Smoking or Non Smoking?

With anti smoking laws due to come into force next year? I'm not that sure and i'm not about to go looking it up, if it isn't next year it's the year after. Anyway smoking in public places such as pubs, restaurents etc is due to become illegal.

Now i don't wish to restict anyones civil liberties and being brought up in a pub culture i can accept people smoking in pubs, it's just always been that way. It wouldn't seem right if it was banned. However i can't say that i disagree with the new laws either. They are apparantly designed to protect people like bar staff who don't have a choice of going somewhere less smoky, besides quitting their job or accepting breathing in secondary smoke. Also if the pub environments were less smoky i certainly wouldn't complain.

Then again i'm not addicted to the things and don't have anything to worry about. However i do take umbrage at some twatty artist who doesn't even live in the country being flown over and paid to throw his tuppence worth into the ring by a smoking lobby funded by cigarette manufacturers!

Hockney, go fuck off back to smoke free Los Angeles where you have chosen to live and paint some more dachsunds you fucking twat!

I've been paying scant attention to the news lately...

...but this is disgusting! My contempt for New Labour is as great as it has ever been for Thatcher's Conservative era governement. There shall be no dissent within the ranks it seems and even old age pensioners will be huckled out at any word not on the hymn sheet.

Also blocking a motion not to pay tribute to someone who seemed to be a pretty decent servent to the Labour party over the years because they happened to be outspoken against the war? How small and petty these minds are, even when you are dead we shall try and keep your ideas buried that arn't in accordance with our ideology of warmongering and profiteering!

I can barely bring myself to read the full article, they also threw out someone who dared to criticise the throwing out of an OAP! All the guy said was, "You leave him alone he is an old man."

Evil fucks, evil fucks that is what they are, that is both those whose policy it was and those who lacked the balls to disobey and would actually throw people out for such mild protest! Given that any debate on Iraq was strickly off the agenda, it shows the cowardice of those that control the party.

tuesday ranting and raving

I've left it late, but i can always find something to whinge about, it's really quite easy to moan ones face off. Though whether i can keep finding new things to rant about each week is questionable. I'm naturally a fairly cheery person incase your wondering, i just thing a good moan every now and then eases lifes little tensions.

I'd like to moan about the buses again, but i've done that before, and despite tonights bus being annoyingly early i just caught it, although it looked grim for a minute. What i do think is worth moaning about just now is other peoples cinema etiquette, i really like going to the cinema but it is no suprise i prefer to go on days and at times when you can expect it to be very quiet. If it isn't people kicking your seat, it's people that will talk during the film, or just large groups of people who before the film will witter on and on and burst yer heid.

It is very frustrating as you just can't really replicate the good points of the cinema experience in your own home, well unless you are seriously minted and can afford to build one fucker of an extension.

Bought a Guardian today

The traditional lefty paper, they been advertising it heavily on the telly lately, the advert suggests that they have resized it, and i guess they have. In an effort to be unique it now appears to be of a size inbetween your tabloids and traditional broadsheet. Utter nonsense if you ask me, it makes it no more conveinent for reading on public transport and therefore a wasted exercise in style over substance.

Anyway it hasn't stopped me reading it, at the snail pace i usually read yer serious style paper, and it's top story did interest me. Tony himself as well as the defence secretary holding secret talks with the Saudis to secure £40bn worth of arms sales. The immorality of the arms trade aside, the questionable morals of selling arms to a regime like the Saudis, the Saudis want to attach a few strings on the deal.

They would like Britain to expel two anti-Saudi dissidents currently receiving asylum in the UK. They want British Airways to resume flights to Riyadh, these are currewntly cancelled sue to terrorism fears. I can only presume this shows the quality that BA provides, either that or no other bugger flies direct from there to the UK. They would also like Tony to have a criminal investigation involving the Saudi Ruling family and BAE dropped. Something to do with a "slush fund" and an investigation by the Serious Fraud Office.

No doubt Tony will do all he can to enable the contract to go through, who knows perhaps the Saudis will settle for 2 out of 3, if that investigation can't be stopped i'm sure they can make sure anyone found guilty never makes it into a UK courtroom.

Exercise and keeping fit

This is something on an interest of mine. I wouldn't describe myself as a gym freak, i see going to the gym more of a means to an end. Essentialy what i do at the gym is done to benefit other physical interests (ooh er) so i can enjoy them all the more. Which at the moment more or less covers playing football. As sports go football is my first love, from kicking a ball about at school as a youngster to playing 11 aside on a saturday nowadays. Not to mention midweek games of 5's and 7's.

The thing is going to the gym is actually a little dull, and to keep up my current fitness regime means going twice a week on top of the football i play, so i what i'd like to do is take up another sport that can take the place of at least one gym session. This is the dilemma i'm currently facing, my 2nd choice sport after football would probably be snowboarding. I've not hit the slopes in about 4 years now and wouldn't mind doing so again, tis not cheap though and quite frankly snowboarding in Scotland is an unsatisfying existence. Even in the heart of winter the quality of snow is poor and dryslopes just don't quite cut it.

So snowboarding is out for the noo. So what sports can i take up that arn't either to expensive or impractical. Squash, no far to middle management for my liking. Badminton, a possibility i know a few people who play, it's cheap and as an indoor sport can be played all year round. There's Tennis, a traditional summer sport but i did see an advert about year round Tennis and coaching available at my local sport centre. Possibly worth inquiring about, i'm not a huge fan of watching tennis but i think i'd enjoy playing it a lot more, well provided i could master basic techniques and not be a total buffoon on the court.

I'm struggling here, cycling is something that could be good, initial investment aside. Fellow blogger J33liewanger would be the person to ask about that, i also used to play 5's with a fellow who was a keen cyclist and his fitness was phoenominal, i wouldn't mind something that would push me quite hard. I suspect however that if a badminton racquet is cheaper than a tennis racquet that might make up my mind for me! :-)

Browsing through Indymedia

Just for the hell of it really, was looking at the story about Australia deporting a peace activist as he was a risk to National Security, it's about the 3rd story down at time of writing. I followed one of the links to this piece by the soon to be deported activist. It's about corporate giant Halliburtons work in Iraq.

What a grind football can be

CIS cup action against lower league teams in middens like Paisley, with the game going to extra time to drag the experience out. I was not in the pub long enough before the game to insulate my system from that dross. Still we scraped through and a quarter final awaits, don't know who against yet but i think i shall be better warmed up for the next round just to be on the safe side!

Tuesday moan

More of a moan than a rant but it just about qualifies. Midweek football, no bad thing in itself i am quite looking forward to our glamour cup tie over in Paisley tonight. Its the fact that for 2 rounds running we've got the tuesday evening game rather than the wednesday, this means that my 7's game is cancelled. Ideally we'd be playing tomorrow night so i could be playing football tonight and watching it the next. Also fitness freak that i am because i am no longer playing football tonight i feel compelled to go to the gym for an extra session to make up for it.

Talk about rediculous

I know Alex Ferguson is a famously fiery sort of character but i find it just hilarious that he is apparantly now refusing to speak to his own football clubs TV station after one of its presenters criticised him! For one thing you'd think he'd just get the boy fired, or sent to cover the u19 squad or something as punishment. Just how touchy can one person be? It may not be true, it was reported in the Daily Mirror or some other tablid, i saw a snippet in the football gossip section on the BBC website.

I can heartily reccomend....

...going to see this man. Very funny lad, i went to see him on hearing that he was meant to be very funny and i wasn't disapppinted. I doubt you will be to if you go. Not overly political like many of my favourite comedians, Bill Hicks, Robert Newman, Mark Thomas or Mark Steel but funny as you like and did slate the fact that you can't walk about London without fear of getting shot in the head by the police.

More incompetence in Iraq?

As if the people havn't suffered enough, look here to see how well the US appointed rulers have been manageing their funds. I'd write more but the article speaks for itself, really how much does it need repeating that the invasion of Iraq wasn't the best idea. Nevermind the lies fed to us to make it appear legitimate.

Does any of this sound familiar

If you would care to read the linked article, it lists 14 traits associated with Fascist regimes of hte past. Can anyone see any similarity with a certain powerful regime of the present? Does that make the US a Fascist regime? I remain unconvinced but then thats probably just the remarkable power of propaganda. The more i look at the list.....

Is it already to late?

According to some scientists we may have already reached a point of no return on global warming. The Artic ice is melting and it is possible that we may have reached a 'tipping point' beyond which there is nothing we can do to reverse the loss of the ice and be forced to give way to rising sea levels and say goodbye to the Netherlands possibly.

Part of me wants to reject it as flawed or the claims as excessive, the evidence however suggests cause for concern. Maybe it isn't to late, but will anything be done before it is?

Italian Football

A good writer can make almost any topic seem interesting, with the right amount literary flair and a little bit of being economical with the truth then even the dullest of topics can for a brief moment seem dazzlingly brilliant. Such is the case with Italian football, i bought FourFourTwo this month and they are doing a guide to Italian Football and it's excellent reading, especially as a football fan myself you very rarely get any coverage of the less well known teams like Venezia, Siena, Lecce and all the rest of the also rans.

There's also information like Juventus the so called biggest club in italy with 10 million fans averaging 26,400 fans per game last season. I know the Stadio delle Alpi isn't the most popular but with those sort of crowds in a season when you win the league how committed are your fans? I didn't know that the 'other' Turin team Torino had an all conquering team in the 40's that were all killed in a plane crash, or that Torino were formed by a former Juventus coach unhappy with the progress of the original Turin club.

Unfortunately for football fans Italian football is possibly some of the dullest football the world has ever seen, and there is really no excuse for it. There is top drawer talent aplenty in the Italian league, there is big money, there are big glamourous clubs yet for those of us that have ever taken the time to watch a few games they play torturously dull football. It's defensive, slow paced and as likely as not to be settled by a single goal. Only a year or two ago the Champions League final was between Juventus and AC Milan, the pinnacle of European club football, it finished 0-0 and had to be settled on penatly kicks which Milan won.

This negative style of play also extends to the national team, they get a goal up and sit back and defend defend defend. I cheered when they were robbed by South Korea in the last World Cup Finals, they didn't deserve better because with the talent they have at their disposal they should have been able to steamroller the Koreans, they didn't so nae luck. I think the only Italian team i enjoyed watchign at all was the 1994 team inspired by Roberto Baggio, by far the greatest Italian footballer of my time. Unfortunatley in the final he was carrying an injury and without him fully fit Italy looked lost for attacking flair. He also missed his penalty in the shootout and a moment was lost for an Italian team playing positively to stamp their mark on the game.

I wonder how cynical some people can be?

This article suggest very, it's not the first time Britain has decided to deport someone back to a country with a murderous regime. On this occasion even if the person going back isn't the victim of recriminations for being an anti Mugabe activist he will almost certainly die for the lack of treatment available to cover his illness.

I can't help but think part ofthe reason he is being sent home is that he has HIV, considered a burden on resources why not just pap him back home where the problem will take care of itself. Given the taboo that still surrounds HIV to a large extent i imagine a lot of people simply won't care about the mans plight so the government don't need worry themselves in the slightest about his fate.

As it happens the cricket coach getting his citizenship granted the day after winning the ashes, a coincidence? Yeah right i can just imagine the home secretary browsing through a list of files, catching the name thinking that looks familiar and upon proper scrutinising of his application passing it. Yeah sure thing, as it happens the england cricket coach probably does deserve to be granted citizenship, his parents and grandparents are british and he was having problems getting his own citizenship made official because his job involved touring with Englands cricket team. For gods sake whats the guy meant to do, give up his job to go coach cricket only in side the UK? Why it has taken 14 years, well probably just standard government bureaucracy.

Bush

The image from Sky TV has been doing the rounds, funny and spookily accurate it is to. So i thought i would link to a spoof video that i found rather amusing. Is it just me or does this guy make Reagan look like a considered thinker?

Fuel nonsense

Fuel prices are up and people go mental, despite a spectacular lack of blockading of refineries, i think about 2 men and a dog bothered to protest outside a Shell refinerie, eejits have caused shortages with panic buying. Ok i can understand people being concerned, but unless you are likely to left stranded somewhere get over it, if the worst comes to the worst just phone into work and say you'll be an hour or or so late because you are having to use public transport.

Thai i imagine is the worst case scenario for the majoity of people, inconveinence of struggling to get to work or the kids to school, or the weekly shopping done because you have ran out of petrol. It is not a reason to make the situation work by selfishly making sure your tank is full so you can tootle about your business.

As for fuel protestors, get over it, oil is a diminishing resources the price is going up and it is likely to stay that way, it may go back down in the short term but enjoy it while it lasts because i don't think any future price dip is going to last to long!

If i had a brain i would be dangerous!

If you read a post a made about a week ago, entitled i just nearly made a complete tit of myself you will appreciate this next little anecdote even more. Off i went today to my new dentist for a checkup, i get there and head to the reception desk giving them my details i get a puzzled look in response, so the recptionist asks for my appointment card which i promptly hand over. She scrutinizes it closer than i ever did and gets to the crux of the problem, i am there at the wrong time. Indeed i am there on the wrong day, and i am even there on the wrong month!

Don't ask me how i could get it so spectacularly wrong after almost making the same mistake only a week previously, it was just sheer carelessness on my part. I did have a valid argument that an 8 looked a lot like a 3(thinking it was the 13th of this month rather than the 18th of as it turns out next month) but mistaking which month the appointment was in was not really one i could explain away.

Still it could have been worse, they were quite good and managed to fit me in today without waiting to long. I daresay if they hadn't i would have been to mortified to return and would even now be sitting here diligently putting off the search for a new dentist. Unfortunately when i do return i shall be getting a couple of fillings.

Tuesday rant

You know what i hate, reading a really good book which you know has a sequel that hasn't yet been published. I just finished Pandora's Star by Peter F. Hamilton and thoroughly enjoyed it, the more observant and regular reader may remember that i bought for reading on holiday way back in july. Well it got overlooked on holiday but i've been reading it over the last week or so, it's a big epic space adventure set in earths future, where we travel between the stars with wormhole technology under our control etc.

Despite all the technological advances humanity is threatened by a species that is entirely xenophobic and will tolerate only itself(for it has evolved as a single entity with many units of itself controlled by hive mind thing) to live in the universe. Theres also conspiracy theory stuff in the background as major characters appear to have been manipulated ot controlled by another alien power not yet revealed. Anyway i like it which is what counts even if it don't float your boat.

It's annoying that a. i don't know when the sequel is out(i can prob find out easy enough) and b. the bastarding thing will almost certainly only be available in hardback for at least 6 months and possibly a year after initial publishing. I know hardbacks are nice and all but i resent paying about double the price, but i think i might crack over this one, hopefully maybe it'll be out around christmas time and get it in a sale or something!

Nationalism

Nationalism and patriotism are two concepts i struggle a little bit with. I buy into things like supporting the national football team and people representing Scotland in sporting events and suchlike. Why their successes or failures should matter is not something i fully understand. At the same time i don't like jingoistic patriotism that seeks to label us and says you are different from such and such. Often we are, there are always cultural differences but i think people from different countries and cultures often share much in common.

So when i stumbled across this article i wasn't sure what to make of it. On many levels it is absolutely disgusting, not in the least suprising though. The thing is i'm neither a staunch exponent of Scotland becoming independent or remaining within the Union of Great Britain and NI. It is appalling the way people and information is manipulated, however as a great man once said, "all governments are lying cocksuckers" this is just a fact of life it seems.

In some ways i think Scotland should become independent, for better or worse we might get a government that more closely represented what the people want. Albeit that would have been Labour governments since pretty much the war going on voting records, certainly in my lifetime Scotland has voted Labour and suffered at the hands of Conservative governments over many years anyway.

Is it likely to have made the state of our country better or worse? Honest answer is we would only know if we try, though with increasing european intengration is it better to be a small nation with an independent voice or part of a bigger nation with more clout? Also given the ever increasing political union of European nations is it really worth the effort any longer?

So i guess the heart does say yes, the head say eh mibbe. Will i lose sleep on it, nope. I believe we live in one world and we are but only a very small part. Still you can't help hear the words of the bard himself, "We're bought and sold for English gold" and thinking what if?

Daunting task

Yes it's time for a spring clean! Ok so it aint spring by a long shot but since of my cats has to taken to almost living in my bedroom and occasionaly using it as a toilet, combined with natural slide of tidiness i've decided it is time for a right proper clean. Floors scrubbed, shelves dusted you name it, it shall be done.

So limitied blogging today, i may post after i've finished and reconnected my computer, that should give you a rough idea of how long it took me, it shall probably take hours. I may need to have a siesta after i've finished!

Yes get in!

A good away win up in the highlands! Other results not to bad for us as we draw level with Aberdeen and above Dundee Utd. Two home games coming up, if we can get a couple of good results in these then we could be in for a good season.

Especially pleased that it sounded like a good performance also, it's good to see them playing with confidence and that can only help, lets get stuck into those Falkirk bams next week!

New link

Unfortunately the blog known as The New Goo is no longer with us, so i've replaced it with a new blog run by one time student buddy Fergie. To be honest i've hardly looked at it so i don't really know if it's any good or not i'm really not all that fussy about what i link to, it's probably rotten to be honest, but you know he's a decent guy i'm being kind ;-)

Only kidding Fergie i'm sure blog is very good :-) Which reminds me, despite being of good Scottish origin this blogger is currently based in Oslo where despite living there for a few years now the author is still struggling to find a cheap pint of lager!

Trickle down economics = third world enclaves?

This was in yesterdays papers and news, but i've just got round to sitting down to read about it. There has been a UN report that states that parts of America, the richest country in the world, are as poor as Thirld World countries!

America is the most full on exponent of free market economics and the biggest backer of economics that says if the super rich are doing well then their wealth and prosperity will trickle down all the way to those on the bottom rungs of the economic ladder.

Well it seems that just isn't the case increasing levels of child mortality, an infant mortality rate comparable to that of Malaysia and child poverty rates risen to more than 20%. Not insignificant numbers of the population. One can't help but wonder if all the money they spend on their military couldn't be more closely scrutinised and scaled down even just a bit to tackle poverty in their own country.

It just seems so stupidly obvious that it's a wonder people in the US arn't more concerned about what their tax dollars are spent on.Would you have your money spend on on say a healthcare system or on warmongering in the name of spreading democracy?

Weird Dreams

Have you ever saw the movie Heat, well in my dream i was watching it, but as the dream progressed i went from watching it to being the character played by Val Kilmer. Except because it was a dream the plot changed, as they run out from the bank in the massive gun battle at the end of the heist my character gets lost runs off somewhere not in the film. Getting increasingly frantic ends up somewhere where everyone is hostile looking and starts shooting at everyone and anyone until he runs out of bullits. By this time people with clown masks on riding motorbikes have turned up looking to 'deal with me' i wake up as me/the film character is appearing to get doused in petrol ready to be burnt alive. Just a little bit disturbing way to wake up.

That wasn't the only weird dream i had either, i was with friends on a train heading to Motherwell from Glasgow. Thing is the train was open topped, in fact i was sitting at the front and their was no front to it either. As we got closer to our stop the train then gets to a bit of track that is just wrong and starts dipping down rapidly shaking us all about, having to hold on for fear of getting thrown off. Just as it settles down it starts to sort of sink into the ground, not completely but it half drives into/submerges into a moist oily looking ground and comes to a halt. The result of this is that my clothes are filthy and i'm going tonto about that, not about anything else, i am raging because my outfit is soiled and i want to complain about it. So i go off in search of someone at the station only the station is almost like a rundown wooden shed and their are no officials. I climb up some stairs and i'm on a roof lost for ideas as for what to do when someone approaches me and asks me the time, but there is something suspicios about them and i say to them, "wait a minute this is some sortof scam isn't it, i should know this," and lo and behold there is someone positioing themselves behind me with a knife threatening me. I react nervously at first before throwing the pair of them off the roof like i'm some tough guy from any countless movies you care to mention. After that i just walked away perplexed and the dream merges into another one or i wake up, i can't remember exactly.

In profile Bill Hicks

Been meaning to do something like this since i started this, basicaly write a profile on someone i either really like or admire, or both. Thing is if i am going to do that i'd like to do it properly and it may even require some sort of research, now obviously i'm not getting paid for this shit so i'm not a complete nutter that i am gonna spend hours looking into historical background etc.

Frankly for quality of information i'd probably reccomend Wikipedia rather than what i expect my profiles to turn out like, in fact i daresay i'll use it myself as a source. Still i'll give it a bash and for my first profile i am choosing to honour the late great Bill Hicks!

If you are familiar at all with the works of Bill Hicks then i don't need to tell you just what a dude this guy was, i'll assume that not everyone knows of him and try and give you a flavour of just how good this man was.

As a comedian he was utterly fearless, it is a great sadness that i never got to see him perform live. He did come to Scotland and perform, indeed i have a friend to went to see him when he was here and i was green with envy when i found that out. Unfortunately for myself i think i was only about 14 at the time and not yet aware of this comedy god.

Short aside, yah dancer i've just found a CD that i don't already own Shock and Awe, i've been meaning to look for ages for any new stuff. I say new but well of course he is no longer here performing and commentating on the insane world we life in but he didn't have a great deal of his stuff released whilst he was alive, i can safely say that all the posthumous stuff i've bought has in no way harmed his legacy. There are a couple of interesting looking books i wasn't aware of either, i shall need to look into acquiring the CD and possibly the books.

I honestly can't say exactly how i got to know and love Bill Hicks. I have vague memories of seeing him on channel 4 as a teenager, but that was a mere one off exposure. I thought he was hilarious but it didn't lead to anything further. I did look out for him and ironically i got him a little confused with Dennis Leary for a spell. I think he next popped into my conciousness whilst watching the film Human Traffic, there is a short Bill Hicks clip played and it certainly stood out.

After that i'm not really sure why i went out and bought a CD, it was some time later, i bought a copy of Relentless and i havn't looked back.

So basicaly why do i rate him so highly? He is more than just a funny comedian. At their very best comedians show a level of insight into society that can be quite exceptional, using humour to show up just how rediculous some of our ideas and believes can look. Hick's does this, also his whole style, passionate and wrathful and yet the man truly cared about the world he lived in and railed against what he saw as the evils contaminating our collective consciousness.

Stand out topics are the LA Riots, JFK assasination, relgion, politcs.

Listening to Arizona Bay there to refresh my memory so i could transcribe a couple of short bits, but no just go buy it, borrow it or download whatever just get a copy, it is brilliant. Ok if you really want some written as text examples they can be found here.

Ok so this is less of a profile, more of an advert, get some Bill Hicks stuff and prepare to squee gee your 3rd eye!

Grammar

I found quite a few definitions but i have chosen to use the following.

Grammar: The system of rules implicit in a language, viewed as a mechanism for generating all sentences possible in that language.

I find i often diverge rather badly from the correct usage, but i do have plans of reintroducing myself to the concept....say approximately the year 2050!

I do have a guide buried in a filing tray thing, why i even have a filing tray thing i'm not certain, left over from higher english many moons ago; i may dig it out one day. Like the use of that semi-colon there, just flung it in ever so blase as if i knew when you are meant to use them.

I just nearly made a complete tit of myself.

I was meant to be doing a couple of errands today or so i thought. I was going to go and feed my sisters cats, for she is away on holiday, and then head of for a dentist appointment. It didn't quite work out like that however.

First off i hadn't been left the keys to my sisters flat, don't worry my mum has them the cats arn't in any danger, so i couldn't go feed them. Kinda not to fussed about that, the place is a pigsty and i might have caught something, although i havn't saw her 2 new cats yet and i wouldn't have minded.

So i forgot about that and got ready to go to the dentist. I have to point out that it's lucky i'm going to a new dentist, havn't actually been to their premises yet and a good thing to. Because of this i happened to check the appoinment card with more care than i might have done. Yes the appointment was for next tuesday and not this one. I'd have felt like an idiot going in a week early for my checkup, especially as it would be my first visit to the place. What a first impression i'd make, the most eager person in the world to get to the dentist ever i'd have been!

Link Example 6

Got concerns about the way the whole world seems to be corporately dominated and how people are increasingly treated as commodities rather than individuals with all sorts of needs both material and well for want of a better word spiritual. Well a good place to look would be here.

It's time likes this i wish i could just copy and paste a few bits from the site, but there is a good overview of what GTW is about on the front page, so it is worth a look even if only for educational purposes.

tuesday rant

They say that you find signs of the almighty working in myserious ways, there might just be something in that. Last night i pondered two things on this blog, i wondered over my lack of easy inspiration for a tuesday rant and over the meaning of life and in my opinion a lack of a creator, well in the traditional biblical sense at any rate.

Was i given a sign the very next morning that perhaps i have erred on the latter matter? I awoke this morning to find that i no longer needed to look for a reason to have a small rant, indeed the very something that woke me up caused me to curse in frustration. I'm sure it is a topic i've touched on before but there is just something extra special to be awoken by the sound of a cat scraping the wooden floor of your bedroom because it has just pissed there.

My room now smells like citrus fruits, not the nicest smell in the world and i can see why it is meant to deter cats. The result of using this special cleaner meant to discourage animals defacating indoors, so far not with any great success. It smells marginally better that a cats well used litter tray, the only thing i'm afraid i can say in it's advertising campaign should i ever be asked to endorse the product.

So do i think this is a sign? Well not of an omnipotent creator no, it's a sign that life will throw something shitty at you as soon as look at you but i think we all know that. And it the grand scheme of things a poorly house trained cat doesn't really rank as a major contender

The meaning of Life?

Does it matter if there is a meaning to life, does there need to be a grand plan, is it inevitable that having a blog and no strong religious convictions leads to boring ramblings about whats it all about?

I would say no, no and in my case yes to those questions. I can't however state one way or another if there is a meaning to life or if there is some grand plan to it all.

Is a life more or less valuable if as i believe there is no afterlife? I would argue more, so what if we are just creatures created by evolution who only life on after our deaths by what impression we make on those that suceed us? If Beethoven is nothing more than a few bones in a grave does it lessen the appeal and impact of his music? Not a bit. The fact that we have only one life to live makes it all the more valuable and not to be thrown away or exploited by those who would grind people less powerful than themselves into the dust for their own gain.

Would it be nice if i was proven wrong and there is an afterlife? Absolutely, i'm a young guy still utterly convinced i'm going to live forever, at some point a sense of my own mortality will creep into my psyche and nibble away at my anti religion believes. I believe i will still keep them and not waver out of fear and a desire for my existence to be continued after i've slipped this mortal coil, it won't change the fact that i'll not want to be proven wrong.

Well when i say proven wrong, only to an extent, would depend on what sort of post life existence was waiting, if it involved fundamentalist christians i could only presume i'd been sent to Hell!

All this pondering about life has me wondering about peoples motivations. I can understand why so many choose to believe in a faith of some sort, something that offers a promise of life after death and an eternal reward when so often everyday life is so unrewarding. Also those that seek power and not just wealth but extreme wealth and who hoard it to themselves, why? You can't take it with you and does a life of luxury really make up for unconscionable acts. The answer is apparantly yes when you look at the number of despots and corporate crimes history has thrown up.

I sometimes wonder about things that piss me off that are exceptionaly unimportant. Right now, computer games. Of all the unimportant things to get annoyed at, they are meant to be fun for fuck sake and just because my team loses a couple of games they shouldn't have and my new signing is playing like a complete arse shouldn't have me want to hurl the monitor out the window in frustration.

Then again if i didn't occasionally blow my top over trivial things would i be in danger of one day doing something totally tonto in a more important situation? They say people shouldn't bottle up their emotions, i imagine it probably goes for big and little ones.

Do i find the world a baffling place? Yes i do.

Not in such a rush...

...to do a rant this week, i must be feeling pretty much at one with the world.

Still doesn't mean i won't do one, you'll just have to be a little more patient. :-)

Scotland

Well i know i should be grateful that our national football team has restored a modicum of pride, ever since the 6-0 Holland match it has been a total nightmare for those that care about the Scotland team. However one can't help but wonder just why we were so poor under Berti Voghts, it's easy to blame the manager for the lack of organisation and spirit within the squad but at some point you have to question why almost the same players didn't seem to give the same effort that they have done recently?

So long as the improvement continues i'll be happier i guess and whether or not we pull the cat oot the bag and make the World Cup Finals lets damn well make a better fist of qualifying for the next couple of major championships. It is a disgrace that a country with the passion for football that Scotland has is in danger of going 10 years and 4 tournaments without qualifying for the final stages.

When we consider a draw with Italy as disappointing i guess we are on track, fingers crossed we can win in Norway on wednesday.

I created this blog...

...partly as a means of encouraging myself to engage in what happens outside of my own little world more. I do like to read books outside of fiction and the fatuous non-fiction, however i thought a good way to maintain a more regular interest in current affairs would be to write my own thoughts on them and post them for whoever cares to listen.

Right now, although i feel like posting something i just cannot be bothered posting about any of the current major news stories, i don't really have anything i feel i need to add on my thoughts about New Orleans/Iraq and the Bush administration in general. I can't be faffed writing about his lapdog Blair. It's not that i don't care about any of the more serious politcal issues any longer, just right now they are boring me rigid. Although i can't deny as i've followed the coverage of what has happened in New Orleans to entertaining fantasies of Bush getting kicked out of office and sparing the world from the rest of his term in office.

I'm currently reading a science fiction novel called Pandora's Star by Peter F. Hamilton, i think it isn't just ordinary escapism from the world we live in that partly motivates my enjoyment of science fiction but the fact that quite often it portrays a future that is radically different from the one we live in just now and offers thoughts and hopes of real change. Though as it happens thats not really true of this one so far, apart from mad sci fi stuff like wormholes and a rail network that gets you around the galaxy and seeing as it not run by British Rail presumably on time.

Homeland Security

Now theres a joke term if ever i heard it. The city of New Orleans is all but flooded out of existence and why, because the funds designated to improve the flood defences were moved away for reasons of Homeland Security, to pay for the 'War on Terror'.

People have died needlessly because their current government were criminaly negligent, it is that simple. Ignoring the fact that this crusading 'war on terror' has only increased tensions within the middle east and made further terrorist attacks more likely, there has been no tangible results of terrorist networks being smashed or those behind 9/11 apphrehended, the event that has been used to justify invading 2 countries, Osama bin Laden is still unaccounted for. So all the money that has been spent on these misadventures in Afghanistan and Iraq could have been saving lives and livlihoods in the city of New Orleans.

I live thousands of miles away and am pretty much unaffected by the the storm, economic knock on effects of petrol prices rises etc aside, but i'm angry at the disgraceful way this has been handled. There was plenty warning of the storm, and 3 days after it hit and caused so much devastation very little relief effort has reached those affected. If i was a citizen of the US nevermind Louisiana itself i'd be wanting the President impeached, kicked out, lynched you name it for gross misconduct.

To make it worse, there was an announcement that they were abandoning the search for survivors to instill law and order or words to that effect, i'm not there on the ground and there has been reports of looting, but most of those seems to be people trying to get food and water and essential supplies to survive. Get food and water to the people there and that should stop, and fuck it if people are looting retail stores for a big screen TV i don't think there is going to much of a problem getting an insurance pay out. Go try and rescue people that may be in desparate need of medical attention, there are thousands of National Guardsmen there law and Order really shouldn't be that much of a concern that you can't search for survivors.

Transfer Deadline

Most of the time you only hear people bemoaning the new transfer windows, but you can't deny it does make for an interesting day for wheeling and dealing. In the last couple of seasons from my own clubs perspective it's generally been a day where we've been sat with fingers crossed hoping we'd hold onto some of younger more promising players.

I remember the disappointment when at the 11th hour James McFadden was sold to Everton, as it happens that move got the club out of administration and the team has went from strength to strength since. At the time he was the one shining star in the team and made the lean years of administration bearable. Last year there was relief when fullback Stevie Hammell stayed at the club and signed a 2 year contract extension, by no means as talented a player as McFadden but the only natural left back we have and as good a player in the position as we are likely to attrack.

This year has been a little different, with injuries already decimating the squad and the summer sale of one of our international centre backs we've been holding our breath waiting to hear we've finally got some bodies in to strengthen the backline. Thankfully we have managed to add people to the squad, a 6 foot 7 inch tall defender, hopefully a bit of a man mountain, the kind of defender we've been crying out for. He's from Australia, just hope he adapts to the Scottish weather as well as our other Aussie player has. The other guy is on loan from the forces of darkness that is Rangers football club. Not so keen on that but so long as he does ok for us then who cares.

Least now all this is done can we can concentrate on the football itself, well until about november/december time when all the speculation about possible moves starts to heat up in preparation for the January transfer window.