I just got hold of Kazaalite (Kazaa without the spyware), and have downloaded several recorded bits of George Carlin. Stand-up is great, and the voice is crucial - no doubt the face and body language are important, too - but he writes great lines. Gotta get the books -Brain Droppings and Napalm and Silly Putty. How about:

The day after tomorrow is the third day of the rest of your life.

I found that on his site under One Liners.

You've gotta bear in mind that I wanted to draw people's attention to the fact that there there is a big gap between what people SAY, and what they DO. For instance, I love Bill Hicks (see any search engine) and (rather belatedly) George Carlin ( who I kept hearing ABOUT) (but not hearing) (because I grew up under censorship) even though 'They' tried to stop me hearing Lenny Bruce in my childhood. Lenny was turned back at London Airport when I was at school, even though he was the most honest person I had ever heard of.

I was in my 'English Sixth Form', then (British school pattern for 16-18 year olds - I was doing ''letter to the editor' to Private Eye, and even got published ). You wonder why I 'dropped out?' It's just words. guys. [This is long before we twigged Neuro-Linguistic Programming - see Neal Stephenson's 'Snow Crash'.

I was lucky enough, in my early training, to do 'clown' workshops with fellow 'students' who were anarchic geniuses like Chris Lynam , (when I later copped out to cute acts, for kids, to stay alive), and to meet people who could do that dangerous stuff and still take their audience WITH them, like Mr Jules.

Here's a weird fragment for those of you who don't know my name is one of those archetypal ones like Robin Hood or John Bull.
I'll add my previous research at some point, but this came out of the Cardiff Library Local Study department.

THE OFFICAL ALETASTER

"The last official Aletaster of Cardiff was named 'Toby Philpot' and he was sworn in to watch (under a penalty for failure) that no ale was sold in the town before he had officially pronounced it 'Good and wholesome for Man's Body'."
Cardiff and Suburban News 23rd January 1932.

And the weather continues to match my lowering mood - we are slowly getting the network migrated onto the Council Servers.

The house is still in DIY chaos - and my body is still refusing to get well - as another of my peer group goes into hospital for (possibly) the last time - asbestos from work in the Seventies doing it this time. thoughts of mortality strike again - testing my amateur Buddhism to the limit.

Bob is still singing for me like an older brother - he's always just a couple of years ahead of me - in spite of living an entirely different life, he gets the mood spot on. [I know, all the fans feel like that - but that's why I consider him a superior artist - it's precisely the endless ambiguity which allows us to project ourselves into the work - just as it is the wonderful openness, and bare-bones theatre, of Shakespeare which gets rediscoverd over and over again as relevant to people.]

Time flies by, and I am still stuck with the puzzle of using this as a diary which gets published, so it isn't really very intimate. Too many people I know would not like me to be really honest in a medium which anyone on the planet could read (or take the wrong way).

At the same time, I don't really think many people drop in and read it, because I am not publishing it as a deliberate attempt to get my views better known. This is not a place for opinions - it really is a jotting pad which I access from here and at work, and anywhere else I travel. Perhaps I should put more thought into it, but I tend to find out about things by doing them first, and considering them afterwards.

Being an introvert / thinker / air sign I can just get stuck if I try to think first. I liked this phrase when I first heard it: It is easier to act yourself into a new way of thinking than to think yourself into a new way of acting.... Not that I am naturally an 'actor', but it was a good cure for my tendency to get stuck in indecision, trapped in paradox, and fretting about getting all the evidence in before deciding anything.

It also led to some fairly bad 'impulsive' decisions (like dropping out of school) which I might have taken a little more time over...but on the whole 'plunging in' has been a tactic I have employed when feeling stuck. Similarly, things like the I Ching (which a lot of rationalists think are mystical rubbish) are actually quite useful for breaking deadlocks in thinking. I haven't decided whether there 'is' some wise old grandfatherly spirit advising me through these translations, or whether it is 'just my imagination'. I don't think it is an either/or issue. Using random stuff to generate alternatives is just a way to try to 'think outside the box' (or 'think in other categories' as Ouspensky puts it). For instance, if I am stuck I might toss a coin to decide - but that is not evading responsibility because I use my reaction to the result to decide - I don't just blindly follow chance.

If that isn't clear - what I mean is this: I toss the coin and if the result makes me feel 'You see! I knew it!' then I go ahead. If the result makes me go 'Oh no! How about I make it the best of three....' then I don't do it.

Of course, THAT annoys people who think that if you are going to introduce chance, then you shouldn't overrule it. They are always annoyed to find out that Burroughs only used cut-ups as a starting point - like a brainstorming session - and then went in and edited with a critical eye.

Hey ho - what AM I on about today? I am just warming up the fingers on the keyboard, to get down to some real writing offline...and sticking this in here for the random browsers who may wander in from my Home Page - Hi! - although (as I said) these are mostly random jottings for my future self.

I heard from Dan Ferguson, and found myself playing a computer game (not something I normally do) and even enjoying it and feeling a bit competitive. Not like me at all! The strange connections which emerge from the Star Wars connection are keeping me amused, now that my circus/juggling connections are not so frequent or vivid - although I WILL be going into Glastonbury Festival to take down the Circus tent, move it to London and put it back up, as the have a 'two tent' weekend, and need the crew. I always look forward to Glastonbury (even though I have suffered and just about survived some of the really wet and muddy ones - ones where I have actually lost my sense of humour and sworn never to do it again, etc. Sadly, there were a shortage of spare tickets, so Julie may not be able to go, but she is going to try to get access by offering her services to the Welfare People. More on this later.