(no subject)

In the end I did some more writing, but stopped around 8.15 to watch the premiere of Invasion on Channel 4. When it transpired that there would be a second episode at 10.00, I had to watch that, and then they let slip that episode 3 was being shown at 11.00 on E4... It's an interesting sense of paranoia they are beginning to build up already. Much of the behaviour of the potential baddies is very ambiguous and can be taken in more than one way. Quite clever. We'll see how it pans out.

So I didn't get any more writing done tonight. Ahem.

That said, I am only about five paragraphs away from finishing another sheet, so that will be two completed in a weekend and a bit. So, not bad progress, even if I do say so myself.

Tonight I shall be setting the torrents to download the latest episode of Battlestar Galactica so with any luck, this time tomorrow I shall know how the midseason cliffhanger resolved. I've been waiting since September, so I reckon I can wait a while longer.

Best go now, I have a few chores before bed time, and I have to be up for work in the morning even if I don't know if I shall be able to get in on account of the latest tube strike. The RMT really are a bunch of work-shy leftie skivers. They are well paid, have heaps of holiday and strike if management look at them funny.

Useless bastards.

Goodnight, LJ land.

(no subject)

In the end I did some more writing, but stopped around 8.15 to watch the premiere of Invasion on Channel 4. When it transpired that there would be a second episode at 10.00, I had to watch that, and then they let slip that episode 3 was being shown at 11.00 on E4... It's an interesting sense of paranoia they are beginning to build up already. Much of the behaviour of the potential baddies is very ambiguous and can be taken in more than one way. Quite clever. We'll see how it pans out.

So I didn't get any more writing done tonight. Ahem.

That said, I am only about five paragraphs away from finishing another sheet, so that will be two completed in a weekend and a bit. So, not bad progress, even if I do say so myself.

Tonight I shall be setting the torrents to download the latest episode of Battlestar Galactica so with any luck, this time tomorrow I shall know how the midseason cliffhanger resolved. I've been waiting since September, so I reckon I can wait a while longer.

Best go now, I have a few chores before bed time, and I have to be up for work in the morning even if I don't know if I shall be able to get in on account of the latest tube strike. The RMT really are a bunch of work-shy leftie skivers. They are well paid, have heaps of holiday and strike if management look at them funny.

Useless bastards.

Goodnight, LJ land.

There's a strike on?

I made it into work after all. After an exciting half hour this morning smoking cigarettes, sloshing back blackcurrant squash and franticly refreshing the Transport for London webpage during which time stations opened and closed and opened again like slots on a tic-tac board, and the Victoria Line was stated variously as part suspended, good service or severe delays.

The Northern Line of course, was subject to severe delays, but that’s just par for the course, its default setting.

I waited until the auguries seemed best, and the open/closed station, good service/severe delays/part suspended ratio was optimal and made a dash for it. Or rather a rapid hobble, since I am still being broken in by my new boots. Shame really, I would have liked to have gone back to bed for an hour or so.

Basking in the kudos of getting into the office when everyone thought I’d stay at home, I think I shall now spend those brownie points earned by writing more character sheets for NWO; or at least finishing what I started yesterday.

If I can get it finished before I disappear off home luxuriously early (blame the tube strike), I can decide whether or not to waste time watching the first episode of Life on Mars¹ on BBC1 tonight. Sounds interesting, if perhaps a little complex.


¹A new series featuring a police detective in charge of a serious crime unit who is knocked unconscious in a car crash in 2006 and wakes up on the same spot, but in 1973. He is still expected to work in the serious crime unit, but under a thuggish boss, obsolete methodology and nightmare fashions. He has to do with out computers and his mobile and try to work out whether or not he is awake and insane, still unconscious and hallucinating, or actually really and truly back in 1973.

There's a strike on?

I made it into work after all. After an exciting half hour this morning smoking cigarettes, sloshing back blackcurrant squash and franticly refreshing the Transport for London webpage during which time stations opened and closed and opened again like slots on a tic-tac board, and the Victoria Line was stated variously as part suspended, good service or severe delays.

The Northern Line of course, was subject to severe delays, but that’s just par for the course, its default setting.

I waited until the auguries seemed best, and the open/closed station, good service/severe delays/part suspended ratio was optimal and made a dash for it. Or rather a rapid hobble, since I am still being broken in by my new boots. Shame really, I would have liked to have gone back to bed for an hour or so.

Basking in the kudos of getting into the office when everyone thought I’d stay at home, I think I shall now spend those brownie points earned by writing more character sheets for NWO; or at least finishing what I started yesterday.

If I can get it finished before I disappear off home luxuriously early (blame the tube strike), I can decide whether or not to waste time watching the first episode of Life on Mars¹ on BBC1 tonight. Sounds interesting, if perhaps a little complex.


¹A new series featuring a police detective in charge of a serious crime unit who is knocked unconscious in a car crash in 2006 and wakes up on the same spot, but in 1973. He is still expected to work in the serious crime unit, but under a thuggish boss, obsolete methodology and nightmare fashions. He has to do with out computers and his mobile and try to work out whether or not he is awake and insane, still unconscious and hallucinating, or actually really and truly back in 1973.

The Final Frontier

You always knew that you were in for a good episode of Star Trek in any of its incarnations, by looking at the cast list. The sillier the actors’ names, the better they would perform. Trek was always the prime example, but I found that it generally pays off in other shows or movies, too. It’s as if the more bizarre the name some poor sod had been landed with, the greater their motivation to make you identify with the character they were playing, rather than the actor’s name.

So, silly names equal success.

In the same way that the only way Doctor Who could only come back to the TV screens was when the fans grew up to become the decision-makers, it is good to see that Trek fans are beginning to use their new positions of influence and power to effect changes in politics, too. Of course, most Trek fans guided by Roddenberry’s utopian view gravitate to the traditional centre of mainstream politics, and then sit there squabbling over mutually contradictory policies before agreeing that they are all marvellous and adopting them wholesale. Welcome then, to the cognitively dissonant world of the Liberal Democratic Party. A party founded by four ex-Labour ministers who fell out of favour, and an existing party leader who looked at the 9 seats or so he had and thought that he could double it by merging with a bunch of high-profile deserters.

It’s a little early for the Silly Season to start in British politics, but ever hopeful of finding ways of enticing a little interest from a largely indifferent British public, we can always rely on the Liberal Democrats.

In the past two general elections under the leadership of Charlie (wee dram) Kennedy, they have steadily increased their representation in the House of Commons to the point where they are at their highest point since the 1920s, with 62 MPs. And then it transpires that Charlie (jus’ another wee dram) Kennedy is a recovering alcoholic, despite having denied having a drink problem until last week.

He isn’t he first person to deny he has a problem and he won’t be the last, and let’s face it, a drunk in charge of the Lib Dims is no great problem; it’s not as if he’s in charge of the country, or likely to be, or anything important like that.

Still, it has allowed the nerds of UK politics to flex their muscles and ensure that that he can no longer carry on as Lib Dim leader. Kennedy is not a good name for a political leader. It’s too ordinary on the one hand and too similar to an American dynasty on the other; and that’s a poor thing to have when half the fun of being a Lib Dim politician is to bash American politics and politicians.

Happily, what they lack in good sense (let’s get rid of our best leader for 80 years!) and prospects they more than make up for in silly names. And silly names equal success, let’s not forget.

The only MP to throw his hat into the ring so far in the leadership contest is Sir Menzies Campbell. Full marks there for being Christened after a newsagent chain, and stellar bonuses for revealing that your first name is pronounced Mingies.

Fantastic.

But there is another; one whose name is odd enough to guarantee an electoral success. The man to guarantee that the Lib Dims can win a landslide victory in 2009 or 2010, whenever the next general election may be: Lemsip Henpeck MP Lembit Opik MP.

And when you consider that in the Lords they have a chap called Lord Razzall, how can they go wrong.

Silly names are quality. Mark my words, they are on a roll. Gene Roddenberry would be proud.

The Final Frontier

You always knew that you were in for a good episode of Star Trek in any of its incarnations, by looking at the cast list. The sillier the actors’ names, the better they would perform. Trek was always the prime example, but I found that it generally pays off in other shows or movies, too. It’s as if the more bizarre the name some poor sod had been landed with, the greater their motivation to make you identify with the character they were playing, rather than the actor’s name.

So, silly names equal success.

In the same way that the only way Doctor Who could only come back to the TV screens was when the fans grew up to become the decision-makers, it is good to see that Trek fans are beginning to use their new positions of influence and power to effect changes in politics, too. Of course, most Trek fans guided by Roddenberry’s utopian view gravitate to the traditional centre of mainstream politics, and then sit there squabbling over mutually contradictory policies before agreeing that they are all marvellous and adopting them wholesale. Welcome then, to the cognitively dissonant world of the Liberal Democratic Party. A party founded by four ex-Labour ministers who fell out of favour, and an existing party leader who looked at the 9 seats or so he had and thought that he could double it by merging with a bunch of high-profile deserters.

It’s a little early for the Silly Season to start in British politics, but ever hopeful of finding ways of enticing a little interest from a largely indifferent British public, we can always rely on the Liberal Democrats.

In the past two general elections under the leadership of Charlie (wee dram) Kennedy, they have steadily increased their representation in the House of Commons to the point where they are at their highest point since the 1920s, with 62 MPs. And then it transpires that Charlie (jus’ another wee dram) Kennedy is a recovering alcoholic, despite having denied having a drink problem until last week.

He isn’t he first person to deny he has a problem and he won’t be the last, and let’s face it, a drunk in charge of the Lib Dims is no great problem; it’s not as if he’s in charge of the country, or likely to be, or anything important like that.

Still, it has allowed the nerds of UK politics to flex their muscles and ensure that that he can no longer carry on as Lib Dim leader. Kennedy is not a good name for a political leader. It’s too ordinary on the one hand and too similar to an American dynasty on the other; and that’s a poor thing to have when half the fun of being a Lib Dim politician is to bash American politics and politicians.

Happily, what they lack in good sense (let’s get rid of our best leader for 80 years!) and prospects they more than make up for in silly names. And silly names equal success, let’s not forget.

The only MP to throw his hat into the ring so far in the leadership contest is Sir Menzies Campbell. Full marks there for being Christened after a newsagent chain, and stellar bonuses for revealing that your first name is pronounced Mingies.

Fantastic.

But there is another; one whose name is odd enough to guarantee an electoral success. The man to guarantee that the Lib Dims can win a landslide victory in 2009 or 2010, whenever the next general election may be: Lemsip Henpeck MP Lembit Opik MP.

And when you consider that in the Lords they have a chap called Lord Razzall, how can they go wrong.

Silly names are quality. Mark my words, they are on a roll. Gene Roddenberry would be proud.