| Music by The Music |
[May. 14th, 2008|12:12 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  grateful | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Welcome to the North - The Music | ] |
So yesterday a friend of mine came back to England from holiday overseas. Isn't that a tautology? Never mind.
Anyway, he had a free ticket for a rock band at ULU, the University of London Union venue, which often does music. After thanking him for the offer, I went home and did the 3 S's. Shower, shave and you can guess the last one.
They absolutely rocked. I'm normally not one for headbanging, but I had great fun and recommend them for anyone who enjoys heavy, loud rock music. |
|
|
| |
[May. 10th, 2008|04:58 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  annoyed | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Ask A Ninja podcast #71 | ] |
I was chatting last night to some friends over beer and the subject of the London Met's new campaign about reporting 'suspicious' photography came up, and we all hated it. so instead of going to my local police station and throwing bricks, I've decided to make a blog post. And in bullet points too.
*The signal to noise ratio for photographers is going to be ridiculous
*This is open to, and has already led to, abuse of power
*The police officers charged with this duty are, in their own words, badly trained, if trained at all
*Campaigns like this make an already suspicious youth culture even more so.
*It's incredibly bad for tourism. If a tourist is harrassed by a police officer, especially an undertrained community support 'plastic police' officer, then we'll get a bad reputation.
*Fearmongering like this is a US thing, not a British one (no offence US flisters)
I could go on, but I'm bored now and my tv show has finished COMPLETELY LEGALLY downloading. |
|
|
| Iron Man |
[May. 2nd, 2008|10:15 pm] |
No spoilers, except to say this was amazing with an accompaniment of coolness and extreme funness sprinkled, no-poured all over the top.
Also, not a fascist. |
|
|
| My sister, you can see her |
[Apr. 14th, 2008|01:14 pm] |
| [ | music |
| | The Decemberists - O Valencia | ] |
So my sister, the Brat, now has a LJ that is open to the public.
She's apparently going to use it to help with her new creative writing course.
Her LJ name is ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) abitunhelpful |
|
|
| BANZAI !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
[Apr. 11th, 2008|10:13 pm] |
I just watched the 80's movie Buckaroo Banzai about a top half american, half japanese brain surgeion played by Peter Weller who's not also just a kung fu master, he's also an adventurer, a physisist, a rock star, has his own comic book as well as an international fan club *and* a group of scientist-musicians who help him out.
To explain the plot would be mad, but you must see this film. It's entirely crack-y, and has just appeared on my top 10 cult films to introduce to my friends. |
|
|
| Clay Shirky explains LJ wank |
[Apr. 9th, 2008|08:57 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  accomplished | ] |
So last night I finished reading Clay Shirky's book 'Here Comes Every Body' and it was a thoroughly good read, I highly recommend it for those of you interested in the effects social software has on the world.
One thing that I thought was especially appropriate for posting in LJ was what happened when people on Digg started to post the digital keys to unlock DVDs. Digg was asked by the manufactures to remove this information and when they did, the community went mad.
It wasn't the fact that Digg was complying by the law that upset the users, it was the demonstration that the users are inherently powerless against the actual owners of the site, and that they broke the implicit bargain which said that "we are all equals" even if it wasn't an explicit one.
By acting in a way that forced the users to realise the owners broke the trust that allowed Digg to become the giant it is today, what happened next was a form of social disobedience in which everybody started repetively posting the keys so that they appeared in the top 5 spot. Digg backed down, saying,
"you'd rather see Digg go down fighting than bow down to a bigger company. We hear you, and won't delete any more posts, and we'll deal with the consequences later. If we lose, than we died trying."
When LJ started deleting interests and LJ accounts, the fact that some of the interests were about porn was irrelevent, they broke the implicit social contract that brought people to Livejournal, and the owners didn't understand that LJ or fandom at large was a very loose *community*, not a collection of individual journals.
To demonstrate our anger, we responded in an act of social disobedience. Angry posts, rants, no posting on a certain day, etc. Because fandom is only one part of Livejournal, this unfortunately didn't have any effect on the owners but then again, the very idea that a commercial firm could be held to account uses was extremely uncommon, but it happened on Digg, and thanks to similar platforms allow non hierachical organising, it's easier now than ever before.
*****
Damn, now I'm late for work. |
|
|
| Internet Piracy |
[Apr. 6th, 2008|10:14 pm] |
So today I was watching the recent documentary The Corporation, I then followed it with a trawl of news articles on torrent search engine Piratebay.org, and it occured to me that a way of protecting yourself from attack would be to 'clothe' yourself in a corporate shell.
Now I know next to nothing abouth the legal details involved in such a act, but I thought it was a cool idea. Any replies from my faithful flist. |
|
|
| Galactica |
[Apr. 5th, 2008|12:37 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | impressed | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Red Light Indicates Doors Are Secured - Artic Monkeys | ] |
I have a friend who sometimes gets hold of tv shows before they come out in the UK, his name is Schmit, his parents were the Gorrents.
Today is probably the fastest he's ever got hold of an episode, just under a hour when it normally takes several. I've yet to watch the episode, but I shall be doing that very soon. |
|
|
| Philosophical wonderings |
[Apr. 4th, 2008|09:56 am] |
I'm fairly interested in philosophy, more the ideas behind the various theories, than a preference towards any particular idea. Recently however, I have come to the conclusion that there might be something to that whole mind/body dualism idea.
Here's why. It's late at night, I'm tired, my eyes are heavy and so I turn off the laptop, or put down the book I'm reading. I turn off the lights, shut my eyes and try to fall asleep. Now suddenly my brain won't shut up, it's insistant that it goes through the various slights that happened to me that day and what I should have said. Thinking about the stories I've read, the possible outcomes, what I would have in the protagonists place, etc.
This can go on for literally hours, but if I try to turn on the lights, or use my body in any way, it instantly reminds that it's late at night and needs sleep. |
|
|
| I'm more than a bit late to the party |
[Apr. 2nd, 2008|01:46 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Work | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | accomplished | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Tank riot podcast #42 | ] |
I recently found the first couple of episodes of Blake's 7.
How come no one told me about this show? On the strength of the first 3 episodes, it made buy series 1. This is unheard of from me, I normally watch at the very least an entire season of a tv show before deciding whether or not to buy a DVD.
Thank you play.com |
|
|
| Interesting people |
[Mar. 30th, 2008|07:00 pm] |
| [ | Current Location |
| | Home | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | accomplished | ] |
| [ | music |
| | tank riot podcast #48 | ] |
So I've been on a youtube binge recently, and I've become interested in a couple of what I guess you could call intellectuals or 'thinkers' and two writers.
The two main 'thinkers' I've become interested in are Lawrence Lessig and Clay Shirky, Lessig is well known in copyright circles for creating the Creative Commons Licence which allows you to share intellectual property without being sued and is know embarking on a Change Congress scheme to change and reduce the influnce of money in the US Congress. Clay Shirky's a writer, consultant and teacher interested in the internet's effect on society and the economy.
The other two people are Wil Wheaton and Cory Doctorow . Wil Wheaton who I knew as Wesley Crusher from TNG, and thanks to Warren Ellis I know him now as a writer, blogger, and fellow geek. And Cory doctorow from BoingBoing.net, he's not only a really cool writer whose writings do reflect his politics, thankfully not overly so, but also an activist against opressive copyright, heavily involved in the Electronic Freedom Frontier and similar groups.
The annoying, or interesting thing that happens when you read about or listen to people who have multiple or overlapping interests is that they lead you other people and you have so many options that you have to trim down your listening habits or they take you over. |
|
|
| Wow |
[Mar. 28th, 2008|12:54 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  enthralled | ] |
| [ | music |
| | The Chieftains - Give The Fiddler A Dram | ] |
I'm currently tearing through Charles Stross' novel Accelerando, and it is an amazing headtrip full of strange and wonderful ideas. I read his previous book Singularity Sky and enjoyed that, but this one has all the strange new ideas of SS along with an incredibly gripping and addictive narrative with interesting characters.
If you like 'idea' scifi, than I highly reccommend reading his books especially Accelerando. |
|
|
| Peter Cushing Fighting Kung-Fu Vampires |
[Mar. 23rd, 2008|01:18 pm] |
I just watched a film "The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires" and it is entirely made of awesome with Van Helsing fighting Dracula in China with ninjas on both sides. It's a bit of a shambles, incredibly theatric speech, but overall, a great geeky funfest. Because it's Kung-Fu! and Vampires!
IMDB Link |
|
|
| American Politics and Media |
[Mar. 22nd, 2008|11:46 pm] |
| [ | music |
| | dan le sac vs scroobius pip - "Thou shalt always kill" | ] |
I've been kinda paying attention to US politics because I want to know who our PM is going to be kissing up too but that's another post to rant about in, anyway. Barak Obama has had the crap kicked out of him in media coverage and I would not be surprised if it only gets worse.
I mean I know that things like honesty and consistantcy are near foreign ideas to a lot of US media outlets, but how can they accuse Obama of belonging to a radical christian church that "hates america" while at the same time accusing, hinting, implying, etc. jim of being a secret muslim who Al Quida all write love letters to?
P.S. Keep in mind this is my random trawling through the american newscycle |
|
|
| Shmit Gorrent makes you buy stuff |
[Mar. 10th, 2008|12:33 pm] |
So I recently gave in and spent money to own season 1 of my recent obsessions, post-apocalyptic tv. Jericho and Jeremiah seasons 1 have arrived today and will be spending tonight watching them along with all the shiny new features I didn't get with my previous method of consumption.
Now if only MGM would get their arses into gear and release season 2 I wouldn't have to go through other means. |
|
|
| Hilarity |
[Mar. 9th, 2008|07:56 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | happy | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Stephen Fry's PODGRAMS | ] |
At this current moment in time, I am listening to Stephen Fry's podcast available via iTunes or stephenfry.com and he is in brilliant form. Please do yourself a favour and check it out. |
|
|
| Comic Rec |
[Mar. 6th, 2008|11:21 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | happy | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Galactica Watercooler podcast #89 | ] |
Today I went into the West End as I do every Thursday to go to my preferred comic shop Gosh Comics, and I saw issue 2 of a comic by Jonathan Hickman called Pax Romana and was told that issue one was available for free online at the beneath address. It's about time travel and the roman empire, with guns. But much, much better than my shitty summary.
Pax Romana Issue 1 |
|
|
| even on my days off, I procrastinate |
[Feb. 29th, 2008|02:30 pm] |
So when I booked this week off, I thought I'd use it to get through a few new books of mine. Phillip Pullman's The Amber Spyglass for one, my new BenBella books for others.
What have I been doing instead? DVD's, tv online, podcasts, wikipedia, LJ, comics even. Practically every thing else other than the one thing i planned to do this week. Hell, even as I write this post I'm in the middle of watching episode 7 of the new season of The Wire. I should have known that the easiest way for me to avoid doing something is to plan ahead to do it.
Insane, illogical, absurd even. That's me. On the other hand, I did find a torrent for season 2 of Jeremiah. If they'd release it on DVD I'd buy it, but seeing as they've declined to do so, I've had to resort to other *ahem* methods.
EDIT: I've noticed something, quite a few of the minor characters from Jeremiah are also found in another scifi show that's due to return shortly. BSG. Dualla, Tyrol, Gaeta, Six, and Jammer's identical twins from another universe are all there. |
|
|
tired
contemplative