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May 31, 2005
seagull murder
I'm upset. Go read all about it on flickr.
by groc at 04:38 PM | Comments (0)
May 28, 2005
wolf spotting
what's written on his big bomb then?
And big kudos for Stephen Moffat for giving us a mainstream sci-fi proper bi-sexual character. Something Star Trek never dared to do - the pussies.
And what's going to go here then?
by groc at 08:37 PM | Comments (3)
notes about reality type TV shows.
The main aim is usually to see people suffer - and in particular to cry. The more they cry the more the camera loves it. All reality shows feature people crying in them at some point. Seeing real people crying real tears is the new pornography.
Most reality shows are about exposing and humiliating proles and allow a mainly middle-class audience to be horrified and appalled at their lifestyles. The notion is that only experts (at a price) can leap in and save them from themselves.
Home make over shows -please try to understand that these people design rooms that only and I stress only ever look in photographs and only then without any people in them at all. Put even one person in those rooms having a cup of coffee reading a book or having a pile of dvds in front of the computer or slobbing out on the sofa and those rooms will look just as bad as any other. These rooms have nothing whatsoever to do with being lived in. These two things are totally incompatable.
Most make-over shows give the message that any and all problems can be solved by throwing large amounts of money at them. Bad dress sense? Spend a lot of money in designer boutiques. Bad diet? - Lots of fresh fruit and veg along with very expensive imported ingredients will help. Bad house - a designer and lots of workmen and expensive furniture will help there.
In short -all these programs are really about being a good little consumer and spending far more than you can earn or realistically afford (in this day and age it is expected of you to put yourself deeply into debt). The surface is all. Being content and happy with your lot and the things you already have is NOT an option*.
A mystery: How can anyone one take 'QueerEyeForStraightGuys' Carson's fashion advice seriously - when he wears the awful clothes he does?
*actually there are a small but growing number of programmes that are now appearing which try to encourage people to live within their means. (I almost suspect with the frightening huge amount of consumer debt that these might be Govt. sponsored) The tide has already atarted to turn - a bit. Of course they still feature experts, the chance to be appalled at other people's lifestyles, and inevitably - crying.
by groc at 01:59 PM | Comments (1)
May 27, 2005
vintage products
If iPods looked like this 1950s-styled take - I'd want one so bad it'd hurt. But as they don't...
PS I seriously think a few of these ideas hint at the future... once the oil starts running out and plastic becomes prohibitively expensive to use - more and more of our gadgets will be made out of wood and metals again.
by groc at 04:34 AM | Comments (1)
May 26, 2005
ID cards back again
Yes, it's back in the news. Now the Gov. is trying to sell it as being the best protection yet against the growing problem of Identity Theft (can't they just arrest that comedian doing that bank card advert McGowen). Remember when it was an 'entitlement card' to make sure Miss Single-parent couldn't claim for one more free bottle of milk for her child than she was entitled to, or that Johnny Foreigner wouldn't get any free medical treatment on the NHS or substandard council housing -etc. Then it was going to stop international terrorists in their tracks and put a stop to all those bombs and aeroplanes crashing into buildings that have been happening in the UK ever since er... er... (quickly changes the subject.) Now it's going to stop all this terrible, terrible Identity theft business that's costing the country 1.3 billion pounds a year.
Whooooo!
Except it isn't. Well, because they've pretty much as good as made those figures up.
So remember that little fact, They have all that data to hand - then twist it and mangle it and then ignore it in order to push through whatever it is they wanted to do in the first place. So ask yourself how then can they be ever trusted with the personal data of all the inhabitants of this country in this proposed massive new database? Can they be trusted with your own individual personal information? If they can get it into the database correctly in the first place - discounting the typos, the inevitable human error, the inevitable computer crashes and lock-ups... etc.
Once again they keep skirting over how much the whole scheme is going to cost to set up, and once in place keep running - they're always very hazy on that particular piece of information have you noticed? I wouldn't be surprised if it's easily over 1.3 billion before they've finished, (not that it will ever be finished). This will be real proper taxpayers money, not imaginary figures they've pulled out of a hat one year. Money that could be better put into investigating and policing and so actually stopping the real non-imaginary money that is being lost.
Notice also how the proposed cost of actually owning a card keep on creeping up and up - first a basic card was going to cost around £35, then last year that had suddenly jumped to £85 to £88, now it transpires it's likely to be maybe closer to £98 or maybe a tad over £100. Seems a lot to spend on something that has already been proven not to work very well, which surely negates the whole point of having an ID card. What's the use of an ID card that only somewhat, nearly proves your ID? All this expense on something the whole Country has been managing quite well totally without since the 1950s.
(Oh, and I don't know about you, but I certainly haven't got a spare £100 floating around that I don't know what to do with. If you have maybe you'd like to send it to me. I'm sure to make far better use of it than this Gov. ever would.)
by groc at 06:08 AM | Comments (1)
May 23, 2005
bad wolf and numbers
Mmmmm - what was in room 801?
2nd picture up from the bottom: an important day for your diary.
(I'm not sure but I think I've picked up a part of the puzzle everyone else has missed...)
by groc at 03:14 AM | Comments (2)
May 22, 2005
geocomtex
Geocomtex - for all your hi-tech needs.
(I love this stuff. I found this all by myself I did. I wonder what else there is.)
by groc at 12:55 PM | Comments (1)
May 21, 2005
ID cards
Fingerprint passports will be 'ID card by stealth'.
Biometric Passports in the UK.
So recapping:
Either the Government is very stupid (it's possible) with an all-consuming blind faith in computers and technology -all those flashing blinking lights -ooooooh. Or is trying to raise taxes by stealth (the Tories used to do that by raising VAT to high levels.) Or there's something very sinister going on. Maybe it's a combination of all of the above.
Either way - a complete fiasco is guaranteed for all - and nobody in Government is taking a blind bit of notice. Great way to run a country guys.
by groc at 06:54 PM | Comments (0)
a realisation
A few days ago I realised something:
You know how your stereotypical Heterosexual laddish man can drone on and on and on and on about football, like it actually meant anything.
Well, Eurovision is the gay male equivalent. All that mindless over-excitement over something that is of no real consequence whatsoever.
As ever, I shall do what I always do and go about my business as if nothing unpleasant was occurring. Wake me when it’s all over.
by groc at 10:42 AM | Comments (1)
May 13, 2005
Panto in Worthing
So tonight I'm watching this utterly dreary TV program on Channel 5 - "Victoria Beckham's secrets" and my ears picked up on the repeated phrase - "I don't want to end up doing panto in Worthing".
Hah! She should be so lucky!
What puzzles me is how does she even know about Worthing?
In other news I overheard someone in my local newsagents a few days ago saying that that celebro-freak Jordan was planning to move here to live -because it's nice and quiet. Noooooooooo! It won't be nice and quiet any more with her here.
by groc at 12:17 AM | Comments (2)
May 09, 2005
colours!
by groc at 12:31 PM | Comments (1)
May 07, 2005
politics - feh
See? This is what I hate and despise about British politics. See this man? I didn’t vote for him. I wouldn’t and couldn't ever vote for someone with policies like this. A quick perusal of his voting record tells me that he’s pro hunting, he’s pretty much anti-gay with his voting against the lowering the age of consent and his voting down of a bill that would have allowed gay couples to foster children, he didn’t do much, not even a token gesture to oppose the Iraq war, he‘s all for ID cards. Blah blah blah. Pretty much your typical right-wing tory overall. Yet he’s supposed to represent me and my interests in Parliament? With a supposedly majority vote. Even though if you think about it - more people voted against him than for him (59% of the turnout). Now tell me - how is this supposed to be fair?
by groc at 11:20 AM | Comments (4)
May 04, 2005
maaaacz
I particularly like number 10, sorry if I offend, but the hardened MacZealot is a deeply uncool creature (all fanaticism is uncool) and nothing steers me faster away from any mac than a ranting raving MacUser. That and all that horrible white plastic.
Go back a page on the article and read the 10 reasons why the mac will survive - if you happen to like that sort of thing.
Which reminds me - I'd better turn off the comments on this entry.
PS. what is all this fuss about widgets about? They look a bit gadgety-for-gadgetry's sake to me. A silly desktop toy that's pretending to be indespensible.
by groc at 04:41 PM | Comments (0)
May 03, 2005
the power of nightmares
Cannes to screen BBC's Nightmares.
by groc at 11:44 PM | Comments (0)
My Stationery Fetishes
After wanting one for ages - I finally got my first pocket moleskine. Only to be crushingly disappointed by the rather thin nasty paper inside. (Check out these pictures on flickr -one and two). For £7 I was expecting something a whole lot better - you know, especially after having on many a previous occasion paid out the princely sum of 50p for an A6 notebook that has had vastly superior paper. I suppose I'll have to wait until I've got a moleskine sketchbook to try out before I decide whether or not this is all hype and marketing over substance.
Links about moleskines and journals:
moleskinerie
(looks suspiciously like a marketing site to me. It's all a bit too slick. Not a single word anywhere against the company... not that I can find.)
Update: Looks like I owe moleskinerie an apology see the comments from Armand Frasco on this post and here's a whole thread on the site about the lower quality of moleskine paper.
moleskineart
The Wandering Moleskine Project
by groc at 08:36 PM | Comments (5)
May 01, 2005
No matter who you vote for this Thursday ---
a politician will get into power.
But who the hell are these people?
Has no one else noticed how thoroughly weird these people as a whole are? (and whatever party they belong to has little to so with it.)
No -seriously. The majority of them are clearly quite deeply psychologically damaged - the last thing we should be doing is putting people like that into positions of power, rather they should be hauled off for intensive psychotherapy and medication. It should be obvious to all that more often than not they’re trying to resolve deeply personal issues by playing out some sort of psycho-drama -unfortunately when it gets to be psycho-drama played out on a world stage... it involves us and all-to-often people in their thousands and sometimes in their millions get killed, hurt and maimed etc. It isn't as if we've not had plenty of lessons to learn from history.
It's about time we all as the human race gave up this primitive in-built 'follow-the-alpha-ape-member' we‘ve got. What served us well when we were swinging about in the trees and stumbling about on forest floors - isn't doing us much good now. We could do better, we really could.
by groc at 09:56 PM | Comments (8)