Journal Entries
Apropos of nothing...
Posted Feb 22, 2006
Do you ever find yourself singing just the first line or two from a song? Here are some I like:
Load up on guns/ Bring a friend (Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana)
Tall and tanned and young and lovely (The Girl from Ipanema)
Sup up your beer and collect your fags/ There's a row going on down in Slough (Eaton Rifles - The Jam)
Ziggy played guitar, jamming good with Wierd and Gilly/
The Spiders from Mars (Ziggy Stardust - David Bowie)
Calling all chickens down on the farm/ Shut the door. Were you born in a barn? (Cornfed Dames - The Cramps)
Ich weiss nicht was soll es bedeuten/ Dass ich so traurig bin (das Loreleid)
Elevate! (Trumpton Riots - Half Man Half Biscuit)
I was twenty-one years when I wrote this song/ I'm twenty-two now but I won't be for long/ People ask when will you grow up to be a man/ 'cause all the girls from school are already pushing prams (New England - Billy Bragg, quoting from Paul Simon)
Midnight to Six/ For the first time from Jamaica (White Man in the Hammersmith Palais - The Clash)
And as we walked/ Through the streets of Arklow (The Streets of Arkow - Van 'The' Morrison)
Think I'll pack it in and/ Buy a pickup/ Drive it down to LA (Out on the Weekend - Neil Young)
A-wop bob a-loola a-wop bop boom (Tutti Frutti - Little Richard...surely the finest lyric ever written?)
Anyone like to add more?
Discuss this Journal entry [57]
Latest reply: Feb 22, 2006
Human after all...
Posted Jan 25, 2006
Apparently I've been reclassified. I'm a homo!
http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/news/story/0,,1693365,00.html
It says in the article that the higher primates have human rights in New Zealand. There's an ethical paradox here. Presumably they're constantly having to arrest (real) bonobos for lewd public behaviour. Alternately...maybe homo sapiens should be given primate rights. We'd be allowed to throw our faeces at people and have all the PG Tips we can drink.
Discuss this Journal entry [12]
Latest reply: Jan 25, 2006
Penguins Ahoy!
Posted Dec 9, 2005
Well, my Windows has finally started apart just once too often, so it's time for me to start converting my PC to Linux.
I don't particularly know what I'm doing, I have to say, and am slightly wallowing in the pages and pages of geeky stuff on the Web. It's about time someone wrote a non-Geeks guide that doesn't assume that anyone wants to do anything other than get a desktop up and running and use normal, home applications.
Does anyone out there have any experience in this area? It would make a great collaborative Guide Entry.
Mind you...I did come across an - er - 'intriguing' article on how to install Linux on a dead badger....
http://www.strangehorizons.com/2004/20040405/badger.shtml
Discuss this Journal entry [116]
Latest reply: Dec 9, 2005
Skidding to a halt
Posted Oct 25, 2005
Only in Scotland! 
The traffic on the south side of Glasgow has been particularly bad the last couple of days, drastically lengthening my trips to work and Poop's nursery. I've just discovered why. A lorry transporting cooking oil developed a leak and spread its contents over 30 miles of roads and motorways.
Doubtless it was an important consignment for the nation's deep-fried pizza industry.
Discuss this Journal entry [35]
Latest reply: Oct 25, 2005
Get yer luvverly PumpKins 'ere
Posted Oct 21, 2005
The neighbourhood was impressed by my pumpkin efforts last year:
http://www.flamingpie.memebot.com/Pumpkins.htm
(be patient while it loads - I forgot to optimise the jpegs)
This year we're offering to carve other peoples' pumpkins for them, in exchange for a donation to Pakistani and Indian Earthquake Victims. My kids have distributed leaflets to the local families. We'll be taking the proceeds to an Islamic Relief shop.
When I was young, pumpkins were unheard of, and we carved swedes. They were a bugger to hollow out and stank to high heaven when you lit the candle.
Trick and Treat is a relatively modern phenomenon in England, assimilated from watching likes of ET. But Scotland has always had a tradition of 'Guising'. Door-to-door sweetie beggars are expected to say a rhyme or sing a song or tell a joke before they get their booty.
What we did have in England was something caled Mischief Night. A week before Halloween, kids would play random tricks such as wrapping a dog turd in newspaper, setting it on someone's step, lighting the paper, ringing the bell and running away. This was folk tradition of the purest kind because it took place without the encouragement or even acknowledgement of adults.
Beats faffing around with these pesky Gnaarams any day!
Discuss this Journal entry [27]
Latest reply: Oct 21, 2005
Edward the Bonobo - Gone.
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