Shadowbane!!!
I'm in beta woo!! Anyhow I've been playing almost non-stop when I'm not going over my legal studies. If you like MMORPG's then this is nirvanah. This is the future of MMORPG's. Fantastic game :) I would say more but it will bore anyone who doesn't play MMORPG's :)
bleh
Levels of bleh'ness are still not quite down to normal but I am definitely feeling a whole lot better, so much so in fact that I went to my tutorial this morning (Yay!) it was Criminal Liability with Mr. Victor Meldrew. It really is astonishing but the tutor sounds exactly like him.
Anyhow its good to see political correctness does not pervade in the study of law. I read, in my Criminal Liability lecture handbook a made up situation to demonstrate strict liability featuring a character called "Fatso" who drinks 20 pints of lager, ends up comatosed and is dumped by his friends over the wall of a government establishment. Ah so that's what they mean when they say the course is topical :)
TTFN
John
More bleh
ack I'm soo sorry for not having updated my blog for a bit but I'm still sick. I mean its been 8 days and I'm still sick. It seriously sucks and I've been lying in bed reading newspapers and whatever I could get my hands on. Still it does mean I've had the chance to read through the course books for my course to make up for the nigh-riduculous amount of University I'm currently missing thanks to this ridiculous flu. The symptom-du-jour is the absurd 'back-ache'. I mean what kind of disease gives you back-ache? Its like I get up each morning and go "Ouch something else is wrong.... Is this/this/that a symptom that you guys got when you had this?" and the family will nod their heads and I'll have to go back to sleep. This is one seriously inventive flu.
The good thing is that I made my escape on friday to come down to colchester, but I'll tell you about that later. The point is that I'm at least with my family which is about a billion times better than being stuck in my bed with Granny in the flat (arrrgh!)
Right well my bed calls again, so I'll write again when I'm over this..
Take care everyone and I sincerely hope you don't get this :) It's not nice =]
John
Hell Yeah!!!
After the superb Television event that was "100 Greatest Britons" broadcast last year on BBC1, Channel 4 has put together the 100 Worst Britons. Basically made up of 130 odd people from our times who have pissed us off: Here's my list.. If you want to vote go here .
Atomic Kitten
Girl bands suck. Simple as that, yes the Spice Girls had some nice tracks but these girls can't even offer that. First of all after years they finally 'make it' and then proceed to sack the guy who wrote their songs, managed them and made them what they were.. Way to go to say thanks girls.. You're on the list!
Jeremy Paxman
What an annoying little pompous tit. I can't stand him. He's so up of himself its not funny. He's just a complete twat and for that he gets my vote.
Richard Whitely
I don't care how popular countdown is, Richard Whitely shouldn't come to the conclusion that the reason people like it is because he presents it, which is the exact notion which you can see playing across his face when he presents it. That guy has less charisma than a chalk duster. Not quite as arrogant as Jeremy (in fact not by a long shot) but enough to go on my list.
David Dickinson
I think this will probably be the one choice I share with most of the nation. First of all he was on daytime for 'Bargain Hunt' acting like a bit of a twat. Then when his show is popular and goes primetime he assumes its because people like him acting like a twat so he steps up the twatishness and becomes an even MORE annoying tit! Arrrgh!
Sara Cox
I can't stand her! If I wanted to listen to a bloke I'd have tuned into Chris Moyles' show. Laddetism is very very bad. Surely they would have worked out by now that guys aren't likely, when faced with the choice between two girls, to choose the one which is more like a man ack!
Although in truth this choice is only made because Mark and Lard the completely lame Radio 1 'Comedy' duo aren't up there yet (goits) the first time you listen to them you think.. mm zany off the wall humor.. Might be a good listen.. Then after the second time you think "Did they just play the tape from yesterday?"
And finally you realize they use the same jokes every time.. Every single show. Its been going for like 3 years!! They just ripped off Mortimer and Reeves and put together a truly crap show.. Arrrgh!
Liam Gallagher
This guy pisses me off. He's such a stuck-up doesn't-give-a-shite git. I mean come on.. Buying John Lennon's piano.. What was that all about?? Did he secretly hope that John had scrawled a few chords on the lid that he HADN'T ripped off yet?? What a complete goit.
Jim Davidson
This guy just puts my back up.. Isn't he like a wifebeater or something? Anyway I can't stand him. *shudders*
Jade Goody
Ffs how thick can one person be? And she's pregnant so we can't even order her to be sterilized before her stupid genes are passed into the gene-pool! Humanity's intelligence will be severely diluted if that baby isn't born sterile.
Guy Ritchie
What an annoying guy!! He's not as bad as some of the others on the list but anyone who promotes 'Daz' washing powder needs a kick in the soft, dangly bits.
Darren Day
Yes yes, a thousand times Yes! What a completely annoying little tit!! I disliked him before "I'm a celebrity Get me out of here" and when I saw clips from the show I detested him!! He really is as much of a twat as I thought he was!! Arrgh! And he's from Colchester too!! He's exactly like every git I ever encountered in Colchester =] Note: Not all Colchester people are gits, just saying the small proportion of gits who are in Colchester are exactly like Darren Day.
Well at first I thought: "I'm never going to find anyone here, guess I don't have the killer english spirit" but then I found celebrities and lo I was sated in my quest for annoying gits who deserve the 100 worst britons nominations =]
Later!
John
Bleh....
I don't normally complain when I'm sick. I tend to just put myself to bed and shut up but I really feel to need to note how miserable this flu virus is. I think its probably just accentuated by the fact that my family isn't around me. This is probably the first time I've been on my own when I'm sick, save my Grandmother who has been doting on my for the past few days. She maintains that I shouldn't have gone down to visit my family as they were all sick but try stopping me from spending time with my family.
I couldn't have gone to a faraway uni because I really do end up missing them, its not like I'm afraid of independence or anything but I've been blessed with having a very close and loving family relationship. It's probably because the family tends to be split quite often with my father working in Hong Kong. Speaking of which he's heading over to England next week (woo!) so we'll all be together once more.
Ech... At least I think my lemsip capsules are working. After I take them my throat become less sore and I get a slightly clearer focus but that disipates after an hour or so and I go back to 'bleh'-ness.
Hooray for flu viruses =]
Later
John
What good is a phonecall whyn you cant, Speak?
Yeah the virus continues its onslaught and has now rendered me mute. Ack! Hurts lots too and I realized I can't take another Lemsip because it would be an overdose.. :(
erk
I've been struck down, as of late, by a nasty flu virus thing. It results in general 'bleh' ness and rampant coughing. Not nice.
The good thing about it is that I've managed to spend nearly 48 hours in my massive winter pyjamas. I thought I'd never be able to wear these as the flat tends to be warm but I'm subject to the whims of the cold and hence have an odd temperature or something.
This does of course mean that I've been missing Uni (ack) but I thankfully have most of the lectures to read at home. My only problem is that I miss another Torts Tutorial which is v-annoying to be honest.
Denning has been invaluable in recording notes and such and I really ought to sync him again today to get my updated timetable on Dates. At the moment I've been consulting my iPod for iCal syncing.
More Shadowbane!
Yes the NDA just got lifted, this means that people can start waffling about Shadowbane without fear of getting booted from beta =] The obvious implication is that Open Beta is around the corner which means a whole lot of fun for me =]
Thats all for now as I need some more lemsip capsules =]
John
Congestion Charging!
Today thousands of motorists swore in unison as they were forced to fork out £5 for the privilege of driving around central london. I like congestion charging for super-self-serving reasons, namely:
1) I don't drive
2) If I did drive I live within the zone and hence wouldn't have to pay
and
3) all their money is going to be spent on public transport for me to enjoy!
In any other position this would be highly immoral but, hey! Nothing is as evil as underfunded public transport right? =]
Urgh
I spent the weekend with my family breathing deeply their germs so as to ensure maximum exposure to the infection-de-jour which is a nasty flu'y thing. Anyhow I felt the beginnings of it whilst I was there and came back to the flat having dosed myself up with cold-drugs. When I arrived I saw that my grandmother was STILL at the flat! Ack.. She noticed my sickness and offered an opinion that I shouldn't have gone down to see my family and instead I should have stayed in the flat. Alone.. Well just because she chooses to ostracize herself from her family doesn't mean I'm going to every time my mum gets the sniffles.
Anyhow when I got back from Uni today before my last lecture I was feeling sick as a dog. I actually felt sick enough to voluntarily drink a lemsip. Anyone who has had one will know what I mean. In true karmic form its good for you and hence tastes crap. Anyhow it did the job but I still felt under the weather so I took a nap. A Nap! I didn't even think that was possible anymore.. I thought I would just sleep right through till morning but it worked, I slept for 2 hours and woke up feeling considerably better. Needless to say having fallen asleep I missed the lecture but to be honest I shudder to think what the experience would have been like if I had dragged my sorry carcass into that lecture theatre.. Nothing worse than being at School or Uni whilst sick. We are very sick-day-happy and so as soon as something comes up we stay home to kill it before it a) becomes worse and b) infects the entirety of the school.
I hate it when people who are sick come into work or school when they can hardly stand up. Bollocks to all this "soldiering on" all you're doing is infecting everyone else and you're not going to be much good when you're running at 60%! People who make other people come into work/school when they are sick are stupid. Anyhow by the looks of things despite the very lenient nature of tomorrows lecture time ( 3pm =] ) I'll probably stay at home because the last thing I want to do is pass on this lurg to the 300 people in the hall. Besides its Contracts which is my favourite subject. Last year I didn't attend a single lecture and still got a 1st. God bless home study!
This is my wallet.. And this a 50lbs hammer...
Speaking of home study I have another 4 books to purchase. Purchasing Legal Books is like forking over your money to your lecturers because ultimately they are the people who write them. Equally because all those actual practicing lawyers tend to be, to use the term liberally "minting it" they can afford to charge ridiculous prices. You can tell when its a student book because you don't need re-mortgage your student housing to buy it.
Sadly I tend to prefer reading the proper ones. Its a crock! real solicitors and barristers have books which just give you the answers, all relevant cases, principles and authorities easily organized and quickly found. Students however get what appears to be a novel in which the characters intertwine and mingle so you can't get a simple, straightforward answer. Law books ought to be more encyclopedia, less verse. When I search for "Mistake as to substance" I don't want to have 7 references to it in the index which mostly refer to one liners. Ack!
Thankfully this year's syllabus allows you to buy Groovy books like Anson's Contract and such. Thats not to say it won't hurt the old penny-pot but its worth it I suppose =] Just hope Dad decides to send some more money to my poor-starving student account =]
SHADOWBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANE
I don't want to say HOW I know (slightly illegal) but I KNOW how much the game rocks now. I've played it for a bit. I love it. It runs smooth on my mac, it is beautiful and well put together.. I blasted about 8 spiders and 4 snakes with my quality Lvl 1 Mage Bolt and then called it a night. Good fun, can't wait for the open beta..
Well done Wolfpack, Shadowbane's developers! This is a quality game!
Plus kudos for having my hair-colour selectable as an avatar variable.. No other games quite gets my hair colour right (I'm a red head) =]
Later!!
John
1-2 million people, 99% redundant message bearers
Problem is that people are hideously misinformed and seem to have forgotten the 12 years Iraq has had to disarm, the time it STILL has to disarm and the 16 UN resolutions it is currently in breach of. The UN security council acknowledged this in signing 1441.
Our prime minister is taking a lot of flak from people who haven't thought things through. Some people have intelligent reasons for marching. Most however just want to wave a sign which says "war is bad". Ffs everyone knows it already and the Prime minister has made no assertion to the contrary.
To say its about Oil is insulting to the moral obligations of nations like America to safeguard both its own citizens and prevent the proliferation of both weapons of mass destruction and tyrranny.
All the people questioned during the march admitted that Saddam Hussein was a tyrant guilty of hideous infringments of human rights and yet all they effectively acheive by marching is his continuing status in power. After several years of MUN participation I've been a big suported of the UN. I agree with Kofi Annan that there is no substitute for the unique legitimacy of UN mandate. However I must concur that the political posturing of France in this issue is akin to the debacle which led to the destruction of the League of Nations. If they are unwilling to fulfill their international obligtions to safeguard the peoples of the world then they should relinquish their seat as a permenant Security Council member.
In the event of a terrorist attack on their soil the same countries which complain currently would EXPECT the US to be there to hand the terrorists' asses to them.
I am a believer in peace but not to the detrement of world stability. I think its intellectually bankrupt to sing the song "All we are saying is give peace a chance" when peace has been given 12 years of chance. To be honest I don't care how the inspections are doing because unless saddam effectively drops his trousers and shows UNMOVIC the full monty he's not fully cooperating which was the point of 1441. The point was not to get inspectors into iraq, the Resolution, as Mr Powell pointed out was not about inspectors it was for Iraq to make a full declaration of its military assets and to facilitate the destruction and confiscation of those assets through the use of Inspectors. Think Chess not Cluedo.
I don't want war and Saddam can stop war but he won't unless the call to disarm is backed up by credible force. If reasoning worked with Saddam then he would have disarmed 12 years ago, he's had every reason to and the obligation to do so placed upon him by a number of UN resolutions. If he didn't do it then then why should he do it now without any consequences being prescribed?
*Indiana Jones Theme Music*
The choice of title has to do with the fact that like Harrison Ford's alter ego I have managed an impossible escape. Namely getting out of the flat before my grandmother depressed the hell out of me.
She's like a never-ending prophet of doom.
Whilst I was in Hong Kong and there was a constant atmosphere of optimism amongst family members she was completely unable to off-load all her guff and depression onto everyone else and she would do things like this:
Sitting room is empty apart from myself reading the Newspaper, my dog Toffee and Granny.
Granny: (looking very sorry for herself)
Me: (Doesn't look up from his paper)
Granny:..... Toffee's getting old.. He's going to die soon isn't he hmm? his breed doesn't live much longer than his current age
Toffee: Gets a quizzical look in his eye and then turns back to his sleeping
Except in England she's got people to off load her guilt and grief onto. Well she had until my mother decided she wasn't going to take the crap anymore and that therefore leaves only one target: Me.
I had 3-4 days of her constant pessimism as she tried to wriggle out of selling the Stud Farm and tried instead to sell the flat to keep her record-loss making Horse Breeding program running. Then she started to indoctrinate me in "What's really going on". Thats right folks. My grandfather's conquest of 2 big law firms in Hong Kong and their amalgamation to create the premier solicitors firm of Hong Kong is "A very bad idea" and Robert Wang is selling out because "He's got huge debts from the firm".
Unfortunately this time I knew exactly the state of the situation and knew what a load of bollocks she was talking. She went onto many other threads but by the end of the day I had had it and I left to go back to Colchester. At first I was sad that the rest of her family really didn't want to help her but then I realized they always do, they have tried for years she just doesn't want to be helped. Its like she's some kind of doomsday junkie. I was totally deflated when I arrived in Colchester but thanks to a chat with parents I was topped up again.
I've honestly had enough of her palming off her depression onto me as she did to my mother for the period when my mum was helping her with the horses. I'm just going to have to adopt the Swaine 'ear of indifference' and ignore her on every non day-to-day topic of conversation.
If she doesn't like it she can just shut the hell up and kick her ass into gear.
Saturday night's alright.. Oh no wait its not
Its saturday and we can't use the farm and since my mates seem incapable of offering their own dwellings for use (I mean 2 years of only using MY house to visit is a bit out of order) we're apparently doing very little despite matt actually making it down this weekend.
Ben is absolved of any responsibility though as he has a smaller room and I wouldn't want to impose upon his family. Matt's family more or less ignores him from what I've heard and whether he even has a room anymore is doubtful but Richard's room is.. well.. roomy I suppose.
Its just a bit annoying to be the perpetual host to people who can't clean up properly, unless we have Matt with us which is about the only time that we live up to the standards of my mother. I mean the guy was nicknamed 'Scrubber boy' summer 2001 because he pretty much scrubbed all summer round. Did the dishes, hoovered. I mean it wasn't even his house but because he wasn't exactly in a 'mutually beneficial domestic environment' (read: His family doesn't seem to give much of a shit about him, just a prima-facie observation) he tended to like hanging around in our house and doing cleaning and what not. I would get all psychological and say he was living vicariously through us but I tend not to like to analyze things as it inevitably leads to the assertion that there is something hideously wrong with you. Put simply he's a nice guy with way to many millstones weighing him down. He needs to cut a few loose
Well anyway we're probably going to meet up in town later and do whatever. Not sure what but something will come to mind.
Later folks!
John
Foam-Terrorism
So some guy gets stopped at Gatwick with a live hand grenade in his luggage. Ok so its not like he's going to be doing anything legal with it (how can you?) but surely the most intelligent option would have been for him to have let it off on the plane if he was a terrorist? I mean he had landed, had he had a change of heart? Seems a bit fishy to me. Apart from the fact that the only other piece of data was that he had a Koran in his possession. How relevant is that?
Anyhow glad he was stopped irrespective of his intentions, Guns and explosives are Naughty. Mate, if you're reading this, Nerf guns are just as satisfying and no-one gets killed.. Occasionally their manhood is compromised my a malicious close range strike but nothing more than that, the swelling has almost gone down now anyway :D Haha!
Administrative Law
Had an admin law tutorial today which was 3 people and the tutor. See this is what happens when you get Computers to set people's timetables =] Basically it was a conversation between myself and the tutor because the other two didn't really want to say anything. Fun fun fun.
We win!!
Loads of Jedi!!
On the 2001 census form we got more people to write Jedi than Jews, Sihks and Bhuddists hahahha! There are officially more Jedi Knights in England than Jews! Must be something in the water because Darth Vader was played by a brit (although not voiced) and we had Alec Guinness :)
Anyhow it was in the Times and I had a good old smile when I read it =]
Later!
John
Insolvency
Yep the continued high-tide of Swing! entertainment's insolvency is wearing down the European SB players, or 'waiters' as we are mostly. They closed Beta for an indefinite amount of time at the same time as the US publisher just released their 4.0 client patch (rumored to be the basis for Open Beta).. Thank god I applied to both lol =]
Phut!
Yes my arsenal for the continued Nerf Quake was supplemented by the arrival of my new weapon. A pistol which is actually quite potent for its size. The problem is that its so low-tech that its funny :) Its actually manual pump so how much you put in when firing is reflected in how far it goes, instead of the conventional Nerf weaopns (air-pressure systems). Surprisingly though this doesn't impede too much on its accuracy and the little darts actually go quite far. Its an advantage in so far as it is quicker to load and fire than the others we have but I suspect Its range problems will be capitalized upon by my friends.
It arrived today in a big brown box. I realized how much I love getting stuff online delivered as I did a happy dance on the way to opening it. God bless Parcel Force. But when I flipped through the booklet the vendor sent with it I realized what a waste of time it had been buying this model when what I wanted was just released for £10. Rapid fire, battery powered, magazines of 40 rounds and apparently right up my alley hehe! If I ever convince myself that its a good idea to buy it Ben won't even have a chance =] I'm going to hide the link to its existence from him so I can enjoy it all for myself mwahahhaah! Foam-dart warfare just got a whole lot hotter :D Haha!
Scrubs!
Scrubs is on tonight and unlike last week I intend not to miss it. Its all broadband's fault. Last time it made me miss Frasier.. In fact it got me so disorientated that it wasn't even Frasier day (ie: Monday) let alone Frasier time (10:35).
I told 'im we already got one!
I just watched an interview on BBC News24's HardTalk with Jacques Mayard the secretary on France's Foreign policy council. I just couldn't stop laughing! He was exactly like the french man on the castle ramparts in Monty Python and the Search for the Holy Grail. We'll you've got to be when you're throwing your weight around like France is =] Superb political posturing because in order for America to have a 'just war' they need to produce the evidence which makes france look vindicated in its aforementioned weight-throwing. Skills
"Feche la vache!!!"
I was waiting for him to say: "I fart in your general direction!! Your mother was a hampster and your father smelt of Elderberries!!"
Haha Quality unintentional comedy!
Later folks!
John
Arrrrrrgh!!!
The European publisher for Shadowbane 'Swing!' has declared insolvency ie; "We ain't got no money". In all likelihood it won't really effect Shadowbane in Europe as the receivers will probably keep it going but its still some scary stuff!
The last thing Shadowbane fans need about a month away from the release date is for the publisher to go Tits-Up =]
Sleep
I got lots of it last night, about 12 hours to be exact because I had a late lecture today. It was contracts 2 and wasn't all that bad. But then I'm not a huge fan of the interactive-lecture format. I much prefer the tutorial for such purposes as you can't really prepare for a lecture.
Anyhow sleep has been an important issue as of late because since this is the first week with a full timetable I've had I'm trying to work out how much sleep I can get away with and still be able to make it into Uni. Tomorrow is a tutorial on Criminal Liability which ought to be a laugh. In fact I think I'll prepare for that now. There isn't all that much to know on the subject for the first tutorial but I like to be ready =]
Ack! That smacks of a work ethic! Can't have that!
Still I did manage to waste some time today and last night as I worked on signature pics for my Shadowbane guild. They came out very well and I'm all happy because my perseverance paid off. Almost everyone can now post on the guild forums with a nice signature so I can now turn my attention to the OCM website re-design I've had in mind. Using my superb Fireworks MX skills I shall fashion a groovy new incarnation for the place-holder site we currently employ
Right I want to write more but I think I'm really supposed to go to sleep right now given that I have to wake up at *gasp* 8 am tomorrow.
Sleep well folks!
later
John
Gridlock!
I've been in Uni for about 4 hours now and so far have attended 0 lectures and 0 tutorials. Blessed be the organization of my fantastic uni! =]
The first lesson was a Contract Tutorial. I had changed my timetable so as to let me attend the tutorial instead of the other one I was signed up for as I get on very well with the tutor, Edwin Shorts (yep thats his last name). Anyhow I turned up and it turns out that it was cancelled. Fan-smegging-tastic. It would be nice to be e-mailed about this kind of stuff. Its odd because the tutors and individual lecturers will often email you with information but the university as a whole seems entirely incapable of such organization :)
Anyhow I then spent about 2 hours waiting for my next tutorial - Torts.
I got myself an Uber expensive sandwich from Pret a Manger and worked out that the "secret sauce" in the beef baguette was salad cream mixed with english mustard.
So anyhow. When we all got our timetables every student realized that they all had to take the same one Criminal Liability lecture, 1 lecture for all the full time students put together. Worse, it was on monday from 4 to 6 pm! Immediately students went online to find out what they could do to soften the blow. They must have seen the 14:00 - 15:00 Torts 2 lecture and had their eyes grow really big, with cartoon character style $'s in them. Except the $ was probably replaced by a suitable indicator of every University students favourite commodity - extra sleep.
If they could go to that tutorial then they wouldn't have to come in for a Torts 2 tutorial on some other day which made them go into uni for only 1 hour on one day or like the Criminal lecture would result in a huge grand-canyon like chasm in their schedule where they were forced to sit around on campus. That Torts 2 tutorial was Gold dust, which I realized as I shared the tutorial room with 40 other students. Understandably the tutor said he probably couldn't really teach that many people in a tutorial - it would just have been a lecture so like the others I left as the tutorial wasn't the one prescribed on my timetable.
So now I have to sit around for another 2 hours whilst I wait for my next period. Which is the aforementioned Criminal Liability lecture at 4. Madness! =]
later
John Swaine
Damn!
I was on the train back from Colchester today when I realized I had sat down opposite a girl I used to go to school with (St.Benedict's Colchester). The problem was other than her first name I couldn't remember anything about her and I'm fairly certain she knew very little of me. I spent about 45 minutes just going "What's her full name??" Funny how you forget things
Is not! Is too! Is not! Is too!
What happened to this country? Is noone capable of intelligent debate? I was watching some sort of question session on BBC 2 today and a load of people were asking questions of a high ranking minister on the prominent subject of the war on Iraq.
Now there might well be some arguments for the anti-war platform and valid points. But no-one seems to be capable of producing them! One person would ask a stupid outlandish question, the minister would give a rational answer and then would be bogged down in a tide of rhetoric and dogma from the audience. It was almost as bad as the Tony Blair question time last monday.
I would REALLY like to meet an anti-war activist who actually had a coherent argument and a rational system of debate. I like arguing and debating, its part of the reason why I want to be a barrister but even so it simply shouldn't be so much to ask for your opponent to have a well thought through argument. Ok so not in day-to-day life but on a frikkin' TV show you'd expect a semblance of intelligence and rational thought.
I mean its not like there is no standing for an anti-war movement. There has to be some, but no-one seems capable of illustrating it. Why should they call for constant proof from the leaders of England and the US when they themselves can't come up with any evidence to augment their own position.
Surely there was a point where protesters knew what they were actually protesting about.
Later!
John
Vindication!
I watched Colin Powell's address to the united nations live on BBC News 24 yesterday. For a guy who can't pronounce "Collin" he rocked. I don't want to say "I told you so" to some of my friends... Actually, Yeah I do =] There's the evidence. We're looking at a material breach of 1441. He gave no less than 4 examples of the way in which Iraq has breached the resolution and, as all good advocates should he 'showed the way home' that is to say told them how and why they could act.
Lee arrives: Enter the Dragon
Yeah Lee made the trip over to the flat day before yesterday which was cool. He tried to order dominoes pizza over the net but discovered it cost £12 for a small pizza to be delivered.. I found online that for that he could fly to Italy and eat a pizza. The pizza will be far superior in both taste, texture and size and hey! You're in Italy! Woo!
Hell yeah!!
I was woken up at 8am by the doorbell and new it could only be one thing.. Broadband had arrived!!!
I signed for the packagem still being half asleep and then ran around saying "Yes" a lot with much air-punching and rejoicing. Its kinda worrying when you look at it because a reasonable person shouldn't be getting that excited hehe.
Anyhow I plugged in my new modem and looked around for my drivers. Unfortunately I found out that no drivers came with my modem for OSX in fact I had to go online to some psuedo warez site to download them and then manually configure. Pretty damn stupid if you ask me, especially considering OSX has been out for something like 2 years now and this is a new broadband initiative from One.Tel. Anyhow got the drivers, installed them, the modem worked and I'm online at speed!
I've been working through my download list:
Mac OS 10.2.3 Update [x]
iCal Update [x]
Safari Update [x]
Shadowbane Stuff [ ] <- Being downloaded as we speak
I was quite dissappointed to find out that Safari still isn't as good as Chimera. I mean I upgraded the OS to the right version and I got the new version of Safari but Chimera still renders faster. I have no idea why but since I'm not going with Safari until the tabbed browsing appears I'm not too worried. Besides its still in Beta =]
We can rebuild him!
I've been working on an IRC bot for my mate's channel which we all chat on. He's called Haddock and as of yet he has 4 candidates:
Candidate 1 is my own perl source code which ought to run fine but my Net::IRC module implementation must be faulty
Candidate 2 is the OSX cocoa bot "So-Bot" So bot is cool for a number of reasons. None of them happen to be its controls which are totally innacurately documented and slightly archaic
Candidate 3 is the other OSX cocoa bot called "Dollybot" dolly bot is an answer bot and nothing more, no oping, no floodcontrol zippo.
Candidate 4 is the currently in development "Craw" bot which seems like a cool development project. Its being done on Sourceforge which is where I found out about it. Certainly a nice application in the making if it gets further than the planning stage.
Awww Yeah!
Just got off the phone with the One.Tel broadband order query services and it turns out BT issued the live date! Woo! Its Thursday the 6th of February and apparently my equipment was sent off today meaning that via Royal Mail parcel force it ought to arrive tomorrow before noon Wooo! To quote David Baddiel and Frank Skinner:
"Its coming home, its coming home, its coming - Broadband's coming home!"
Or something to that effect. At last I'll be back on bandwidth parity with other folks - sadly miles off Lee's conn which is his Uni's largely unused T3 line.
I already have a substantial list of things to download starting with my OS 10.2.3 update and an iCal update to let Denning Sync with iCal through nSync. In fact I spent my last waking minutes last night putting down my new studies timetable onto iCal which is perfectly suited for that kind of thing. I can't wait to see them transfered to Denning.
Strike! Strike! Strike!
I decided not to go into Uni today due to advice given by my personal tutor. He noted that the main Unions of University workers were striking so the building would probably be (as was the case for one of the Mock exams in November last year) locked down. My rather cynical Legal Method lecturer last year noted that by striking all the unionists were doing was kicking the students as they were the only people affected by the strikes, but to be honest: a) He makes 4 times what they earn by forcing his book upon ALL the students of our syllabus and b) I sympathize with their calls for higher London Weighting. London is expensive.
House of Lords reform
Dear god no!!!
There are actual calls for a fully elected second chamber. I don't even have time to write about how stupid that is nor to note how superb the House of Lords actually is. To see it changed towards actually elected members would be a sad day.
Basically because the Lords aren't elected and no-one can really get rid of you once you're in there they tend to be guided not by party policy, nor by economic drive (They pay you quite handsomely) and are not subject to the party whips which make them superb independent arbiters of legislation, guided only by conscience and intellect.
The only reform I might ask for would be the inclusion of more of the "heads of their fields" we already get that so in the Lords there are people who are knowledgeable in their field and can actually add to the debate and discussion in a meaningful way. The addition of elections would mean more Career Politicians and one of 2 prominent results pending each election: Either complete Governmental Executive control over all legislation or complete gridlock. A foolish and idiotic system which is most definitely unnecessary given the unique and apt second house we currently employ.
In short the steps that have been taken so far have been in the right direction, but an elected second house? Even partially? It sounds odd but leave politics out of the House of Lords.
Just my 2¢
Score!
I decided not to go into Uni today because I was a bit tired. Turns out they didn't actually have my timetable there anyway as I got an email from my personal tutor! Woo for my laziness!
I get my timetable at about noon tomorrow.. Lie in time! hahah!
I seem really dedicated to my studies don't I haha!
Newton time!
Yes my new semester starts this week which means that Denning the messagepad has use once again! Hooray for free Filepad software! Time to start recording those cases!!
What have you done?!
Someone is on the radio killing "Big Yellow Taxi" ack! That song has infinite potential - but not for a male singer! argh! I'm no big fan of Joni Mitchell but her original version kicks this one in the happy-sack and puts the boot in whilst its rolling around in agony.
Mad folk!
You shut up, No you shut up, No yooou Shut up!
I am of course referring to Kelly Osborne's new track. Its so obviously aimed squarely at Jack haha! You can just hear her singing it at him whenever they have an argument "Shut up" "Round and round the conversation always ends where it began" (Did to, did not, did to, did not) Its just taking sibling rivalry to a whole new level haha especially the bit where she just goes "Blah blah blah blah" haha! Its so immature but you just know Jack Osborne is looking for some band on his label to release "No You shut up!" It so rocks! I means she can't even be bothered to sing her lines in tune Hahah! Classic Osborne's stuff (man I wish I could spell that family's name properly..)
Feckin' Trains
I don't get it. For about 4 months I ride the trains without a hitch and then in one month about 4 come a long at once! I Should be in London about now but thanks to some engineering works I couldn't get a train last night. So I'lm off out of the house now to get one. Thankfully my ticket is definitely valid so I'm ok in that department (don't make me bring actions against you all again First Great Easter! :) )
Right the time has come for me to leave the house in search of a bus, then another bus, then a train to london.. =]
Catch you all later!
John
War on Iraq
I was watching The Live Floor Show last night and this American comedian comes on and he asks questions relating to public affairs to the audience. Anyhow he asks then to reply with a "Bling Bling!" for yes and a "Hell No" for no. So the first question is about Eminem which gets a half and half split and he does his Slim Shady routine. Anyhow the next question is for/against war on Iraq and astonishingly the entire crowd answered "Hell No!"
Now I'm sorry but a lot of these people read "The Sun". A lot of these people read "The Daily Mirror" or "The Sport" or "The Daily Express" (yes that one's crap too) in fact just by the readership of those 4 papers we have probably identified at least 80% of the audience. Now these people are not very well informed. I say this because it took a reader letter for The Times to note something which a lot of people seem to have overlooked in the current international situation.
What the UN actually said. There is a great movement of people who say "Not without the backing of the UN" or "The US is acting without UN mandate". It is the staple call of the Anti-War platform. Now I'm sorry once again but I'd say 0.0001% of these people are aware of the workings and process of the United Nations. 0.0001% of them have followed what goes on and what has gone on the the UN and I am happy that a big fat 0% of them are making the decisions.
Iraq has been subject to United Nations trade sanctions and other provisions for a long time. They have been flouting, contemptuously the calls of the United Nations for the ceasing of the production of Chemical, Biological and Nuclear weapons of mass-destruction. In signing Resolution 1441 EVERY member state acknowledged that Iraq WAS in the wrong and that ALL previous resolutions on Iraq had failed. EVERY member state signed the resolution to EFFECT change in Iraqi policy and EVERY member state has agreed that ALL previous attempts to effect such a change have failed. There is no split of opinions. Everyone is in agreement - Iraq has exhausted over 5 years of UN diplomatic action.
People are saying that its easier just to declare war. Thats bullshit.
It would be bloody easy to just leave Mr Hussein to go about his business. We LEARNED that lesson during the 2nd World War when Chamberlain engaged in a policy of appeasement with regards to Hitler's Germany. We took the easy way out and look what happened. Now I'm not going to compare Hussein to Hitler in terms of threat to us personally because that's just ridiculous but the principle of appeasement has proved ineffective when being applied to such situations and to such states.
People here seem to think that this decision (or position) has been reached in a remarkably short amount of time, that the US is just charging into combat without UN backing. Perhaps they would be better served consulting the UN resolutions passed in the past 10 years concerning Iraq and how well they have worked (or indeed not worked as was held in resolution 1441) They are available to consult online. After 2 years of MUN you get to learn these things. The diplomatic option hasn't been rushed past by the American camp. Its been open for the past 10 years but it quite obviously wasn't reported in any of the tabloids and *cough* "Broadsheets" I noted at the top.
Another favourite staple of the Anti-War collective is the "Why are we bombing innocent civilians?" question. Well again, mass-misinformation and in this instance it's the Government's fault for not simply slapping the press about the face and showing the facts. Saddam Hussein kills hundreds of his own people each year for activities we take for granted. You say something bad about him, you simply disappear, be it on the phone, in the street, at a restaurant and you're gone. I have a friend at my University called Ranj. He's Iraqi (Kurdish to be exact) and he knows exactly what goes on in Iraq. I don't care how many people you think the US might kill in bombing raids because I would estimate it to be significantly less than the 100s of people he gassed in Northern Iraq at the withdrawal of United States forces because they dared to question him during the combat combined with the hundreds who 'disappear' each year. The days when warfare consisted of blanket bombing cities are over and if Afghanistan was anything to go by (Were civilian targets we significantly easier to destroy thanks to the ostensible dis-organization of Taleban Forces) we're not going to be seeing much in the way of civilian casualties. Iraq is, for all intents and purposes a developing nation of half-decent infrastructure. The US knows where their forces are and what they consist of, they aren't holed up in adobe-huts or in caves, they're in concrete barracks and airfields (what few remain).
The US and the UK have lead bombing runs patroling the no-fly zone and they have resulted in few if any civilian casualties. After a period of over 5 years of experience I think we can safely assume that in practice the civilian death rate with be a fraction of what Saddam will do to his own people each year if he is left in power.
So go ahead. Lead another demonstration. Damn those Iraqi people to continued tyrrany and discomfort. Take the easy path and turn your backs on the trouble - because as ALL the nations who signed 1441 noted, nothing so far has worked, there are no novel remedies left for the UN to prescribe and short of Saddam giving himself up, war is the only action which will bring about change with Saddam still in power.
PS: Anyone even thinking of flaming me can pick up The Times, some non-sensationalist publication or read the UN's online resources before writing. Because that my friends is the reason why Blair is in power. You wouldn't suggest a heart surgeon ought to "Use that vein there" instead of what he was going to do and contrary to what the tabloids might tell you there's a lot more to doing his job than the drivel they feed the British public.
John