Jealous of the World

An almost cosmopolitan week, witnessing visits to no less than three nearby major population centres in the space of five of your solar days.

And bearing in mind I was meant to be working, it was almost like having my old life back again.

Well, not really.

Anyway, it was once again a delight to have some time to spend just sitting a while, and to watch the young humans scurrying about.

The original theme of this entry was to further elaborate on previous commentaries, and their ambivalent attitudes of pity tinged with sheer bloody envy when observing yer youth of today. Envy because of the technologically-enabled ease with which they can acquire pretty much anything they want to with absolutely no effort at all, and pity because this has rendered them spiritually bankrupt.

(And if the last few days are anything to go by, we can add "morally bankrupt" as well, for another juvenile crimewave has occured under my own roof. Naturally, I have little inclination to discuss details in this particular forum, but you would have thought that a man who is prepared to offer a home to another man's bastard child deserved to be treated with greater respect).

But that's another story.

In addition to the above was going to be comment regarding the current state of yer Internet, and the bewildering array of sites and blogs which has recently pummelled me into online silence. Having eschewed a writing career in the Real World due to anxiety of influence and other self-esteem factors, it is the case that I am once again hopelessly adrift in a datastream of mewling thoughts and mediocre opinions.

And, of course, cowering in the shadow of better men than me, who seem to have more time to apply to this sort of thing.

Damn them all to hell.

Well, that's what I was going to write about anyway. But it all just sounded like the delusional rantings of an embittered old man.

So I didn't.

Who's a Pretty Polymath?

Damn, that sounds like I'm attempting to lure Stephen Fry into bottom sex by appealing to his unfounded and seemingly endless vanity.

Yet I was merely intending to initiate a piece which would hopefully explain my recent absence. For I have been scouring the dusty, dark corners of yer Interweb for free obscure music to download.

And there is rather a lot of it out there. A hell of a lot, in fact. So much so that it is rather exciting (as well as somewhat tedious and time-consuming) trawling through other peoples' blogs, chasing down broken links, deleted uploads and corrupted files in search of increasingly-less-rare gems.

As a result of Music Industry paranoia regarding "official" product, there is a virtual web-land heaving with mp3 files of deleted vinyl, live tapes, bootlegs, demos and creaking old radio broadcasts. A vast minefield of copyright infringement stretching to the distant horizon, ungovernable by the sheer damn volume of stuff, with only the "you let it go out of print or it was never for sale in the first place, so who's losing money?" as figleaf.

And all this is once again making me feel like a befuddled old dinosaur. Damn these modern kids who wouldn't know a cardboard box full of C90 and C60 cassettes if they fell over it. Damn them for never having to spend hours sat by a radio, finger on "record", waiting for Tommy Vance to shut the hell up.   

Not that I have time to listen to all this cool stuff anyway, as we get around at last to the polymath  concept. But since I came up with the rather snappy title, I recognise that it is not simply a case of having too diverse a range of interests to concentrate sufficiently and satisfactorily upon one.

It's more like not being able to listen to anything for more than 2 minutes 34 seconds without being interrupted by some damn fool thing or another.

C'est la vie.

Songs from Dissected Birds

In the midst of technical difficulties here in the Security Kitchen, with no domestic internet for a week. Which I admit doesn't exactly bother me much, having been without a computer for the better part of last year.

However, watching Ms Monoid undergoing broadband withdrawal has been well worth the minor inconvenience involved....

So, just a brief appearance to keep things bubbling over. Brooker can wait, after all....

One thing that has unnerved me slightly since I was last here, is something that can only be described as a mild performance anxiety.

Noticing that a very minute trickle of complete strangers stumble across this page from time to time has been an interesting experience. Despite approximately five years of writing disarranged rubbish for a limited audience, I suddenly found myself thinking all this should actually be about something.

Needless to say, I soon came to my senses.

Which is something I also managed to do after a tentative exploration of "World of Warcraft".

A potentially great gaming experience, and dangerously immersive. However, the carrot-and-stick gameplay is rather tedious for someone who just likes to explore, yet as a retentive completer/finisher, a world that keeps evolving when your back's turned is a complete sodding nightmare.

And another thing; roleplaying games for me have always been about sitting around with your real friends and laughing until your balls hurt.

Spot the difference?

You've Been Renewed, Have You?

That's it, I've been renewed.

And welcome one and all to the All-New Monoid One Security Kitchen III, emerging blinking and unsteady from the shuddering wreck of Windows Spaces, and into the glare of public scrutiny.

For now these pages are private reading no longer.

Admittedly this is more due to circumventing the need for any potential readers to tit about with a log in, but I do naturally reserve the right to return to the previous arrangement if people start making a nuisance of themselves.

My friends, this is most certainly not a democracy...

Anyway, I'm still settling in around here, but I thought it wise to make an mark on my territory. So just consider this initial entry as sort of a piss against a tree.

And as with all relocations, things will take a while to settle down. Format and layout will be endlessly tinkered with until found satisfactory. The decoration still leaves a lot to be desired, but I am hoping to get the majority of the furniture installed as soon as I get to grips with all the whistles and bells of add-ons.

Spending a few days alone over the New Year period has proved very fruitful, as I have now completed viewing "The Andromeda Breakthrough". And I must confess it to being far better than I was hoping, after only having given it a very brief flick just after purchase. My appreciation of Lesbian Mary Morris (for that is her name) is now growing to almost stratospheric levels, and it was nice to see King Thous again, although still susceptible to badly-dubbed gunshots...

Anyway, that's enough of that. I know all you really want to see is a picture of Jon Pertwee standing on an elephant, so there it is.

 

Now get out of here. You disgust me.