If you're interested.



Give me a little while and I'll make a slideshow (or at least a sequence of pictures) showing how I did it. This is because BarnakedLady and primate1 were interested, if either of them are still around.

Yes. Erm.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ssh71hePR8Q

Has anyone ever made a brown light? I've never seen one. Is it possible? And if not, why not?

With the approval of the very beautiful Left Is Write, I am pleased to show you my newest piece of work, and the first drawing I have completed in over a year (I didn't do anything at all in 2008):









For those of you with desktop computers and better monitors, here is a slightly larger version. It actually comes out somewhat bigger on my screen than the original, but still seems to look good:









My heartfelt thanks to Left Is Write for providing the inspiration for me to pick up the pencil again after such a long time. And no, she didn't actually pose like that for me - it is artistic licentiousness on my part. What can I say? I love her shoulders.

Artwork pulled by me pending the approval of the subject.

From today's newspaper:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/feb/06/c...

The last quarterly figures now confirm it. The only question is how deep it will go.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/ja...

Choice quote: 'Jim Rogers, the veteran US investor, claimed the UK economy was "finished".

"I would urge you to sell any sterling you might have," Rogers told Bloomberg. "It's finished. I hate to say it, but I would not put any money in the UK."'

Looks like any visit to the US might be out of the question. My money is rapidly becoming worthless.

I no longer know what is real and what isn't. I'm even starting to wonder if I am.

Plus I just burned my toast.

Today is not better. Today is the worst fucking day in ages.

Dunno why I'm posting this here, but anyway.

I was walking down the stairs to the platform at Upton Park when I saw there was a train already there. I started running but the doors were closing as I approached the train. I didn't fancy doing anything rash so I gave up, but the driver saw me and opened the doors again to let me on.

As it turned out he or she saved my bacon, because I subsequently had to run to get my train back to Bedford. If I had had to wait for the next subway train back at Upton Park I would have missed my connection at St Pancras for sure.

It is little things like that that touch my heart. You fucking rock, anonymous train driver!

This is what depresses me so much about the idea of dating. Like it's a game to be played, with rules, that you jump through these hoops in order to get your reward. No wonder I never get laid.

If you're lucky enough to find somebody who likes you and wants to hang with you, whom you like and whom you want to hang with, then great. If you find each other physically appealing then so much the better. Do whatever you want, go wherever you want. If you fuck on your first meeting why should anybody give a shit? If you're really into each other why should you not fuck at the first opportunity?

Really. If you find somebody you're having fun with just do whatever you want together.

I am addicted to Tabasco sauce. I can't get enough of it. They say the first step on the road to recovery is to admit you have a problem.

I love this, in the sense that I admire the audacity of it. It's not quite what it looks on the surface. It appears to be blatant hypocrisy. But it isn't. Actually it's unbelievable cynicism. So I have decided after giving the matter some thought.

It appears to be hypocrisy because Republicans accuse Democrats of being elitists when the Republicans themselves clearly comprise the elite. When John McCain was asked how many houses he owned, he could not answer. The current president, George W. Bush, is the son of a former eponymous president, and is a scion of privilege. Republicans paint Democrats as remote and out of touch, when the same Republicans themselves wouldn't like to go within ten miles of a poor person. George Bush doesn't even read the papers or watch TV. Republicans have no idea at all how ordinary people live, and they certainly don't care. And yet Barack Obama is an "elitist". How can they maintain this hypocrisy?

Well, they can simply lie out of their arses, of course, and we know that Rove politics is hardly above that. But I've been giving this some thought, and it occurred to me that when campaigning, the Republicans always speak in code. For example, states' rights means keeping black people under the boot. Moral values means banning abortion. That sort of thing. You can think of many more examples.

So "elitist" is probably code too. But for what? Well, let's examine how the word is usually used. Republicans usually use it in a sentence that also includes the words "latte", "effete", "east coast", "urban", and so on. All words that hint at sophistication. Or, in other words, intelligence.

Yes. Isn't it amazing? The Republicans, when they call a Democrat an "elitist", are actually insulting the intelligence of their own base. They're insinuating that they shouldn't vote for a Democrat because the Democrat isn't "one of them", meaning that they're stupid and the Democrat isn't.

How breathtakingly cynical is that?