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Friday, December 17, 2004

SCIENTISTS ESTIMATE BY THE YEAR 2100 THE POLAR BEAR WILL BE EXTINCT
THE NORTH POLE IS WARMING UP TWICE AS FAST AS THE REST OF THE WORLD
THE 'CHICKEN' SERVED IN KFC IS NOT BIOLOGICALLY CHICKEN

"You tell me that I make no difference,
At least I'm f**king trying!

What the f**k have you done?"
Minor Threat 'In my eyes'

Why is it, when I present facts like those above (Climate Change, the evils of corporations, etc) to people face to face they always laugh it off and make fun of me? They always pretend they don't care, that their life of near-hedonism compared to those starving in Africa is what they wanted all along.

I mean, I'm no saint, but at least I give a damn. At least I'm doing what I can at the moment. Which I admit isn't much compared to the true hard working people of say, Amnesty International.

Is it so wrong to care in this world? Is it so wrong to be a pacifist? Is it so wrong to want to better yourself?

Fiona once said to me: 'Do you ever think you are too nice?'
No, I don't. If anything I'm not nice enough. Not nice enough to satisfy me.

This has created a great imbalance within the social circles I keep. On the one hand I am ridiculed almost every day by my friends, on the other hand I am looked up to by others, or regarded as an equal, one of the gang, a true friend. This seems to make my mind swirl, I get irritated by the smallest things in the accepting friends yet take hours of abuse from the others. I'm having difficulty. I've given up arguing or trying to change opinions because what is the point? I'm outnumbered, I'm outgunned by a nihilistic, capitalist, thunderdrome.

Even my facts fall down because people just say something (which, although aren't their real words) 'They just don't care'. People switch off.

But what do I want? All my friends to be like me? Whiny, whinging leftie pacifists who crumble before the might of peer pressure? Am I really that nice a person anyway? I have not right to judge them, yet they are allowed to judge me, they are allowed to weight and measure my worth!

People perhaps see it as depressing, saddening that these things are happening. Yes it is, but I like to think that the world is worth fighting for. I am not resigned to giving in. But I can't do this alone.

Tuesday, December 14, 2004

Silent Night
You are 'Silent Night'! You really enjoy
Christmas, and you like your Christmases
conventional. For you, Christmas is about
family and traditions, and you rather enjoy the
rituals of going to church at midnight and
turning off the lights before flaming the plum
pudding. Although you find Christmas shopping
frustrating, you like the excitement of
wrapping and hiding presents, and opening a
single door on the Advent Calendar each day.
You like the traditional carols, and probably
teach the children to sing along to them. More
than anyone else, you will probably actually
have a merry Christmas.


What Christmas Carol are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Not sure all of that applies but it's good enough. Thought I'd find a Christmasy one to put up on the blog :) (It's quite long so only do it if you've got a while).

So how am I? Well, I'm pretty good really, think I should get more work done before the end of term (and probably will if I'm honest). Soon enough I'll be back home with my Dad and brother, seeing my Mum and my mates as often as possible :)

My mates seem to be having a rough time still. I am trying to be there for all of them and for the first time in a while there is no worry about sincerity or it feeling like a burden. It is something I must do and I do it as best I can (I could do better actually).

Next year will begin in Egypt of course, so I won't be blogging again for a while. This year 'began' in Egypt as well but with a different style. This year has been most eventful and I've made some new friends and strengthened some old friendships I hope. I just don't believe people who say 'hasn't the time flown' because they do not see all the things they have done. I look at my diary burtsing with tickets and mementos from things I have done this year and I am happy. A year contains a lot and I mustn't forget that.

Oh, and it might not mean much to some but:
"God bless us, everyone."
A Christmas Carol

Peat.

Wednesday, December 08, 2004

You scored as alternative. You're partially respected for being an individual in a conformist world yet others take you as a radical. You have no place in society because you choose not to belong there - you're the luckiest of them all, even if your parents are completely ashamed of you. Just don't take drugs ok?

alternative

67%

Middle Class

62%

Lower Class

50%

Upper middle Class

46%

Luxurious Upper Class

29%

What Social Status are you?
created with QuizFarm.com


Are creative juices finite? A random musing:

This is something I worry about on and off. Will I eventually run out of ideas? Will I simply re-hash the same material in a new context?

Is pouring my creative energies into roleplaying game scenarios ultimately going to to leave me with no ideas for myself? So that by the time I get around to writing films and books I will have no good ideas left? (And being a geek I hate repeating the same ideas, even if they have only been played out on the LARP circuit).

Or, is throwing my creative energies into everything I do challenging myself to create newer ideas? By using up the ones I have I will have no choice but to start afresh. Is it not better to give ideas to the RPG world, making your mates happy than to keep them to yourself for some pipe-dream that will maybe make you money someday?

I think I muse about things the wrong way. I claim to be new and original but that thinking clearly shows a materialist identity. I think the last point is probably my stance on this.

Another slice of my brain for ya folks!

Monday, December 06, 2004

A QUOTATION CHAIN
(Remember to sign the petition to help the workers!)

In my never ending search of cool quotes. Here is a good one I found in the album notes to Cult of Luna's 'The beyond'

"If we give up our liberty in the name of security, we will have neither."
Benjamin Franklin

Intreged by this man I did what any self-respecting student would do. I looked him up on the internet.

There, I found another quote:

"If you would not be forgotten,
As soon as you are dead and rotten,
Either write things worth reading
Or do the things worth the writing"

Ben Franklin did not fight like George Washington did but he carved out a nation in the rooms of government. He was involved in and signed both the Declaration of independence (1776) and the Constitution (1787).

"Well done is better than well said."

He also created bifocals, the lightning rod and saw the first hot air ballon flight in Paris.

Now, while the man may not be perfect, he did kinda create the 'American dream' but he stipulated that the only way to true wealth was through hard work (unlike the American dream these days).

Now, I know I'm known for my America bashing, but Ben Franklin shows me that America was supposed to be the land of the free, where 'all men are born equal' (How's that for a quote Dubya!?!).

And those that see the inevitavle fall of the American Empire in the distance will note that this should not have come to be. At least not in America. It used to be the 'New World' where we could 'go west' for freedom.

Where did it all go wrong? How can this horrible trend be reversed?

"But if thou dost love life,
Then do not squander time
For that's the stuff life is made of."
Ben Franklin

Friday, December 03, 2004

"Ten things I hate about you I've been asked to write down,
But I don't know if I can write that much,
Here's a warning from old friends,
to stay away from that girl, from that girl..."

Starrats 'Warning from old friends'

I could write about Fiona, but this seems more important.

PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY, POST TO LISTS AND DISCUSSIONS, AND LINK TO WEBSITES

***EMERGENCY APPEAL FROM NAOMI KLEIN TO SUPPORT THE ZANON WORKERS IN
PATAGONIA***

(Para versión en español ver abajo)
(La traduzione in italiana si trova giù)

Dear Friends,

We’re writing to ask your help in defending an inspiring and courageous workers’
struggle in Argentina.

The Zanon ceramic tile factory, a democratic, worker-run factory in Patagonia,
is facing a serious threat of eviction, and the workers have asked us to gather
international support for their struggle.

To sign the petition, please click here:
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/zanon/petition.html

And for more information, read on...

For those of you who have seen our documentary, The Take, the Zanon factory, and
Argentina’s wider movement of worker-run companies will be very familiar.

For those of you who haven’t, this new movement of some 15,000 workers in almost
200 democratic workplaces is building hope and a concrete economic alternative
in the rubble of Argentina’s disastrous experiment with orthodox neoliberalism
in the 1990s.

Recovered companies are run by assembly: one worker, one vote. In most of them,
workers have decided that everyone should receive the same salary. They are
proving the viability of an economy run on an entirely different value system,
and they are growing.

In the past year, Zanon has increased its workforce from 300 to 450: a 50%
increase. What multinational corporation or national government could boast of
such a dramatic rise in decent-paying employment in the middle of an economic
crisis?

And Zanon has cultivated a deep and mutual relationship with the surrounding
community. For 20 years, the poor neighbourhood of Nueva España, across the
highway from the factory, has been asking the provincial government for a health
clinic. Zanon workers took a vote earlier this year, and in 3 months built and
opened a brand new community health facility.

But now the provincial government is threatening to send in the Gendarmeria to
remove Zanon’s precious machines. This is an illegal order, since this force is
Federal, intended to police Argentina’s borders. On a second front, the Federal
judge presiding over the bankruptcy of the former owner is refusing to recognize
the Zanon workers’ co-operative (called FaSinPat – short for ‘Fabricas Sin
Patrones’, Factories Without Bosses.)

The former owner received millions in public subsidies, and still amassed a huge
debt and bankruptcy: he has since been removed from his own board of directors
for “accounting irregularities”. The workers’ co-operative, on the other hand,
is a major success: it is now producing 380,000 square meters of ceramic tiles a
month – a level of production higher than when the former owner closed the
factory - and the workers do it without the huge public subsidies (300,000 pesos
per month) that he used to receive.

The Zanon workers have told us that a massive international petition in support
of their struggle could make a key difference with the various levels of courts
and governments.

Zanon’s highly successful combination of direct action and direct democracy is a
precious example of that other world that is possible, that is growing before
our very eyes.

We urge you to sign the petition
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/zanon/petition.html
and do everything you can to encourage others to do the same.

Thank you for your time and support!

Avi Lewis and Naomi Klein

Still feeling pretty bummed so I'm not doing any work today. Just chilling then we're going out to a rock club later to rock out. Then Dragonmeet tommorrow which will be very cool I hope and I'll probably end up spending a lot of money.

Peat.

Thursday, December 02, 2004

"You got nothing left, you ain't a man no more
you're outta control,
All those blues means you're gonna find out,
what it's like to lose your soul.
There gonna lay me out to rot a'right here. In some marshy swamp.
Tore up by the silver bullet, right through my heart."

John Spencer Blues Explosion. 'She said'

Well. Yeah.

I could rant, I could rage, I could pour my bleeding heart out, I could spead angst and existentialist sentiment across the internet, I could wail and howl and swear oaths, I could crawl under a rock, I could sing, I could never speak again, I could...

I don't know.

A misquote from 'The Sandman' which sums things up a little. The Sandman, being the anthropomorphic personification of 'dream' is described by Merv Pumpkinhead.

"Nah, he enjoys it. It's a pose y'know? He meets a girl, everything is great for a while then he loses her. Now most guys like you and me we say, well that's life....
But not him, he's got to be the noble figure standing in the rain, mourning the loss of his beloved. And the whole world get's dreams full of unrequited love and existentialist angst.

And we all get wet."

That's not an exact quote but you get the idea.

Don't really know what to say I guess.