Daily: 62
Sleep: 61
Work: 26
Published On: Fri 03/07/03 10:57 PM
Friday - March 07, 2003
Over
Whew. It's been another weird week. Things are slowly starting to work themselves out.
I've actually enjoyed a few things this week. Odd.
I was going to write all about
india but i just don't have it in me right now. I think the english educational system has
completely failed me. I have no idea how to structure even a short essay, my grasp of
grammar is tenuous, can't spell and my use of punctuation is a farcical. I'll work on over
the weekend... maybe.
Other things
just get curiouser and curiouser...
No Sexy, No Life!
I bet you didn't know that, did you? If you have been on the tokyo subway
recently you would have known...
The Scawaii posters, pronounced "es
kawaii" - presumably, "super cute", are everywhere. I giggle like an idiot every time i
see one. It amazing that japanese teenage girls are wandering around like lolitas... Oh.
Never mind.
Wednesday - March 05, 2003
Uh oh
If "they" are reading "this", next time i cross the atlantic i'm going straight to jail and not collecting
two hundred pounds.
"Land of the free!" Oh, stop it. You're killing me.
Literally.
Have you finished 'The Lion
and the Unicorn' yet? It's equal opportunity hatred round here.
Tuesday - March 04, 2003
The Lion and the Unicorn
There have been quite a few messages in my mailbox recently commenting on the general
insanity of the english. We're not mad. Here's a good summary of what we are:
"Here are a couple of generalizations about England that would be accepted by almost
all observers. One is that the English are not gifted artistically. They are not as
musical as the Germans or Italians, painting and sculpture have never flourished in
England as they have in France. Another is that, as Europeans go, the English are not
intellectual. They have a horror of abstract thought, they feel no need for any philosophy
or systematic 'world-view'. Nor is this because they are 'practical', as they are so fond
of claiming for themselves. One has only to look at their methods of town planning and
water supply, their obstinate clinging to everything that is out of date and a nuisance, a
spelling system that defies analysis, and a system of weights and measures that is
intelligible only to the compilers of arithmetic books, to see how little they care about
mere efficiency. But they have a certain power of acting without taking thought. Their
world-famed hypocrisy - their double-faced attitude towards the Empire, for instance - is
bound up with this."
The rest of the Lion and the
Unicorn is well worth reading... i think.
It has been a miserable couple of
days. I've still not got my head fully around all that happened in XML-land last week. As
usual, i've been feeling guilty about sitting around thinking instead of just doing
something. How many times can i write out all the options on a white-board and then rub
them out again? I'll let you know - i fear i'm on my way to finding out.
Dreaming War
Before i forget. The Gore Vidal essays, Dreaming War, etc. are
worth reading. The only trouble is that he's far too outspoken to be taken seriously by
anyone who doesn't already believe that there is an imperialist agenda. It's a shame
really, he obviously has an amazing insight into american history but is portrayed as a
complete crank.
We got cable t.v. a few weeks ago. Periodically, when i feel the
anger subsiding, i watch a little CNN. It's a little like watch car crashes or people
jumping off buildings, it's horrific but you just can't look away. Yesterday, there was a
little "debate" between two columnist about whether it was a good idea that airlines were
going to start running back ground checks on passengers before boarding. Things like,
criminal record, credit rating, etc. Not clean? No flying for you.
Perhaps the
logic is that terrorist will be the only ones who can actually get on the plan, because,
from what i understand, this certainly wouldn't have flagged any of them.
Papers.
Jack boots. Secret police. Records. All the cliches are worn out.
weekend of a waste
...or something like that.
Didn't even manage to leave the house this weekend.
Actually, that's a lie, i took the rubbish out in the pouring rain on saturday night.
Living the life. If i carry on like this i'll turn into Everett. Sunday was a beautiful
day and i examined it from afar, safe in the cubby hole of my office.
I've noticed
that if i only use the computer at the desk my back is much
better. It is certainly much better than the desk / chair combination at work. Just
another excuse to stay home, i suppose.
A couple of people from my time on the east
coast, that i've not heard from for many a year, got in touch this weekend. It's hard to
imagine what kind of impression they must form of me after reading the drivel i write
here. At least Craig came out and said what others must think:
From the twisted ramblings of your pages it seems that you have broken a couple rubber
bands in the brain of yours and you have turned insane.
Thanks Craig. Many moons ago Craig had to suffer the indignity of being my
manager. We all sympathize, may the fog lift soon.
Wednesday - February 26, 2003
Koyaanisqati
I worked
out today that my current boss was the music editor for the Francis
Ford Coppola film Koyaanisqati.
That
is so fucking cool.
Now i just want to sit down with him and find out what is was
like to work with Coppola and Glass, mostly Glass. It's very rare that i find myself
wishing i was in California. Despite what i might say about the life sucking vacuousness
of the "Valley", there are some really interesting people there... anyway, he's in Hong
Kong this week. So there.
Armageddon
Seems like the decision has already been made:
"You are not going to decide whether there is war in Iraq or not," the diplomat said
U.S. officials told him. "That decision is ours, and we have already made it. It is
already final. The only question now is whether the council will go along with it or not."
I can hardly say i'm surprised. The look of frustration on monkey-boy's face
recently, as he has realized that the people have seen the game for what it is (an
imperialist land-grab), has been rather transparent. Like a dull, stupid, child who knows
that it will lose but has to carry on playing...
What's amazing about the quote
above (apart from the obvious) is that it's from the Washington Post. If it was some
"crackpot" outfit like The Nation it would be
easier to dismiss, but the Washington Post. Nah.
I suppose the question now
becomes, how will the people react?
Hurt
It's mysterious stuff art. It really makes no sense that this:
"i hurt myself today to see if i still feel
i focus on the pain the only thing
that's real
the needle tears a hole the old familiar sting
try to kill it all away
but i remember everything
what have i become? my sweetest friend
everyone i know
goes away in the end
you could have it all my empire of dirt
i will let you down i
will make you hurt
i wear this crown of shit upon my liar's chair
full of broken
thoughts i cannot repair
beneath the stains of time the feelings disappear
you are
someone else i am still right here
what have i become? my sweetest
friend
everyone i know goes away in the end
and you could have it all my empire of
dirt
i will let you down i will make you hurt
if i could start again a million
miles away
i would keep myself i would find a way"
should resonant with me, but it does. The line, "What have i become? my sweeatest
friend, everyone i know goes away in the end" bares very little relation to anything in my
life, but it makes my hair stand on end. Literally. Perhaps it's a message from myself.
The question is, what am i trying to tell me? I've had to internalise a lot of
contradictions recently. Without doubt, not healthy.
"What have i become?"
As masumi told me recently, i'm like a confused teenager. Next week / next month /
next year, i'll be having a nervous breakdown. Something to look forward to.
Cash hurt and the nails of faith
I had low expectations when i heard that Johnny Cash was going to be releasing a
cover of a nine inch nails song. Now i've seen the video i'd have to say i was
wrong. My opinion of Trent Reznors song writing / lyrics has never been that high, but i
guess it's more the delivery rather than the content. That and a little guilt by
association. The video is a nice segue into the next little topic...
Jennifer
called me this morning before i'd left to go to the office. While we were chatting a
christianity peddler (can you 'sell' faith?) came to the door. Of course, masumi nailed
her to a cross before sending her on her way. We then proceeded to have a nice long
discussion about how convenient it would be to have a stash of crosses by the door to nail
up passing christians, and little pocket-sized crosses, with teenie-weenie nails and tiny
little hammer... well, you get the idea. The slogan on the t-shirt to be worn whilst doing
the nailing reads, "What goes around, comes around!"
Cheered me up no end; good
christian / dead christian.
Tired, so tired
I had so many things to say today. Stuff about the seasons changing; about going to Maui
for Jun's wedding; about strip clubs and marathons; about the Gore Vidal essays; about
Jesus; about middle aged men reading transformers... not comics, magazines on the train;
about comb overs... It was going to be wild.
Instead, nothing. Sleep.
Saturday - February 22, 2003
Pointless entry
Seeing as my bloggin software is punishing me for making a mistake in my last entry i'll
tell you what i'm doing.
This weekend i'm out in Chiba enjoying the hospitality of
my parents-in-law. Just like being a kid again. Nobody here complains about the racial
purity of XML....
And, it makes you wonder
Yesterday we put out the first public draft of the spec i've been working on for the last
year. It has caused quite a stir.
It's
fantastic the way some people can characterize the most benign efforts to illicit
community input as an attempt to... well, i'm not quite sure what they imagine we are
attempting to do. The picture painted here is
of marauding web services zealots storming the hallowed walls of the XML stronghold. If
only they knew...
No doubt i'll spend the next week stressing about how to do the
right thing by the people i've already been trying to do the right thing by. All because
of one self righteous... never mind.
The ultimate irony is that the very thing that
"Dear Elliotte" is whining about is the thing that we went out of our way to make
explicit. The theory being that if we spell it out, it will be understood and commented
on.
So it goes, you can't please all the people, etc.
Thursday - February 20, 2003
Hiroo
I've found another place that i can love to hate in Tokyo. It's called Hiroo and it's
absolutely crawling with middle aged american, 2.4 children families. The husbands all
looked like they work in banks and are treating their time in Japan as just another
penance on the road to retirement. Horrific. At least Roppongi has a whiff of youthful
hedonism to it.
I was in Hiroo to go to the dentist. It was rather weird. Japanese
dentists trained in the U.S. who insisted on speaking japanese to me as soon as they
realized i could utter a few words.
I'm having a lot of fun babbling along in
japanese these days. I'm not sure that i make anymore sense than i did before but i
certainly have managed to start caring less. Is this progress?
Wednesday - February 19, 2003
Confused yet?
From the Gore Vidal "pamphlet:"
Post-9/11, American media was filled with preemptory denunciations of unpatriotic
"conspiracy theorists," who not only are always with us, but are usually easy for media to
discredit since it is an article of faith that there are no conspiracies in American life
.
An amusing enough idea. Until you start reading some of the theories. My favourite part
of this one is at the start:
Moreover, immediately following Congress's vote on the Iraq Resolution, we suddenly
became aware of North Korea's nuclear program violations. Kim Jong Il is processing
uranium in order to produce nuclear weapons this year. President Bush has not provided a
rationale answer as to why Saddam's seemingly dormant WMD program possesses a more
imminent threat that North Korea's active program. Strangely, Donald Rumsfeld suggested
that if Saddam were `exiled' we could avoid an Iraq war. Confused yet?
Arrrggghhhh! My head hurts. When will these people stop acting all rational so i
can start ignoring them again?
Blind
Sony Server Entertainment
The men i killed
Pruneboy
Surgery on a baby shrew
Grrr
Founding Day
Ring a ring of roses
Game Over
Bozons
Links
Plague
Goopas!
Here we go again...