As i glanced at the back pages of some newspapers in the library today, i noted that it hadn't taken long to fall out of the minds of the media. Roughly three days. Two in some.
Once again it was football football football that dominated the proceedings. Lots of money thrown about. Lots of tantrums. Lots of grown men old enough to know better. Like me.
What transpired at the weekend in China was forgotten about. I refer to a British sporting triumph.....a one-two for British drivers in the F 1 Grand Prix. The cherry on this sweet, sweet cake? The team was British too.
As a fan of F1, i thought it marvellous. It is tinged with the blue grey tint of sadness though, as this achievment was met almost with indifference by much of the population. BRITAIN dominated. Is that not a reason for the sporty to be cheerful?
Later on this year, a bunch of over-paid nancy boys head out to South Africa to try and win the World Cup. People say we have a chance. They say that every year.
I remember the last one.....we were let off work early if we wanted to watch the game (I did then!), we were allowed late back from lunch if a game was on. The sport dominated the front pages and reduced grown men to tears when they finally realised we were rubbish.
If we get to the Semi-finals in footy, i'm sure it'll be all over the news for weeks. We always seem to reward losers in this country which makes me wonder when i'll be getting paid. If we WIN, i imagine there'll be a national holiday and everyone's wildest dreams will come true.
Its a long shot of course. I can't see it myself. I do know however, that we have a sport that Britain is currently excelling at, and i wish as much attention and newspaper pages were lavished upon it as they are on football.
My Two Cents if you're interested....we will never be world beaters at football because the Premiership signs shed loads of foreign players. We teach them how to be good, ignoring our own talent. Then in the World Cup these players use the skills they learned from English clubs against England. Therein lies the rub. By all means have foreign players, but don't go crying when your national team sucks.
Thursday, 22 April 2010
Wednesday, 21 April 2010
Lead By The TV
As i drive round these days i notice a disturbing number of Conservative Billboards that are being defaced. Usually with witty slogans or a play on words. Sometimes there's even a crude and hilarious drawing of the male reproductive organ.
While i whole heartedly endorse expression, i do find it odd that the people doing this, and those that encourage it, are in the 18 - 22 age group.....in this area anyway....please don't ask how i know.
To me, this is like kids of that age wearing Nirvana t shirts at festivals. Or, even better, those that wear some kind of Kurt Cobain memorial shirt. Thing is fellas, you weren't alive....or if you were it was only just....when Kurt found a way out through heroin and a shotgun.
So while it's entirely possible to love a band that aren't around anymore, it just strikes me as a little weird seeing these kids in those shirts.
And i apply it here to the Tories. People aged 18 - 22 were not old enough to really know just how brilliantly or badly the Tories ran the country. Let's see, if you're 22 then you were born roughly 1988. If you're 18 then you weren't born until 1992. This was after the last recession. New Labour came in with Blair in 1997.....
So, i'm not saying you haven't read history books but.....do you really know what you're rebelling against? It feels like second hand information to me. I don't mind people slagging Tory, but i wish they'd put an equal amount of defacing effort and bad-mouthing into Labour. They have done nothing worse than anything Conservative did IN MY OPINION.
Now i know i know.....the Miners right? And some might say....the Falklands. But hey, we're fighting a war right now too so i guess that doesn't count right?
I'm all for worker's rights.....lotta rights here isnt there?.......but people only really get a potted history of that. It usually runs along the lines of......Hard working miners went on strike to get better pay so Maggie Thatcher let them starve and shut down their industry.
Not entirely true. Look back further and you'll see some things that might give you a clearer view.
Besides, a lot of you trendy people out there are all for 'Green' power right? So you're against the coal industry by default. You should be glad they're not mining it anymore.
So firstly, for every Tory poster you deface, do me a favour and scrawl over a Labour one too.
Ta.
Next, i'd like to talk about the surge in popularity for Lib Dems.
This surge has only happened after Nick Clegg's performance on the live debate.
So it was the medium of Television that has worked in his favour.
To me, this is just wonderful. Once again people turn to the box for guidance on how to live their lives and form their opinions.
So the guy put up some good points.......i have a friend who is a terrific arguer. She can put her points across and no matter what subject....she'll usually win.
Does this make her a good leader?
No.
It makes her a good talker. Actions speak louder than.
This country is in the shit and i'm all for change. Lib Dems would be the most extreme change i can think of, as no-one's given them the opportunity before.
I can't help but feel Clegg's popularity has been brought about by our obsession with TV and our inability to differentiate between fact and fiction.
People are now turning to Clegg because he did well on TV. Ask them what his manifesto consists of and they'll struggle to answer.
I'm not painting myself whiter than white here. I don't know either. I just find it interesting.
As long as Gordon goes, i'll be smiling.
While i whole heartedly endorse expression, i do find it odd that the people doing this, and those that encourage it, are in the 18 - 22 age group.....in this area anyway....please don't ask how i know.
To me, this is like kids of that age wearing Nirvana t shirts at festivals. Or, even better, those that wear some kind of Kurt Cobain memorial shirt. Thing is fellas, you weren't alive....or if you were it was only just....when Kurt found a way out through heroin and a shotgun.
So while it's entirely possible to love a band that aren't around anymore, it just strikes me as a little weird seeing these kids in those shirts.
And i apply it here to the Tories. People aged 18 - 22 were not old enough to really know just how brilliantly or badly the Tories ran the country. Let's see, if you're 22 then you were born roughly 1988. If you're 18 then you weren't born until 1992. This was after the last recession. New Labour came in with Blair in 1997.....
So, i'm not saying you haven't read history books but.....do you really know what you're rebelling against? It feels like second hand information to me. I don't mind people slagging Tory, but i wish they'd put an equal amount of defacing effort and bad-mouthing into Labour. They have done nothing worse than anything Conservative did IN MY OPINION.
Now i know i know.....the Miners right? And some might say....the Falklands. But hey, we're fighting a war right now too so i guess that doesn't count right?
I'm all for worker's rights.....lotta rights here isnt there?.......but people only really get a potted history of that. It usually runs along the lines of......Hard working miners went on strike to get better pay so Maggie Thatcher let them starve and shut down their industry.
Not entirely true. Look back further and you'll see some things that might give you a clearer view.
Besides, a lot of you trendy people out there are all for 'Green' power right? So you're against the coal industry by default. You should be glad they're not mining it anymore.
So firstly, for every Tory poster you deface, do me a favour and scrawl over a Labour one too.
Ta.
Next, i'd like to talk about the surge in popularity for Lib Dems.
This surge has only happened after Nick Clegg's performance on the live debate.
So it was the medium of Television that has worked in his favour.
To me, this is just wonderful. Once again people turn to the box for guidance on how to live their lives and form their opinions.
So the guy put up some good points.......i have a friend who is a terrific arguer. She can put her points across and no matter what subject....she'll usually win.
Does this make her a good leader?
No.
It makes her a good talker. Actions speak louder than.
This country is in the shit and i'm all for change. Lib Dems would be the most extreme change i can think of, as no-one's given them the opportunity before.
I can't help but feel Clegg's popularity has been brought about by our obsession with TV and our inability to differentiate between fact and fiction.
People are now turning to Clegg because he did well on TV. Ask them what his manifesto consists of and they'll struggle to answer.
I'm not painting myself whiter than white here. I don't know either. I just find it interesting.
As long as Gordon goes, i'll be smiling.
Tuesday, 20 April 2010
A Temporal Blog
I derive a huge amount of pleasure from perusing bookshops. These days, i tend to favour second hand book stores as i'm more likely to afford something in there.
A few weeks ago, i had nothing to do before the bus came so i ventured into a second hand book store to kill some time and....well, you never know what you might stumble across.
My eyes fell upon a book, wedged tight between others. It had no dust jacket, just some dirty, faded gold lettering on its worn blue spine. The title of the book suggested it was something to do with time, and the manipulation of it. I picked it up and flicked through it. It read like The Philosophy Of Time Travel. The fictional book in the awesome film, Donnie Darko.
This was very exciting to me. I have a keen interest in the notion of time. Before i started this college course, i would often read books on physics - often related to the idea of time and how it works.
Here, you can cross over into philosophy. Does time have a beginning? Does it have an end? Is it a straight line or is it like a ball of string, every event happening at the same time?
To us humans, time is a thief. It steals your looks, it steals your mind. It steals your loved ones and your memories. It can also work in your favour.....time is a healer. Some memories are best left in the vaults of time. Time is the one constant. It's happening all the.....well, all the time.
Time is also relative, and Einstein described it beautifully. I shan't repeat him here, but rather just say time always goes fast when you don't want it to, and slows down when you wish it would just hurry the fuck up.
When i was a kid, i wished i could control time. I pictured it as a remote control. I could pause the class i was in, or fast foward through it. I pictured in my head what it would be like and thought it would be pretty damn cool. Then, Adam Sandler made a movie out of my idea called Click. A bad movie. And i didn't even get paid for it. Still, i guess being Adam Sandler is punishment enough, he doesn't need me ragging on him.
So this book. Its author claims that he had visions in his dreams. Visions which later turned out to be glimpses of the future. Before you do as i would have done, which is simply pass it off as a load of old twonk written by some daft clairvoyant in a sequin gown covered with felt half moons, i should say that the author was a respected scientist, and admits that he doesn't believe in such things himself.
It makes for an interesting read. Thing is.....he also tells you how to do it. I never remember my dreams. Not the ones at night anyway. I wake up and my head is already concentrating on the day, not what my brain just ticked over in the night. I dismiss dreams as simply that....the brain ticking over. My book tells me how to interpret the dreams, and how to then use that interpretation to prepare for future events.
Before any of you start thinking...."Better dream up the lottery results then hur hur hur"....i don't think it works like that. It works more on the idea that your path, your destiny is happening right now. Its already happened.
Picture time as a long, straight road. As you go past certain things, lamp posts, bushes, roadkill, you can see them as they approach, and when they go by you can see them in your rearview mirror. The idea is that time is just like that. Just because its gone past you, it doesnt mean it doesnt exist anymore. And, just as in a car....you can see things as they approach.
I struggle with the idea of fate. If i wrote you a note saying "You will die today". You might think, "Fuck this, i'll hide in the shed where nothing can get me"...and then the shed collapses on you and kills you. So, did i make you die? If i hadn't said anything, you wouldn't have been in the shed and you wouldn't have been killed. But, i knew you were going to die today and tried to warn you.
Its a head fuck. Of monumental proportions.
Do i want to know my own future? What good would it do if i can't stop it? If that time is running now, whatever mistakes i'm going to make.....i've made them already. It's done, and there's nothing i can do about it except be good enough to come into being and pass away at the right time in order to fulfil my obligation to that event.
Psychics are not very nice people. To claim to be able to communicate with a deceased child is very wrong. Unless its true. Which.....all things being equal.....it really isn't. Criss Angel, the rock star magician, did a fantastic thing on a show in America once. He offered Uri Geller (psychic) a MILLION DOLLARS if Uri could tell him what was written inside an envelope he was holding.
Of course, Derren Brown does these things all the time. But Derren is a magician, and he has numerous ways of doing it, none of which could be employed by Uri on the hop. Uri failed the challenge. Know what Criss had written in the envelope?
9/11
His point being, if anyone really was psychic they could have seen it coming and averted it.
Quite a good point. I'm not a fan of Criss Angel, but full marks to him there.
Scary stuff. Next time, i'll factor in the notion of parallel worlds.....that'll make the head hurt a little more.
A few weeks ago, i had nothing to do before the bus came so i ventured into a second hand book store to kill some time and....well, you never know what you might stumble across.
My eyes fell upon a book, wedged tight between others. It had no dust jacket, just some dirty, faded gold lettering on its worn blue spine. The title of the book suggested it was something to do with time, and the manipulation of it. I picked it up and flicked through it. It read like The Philosophy Of Time Travel. The fictional book in the awesome film, Donnie Darko.
This was very exciting to me. I have a keen interest in the notion of time. Before i started this college course, i would often read books on physics - often related to the idea of time and how it works.
Here, you can cross over into philosophy. Does time have a beginning? Does it have an end? Is it a straight line or is it like a ball of string, every event happening at the same time?
To us humans, time is a thief. It steals your looks, it steals your mind. It steals your loved ones and your memories. It can also work in your favour.....time is a healer. Some memories are best left in the vaults of time. Time is the one constant. It's happening all the.....well, all the time.
Time is also relative, and Einstein described it beautifully. I shan't repeat him here, but rather just say time always goes fast when you don't want it to, and slows down when you wish it would just hurry the fuck up.
When i was a kid, i wished i could control time. I pictured it as a remote control. I could pause the class i was in, or fast foward through it. I pictured in my head what it would be like and thought it would be pretty damn cool. Then, Adam Sandler made a movie out of my idea called Click. A bad movie. And i didn't even get paid for it. Still, i guess being Adam Sandler is punishment enough, he doesn't need me ragging on him.
So this book. Its author claims that he had visions in his dreams. Visions which later turned out to be glimpses of the future. Before you do as i would have done, which is simply pass it off as a load of old twonk written by some daft clairvoyant in a sequin gown covered with felt half moons, i should say that the author was a respected scientist, and admits that he doesn't believe in such things himself.
It makes for an interesting read. Thing is.....he also tells you how to do it. I never remember my dreams. Not the ones at night anyway. I wake up and my head is already concentrating on the day, not what my brain just ticked over in the night. I dismiss dreams as simply that....the brain ticking over. My book tells me how to interpret the dreams, and how to then use that interpretation to prepare for future events.
Before any of you start thinking...."Better dream up the lottery results then hur hur hur"....i don't think it works like that. It works more on the idea that your path, your destiny is happening right now. Its already happened.
Picture time as a long, straight road. As you go past certain things, lamp posts, bushes, roadkill, you can see them as they approach, and when they go by you can see them in your rearview mirror. The idea is that time is just like that. Just because its gone past you, it doesnt mean it doesnt exist anymore. And, just as in a car....you can see things as they approach.
I struggle with the idea of fate. If i wrote you a note saying "You will die today". You might think, "Fuck this, i'll hide in the shed where nothing can get me"...and then the shed collapses on you and kills you. So, did i make you die? If i hadn't said anything, you wouldn't have been in the shed and you wouldn't have been killed. But, i knew you were going to die today and tried to warn you.
Its a head fuck. Of monumental proportions.
Do i want to know my own future? What good would it do if i can't stop it? If that time is running now, whatever mistakes i'm going to make.....i've made them already. It's done, and there's nothing i can do about it except be good enough to come into being and pass away at the right time in order to fulfil my obligation to that event.
Psychics are not very nice people. To claim to be able to communicate with a deceased child is very wrong. Unless its true. Which.....all things being equal.....it really isn't. Criss Angel, the rock star magician, did a fantastic thing on a show in America once. He offered Uri Geller (psychic) a MILLION DOLLARS if Uri could tell him what was written inside an envelope he was holding.
Of course, Derren Brown does these things all the time. But Derren is a magician, and he has numerous ways of doing it, none of which could be employed by Uri on the hop. Uri failed the challenge. Know what Criss had written in the envelope?
9/11
His point being, if anyone really was psychic they could have seen it coming and averted it.
Quite a good point. I'm not a fan of Criss Angel, but full marks to him there.
Scary stuff. Next time, i'll factor in the notion of parallel worlds.....that'll make the head hurt a little more.
Monday, 19 April 2010
A Pending Act Of Kindness
So i'm not eating very well at the moment. It shall pass but for now, rather than eating properly, i'm choosing to simply eat things that are quick and simple and satisfy the hunger pangs rather than worry about anything being any good for me.
To this end, i dipped out in the middle of a class today to locate the confectionary machine and get something quick, easy and probably bad for me.
I put in a pound, and selected things that totalled something significantly less than a pound.
Rather than pressing the button for change, i chose to leave it in there. I figured if it were me, and i was hungry and thought the only thing i could do was find a confectionary machine and get something bad out of it to eat, i'd love it if i got there to find the money already in there.
Even if it wasn't quite the full amount i needed, at least it's a help along the way.
It's these kind of things that can brighten a mood, or make someone feel lucky.
So, next time, leave your change in there. You can be safe in the knowledge that you may well have changed the direction of somebody's day.
To this end, i dipped out in the middle of a class today to locate the confectionary machine and get something quick, easy and probably bad for me.
I put in a pound, and selected things that totalled something significantly less than a pound.
Rather than pressing the button for change, i chose to leave it in there. I figured if it were me, and i was hungry and thought the only thing i could do was find a confectionary machine and get something bad out of it to eat, i'd love it if i got there to find the money already in there.
Even if it wasn't quite the full amount i needed, at least it's a help along the way.
It's these kind of things that can brighten a mood, or make someone feel lucky.
So, next time, leave your change in there. You can be safe in the knowledge that you may well have changed the direction of somebody's day.
Tuesday, 9 March 2010
An Ending....For The Time Being
If you were to carry out a quick google search you could find more than a few of these, but i will select one at random. And here she is...
Meet Philippa Bigham. Aged 28. In 2009 she was given two years to live, as the NHS refused to stump up £3,000 to pay for a cancer drug she needed to take before she could have a bone marrow transplant.
So, initial thoughts. 1) Surely her life is worth £3,000. 2) She's paid into the system and - assuming she lives - will be paying into it for the rest of her life, far exceeding the £3,000 she wants to take from it now. 3) The NHS should not be God-like, in that it decides who to treat and who to abandon.
I confess to not knowing where Ms Bigham is now. She may have got the treatment she needed and hopefully she's doing just fine. Like i said, she was just one i plucked from the internet, an example of someone being let down by the system.
I called this blog An Ending, as i'm now about to 'bang on' about something people are probably tired of hearing about. This shall be my last say on it for a while. Or at least until fresh bullshit compells me to put pixels to screen.
£1.3 million pounds.
Like it? Would ya? Yeah you would. Some say a million isn't that much these days. Whoever says that is a) Wrong and b) Greedy. I could make a million last just fine, and have a ruddy good time while i was at it. I'd even treat you. Not you though.
If you had £1.3 million pounds, you'd help Phlippa wouldn't you? Why not? It's 3 grand. Not too much out of your cash pile and you'd be saving a life so if there is a heaven you're taking a giant step toward it.
£1.3 million pounds is the amount of money the NHS had to pay out purchasing 'Carbon Credits' in 2006. You can bet your last penny it's increased substantially since then.
So yes, i'm on about this century's biggest con again; Climate Change. For those that don't know, 'Carbon Credits' is a scheme cooked up by the EU, and copied by America only they called it 'Cap and Trade'. It works like this; each EU country agreed to cap its CO2 emissions at a certain figure, and individual enterprises within that country are allocated 'Carbon Allowances'. If exceeded, they could then continue to 'pollute' but only by purchasing Carbon Credits from firms or countries which were emitting less than they were allowed.
I put pollute in these things '' because i don't believe CO2 is a pollutant.
The flaw in this idealistic nonsense, is that each country was allowed to nominate its own allowance. So, pop quiz. What would you do? You'd set it high right? High so that you could 'pollute' all you want - pollute or help plants grow depending how you look at it - and not only that you can make MONEY FOR NOTHING by selling your excess carbon to other suckers. Brilliant. You are literally getting paid for nothing. Germany was a wiley old fox, setting their levels much higher than their existing ones. As a result, Germany made £300 million pounds on carbon credit sales. Britain, led by that fucking collection of useless cunts known as the Labour party, set their levels lower than their existing ones, in order to 'honour the spirit of Kyoto'.
This honouring of the spirit meant Britain paid out £470 million pounds buying......nothing.
Nearly half a billion pounds on fuck all. Of that figure, £1.3 million was paid by the NHS.
People die of cancer, but we can't afford to give them drugs. Our planet experiences a change in temperature which - if you look at history it does every now and then - and we can find £1.3 million pounds to make ourselves feel better about it.
Try as i might, i cannot find words to describe this. Despite all the best evidence to the contrary, the IPCC are still doing their best to convince everyone that we're in a whole heap of trouble. I'm happy to observe that there is an up-rising now. People are sick of it. They're sick of hearing about it, and they're sick of the money being spent on it.
Then there's things like the other day, where some bright spark said we'd just experienced the warmest January ever. Warm for him, he was in Australia. For us, who are glad to be free of the snow, it sounded pretty fucking ridiculous.
In an attempt at hyperbole, the climate changers made themselves look as stupid as they are. With all this cold weather, we are now expected to believe the cold weather is 'masking' the hot.
Because the dream of the doom mongerers doesn't seem to be coming true, the new theory is 'Yes, the planet is cooling down, but thats just masking how hot it really is'.
If i were to pour some scalding hot water into a bucket and shove a Climate Changer's head into it, do you think that a) He'd scream because the flesh was falling off his face, or b) He'd be just fine, as my scalding hot water is really cold, its just that the hot is masking it?
And for those who are quick to point out water and air are two different entities, i was just making an example. If something is cold, it's cold, and all the best efforts of the IPCC won't change that.
If i were a psychiatrist - hey you never know, one day - i might say the planet as a whole is feeling guilty. It's feeling guilty because, despite all the odds - and if you learn a little about physics and the mechanics of the universe, those odds are rather high - we're doing just fine. For me, it's akin to Survivor's Guilt, where you feel bad because you're in one piece and everyone else is dead. We look at a dusty Mars or a frozen Pluto and think....well, that could have been us. But our friend the Sun keeps us locked in it's orbit just fine, and our plants and trees have learned how to use the sun's rays to grow and flourish.
And, without sounding like the very hippies i despise, it's a beautiful thing. The inhabitants of this planet are a mixed lot. Outrageously intelligent in some corners, and in others that intelligence is used negatively.
Wasting time, effort and money convincing ourselves that we are all doomed is not the best use of either of those things. There are a few things you can't change, and the weather is one of them. For years civilisation was kept in the dark by the church, that's what's known as the Dark Ages. We pulled through that, and science came into its own with splendid fellows like Newton and Galileo. Fellows that came dangerously close to being persecuted by the God botherers, but that have had a huge influence on society today.
Now, our threat is not the church, it is the politicians who turn things like Climate Change into new religions. Religions you cannot question, faith you cannot shake. Again things are hidden, and again those that go against the grand plan are ridiculed and cast aside. Thankfully they are not burned at the stake as heretics anymore, we've come some way at least.
A follow up to the Copenhagen Conference is coming up. I see it as nothing more than a waste of time, and as ignoring the real problem, that of an energy crisis.
Some of my facebook friends joined some kind of group banging on about how they'd have a wind turbine in their back yard if needs be. Commendable, but useless. See, wind turbines suffer from a problem. That is, wind doesn't blow at a constant speed, so the thing about a 2MW turbine means very little. 2MW is what it CAN generate, but only if the wind is blowing it at optimum speed all the time. It won't, and in winter when electricity demand is at it's highest, high pressure means the blessed things won't turn at all.
Because of their unreliability, and in order to generate a continuous supply of electric to consumers, there needs to be a back up. The back up is powered by alternative sources. The alternative source is.....gas.
So, with all the talk of 'renewable energy', the fact is wind turbines need a fossil fuel to keep running. This would use the fuel up, emitting steam and the dreaded, mean, nasty, foul CO2. Like you, you emit CO2 so you must be evil too. In conclusion, wind turbines don't save CO2, and they're fuck ugly on the landscape too.
If you're asking why you didn't know that turbines need gas as a reserve, its because you've been successfully fooled by the powers that be and the energy companies. Fool. Our beloved Labour fuck wits are planning on spending £100 billion pounds on turbines. No, i didn't type it wrong, it really is one hundred BILLION pounds on.......something that relies on fossil fuels and generates CO2.
Genius, Gordon. Really. The worst news? That cost is going straight to YOU. The consumer. Your power bills will be astronomical and you'll still have black outs where supply can't meet demand. Why? Because no-one wants to go nuclear, and no-one's allowed to burn coal or gas. This means only one thing; an energy crisis. One like nothing you've ever known.
This is going on too long now. There are many other points to bring up, and false ideas to shoot down, but its up to you to do so. Without wishing to sound paranoid, don't believe all they tell you. Now, where's my coat? It's bloody freezing out there.
Meet Philippa Bigham. Aged 28. In 2009 she was given two years to live, as the NHS refused to stump up £3,000 to pay for a cancer drug she needed to take before she could have a bone marrow transplant.
So, initial thoughts. 1) Surely her life is worth £3,000. 2) She's paid into the system and - assuming she lives - will be paying into it for the rest of her life, far exceeding the £3,000 she wants to take from it now. 3) The NHS should not be God-like, in that it decides who to treat and who to abandon.
I confess to not knowing where Ms Bigham is now. She may have got the treatment she needed and hopefully she's doing just fine. Like i said, she was just one i plucked from the internet, an example of someone being let down by the system.
I called this blog An Ending, as i'm now about to 'bang on' about something people are probably tired of hearing about. This shall be my last say on it for a while. Or at least until fresh bullshit compells me to put pixels to screen.
£1.3 million pounds.
Like it? Would ya? Yeah you would. Some say a million isn't that much these days. Whoever says that is a) Wrong and b) Greedy. I could make a million last just fine, and have a ruddy good time while i was at it. I'd even treat you. Not you though.
If you had £1.3 million pounds, you'd help Phlippa wouldn't you? Why not? It's 3 grand. Not too much out of your cash pile and you'd be saving a life so if there is a heaven you're taking a giant step toward it.
£1.3 million pounds is the amount of money the NHS had to pay out purchasing 'Carbon Credits' in 2006. You can bet your last penny it's increased substantially since then.
So yes, i'm on about this century's biggest con again; Climate Change. For those that don't know, 'Carbon Credits' is a scheme cooked up by the EU, and copied by America only they called it 'Cap and Trade'. It works like this; each EU country agreed to cap its CO2 emissions at a certain figure, and individual enterprises within that country are allocated 'Carbon Allowances'. If exceeded, they could then continue to 'pollute' but only by purchasing Carbon Credits from firms or countries which were emitting less than they were allowed.
I put pollute in these things '' because i don't believe CO2 is a pollutant.
The flaw in this idealistic nonsense, is that each country was allowed to nominate its own allowance. So, pop quiz. What would you do? You'd set it high right? High so that you could 'pollute' all you want - pollute or help plants grow depending how you look at it - and not only that you can make MONEY FOR NOTHING by selling your excess carbon to other suckers. Brilliant. You are literally getting paid for nothing. Germany was a wiley old fox, setting their levels much higher than their existing ones. As a result, Germany made £300 million pounds on carbon credit sales. Britain, led by that fucking collection of useless cunts known as the Labour party, set their levels lower than their existing ones, in order to 'honour the spirit of Kyoto'.
This honouring of the spirit meant Britain paid out £470 million pounds buying......nothing.
Nearly half a billion pounds on fuck all. Of that figure, £1.3 million was paid by the NHS.
People die of cancer, but we can't afford to give them drugs. Our planet experiences a change in temperature which - if you look at history it does every now and then - and we can find £1.3 million pounds to make ourselves feel better about it.
Try as i might, i cannot find words to describe this. Despite all the best evidence to the contrary, the IPCC are still doing their best to convince everyone that we're in a whole heap of trouble. I'm happy to observe that there is an up-rising now. People are sick of it. They're sick of hearing about it, and they're sick of the money being spent on it.
Then there's things like the other day, where some bright spark said we'd just experienced the warmest January ever. Warm for him, he was in Australia. For us, who are glad to be free of the snow, it sounded pretty fucking ridiculous.
In an attempt at hyperbole, the climate changers made themselves look as stupid as they are. With all this cold weather, we are now expected to believe the cold weather is 'masking' the hot.
Because the dream of the doom mongerers doesn't seem to be coming true, the new theory is 'Yes, the planet is cooling down, but thats just masking how hot it really is'.
If i were to pour some scalding hot water into a bucket and shove a Climate Changer's head into it, do you think that a) He'd scream because the flesh was falling off his face, or b) He'd be just fine, as my scalding hot water is really cold, its just that the hot is masking it?
And for those who are quick to point out water and air are two different entities, i was just making an example. If something is cold, it's cold, and all the best efforts of the IPCC won't change that.
If i were a psychiatrist - hey you never know, one day - i might say the planet as a whole is feeling guilty. It's feeling guilty because, despite all the odds - and if you learn a little about physics and the mechanics of the universe, those odds are rather high - we're doing just fine. For me, it's akin to Survivor's Guilt, where you feel bad because you're in one piece and everyone else is dead. We look at a dusty Mars or a frozen Pluto and think....well, that could have been us. But our friend the Sun keeps us locked in it's orbit just fine, and our plants and trees have learned how to use the sun's rays to grow and flourish.
And, without sounding like the very hippies i despise, it's a beautiful thing. The inhabitants of this planet are a mixed lot. Outrageously intelligent in some corners, and in others that intelligence is used negatively.
Wasting time, effort and money convincing ourselves that we are all doomed is not the best use of either of those things. There are a few things you can't change, and the weather is one of them. For years civilisation was kept in the dark by the church, that's what's known as the Dark Ages. We pulled through that, and science came into its own with splendid fellows like Newton and Galileo. Fellows that came dangerously close to being persecuted by the God botherers, but that have had a huge influence on society today.
Now, our threat is not the church, it is the politicians who turn things like Climate Change into new religions. Religions you cannot question, faith you cannot shake. Again things are hidden, and again those that go against the grand plan are ridiculed and cast aside. Thankfully they are not burned at the stake as heretics anymore, we've come some way at least.
A follow up to the Copenhagen Conference is coming up. I see it as nothing more than a waste of time, and as ignoring the real problem, that of an energy crisis.
Some of my facebook friends joined some kind of group banging on about how they'd have a wind turbine in their back yard if needs be. Commendable, but useless. See, wind turbines suffer from a problem. That is, wind doesn't blow at a constant speed, so the thing about a 2MW turbine means very little. 2MW is what it CAN generate, but only if the wind is blowing it at optimum speed all the time. It won't, and in winter when electricity demand is at it's highest, high pressure means the blessed things won't turn at all.
Because of their unreliability, and in order to generate a continuous supply of electric to consumers, there needs to be a back up. The back up is powered by alternative sources. The alternative source is.....gas.
So, with all the talk of 'renewable energy', the fact is wind turbines need a fossil fuel to keep running. This would use the fuel up, emitting steam and the dreaded, mean, nasty, foul CO2. Like you, you emit CO2 so you must be evil too. In conclusion, wind turbines don't save CO2, and they're fuck ugly on the landscape too.
If you're asking why you didn't know that turbines need gas as a reserve, its because you've been successfully fooled by the powers that be and the energy companies. Fool. Our beloved Labour fuck wits are planning on spending £100 billion pounds on turbines. No, i didn't type it wrong, it really is one hundred BILLION pounds on.......something that relies on fossil fuels and generates CO2.
Genius, Gordon. Really. The worst news? That cost is going straight to YOU. The consumer. Your power bills will be astronomical and you'll still have black outs where supply can't meet demand. Why? Because no-one wants to go nuclear, and no-one's allowed to burn coal or gas. This means only one thing; an energy crisis. One like nothing you've ever known.
This is going on too long now. There are many other points to bring up, and false ideas to shoot down, but its up to you to do so. Without wishing to sound paranoid, don't believe all they tell you. Now, where's my coat? It's bloody freezing out there.
Thursday, 4 March 2010
Sandals or Nikes
Bit of a strange day today.
I woke up to prepare for College. Breakfast is an important meal kids. Your metabolism is very high in the mornings, so anything you eat is fair game. Seize the opportunity to pig out while you can.
Whilst watching BBC News 24, i heard that a boy of 5 had been abducted in Pakistan. The kidnappers were demanding £100,000. As a parent, you seem to instantly zap yourself into the shoes of the parents. Ever seen that Arnie film, Commando? Someone abducts Schwarzy's kid and you'd better believe he does not take it lying down. Grenades and guns feature quite heavily in his revenge plan, and he puts them to good use.
Well, if that happened to me, i think i'd do an Arnie as well. If i was not sedated, i would kit myself out for war in such a fashion as to make John Rambo look like an army cadet. Then i'd walk right up to wherever those people were, and that would be the end of them. Simples.
So here's where i enter dodgy ground. Ready?
Thing is, and i know i'm not alone with this view, but i also know the more liberal, left-wing people i know will go nuts with this, is that in some corners of this planet people are
just
not
civilised.
Before there's any confusion here, let me just explain. The world is a beautiful place, and part of its beauty lies in its diversity. Do what you please, it really is up to you. If you're not hurting anyone, fill your boots. I don't get Morris Dancing, but they're not hurting anybody so i'm not about to launch a facebook campaign to ban Morris Dancing. I don't get stamp collecting either. Or crochet. I don't see the fuss with football, it annoys me because of the huge amounts of money involved, but in a way i admire those people that stick by their teams whether they're Premiership or Division 4. Loyalty is admirable.
Where people go wrong, and where a whole lot of trouble comes from, is religion. I'd like to say, believe what you like, you're not hurting anyone. But religious beliefs do hurt people, and the worst offenders for this are extremist Muslims. Notice i didn't say Muslims, i said extremist Muslims. Extremist Christians are fine, because they drive Morris Minors with the wooden frames and bake cakes for church raffles. That's fine. If an extremist Christian slaughtered a film-maker who dared make a film that slightly insults God, i'd be fearful and critical of them too but it hasn't yet. It did happen in the Netherlands though. A film-maker was murdered for making a film that slightly insulted Allah, so an extremist Muslim killed him in the street. Let's not even talk about that whole Danish cartoon fiasco. There's such a thing as taking yourself too seriously.
To me - and i may be alone here - civilised people don't murder someone they don't know just because they said something derisory about someone who may or may not have existed. To me, that isn't civilsed, it's barbaric. These people need to grow the fuck up. No not everyone else believes what you do, get used to it. You believe in a fairy tale, forgive me if i don't want to. You're prepared to kill for yours, i can't imagine anything more ridiculous than slaughtering someone for saying Snow White didn't exist, but its pretty much the same thing.
I look at the footage on the news of Iraq and Afghanistan and all i can think is there's a lack of civility there. I don't want the world to be Americanised, but i'd like it to be half sensible.
So while i stroll around all pissed off because some poor kid who doesn't know what's going on is being held by a bunch of CUNTS with an agenda, i hear of Jon Venables' return to prison.
Venables was one half of the pair that murdered Jamie Bulger in 1993. I was 17 then, and was certainly not a parent, but even way back then i was deeply saddened at that event despite me being an angry teen oozing with angst.
I'm currently studying to pass an Access to Higher Education course which will enable me to go on to University where i will study for a degree in Psychology. Human behaviour is fascinating and i have an interest in things like regression and influence. I remember talking to my Mother about it and she said to me in her wise and Motherly way, "While you're studying this psychology stuff, and while you're learning how people's minds work, just remember that some people in this world are just plain evil."
Bless her. She's a Christian you know, but i don't think she plans to blow up any planes just yet so she's not an extremist. Thing is, she kind of got me thinking. Where is the line that splits it all up? Free will, influence, cries for help, not knowing any better, the dividing line between what's right and wrong and the ability to recognise it.
Were Venables and Thompson evil? Some say yes. Did they just not know any better? Some say that's ridiculous.
All i know is i don't have the answer. I don't know what to tell you. Would psychologically analysing them do any good? It certainly wouldn't bring Jamie Bulger back to life.
All i do know is that all my anger earlier today about a lack of civility in Pakistan and the Middle East, and at the end of the day i find the same thing on my door step in Britain. In fact it's worse here. Here we kill our kids for amusement, at least in Pakistan they're trying to get some money out of it.
So right now, i'm taking religion out of the question and all my prejudice with it. This country, for all its technological advances and back slapping, scratching and stabbing, is no better than any other. Whether you're wearing sandals or Nikes, you're capable of the same 'evil' as the next man. In my own kind of way i'm saying we're one world and one people. But after the two news items today, i'm not so sure that's a thing to be proud of.
I woke up to prepare for College. Breakfast is an important meal kids. Your metabolism is very high in the mornings, so anything you eat is fair game. Seize the opportunity to pig out while you can.
Whilst watching BBC News 24, i heard that a boy of 5 had been abducted in Pakistan. The kidnappers were demanding £100,000. As a parent, you seem to instantly zap yourself into the shoes of the parents. Ever seen that Arnie film, Commando? Someone abducts Schwarzy's kid and you'd better believe he does not take it lying down. Grenades and guns feature quite heavily in his revenge plan, and he puts them to good use.
Well, if that happened to me, i think i'd do an Arnie as well. If i was not sedated, i would kit myself out for war in such a fashion as to make John Rambo look like an army cadet. Then i'd walk right up to wherever those people were, and that would be the end of them. Simples.
So here's where i enter dodgy ground. Ready?
Thing is, and i know i'm not alone with this view, but i also know the more liberal, left-wing people i know will go nuts with this, is that in some corners of this planet people are
just
not
civilised.
Before there's any confusion here, let me just explain. The world is a beautiful place, and part of its beauty lies in its diversity. Do what you please, it really is up to you. If you're not hurting anyone, fill your boots. I don't get Morris Dancing, but they're not hurting anybody so i'm not about to launch a facebook campaign to ban Morris Dancing. I don't get stamp collecting either. Or crochet. I don't see the fuss with football, it annoys me because of the huge amounts of money involved, but in a way i admire those people that stick by their teams whether they're Premiership or Division 4. Loyalty is admirable.
Where people go wrong, and where a whole lot of trouble comes from, is religion. I'd like to say, believe what you like, you're not hurting anyone. But religious beliefs do hurt people, and the worst offenders for this are extremist Muslims. Notice i didn't say Muslims, i said extremist Muslims. Extremist Christians are fine, because they drive Morris Minors with the wooden frames and bake cakes for church raffles. That's fine. If an extremist Christian slaughtered a film-maker who dared make a film that slightly insults God, i'd be fearful and critical of them too but it hasn't yet. It did happen in the Netherlands though. A film-maker was murdered for making a film that slightly insulted Allah, so an extremist Muslim killed him in the street. Let's not even talk about that whole Danish cartoon fiasco. There's such a thing as taking yourself too seriously.
To me - and i may be alone here - civilised people don't murder someone they don't know just because they said something derisory about someone who may or may not have existed. To me, that isn't civilsed, it's barbaric. These people need to grow the fuck up. No not everyone else believes what you do, get used to it. You believe in a fairy tale, forgive me if i don't want to. You're prepared to kill for yours, i can't imagine anything more ridiculous than slaughtering someone for saying Snow White didn't exist, but its pretty much the same thing.
I look at the footage on the news of Iraq and Afghanistan and all i can think is there's a lack of civility there. I don't want the world to be Americanised, but i'd like it to be half sensible.
So while i stroll around all pissed off because some poor kid who doesn't know what's going on is being held by a bunch of CUNTS with an agenda, i hear of Jon Venables' return to prison.
Venables was one half of the pair that murdered Jamie Bulger in 1993. I was 17 then, and was certainly not a parent, but even way back then i was deeply saddened at that event despite me being an angry teen oozing with angst.
I'm currently studying to pass an Access to Higher Education course which will enable me to go on to University where i will study for a degree in Psychology. Human behaviour is fascinating and i have an interest in things like regression and influence. I remember talking to my Mother about it and she said to me in her wise and Motherly way, "While you're studying this psychology stuff, and while you're learning how people's minds work, just remember that some people in this world are just plain evil."
Bless her. She's a Christian you know, but i don't think she plans to blow up any planes just yet so she's not an extremist. Thing is, she kind of got me thinking. Where is the line that splits it all up? Free will, influence, cries for help, not knowing any better, the dividing line between what's right and wrong and the ability to recognise it.
Were Venables and Thompson evil? Some say yes. Did they just not know any better? Some say that's ridiculous.
All i know is i don't have the answer. I don't know what to tell you. Would psychologically analysing them do any good? It certainly wouldn't bring Jamie Bulger back to life.
All i do know is that all my anger earlier today about a lack of civility in Pakistan and the Middle East, and at the end of the day i find the same thing on my door step in Britain. In fact it's worse here. Here we kill our kids for amusement, at least in Pakistan they're trying to get some money out of it.
So right now, i'm taking religion out of the question and all my prejudice with it. This country, for all its technological advances and back slapping, scratching and stabbing, is no better than any other. Whether you're wearing sandals or Nikes, you're capable of the same 'evil' as the next man. In my own kind of way i'm saying we're one world and one people. But after the two news items today, i'm not so sure that's a thing to be proud of.
Tuesday, 23 February 2010
A is for Amis
So tonight i went along to St. Micheal's Church in Bath to sit down and listen to the author Martin Amis speak.
When i was 16 and fresh from school, i found employment difficult. There was a recession on at the time you see, and besides, i was a lazy bastard who was nowhere near mature enough to realise that you had to work. Unless outrageously talented or fortunate, there really was no other way to get money. The library was a good friend to me over this period, but my choice of fiction was limited to only horror. Stephen King and James Herbert were the kind of thing i'd read, but it soon became boring. Stephen King takes 300 pages to establish character, James Hadley Chase can do it in a few sentences. So whilst perusing the shelves looking for interesting titles, i decided what the heck, i'd start at the very beginning.
A for Amis. I'd heard of Martin Amis, but couldn't tell you why. I picked up London Fields and thought it sounded kind of interesting. I took it out that day and spent the rest of the week transfixed by it's prose. It was, and remains, one of the most important books i've read. London Fields shoved me away from the adolescent thrill of horror books and into something more real. Something that i learned later was known as "kitchen sink". It was London Fields that no doubt set me up to become a huge fan of Mike Leigh films, themselves a big influence on me.
So after London Fields it was Money, Other People, Dead Babies and the ever glorious Time's Arrow. Amis became my new favourite person. Perhaps if i were in the internet age at that time, i would have been even more infactuated, as Wiki would no doubt have furnished me with some of the stories surrounding Amis, as he is a bit of a cad, and a lot of a character. All i had was the typically moody author pose on the back of the library books i'd take out.
He looked intelligent, intense, broody, and not without his charm. The local library had quite a good selection of his books, but as soon as i got off my ass and started working, i located and purchased the other books of his i'd been desperate to read.
So time passed and i moved on to other authors like Kurt Vonnegut and Iain Banks. Still a new Amis novel was met with excitement, but it felt like his best books were behind him.
Cut to today and i find myself feeling like the 16 year old that quizically prised London Fields from the shelf nearly two decades ago. Not sure what to expect, but having the idea that it'll be something good.
Amis is a small man. I can sympathise with him. I was also surprised by his attire. This is the guy who secured a one million pound advance for his novel, The Information, and his suit looked like it'd been lifted from the racks at the British Heart Foundation. His glasses were dangling round his neck, as if he was admitting that like a lot of old folk who had lost their faculties, he was constantly losing them and therefore needed to keep them around his neck at all times. While his physical appearance may have been disappointing to me, as i was used to seeing the pictures of him as a younger man on his book's jackets, his intellect was no less sharp.
Sure he speaks like an upper class gentleman, but i wanted and expected exactly that. It's refreshing to hear someone THINKING before they speak, and i found myself eagerly awaiting his tongue and vocal chords to mould the result of whatever his brain was firing out.
The audience was an interesting cross section of people. There were the trendy literary studenty types there. Amis teaches writing at Manchester University, and all i can say is lucky old them. I was born into a working class household, and despite what people may try and tell you, the class divide is still there, it exists and influences. Sometimes it's just harder to spot. The working classes shouldn't be intelligent for some reason, its considered very bad form. To this end, i often feel threatened by those i consider more intelligent than i, in case they attempt to use that intelligence against me. Of course i'd try and hold my own, but being working class it'll probably just end in clenched fists and thrown insults.
There were also the old boys there. I find them highly entertaining. They wear hats like it's the 30's and adopt the same kind of accent as Amis. They are a dieing breed and i'll miss them when they're gone. I look forward to being old and wearing a trilby. Being old grants you permission to say and do as you please, because everyone already assumes your best days are behind you.
In fact age was a constant theme tonight. Amis has turned 60 and is very conscious of the fact. He interestingly states that people now live to see their talent die before they do. He is, of course, quite right.
So at the close of the night you could go and get your books signed by him. I'd taken along my beat up copy of London Fields for him to sign, and eagerly waited to meet the man who had so influenced my choice of reading matter for many years. My encounter with Amis lasted no more than 30 seconds. 25 of which i felt embarrassed, as i approached the desk with my books to be signed, i dropped one on the floor and it slid under his desk. I fumbled about picking it up but any hope of grace was gone.
It didn't matter. I have fulfilled an ambition, and had a good night. Yes i'm a geek but fuck you, you're a geek too. If you give a shit what hair product you use, what car you drive, what music you listen to, what magazines you read or what tv programmes you curdle your brain with, then i consider YOU my friend, a geek, as you are just as particular about things as i am.
The sad truth is i rarely read fiction anymore. This world is a big place, full of things i really don't understand. Through reading i hope to acquire knowledge, but i'm already smart enough to know that it'll take more days than i have free or even than i'll be alive to learn everything i'd like to learn. A part of me now sees fiction as a waste of time. I could be learning something in the time taken to read a novel. Perhaps Amis' new offering will prise me out of that mindset. He said a very interesting thing tonight, he said that movies are external and novels are internal. I agree with that. The problem is, i'm not interested in knowing the internals of most authors, its hard enough to know the internals of yourself.
When i was 16 and fresh from school, i found employment difficult. There was a recession on at the time you see, and besides, i was a lazy bastard who was nowhere near mature enough to realise that you had to work. Unless outrageously talented or fortunate, there really was no other way to get money. The library was a good friend to me over this period, but my choice of fiction was limited to only horror. Stephen King and James Herbert were the kind of thing i'd read, but it soon became boring. Stephen King takes 300 pages to establish character, James Hadley Chase can do it in a few sentences. So whilst perusing the shelves looking for interesting titles, i decided what the heck, i'd start at the very beginning.
A for Amis. I'd heard of Martin Amis, but couldn't tell you why. I picked up London Fields and thought it sounded kind of interesting. I took it out that day and spent the rest of the week transfixed by it's prose. It was, and remains, one of the most important books i've read. London Fields shoved me away from the adolescent thrill of horror books and into something more real. Something that i learned later was known as "kitchen sink". It was London Fields that no doubt set me up to become a huge fan of Mike Leigh films, themselves a big influence on me.
So after London Fields it was Money, Other People, Dead Babies and the ever glorious Time's Arrow. Amis became my new favourite person. Perhaps if i were in the internet age at that time, i would have been even more infactuated, as Wiki would no doubt have furnished me with some of the stories surrounding Amis, as he is a bit of a cad, and a lot of a character. All i had was the typically moody author pose on the back of the library books i'd take out.
He looked intelligent, intense, broody, and not without his charm. The local library had quite a good selection of his books, but as soon as i got off my ass and started working, i located and purchased the other books of his i'd been desperate to read.
So time passed and i moved on to other authors like Kurt Vonnegut and Iain Banks. Still a new Amis novel was met with excitement, but it felt like his best books were behind him.
Cut to today and i find myself feeling like the 16 year old that quizically prised London Fields from the shelf nearly two decades ago. Not sure what to expect, but having the idea that it'll be something good.
Amis is a small man. I can sympathise with him. I was also surprised by his attire. This is the guy who secured a one million pound advance for his novel, The Information, and his suit looked like it'd been lifted from the racks at the British Heart Foundation. His glasses were dangling round his neck, as if he was admitting that like a lot of old folk who had lost their faculties, he was constantly losing them and therefore needed to keep them around his neck at all times. While his physical appearance may have been disappointing to me, as i was used to seeing the pictures of him as a younger man on his book's jackets, his intellect was no less sharp.
Sure he speaks like an upper class gentleman, but i wanted and expected exactly that. It's refreshing to hear someone THINKING before they speak, and i found myself eagerly awaiting his tongue and vocal chords to mould the result of whatever his brain was firing out.
The audience was an interesting cross section of people. There were the trendy literary studenty types there. Amis teaches writing at Manchester University, and all i can say is lucky old them. I was born into a working class household, and despite what people may try and tell you, the class divide is still there, it exists and influences. Sometimes it's just harder to spot. The working classes shouldn't be intelligent for some reason, its considered very bad form. To this end, i often feel threatened by those i consider more intelligent than i, in case they attempt to use that intelligence against me. Of course i'd try and hold my own, but being working class it'll probably just end in clenched fists and thrown insults.
There were also the old boys there. I find them highly entertaining. They wear hats like it's the 30's and adopt the same kind of accent as Amis. They are a dieing breed and i'll miss them when they're gone. I look forward to being old and wearing a trilby. Being old grants you permission to say and do as you please, because everyone already assumes your best days are behind you.
In fact age was a constant theme tonight. Amis has turned 60 and is very conscious of the fact. He interestingly states that people now live to see their talent die before they do. He is, of course, quite right.
So at the close of the night you could go and get your books signed by him. I'd taken along my beat up copy of London Fields for him to sign, and eagerly waited to meet the man who had so influenced my choice of reading matter for many years. My encounter with Amis lasted no more than 30 seconds. 25 of which i felt embarrassed, as i approached the desk with my books to be signed, i dropped one on the floor and it slid under his desk. I fumbled about picking it up but any hope of grace was gone.
It didn't matter. I have fulfilled an ambition, and had a good night. Yes i'm a geek but fuck you, you're a geek too. If you give a shit what hair product you use, what car you drive, what music you listen to, what magazines you read or what tv programmes you curdle your brain with, then i consider YOU my friend, a geek, as you are just as particular about things as i am.
The sad truth is i rarely read fiction anymore. This world is a big place, full of things i really don't understand. Through reading i hope to acquire knowledge, but i'm already smart enough to know that it'll take more days than i have free or even than i'll be alive to learn everything i'd like to learn. A part of me now sees fiction as a waste of time. I could be learning something in the time taken to read a novel. Perhaps Amis' new offering will prise me out of that mindset. He said a very interesting thing tonight, he said that movies are external and novels are internal. I agree with that. The problem is, i'm not interested in knowing the internals of most authors, its hard enough to know the internals of yourself.
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