Oh say can you see

Finally saw Fahrenheit 9/11 last night. Phew! Emotional little film that. Found myself welling up a couple of times during the 9/11 footage (which was done in a mostly non-visual way) but especially during the footage of people killed in Iraq and the interviews with a mother who’d lost her son in the Army. Moore’s obviously going for full anti-Bush impact at all points, but he tempers it by being pro the people in the army – just anti their leaders goals. Just the simple revelation that Bush spent 45% of his first year in office on holiday (pre 9/11) is scary enough.

Aside from that I don’t think I have anything insightful to add to the whole Iraq/Bush conversation, apart from it is scary how little respect one country can have for its ‘rightfully elected’ president. The footage shown of the presidential inauguration and the anti-Bush emotion back in end 2000/early 2001 is a timely reminder of what happened in the ‘election’ back then.

In the way of a lighthearted break from those depressing thoughts check out White House West. Yee haw!

Useful things wot I have learnt today

First up, if you’re going to queue for tickets to Shakespeare in the Park at the theatre itself you need to get there before 10am, especially on the last few days of the shoe. Ooops.

Secondly, Google receives 200 million search queries a day, which seemed surprisingly low to me. I think I only account for about 50-100 of those a day because I’m too darn lazy to check my bookmarks or type in a URL directly.

Thirdly, the insect netting in the apartment I’m subletting for August doesn’t seem to keep out these nuclear powered mosquitos.

Finally, I’ve found out that in Chinese astrological terms I’m year of the Rat, but also a Water element – so that makes me a water rat. Hmm… Allegedly that’s a great match for Dragons but I’m inclined to disagree at the moment.

No idea if these observations are related. Since the human mind is basically a pattern matching device then I’m sure there’s some significance there for anyone who’s clever enough to work it out. Seems like enough randomness for one day. Hopefully next time I’ll write something a bit more witty to entertain y’all.

Food coma

One thing I love and hate at the same time about New York is the food… The range, quality and availability is always amazing. At any time of day you can find something interesting to eat and you can normally get it delivered to your door within half an hour. Herein lies the problem.

This morning I quite happily finished off a healthy bowl of cereal around 8.30am and pootled off into town on the E train. Somehow I was first into the office, but when everyone else turned up Simon ordered his breakfast from Europa and “would I like anything?”. Well, I wasn’t really hungry, but the thought of a small snack appealed. Somehow this ‘small snack’ concept suffered minor scope creep, becoming a two egg roll with beef sausage – hence my current food coma.

So at somepoint soon I’m intending to re-develop some willpower, with which I will not only resist excessive breakfasts but also prevent crime by the power of my mind (and my gnarly spider-like powers – yep, finally saw Spiderman 2 and it was highly entertaining). This willpower will also be applied to prevent me going into crappy chain restaurants such as Dallas BBQ on the basis that it’s “good to slum it sometimes”. No it’s not!

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off for a quick doze…

Old power generation

Sitting in the sports bar just south of madison square garden, about to go see Prince for the first time. Yay! Bringing back some old memories of Quidnunc days for sure. Ah bless…

it’s also another first.. My first ever post to blogger from a mobile phone. Yep, my trusty unlocked nokia 6600 and rapid thumb action is bringing this post to you on the spot. Very cool, but killer on the tendons..

Back in the US of A

I’ve decided from now on I’ll only fly Premium Economy or higher… There’s something infinitely more relaxing about having space to stretch out when zooming over the Atlantic at 30,000 ft, especially when you’re being plied with fresh bucks fizz the whole way (that’s mimosas to my American chums). Plus the fact that you get a power lead for your computer so can actually work your arse off the whole way.

The other side effect of premium economistic travel was that I broke all known records getting in through U S immigration – clocking about 15 minutes from leaving the plane to walking towards the AirTrain back into town. Huzah!

Whether the weather be hot

Or whether the weather be cold.. Yep, ’tis that time of year again for all good people to head down to the West Country for Glastonbury. Huhroo! The line up is looking wonderful and the weather is deciding if it wants to do the same. It’s bright and sunny now but changing by the minute

So, fingers crossed it will be more flip flops than hiking boots and that my waterproof is the wasted space item this year.

Danger, danger! High alertage!

There’s one of them pesky lil’ rumours going around about a terror attack in the New York subways today. Of course the police have issued a denial, stating categorically that no terror alert is in place for June 11th. No mention of any other day of course… argh! Run away, run away!

Having lived through some of the immediate aftermath of 9/11 I have to say I’m slightly more laissez faire about current threats. Whereas just after 9/11 I would jump at the slightest loud noise, as would most of my colleagues, now I can happily ignore sirens wailing down the street, the repeated clang of collapsing scaffolding sounds and the gently whisper of the approaching nuclear explosion.

I like being back in New York {;)

A new day is dawned..

OK. This is a geek-post, so for those of you who ain’t fascinated by geek-type thangs please switch off now (although I can’t promise that you won’t miss some fine wit and insight if you do.. coff). Anyway, all geeks here now? Sweet…

Well, the secret of eternal happiness is… Hey! Some of you non-geeks are still here! I can see you, skulking around at the back there. Yes, you! It’s no use pretending you’ve read manuals on Java as ‘light bed time reading’ now sonny jim.. off you go. Bye now.

Where was I? Oh yes, the secret of eternal happiness, when it comes to making your website of course, is to get your head round stylesheets. So finally, after many years of being a die hard table coder, I re-vamped this entire site to be stylesheet driven. [Ecstatic cheers from Thompson of ‘better late than never Hobbs!’]

So what does that mean to you my fair reader? Well, for a start the site will probably be misbehaving for a few days while I finish tweaking it. Apologies for that. If you find anything seriously not working then let me know. If it’s not looking like it normally does then you may be on an old browser… IE4 is OLD! Time to upgrade and get with the 90s at least. Well it’s done now anyway, so enjoy the ride ahead!

Re-invention

There’s a philosophy that runs that we’re all just figments of our own imagination, and that everything we perceive is just the construct of our mind. For sure, we can change the way we feel about any situation that happens to us – good or bad can come from any event. People who chose to re-write their own ‘history’ often end up being a lot more successful, until of course they’re famous and the tabloids decide to dig up the ‘truth’. The fact that I am a three time Oscar(TM) winning actor and celebrated photographer should not sway people who meet me in my current incarnation as an international bon viveur and computer geek. Coff…

So it is with that in mind that this article caught my eye… Apparently London has it’s own historical re-invention to go through, claiming to be Brad Pitt rather than Delboy. Hmm…