The news is just in - Nevada has just declared for Bush. Bloody hell.

And yes, the blog has been very silent but baby related events have somewhat taken over. Thus, there will be a reactivation of it when the dust settles somewhat and K escapes hospital. Expect service to return in the next 2-3 weeks. (assuming that we're all still here and Bush has not declared war on the devil and starting drilling huge holes in the ground and lobbing nuclear bombs down them - it could happen). I've actually started to really get upset about the US, particularly when I read an article about 'intelligent design' (a dressed up version of creationism) being taught in American schools.

horrah...our generation of geeks come up with the goods, fuck you hollywood.....Film Threat - Reviews

More to come, expect changes, a slightly less burbling tone.....and heck, I dunno, c'mon....things are different.

so no surprises there then......Film Threat - Reviews

lovely cold crisp weather. but the temperatures already dropping beneath 10.......it bodes ill for the winter!


and it would appear that even the bogs are better here.....BBC NEWS | UK | England | Tyne/Wear | Call to end 'bog standard' loos

Sunday, and the day of the worship. I myself spent the morning in blissful workout mode which involved lots of sit ups and then a tendon testing session on the newly installed finger board above the bedroom door frame (the installation of which was one of the more nervewracking things I've done in while, drill on hammer setting against very hard brick - nasty noise, clutch continual slipping, scary monsters. Once again fertile imagination imagining drill bit suddenly snapping and burying itself in the wet bits of my head). Wandered off to one of Malmös coffee houses and drunk a vat of latte, washing down a rather nice and budget falafal.

film recently seen: Bourne Supremacy, fucking great. Really good.
book: Girlfriend in a Coma, Douglas Coupland. I was expecting some kind of introspective on growing up but, as well as that, got a post apocalypse novel as well. cool.
music: Mirror in the Bathroom

minor disappointment: finding out that ICO, which I've meaning to buy for ages, costs over 50 quid on Amazon Uk as its now collectable.



nice pac man game.....Moonflip.com - Free Flash Games

So. A while ago, when I was in Iceland, I saw one the more disturbing and upsetting things that I've seen in a long time. Me, and my chums N (a chap, Dansk) and E (a lady, Svensk) were wandering up Rekjavik high street looking for somewhere to grab some food and maybe a beer or two. I was actually not that into a drinking fest, which N was, given that I'd just shook off a massive hangover. The last few hours had been spent being parboiled in the blue lagoon so I was feeling pretty mellow. So, we wandered up the hill, looking into restaurants when we heard raised voices - sorry, thats very English. These people were screaming at each other, a man and a woman. She was attractive and well dressed, he was a tank - a brick shit house. So they are walking towards us, still arguing, when suddenly, shockingly, he lashed out punching her in the face and then twice in the stomach. She stumbled to a halt while he simply strolled on. It was so brutal and so quick, that we were shocked into inaction. I put my hand onto her arm, but then she ran after him shouting and screaming incoherently. Me and N looked at each other and then he said - we should do something - so was went back down the street where the couple were shouting at each other again. Only about 20 seconds had passed. Even as we arrived she then punched him, in the face and he, once again, began to wade in. So, after only some minutes ago thinking about what to have for dinner I now found myself in between two stangers, trying to stop the guy hitting the girl again. As I put my hands on his arm and chest, I realised that his bicep was fucking huge - it was at this point I wondered vaguely if they'd fly my body home or just leave me where I fell. Fortunately he backed off, but the weird thing was - as N said later - was that it was almost as if we were not there, he seemed completely oblivious to our presence. He then began screaming at her, she screaming back. Her lip had been split and there was blood on her face. He suddenly stalked further off the street, checking his face to see if he was bleeding from where she had hit him - yeah mate, real fucking hero that you are. She realised we did not speak much icelandic so dropped into English, which was totally surreal. N, who is a trainee Doctor, checked out her face while reasuring her - one of her teeth had been cracked and broken. At the same time the guy had returned and was now prowling around us, him speaking in English now, demanding that she give him his money. So, she says that he can have his money and we end up in the surreal situation of escorting her to a cash machine where she drew out a load of cash and threw at the blokes feet. She then staggered further off down the street with us all in tow, the asshole picking up the cash from the street and then leaving up another street.
She was now in total shock, shaking and continually touching her already swelling face. She was crying like mad, so we used her phone to call the cops. Well, to cut a sad story short the cops turned up and while she was talking to one of them in the back of the cop car we gave our details to another. But heres the kicker, while we talking to her - waiting for the cops to turn up and trying to comfort her - turns out the guy, who it seemed was her boyfriend, was on steriods. Which went some way to explaining his total wierd state of mind when were trying to help her.

So, the post match analysis - in the pretend world we would have righteously waded into the bloke, beaten him up and sent him running home, she would have escaped a probably abusive relationship and everything would of worked out fine. In the real world we did little but pick up the pieces. We helped her, sure, but did we help enough? We have not heard from the Icelandic cops so either she pressed charges and the physical evidence was sufficient or, perhaps she did not.




well, I was going to blog another site but this one fought the law and broke in.......six degrees and the power of networks will have to wait. This is more geekness but its cool.....Quarks to Quasars, Powers of Ten

Morrisey, down boy....down, I'm not telling you again you muscled daffodil dispensing shambler.

A bit more sane today after a quick snooze on the couch. This afternoon was the first baby class which in true Swedish style involved coffee and cake, and some candles. It was all in Swedish, which truly tested my new found lanquage skills, so now I'm loaded up with the swedish for dilation, cervix, mucus plug and bloodbath.

Yesterday was a haze of proofreading which drifted into today after only five hours sleep and then back into copenhagen, though I escaped early for the afore mentioned baby class.
One of the Danes I'm working with made me most happy (i think) by saying 'your English is very good', under the impression I was Swedish. For the last few days I've been speaking Swedish to Danes and English to Swedes - confusing.


Train, Plane and Automobile interest circles. 'nuff said. Stoatface @ Fotopic.Net

I'm in proof reading hell.


and this ones going out to all you Billy Ray fans .....Questia Online Library - The Online Library

(a background of sawing guitars, blurring through a haze of holophonic static)
You remember the dream. Rising out of cool water, the sun suddenly warm on your chest as you look up to the infinite blue. A light smile passing across your face as you throw your arms sideways and float, the pressure of the water stopping your fall.
waking
Theres nothing to see on this ocean that cannot be seen on another day.

the devil will find work for idle hands to do.........

working my ass off in Copenhagen, tired, hungry (only consumed one Frankfurter in the last 6 hours) and really need to work out.

oh the devil will find work for idle hands to do...........

but I'm still fond of you, oh ho......


so, so, so cool. BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | SpaceShipOne rockets to success

but I'm still fond of you, oh ho ho. Morrisey revival going on here. stay in touch, mans been moving around Sweden and Denmark and been way to starry eyed to blog. So a hypercast update, conference in copenhagen, parents in Ronneby and pram buying.

I was happy in the haze etc etc


interesting and rather sad at times....mans inhumanity to monkeyFamous Monkeys Through History

The dark rolled in off the sea and crashed onto the glass sand of the beach in a silent wave of static. In the purple sky a lone paper bag blew on the mauve thermals, a sad song playing in the background. The hills on either side of the bay were dark and thoughtful, brown flecks of grazing perms moving slowly on their tight flanks. Far out, past the line of singing fish, just on the straight line of the horizon sat a group of fishing boats. The water slapped their cork sides as they wallowed in the warmth, the ruddy bearded children who worked the nets persuading the fish, politely, to step inside.

book: Finished the Iron Council by China Mieville, definitely his best. Clearly he's been reading his Gormenghast again. Also read 'I don't know how she does it', which was cool. Reading Dr. Miriam Stoppards book on raising children, so now becoming expert on breast pumps, the billion or so illnesses children can get and sleeping patterns.
film: Saw Crimson Tide all the way to the end, finally, and was rather disappointed. Like Logans Run (though clearly not in the same class) a film which benefits by stopping watching five minutes before the end. Soon to go and see Wimbledon (gak, gak.....vomit), Bourne Supremacy.
music: Lauryn Hill
weather: nice, sunny


very good, if you are in any way a Tim Burton fan this will be most appreciated.....AtomFilms - Robot Boy

nearly nothing but something, not quite a quickening but more than a mote appears a little speck of substance. Twisting and dancing now like a mad jot it appears small to the inhuman eye but on a scale of zeros has mass and a potent velocity.

quite enough of that. two cups of coffee today, more than I've drunk in ages (again), it'll be the fags next. Parents have been here the last week, its good for them to see me settled here. I'm away for the weekend along the coast, should be interesting.

incidently, I have not forgotten - more tales of iceland coming, including hangovers from hell, violence and Wolfgang.

where were we.......the great bulk of the slave ship tumbled from null space with arcane energies still flickering around the twisted metal of its hull...........




quite incredible news, medical science takes another bound....BBC NEWS | Health | Baby for ovary transplant woman

strangely, after yesterdays blog, this turned up on the gruaniad site today.....Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Guardian special: the world in 2020

Heres a thought for you, ten years ago (or maybe 15 if you really want to be sure) few of us had mobile phones, lap top computers (or those that we did have had the weight of a baby elephant and burnt a hole in the desk), cars were not stuffed full of microchips, cds were pretty cool, mp3 was an obscure piece of compression code, DVDs were the next big thing (yeah, right we said) and the effects in terminator (either one) were cutting edge. Now, think of this. Going further back, before us Generation Xers, our parents thought the humble tape a revolution, the transistor radio amazing and the mass production of the car astounding. Where am I going with this. Well, in ten or 15 years time mobile phones will not exist, none of us will carry lap tops and familar technology, just as in our parents time, will have changed beyond all recognition. This is the way things work, mobile phones will become smaller and smaller until we can place them inside our bodies, computers will have become completely commoditised and things like washing machines, microwaves and ovens will have ceased be commonplace because other technologies will have replaced them. They are just tools, and when we have self cleaning clothes and food which heats itself, they will be moved to the history books. Further, things we totally take for granted, like microsoft windows, html, the internet, petrol and film may have been completely replaced and rendered archiac. My point is this (somewhat based off a recent guru's lecture) that we (and certainly me) tend to base our idea of the future on what the present feels like. It will be completely different, even in the short space of 10 years. And if that doesn't seem realistic remember 10 years ago, 1994, we'd only just characterised stem cells, pentium I was pretty damn fast and the human genome was just a bunch of poorly understood letters.

nighty night.



very very cool site, well worth surfing around, very nice. One day all
sites will be like this. tokyoplastic v.2

its tiring to build an Ikea Hemnes cupboard, even harder to carry it 4 flights of stairs when it weighs more than you do. But now its assembled, and all that money and effort (and I include the diligence of the nimble fingered children in some far off land with their well honed drilling and measuring skills) has meant that we can now put stuff in another place, rather than leaving it somewhere else.

book: Gemma Bovary by Posy Simmonds; Modernity at Large by Arjun Appadurai (which is doing nothing but make me feel really thick) and, wait for it, China Mievilles new book - very exciting.

rather like e2 (remember that from ages ago, back when this blog was youthful and innocent, like a virginal rabbit skipping towards the chopper of doom), well, this is a little like that...but of course, more in homage and well, more worthy. Its a liff thing. BBC - h2g2 - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Poopsie Chuckle Chunks

Tuesday, started with a spirited driving lesson and then a quick comuter trip into work........look, I'm struggling to write anything remotely witty or interesting here, its been a long day and I've drank half a bottle of red wine for dinner. Actually, that should be with dinner otherwise that would be extremely worrying.

Started a new project at work today, linking together various business support mechanisms in the New European states. This therefore includes Lithuania, which has one of the highest rates for suicide in the world, according to a recent study by the WHO. Its apparently due to the very high rate of alcoholism....interestingly the USA is quite high up in the list of popping ones cork, due this time to easy access to firearms.

weather: its dark and mild, the second Swedish summer has arrived.
music: Morcheeba
book: oh god knows, same old bollocks about globalisation.

very noble Mr Blair, but you wonder how much of the argument he will take to his chum in the White House....BBC NEWS Politics PM gives dire warning on climate

Iceland, what a blast. Probably one of the most memorable trips I've had in a long time, incredible fantastic place. I'll scribble more later (when I'am not in my underpants and need to get to work soon), but some of the highlights are, one of the best nights in a bar in a strange place, bizarre scenary with little vegatation, geysers, lava (though the cold kind), geothermal power, terrible hangover and hours in the 'blue lagoon' sitting in 40 degree water in the rain, in the dark, surrounded by rolling clouds of steam. The conference was okay, though the two hour pep talk from a business guru was cool. More stories will include waterfalls, violence and evil lava.


given that my photo uploader piece of software has gone up the spout heres a website from Iceland from the totally trippy and surreal Blue LagoonBlue Lagoon this photos don't really reflect my experience of this place which was in the pissing rain (not that that mattered), in the dark.

music: the zeros, Icelandic strangenes, already very cool and I've only listened to a few minutes.....

I have to pack. Expect an update soon including blue lagoons, Björk and ponies.

old and dusty, but quite strange.....Chrome Moon FAQ V2.01

and some idle curiosity turned this up.....Max Headroom