Total entries in this category: 62
Published On: Wed 03/05/03 07:52 PM
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water supply, their obstinate clinging to everything that is out of date and a nuisance, a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
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?
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....
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?
Tuesday - February 18, 2003
The subjagation of other subjagtors...
Looks like there has
been a change of plan:
Mr Abdul-Rahman said the US had reneged on earlier promises to promote democratic
change in Iraq. "It is very disappointing," he said. "In every Iraqi ministry they are
just going to remove one or two officials and replace them with American military
officers."
You'd think that after what happened last time the Kurds would know the routine by
now.
I promise that any day now i'm going to get over this and we can get back to regularly
scheduled programming. Whatever that was...
Saturday - February 15, 2003
Sony Server Entertainment
Ken and I joked about this last year at
JavaOne. Perhaps someone overheard...
I can think of worse fates that might befall
us.
The chances of someone coming up with another Java seem a slim. Jini and Jxta
were the wnj's latest efforts. Impressive technology they may well be but it takes more
than that. How many companies manage to pull off more than one Java size
disruption?
it doesn't help that there are a lot,
a lot
, of people out there who would love to see Sun fail. I should stop reading C|Net.
Friday - February 07, 2003
Game Over
Todays newspapers make depressing reading. This from the FT:
In this respect, there were two interesting sentences in Mr Bush's State of the Union
address to Congress. "The course of this nation," the president said, "does not depend on
the decisions of others." Why should it? "The liberty we prize is not America's gift to
the world, it is God's gift to humanity."
It's hard not to be impressed by the sheer arrogance and stupidity. I don't think
that Hussein realises
with what he's dealing:
To quote again from Mr Bush, this time from his speech last year to the West Point
military academy: "Moral truth is the same in every culture, in every time, in every
place."
So, there you go, it doesn't matter. Bush not only has God on his side, he's also
convinced what he is doing is morally indisputable.
I guess i always new that
having a born again christian in the whitehouse was a bad idea. Worth remember that old
axiom, " The only good christian, is a dead christian."
What with all this talk of
total
war and of a new imperium, the best we can hope for is Cheney having a massive heart
attack, Bush having a nervous breakdown... but that still leaves the indescribably evil
Rumsfeld, creepy Rice and a whole host of other crazies.
Monday - February 03, 2003
Goopas!
I thought this was cool, in a very japanese sort of
way. The idea is that you register your commuter pass (teiki) with the railway company
along with your mobile phone's email address and a list of things in which you are
interested. When you go through the ticket gates, the railway mails you something to read
on the train. By the looks of
things they can also send you something depending on where you get off.
Can you
imagine that being successful anywhere in the west? People would be completely paranoid
about 'the man' knowing when they got on and off the train.
The name is classic 'engrish'. I'd guess that 'goopas' translates to 'good
pass'.
In other japanese news, a boy who killed a couple of people and injured
several others at Ikebukuro station a few years ago, got a life sentence instead of the
death penalty. The reason? He was "obviously un-balanced" at the time. You don't say...
Here we go again...
New blogging software, new hassles.
I think i can now add links to others blogs.
Syndication will be ours!
As predicted
It's all gone tits up and now i'm having to write a bogus entry to see if things will fix themselves. Grrrrr.
It'll all end in tears EntryLink Email CommentsFriday - January 31, 2003
Tired, so tired!
Today was hard.
Last night Masaaki, Ken, Naomi-chan and i went out to celebrate Ken
making off with the grand prize suitcase full of cash. (Aigri, Moi? Pas possible.) I'd
promised myself that i'd take it easy - it's been a tough week and i was already pretty
tired. Of course, i staggered home, drunk and disorderly, around midnight... Dame
oji-san!
It was all good fun, sitting around, smoking tabs and sniffing glue. Just
like the old times. I really need some sleep. The most fun was had when Naoki turned up
about 30 minutes before we left and started having Tokyo daigaku conversations with Ken.
There is nothing funnier than a pair of Tokyo graduates (one half cut, the other half
dead) trying to find misery in everything. And finding it. By the time Masaaki and i had
finished mocking them we were close to crying. Hilarious.
If i'm not mistaken, on
the way home, i had a drunken train conversation with Naoki about the history of the great
game. Oh dear, oh dear.
"Tired of listening to gossip, gossip and complaints!"
Babelogue
Who would buy that?
Sod water...
Changes
Pictures / Humiliation
Pictures / Humiliation
C still broken
C still broken
Runner #9548
Runner #9548
Wiener Werkstatte
You are feeling very sleepy...
Wiener Werkstatte
You are feeling very sleepy...