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Thursday 20 November 2008
The Most Curious Thing
People have started flirting with me. Not in real life, inevitably, but online. We're actually talking about several different people over the course of the last month or so.
It's all rather inexplicable.
Capital Numbers
diamond geezer has recently been exploring London from a numerical perspective; working his way from 1 to 33 and finding facts relating to each number within the capital. I've been meaning to link to it since he started out, and am only getting round to doing so now he's finished. But usefully, having finished, he's taken the opportunity to compile them all on a site of their own, so I can legitimately offer a link without looking like I forgot all about it until it was too late. Except that I just told you that was exactly what I did. Oh well.
Wimbledon Watch
I'm just watching the end of the Henman/Nalbandian match, and despite a few moments where it looked like Tabby Tim would do his usual trick of throwing the game away, generally it's been very impressive.
What I'm really looking forward to though are the highlights of the Agassi/Philippoussis match. Even though I was disappointed by the outcome, I'm interested to see what sounds like a brilliant match.
Gay Partnerships - The Details
As discussed a couple of weeks ago, the government has provided more details on the way in which their proposed 'gay relationship recognition' system would work, according to the BBC. The 'living togther for six months' limitation appears to have gone, but the differentiation between gay and straight 'partnerships' remains a sticking point for some, including Peter Tatchell, who has recourse to the word 'heterophobic'. Well, I say 'word'....
Cool Weekend
I've been out of town a fair bit this weekend, including a drive out into Kent for a picnic and a bit of an explore today. We picnicked at a country park by a village called Vigo, with views out over the Kent countryside, which was beautiful, then drove on up to the Isle of Sheppey and found an unexpected mix of trailer-park-style 'holiday villages' full of stationary caravans, and nasty-looking 'family bars', just up the road from classical Kentish villages with cricket matches and cream teas.
Worth doing for the contrast alone.....
Quite The Night Out
So last night I was told about a night out that some people had on Thursday. Basically a big night to mark the departure from a job, the departee had set himself a budget of £1000 to pay for everyone's evening. They ended up at a lapdancing place after eating and drinking, many dances and quite a lot of champagne were consumed, and the total amount our hero spent was £860.
However, one member of the party seems to have set up his own tab, and run up a separate bill for the (rather better) champagne that his new friend kept ordering, and the (rather more expensive) company of this same new friend.
So as he discovered when his credit card company called him on Friday morning to query some heavy transactions from the night before, he had added to the total evening cost to the tune of, ahem, a further £940.
I think the word 'ouch!' barely begins to cover it.....
As Claims To Fame Go....
....It's a little unimpressive, but if you do a Google search for "George Clooney's arse", guess who comes up number one?
And astonishingly someone did. And this is where they ended up.
Welcome.
You freak.
Weird Evening
Well, after a more than usually strange day, this evening took a turn for the frankly bizarre.
And sadly, I can't say any more about it.
But, let's just call it 'unexpected' shall we?
Texas Law Overturned
The US Supreme Court has issued a judgement on the much-publicised case of the Texas gay anti-sodomy laws (note that in this case the wider definition of 'sodomy' applies - from dictionary.com: 'Any of various forms of sexual intercourse held to be unnatural or abnormal, especially anal intercourse or bestiality' and in this case including oral sex), and ruled that the law broke Constitutional safeguards of privacy. The BBC not only covers the ruling itself, but also provides some insight into the dissenting views within the court and the reflection of that dissent in wider US society which makes for interesting reading.
Wimbledon Watch
Annoyingly, I've been managing to miss most of the highlight programmes so far, so I've been reduced to online accounts and the joys of the IBM Wimbledon scoreboard applet, but I did get to see all of last night's highlights, and I was *shock* impressed by the Henman, though more impressed by Andre Agassi and acouple of others. Andy Roddick is looking extremely strong of course, but there are a few others that could yet cause even more major upsets as week two looms.
I totally missed Greg Rusedski's outburst, but I note that the man who says he caused it has apologised. He thinks he'll never be able to show his face at Wimbledon again.
I think he may be right.
The Disappearing Homepage
One or two people have noticed that the root homepage of this domain has been showing a page with nothing to it but a title that says "Nothing Here" for a little over a week now.
The reason, for anyone who's wondered, is that I inadvertently sent a mail to one of my clients from the wrong email account (ie, this one), and in order to avoid any issues should they have backtracked the domain, I went into hiding. As most people seem to come in directly via the journal index page anyway, I didn't think it would catastrophically affect many people's browsing.
I'll put it back to normal at the weekend probably.
Anyway, that's that. No great mystery, I'm afraid.
Self Vs Littlejohn - Radio History In The Making
Charles pointed me at this transcript of an interview on Nicky Campbell's show, which had Barnaby and I in hysterics this evening. Highly recommended reading.
Looky-Likeys
So I've been talking about whether people look like celebrities today, and discovering that everyone seems to be told that they look like someone, even if they can't see it themselves.
Someone I was talking to was told they look like Shane Ritchie as he is in Eastenders. Someone else told me they're regularly mistaken for Dermot O'Leary.
And just recently, I've been told by a few people that I look like Richard Schiff from The West Wing. And I really don't. I really, really don't.
But then I see a photo like this one.
And I think, "Damn but I'm sexy!" :-)
So.....
....Who do you look like?
Friendster Update
As of right now, I'm linked to 39,999 people through Friendster. That's a lot of people, considering I only have 13 direct links to 'friends'. Clearly some people have far wider social circles than I.....
So... Again
I'm breaking my own golden rules here, but I'm actually watching V Graham Norton, because Patrick Stewart is on. And oh how he's being wasted.
It's really quite tragic.
Grrrrr
I just received an email that opened with the words "Would it not be a good idea....?"
Translation: "I think it's a good idea, and I'm telling you so whether you want to hear it or not."
Wimbledon Watch 2003
Well, as I generally do at this time of year, I'll be watching the events at Wimbledon with interest. The BBC previews the tournament, and the openness of the Men's event seems the most interesting element before things kick off, with several big hitters not fit enough to be taking part, and King of The Arrogant Squad Lleyton Hewitt hasn't been on the greatest form so far this year, leaving Andy Roddick looking well-placed to go far.
(I'm assuming that none of the British 'talent' will win, by the way. Please do tell me if you feel I'm being unfair.)
The Women's event looks likely to be another minor incident in the ongoing march of Serena Williams, though after being whupped in Paris, one could live in hope for another upset.
The full draws are here, starting with the Men's Singles.
The Mystery Referrer
As you'll know, I don't dwell on my site statistics overmuch, but I do take an occasional look at what's going on, and I confess to a small degree of bafflement just at the moment.
This month only, one particular site has started showing up in my referrers, and try as I might, I can't see a single thing on it that can be the point of origin of these arrivals.
The specific page that shows up is this one - it's a splash page with practically nothing on it but some images and a bit of JavaScript - the only link is further into the same site. In less than a week it's provided over a dozen referrals. Every other link that shows up as a referrer I can see exactly why, but not this one.
I just thought it was odd, and I'm always happy to spread a bit of odd around.
On Names
I've mentioned before that I spend a great deal of time in contemplation of names.
Names are important. The names we're given usually define us in terms of other people - family names denote belonging, membership, possibly even ownership to some eyes. 'Given' names reflect the preferences of one's parents, the fashion of the time, occasionally family traditions. The labels that define us are usually nothing to do with who we are at all.
So what is it that prevents us changing them when we reach the point where we're old enough to decide the name that is 'us'? The legal process isn't that strenuous, and though obviously there'd be a huge amount of administration to deal with, given how bureaucracy-bound our society is (which may be a good thing, as it would stop people changing their names frivolously), what, actually, stops us?
I suspect habit is a large part of it. By the time we reach the age where we might want or need to express our own identity, things have become too ingrained. It's not just the legal stuff, it's the automatic, everyday stuff. Signatures and nicknames, the fact that everyone you know, knows you by the old name, and re-education can be a bugger - people will keep slipping.
Just changing a surname might be easier - at least then it's not like the people you deal with every day will slip too much, but if anything, it's the given name that ought to be the one we'd want to change; most people are probably relatively happy to indicate a connection to their family after all.
So what stops us from changing our names?
Opinion
Well, I've put a review of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix up in Opinion. No spoilers to speak of, so if you haven't read the thing yet you can do so with a sense of security....
Longest Day
Well, here we are at the longest day of the year - happy summer solstice, druids everywhere.
So now the nights will be drawing in then.....
Weird
Well, I just did a late-night run to my local supermarket for provisions, and was amazed that even they had a batch of the Potter books on sale at midnight. And they were selling. Every person as far as I could see at ten check-outs had at least one copy, sometimes more, they were all adults, and a goodly proportion of them were starting to read in the queue.....
The New Potter Looms
"The latest instalment of Potter-mania, however, has taken our cultural infantilism to a new low. Having grudgingly accepted that the books' appeal is probably due to something other than their literary merits, there is an earnest attempt to distil their unique qualities or failings in terms of the moral and social values that they promote. This gets closer to the point - but not for the reasons that commentators suggest."
As the launch hour of the new book approaches (just over seven hours away as I type this), Jennie Bristow looks at the whole Potter phenomenon and its place in the grand scheme of childrens' reading. Among her very many good points is the observation that the excitement around the 'return to reading' that the series apparently triggered in its early days is little more than an indication of exactly how low our expectations of children have fallen.
Cheap Ticket For A Space Spectacular - Last Minute
All,
If anyone would be interested in going along to Space Spectacular tonight at the Albert Hall, I have a spare ticket that will go to waste otherwise as I can't now go. The face value of the ticket is £38 - pay half that and it's yours. The company will be good, the event should be, well, spectacular, and they have LASERS and everything.
Let me know as soon as possible if you're interested.
The Business Park Observer
"Families are starting to show up for karate. A lady carrying a baby, a grey-haired man. No intimidating ninjas."
"Claw-on-a-stick guy walks by, didn't see him pick anything up. Not sure if it's the usual guy, he wasn't wearing headphones. "
I'm really not kidding: Business Park Observer - Keeping An Eye On That Business Park Across The Street
Cottaging, Revisited
In any given month, a significant proportion of searches that bring people to More a way of life.... relate in some respect to the ancient art of cottaging. Given the fact that I therefore seem to have an interested audience, I feel it no more nor less than my duty to provide an update on recent cottage-related developments.
"There is a serious lacuna in this Bill relating to dealing with sex in public toilets."
No, honestly, that's a direct quotation from Baroness Blatch in the Lords debate on the Sexual Offences Bill that I mentioned back in January, and specifically in discussion of an amendment designed to deal with this lacuna (in case you were wondering; "an empty space or a missing part, a gap" according to dictionary.com) by making a specific and detailed offence of any sexual activity in a public toilet, even behind a cubicle door.
As Lords debates go (and this one is detailed in Hansard), it offers more scope for quoting bizarre snippets out of context than most, and in that spirit, I offer:
"Is he seriously suggesting that every toilet cubicle in the country should be fitted with a CCTV camera, peering down into it? I hardly think that the public would stand for that."
Nice to see that the Upper Chamber is engaged in debate on the real matters of importance to British society....
[Hansard link via Blogadoon.]
What The World Thinks Of America
Did anyone see this? I somehow managed to miss that it was even on, but hopefully it'll get a repeat.
Basically, the BBC and ten other national broadcasters conducted a survey into attitudes towards the US among its populace. The results were collated and revealed in a programme broadcast last night. If anyone watched it I'd be interested to hear what you thought.
In the meantime, the poll results are available online.
Naming And Shaming
Well, I've been in a *bit* of a naming and shaming mood recently, so I may as well carry on.
I had to collect some people from London City Airport yesterday evening, and due to a combination of bad traffic and their flight getting in ahead of schedule, they were actually already waiting for me when I got to the terminal from the car park. So we turned around and went back to the car, but before I did so, I went to the pay station and paid for the parking. The according to the arrival timestamp and the departure timestamp, a grand total of eight minutes had elapsed.
Cost for eight minutes parking in the short-stay car park of London City Airport?
Three pounds.
I almost fainted.
London City Airport - I name you and shame you.
The Madness Of Channel Four
I'm far from the only person to comment on the insanity of Channel Four's scheduling of The West Wing - the letters page of the Radio Times regularly provides proof of that. But this evening I think that they've finally gone right over the edge.
Here we have one of the most intelligent television dramas in decades; a winner of awards and accolades galore, and passionately appreciated by the audience which Channel Four seem determined to alienate at every opportunity, and not only is it once again in an even more graveyard than usual slot, it's actually there in order that a series about 'Britain's first female Urologist' can be shown first. Because the world can never have too many shows about penile implants, can it?
Channel Four, once the best broadcaster we had, has completely lost whatever traces of the plot it was still hanging on to.
Damn you, ICQ!
For reasons best known to the strange intersection between ICQ and my laptop, all of my ICQ contacts have vanished from my system. Totally vanished - no history, no record, nothing.
So, if you were previously on my contact list, could you send me a quick message and I'll add you back in.
Thanks.
Swan Update
I don't think I mentioned that I'm cat-sitting Dillon while Chris is away this weekend, which puts me right next to the ecology park with the swans that I mentioned a couple of weeks ago. I took a wander over there a little while ago; the dragonflies seem particularly numerous and large this year, and the eggs have started hatching. So far there are two shweeeet little cygnets that are mostly nestling under the mother while the father glides around protectively.
There's a specific request from the wardens not to crowd around too much, so I couldn't stay long, but while I was there, the mother raised herself up to readjust the unopened eggs, so I was able to get a couple of photos. If you look closely, you can see the little ones. (Each large photo will open in a new window.)
And to round things out, as I'm cat-sitting, here's one that I've titled Cat, Sitting:
Cool Day
Well, warm day actually, but in a manageable way. Met Dave for lunch at Tate Modern. Sitting on the Members' Room terrace with the sun out, the boats powering up and down the river and the city spread out in front of us, you can really begin to feel like summer in the city is worth hanging around for.
So....
....I'm guessing that Graham Norton featured Sex, Or Something Else on his show last night. Or am I just reading too much into the available evidence?
Unreal
Been out with Alison this evening for a couple of drinks and some food, and encountered the worst, most chaotic service I've ever come across. Having waited ten minutes to be acknowledged by the bar staff, when I asked if I could order food I was told 'No'. Apparently only Natalie was taking food orders this evening, at the other end of the bar. Natalie is also the only person taking the orders through to the kitchen, and the only person taking food out to the shrivelled husks that were once people who'd ordered food.
Between the constant need to address her many duties, the fact that she seemed to never have used the credit card machine before (God knows what the woman who was trying to get cashback with her mixed grill actually ended up signing for), and the rule she kept forgetting; to add a service charge to each order, I was away from the table for over thirty minutes.
I've never seen anything like it.
Congratulations!
Weh-Hey! Lara and Roj are now the eight-days-late proud parents of baby Jody. All doing well, apparently. I've seen photos, and she's gorgeous.
On Becoming Right Wing
I've been receiving enlightenment in the form of some very reasoned debate on a number of sites which have been showing me the error of my ways.
I'm heading towards forty after all, and I think it's time that I started turning into my parents. This radical socialist agenda is something I should be handing on to younger men.
Over the last few days I've read intelligent, well-reasoned critiques of the case for joining the Euro, and now I'm just saying 'No!': I've encountered a devastating demolition of the ongoing criticism of the War in Iraq, and now I say "Who cares that there are no weapons of mass destruction?": And most significantly, I've seen a 19-year-old reflecting on the record-breaking Conservative win in the General Election of 1983 and note that "Those were the days", and realised that if even someone who wasn't born then can have that reaction, why have I been blind to that halcyon summer's moment?
Pimping For Friendster
I'm connected to 16,976 people via my direct circle of contacts on Friendster, which is a 'Six Degrees Of Separation' style thingy. It's like having my own small town. I was persuaded to register on it last night, and it's pretty painless.
It's meant to expand social networks, and allows for the possibility of dating and 'activity partners' which could be a euphemism for shagging, but which I choose to mean people to share a hand of whist with.
Mostly American at the moment of course, and their servers are dog slow, especially once the US wakes up, but it actually might be interesting to see how networks intersect if sufficient UK-based people sign up to it...
Just thought I'd mention it.
I Have Seen The Light
According to a footnote which claims authenticity in a book called 253, some publishing companies hire out-of-work actors to read their new releases on the tube as a way of heightening their visibility. These actors feign rapt attention, laughter, tears, or whatever is appropriate to the book. Some work in pairs in order to be able to read out passages to each other.
This explains....everything.
It explains White Teeth.
It explains all those 'Chick-Lit' things.
It even explains how many people seemed to get so engrossed in the impenetrable Captain Corelli's Bloody Mandolin.
Stop!
"We'll be together and nobody ain't never
Gonna disconnect us or ever separate us
Or say to us you've got to
Stop!
Stand there where you are
Before you go too far
Before you make a fool out of love"
Yep - still Erasure-ing.
"Come To Me....
....cover me, hold me
Together we'll break these chains of love
Don't give up, don't give up
Together with me and my baby
Break the chains of love"
Yes, I'm having a bit of an Erasure retro-fest.
Just thought I'd share.
Meetings, Meetings, Meetings, Sweetie!
Odd day - I usually manage to space meetings out across a week according to sensible time management principles, but today I've had three, two of which were fairly chunky, and astonishingly, they were all very positive. But it's a shock to the system, especially when lately all my meetings have felt like they're at one particular client, whose every meeting room (and they have a lot of those) I'm now intimately familiar with.
How Spike Comes Back? I Hope Not
Did anyone see that supposed script for the first episode of Angel Season Five that was doing the rounds last week? AICN ran extracts from it and Hercules gave it some degree of credibility (though he has clearly turned around on that 100% by the point over the weekend when he confirmed the writing team for the new season).
This script was leapt all over pretty quickly and denounced as fanfic, largely because it exhibited that primary factor of much fan fiction, an over-reliance on past continuity, and some extremely clunky dialogue. I was unconvinced by it myself largely because it seemed highly unlikely to me that they'd spend most of the first half of a season opener on nothing but establishing a new supporting character and dwelling on events that happened in another series.
Just in case it (or any of it) turns out to be true, I'm hiding the details - highlight the following to view:
Spike appears in the Wolfram and Hart White Room, discovered by Wes, Fred and Gunn, who don't know him of course. Angel does, and after much reviewing of the Buffy finale, and an Angel/Spike fight, they discover that although superhumanly strong, Spike is human, (via the Shanshu thing), and along the way has become "....the world's first male vampire slayer!"
Ho hum.
'Marriage' Rights?
Yesterday's Times reported on its front page that the UK government is to introduce proposals for homosexual partners to have the option to undertake a civil registation ceremony and then receive the same legal status as heterosexual married couples. This would run through everything from tax benefits to 'next-of-kin' status in case of illness or death.
The fact that unmarried heterosexual couples will not receive the same staus shift is expected to cause controversy, though the argument against doing so strikes me as opening up even more trouble for the government - they're trying to defend marriage, apparently.....
The changes are apparently being suggested as a response to European Union non-discrimination requirements, but this paragraph:
"Under the plans — to be presented to parliament as a "consultation" document — gay couples would give a written undertaking in an official register that they had lived together for a minimum period, possibly as little as six months or a year. They would then be eligible for the same tax and other perks as married couples." doesn't sound very equal to me. A straight couple can get married and receive all the benefits as soon as they do so, whether they've been living together or not, and at pretty much no notice.
Still, I think it's a move in the right direction.
It Never Fails
Every weekend I have a plan to do some serious domestic stuff around the flat - there are several boxes of stuff that need sorting out and taking to the charity shop for starters, never mind doing some serious spring cleaning generally.
And every weekend I give a curory tidy, do some washing, and then find other things to fill my time. Yesterday I went for a walk along the river, today I've been sitting in the sunshine on the balcony with a book and a cold drink.
The problem is that after five days of work, I don't actually want to put a load of effort into the flat.
Thank goodness I don't have a garden....
Sex, Or Something Else?
You decide (potentially not safe for work, depending on how sensitive your colleagues are).
Evil Junk Mail
Real, not e-mail, that is.
I received a letter yesterday that looked quite official - pre-paid, window envelope, my full name and address used, couldn't work out what it was.
When I opened it, the first two words to hit me were 'Mortgage' and 'Demand', with the latter in bright red, underlined text about three times the point size of any of the text around it.
And even though I know that my mortgage is paid up to date, and no one should be demanding anything of me, just for a moment, I panicked. I really thought "shit - I've somehow been underpaying, or something's gone wrong with my direct debit, or *something*!"
In the few seconds it took me to take in the rest of the content, I went through a shedload of potential crisis scenarios, each one worse than the last.
Then I realised it was just a piece of junk mail marketing crap:
"Demand the best mortgage for you".
Fuckers. There ought to be a law against that kind of thing.
County Mortgage Services, I name and shame you.
Oh Dear
Meant to write this up last night, but I was too ashamed.
I momentarily became a tube-rager last night.
It's an indication, I think, of the way the latter part of what had otherwise been a regular day at the office suddenly got very irritating in a very short period at its end. But after having been jammed in the middle of a large group of schoolkids on one escalator going home, I was in no mood to be stuck behind the couple having their inane conversation about Big Brother on the next. So I made a pointed, perhaps even agressive comment to them about the need to stand on the right. The word 'fucking' was involved. The man pulled the woman over to the right with a look that suggested I may have been about to pull out a knife, and I strode past them.
I'm not a bad person really, but I'd just had enough.
I am deeply ashamed.
Weirded Out
I had the strangest incident happen this evening. Walking down Piccadilly, I suddenly saw a face from the past. From eleven years in the past to be specific, an ex who used to live in another country. I didn't speak to him, though I have no doubt at all that it was him. It's left me feeling more than a little wrong-footed.
The Horror! The Horror!
"There's a simple lesson to be learned from all this. Whenever possible, masturbate with a friend. Don't go it alone. It's just too dangerous."
http://www.masturbationhorror.com/
Search Terms
I haven't done this in ages, but now seems as good a time as any to look back on May's search terms and see if I can help those poor souls who came here looking for:
boobah zone - it's here.
cottaging - try this - I can't offer a personal recommendation, but it looks like it can probably provide you with everything you'll need.
meaning name trinneer - actually, I can't help with this one. Anyone?
ari fleischer dishonesty - oh lord, where to start?
is brian whitaker gay - I don't know if he is, but the chances are, if you need to look it up on the WWW, you're not supposed to know either.
buffy wrap party - well there used to be photos here, but they've gone - I suspect bandwidth issues forced them down, it was a huge page.
and finally for now:
joss whedon no you don't but spike - which I'm sorry, but I simply don't understand
A Weekend In Review
Well, I've been decidedly dossy - I spent Saturday evening catching up on some videos and DVDs.
Sunday involved a relaxed morning, leisurely breakfast, and walk along the river. In the middle of the ecology park at Greenwich Millennium Village, a swan has made a nest in the water right beside the path. There are six massive eggs in there, and the swan was standing over them cleaning itself when we went past, before settling down on them and making minor structural adjustments to the nest itself. It's amazing to see so close up. Annoyingly, there's a notice up on the railing which says that one night someone threw rocks at the nest and smashed two eggs, which made me so fucking angry. What the hell is wrong with people that they'd do something like that, which has no point, no benefit, and no result but the harming of something beautiful and natural? (I suppose this now constitutes entry number two million and something in my lifelong "people are crap" treatise.)
Anyway, in the evening, more relaxed viewing and a moment of standing outside in the rain just because I could and it cooled me down. Six Feet Under just gets better and better, and I also saw a film called The Closet (Le Placard, originally), which was mildly diverting, but also contained a few all-too-realistic depictions of the reactions people have when they discover someone is gay.
And then it was Monday again.