Frolix-8

MyAcid?

It being between Christmas and New Year, we are seeing quite a few 'drink kills young people' and 'drink and drugs will destroy you, kids' headlines in our more imaginative newspapers. Evidence that we should indeed be worried comes with a quick breeze through the YoofHive, or MySpace as it is otherwise known. Just look at some of these fuckers;

Oh
Good
Gravy
Bastard
Grief

I don't know about drink killing young people but it's certainly doing nothing for their eyesight. Or mine. Pink text on a white background? White text on a grey background? Is this some kind of online version of those crap 'invisible writing pens'? Give me strength.

Get Out Of My Line Of Sight

This fucks me off, as well - I subscribe to the 'WinXP' email newsletter (they were recently told they couldn't call it the 'Windows XP' newsletter because they were nothing officially to do with M$) and each issue is the same; a mildly patronising editorial, shitloads of ads and a few useful tips about XP. Well, the latest issue takes the packet of Peak Freens and shoves it where Santa doesn't climb, with a lovely piece entitled Can Your Blog Be Used Against You? - in fact the newsletter has that as its subject line. The message is clear - don't you be writing anything naughty, now, you nasty bloggers - with your quaint alchemy called 'freedom of speech'. You're too ickle for that luxury - only weally, weally wich important people like my daddy can say what they like 'cos they're weally, weally important and can buy small African countries if they want.

They then have the nerve to wish their readers a happy Christmas (within the appropriate legal constraints, obviously), together with a suitably Orwellian quote-of-the-day - "The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary". "Arbeit Macht Frei" anyone? Stick to the tips about XP and leave the lifestyle hints to Henry Ford.

Thanks for bringing to my attention the post which collates info on people who have been fired for blogging, though. Every cloud has a silver etc, etc.

England Prevails

Ho ho ho. Don't you all feel so much safer now ??

We Are Still Targets

On a much more serious note, the call for a public inquiry into the London underground bombings in July of this year has been rebuffed. Rachel from North London, who survived one of the blasts, says better than I ever could why this is important for everyone.

There is also an online petition. If you care about governents being accountable to the people that voted for them, then do as I did and sign it. If you don't, then you can let me know if ignorance really is bliss.

Modern Signs of Ageing, Pt. 6

It's another language-related one, I'm afraid - further Yankisms making their insidious way towards me every time I read a web page. The first is the phrase "back in the day", as in "I used to go there a lot, back in the day". What are you, a fucking vampire? If you must string words like that together in a sentence then use "back in my day". Or is that not 'cool' enough for you? Probably not.

The second linguistic time-bomb has slipped my mind for the moment. Will update this post as soon as I've calmed down from mentioning the one above...

UPDATE - This isn't the one I was going on about above but it'll do for now - "End of". Why do these phrases irk me so? I don't know. I don't care. Whenever I see / hear "end of" I have a mental picture of some overweight chav with lager for brains wearing a crop-top to show off her spare tyre. Ah - maybe that's why.

A Scanner, Ungratefully

Merry miserablist minstrels Radiohead have been approached to write the score for A Scanner Darkly (the film) ... and declined. New album, apparently. I think Goldfrapp should do it. Or perhaps Primus. Or Kylie stoned to buggery.

Big Branson

	Richard Branson is set to build a 'spaceport'. The venture is for the 'Galactic' arm of his little company, which aims to be providing commercial space flights by 2008. As usual, there is an appropriate logo (shown on the right here) which has nothing to do with any megalomania on Branson's part (despite including a close-up of his own iris) and is markedly different from what I assume is the previous, cable-TV-sci-fi logo (shown on the left). As he says; “I believe it represents all those who will watch and be a part of the growth of this amazing new commercial aviation sector. Whether they are six or sixty, all will see and believe that a new chapter in the story of space flight has begun.” So it's not just his eye - it's everyone's eye. I feel slightly sick. He also makes it sound like a religious experience. All together now (with a nod to Harry Enfield) ... 'Worship my wad !!!' Cool ship, though.
	To balance further tales of one man's vision to paint the world (and now outer space) red, I give you an excellent flickr photo set of worthies from the punk and New Romantic era of music. The shots of the Clash are particularly recommended.

Ho, Ho, Bloody Ho

Regular sufferers of this blog will know my views on Americans - they can be summed up by the phrase 'thank Christ for the Atlantic Ocean'. Today's newsfeeds once again exacerbate this prejudice, with the following;

'The Berlin Wall worked really well. Let's build one to keep the Mexicans out.'

'We're running out of ways to be .alt, people. That geish doesn't cut it any more.'

Someone should tell the bloke who did this research that the smile you get is the smile you deserve...

To recover, I'm going to spend a long time here. Then make myself one of these in memory of George Harrison.

If I Was ... Scary

I like scaryduck's blogging. His reports from the recent online malarkey in Tunisia were very entertaining. However, his shameless posting of a link to his Amazon wish-list is not remotely humourous. In fact it may be one of the scariest things he's done. Perhaps he is being uber-ironic, if it is truly his list, as he's asked for this. What other depraved wishes does he have lurking behind his bill? This? This? Or this?

Stop the madness now, scary. Blame the Mexican food and move on.

Reborn

Belated many thanks to Paul and his fellow organisers of this year's Leicester Tigers Junior Tigers' Club Christmas party, held last Saturday. Also thanks to the players - the sight of Leon Lloyd playing pass-the-parcel is an image I'll treasure! One other thing - soon after walking in, I heard this announcement on the P.A. - "Jeff Buckley, come and have your face painted, please." Strange way of contacting the dead, I thought. Also an odd time to choose. But still, each to his own and I suppose there wasn't space to get out the ouijia board.