For various reasons, I stumbled over this video of Syd Barrett and Soft Machine - a quirky piece I had never heard before.
My first surprise was seeing a NoFit State poster in the mix - from 1m 23s to 1m 38s.
Then I kept listening, and he was singing about the Octopus ride (2m) - which counts as a double hit for me, as I worked on an Octopus ride (not as fancy as the one in the video) when I first dropped out of school and went to work on the fairground. Just a year or two before standing in the front row at UFO in 1967, watching early Pink Floyd from just a few feet away - with light shows! (I'd never seen anything like it, even if it seems like a cliche today).
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Thursday, April 03, 2008
Punch Drunk in the Spring
I haven't dealt with this stupid clock change very well.
In fact I have spent the whole week with jet-lag, and my body refusing to get up 'an hour earlier' every day.
You can't fool my body by just changing the clocks. My body (like all the wild and farm animals) is following the sun. Why the few people who want to save daylight can't just get up earlier by the clock I have no idea.
All the cities of the country disrupted because some farm workers need to use the available daylight? Which seems even weirder, because the very animals that these folks are working with still come for milking at the same time by the sun, surely?
I don't get it. I think it's some old patronising thing about not trusting people who need to make seasonal adjustments to make their own arrangements - so we'll change 'reality' and that'll fool the plebs. Well, it fools everything else except the bodymind bit of me, which sticks doggedly to its own habits...(yawn).
And with Julie and doggie away I also drink red wine and lounge around into the small hours, which probably doesn't help...
In fact I have spent the whole week with jet-lag, and my body refusing to get up 'an hour earlier' every day.
You can't fool my body by just changing the clocks. My body (like all the wild and farm animals) is following the sun. Why the few people who want to save daylight can't just get up earlier by the clock I have no idea.
All the cities of the country disrupted because some farm workers need to use the available daylight? Which seems even weirder, because the very animals that these folks are working with still come for milking at the same time by the sun, surely?
I don't get it. I think it's some old patronising thing about not trusting people who need to make seasonal adjustments to make their own arrangements - so we'll change 'reality' and that'll fool the plebs. Well, it fools everything else except the bodymind bit of me, which sticks doggedly to its own habits...(yawn).
And with Julie and doggie away I also drink red wine and lounge around into the small hours, which probably doesn't help...
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
Teenage Dog
Our delightful little puppy (and then big puppy) who charmed almost everyone he met (human and dog) has changed dramatically in the last two weeks.
He has been told off by grumpy old dogs a few times in the last year (for being bouncy), and he has been bullied and intimidated by a couple of fairly macho alpha male dogs (which is horrible to see) but he enjoyed play fighting (all styles) with most dogs who wanted to play at all.
I have now seen him snarl (not in play) four times.
Suddenly, out of the blue. Wrestling with a boxer, in amongst a gang of unknown dogs, with unknown owners saying how cute he was - and suddenly teeth, curled lip, and savagery.
Then when he found a husky playing with his 'girl friend' (but I had him on a lead, so only the aggression). Since then, within groups of dogs mostly, he has twice tried to show how tough he is by picking on someone smaller or more timid, which distressed the owners.
A really unpleasant sight, to see him pick on a bouncy six month old black labrador.
And there I was, worrying that he would front up to one of the bullies, instead of backing down, and get injured, but now I have the other fear of becoming the irresponsible owner who lets his dog run free, and out of control (his recall is still pretty bad if he's 'busy') which takes most of the fun out of going to the park. Especially as I can't yet see the behaviour coming.
He's potentially one of the bullies now.
He has testosterone coursing through his body, and is probably as surprised as me...
He has been told off by grumpy old dogs a few times in the last year (for being bouncy), and he has been bullied and intimidated by a couple of fairly macho alpha male dogs (which is horrible to see) but he enjoyed play fighting (all styles) with most dogs who wanted to play at all.
I have now seen him snarl (not in play) four times.
Suddenly, out of the blue. Wrestling with a boxer, in amongst a gang of unknown dogs, with unknown owners saying how cute he was - and suddenly teeth, curled lip, and savagery.
Then when he found a husky playing with his 'girl friend' (but I had him on a lead, so only the aggression). Since then, within groups of dogs mostly, he has twice tried to show how tough he is by picking on someone smaller or more timid, which distressed the owners.A really unpleasant sight, to see him pick on a bouncy six month old black labrador.
And there I was, worrying that he would front up to one of the bullies, instead of backing down, and get injured, but now I have the other fear of becoming the irresponsible owner who lets his dog run free, and out of control (his recall is still pretty bad if he's 'busy') which takes most of the fun out of going to the park. Especially as I can't yet see the behaviour coming.
He's potentially one of the bullies now.
He has testosterone coursing through his body, and is probably as surprised as me...
Going back the to 8-Circuit Model - he has passed beyond the horizontal Circuit One (Approach - Avoidance) and entered Circuit Two (up/down) territory of Dominance/Submission. (sigh)
Sadly, dogs probably don't really go much further than that...
Friday, February 29, 2008
Toad in the hole
I spoke far too soon, in thinking the horrors has passed.
[squeamish warning]
I noticed the pond looked a bit ‘frothy’ and that the waterfall had slowed to a trickle, so I decided the pump must have a problem. As I pulled it out of the water it became obvious that the filter had somehow become detached, so I guessed the pump had got blocked by pond weed or something. When I grabbed the clump of ‘roots’ however I realised it was a dead toad, sucked into the pump, and when I pulled it clear it was obviously TWO toads, slightly decomposing. I dropped one back in the pond in my squeamish reaction. After all, I only recently cleaned the pump, so it must be my incompetence/negligence which did not rejoin the filter correctly, and created this ‘horrible way to die’. Particularly sad, as I saw a toad when I semi-drained the pond as part of the cleaning process, and apologised for the disturbance.
As an ‘animistic Buddhist’ (or something) I identify quite strongly with other sentient beings (life forms) and I only hope ‘the gods or powers that be’ prove a little more careful when they clean the pond that I’m in.
To add insult to injury, the cats had left a dead rat near the top end of the garden, so I had three bodies to dispose of.
Then I took the dog for a walk, to calm down, but forgot my keys, so got locked out with dog after walk, with Julie’s phone not working (on charge), our lodger elsewhere, and Rhiannon in Africa (sigh). Still, Ali rescued me, and sheltered us until it all sorted itself out again. Nice to live in a village neighbourhood, and not a faceless city.
And then I get up this morning, still unable to entirely get rid of the images of yesterday, which I have now passed to you (though not too vividly, I hope) - only to find that Google have put a damned frog reminder in their logo for 29th February (Leap Year). Thanks fellas... [mumbles: "just a coincidence, just a coincidence..."]
Thursday, February 28, 2008
The worst of my bad two weeks seems to have passed, which started with poking myself in the eye with a sharp stick (literally), having a tooth pulled for the first time in 30 years, and getting an unpleasant attack of Moctezuma's Revenge...
Today the sun came out, Julie and doggie came home last night, so I have taken him to meet his friends in a couple of parks and now intend to have a serious tidy up of the den (partly looking for something, partly cleaning). I always find stuff I wasn't looking for, too, because most things in my den arrived there for a reason, even if (over the years) the original impulse to keep/own them may have faded.
You live somewhere for ten years, and quite a lot of stuff accumulates! I feel like a very mossy non-rolling stone.
Great to hear the family tradition continues, however, with Keili planning a bit of wandering minstrel....
Today the sun came out, Julie and doggie came home last night, so I have taken him to meet his friends in a couple of parks and now intend to have a serious tidy up of the den (partly looking for something, partly cleaning). I always find stuff I wasn't looking for, too, because most things in my den arrived there for a reason, even if (over the years) the original impulse to keep/own them may have faded.
You live somewhere for ten years, and quite a lot of stuff accumulates! I feel like a very mossy non-rolling stone.
Great to hear the family tradition continues, however, with Keili planning a bit of wandering minstrel....
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Ouroboros
Ain't that creature/entity beautiful?
The 8 Circuit model
(check out my images from Jan 26th)
I try not to let my sub-personalities leak too much, but it doesn't take a lot of clicks to track them down.
In my Bogus Magus incarnation (intelligence increase, etc) I work on RAW/Leary/Antero Alli material - and found the lizard image while discussing the 8-Circuit Model with Dedroidify - I went to his blog...
In case you haven’t come across this mental model (!) I still recommend it (in my quiet way) as one of the best I have come across for not only understanding myself and others, but for plugging in further insights.
Dedroidify has launched one video, and has plans for another and fuller one, but he also linked to the vids that came from Bob’s meme-orial – with both Bob speaking his own words, and some great images. I’ll share them here, to save you one click, but I recommend exploring Dedroidify’s site for more info on the whole realm we have discussed…or search YouTube for RAW, or just come on over to visit Only Maybe, and use the Label '8 Circuits', to filter the posts.
Circuits 1-4 (terrestrial or 'normal' circuits - heh heh - 9 minutes or so)
Circuits 5-8 (7 minutes or so) the post-terrestrial or 'high' circuits
And then what?
SMI2LE (Space Migration, Intelligence Increase, Life Extension - 4 minutes or so)
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
More Flashbacks
Geoff Felix just sent me a picture of the two us hilariously soaked after hours under a toilet while filming Roger Rabbit!
Our tracksuits got soaked, and all they could come up with was paper suits (which got soaked - and anyway the water was running right up my sleeve!) OK, OK, it wasn't a real toilet, but the cold water that splashed every time 'Roger fell through the window' hit me every time!
Here's the story as I told it to T-Bone, a Star Wars fan:
T: What exactly did you do on Roger Rabbit? Tell me about that experience as a whole. It must have been quite exciting.
TP: Dave Barclay called me back from the top of a mountain in Spain, with yet another "state-of-the-art" job. He was the chief puppeteer, and put together a great puppet team of six versatile people whose job was to improvise solutions on the set. The SFX department had time and budget to work on effects. What we did was to dive in and find simple but effective methods of getting the shot. This is not the same as making a consistent method for live shows: get it in the can, and move on. Sometimes I would be above the set, manipulating live objects on "invisible" strings; sometimes hidden under a box, wobbling it when Roger jumped on; or in the ceiling (revolving a fan) when Roger was playing on it.
At one point Geoff Felix and I spent an afternoon with the second unit under a toilet! Roger came through the window, fell in, came up with a gun, then grabbed the toilet chain to pull himself up, and flushed himself away! Geoff had the gun on a wire, I had to spin and pull the chain with an invisible string. It’s been cut very short in the movie, but we spent hours down there, getting soaked. The crew gave us a round of applause at the end of that day!
Other days the puppeteers would be all together. The octopus barman is on screen for a split second, but all his props are real, and operated by marionette strings. Not having a reputation to lose (with string puppets) I was the first to try pouring real liquid from a bottle to a glass, but once I proved it could be done, that job went to the real marionette people. I lit the actress’s cigarette with a lighter (the supporting wires ran up to a battery, so I could both manipulate it AND light it!) My mixed background as puppeteer, juggler, acrobat and magician made me the go-for-it member of the team. The others were serious puppeteers – with specialized skills.
interviews
If interviews and such amuse you, you can find a compilation here, which is simply a tidied up version of the old interview page on the website.
Our tracksuits got soaked, and all they could come up with was paper suits (which got soaked - and anyway the water was running right up my sleeve!) OK, OK, it wasn't a real toilet, but the cold water that splashed every time 'Roger fell through the window' hit me every time!
Here's the story as I told it to T-Bone, a Star Wars fan:
T: What exactly did you do on Roger Rabbit? Tell me about that experience as a whole. It must have been quite exciting.
TP: Dave Barclay called me back from the top of a mountain in Spain, with yet another "state-of-the-art" job. He was the chief puppeteer, and put together a great puppet team of six versatile people whose job was to improvise solutions on the set. The SFX department had time and budget to work on effects. What we did was to dive in and find simple but effective methods of getting the shot. This is not the same as making a consistent method for live shows: get it in the can, and move on. Sometimes I would be above the set, manipulating live objects on "invisible" strings; sometimes hidden under a box, wobbling it when Roger jumped on; or in the ceiling (revolving a fan) when Roger was playing on it.
At one point Geoff Felix and I spent an afternoon with the second unit under a toilet! Roger came through the window, fell in, came up with a gun, then grabbed the toilet chain to pull himself up, and flushed himself away! Geoff had the gun on a wire, I had to spin and pull the chain with an invisible string. It’s been cut very short in the movie, but we spent hours down there, getting soaked. The crew gave us a round of applause at the end of that day!
Other days the puppeteers would be all together. The octopus barman is on screen for a split second, but all his props are real, and operated by marionette strings. Not having a reputation to lose (with string puppets) I was the first to try pouring real liquid from a bottle to a glass, but once I proved it could be done, that job went to the real marionette people. I lit the actress’s cigarette with a lighter (the supporting wires ran up to a battery, so I could both manipulate it AND light it!) My mixed background as puppeteer, juggler, acrobat and magician made me the go-for-it member of the team. The others were serious puppeteers – with specialized skills.
interviews
If interviews and such amuse you, you can find a compilation here, which is simply a tidied up version of the old interview page on the website.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
To brighter things
I still don't feel terrific, (see previous post) and now Julie seems to have acquired the same bug - but I have to say I still delight in some of the possibilities of the Internet.
I just received an 'email out of the blue' from Kate Partridge, who I knew back in the 60s/70s. In spite of all the ups and downs, comings and goings and strangeness of the time (my own personal stuff, which I won't expand on right now) we must have met around the Soho music scene (as she worked at Ronnie Scott's and I worked at Les Cousins). She has just found a photo of me which had my complete name, Googled me, et voilà!
Like magic.
I can't say I vividly remember the specific event in detail (although I do remember going to meet her parents, as her father made these wonderful 'nailie' sculptures).
I may have felt a bit over-awed (my self-esteem wavers at times) but I do remember loving the sculptures, and feeling welcomed and comfortable with the family.
My own father's love of crafts and arts meant I often felt more at home around studios than ordinary houses...
I was sad to hear that David Partridge died a couple of years ago. My father died in 1978, so any scars have healed as well as they ever may...
Isn't life strange?
I don't cultivate these events, as so many people seem to do with social networking sites, etc. I have known such a wide range of people that (for someone quite private) I would feel overwhelmed by constant 'catch-up'. My various sub-personalities have different circles of friends, different types of interests, and having found myself on the move a lot of the time, I have never had a really big party to throw them all together and see if they like each other. Everyone seems too scattered.
So I kinda like the randomness factor, and haphazard connections.
A birthday greeting from friends from the juggling days (Hi Anne and Roland!), a recent halloo from Bob Le Chevalier, a guy I hung out with in San Francisco back in 1971, chatting to Sunshine Gray about web design, and now a hello from the old days in London. Such fun!
Hi Kate!
I just received an 'email out of the blue' from Kate Partridge, who I knew back in the 60s/70s. In spite of all the ups and downs, comings and goings and strangeness of the time (my own personal stuff, which I won't expand on right now) we must have met around the Soho music scene (as she worked at Ronnie Scott's and I worked at Les Cousins). She has just found a photo of me which had my complete name, Googled me, et voilà!
Like magic.
I can't say I vividly remember the specific event in detail (although I do remember going to meet her parents, as her father made these wonderful 'nailie' sculptures).
I may have felt a bit over-awed (my self-esteem wavers at times) but I do remember loving the sculptures, and feeling welcomed and comfortable with the family.
My own father's love of crafts and arts meant I often felt more at home around studios than ordinary houses...
I was sad to hear that David Partridge died a couple of years ago. My father died in 1978, so any scars have healed as well as they ever may...
Isn't life strange?
I don't cultivate these events, as so many people seem to do with social networking sites, etc. I have known such a wide range of people that (for someone quite private) I would feel overwhelmed by constant 'catch-up'. My various sub-personalities have different circles of friends, different types of interests, and having found myself on the move a lot of the time, I have never had a really big party to throw them all together and see if they like each other. Everyone seems too scattered.
So I kinda like the randomness factor, and haphazard connections.
A birthday greeting from friends from the juggling days (Hi Anne and Roland!), a recent halloo from Bob Le Chevalier, a guy I hung out with in San Francisco back in 1971, chatting to Sunshine Gray about web design, and now a hello from the old days in London. Such fun!
Hi Kate!
Saturday, February 16, 2008
As good a day as any
What a week! Thanks to anyone who wished me a Happy Birthday, but I failed at that I am afraid – and not just from being a curmudgeon about St Valentine’s Day, either.
I had a tooth out (first time in 30 years or so) on Tuesday, so was on mushy food and no alcohol, and feeling sorry for myself anyway. Then I made the fatal mistake of reading the dentist’s handout, which said if I felt any discomfort I should take some Nurofen.
Well, I wasn’t really in any pain, but certainly discomfort, and being fairly naïve about pharmaceutical drugs (never took any much) I thought they would just soothe the discomfort. I didn’t realize that they would trash my digestive system!
Now, when I tell people, they say “oh, yes, they can do that!” so I should have asked around for the folklore of “doctors’ drugs” before taking them. My dad distrusted doctors and their wares (I didn’t have shots for measles, and whooping cough and polio, etc as a kid) and I continued the tradition, until a few years back when someone told me to try Solpadeine, and I found them excellent for headaches, or tooth stuff, etc. So good, in fact, that they could become addictive (and I met at least one person for whom that was true).
Anyway, I wish he’d said “take a pain killer of your own choice”.
Y'all like doctors 'cause they don't cure shit. They don't cure nothing. Same diseases been hanging out since l was a kid, man. What's the last shit a doctor cured? Polio.You know how long ago polio was? That's like the first season of Lucy. Shit, Fred had an Afro with finger waves! Have you ever met anybody with polio? Anybody feel a little 'poly around you? No. That's right, they don't cure shit.
The same diseases been hanging out since I was a kid:AlDS, sickle cell, tuberculosis, cancer, Jerry's kids still limping around. l've been watching the Jerry Lewis Telethon...for probably about years now. Not one stitch of progress whatsoever. That's right, man. That's right, we got AlDS out there. You think they're gonna cure AlDS? No, they can't even cure athlete's foot.They ain't curing AlDS. Shit, they ain't never curing AlDS. Don't even think about that shit. They ain't curing it,'cause there ain't no money in the cure.The money's in the medicine. That's how you get paid, on the comeback. That's how a drug dealer makes his money,on the comeback. That's all the government is:a bunch of motherfucking drug dealers,on the comeback. They ain't curing no AlDS. That's all it is. You think they're gonna cure AlDS? They're still mad at all the money they lost on polio! Curing AlDS? Shit, that's like Cadillac making a car that lasts for years. And you know they can do it...but they ain't gonna do nothing that fucking dumb. Shit, they got metal on the space shuttle that can go around the moon...and withstand temperatures of up to degrees.You mean to tell me you don't think they can make an Eldorado...where the fucking bumper don't fall off? They can, but they won't. So what they will do with AlDS is the same thing they do with everything else.They will figure out a way for you to live with it.They don't cure shit, they just patch it up. Get you to the next stop, so they can get more of your money. They ain't gonna cure it. Hopefully, in our lifetime, you're gonna see somebody go: ''Yo, man, you weren't at work yesterday. What's up?'''' My AlDS is acting up.' 'You know, when the weather get like this, my AlDS just pop up".
You have to laugh...it's good for you...apparently...
All this means that I couldn’t sleep Wednesday, stumbled through my birthday at work in a delirium of nausea and fatigue, went to bed at 6 in the evening and slept right through. Now I just have the runs (something I didn’t really experience since Mexico in 1972), can’t digest anything, and feel exhausted and miserable.
It certainly feels like a glimpse of old age! Losing teeth, mushy food, no alcohol or tobacco, exhausted, achy, and probably needing an adult diaper – oh yes, this seems like a future flash!
Heghlu'meH QaQ jajvam!
I called to my men: “This is a good day to die: follow me.”...As we rushed upon them the [soldiers] dismounted to fire, but they did very poor shooting. They held their horse's reins on one arm while they were shooting, but their horses were so frightened that they pulled the men all around and a great many of their shots went up into the air and did us no harm.
Low Dog
We all get to live longer 'on average', but unfortunately no-one can truly claim to be average.
I don't make national average earnings, I don't consider myself averagely intelligent, or healthy or anything like that. People can step under a bus, win the lottery, or unexpectedly live to the age of 100. Even so, that old 'three score and ten' works out about right for most of us. Yeah, I still feel pretty rotten... Oops, gotta run!
I had a tooth out (first time in 30 years or so) on Tuesday, so was on mushy food and no alcohol, and feeling sorry for myself anyway. Then I made the fatal mistake of reading the dentist’s handout, which said if I felt any discomfort I should take some Nurofen.
Well, I wasn’t really in any pain, but certainly discomfort, and being fairly naïve about pharmaceutical drugs (never took any much) I thought they would just soothe the discomfort. I didn’t realize that they would trash my digestive system!
Now, when I tell people, they say “oh, yes, they can do that!” so I should have asked around for the folklore of “doctors’ drugs” before taking them. My dad distrusted doctors and their wares (I didn’t have shots for measles, and whooping cough and polio, etc as a kid) and I continued the tradition, until a few years back when someone told me to try Solpadeine, and I found them excellent for headaches, or tooth stuff, etc. So good, in fact, that they could become addictive (and I met at least one person for whom that was true).
Anyway, I wish he’d said “take a pain killer of your own choice”.
Y'all like doctors 'cause they don't cure shit. They don't cure nothing. Same diseases been hanging out since l was a kid, man. What's the last shit a doctor cured? Polio.You know how long ago polio was? That's like the first season of Lucy. Shit, Fred had an Afro with finger waves! Have you ever met anybody with polio? Anybody feel a little 'poly around you? No. That's right, they don't cure shit.
The same diseases been hanging out since I was a kid:AlDS, sickle cell, tuberculosis, cancer, Jerry's kids still limping around. l've been watching the Jerry Lewis Telethon...for probably about years now. Not one stitch of progress whatsoever. That's right, man. That's right, we got AlDS out there. You think they're gonna cure AlDS? No, they can't even cure athlete's foot.They ain't curing AlDS. Shit, they ain't never curing AlDS. Don't even think about that shit. They ain't curing it,'cause there ain't no money in the cure.The money's in the medicine. That's how you get paid, on the comeback. That's how a drug dealer makes his money,on the comeback. That's all the government is:a bunch of motherfucking drug dealers,on the comeback. They ain't curing no AlDS. That's all it is. You think they're gonna cure AlDS? They're still mad at all the money they lost on polio! Curing AlDS? Shit, that's like Cadillac making a car that lasts for years. And you know they can do it...but they ain't gonna do nothing that fucking dumb. Shit, they got metal on the space shuttle that can go around the moon...and withstand temperatures of up to degrees.You mean to tell me you don't think they can make an Eldorado...where the fucking bumper don't fall off? They can, but they won't. So what they will do with AlDS is the same thing they do with everything else.They will figure out a way for you to live with it.They don't cure shit, they just patch it up. Get you to the next stop, so they can get more of your money. They ain't gonna cure it. Hopefully, in our lifetime, you're gonna see somebody go: ''Yo, man, you weren't at work yesterday. What's up?'''' My AlDS is acting up.' 'You know, when the weather get like this, my AlDS just pop up".
You have to laugh...it's good for you...apparently...
All this means that I couldn’t sleep Wednesday, stumbled through my birthday at work in a delirium of nausea and fatigue, went to bed at 6 in the evening and slept right through. Now I just have the runs (something I didn’t really experience since Mexico in 1972), can’t digest anything, and feel exhausted and miserable.
It certainly feels like a glimpse of old age! Losing teeth, mushy food, no alcohol or tobacco, exhausted, achy, and probably needing an adult diaper – oh yes, this seems like a future flash!
Heghlu'meH QaQ jajvam!
I called to my men: “This is a good day to die: follow me.”...As we rushed upon them the [soldiers] dismounted to fire, but they did very poor shooting. They held their horse's reins on one arm while they were shooting, but their horses were so frightened that they pulled the men all around and a great many of their shots went up into the air and did us no harm.
Low Dog
We all get to live longer 'on average', but unfortunately no-one can truly claim to be average.
I don't make national average earnings, I don't consider myself averagely intelligent, or healthy or anything like that. People can step under a bus, win the lottery, or unexpectedly live to the age of 100. Even so, that old 'three score and ten' works out about right for most of us. Yeah, I still feel pretty rotten... Oops, gotta run!
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
Write Now!
Time and Patience
I would love to have the time to pull my whole website apart and rebuild it, however it grew extremely complex over the years and I just don’t have the time or patience.
Online Writing
Most of my energy goes into blogs, Wikis and online magazines, now – but as I hope to help Julie make a website I have become interested in web page design and building again – and writing for screen.
I tend to overwrite, and need to trim my words brutally, for ‘busy’ people (or short attention span browsers) - make it punchier. Web Writing That Works
Before I tackle Dreamweaver, however, I have started using one of Google Lab’s beta experiments for making simple websites - Page Creator (examples below).
Inevitably, I am copying and pasting a certain amount from the old site…but trying to be ruthless.
The old website
The first shock is just how much stuff the site contains!
I would love to have the time to pull my whole website apart and rebuild it, however it grew extremely complex over the years and I just don’t have the time or patience.
Online Writing
Most of my energy goes into blogs, Wikis and online magazines, now – but as I hope to help Julie make a website I have become interested in web page design and building again – and writing for screen.
I tend to overwrite, and need to trim my words brutally, for ‘busy’ people (or short attention span browsers) - make it punchier. Web Writing That Works
Before I tackle Dreamweaver, however, I have started using one of Google Lab’s beta experiments for making simple websites - Page Creator (examples below).
Inevitably, I am copying and pasting a certain amount from the old site…but trying to be ruthless.
The old website
The first shock is just how much stuff the site contains!
- I pulled out the Star Wars and film work stuff and put it here.
- I started to pull together all my writings and creative projects here.
- I put my Tutor Profile online as an efficient cv (resumé) – which is funny because the original webpage started simply as an online cv.
- I have started a WordPress site to experiment with clean, simple information delivery to go with tutoring - currently focusing on making websites
- Then there's the autobiographical aspect of it...(but perhaps that's going to turn into a book).
- and the family section...
- the Research interests (everything from whole systems to magic and mentalism)...
Without a site map I challenge anyone to find their way around the place. heh heh
Heading for 62 times around the sun
I get a 'birthday' next week (and I'll probably be at the 'day job') but what keeps me going (and pretty healthy and happy) are Julie, Dandy the dog, my children: Keili Olsen (Pentaphobe), Yolande Philpott and Matilda (my daughter and grand-daughter 'Tilda'), my daughter Finlay Pearl, my fellow conspirator in creativity Bobby Campbell, my fellow juggling madman Mr Jules, all the NoFit State crew (past and present), all the other Illuminauts, any fellow jugglers and magicians, the Cardiff Library crew (you know who you are), my sisters Julia (and all her children, and new grandchild) and Judith (& her son Luke), and all the people who gave me fun, hope, cheerfulness and optimism over the last few years...
Much thanks to my parents (long gone) and to anyone who touched my life and encouraged me to keep going...you know who you are...
For amusement - in reverse order (what else?)
The Mighty Boosh, Shameless, Skins, Spaced, Black Books, George Carlin, Monty Python, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan, W.C.Fields, Buster Keaton, and so on and so on, back through all the fools in history....
And all the contemporary manifestations of such, from Crissie Trigger and the Raree Show to Franki Anderson and her Fool projects, Robert Anton Wilson and all the Maybe Logicians, from DJ Fly Agaric to Borsky the 'pataphysician, to anyone who doubts the simple realities they got offered in childhood...
Let's keep going with the 'blessings' of Bucky Fuller, and Bob Wilson, R.D.Laing and Maslow, Korzybski and all the weird Quantum Physicists - the passivist anarchists, the revolutionary pacifists of non-violence and non-resistance... all the crazy optimists and dreamers and futurists...
And all the contemporary manifestations of such, from Crissie Trigger and the Raree Show to Franki Anderson and her Fool projects, Robert Anton Wilson and all the Maybe Logicians, from DJ Fly Agaric to Borsky the 'pataphysician, to anyone who doubts the simple realities they got offered in childhood...
Let's keep going with the 'blessings' of Bucky Fuller, and Bob Wilson, R.D.Laing and Maslow, Korzybski and all the weird Quantum Physicists - the passivist anarchists, the revolutionary pacifists of non-violence and non-resistance... all the crazy optimists and dreamers and futurists...
Peace.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
We intend to destroy all dogmatic verbal systems
“Despite disparate aims and personnel of its constituent members, the underground is agreed on basic objectives. We intend to march on the police machine everywhere. We intend to destroy the police machine and all its records. We intend to destroy all dogmatic verbal systems… To put it country simple, we have heard enough bullshit.”
I still didn’t get around to explaining the title of this blog, and why I like it. To associate oneself with William S. Burroughs has almost as many risks as (say) quoting Crowley in a positive context. He still seems really dangerous to many.
Anyone who thinks of me as quite a nice person might wonder why I use a quote from a cynical, misogynist, gun-toting gay junkie (I suppose, if you think in such labels).
Well, first of all – he’s very funny, to me. Especially reading his own material out loud in that wonderful W.C.Fields drawl. Ah, of course, a lot of people don’t find Fields funny, either. Hmmm.
OK – he strikes me as extremely intelligent (something I seek out wherever I can), and for all the apparently ‘damaged’ parts of him I always find rewardingly, and surprisingly insightful elements – that balance the apparent ‘cold fish’ aspect.
Of course, I also love Laurie Anderson’s work, and she did a most excellent version of ‘Language Is A Virus’ which I recommend to anyone…
Quite a lot of Burroughs’ work arrives in bite-sized chunks that he called ‘routines’ (again the parallel with show-biz comedy) – and (just as with Samuel Beckett) you might find it easy to miss the jokes.
If you want to check out his place in modern culture/literature – the book “Wising Up The Marks" might prove a good place to start.
(again with the echoes of ‘Never Give A Sucker An Even Break, and never smarten up a chump’ from Fields)
But the main lesson the gestalt of Burroughs's life and his work taught me was that there exists a sinister congruence between the control systems implicit in capitalist societies (with their obsessional manufacturing and their compulsive consuming) and the uncontrollable psyche of the drug addict. It was Burroughs's great contribution to twentieth-century literature to merge his own psychopathology with the collective malaise. Truly, to paraphrase his friend Jack Kerouac, he made us all look at what was on the end of our forks.
So - a fork with The Soft Machine on one end, and The Naked Lunch on the other.
Maybe try: My Mother and I Would Like to Know (from The Evergreen Review)
I still didn’t get around to explaining the title of this blog, and why I like it. To associate oneself with William S. Burroughs has almost as many risks as (say) quoting Crowley in a positive context. He still seems really dangerous to many.
Anyone who thinks of me as quite a nice person might wonder why I use a quote from a cynical, misogynist, gun-toting gay junkie (I suppose, if you think in such labels).
Well, first of all – he’s very funny, to me. Especially reading his own material out loud in that wonderful W.C.Fields drawl. Ah, of course, a lot of people don’t find Fields funny, either. Hmmm.
OK – he strikes me as extremely intelligent (something I seek out wherever I can), and for all the apparently ‘damaged’ parts of him I always find rewardingly, and surprisingly insightful elements – that balance the apparent ‘cold fish’ aspect.
Of course, I also love Laurie Anderson’s work, and she did a most excellent version of ‘Language Is A Virus’ which I recommend to anyone…
Quite a lot of Burroughs’ work arrives in bite-sized chunks that he called ‘routines’ (again the parallel with show-biz comedy) – and (just as with Samuel Beckett) you might find it easy to miss the jokes.
If you want to check out his place in modern culture/literature – the book “Wising Up The Marks" might prove a good place to start.
(again with the echoes of ‘Never Give A Sucker An Even Break, and never smarten up a chump’ from Fields)
But the main lesson the gestalt of Burroughs's life and his work taught me was that there exists a sinister congruence between the control systems implicit in capitalist societies (with their obsessional manufacturing and their compulsive consuming) and the uncontrollable psyche of the drug addict. It was Burroughs's great contribution to twentieth-century literature to merge his own psychopathology with the collective malaise. Truly, to paraphrase his friend Jack Kerouac, he made us all look at what was on the end of our forks.
So - a fork with The Soft Machine on one end, and The Naked Lunch on the other.
Maybe try: My Mother and I Would Like to Know (from The Evergreen Review)
"The purpose of my writing is to expose and arrest Nova Criminals: In Naked Lunch, Soft Machine and Nova Express I show who they are and what they are doing and what they will do if they are not arrested. Minutes to go. Souls rotten from their orgasm drugs, flesh shuddering from their nova ovens, prisoners of the earth to come out, With your help we can occupy The Reality Studio and retake their universe of Fear Death and Monopoly" (Signed) INSPECTOR J. LEE, NOVA POLICE
In the magical universe there are no coincidences and there are no accidents. Nothing happens unless someone wills it to happen.The dogma of science is that the will cannot possibly affect external forces,and I think that's just ridiculous. It's as bad as the church. My viewpoint is the exact contrary of the scientific viewpoint. I believe that if you run into somebody in the street it's for a reason. Among primitive people they say if someone was bitten by a snake he was murdered. I believe that.- w. s. burroughs
You might wanna check out Grey Lodge, who offered a WSB Special
And you might stop to read the piece by Korzybski, too (with whom Burroughs studied at one time, I believe)
And, of course, you can always go read Wiki... if you get interested in the Dream Machines, or Cut-Ups, or his film projects (see Ubu Web) or his later art projects, etc.
J.G.Ballard on Burroughs Biog Project Brainy Quotes The Ghost of WSB Reality Studio
Can You See a Virus? The Queer Cold War of William Burroughs
[...]those he does not repel, Burroughs fascinates[...]
If memes survive by parasitizing human minds, so, reciprocally, can the mind survive through parasitic self-replication: the viral programme “simply says ‘Copy me and spread me around.’” This is Burroughs: “all poets worthy of the name are mind parasites, and their words ought to get into your head and live there, repeating and repeating and repeating.” He could scarcely be more explicit.
A virus operates autonomously, without human intervention. It attaches itself to a host and feeds off of it, growing and spreading from host to host. Language infects us; its power derives not from its straightforward ability to communicate or persuade but rather from this infectious nature, this power of bits of language to graft itself onto other bits of language, spreading and reproducing, using human beings as hosts.The notion of the meme -- coined in 1976 by Richard Dawkins to illustrate the field of memetics -- crystallizes this view of the communication process. Georges Bataille similarly argued that communication was best understood from the perspective of contagion. In Bataille any human being is no more than a conduit for communicative process, a channel for ideas which pass through him/her."If, as it appears to me, a book is communication, then the author is only a link among many readings."* The author is simply a node on a network, through which ideas pass. This found here (pssst! pass it on...)
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Eight System Cards
One of the most interesting models that came up in my studies of grids and systems of thought remains the eight system model (eight circuit model) that came from Tim Leary and Robert Anton Wilson.
Antero Alli has contributed greatly to my understanding of the model, too - his online course encouraged us away from words and our computers, to explore these other realms - and part of the escape from words and concepts (System Three) involved making a set of 'tarot' cards of our own. I have posted these elsewhere on the blog (follow the System link) but came across them again while cleaning my hard drive, and quite like them...
Not having much 'artistic' talent I made 8 collages of images grabbed from the web, and my apologies for not crediting all the 'real' artists who drew and photographed these images.
One of the joys of making up a set of cards remains the fact that you can shuffle them around, and play with layouts (like Tarot) and perhaps find new connections (like Mendeleyev and the Periodic Table)
Mendeleev loved chess and card games. He would write down the names and atomic weights and properties of all the known elements (about 63 at that time) on blank cards. He would shuffle the cards and lay them out in a thousand different patterns. He was trying to find a pattern in nature.
When he arranged the 63 known elements in rows of seven across, he noticed that the columns down always had elements that had much in common with one another. But occasionally there was a gap. He took a bold guess. "There is an element as yet undiscovered," he predicted.
In fact there were three gaps. He predicted three undiscovered elements. And he predicted boldly what they would be like once they were discovered!
All three were found, just as he predicted.
Antero Alli has contributed greatly to my understanding of the model, too - his online course encouraged us away from words and our computers, to explore these other realms - and part of the escape from words and concepts (System Three) involved making a set of 'tarot' cards of our own. I have posted these elsewhere on the blog (follow the System link) but came across them again while cleaning my hard drive, and quite like them...
Not having much 'artistic' talent I made 8 collages of images grabbed from the web, and my apologies for not crediting all the 'real' artists who drew and photographed these images.
I don't intend to wrap words around this right now, to try to explain it all - you can find versions all over the place out here, (check out some of the relevant posts on Only Maybe) but I will offer these collages I made on Antero's course, which captured at least some of my understanding of these mindbody (or bodymind) matters.
One of the joys of making up a set of cards remains the fact that you can shuffle them around, and play with layouts (like Tarot) and perhaps find new connections (like Mendeleyev and the Periodic Table)
Mendeleev loved chess and card games. He would write down the names and atomic weights and properties of all the known elements (about 63 at that time) on blank cards. He would shuffle the cards and lay them out in a thousand different patterns. He was trying to find a pattern in nature.
When he arranged the 63 known elements in rows of seven across, he noticed that the columns down always had elements that had much in common with one another. But occasionally there was a gap. He took a bold guess. "There is an element as yet undiscovered," he predicted.
In fact there were three gaps. He predicted three undiscovered elements. And he predicted boldly what they would be like once they were discovered!
All three were found, just as he predicted.
Friday, January 25, 2008
Make Up Your Mind
I don't live comfortably in this world. I don't share a lot of the values of my culture (this morning the papers seem full of shock/horror stories about Romanian gangs smuggling children into the UK to work as beggars and thieves, in a Dickensian tale - with the money going back to Romania to fund a high-living life-style for gang-bosses).
Well, duh - you offer poor people the capitalist dream, and then get horrified that they become opportunist (Romania recently joined the European Union). And just because we stopped most of our own 'Dickensian' behaviour a hundred or more years ago doesn't really put us in a position to judge, any more than the fact that we have now stopped putting children in jail or the workhouse for such behaviour.
The idea that we all live in the same period of time just doesn't hold water...
Some still live in 'medaeval' conditions by our standards, some in paeoleolithic or tribal situations, right now, right here on the same planet. To tut tut at people getting stoned to death for adultery (say) is to deny our own heretic-burning heritage, or our involvement with the slave trade, or the fact that the British government got the Chinese population addicted to Opium (not so long ago) by forcing cheap supplies on them (grown in British India), etc.
We air-brush embarrassing details of our own past out of the history books...so we can judge more harshly anyone passing through stages we have graduated from. This seems (to me) about as fair as telling kids to 'grow up!' or expecting of them the same sensitivity, knowledge, understanding, insight or self-control as you yourself may have acquired over a longer life.
You can see why I often hear cries of outrage when I talk to people. Many want the simple judgemental approach (I agree! I disagree!) not thinking about complex matters with fuzzy logic, exploring the grey areas, adding a touch of 'maybe' to narrow certainties.
I wonder how many people outraged that 'new' Europeans are coming over here to make money are buying up cheap property in Romania, as 'holiday lets'. Just a thought.
I don't like exploitation of children any more than you, but I do think we have to approach this stuff cautiously. Crime and exploitation of children is despicable wherever it happens (don't get me wrong!), but I don't like the witch-hunting attitude of some of our newspapers which can make life hard for law-abiding, ambitious and hard-working people who also arrive here, perhaps to offer a better future for their children...
Hey ho. Better drink my coffee...
PS: Here's Stephen Leather being interviewed four years ago, and it was all going on then. So why is this suddenly news in this morning's paper? Because they rescued some of the kids? Good news, of course, so long as we integrate them and make them happy...
The police are well aware of the mounting scale of the problem. Jamaican Yardie gangs run amok in south London, and have been for twenty years. Now they’ve moved into Birmingham, Manchester, Bristol and Nottingham. Turks and Kurds have been dealing drugs through London for years and are now moving into the Home Counties. The Albanians are the fastest growing criminal group and now control three quarters of the off-street vice in London, now challenging the Turks and Kurds for control of the heroin market. Bangladeshi gangs are moving into the cocaine business, Chinese Triads run Chinatown, people trafficking and drugs empires, and the Columbians traffic cocaine into the UK. The Russian mafia are major players in London, along with Kosovan and Romanian gangsters. All are jostling for position, and all are willing to kill for a greater share of the criminal profits.
And how about, overall, immigration is good for Britain?
Well, duh - you offer poor people the capitalist dream, and then get horrified that they become opportunist (Romania recently joined the European Union). And just because we stopped most of our own 'Dickensian' behaviour a hundred or more years ago doesn't really put us in a position to judge, any more than the fact that we have now stopped putting children in jail or the workhouse for such behaviour.
The idea that we all live in the same period of time just doesn't hold water...
Some still live in 'medaeval' conditions by our standards, some in paeoleolithic or tribal situations, right now, right here on the same planet. To tut tut at people getting stoned to death for adultery (say) is to deny our own heretic-burning heritage, or our involvement with the slave trade, or the fact that the British government got the Chinese population addicted to Opium (not so long ago) by forcing cheap supplies on them (grown in British India), etc.
We air-brush embarrassing details of our own past out of the history books...so we can judge more harshly anyone passing through stages we have graduated from. This seems (to me) about as fair as telling kids to 'grow up!' or expecting of them the same sensitivity, knowledge, understanding, insight or self-control as you yourself may have acquired over a longer life.
You can see why I often hear cries of outrage when I talk to people. Many want the simple judgemental approach (I agree! I disagree!) not thinking about complex matters with fuzzy logic, exploring the grey areas, adding a touch of 'maybe' to narrow certainties.
I wonder how many people outraged that 'new' Europeans are coming over here to make money are buying up cheap property in Romania, as 'holiday lets'. Just a thought.
I don't like exploitation of children any more than you, but I do think we have to approach this stuff cautiously. Crime and exploitation of children is despicable wherever it happens (don't get me wrong!), but I don't like the witch-hunting attitude of some of our newspapers which can make life hard for law-abiding, ambitious and hard-working people who also arrive here, perhaps to offer a better future for their children...
Hey ho. Better drink my coffee...
PS: Here's Stephen Leather being interviewed four years ago, and it was all going on then. So why is this suddenly news in this morning's paper? Because they rescued some of the kids? Good news, of course, so long as we integrate them and make them happy...
The police are well aware of the mounting scale of the problem. Jamaican Yardie gangs run amok in south London, and have been for twenty years. Now they’ve moved into Birmingham, Manchester, Bristol and Nottingham. Turks and Kurds have been dealing drugs through London for years and are now moving into the Home Counties. The Albanians are the fastest growing criminal group and now control three quarters of the off-street vice in London, now challenging the Turks and Kurds for control of the heroin market. Bangladeshi gangs are moving into the cocaine business, Chinese Triads run Chinatown, people trafficking and drugs empires, and the Columbians traffic cocaine into the UK. The Russian mafia are major players in London, along with Kosovan and Romanian gangsters. All are jostling for position, and all are willing to kill for a greater share of the criminal profits.
And how about, overall, immigration is good for Britain?
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Will you listen to this?
Last night I managed to get Skype working again (in spite of a dodgy headset) and took part in an interview with Brandon Phillips over at the Rebel Trading Post.I have done some written interviews with Star Wars guys...but this is the first 'radio' interview I have done online. Excellent! Thanks Brandon...
I think it comes out on Friday, as a special...go to The Sarlacc Pit.
I sincerely apologise for the popping and crackling, fading in and out (my dodgy headset) I should get myself set up properly for Skype...
A New Arrival
My nephew Duncan, and his partner Fiona have just had a new child - Thomas Padraig Dacombe. Welcome to the planet!
That makes my sister a grandmother (which I am sure she loves), and turns me into Great-Uncle Toby, which I kind of like...
That makes my sister a grandmother (which I am sure she loves), and turns me into Great-Uncle Toby, which I kind of like...
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Rain
It rains in Wales. It rains a lot. Even with Irish ancestors from the Atlantic Coast (where it rains pretty heavily, I am told) I find it wet around here. Well, OK, the Irish lot moved to England at least a couple of hundred years ago...
Now we are up in the hills, it seems to rain all the time. We have reached day four, and haven't seen the sun, or even a dry period. Sometimes you can see the hill on the other side of the valley, and sometimes you can't (depending on the mist). I still go out (Dandy dog insists on it) so I know that the paths are streams, the streams are rivers, the river is a torrent and all the waterfalls have become quite spectacular!
Fortunately it hasn't been too cold, and the wind hasn't been to bad, so I just wander around feeling a bit forlorn, with hat pulled down over my eyes, and water slowly climbing my trouser leg (in spite of the long coat) purely by osmosis. At least my wonderful boots have kept my feet dry...
It doesn't really look as though it will change much in the next two days, either.
Julie has lots to DIY on the house (plenty of indoor jobs) but I just want to sloth about...now I did the walk thing.
Then there's the light the stove thing, and the write a book thing, and the learn a new card trick thing, etc....before it comes around to taking the dog out again before it gets dark (around 4:30 or 5:00).
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Toby as Online Tutor
Moving into the hills, and not driving, has made me think of what I could do with myself, not only to pass the time, but to earn some money without having to commute all the time.
I don't kid myself about writing for a living. Sure, if you get really lucky, but I don't have the popular touch at the best of times. Most online writing jobs that I stumble over involve either writing "Readers' Letters" and winning a tenner, or working in the writing equivalent of a call centre - trolling around in forums, posting hype for products as if it was your word-of-mouth recommendation, or creating click-through lenses, or dense webs of self-referential websites, etc. All modern equivalents of ancient scams (pyramid schemes, multi-level marketing, chain letters, etc). The casual mention of a product is a kind of viral marketing - or do they call it guerilla marketing - either way, it would prove as soul-destroying to me as cold calling trying to sell insurance.
Although I understand the insurance concept (everyone chips into the kitty, so that the few unlucky - some would say lucky - people to whom the unexpected happens get helped by the community). I like Bucky's definition of an insurance firm as a bunch of people who are betting something will not happen to you, but try to convince you to bet that it will!
Anyway - looking at my limited talents and resources, I decided to consider online tutoring. I have just compiled a list of my relevant experience, and suddenly that seemed at least feasible, and with a least a possibility of working.
I don't kid myself about writing for a living. Sure, if you get really lucky, but I don't have the popular touch at the best of times. Most online writing jobs that I stumble over involve either writing "Readers' Letters" and winning a tenner, or working in the writing equivalent of a call centre - trolling around in forums, posting hype for products as if it was your word-of-mouth recommendation, or creating click-through lenses, or dense webs of self-referential websites, etc. All modern equivalents of ancient scams (pyramid schemes, multi-level marketing, chain letters, etc). The casual mention of a product is a kind of viral marketing - or do they call it guerilla marketing - either way, it would prove as soul-destroying to me as cold calling trying to sell insurance.
Although I understand the insurance concept (everyone chips into the kitty, so that the few unlucky - some would say lucky - people to whom the unexpected happens get helped by the community). I like Bucky's definition of an insurance firm as a bunch of people who are betting something will not happen to you, but try to convince you to bet that it will!
Anyway - looking at my limited talents and resources, I decided to consider online tutoring. I have just compiled a list of my relevant experience, and suddenly that seemed at least feasible, and with a least a possibility of working.
Notes on websites and writing
I have used a Google Lab website to list what I have done, and what I might prove capable of...I felt quite impressed myself! Did I really do all that AND the performing? Amazing.
If you have any comments or connections for finding online work, please add notes in the Comments field.
Thanks!
These pix? The top two date from 2000, when I was training staff remotely, and trying to liven up the forum, 'humanise the tutor', silly poses, etc. So was the bottom one, although the pic dates from 1986, when I had just hit 40...with my City Lights T-shirt on (after visit to The States) and sitting in Spain, taking a picture of myself....ah, those were the days, with film earnings!
I have used a Google Lab website to list what I have done, and what I might prove capable of...I felt quite impressed myself! Did I really do all that AND the performing? Amazing.
If you have any comments or connections for finding online work, please add notes in the Comments field.
Thanks!
These pix? The top two date from 2000, when I was training staff remotely, and trying to liven up the forum, 'humanise the tutor', silly poses, etc. So was the bottom one, although the pic dates from 1986, when I had just hit 40...with my City Lights T-shirt on (after visit to The States) and sitting in Spain, taking a picture of myself....ah, those were the days, with film earnings!
Saturday, January 12, 2008
In my own words
I don't update my tired old website, because Front Page is no longer supported by Microsoft, and I don't intend to go out right now and spend lots on a new bit of software for web-building.
(oh, and it contains hundreds of pages!)
Apart from running (at least) 3 blogs, moderating a website, etc I prefer to move on, and to that end I am experimenting with something from Google Lab - much like a blog it creates a quick website.
http://jabbahutt.googlepages.com/home
Although I should do something about my scattered experiments, I guess. I hate dead projects on the internet, but I guess it is full of clutter. Every gmail address (and I have a few) seems to come with a blog, etc.
http://bogusmagic.blogspot.com/
And then I wanted to try WordPress
http://bogusmagus.wordpress.com/
http://tobyph.wordpress.com/
And so on. NO, No! There's no content worth clicking through for!
These links are just for me to remind myself to tidy up...
And speaking of notes to self - I keep meaning to take a moment to explain why I called the blog a title that some might find off-putting (the word 'virus' isn't popular).
And why would a sweet innocent like myself quote an 'awful', misogynistic, gay junkie gun-freak? Well. I'll tell ya...
sometime.
(oh, and it contains hundreds of pages!)
Apart from running (at least) 3 blogs, moderating a website, etc I prefer to move on, and to that end I am experimenting with something from Google Lab - much like a blog it creates a quick website.
http://jabbahutt.googlepages.com/home
Although I should do something about my scattered experiments, I guess. I hate dead projects on the internet, but I guess it is full of clutter. Every gmail address (and I have a few) seems to come with a blog, etc.
http://bogusmagic.blogspot.com/
And then I wanted to try WordPress
http://bogusmagus.wordpress.com/
http://tobyph.wordpress.com/
And so on. NO, No! There's no content worth clicking through for!
These links are just for me to remind myself to tidy up...
And speaking of notes to self - I keep meaning to take a moment to explain why I called the blog a title that some might find off-putting (the word 'virus' isn't popular).
And why would a sweet innocent like myself quote an 'awful', misogynistic, gay junkie gun-freak? Well. I'll tell ya...
sometime.
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Still Happy After All These Years!
Thanks to Julie's efforts to find a way to spend Christmas where I don't rant and grumble - I spent Christmas Day walking the Dandy dog in the wilderness...
It was still lovely to hear the tyres on the gravel outside, as she returned from commuting many miles to do Emergency Duty Team work, however, and still be here for us couple of dogs...
This coming year we will have been together for ten years...apparently that used to be tin or aluminium (flexibility) but the web suggests diamonds as a 'modern' alternative.
Uh, yeah. Um. Ethical diamonds I can afford? Gulp.
Let's see, pirate tin from Cornwall molded into Celtic designs. hmm. Maybe.
Um, aluminium! Causes Alzheimers' doesn't it, or is that just Food Reform propanganda from my (odd) childhood?
Ah, you can tell I arrived back in the city!
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