If you're here, you have too much time on your hands.

When the dream gets top heavy.

2011-02-18T08:55:00.003+01:00

Our pensions are going to be worth a fraction of what we paid for them, and here's why.

What is a share?

I mean those things that are traded on the stock exchange. The basis of our pensions, one of the indicators we use to measure how our economy is doing.

It's exactly what it says it is, of course. It's a part ownership in a commercial enterprise, sometimes giving one a voice in the running of that enterprise, sometimes not.

But that's not how we treat them. We treat them as entities in themselves.

The price is notionally based on the performance of the company. If profits are good, the share usually reflects this. But the share price is no longer in any reasonable proportion to the dividend. Some companies issue no dividends at all; you are expected to make your profit by trading in the shares.

The shares hav become an entity in themslves. One buys them on the basis that one thinks that the share price will rise. The bosses bonus is often based on goals for the share price.

Companies now have a dual function; to provide a good or service, and to inspire confidence in the value of it's stock. There is a corelation, but in the abscence of meaningful dividends in scale with the price, it is a largely theoretical one.

Simply put, the stock market has become a pyramid scheme. We have a commodity that has value based on a faith that in the future, some-one else will have a greater faith in the value of the commodity.

2010-11-21T12:35:00.003+01:00

I am, apparently, a girly-man, as Karin always contended. A young one, though.

Politics are making me move.

2010-05-13T08:37:00.002+01:00

I'm moving apartment in a couple of months, from rental 'till one I shall own. I can't say that I really want to, but the government have changed the law on purely ideological grounds.

As things stand, rents in Sweden are extremely low; they've been kept that way by apartment blocks owned by the local councils, which have been run at cost price. I think that it's one of the reasons that living standards have been so high in Sweden; the cost of owning a home runs at an average of 30% of a households income.

Now a law has been passed obliging these apartments to be run for profit; no improvements can be made with-out justifying them on grounds of increased income. Rents in private apartments will no longer be set against these rents plus a determined mark-up.

So everything will spiral.

The justification being used is that not enough building is going on, but that's hardly strange in today's strangled economic conditions.

It makes me sad. In Ireland, working for the county council, there was no way that I could have afforded a home of my own, I'd have had to share a fairly small apartment, and that would have consumed probably 65-70% of my income. Here, I've had a lovely apartment, and had most of my income over.

Why change this? It worked. I would have thought that it was worth protecting, more important than the possibilty of a small group of people making large sums of money.

I see one big problem with Google Wave as it stands; who do I communicate with?

2009-10-23T18:55:00.003+01:00

(My having to publish this here illustrates the problem. I can share this with precisely one person on Google Wave, as things stand).

When I'm using email, I can communicate with anyone who has an email address, on any platform, as long as I know that address. With Google Wave, they must have a Google account.

With a blog, I can publish, and anyone with a H.T.M.L.-capable device and an internet connection can read my blog, and reply. Blogs often become conversations. With Google Wave, I can only communicate with other Google Wave users.

Google Wave needs to be available to people who don't have an account.

Googe Wave needs to have a general publication option.

Of course, it has definite pluses. Being able to have a conversation involving several people, where one can see what is happening live, but doesn't necessarily have to be online for the whole conversation to keep it alive; what a godsend. Especially once it goes mobile.

So; this is an exciting idea, but it needs to be more open.

The Social Democrats must turn the question around.

2009-10-19T02:04:00.002+01:00

Currently, the Social Democrats are losing a P.R. war in Sweden; the media are asking them if they are the party of raises taxes; and they hum and haw, because they don't want to say yes, but they can't honestly say no.

They sound turn that question around and say that they are the party for seeing that government does it's job; namely, that society works for every-one, and no just the seventy percent (and falling) of people that can make a ruthless market economy work for them.

But they also need to acknowledge that the system as it was has faults; that simply giving people who fall out of the working mainstream money doesn't work either for individuals or society.

A lot of people in Sweden are on early retirement because they couldn't cope with working life, sometimes from as early as their twenties. A lot of immigrants find that it is nearly impossible to find work unless one can create it for ones self, an ability that we don't all possess. And a lot of Swedes aren't good enough at school to get a qualification and find themselves competing for the unqualified tasks, of which their aren't enough to go around.

But I can say from both personal experience and statistical data that not having something to work for in life is soul destroying; people who are retired early don't live as long as every-one else.

I'm not saying that society should find make-work, or punish people who can't find regular work; but that a role for all of these people who are left behind must be found. Because it's unacceptable that people should be left behind, and it's a problem that's only going to get worse.

And it's a problem that the current government doesn't acknowledge. Paupering the workforce to make them more competitive might create more jobs; but you've also paupered the work force. That's not a solution.

And I doubt that it will work. There will always be some-one who is more competitive.

Pension age.

2009-10-15T16:22:00.002+01:00

Yes, that title promises a roller-coaster ride of a blog entry, I know.

I was thinking (always a mistake) about Britain's plan to increase the pension age to sixty-six, to save money. I think it's a false economy.

Increasing the pension age in a time of high unemployment shouldn't reduce the number of dependents on state aid; the people not being pensioned should, one might assume, have otherwise been replaced by people who were unemployed, at least, they should have created a job vacancy for some-one previously unemployed.

Being a pensioner doesn't at all carry the stigma of being unemployed. Pensioners don't need harassing by public servants to change their status, or retraining programmes, and hopefully don't become unmotivated and suicidally depressed.

I think that they should take it the other way in times of high unemployment. It would also makes cuts in the public sector less painful.

Or?

Chestnuts.

2009-08-03T18:13:00.002+01:00

Once again, this time on Sveriges Radios Christer, the alternative of sticking a tax on broadband to compensate copyright-owners was raised. Not discussed, just raised.

Mm. I have no objection to paying copyright holders, but I do object to paying twice. I buy my music from emusic and iTunes, or on C.D.; shall I pay for the privilege of paying again? If a tax is introduced, I would expect file sharing to become legal. Fair is fair.

And who shall get this money? Shall we trust a private body to distribute this bounty? Shall it go to a select few artists based on their size, as the fees paid by shops do? What copyright holders shall qualify? Photographs are routinely pirated on the web. What burden of evidence will be placed on claimants? How will their share be calculated?

The gentleman who suggested this, with no further expansion, called himself a philosopher. Damn sloppy work, I have to say. A degree does not a philosopher make.

Britain is becoming a scary place.

2009-05-23T11:35:00.003+01:00

They're starting to routinely log all traffic movements in Britain.

(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/whos_watching_you/8064333.stm)

The traditional argument trotted out by supporters of unregulated government survelliance of the population is that if you've nothing to hide, you've nothing to fear.

This supposes a police force that is beyond reproach, and a reasonable justice system. That's a hell of a given. I've seen reclaim the streets protesters being beaten in Dublin, with-out provocation; they were simply cycling on the street, congesting traffic. I've seen film of poll tax protesters who were sitting peacefully outside Downing Street being charged by police on horses. New age travellers having their homes burnt at stone henge because Thatcher didn't approve. And that's in the democratic Western world.

I suspect that proponents ae civil rights are often thought of cranks, but I don't think so. A free society is something you get from not allowing too much power to concentrate in any-one's hands, and making the instruments of govenment and policing transparent to scrutiny. Yes, that makes their jobs harder, but the alternative is the possibility of a police state. No thanks.

Ego.

2009-04-10T19:09:00.000+01:00

Enough to drive one forward, but not so much that one forgets the needs of others. Tricky.

Musings on Superman.

2009-04-02T23:34:00.000+01:00

I used to think that Superman would be very difficult to write; where's the challenge for him, he can do anything. But I changed my mind. On a mundane level, this is a guy who's taken the weight of the world on shoulders; he may be unbelievably powerfull, but he's still just one guy who can't be everywhere. Couldn't that give one a nervous breakdown? How does he deal with complex situations? What does he believe?

And he's a journalist who can go anywhere, hear and see anything, and then express himself to a broad public. In a way, Clark Kent could be more powerfull than Superman; what does he do with this power?

On a barely related subject, I read about Richard Dawkins expressing the fear that magical childrens fantasies could make children more likely to fall for religion. I don't know about that, I suspect that realising Narnia isn't at at the back of the wardrobe is probably a good first step on the way to questioning the other fantasies that one is presented with. But also, the regular dreams that we're presented with, namely money, fame and supercompetence, are so boring that we need something more. And something that can stimulate a belief in a better world, a more fun world, because we have to dream about it before we can make it. And I want a nice, fluffy world where no-one is hungry and every-one can be what they want to be and the walls glow electric blue or whatever.

Is this it?

2009-03-23T00:45:00.003+01:00

I saw an interview with Björn Gustavsson, a Swedish comedian who broke the big time in Sweden last year. He was talking about how he'd worked solidly towards where his now since he was fourteen or so, and when he got there, he had a sense of, is this it?

I suspect that that's partly why I've never gotten off of my ass and actually written this blasted novel that 've been plagueing myself with for twenty-six years. Even if one produces something marvellous, so what? I'm not interested in a legacy. It's not as if the world is waiting with baited breath for my contribution. In the end, it's mostly an expression of ego.

Although the world can never have good books, and, who knows, maybe it would be a good book. And then I could just get on with being me.

Twitter.

2009-02-15T13:21:00.003+01:00

Thanks to prompting from a friend, I have a Twitter account, though I almost never use it. Blogging seems desperate enough, in that my life is not fabulously interesting unless you're not me or my mum (hi mum), and, unless it's some-one who's sexually interested in one, I can't imagine that any-one would be too interested in that fact that one is having pancakes and folding clothes. Twittering takes the illusion that our lives and our every notion makes for gripping reading a stage too far, I suspect.

I could be wrong. Perhaps I have a stalker out there. (Hi stalker).

And we shall become Atlantians!

2009-02-03T06:15:00.001+01:00

I was reading Göteborg Postens artical today on the city's plans to protect itself for rising sea levels; sea barriers and moving parts of the city; and it got me to wondering (again) why we aren't even talking about science fiction solutions; finding an energy efficient method of freezing a chunk of the ocean, perhaps even using that trapped energy rather than seeing it as a problem. Separating the CO2 into C and O2. Collecting or altering what we've already put up there. Is this totally beyond the realm of scientific reality? Cost would have to be a none issue, as no-one can afford to live on Venus, which would appear to be what we're turning Ma Earth into.

Perhaps I'll postpone the book I'm blocking on and write that one instead, and hope that it turns out to as prophetic as all of the doomsday sci fi. Then we can get on with finding the next way to wipe ourselves out.

Repost from my other blog, but I think it fits in better here.

2009-01-25T08:43:00.003+01:00

Google is a strange phenomena. They have lots of services that one can't find by following links off their own website; one has to find out about them. This is perhaps due to most Google products being almost perpetually in beta, but still, it's an odd promotion strategy. They have some fantastic stuff, but I find it unfortunate that they've moved away from providing services that work on older, slower machines and slow connections; both Gmail and Google Documents complain when I try to run them on my parents 30 K.B./S connection, although, in fairness, Gmail does provide solutions, in the form of making older, less demanding versions of the web page available, and a simple H.T.M.L. page solution.

Still. what I liked about their strategy from the beginning was that it opened up the 'net in a new way to a whole new constituency, much as Opera does. Lots of people have older computers, and lots of areas don't have broadband; web 2.0, with it's heavy dependence on Java, Flash and soon doubtless Silverlight, is a slow and frustrating place. One of the features about Opera that I loved when I was working on a Windows 95 machine was the turn off images button!

However, I found a partial solution when I was last back in Ireland; use the mobile web in your computer browser. It has limitations, but it's a whole lot faster; Yahoo, Facebook and Opera all have mobile pages, and lots of media organisations too. Although they lack features available of the regular web pages, they're a whole lot smaller, and feature no demanding plug-ins. No (fluff)friends on Facebook, but you can read your messages and not require blood pressure medication.

So, come on all of you technologically handicapped, join me in the third world of the internet, the mobile web. Population seven million and rising.

Untill the iPhone kills it :)

That's strange, my carefully embedded hyperlinks didn't work.

Irritating.

2009-01-25T07:45:00.002+01:00

I've just discovered that the reason that the native email programme on my mobile 'phone was failing to work was because I'd switched a couple of letters in the ougoing mail server address. It's taken me months to spot that. It doesn't matter so very much, because I use the Gmail mobile client, and, although one has to check if one has emails, it works well; I mostly wanted the native client to work because it would allow me to include 'photos from my mobile blog posts on myopera.com, where I maintain a more diary-like (and therefore not very interesting) blog. And now it does. Facebook still won't let me upload 'photos, though, which may be because I use the Gmail P.O.P.3 server. Unimportant.

Carry on, men.

2009-01-25T07:27:00.000+01:00

2009-01-25T07:25:00.000+01:00

2009-01-25T07:09:00.000+01:00

Cool Iris.

2009-01-07T14:33:00.003+01:00

For those using the Firefox browser, there's a great extension called CoolIris (used to be PicLens). Basically it's a button in the top right corner that puts all of the pictures on site which are enabled for it on a giant, movable wall, which one can zoom in and out of. It seems to work with all blogger sites. It seems to automatically follow the hyperlink embedded in the 'photo to the larger version, where such exists. One can display the 'photo in three stages, the last being full screen; and there are little previews available at the bottom if one desires.

It's great for checking out the pictures on a site with-out having to click backwards and forwards all of the time, although one does lose context. I just like it, it's cool.

Sitting home and listening to music...

2008-12-13T12:04:00.005+01:00

...in what is now my home (although it's still her name on the lease). I'm getting used to the concept, although it still feels unnatural. It's a more relaxed atmosphere, because I'm not worried about waking her up, but it feels empty. She belongs on that couch, the one I still can't bring myself to use, recovering from the night before. This is a bit like bereavement, except that she's still out there in the world. I still feel that I have to try and make the place tidy before she comes back, whenever that might be.

Today I shall go to Sofia's place and install a firewall and virus checker on her P.C. She's been surfing naked for over a year, except for the inbuilt Windows firewall; is that any good these days? I'm so out of date. And then perhaps we and her sister Anna shall watch "Kiki's Delivery Service" and "Tortoro", which they've never seen. Sofia is a huge Disney fan, I'll be interested to see what she'll make of them. I remember hearing that Studio Ghibli had been bought by Disney but maintained as an independent studio.

And next week we work from 6.30 'till 16.30. Oh, joy. Hard to complain when so many others are losing their jobs.

The authentic life.

2008-03-22T20:40:00.004+01:00

So what the fuck is that? All I know is that I long to live an honest, authentic, productive life, and have no idea what shape such a life might take, I just know that the worker drone existence I perpetuate at the moment doesn't fit the bill. Probably there is no such thing and this is a Quixotic quest to fill in the gap before death. And it's driving me insane...

Answers on a postcard.

Please do not feed the Irishman.

2008-03-06T18:52:00.002+01:00

I was today an exhibit in an English class. It was an English class for immigrants; my qualifications as exhibit being that I speak English and am Irish. It's a little strange being the exotic foreigner to a bunch of other exotic foreigners; any of them could equally well have filled that role for me when I was studying Swedish. What does one talk about? What makes one's country special and unique?

I whittled on about rain and our very minority native language, and our appallingly expensive and ineffective state services, the things that leap out at me. Luckily it only occurred to me later that our true contribution to modern culture is probably guerrilla warfare; fighting in small, independent units on lightening assaults with-out resorting to hopeless open warfare, the end being attrition. Possibly not what one wishes to advertise as ones major achievement in the current climate, especially as it's likely that several of the students are refugees from such conflicts and are probably facing repatriation. Perhaps best to stick with leprechauns after all....

Physics and brain power.

2008-02-15T03:32:00.003+01:00

When I was in school, I really sucked at soccer. I realise now that the fault lay in my premise for how the world functions. I would try and work out where the ball would come and be there waiting for it. But, of course, the ball was where it was because of a struggle, a struggle that my premise, that the ball would come to a location, excluded me from. Years later, it finally dawned on me to go to the ball, and lo and behold, I became much better at the game. That is, unfortunately, a true story. I am an idiot.

I believe that it reveals a truth that has value in a wider context. There is scant evidence we shall get the lives we desire by sitting back and waiting for them to come to us.

I used to sleep...

2008-01-18T05:08:00.000+01:00

...but now there seems to be a lot of pointless nonsense that one simply must do at four in the morning.

The sort of stuff one writes at two in the morning when one should be in bed.

2007-10-28T01:00:00.000+01:00

He Truly Believed that the door would open of it's own accord. That the door failed to open evinced a lack in his faith. The continued failure of the door to open presented a challenge to his faith. It would be such much each easier if the world was maliable to his will.
But it is , said a voice in his mind. Your will controls in large degree your body, and your body can affect the world. Furthermore, you have a voice with which to communicate your will to others, who might be willing to affect it on your behalf.
"Quiet, reasoning voice!", he bellowed. "This you speak of is not the same as directly affecting the world with the power of my mind!"
But the world outside your body is not part of your mind; by what instrument should it be affected?
"That's a pretty wild assumption! I believe that my mind is at one with the world, that we are linked through imperceptible bonds, and we are in sympathy with one another."
Have you any evidence of this?
"I need no evidence. My belief is enough."
Reason fled, shaking his head in despair.

Hmm...

2007-09-29T19:18:00.000+01:00

The sound coming through the wall sounded distressed. Perhaps it’s owner was not being kind to it. That, the temperature (cool heading on cold with a promise of moisture and an oppressive front of harsh, white light) and Graham’s (Ethel’s) own biology had him sitting on the bathroom tiles, also distressed. Many people would think it great to able to experience the effect of being on drugs with-out the hassle of procuring, ingesting and suffering side effects of same, but not Graham (Ethel). He (she) rather tended to focus on the facet that left him (her) unable to not feel as if he (she) was popping through the door in the neural attic; the fact that he (she) was here, strung out on the bathroom floor on a Friday night, freaked out by (the very interesting, nice) noise (that would undoubtedly be kind him ((her)) later) after the trip that never was. Joy, rapture, angels take him (her) away (after first spontaneously popping into existence, of course). (Are these brackets starting to annoy you? You could always paste the file into a text editor and remove them). (Pay no attention to my misery. Go right ahead).

(Okay, fine, be like that. I’m not writing any more).

Why?

2007-07-15T00:26:00.000+01:00

It's the question we've been asking for some time now; I personally am convinced that Nietzsche hit upon the answer, namely, whatever we make of it. You may be convinced otherwise; this is important; what is, is defined by two factors; physical being, and what we imagine. Mostly, what we imagine is fairly seriously constained by our upbringing.

I'm very lucky; my upbringing has both been very loving and very challenging on the ego; I am prepared for the total perspective vortex; I am pointless and irrelevent, and so what.

What's important, exactly? Nothing lasts. So what? Intrisic value; huh? What am I even pointless and irrelevant to?

Except for your opinion, what frame of reference is there?

This question is often fobbed off with procreation; procreation creates a new responsibilty which makes ego a selfish luxury no longer worthy of adult consideration; but this is merely passing the buck to the procreated, who may then choose to ignore the question in a similiar fashion; it's not an answer, it's an excuse for no longer asking the question.

Socrates's great discovery was that; wisdom is the knowledge that we know nothing. This is still true; one may believe in many things, for example, science, a god, evolution, space, geometry; whatever; you are still taking some-one's word for it; even if you think you have direct access to primary data, trusting that data is an act of faith in the acquisition of that data; Descartes great discovery. We have a dubious reasoning facility attempting to cope with dubious data; it's no wonder that we can't agree on anything.

Professionally tired.

2007-06-12T00:12:00.000+01:00

We have an evening shift in work at the moment, which is providing me with a tantalizing reminder of what it was like when I wasn't tired all of the time, as it means a six hour working day instead of eight, and, better yet, not having to get up at five in the morning. Getting up at five probably doesn't represent a challenge for those who can fall asleep on cue. I'm a totally different person at the moment, with energy and enthusiasm. I suspect that I'm also doing the job better. It's a pity that it's only temporary.

I read (coincidentally) in the paper that a shoe factory that introduced shift work, with six hour shifts instead of eight, found that sick leave fell from 17% to 4%. There is something wrong when sick leave is at 17%. What must it be like for workers in China, with twelve hour shifts. I want Fair Trade marks on everything, not just my chocolate and bananas, work should not deprive one of a life.

I want... (not going to happen and, anyway, not environmentally considerate).

2006-12-01T21:45:00.000+01:00

L.C.D. wallpaper linked to my computer... I'd start off with opening credits scene from "Mars Attacks!"... with music. Yes, my girlfriend will definitely go along with that. She can have scenes from Gladiator next week.

Silly renewable energy idea/stream of thought.

2006-12-01T19:43:00.000+01:00

Let's burn some deserts and turn them into solar panels; dig tunnels underneath let moisture collect, create hydrogen... start running cars on this. Sure, it'll be that easy. That's the great thing about not being burdened with a lot scientific information, I can rush to conclusions with-out being burdened with seeing the potential difficulties. Think I'll become C.E.O. in the dreamscape. I'll get paid in dream currency.

...next week, a really, really big mathematical equation.

Vascillation.

2006-11-19T13:50:00.000+01:00

Beginning to think that my entire life is finding things that I don't need to do and doing them, instead of doing what I want to do, which is scribble. Think I might be afraid of the page. Time to move into a cave and start eating bugs, write on leaves with charred sticks. Work? Friends? Mindless internet reading? Bah!

I just took a look at my new friend's friends and I now feel really boring.

2006-09-03T07:01:00.000+01:00

I have a myspace page that I have never maintained, never done anything with, and still occasionally get friend invites on; my latest myspace friend (will this become a new adjective?) has some really interesting looking myspace friends. I blend into the wallpaper by comparison.

I'll just have to compensate with my massive ego. Thank you Mr. Nietzsche; first you help me fill the void that religion left when it walked out the door (fill it with ego; what else can you call the instruction to create your own meaning, morality?), and now you help me stare in the looking glass, face the spectre of my blog laziness, and go "Eh". Not so much a philosophy as a way of life.

Of course, we all have to create our own meaning and morality anyway, even if passively. Massive ego is normal; natural; perhaps necessary; it's just that it's not always obvious.

No hiding. No lies.

I wonder if that's possible?

Hello Saferide played Nefertiti yesterday...

2006-03-03T09:49:00.000+01:00

...and both they an their backing band were great. Several new songs were played, which was not the usual frustrating experience, because you could actually hear what she was singing. Very funny, bittersweet. Recommended.

Hello Saferide

Why religion is not for me.

2006-02-25T18:17:00.000+01:00

Belief not a choice. I don't choose to not belief in a divine mover, I simply don't.

I used to be a Roman Catholic; I came to asking myself why I gave creedance to this faith over any other, for example, Islam or Buddhism, and I couldn't find an answer to my satisfation; I simply don't see any evidence that gives weight to any one belief over another; it's all anecdotal; and they do contradict each other. Once one realises this, one asks why any of them has to be true.

I don't have any answers to the big questions we have. I understand those who believe that there must be an underlieing reason to how the universe came about beyond chance; maybe they're right; I don't know.

The evidence available is existence. One makes of that what one will. For me, it's enough information for me to derive the conclusion that we exist.

Everything else is speculation and opinion.

It's 5.07 A.M. and the keyboard is clacking...

2006-01-14T14:18:00.000+01:00

...but has it anything worth saying? Does anybody? Should we just stop talking altogether? Silent movies could back in fashion.

But there's still stuff going on the requires comment, censure. The U.S. bombing Pakistan yesterday, because, they could, because they are apparently beyond any reprisal other than disapproval; bombing in general, because it's nasty and indiscriminate; Chinese industrial labour conditions; Russian state aggression; nations going along with America's current disregard for international law, including, unfortunately, my own (Ireland); the many countries where women are second class citizens; et cetura.

It would be nice if we could all afford to shut up, but it's just not an ethically tenable position.

Property.

2005-08-06T19:17:00.000+01:00

I think that any-one still referring to themselves as a Communist or a Capitalist is living in the past. The increasing mechanisation of industry is making worker solidarity moribund. We can't all work in service industries, can we? So, what's left? Mass unemployment? That seems to be the road we're headed down.

I heard a man on the radio saying that it wasn't the state's responsibility to provide for the people. Oh? Who is it that enforces the system that allows ownership, and provides checks that are intended to see that no-one need starve (as long as they live with-in that states borders, at any rate)? What are states foe exactly? Defence and justice, surely.

The old systems seem ill equiped to cope with a world that will require only a small percentage of the population to toil fulltime (if this is what actually comes to pass) and I think most humans need to work in order to stay healthy.

We need new solutions.

Treatises on the back of a postcard. Tyrannies need not apply.

I think I'll explore the issue in a work of fiction. Yup, that'll be a hot item at Waterstones...

Compressed time, A.K.A. the overtime phenomena

2005-05-25T20:11:00.000+01:00

I've been working a great deal of the time lately, doing the maximum overtime allowed. It's making me extremely jealous of the free time I do have; I want to spend my free time doing what I want to do, which is, as it turns out, writing letters in cafes and going to the pictures. Hugely imaginative. It's made me realize that the internet has taken up the position that T.V. had earlier in my life; eating up huge amounts of time, with dubious return.

I think an extended bout of ludditery is called for.

Writing on mindspace.

2005-03-26T02:11:00.000+01:00

I've become acutely aware of the limations of my mind over the years. Often my opinions are formed on the basis of as little as one sample. I think that's how the mind works; we experience, we generalise; we hear a story, we generalise; it's not possible to research everything exhaustively, we have to extrapolate.

This can result in us thinking that we know a lot more than we, in fact, know. A few times now my girlfriend has reliably informed me on points of Swedish law (she's a native Swede and I'm not) and later been contradicted by experience, literature or the relevant government authority. I frequently relate something I've read or heard via the media and am met with disbelief. Perhaps we require a greater degree of certainty than is usually possible in order to function, I don't know.

The upshot is, what information we do get becomes very important; we extrapolate it into a whole world. Friends, the media, governments, friends, books, school...

Russia wants Sweden to curtail media reports on Chechnya
(here), Californian college professors may have to start being very carefull what they say (here), we swim in a sea of advertising with but one aim, to sell, etc., etc.

So, what do you know?

Intellectual property.

2005-03-21T19:26:00.000+01:00

A weird notion. That a person/entity can own an idea, and can leave it to their children. In America, Sonny, of Sonny and Cher fame, tried to have copyright extended eternally. Disney would always own Mickey Mouse. Presumably somebody would own The Three Musketeers, The Merchant of Venice and... the Bible! Cooool. Churches would have to pay if they wanted to do public performances. If they could prove lineage, which is, unfortunately, about as likely as a man on the Sun next year. Could happen...

Could be interesting. All of those mathematical equations could suddenly become property. Every machine and computer programme that uses them would suddenly be liable to ransom. The D.N.A. maps could remain patented forever, scientists poised to pounce on the next mutation. I might have to pay Socrates's heirs every time I don't know something. The possibilities are limitless!

Yes, yes, I know patents and copyrights are not the same (although the term "patent" is becoming broader all of the time. Once upon a time, to be a patent you had to be a substantial technical innovation. Amazon are patenting or have patented the ability to infer from purchases). I was just having fun. I doubt think eternal copyright is really on the cards. Patents only last seventeen years, and involve publishing the intimate details of your innovation.

Intellectual property is supposed to encourage and protect innovation and creativity, finitely. That's it's upside. Monopoly on an innovation or idea can hinder it's progress and diffusion. That's it's downside. It's a balancing act.

Gestalt

2005-03-20T20:58:00.000+01:00

I had my first experience of this phenomena when I first went to college (Milltown Institute of Theology and Philosophy). I studied philosophy. The gists of the courses were not new to me; I had already encountered just about every idea perpetuated in the field through my book-a-day science fiction habit. (True substance abuse). They had permeated through our culture, our politics.

It's an interesting phenomena. Not too many people have actually read the texts, even people who have studied them; (a lot of course revolve around second hand critique); how do they spread? Where is the mneumetic conversation taking place? It often precedes publication. Darwin published his treatise on evolution when he did because he knew some-one else was going to publish the same notions.

Be carefull what you say on the bus...

Spleen

2005-02-05T12:27:00.000+01:00

I was saddened when Alexander the movie received criticism for featuring homosexuality. Besides being a neanderthalic prejudice, it distracted from the many valid reasons for criticism. This is a strong contender for worst movie ever made.

I will say first that this film has a marvelous cast. But it really doesn't help. Really.

It's almost totally ahistorical, but that's standard practice. It's irritating if you know something about Alexander's life and deeds (I studied him college), but the people I feel sorry for are the ones who walk away thinking they've been exposed to an educational experience. There is a small book in explaining how wrong this assumption is. It'd write it, but it would involve watching the movie again. But the rather liberal interpretation of the available information is a side issue in explaining why this is a strong contender for worst movie ever made.

The script is dreadful. Mind-bendingly dreadful. It's deficiencies take several forms. I shall enumerate them;

1) The dialogue is actually a series of monologues. Every-one is apparently reciting excerpts from their autobiographies, or treatises on whatever is at hand, letters to whomever they are talking to, letters to the editor, political speeches, self-help manuals... It's certainly not conversation.

2) It's portentous. I sometimes like portentousness, it can lend atmosphere. Here, it lends to the tedium. The tedium doesn't need adding to, it's already oversubscribed.

3) It never knows when to stop. Anthony Hopkins has a monologue at the end that goes on for several minutes. You keep thinking it'll end, hoping, praying it will end (this Anthony Hopkins! He could probably read the ingredients of soap and make it sound interesting), and it does, eventually, but by then you slipped even further into a coma and are in no fit condition to cheer. Colin Farrell seems to spend half the movie looking off into space and holding forth at length on, oh, whatever, but always passionately.

4) It's badly written. It's a bad series of portentous monologues that never know when to stop.

Aside from the script (perhaps) the film features other flaws that inhibit it from greatness. Such as?

Pointless time jumps. I have nothing against time jumps. Highlander, Once upon a time in America, Godfather part two, Once upon a time in the West, For a few dollars more, and probably other films that weren't by Sergio Leone... Many great films feature them. But usually they follow a rationale. Usually they aren't apparently random and unconnected. Here, it's like they put a couple of reels in the wrong order.

Sins of omission. While I said that the lack of adherence to historical accuracy was a side issue, not mentioning almost any episode that might actually have been exciting or interesting seems a dubious policy. Alexander, as the posters implied, was the stuff of legend made real. (I make no moral judgement here). Does it mention the phalanx? Any of the innovative ways that he overcame apparently unassailable fortresses by looking at the problems from another angle? The political methodology whereby he kept a grip on all of the peoples behind him? The Gordian Knot? Does it hell. It does feature a couple of battle scenes, the second of which is shot in a vivid and pretty colour scheme, and both of which illustrate that he fought at forefront of his army. So that's something.

The most laughable sex scene ever committed to film. Alexander wins over his bride by making kitty-cat claw gestures and noises. There's more, but that's definitely the stand-out feature.

I could go on, but this film has already eaten enough of my life. The only thing epic here is the ineptitude. It actually made me feel nauseous.

Gabh + Time = ?

2004-12-05T10:38:00.000+01:00

I've decided that if I'm ever to achieve anything, e.g. finish my book, end poverty in the world, travel to other worlds, you know, the usual wish list of those exposed to science fiction and Stan Lee at a tragically young age, I need to step outside time; so I'm in the market for a Tardis. Not fussy about model, but I would like one with a chameleon function; I plan to disguise it as a comic/old game shop and roam the cities of the universe... Any offers?

Neeeerd!

2004-11-22T03:30:00.000+01:00

I think I'll start a self-help group for extremely pretentious people. We'll watch episodes of Red Dwarf and Benny Hill and totally fail to find any deeper cultural significance in them. Help.

The good news is that symptoms should abate with age, as brain cells extingush in nihilistic ecstasy. Bastards. I wasn't done with them.

I mean it. Confusicus ain't blogging here.

2004-11-21T20:58:00.000+01:00

Actually, I find blogs slightly reassuring, in a I'm-no-ditzier-then-98.6%-of-the-human-race kind of way. Most blogs I've seen start with an apology for not making in a entry for so long, and a promise to improve. This almost invariably being two years old.

I fully understand this, having had a diary that mangaged three entries in one year during it's hayday. The problem's are dual; having something worth worth writing about (no problem for me, obviously), and dragging yourself away from the vital deeds of every day life, such as watching T.V., vacuuming, not doing the dishes, following links on the internet, long enough to impart your wisdom to... who?

Who are you? What are you doing here?

Usually it takes something like the threat of failing college to make me sit down and actually finish something. But this never finishes, it's just goes on until either civilization falls, I die (photo finish) or I or the server lose interest. Daunting, no?

Well, I laugh in the face of daunting. Then I hand in my essay on time, having typed for fifteen hours straight on a topic other than the one I researched.

I think I'll go and have a cry now. To much self-awareness is bad for the self-esteem.