I didn't quite catch that...

Not the final that I would have wanted, but hey. Personally, I think that O’Sullivan/Fu would have been a much more exciting prospect. But these two won difficult games and put my favoured candidates out, so what can you do?

Furthermore: Chelsea are a pack of bastards. Thatisall.

Your Blog Should Be Green

Your blog is smart and thoughtful – not a lot of fluff. You enjoy a good discussion, especially if it involves picking apart ideas. However, you tend to get easily annoyed by any thoughtless comments in your blog.

Not entirely sure that this is accurate; why pick apart ideas when you can just heap abuse on those who had the idea in the first place? Honestly, that’s not me at all… Could be worst, though. I went looking for blue (‘cos it’s the main colour round this ‘ere blog), and it’s all calmness and cat photos. Even less me.

Blatently stolen from the Nellymeister

Via Samizdata, a story to amuse people everywhere:

Animal activists bit off more than they could chew this morning when they chained themselves to the killing area of an abattoir at Ipswich in south-east Queensland.

The 12 protesters got a fright when meatworkers took matters into their own hands and used angle grinders to cut the chains off the activists so they could get back to work.
…
Protester Angie Stephenson says it was terrifying.

“The workers, they were standing around cheering and whooping and yelling and making lewd comments so we had to call the police and tell them to get out here straight away,” she said.

Sheer brilliance, as only australians could provide. I particularly like the way that the protestors felt they needed rescuing.

I like.

Oh lookee! All those people who were warning that the National Identity scheme would grow and grow and grow were right! How surprising. And before it’s even law. Even more surprising.

I particularly like this little bit:

On 10 January 2005, the CIP wrote to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister saying that: “The ID Card would seem to provide a logical way to confirm the identity and eligibility to vote in the longer term” and that the Electoral Register holds the same information on the NIR and that “there would seem scope here for collaboration between the two systems”.

Fucking marvelous. So it’s now government departments (and supposedly neutral ones at that) proposing that the NIR should become integral to their operation, and that the ID card should become the ‘logical’ way to prove that you can vote. How long until that becomes ‘cannot vote without having an ID card’? I’d say sooner rather than later, but then I’m a cynical bastard…

You really need to have a wee read of yon article. Some of the CIP’s suggestions are quite frightening. Time to plan that secession, methinks. The Republic of I Didn’t Quite Catch That sounds more and more appealing every day.

Found at FMFT, but originally at Beau Bo D’Or

Last night’s West Wing was a little poor. And not because of the whole episode, but because of little bits of it.

The dialogue was good, the premise of both plot major streams was good, Josh growing into Leo was good, but the whole episode ended up with a C-. Because of one simple thing: John Bon Bloody Jovi.

TWW has a long a decent history of working in big names. Leno, Hasselhoff, Yo-Yo Ma, stars of music and the small screen, have all had bit parts in episodes, where they make one or two comments and effect the episode in some way. Last night, John Bon Jovi had more screen time than most of the other characters, and he was poor. And dragged the whole episode down with him, even making Janeane Garofalo worse, which I though was impossible.

On the plus side, as mentioned, Josh is moving into the Leo role well. And it’s interesting to see how Toby is interacting with his kids. Which stop the episode from failing too badly.

–
UPDATE: Seems swm was commenting as I wrote this. With his characteristic long windedness.

West Wing last night = weak

And I agree with the Sopranos. Every show should have more S**** B*******. Just because…

Generally, I’m not a big fan of meetings. And today’s meeting wasn’t enough to change my mind. Sure, things are apparantly going well. Sure, some things need tweaked. Sure, things need explained. But taking three hours to do these things, in a hot stuffy room with sub-standard coffee? Not the way to do things.

And what’s worse was that a mobile (or similiar device) went off in the middle of it. Playing some dozy boybandish tune. And it seemed to be comming from me. But it wasn’t my phone (for it just makes a beep when some calls or texts), and it wasn’t any gadgets I had (for I had none with me). And it didn’t appear to be anything in my coat, or my bag, or on the floor next to me. I even went and checked the underside of the chair to see if someone was fucking about and planted something there. Nope, nothing.

There is only one conclusion I can draw. I must have put on my musical underwear. Silly me, I usually save that for ‘casual Friday’ and then try to scare the punters at t’other job later…

Or, more likely, it was someone on the other side of the (very thing) dividing wall. But the pisstakers in the meeting at the time didn’t think that that was very probable, and who am I to disagree?

I’d be lying if I said that certain current events weren’t causing me a little bit of amusement. It’s always nice to see swarmy politicians come a cropper. Especially when they’re such high profile targets.

Clarke: Mucho annoyance for the Safety Elephant can be found at IDQCT. I mean, can we now call him ‘Safety’ when he has overseen a massive fuckup with dangerous criminals who have no right to be in the country? Heads should roll, and let’s hope that they do.

Hewitt: having to fire some of the too-many people that they announced hiring. I do especially like the way that the hirings were announced at national level, with great fanfare, while the firings are being left to the trusts.

Prescott: yes, it’s a personal fuckup, but considering that Mr Two Jags spent quite a lot of time slagging off those who were caught in similiar positions in the past, it’s quite a lot of fun to see this happening now…

Blair: Go. Now. To give Brown enough time to fuck up enough that he’s not elected.

Thank you God, for this is fun. Or it would be if some of the consequences of these fuckups weren’t so serious. What with the people on the streets who shouldn’t be and the people losing their jobs.

But remember, folks, these types sleaze and mistakes are things of the past! And mistakes definitely won’t happen with the wonderful new things being brought in, nosirree. Not with control orders, or ASBOs, or ID cards. No risk with them.

The Doorman has a little post about the names he uses on the door. And he’s creative about it, with a different name every night. Backstories, characters, all that. Very sensible.

Me, I haven’t bothered being that inventive. For the last couple of years, I’ve just been George. It’s not a very common name, and there’s noone of that name in the complex. It’s not specific to a particular community. So nobody is getting in shit.

It’s common sense to use a fake name; most customers, when they’re asking you name either a) don’t care and are trying to be be polite or b) want to make your life hell. With the a’s, they’ll accept George and walk on. The b’s generally know they’re being bullshitted to, but what can they do?

But I now have a problem. Others have started using the name. There are now about a dozen using the name George. Including one who called up the Stephen Nolan show the other day. It’s getting silly. So I have to get a new name. I’m thinking of Henry. Anybody see any problems with Henry?

Of course, in a perfect world, I’d be using a different name daily, like The Doorman. But there are so many names that are generally one or the other of our two peaceful communities, and being obviously one or the other can make life a little more interesting where I work… Oh, and I’m very lazy. Which may have some impact on it.

If a single lizard was enough to concern the good Mr Wulf, then what will an entire breeding programme do?

I wouldn’t be surprised if he starts taking up residence at the big walk-in safe in the InvestNI building… You can never be too careful when it comes to the impending lizard apocalypse, can you?

I’ve mentioned that I’m not very keen on the whole ‘state funding for political parties’, haven’t I? Good good. Well, luckily enough, I’m not alone. And, as pointed out by Nick Robinson, the politicians themselves are doing their specialist thang to encourage people to disagree with them.

Breathe easier dear taxpayer. A couple of Vulcans, a bevy of groundhogs, Cherie Blair’s paranoia about her hair and Michael Howard’s about his “5 o’clock shadow” may have saved you a fortune (see Election make-up costs revealed).

The revelation of how our political parties spend their election funds is likely to have set back the cause of the state financing of politics more than any debate, pamphlet or speech.

Brilliant.

David Cameron: he’s not green, he’s a farking moron.

Mr Cameron’s emissions target would mean virtually all cars on Britain’s roads would have to be powered by new technologies such as hybrid motors.

Brilliant idea. Replace tens of millions of vehicles, overnight, for pretty much no reason. Oh, and where would these vehicles come from?

Not only is Cameron Blair-lite, he’s also missing the point: people won’t vote for Tories on the basis of greenery. If they do ‘vote blue’, it’ll be because Labour have fucked up, badly, in almost every area of government.

But let’s not mention that. Instead focus on unrealistic enviromental goals. That’s clearly the way forward.

I’m not normally one for thinking that blogs will change the world. I don’t think that the BBC and CNN are going to disappear following the rise of the online journalism. In fact, a lot of people are saying that blogs are, if anything, getting less newsworthy. Less fun,more self congratulatory. Much like some blogs were accusing the mainstream media of being, in fact.

Anyway. Like I says, I’m not a big one for thinking along those lines. Less of the David/Goliath things, thankyouverymuch. But a little more of this type of stuff. Surveys like this from the Economist are more than enough reason to overlook their sillyness when it comes to all things green…

From the government that brought you ID cards, trial without jury, the abolition of double-jeopardy, imprisonment without trial, the seizure of assets without convictions, increased taxes and more invasive policing methods, we have a new plan.

A Ten Year Plan.

Doesn’t that sound familiar? Expect anti-kulak legislation at any time, followed by maybe a purge or two…

The last few days at work have been busy. Full days, work to do during every minute of them, things working and those that don’t being fixed quickly.

In fact, somewhat unlike most of my employment experience. It’s a novel sensation, actually being busy, doing real work and not make-work.

I like it. I’ll probably be bored of it very soon, but for now, I’ll actually admit to contentment at the job.

Which is a very strange sensation indeed.

A couple of comments about televisual viewing:

• The new Doctor Who… Hmm. Good, to be sure; entertaining, definitely; but there’s a lot of talk about how the good Mr Tennant is shaping up to be the best doctor ever, and I don’t see it. I think that Christopher Eccleston was better, to be honest.
• Schedulers at RTÉ, take note: STOP FUCKING ABOUT WITH THE WEST WING! Twice now in the last few weeks you have removed TWW from the week’s schedule. It’s bad enough that these are the last few shows, don’t make it worse by messing about.
• Battlestar Galactica just keeps going from strength to strength. As a recent email said
  

  I also watched all of season 2 Battlestar Galactica. Having now watched the mini-series / season 1 / season 2 I have to class it as one of the best shows I’ve ever seen. …
  Seriously though what other show is talking about the unseen / unidentifiable enemy within; trade off between civil freedoms and security (Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both – I love that Franklin quote)

  Oh, and it has purdy girls and lots of explosions as well…

• House: brilliant viewing without being in any way sensible.
• The Sopranos is shaping up to end with a very good season, albeit a bit surreal.
• I made the horrible mistake of flicking through the channels after Sopranos, and caught the end of Greys Anatomy. Dear God that’s a doubleplusungood show. It’s like Ally McBeal in a hospital. Very bad. Very bad indeed.
• Lost is quickly disappearing into a fog of incomprehensibility. Either that or it’s vanishing up it’s own arse. In season 1 it was gripping, now it’s not. Simple as that.
• I have a nasty secret to confess: I find CSI:Miami very watchable. Partly because of the absurdity of the science, partly because of the fact that all it takes is Horatio to raise his eyebrow and the case is solved, but also partly because Emily Procter is even better when she’s carrying a variety of weapons than she was in West Wing.
• The award for the hardest show to switch away from goes to Planet Earth. Simply stunning.

There we go. Everyone can now rest easy, for I have handed out my vitally important opinions on televisual viewing.

I may have mentioned how I’m going to have to give up on the ol’ UK passport. What with me not wanting to become a bitch of the ID card. And I only have 5 years left on it… My initial thought was “Oh well, that’s a shame”, but it seems that that may have been premature.

Because those lovely folks over at No2ID have come up with a better plan.

That plan?

Renew For Freedom. Apply for a new passport in the month of May, before the bastarding ID cards become law. And then get ten lovely new years out of the document.

Result.

Alan B’Stard, Labour politician. Brilliance, sheer brilliance. And I do quite like the mindset of the fella behind it:

But he poured scorn on Blair’s potential successors.

“When you go through the sorry catalogue of possible alternatives, you realise this is a pretty mediocre bunch. At the peak of Thatcherism, she at least had a bunch of heavyweights. This is a bunch of jokers,” he said.

Ah, kicking the politicians. It should become a national sport…

Following on from yon study last week, where nothing but the stupidly obvious was stated, apparently pretty women distract men. And this was an official study, under scientific conditions. Therefore costing a little bit of money. To find out that pictures like this:

can distract people. Who’da thunk it?

It gets worse, of course, when you consider that some pictures are just meant to distract people. Like those after the fold… A fold which I wouldn’t open at work. Just to be safe. NSFW and all that jazz.
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