deep within the ships central core, there was almost no activity now. The frenetic minutes of the ambush, the struggle to activate the damaged hard light drive as the crew began to choke on their own blood, and the nausea of unscheduled faster than light transit was over now. Most of the bridge crew were dead, drifting gently at their posts as lights flickered and died in the cramped spherical enclosure. What had been a cosy haven of quiet control and efficiency was now a slaughter house. Globules of blood floated in the air, and eddies of smoke drifted randomly in the zero G environment. In the centre the captain slumped in his command seat, emergency medical equipment strapped to his dying body. Such was the level of medication pumped into his body that he did not recognise the scabbed bloody hands which still, automatically, authorised commands and procedures. Prerecorded messages echoed around the silent ship, the soft voice of the tannoy filling the lifeless corridors and rooms. He took over helm control, calling up a schematic of the remaining online thrusters, and eased the ship back into a steadier flight path. Using all his experience, and with a little help from the ships half mad AI, he layed in a course which would deliver the ship into a centuries stable orbit around the planet. This last effort exhaused both him and the ship, and as he slumped deeper into his seat the lights on the bridge failed entirely. He fumbled in his flight suit pocket, his slick fingers finding a small sheet of battered plastic which he clutched for a while, before it escaped his limp hands and drifted into the dark.
The photograph, of a man, a woman and their children, drifted into the centre of the silent bridge where it hung, motionless.
Sunday, January 23, 2005
Just back from a weekend at the summer house, very lovely and made all the more exciting by a sudden blizzard this afternoon. I guess about 10 cms of snow had fallen in the few hours before we left to go back to Malmö. The weekend involved plenty of eating, drinking and log running on the beach. Our chums R & K came up from Malmö on the weekend on the saturday, which was really cool - we had lots of plans for sunday but curtailed by the snow storm meant we bravely bought lunch and ate, under extreme comfort conditions, for several hours - extremely hard.
I'm actually knackered, as I worked out at the Rocky Gym on friday, had a good hill run on saturday (a rarity as Malmö being very flat means little thigh busting activity - if you know what I mean) and then, when I thought it was safe to do bugger all, accompanied K on a run down to the Rocky Gym and then onto the beach for a spot of log running. Which involves picking a nice heavy piece of drift wood and then running up the beach with the log held, on straight arms, above your head. For the first 5 metres you feel fine, the next 20 your arms feel like falling off, for the last 5 they do, slowly with lots of pain. Which was nice.
Music: None, though I tested the new monitors speakers with a little bit of Morcheeba.
Weather: Snowing.
Surreality: Outside, at the summer house, hearing a strange creaking noise from above me. When I looked up I saw two swans flying gracefully through the snow. Very beautiful.
Inconsequential comment: The shadow of his carrot.
I'm actually knackered, as I worked out at the Rocky Gym on friday, had a good hill run on saturday (a rarity as Malmö being very flat means little thigh busting activity - if you know what I mean) and then, when I thought it was safe to do bugger all, accompanied K on a run down to the Rocky Gym and then onto the beach for a spot of log running. Which involves picking a nice heavy piece of drift wood and then running up the beach with the log held, on straight arms, above your head. For the first 5 metres you feel fine, the next 20 your arms feel like falling off, for the last 5 they do, slowly with lots of pain. Which was nice.
Music: None, though I tested the new monitors speakers with a little bit of Morcheeba.
Weather: Snowing.
Surreality: Outside, at the summer house, hearing a strange creaking noise from above me. When I looked up I saw two swans flying gracefully through the snow. Very beautiful.
Inconsequential comment: The shadow of his carrot.
Friday, January 21, 2005
Ahh yes, those cunning homosexuals, plotting to take over the world and turn us all gay...rather than the Red Brigade, here come the chintz brigade....BBC NEWS World Americas US right attacks SpongeBob video: "But conservatives say it sees the video as a cunning attempt to promote homosexuality. "
Thursday, January 20, 2005
let me see now, top 10 science fiction movie moments of all time (for me, now and almost certainly to be different on any other day), this actually started as 5, made it to 8 without any bother and then ended nicely at 10.
1. The wierd hotel room scene at the end of 2001 - totally freaked me out the first time I saw it (in fact, made me flee upstairs to hide - I was about 10 incidently).
2. Lukes fight with Darth Vader, having just discovered that the Dark Lord of the Sith is in fact his dad, the plunge down the shaft and then the hanging off the antenna before being rescued by the Millenium Falcon. This was immense when I was kid, as this was the first of the Star Wars movies I saw at the cinema 'Vader's his father, but, but, but.....'. Nothing would ever be the same again.
3. The dojo scene in the first matrix movie. I know the shoot out in the office lobby and the fight between Neo and Agent Smith are both remarkable but the dojo training scene was just so good, classic lines ('do you think that's air you're breathing, hmmm), great moves and choreography.
4. The last scene of Silent Running, fantastic early '70s movie with a strong environmental message. The image, of the remaining drone tending the trees and plants as the ship drifts into space is remarkable.
5. Blade Runner - c'mon the end is just one of greatest cinematic moments of all time. Rutger Hauer improvising his Dutch ass off to come up with inspired lines 'I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die'...fucking great.
6. Alien - My abiding memory of this movie is not, surprisingly the chest burster scene, but rather the opening shot of the computers chatting away with each other in the deserted bridge, the noise of the text as it flowed across the screen and then the nicely edited shot of the crew waking up - fucking great. Like Bladerunner a movie which has not aged significantly.
7. Terminator 2. The last punch up between the terminators, totally brutal and very industrial.
8. The Day the Earth Caught Fire - '60s movie where the chance occurrence of two nuclear tests throws the Earth towards the sun. The fantastically sweaty and a splendid cliffhanger ending - please please hide this film from a reimagining - caught me my surprise when I first saw it. Actually I think I mentioned this in a earlier entry, something about Janet Munroe and her breasts I think.
9. Pitch Black - the scene where the guys light illuminates the circle of monsters surrounding him. Choice.
10. They Live - simply for the line "I have come here to chew bubble gum and kick ass, and I'm all out of bubble gum". Which incidently was, like the scene from Bladerunner, improvised.
Considered: Close Encounters of the Third Kind, ET, Abyss, Predator, The Thing, Planet of the Apes, Bad Taste, Mad Max, and more......
Music: Tom Waits, Kill Bill 1 Soundtrack and Morcheeba
Water: Its wet and composed of hydrogen and oxygen
Funny old thing: When I was looking for stuff on Blade Runner I actually typed in 'Bladder Runner', which I guess would be a movie about incontinence
1. The wierd hotel room scene at the end of 2001 - totally freaked me out the first time I saw it (in fact, made me flee upstairs to hide - I was about 10 incidently).
2. Lukes fight with Darth Vader, having just discovered that the Dark Lord of the Sith is in fact his dad, the plunge down the shaft and then the hanging off the antenna before being rescued by the Millenium Falcon. This was immense when I was kid, as this was the first of the Star Wars movies I saw at the cinema 'Vader's his father, but, but, but.....'. Nothing would ever be the same again.
3. The dojo scene in the first matrix movie. I know the shoot out in the office lobby and the fight between Neo and Agent Smith are both remarkable but the dojo training scene was just so good, classic lines ('do you think that's air you're breathing, hmmm), great moves and choreography.
4. The last scene of Silent Running, fantastic early '70s movie with a strong environmental message. The image, of the remaining drone tending the trees and plants as the ship drifts into space is remarkable.
5. Blade Runner - c'mon the end is just one of greatest cinematic moments of all time. Rutger Hauer improvising his Dutch ass off to come up with inspired lines 'I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die'...fucking great.
6. Alien - My abiding memory of this movie is not, surprisingly the chest burster scene, but rather the opening shot of the computers chatting away with each other in the deserted bridge, the noise of the text as it flowed across the screen and then the nicely edited shot of the crew waking up - fucking great. Like Bladerunner a movie which has not aged significantly.
7. Terminator 2. The last punch up between the terminators, totally brutal and very industrial.
8. The Day the Earth Caught Fire - '60s movie where the chance occurrence of two nuclear tests throws the Earth towards the sun. The fantastically sweaty and a splendid cliffhanger ending - please please hide this film from a reimagining - caught me my surprise when I first saw it. Actually I think I mentioned this in a earlier entry, something about Janet Munroe and her breasts I think.
9. Pitch Black - the scene where the guys light illuminates the circle of monsters surrounding him. Choice.
10. They Live - simply for the line "I have come here to chew bubble gum and kick ass, and I'm all out of bubble gum". Which incidently was, like the scene from Bladerunner, improvised.
Considered: Close Encounters of the Third Kind, ET, Abyss, Predator, The Thing, Planet of the Apes, Bad Taste, Mad Max, and more......
Music: Tom Waits, Kill Bill 1 Soundtrack and Morcheeba
Water: Its wet and composed of hydrogen and oxygen
Funny old thing: When I was looking for stuff on Blade Runner I actually typed in 'Bladder Runner', which I guess would be a movie about incontinence
presumably the swearing in was something like 'oh fuck, not you again' BBC NEWS | World | Americas | Bush is sworn in for second term
Tuesday, January 18, 2005
So it occurs to me that I have not given any hint of my life in Sweden for a while, rather concentrating on more obscure stuff. Well, I'am currently working something between 50-60% of the time, which suits me just fine but I'm finding my way into two contracts which would be most excellent - trade mission stuff to the UK and drug development, very good. The spare time I have is spent with E and K, which is time very well spent - the boy seems to change every day.
We've had a few people around for dinner recently, which was nice.
Cool now there's an archive of all the images....if you look closely you can see happy Titanians waving. ESA - Cassini-Huygens
We've had a few people around for dinner recently, which was nice.
Cool now there's an archive of all the images....if you look closely you can see happy Titanians waving. ESA - Cassini-Huygens
Monday, January 17, 2005
I was reading about something similar yesterday, where the article gave an example of a mans naked torso being pixillated out of a US news story to avoid giving offence. Perhaps he was very hirsute. Or something. BBC NEWS | Entertainment | TV and Radio | US TV cuts nudity from BBC film
Sunday, January 16, 2005
"Was many years ago that I left home and came this way
I was a young man full of hopes and dreams
But now it seems that all is lost and nothing gained
Sometimes things ain’t what they seem
No brave new world no brave new world"
(Stranger in a Strange Land, Iron Maiden)
irony - or perhaps just nostalgia? in fact definitely nostalgia as having just refreshed myself with the lyrics I realise the songs bloody depressing.
I was a young man full of hopes and dreams
But now it seems that all is lost and nothing gained
Sometimes things ain’t what they seem
No brave new world no brave new world"
(Stranger in a Strange Land, Iron Maiden)
irony - or perhaps just nostalgia? in fact definitely nostalgia as having just refreshed myself with the lyrics I realise the songs bloody depressing.
Saturday, January 15, 2005
hoorah, and it was a Swede that saved the day....Spacecraft operations Portal - Home - Modest hero sparks team response
At first glance this looks like any old dinosaur museum but dig deeper....yes, its another manifestation of Johns pet gripe the good old creation theory. This contender for the church of the weird is the belief that mankind and dinosaurs shared the Earth at the same time, how can this be? - I hear you ask. Now listen, I'm trying to be more tolerant in my old age, so stop sniggering and read about how juvenile dinosaurs were squeezed onto the ark.....Museum of Earth History
(Incidently, I found out about this from The Economist, my obsession has not reached the point of actually looking for this stuff. Much.)
(Incidently, I found out about this from The Economist, my obsession has not reached the point of actually looking for this stuff. Much.)
Friday, January 14, 2005
Thursday, January 13, 2005
Disturbing....Telegraph | News | Spurned woman tore off lover's testicle:
"Monti initially tried to hide the testicle by putting it in her mouth, but released it. Doctors were unable to re-attach the organ."
"Monti initially tried to hide the testicle by putting it in her mouth, but released it. Doctors were unable to re-attach the organ."
One of the many things that Bruce Lee gave us (amongst such gems as slow motion gurning after dispatching a victim and making a whole generation of kids obsessed with learning how to use rice flails) was the famous '1 inch punch'. In metric, of course, the slightly less impressive 2.54 cm punch. I was thinking about this yesterday and it occurred to me that the logic behind the 1 inch punch is totally flawed. Yes its impressive, barely moving the fist but at the same time unleashing a crushing blow. But it seems to me that the 1 inch punch has the fatal error that you need to be 1 inch (or 25.4 mms) from the intended recipient. This pretty much removes any element of surprise (as you casually walk up to the victim and hover your hand in front of them) and it also places you in a somewhat awkard position if the blow does not live up to expectations (indeed, becomes the 1 inch tap, or the 1 inch nudge). It would have been much better to invent the 10 foot punch (3.04 ms) or indeed the half mile punch (0.8 km). This would have thus become a rather surprising attack, and would remove much of the danger to the practitioner. And people say I need to get out more.
Quote - 'you're about as useful as a cock flavoured lollypop' Patches O'houlilhan.
Last movie - DodgeBall (see above), very very funny. hence 7.5 out of 10.
currently striving to - increase my chaps lung capacity in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
weather - 10 +, blue skies.
Harry - twat! And why are we surprised? BBC NEWS | UK | Harry urged to say sorry publicly after attending a party wearing his normal clothes
Quote - 'you're about as useful as a cock flavoured lollypop' Patches O'houlilhan.
Last movie - DodgeBall (see above), very very funny. hence 7.5 out of 10.
currently striving to - increase my chaps lung capacity in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
weather - 10 +, blue skies.
Harry - twat! And why are we surprised? BBC NEWS | UK | Harry urged to say sorry publicly after attending a party wearing his normal clothes
Wednesday, January 12, 2005
BBC NEWS | Politics | 'Poll Idols' face first hurdles:
"Irfan Hanif, a 25-year-old doctor from Bolton, made a good impression, even if he was a little thrown by Mr MacKenzie's suggestion that instead of being treated by the NHS, young drunks should 'given a good beating' and left to die. "
....which is not really surprising.
"Irfan Hanif, a 25-year-old doctor from Bolton, made a good impression, even if he was a little thrown by Mr MacKenzie's suggestion that instead of being treated by the NHS, young drunks should 'given a good beating' and left to die. "
....which is not really surprising.
Back from the driving lesson, a mixture of excitement and terror. Its not actually that bad, but does sometimes get a little confusing as we use a mixture of both Swedish and English. One thing though, which is fun, is that my instructor sometimes corrects my lane position by pulling on the wheel himself-all well and good. However, on a few occasions now there has been a car or a bicycle in the blind spot -which he has not seen - and so I resist his attempts to move the car into, or on top of, these fellow road users. This results in us both wrestling the steering wheel for a few seconds, as we both attempt to steer the car - most amusing. More wierdly, this takes place in silence, except for our grunts as we fight the others strength.
Just a quickie.I'm off to the driving school this morning, picking up where I left off after 2 months of Elias orientated activity. Sweden has been hit hard by the storms and the amount of felled trees and damage means that some places are going to be without electricity for weeks. Here, in the big smoke, the only affect was that our broadband pipe dropped out for a few hours - this I could deal with.
recent purchases: Tom Waits CD, Smiths CD (which finally made me realise that the lyrics to 'I am the Sun and the air' are actually 'I am the son and the heir', which makes sense if you listen to the rest of the lyrics.
weather: 9+, far too warm for this time of year.
current struggle: finding the inspiration to be creative outside of nappy changing, sleep deprivation, basking in the love of my child, being a sambo (not a highly racist black charactiture but the Swedish name for living together), training, eating, and avoiding the government narcs.
At some point I intend to look more closely at the whole issue of reality shows (Sweden has more than its fair share) but what made me chuckle about this article is half way down, where it says what Greer said about her house mates, 'Bez - Huge capacity for Happiness' and Brigitte Nielsen ' Like a cat with an electrode up its arse'. Splendid. BBC NEWS Entertainment TV and Radio Greer attacks 'bully' Big Brother
recent purchases: Tom Waits CD, Smiths CD (which finally made me realise that the lyrics to 'I am the Sun and the air' are actually 'I am the son and the heir', which makes sense if you listen to the rest of the lyrics.
weather: 9+, far too warm for this time of year.
current struggle: finding the inspiration to be creative outside of nappy changing, sleep deprivation, basking in the love of my child, being a sambo (not a highly racist black charactiture but the Swedish name for living together), training, eating, and avoiding the government narcs.
At some point I intend to look more closely at the whole issue of reality shows (Sweden has more than its fair share) but what made me chuckle about this article is half way down, where it says what Greer said about her house mates, 'Bez - Huge capacity for Happiness' and Brigitte Nielsen ' Like a cat with an electrode up its arse'. Splendid. BBC NEWS Entertainment TV and Radio Greer attacks 'bully' Big Brother
Tuesday, January 11, 2005
Nice thought, I'll try and hunt down the whole list and see where other places lie...which for example is the most despondent place to live? IOL: Ireland ranked fourth in World Database of Happiness
bloody hell, last time I checked the current bid it was 20 000 plus dollars ! eBay item 5947720145 (Ends Jan-13-05 21:21:45 PST) - *ADVERTISE YOUR LOGO OR WEBSITE DOMAIN ON MY FOREHEAD!*
Newspapers are held together with staples here - its not normal I tells ya.
yeah well not surprising really, as the backlash to his last movie helped elect the monkey again. Incidently, as the monkey does not have to worry about reelection this will either be the term of more tolerance or more extremism (as he thanks the far right for their support)...BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Film | Surprise win for anti-Bush film
yeah well not surprising really, as the backlash to his last movie helped elect the monkey again. Incidently, as the monkey does not have to worry about reelection this will either be the term of more tolerance or more extremism (as he thanks the far right for their support)...BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Film | Surprise win for anti-Bush film
Monday, January 10, 2005
Throw off the nice comforting blanket which was the weekend, stagger out of bed and find yourself (confused) in work with the realisation thats its monday. In the northern climate its dark, cold and chilly....my duvet nest was hard to leave this morning.
Managed to get out rollerblading last night, after the previous days aborted run (this was due to the storm which battered Malmö, I'd only been out for 20 minutes before K phoned me and pointed out that there was a curfew in place - the falling trees and tiles smashing on the ground had somehow not registered with me), which was nice. My new project - which occured to me last night - is to rollerblade to Lund, which is a distance of some 25 kilometers - should be fun, it is all on the flat though.
last movie seen: Zatoichi, bloody excellent Japanese movie with 'Beat' Takeshi, very very cool. Though the CGI gore is a little bad (and not in a good way). Zatoichi
quote: "I once punched a guy out for saying that 'Hawk the Slayer' was rubbish." - Spaced (1999)
Blatently stolen idea: Innovative triple bill movie titles e.g. Sleeper, Slacker, and Slither. Blow, Blow Up, and Blow Out. Candy, Mandy and Ghandhi. When Harry met Sally, Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice and Hannah and her Sisters.
Last nightmare: Defending a bungalow from zombies.
45 000 people complained about the Springer Opera which is quite amazing, usually when theres complaints its about 40 or 50. I',m quite impressed by a total of 8 000 obscenities.....BBC NEWS | Entertainment | TV and Radio | Springer opera draws 1.7m viewers
Managed to get out rollerblading last night, after the previous days aborted run (this was due to the storm which battered Malmö, I'd only been out for 20 minutes before K phoned me and pointed out that there was a curfew in place - the falling trees and tiles smashing on the ground had somehow not registered with me), which was nice. My new project - which occured to me last night - is to rollerblade to Lund, which is a distance of some 25 kilometers - should be fun, it is all on the flat though.
last movie seen: Zatoichi, bloody excellent Japanese movie with 'Beat' Takeshi, very very cool. Though the CGI gore is a little bad (and not in a good way). Zatoichi
quote: "I once punched a guy out for saying that 'Hawk the Slayer' was rubbish." - Spaced (1999)
Blatently stolen idea: Innovative triple bill movie titles e.g. Sleeper, Slacker, and Slither. Blow, Blow Up, and Blow Out. Candy, Mandy and Ghandhi. When Harry met Sally, Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice and Hannah and her Sisters.
Last nightmare: Defending a bungalow from zombies.
45 000 people complained about the Springer Opera which is quite amazing, usually when theres complaints its about 40 or 50. I',m quite impressed by a total of 8 000 obscenities.....BBC NEWS | Entertainment | TV and Radio | Springer opera draws 1.7m viewers
Friday, January 07, 2005
in an idle moment of looking for serious biotech issues I stumbled across this (yeah, right), probably very offensive but of the zeitgeist don't you think..incidently, there does not seem to be so much of a chav culture in Sweden. But theres definitely a lot of mullets in the country. ChavScum
Been awake a lot, and need to work from home this morning. Head very fluffy. Expect more soon though there have been few adventures in the last 48 hours other than dry poo (which sets into a concrete like substance), and....well actually thats it.
weather: its still dark, though my early morning foray to the Tvätt Stuger was in warm enough conditions. To explain, a Tvätt Stuger is a washing room. Our block of apartments, like most Swedish ones, has washing machines and driers for resident use. This is quite cool, as it means our kitchen is not packed with sinister white goods and we get the use of industrial washing machines and driers. The down side is that the Tvätt Stuger is a good source of conflict, with double bookings and illegal use (by people who have not written their booking down in the booking book!) causing much angst and gnashing of teeth.
music: the strange noises E, my child, makes
book: still Peter F Hamilton though I will soon return to Banks' new book
random thought: the subtitle of Under Seige 2 was 'Dark Territory' which in my sleep deprived mind somehow makes me chuckle
and now you understand why I don't talk about work much.....the Random Acts of Reality and The Policemans' Blog could be worth a squint BBC NEWS | Technology | Looming pitfalls of work blogs
weather: its still dark, though my early morning foray to the Tvätt Stuger was in warm enough conditions. To explain, a Tvätt Stuger is a washing room. Our block of apartments, like most Swedish ones, has washing machines and driers for resident use. This is quite cool, as it means our kitchen is not packed with sinister white goods and we get the use of industrial washing machines and driers. The down side is that the Tvätt Stuger is a good source of conflict, with double bookings and illegal use (by people who have not written their booking down in the booking book!) causing much angst and gnashing of teeth.
music: the strange noises E, my child, makes
book: still Peter F Hamilton though I will soon return to Banks' new book
random thought: the subtitle of Under Seige 2 was 'Dark Territory' which in my sleep deprived mind somehow makes me chuckle
and now you understand why I don't talk about work much.....the Random Acts of Reality and The Policemans' Blog could be worth a squint BBC NEWS | Technology | Looming pitfalls of work blogs
Wednesday, January 05, 2005
Continuing my theme of surveying odd character names in movies I was checking out Christopher Lamberts resume, which sadly has no great chuckle worthy names. Yeah, we've got John Prudhomme (Resurrection), Gideon Oliver Dobbs (Gideon) and Russel Nash (Highlander) but nothing yet matching the brilliance of Casey rybeck. But, I noticed the sub-title of Fortress 2 (where he played John Henry Brennick) was Re-entry....this makes me smirk, a lot. Makes me also consider Fortress 2: Forced entry starring Ben Dover.
Incidently, I notice from Empire magazine that Bill Paxton (of which one of the coolest lines ever was directed at, to wit, 'Hudson, we are leaving') was killed by the Terminator (in Terminator, playing 'Punk Leader), an alien (well, more than one if you want to be accurate, playing Private Hudson in Aliens) and a predator (in Predator 2, playing Jerry Lambert). How cool is that!
However, I must add myself that Jenette Goldstein comes close by being finished off by aliens (as Private Vasquez in Aliens 2, though technically she blew herself up) and being terminated (admitedly by a T-1000, where Bill was finished off by the rather less cool but more reliable T-800 Model 101) in Terminator 2 (as Jennette Goldstein). We could go on, Michael Biehn having been wasted by Terminators and Aliens as well but this is turning into something like a Kevin Bacon game so I'll stop.
Incidently, I notice from Empire magazine that Bill Paxton (of which one of the coolest lines ever was directed at, to wit, 'Hudson, we are leaving') was killed by the Terminator (in Terminator, playing 'Punk Leader), an alien (well, more than one if you want to be accurate, playing Private Hudson in Aliens) and a predator (in Predator 2, playing Jerry Lambert). How cool is that!
However, I must add myself that Jenette Goldstein comes close by being finished off by aliens (as Private Vasquez in Aliens 2, though technically she blew herself up) and being terminated (admitedly by a T-1000, where Bill was finished off by the rather less cool but more reliable T-800 Model 101) in Terminator 2 (as Jennette Goldstein). We could go on, Michael Biehn having been wasted by Terminators and Aliens as well but this is turning into something like a Kevin Bacon game so I'll stop.
Picture the scene. A week before christmas, myself and K are at R & C's house for a glögg (see below) party and just as we're leaving F, a friend of C's, says 'would you like to go canoeing after xmas'. 'Yeah' says I 'Sounds good'. 'Well actually' says F 'When I said canoeing I really meant dragon boat racing'. okay.....
So thats the reason why on tuesday night I found myself sharing a dragon boat with 19 other folks paddling like crazy up and down the canals which wend around down town Malmö. In the dark. In the cold. As a novice, as the other two guys were, I figured it would be pretty laid back - no such luck. We battled out of the boat house landing area and then thundered up the canal, by shoulders already starting to ache and my buttocks clenching madly in an attempt to stay upright on the thin wooden plank which was laughingly called a seat. 'And now the fartlek training'. Shit, I realised - that was just the warm-up. Fartleks, titter ye not, are (for those not used to training until vomiting) is changes in speed over a set period of time, repeated. Nackering. After doing that, for about half an hour, we changed sides (otherwise you end up looking like a fiddler crab or a very frustrated submariner) and did it all over again. In the dark. In the cold. With warm dry people shouting and cheering from the canal banks. And then the racing starts, and then a sprint over 200 metres. Lots of splashing, lots of fun. Fortunately the guy infront of me had a good team spirit and did not object to me cracking his knuckles as I wielded my paddle like a broad sword. Thus, sore muscles and tired ass (all the clenching).
Its a red day (bank holiday) tommorow - nice.
music: none.
weather: wet, windy and above zero
food: christmas porridge
christmas decorations: gone
Glögg
So thats the reason why on tuesday night I found myself sharing a dragon boat with 19 other folks paddling like crazy up and down the canals which wend around down town Malmö. In the dark. In the cold. As a novice, as the other two guys were, I figured it would be pretty laid back - no such luck. We battled out of the boat house landing area and then thundered up the canal, by shoulders already starting to ache and my buttocks clenching madly in an attempt to stay upright on the thin wooden plank which was laughingly called a seat. 'And now the fartlek training'. Shit, I realised - that was just the warm-up. Fartleks, titter ye not, are (for those not used to training until vomiting) is changes in speed over a set period of time, repeated. Nackering. After doing that, for about half an hour, we changed sides (otherwise you end up looking like a fiddler crab or a very frustrated submariner) and did it all over again. In the dark. In the cold. With warm dry people shouting and cheering from the canal banks. And then the racing starts, and then a sprint over 200 metres. Lots of splashing, lots of fun. Fortunately the guy infront of me had a good team spirit and did not object to me cracking his knuckles as I wielded my paddle like a broad sword. Thus, sore muscles and tired ass (all the clenching).
Its a red day (bank holiday) tommorow - nice.
music: none.
weather: wet, windy and above zero
food: christmas porridge
christmas decorations: gone
Glögg
Muscles in shoulders aching, back slightly sore - yes, I've been dragon-boat racing (or training at least), I'll explain more later.
comparisons again between Sweden and the UK, this time in the freedom of information. I was not actually aware of this - that government info is more freely available hereBBC NEWS | Magazine | So you want to see the PM's memos?
comparisons again between Sweden and the UK, this time in the freedom of information. I was not actually aware of this - that government info is more freely available hereBBC NEWS | Magazine | So you want to see the PM's memos?
Tuesday, January 04, 2005
fantastic news site, swedish news in English and finding this site made me realise that my longing for news came not only from the UK but also a desire to find out whats happening here (not always easy as newspeak is usually fast and littered with idioms). Anyway, heres a sampler of the news from Sweden...Robot attacks man's buttocks in Swedish factory....in a more tabloid newspaper you can imagine the title perhaps being ' robot rage attack on mans' buttocks' or 'Terminated - one car workers bloody end'
Sunday, January 02, 2005
Messing about with the blog
After being rather passive about the whole blog thing, really just scratching the surface of what I can do here, I felt some time with the blogger website would be interesting...thus, templete changes etc....more to come. the whole blogging thing is incredible, check out the rich variety by clicking on 'next blog' on the bar upstairs. disturbed alcoholics from russia one click away.
I reloaded the 'hello' software which means i can post photos again - which is nice. last time this ate our pc, remains to be seen if the same thing happens again.
After being rather passive about the whole blog thing, really just scratching the surface of what I can do here, I felt some time with the blogger website would be interesting...thus, templete changes etc....more to come. the whole blogging thing is incredible, check out the rich variety by clicking on 'next blog' on the bar upstairs. disturbed alcoholics from russia one click away.
I reloaded the 'hello' software which means i can post photos again - which is nice. last time this ate our pc, remains to be seen if the same thing happens again.
typing one handed - baby in arms.
As the toll to sweden of the tsunami continues to rise, something like 3000 swedes are still missing, you've got to wonder at the incompetence of the foreign office here which said (within days of the disaster) that all swedish tourists had been accounted for.
swedish gripe: cash machines in sweden seem to be horribly unreliable. this morning, on a quest for coffee, i was forced to scamper from one side of the square to the other looking for a functioning machine. this is not the first time. raaahhh, annoying.
recent consumerism: winners and sinners 2 (j.chan movie) and the english patient
weather: 4+, blue skies
very exciting this.....horahh for the european space agency BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Huygens probe course 'looks good'
As the toll to sweden of the tsunami continues to rise, something like 3000 swedes are still missing, you've got to wonder at the incompetence of the foreign office here which said (within days of the disaster) that all swedish tourists had been accounted for.
swedish gripe: cash machines in sweden seem to be horribly unreliable. this morning, on a quest for coffee, i was forced to scamper from one side of the square to the other looking for a functioning machine. this is not the first time. raaahhh, annoying.
recent consumerism: winners and sinners 2 (j.chan movie) and the english patient
weather: 4+, blue skies
very exciting this.....horahh for the european space agency BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Huygens probe course 'looks good'
Saturday, January 01, 2005
2005. Back in Malmö after 10 days at the summer house. Having no tv, or very little, was a real blessing but we nevertheless found ourselves being sucked into watching the unfolding nightmare in Asia. Terrible.
recent thoughts: Da Vinci Code, being made into a film with Tom Hanks. We'll come back to this.
recent movie: Extended version of King Arthur, 5.5 out of 10, I think, though the juries still out. What killed it for me was Clive Owen being acted off the screen by Ray Winstone, most of the other actors, trees, horses, and just about everything else which appeared in the frame with him.
book: more Malazan action but also Peter F Hamiltons Pandoras Star. Also The Adventure of English by Melvyn Bragg.
at some point soon I'll be setting up another blog which will have the first few chapters of my horribly derivative fantasy novel. You have been warned. Working title is 'Struggle Below - one mans battle with prunes'.
any film which has zombies and the line 'any of you cunts want a drink?' is a winner......brilliance, haven't looked around this site much but sure to be amusing...Shaun of the Dead
recent thoughts: Da Vinci Code, being made into a film with Tom Hanks. We'll come back to this.
recent movie: Extended version of King Arthur, 5.5 out of 10, I think, though the juries still out. What killed it for me was Clive Owen being acted off the screen by Ray Winstone, most of the other actors, trees, horses, and just about everything else which appeared in the frame with him.
book: more Malazan action but also Peter F Hamiltons Pandoras Star. Also The Adventure of English by Melvyn Bragg.
at some point soon I'll be setting up another blog which will have the first few chapters of my horribly derivative fantasy novel. You have been warned. Working title is 'Struggle Below - one mans battle with prunes'.
any film which has zombies and the line 'any of you cunts want a drink?' is a winner......brilliance, haven't looked around this site much but sure to be amusing...Shaun of the Dead
