I didn't quite catch that...

Some people seem to spend a lot of time complaining about the BBC (I can see why, but I disagree with them; I want my state media to question the state as much as possible, and to give them a hard time. I do not want the BBC to turn into Fox). But I think that they’re hitting wide of the mark.

Any broadcaster that tells people how to find bugs in their hotel room is worth every penny.

I wouldn’t mind a go on one of these. Unpowered human flight rocks. Pity about having to be dropped off by another plane, but, hey, it’s a step up from a handglider.

And a little more from the Modern Drunkard: anti-beer propaganda. With a rebuttal, of course:

Beware of hopsheads
Uh . . . right. Beer, heroin?same deal. Now if you?ll excuse me, I?m going to go break into my neighbor?s house so I can score a sixer of Coors Light. And these motherfuckers want us to take them seriously.

Hell, that shit makes the PSNI “Get Home Safe” campaign look professional…

Having a minute or two on my hands, I decided to head over to Modern Drunkard, because, ya know, I can, like, relate to it, and stuff? Yea?

Anyway, had a little look at the Best Bar Moves. And I thought, yeah, I can do some of those. So look out for me trying some of them. I’ve already got Cowardly Surveillance and the Table Nap down pat.

Of course, as with lots of things in life, I’m a generalist, not a specialist. As a result of this, I’ll have to leave Joe to be the Shot Tyrant, a position I have had to resign from, after holding it from underage drinking up until I fell in love with just beer.

Joe, with your After Eights and evil shots, we salute you.

Although it did take until 3pm on Saturday until my head stopped hurting. But that may have been as a result of trying to fit a six foot me into a four foot sofa…

Taurus: (April. 20?May 20)
If you’ve ever regretted not pursuing a career in bullfighting, this week may bring an accidental chance to start over.

Hmm. Remind me not to go anywhere near cattle. Thanks to the Onion for the heads-up.

I doubt I’ll ever have as big a site as Misha, but, in the unlikley event of me ever getting hatemail (Proper hatemail, not random insults, Chez), I want to be able to completely destroy it like this.

After a few weeks considering it, I’ve decided that Misha is definitely going onto the blogroll. Which is more wasted time for me…

I haven’t been updating this for the last day or two for a very good reason: I’m a very lazy person.

And I’ve been setting up a computer for someone, including (a)a few bloody big Access databases (b)a whole manual for the thing, starting with “this is a mouse: move it and the little pointy thing on the screen moves too!” and probably ending with “you now know more about this computer than I do. And, what with me having done five years of school IT, four years of uni (in Comp&Business) and having been a nerd for many years, is a bit depressing”.

Oh, and I went out on a traditional sailing boat up on the north coast last night. Which was bloody interesting. Even when the rain started attacking horizontally.

After a bit of a break (read: many, many weeks), MEg of Not.So.Soft has thrown in the towel. Not.So.Soft is no more. Boo, and all that.

But fear not. She continues to write over at her new place, meish.org. Which is a good thing.

As some US-based blogs (among them IMAO, Rachel Lucas and USS Clueless, which are on my blogroll) repeat a fair bit, there is a huge gun culture in the US, and these blogs hold that it is a good thing. I often agree, not least because of the strength of the writing and the fact that I would really like to be able to fire a gun as and when I wanted.

However, there is another side to this arguement, that a high rate of gun ownership will mean that more criminals have guns, and blah blah blah, suddenly you have a cycle of violence and blah blah blah, more guns, more crime, more guns, more violent crime, more gun related deaths. Rachel is particularly against this theory, and is often to be heard saying “Asshat” to any mention of gun control measures in the UK or Australia. But, to be fair, have a look at this:

A nice little story in the Economist, showing the stats on gun related homicides around the world. What are those two countries at the bottom there? The ones that barely register?

‘Course, I don’t think that gun control is the answer to everything. Even in 1994, gun related deaths in NIreland were far lower than in the US, and it’s not like there aren’t many guns over here (what with every cop & soldier having one, plus legally held protection, sport and game guns, plus the odd illegal assault rifle/RPG). And there’s even less now, and only a few guns have been taken out of circulation. But the fact that the UK and Australia have such low figures shold show something.

Six months old, and the blog hasn’t gotten any more coherent. Brilliant.

Oh, and the story was pointed out to me on the News Junkie, Matt’s new site. It’s quite good.

I haven’t been watching much Big Brother, which can only be a good thing. Well, it can only be a good thing. But, really, Cameron winning? I mean, how boring. More Irish people winning money. The economy needs the stimulus.

See, now Ray hasn’t won, he’ll just be tormenting people on Irish TV.
Theorem: Irish people who win Big Brother are inflicted on national TV, while Irish people who don’t win are stuck inflicting pain on Irish TV.
Proof: Brian does Saturday mornings on national. Whatshisface from the first series (the farmer from Tyrone) does BBC NI’s Town Challenge.

And before anyone says anything, it was on in the pub I was in on Friday night. For some reason. I mean, who puts the TV in a pub to anything but MTV-style channels on a Friday night? Amateurs…

Tomorrow, this blog will be six months old. And, given the law of averges (and the wonders of SiteMeter’s predictions), I should have my 3,000th visitor tomorrow. Which is also nice. And, not to be too like Chez, or anything, I think that it would be nice if the 3,000th visitor left a wee comment. You don’t have to, or anything. I mean, I won’t ban you or anything if you don’t, but I thought that it’d be nice.

Some of the points raised in the comments here are good. Yes, I love my country; yes, parts of it are blighted by the whole “I can paint stupider slogans than thou” mindset; but yes, it is better to look at (on the most part) than pratically everywhere I’ve been, because of the variety available is such a small place. But then that’s just my two cents.

I like Rachel Lucas’ blog. She’s funny, smart and likes dogs, which can only be a good thing. I have to take issue with something in this post though.

how Europeans like to be really arrogant and pretentious, and to accuse Americans of not knowing enough about other nations or the world in general? How they like to say that we don’t travel enough and aren’t considerate enough of other cultures?

…

BITE ME. How many of those asshatted Germans who think the U.S. government sponsored the 9/11 attacks have ever been to America? Seriously, how many? How many Germans under the age of 30 have ever been anywhere other than their little corner of Europe, maybe including France and the Netherlands et al, which are inconsequentially different from Germany itself?

You see, I think that people should try and see as many other cultures as possible, which is why I like visiting other countries*. Of course, it is far easier to visit other countries in Europe than it is in America, purely because of the size the US. But still, something like 50% of USians don’t have a passport. Which means that they have never left the 50 states, all of which share a language and a basic culture (sure, there are variations between states, but not as much as there is between, say, France and Germany). How hard can it be for people to get to Canada? Or Mexico, or any of the islands states round that part of the world? Just to see how someone else lives.

I’m not saying that every USian should visit Europe, because I’m not a huge Euro-snob (I don’t believe that European culture is the be-all and end-all. That position is filled by Irish culture, namely beer.) But, come on. With the wealth of the average US citizen, most of the world is within reach. Why not try it?

* – Countries I’ve been in (off the top of my head): UK, Ireland, France, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Vatican City, Bulgaria, Andorra, Egypt and the US. And I plan to see many more.

Too lazy to blog. So there.

I’ve been waiting for someone to ask this since Dr Kelly was found dead. All the rhetoric from the BBC and the government about the “hounding of an innocent man” and all that. But Dr Kelly, by his own admission, was not an innocent man. He revealed classified information to the media, thus breaking the Official Sevrets Act, which, as he was a high level MoD employee, he would have had to sign.

Therefore the government was perfectly within it’s rights to reveal his identity, and could probably have prosecuted him a la David Shayler. His death was a terrible thing, but the whole “hounding” thing is starting to get on my nerves now.

You are David Lister, the last living human being
in the Universe! You don’t need much to make
you happy – and chances are, your favorite
movie is “It’s a Wonderful Life”.

What Red Dwarf character are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Well, it’s better than being Rimmer, isn’t it?

Speaking of which, shouldn’t the movie be along some time soon? Get the finger out, lads.

I like the song linked to by Chez. It’s all good.

Remind me never to take a Ryanair flight to Berlin. Not very likley, I know, but still. I wouldn’t particularly want to trust my life to this runway.

Papers among thousands of files captured from the Stasi, the secret police of East Germany, claim tons of live Second World War munitions were buried in concrete bunkers beneath the runways of Schoenefeld airport in East Berlin. It is now the main destination for discount airlines, such as Ryanair, and numerous charter companies.

Not only did the commissars intern munitions beneath the runways, but also entire Nazi fighter planes, all fuelled and fully bombed-up, according to the Stasi.

You’d think that in the last sixty years, someone would have thought about doing something, but no. That would be sensible.

Threat rating: zero. Excellent work – you
demonstrate all the qualities of patriotism
that will make America even greater under Bush.
USA no.1!!!

What threat to the Bush administration are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

I think that I only got this result because I said that I supported the whole Iraq thing. Oh well.

A new speaking clock, voiced by Yoda. Which is nice.