Archive for July, 2004


Respect Election Victory (Orig. posted Blog-City)

Filed under: Ex Blog-City, Political — Leave a comment
July 31, 2004

s_orah.jpg
Oliur Rahman has won the St Dunstan’s and Stepney Green ward by-election to gain a place on Tower Hamlets Council.

Oliur Rahman, Respect – 878
Jalal Uddin, Liberal Democrats – 754
Shah Habibur Rahman, Labour – 578
Alexander Patrick Story, Conservative – 445
Lynda Miller, National Front – 172

Many congratulations to Oliur the first elected Respect representative.

Original Comments:


MrDan made this comment,
Hehe – another awful night for the Tories then? It’s hard to understand how anyone could vote NF – but I guess that’s democracy for you. I’d better get back to my hidy-hole before you return!
MrDan

Visit me @ http://alien.blog-city.com

comment added :: 31st July 2004, 04:00 GMT+01
Red Baron made this comment,
The Red Baron would like to lead the assembled throng in a chorus of the ‘Internationale’
comment added :: 1st August 2004, 11:51 GMT+01
Pimme made this comment,
All is not lost, then!
Visit me @ http://pimme.blog-city.com

comment added :: 1st August 2004, 23:09 GMT+01
Rachel made this comment,
hey dude we’ve missed you. how’s life in the real world?
Visit me @ http://palmysinfullbloom.blog-city.com

comment added :: 9th August 2004, 04:11 GMT+01
Rachel made this comment,
no worries dude, i’ll get there. 🙂
Visit me @ http://palmysinfullbloom.blog-city.com

comment added :: 9th August 2004, 04:42 GMT+01
The voice in my head says made this comment,
Still shocking to see anyone would vote NF, they were actually trying to get people to sign up near where I work!!
Sad really, but like that saying from overly sickly film ‘Stupid is as stupid does’

Visit me @ http://politicallyincorrect.blog-city.com/

comment added :: 9th August 2004, 14:57 GMT+01
john made this comment,
That’s one small step for Oliur, but one…Oh well Baron you know the rest.
Visit me @ http://bigjohn.blog-city.com/

comment added :: 9th August 2004, 17:16 GMT+01

Comment

Short But Sweet (Orig. posted Blog-City)

Filed under: Ex Blog-City, personal, Poetry — Leave a comment
July 22, 2004

It kind of applies to many things tho’ doesn’t it? But it’s usually the case when you’re trying something, often something that doesn’t work out, perhaps with the benefit of hindsight you should have known that it couldn’t ever work. But you tried, and you lived and that is what counts. These short but Sweet things make you feel alive for the briefest of moments before you return to the mediocrity that is everday life. To regret would be foolish, altho’ sometimes difficult to avoid, to nostalgise in times to come would be inaccurate looking thru’ rose-tinted specs and to continually think about such things would be pointless and time will dull the frequency anyway. The best you can hope for is to learn.

Sometimes these brief things provide us with the deepest insights into our soul, the intensity of the moment holds up the mirror and the distorted image is perhaps not the one we wanted, or often exected to see. Is it accurate -only we can know. Sometimes the most shocking thing is that it is all too accurate, if it were not so we would after all not recognise the image and it would not concern us. So we can choose, choose experience for all it brings, the peaks and troughs of joy and pain or choose reticence for what it doesn’t bring, the safe option, the shield, no pain no pleasure.

It is after all our empirical selfs which shape who we are and how we respond to things. The more we shield ourselves from experience the less we are able to deal with things that are outside our shere of influence and if time goes on and we fail to broaden, the mind forgets and that sphere of influence contracts, if we allow this to continue our ability to cope with change and reality diminishes and we become unfit to deal with the outside world and especially those who inhabit it.

And so is it now time for the Baron to sally forth into the real world again, no not quite yet, circumstance has proven the Baron’s point about the vicious circle of hermitage all too evidently, but it is time to plan, time to think about the direction that life ought to be taking and how much steerage I wish to put on that. So, I will bid you au revoir it will not be adieu you won’t get rid of me that easily. As for the drive for the Ton-up Blog-a-Thon, it is a shame but to be honest the pressure was starting to tell on the quality of entries, and even some of my blog-diving comments were becoming a little lacklustre. I think I need to reset, clear my head and then come back and have another go, renew the vigour so to speak. I shan’t I suspect be gone for long but you know want they say ‘leave just early enough to keep them wanting more.’ I hope I didn’t stay too long on that score. I shall try to keep my hand in and write things tho’ they will not be published until I decide to return, and I will try to keep up to date reading your writings and commenting when I have time or something to say. I hope you will all stick around and bear with me, tho’ this is not a recruitment drive for my mailing list! Besides which I’m paying for my premium blog and I’m not putting it up for sale, short lease perhaps! Many of you have been very kind and supportive of me in difficult times, it has been that, at times astonishing, level of sensitivity which gave me purpose in my writing and will I believe lead to my return here, hopefully with the blog equivalent of a sun-tan!

The Baron will still be around you will just not be able to pin him down so easily for a bit, but call and I will come. Whether advice is needed making tea or a howitzer-laden fly-past at the right-wing bloggers the Baron remains your man. Keep the Red Flag flying at BC in my absence, I shall be spreading the word and directing people back to your capable hands.

What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.

No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.

No time to turn at Beauty’s glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.

No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

[Leisure – William Henry Davies 1871-1940]

Song Of The Day – Johnny Mandel/Mike Altman ~ Suicide is Painless

Original Comments:


Lynne made this comment,
😦 I’s all sad now.
Don’t be gone for yonks, I haven’t known you long, or well, enough…
That said, I wish you luck getting “the tan” – sometimes you just have to go for it.
All the best,
L

Visit me @ http://raingoddess.blog-city.com

comment added :: 22nd July 2004, 19:44 GMT+01
A visitor made this comment,
Be good. xx
P

comment added :: 22nd July 2004, 20:45 GMT+01
moog made this comment,
have a nice break.
dont leave me haning too long thought baron, ill miss you!
i took that personality quizz to work, and everyone did it.
i work with a bunch of anarchists and evil genisus’s! thought you would like that idea!x 🙂
Visit me @ http://jealoustwin.blog-city.com/

comment added :: 22nd July 2004, 23:53 GMT+01
Rachel made this comment,
your intense and thought provoking entries will surely be missed, but if you keep up the commenting, then perhaps we can live through your break. sometimes…however…the real world can be over rated.
talk to you soon! 🙂
Visit me @ http://palmysinfullbloom.blog-city.com

comment added :: 23rd July 2004, 00:33 GMT+01
Rachel made this comment,
ah, and no worries baron, i have no intention of revoking my address from your mailing list!
Visit me @ http://palmysinfullbloom.blog-city.com

comment added :: 23rd July 2004, 00:36 GMT+01
Bob Red made this comment,
Sooo close!! still 87 is bloody marvellous, im sure if you have a fresh run at it youll do it and before long it will be the 2 ton up blogathon!
Anyways, all the best, hope things work out for you, and dont worry, ill be checking back here to make sure no one nicks the stereo!
and so, to the man who gave us words such as “blog-diving” and now “blog-tan” i wish you luck!
Red
Visit me @ http://bobred.blog-city.com

comment added :: 23rd July 2004, 17:43 GMT+01
A visitor made this comment,
OK – so I’m gone one week and NOW look at the trouble you’ve gone and stirred up. can’t turn my back for even a minute.
stay close, lurk often and keep that wit keenly sharpened.

lizard.

Lizard Breath

comment added :: 23rd July 2004, 19:43 GMT+01
john made this comment,
You will remain on my blog-roll of honour mate.
Visit me @ http://bigjohn.blog-city.com/

comment added :: 24th July 2004, 17:44 GMT+01
Pimme made this comment,
Congratulations for blogging that many consecutive days! Lord knows that I couldn’t do it, especially when the machine won’t let me. ;^)
Take care!

Visit me @ http://pimme.blog-city.com

comment added :: 24th July 2004, 19:19 GMT+01
Jen Tate made this comment,
Fly high, sir :]
Jen

comment added :: 26th July 2004, 05:35 GMT+01
Leah made this comment,
come back soon … all is forgiven 😉
comment added :: 26th July 2004, 14:35 GMT+01
haywood made this comment,
He’s the Blogging Cal Ripkin, very classy good sir, I tip my hat to you!
HAywood

Visit me @ http://cjh9999.blog-city.com

comment added :: 29th July 2004, 02:31 GMT+01
Jimmy Sunshine made this comment,
come back soon amigo
Visit me @ http://jimmysunshine.blog-city.com

comment added :: 29th July 2004, 12:30 GMT+01
haywood made this comment,
Jimmy you’ve been gone longer than the baron blogged for whats up with that mate?
Haywood

Visit me @ http://cjh9999.blog-city.com

comment added :: 30th July 2004, 00:40 GMT+01
rayts made this comment,
what’ s up with the Baron…heck, i miss reading your entries…
is this what you get from this blog-marathon thing?

comment added :: 30th July 2004, 06:26 GMT+01
haywood made this comment,
yea basicly
Visit me @ http://cjh9999.blog-city.com

comment added :: 30th July 2004, 07:04 GMT+01
A visitor made this comment,
Hey RB— no worries, your loyal fans will be here waiting when you return. I certainly understand the need to take a breather from blogging as I am on a retreat myself and it is goooood. But so is blogging so one day soon we’ll be up to our old tricks– looking forward to seeing you then!
bluepoppy

comment added :: 30th July 2004, 13:59 GMT+01
A visitor made this comment,
What they all said. And I especially agree with Rachel: reality can be overrated.
Don’t go away. Good bloggers must keep going and support each other, or else what’s the point?
Natalie [augustine.nda@remove_this_blueyonder.co.uk]

comment added :: 30th July 2004, 14:32 GMT+01
A visitor made this comment,
You must have missed the extra stuff in the header of my site.. only thing that I have recently changed is the photo 🙂
FallenAngel [fallenangelsj@hotmail.com]

comment added :: 30th July 2004, 18:15 GMT+01
A visitor made this comment,
I would love to see you keep blogging . . . although I haven’t been able to get over here every day and often feel overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of your prolific posting! Whatever you feel moved to do and write about, even if it is every few days, once a week, will be more heartfelt maybe if you don’t feel a Should or Have to looming over posting . . . you a good egg, baron 🙂 . .. and how goes the non-smoking? are you still on the wagon??? 🙂 K
kat [nomadicgrace@yahoo.com]

[Redbaron responds – Still on the wagon been 3 1/2 months now.]

comment added :: 7th August 2004, 21:31 GMT+01
A visitor made this comment,
Actually, you should give it up, as you are one of the many, many bloggers out there who considers their self to be a clever writer. Sadly (for you anyway) you are not even close, so why bother?
Lynne

[Redbaron responds – I think your comment whilst harsh has a grain of truth in it. The difference is I do not write because I feel I am in some way a clever writer. I write because I feel the need to express myself fundamentally for my own sanity. I do not force anyone else to listen and I would still be here if no-one were to. I am touched people comment and I respect people’s criticism when it is offered. I’m sad you felt the need to say what I feel is a little presumptuous, but fair enough that’s your opinion. I guess I won’t be seeing you here again then. If you do decide to stick around I’d be interested in your actual critique, ie what it is you particularly dislike whether style content or both, since you are obviously a literary critic of some standing to write such comments on other people’s writings. I prefer constructive critcism rather than simple sniping.]

comment added :: 22nd August 2004, 05:32 GMT+01
MrDan made this comment,
If one has to be a clever writer to have a blog perhaps we should all pack our bags. Mass exodus anyone?
MrDan

Visit me @ http://alien.blog-city.com

comment added :: 23rd August 2004, 21:14 GMT+01

Comment

Globalisation (Orig. posted Blog-City)

Filed under: Ex Blog-City, Political — Leave a comment
July 21, 2004

I decided since the big G got me going over the last few days and illicited a good level of response both positive and less so, both of which are good. Furthermore the pro-Globalisation lobby are taking pot-shots at some easy targets so that’s where I intend to start.

So Globalisation what has it done -let’s take the ‘positives’ and assess them for accuracy.

  • Globalisation has increased the proliferation of the free market and this has led to greater consumer choice and freedoms.
  • Globalisation has led to a rapid advancement in medical science and research and therefore increased our health prospects
  • Globalisation has removed the significance of national borders and brought us as a world economically closer together.
  • Globalisation has led to an increased awareness of other cultures and an understanding of those around us which has brought us socially closer together

So do these points stand up to scrutiny? Taking the first one – the Free market, well, leaving aside my own reservations about how ‘free’ the free market can be anyway, have global consumers got greater freedom and choice? What about quality and availability, is the global market fulfilling supply and demand? One must of course remove from the equation the people in countries who do not have the economic power to be consumers, these are people who do not have enough to meet their daily expenditure demands and include the working classes in Central and Latin America, much of the Middle East, many parts of Southern and Eastern Europe, parts of Asia excepting Japan and South Korea. We are left unsurprisingly with the Western world ie America/Canada Western Europe and parts of Asia. Even here there are many whose ability to act as discerning consumers is hampered by a lack of genuine economic freedom and this must undermine the authenticity of any such claim. What about the rest of us, do we have choice? Well, do we really? Let’s take music -all divyed up amongst the big global TNCs -RCA, WEA, Sony Polydor etc. etc., even most of the record labels we think are ‘independent’ are subsidised and controlled from above. What about food, surely we have a much greater choice of food now than ever before, well yes we do but at what cost, we pay more for food that is farmed properly as this is deemed a ‘lifestyle choice’, milk is sold in the supermarkets at less than it costs to produce it. Small shops and specialists -the butcher, greegrocer, grocer, baker, ironmongers, fishmongers, ice-cream parlour have largely died out, did we chose this? Yes we did because economically most of us are forced to keep costs down and this has led to a dependence on the big supermarket giants which removes the vital passing trade from the high street shops. Again this has led to increased lack of social cohesion as we do not know the people in the supermarket and we cannot build up the same inter-personal relationships and knowledge of those who live around us as we might have been able to do 30 years ago. What about consumer freedom then, we can go to Tesco an English global supermarket chain, or Asda which is owned by WallMart a US global supermarket giant and then there’s Sainsbury’s and Morrisons etc. you all have your own varients I know the German ones, some of which like Aldi and Netto we have over here too. But is it really choice, much of what we buy is standardised brand name pre-packed stuff, the food is mass-produced and full of preservatives, the prices are standardised across the board, the actual selection is exactly the same. Most of what we buy is governed by the fact that we no longer have time to cook and sit down to a good family meal every day, or even for many people every week.

I will answer the next question on technology tomorrow.

Song Of The Day – Sleeper ~ Sale of the Century

Original Comments:


Rachel made this comment,
good subject. liked this entry.
fifth red. taking a break? 🙂
i suppose i’m going to regret being so cocky…
Visit me @ http://palmysinfullbloom.blog-city.com

comment added :: 22nd July 2004, 02:28 GMT+01
Rachel made this comment,
you HAVE to go to this site. you will greatly appreciate it. it makes both george w. bush and john kerry look like complete jack asses.
http://jibjab.com
and play the strip.
Visit me @ http://palmysinfullbloom.blog-city.com

[Redbaron responds – That really is most amusing! I will add it to my 3rd party links it’s well worth people seeing.]

comment added :: 22nd July 2004, 04:31 GMT+01
David S made this comment,
cheer up chuck
comment added :: 22nd July 2004, 18:22 GMT+01
provemylovetoyou made this comment,
thats so true, you know chuck palahniuk once said
“a moment was the most you could ever expect from perfection”… that kind of holds true to that statement, huh?
comment added :: 30th July 2004, 20:29 GMT+01

Comment

The Wall (Orig. posted Blog-City)

Filed under: Ex Blog-City, personal — Leave a comment
July 20, 2004

…and sadly I don’t mean the PF album.

Today I hit the wall, I don’t know if it was something that was going to happen today regardless or whether it was the rather bad start to the day that lit the blue touch paper. I slept ok, but not especially well and woke up somewhat blearily, I was in a marginally bad mood when I got into the car but nothing too major, I had hoped to talk to someone before and didn’t but it wasn’t that big of a deal. However some c had blocked me into the garage and in the process of trying to get out I snagged the join of my front wing just enough to give it a bit of a tweak, which was just enough to give me grounds to consider doing a John Cleese on either mine or the c’s car. I put it back the best I could, it’ll cost a disproporionately ludicrous amount of money to sort out so I won’t sort it out and my Mother will have a fit and think I’m rallying in what used to be her car! So and inauspicious start to the day which was compounded by somebody flipping their car on the motorway which caused a 20 mile tailback and so instead of being 15 mins early I was 10 mins late and quite disgruntled. After mainlining a serious amount of tea I started to pep up a little and then got an email off some ponce who because he hasn’t received something that he paid for last Friday is threatening to “come down with some boys from Liverpool to meet me face to face”! This is for the sake of something worth £10 that I posted yesterday I mean wtf. And “boys from Liverpool” what are they going to do, nick my car!* Oh the irony of that happening this morning! Anyway all this should have led to me being angry and frustrated but it didn’t, after the car incident I just started to feel a despondency and I didn’t even shout obsenities at the joker who’d flipped his car on the motorway.

Since then I’ve got on with a fairly reasonable amount of work but it isn’t going to matter what I do I’m just going to feel rather shitty for a while. If there’s someone reading this who thinks there might be a specific reason as to why the melancholy, there isn’t, honest, apart from what I mentioned above.

There’s no rhyme or reason to it, the bloody weather is ok, people have been quite helpful and friendly today but it isn’t really working and as the day wears on it really feels like it is just wearing on. I really want to go back to bed now. The problem is that when this sort of frame of mind starts to come on it shapes the way you start to think and view everything else and I really don’t want to do that now. Anyway I need to plug myself back into my Tanin drip now so if you don’t mind.

All things must pass.

Song Of The Day – Lucio Dalla ~ Cosa Sarà

*I apologise unreservedly to anyone from Liverpool, Liverpudlians are not in the habit of stealing cars, no they just nick the hubcaps ho ho ho, no stop it’s not funny it’s a sweeping generalisation and a slur on people that on the whole I rather like, it’s Mancunians I can’t get on with!

Original Comments:


MrDan made this comment,
I’m a Mancunian you insensitive clod! That’s a slashdot.org reference for those poor people who don’t get it (i.e. those with lives). And no, I’m not really offended.
MrDan

Visit me @ http://alien.blog-city.com

[Redbaron responds – Clod is an outstanding word MrDan and your magnanimous forgiveness of my irrational insensitivity does you credit!]

comment added :: 20th July 2004, 17:07 GMT+01
provemylovetoyou made this comment,
hey, you’ve come to my blog once or twice so i thought i’d check out your blog too! very cool! come visit me again sometime @ nothingisstatic.blog-city.com !!
chaloe
comment added :: 20th July 2004, 19:25 GMT+01
Bob Red made this comment,
If those liverpudlians come down, its a shame you cant pretend the c’s car blocking your garage is yours and watch from the confines of your home as they systematically ‘urbanise’ the crap out of it. Job done, hell id give ’em a tenner just for that!!!
Visit me @ http://bobred.blog-city.com

comment added :: 20th July 2004, 21:18 GMT+01
Rachel made this comment,
*sighs* oh no, it’s not where i placed that REALLY matters…it’s where i’m placed in regards to YOU. haha. now i’m cocky. ouch, the wall. bounce back my friend. 🙂
Visit me @ http://palmysinfullbloom.blog-city.com

comment added :: 20th July 2004, 23:42 GMT+01
Rachel made this comment,
ignorance, naivete, call it what you will, but i’m drawing a blank…what PF problem? ah, and your last comment was number 350! merci!
Visit me @ http://palmysinfullbloom.blog-city.com

[Redbaron responds – Oh Rachel, PF and The Wall, my dear it’s Pink Floyd. Sorry I forget not everyone is as old as me and was genuinely of the age to sing ‘We don’t need no education’ in the school playground when the song came out!]

comment added :: 21st July 2004, 02:42 GMT+01
Karen made this comment,
Um what will those scousers do? Turn up in shell suits and say ‘eh worra you friggin lookin at eh, eh calm down’ and ‘oi wheres me order eh?’
Visit me @ http://karen.blog-city.com

[Redbaron responds – Ho ho, that’s very funny that had me chortling…. but I’m glad you said it, now you can get all the hatemail!!]

comment added :: 21st July 2004, 17:33 GMT+01

Comment

Slow Burner (Orig. posted Blog-City)

Filed under: Ex Blog-City, Political — Leave a comment
July 19, 2004

I thought it necessary to put in the election results recently. In many respects it is a comparative success, we retained our deposits which is a decent acheivement. In terms of actual significance of the result you could claim that we influenced the candidature. It is no secret that the Libs won on an anti-war ticket, one they are hardly entitled to carry. In Brum there were enough Respect votes to ensure that the Libs didn’t win. As for the Tories, well, you wouldn’t expect them to win these seats but to come so low down is surprising and now Howard attempts to recover the ground he has lost by claiming that had he known that the intelligence was flawed he wouldn’t have supported the war. Well, what the fuck is he doing in Parliament then if not asking the bloody questions to ensure the intelligence is correct and hold the govt. to account. Tories -against the war don’t make me laugh, look at the bloody first gulf war.

Leicester South

  • Lib Dems 10,274 (34.94 percent)
  • Labour 8,620 29.31 percent)
  • Conservative 5,796 (19.71 percent)
  • Respect 3,724 (12.66 percent) (Yvonne Ridley)
  • Socialist Labour 263 (0.89 percent)
  • RU Serious (Loony) 225 (0.77 percent)
  • Patrick Kennedy (Ind) 204 (0.69 percent)
  • Paul Lord (Ind) 186 (0.63 percent)
  • Mark Benson (Ind) 55 (0.19 percent)
  • Jiten Bardwaj (Ind) 36 (0.12 percent)
  • Alan Barrett (Ind) 25 (0.09 percent)

Birmingham Hodge Hill

  • Labour 7,451 (36.5 percent)
  • Lib Dem 6,991 (34.2 percent)
  • Conservative 3,543 (17.3 percent)
  • Respect 1,282 (6.3 percent) (John Rees)
  • National Front 805 (3.9 percent)

Well I was pleased anyway, I do think that it gives me enough to believe that there are people out there who are gradually understanding what we are talking about.

Other than that, I’ve not been in an especially good mood today, not so much a depressive mood as just being very pissed off, I don’t know if it was the actions of my ex who was at times being something of a gobshite or whether it was my mood that made me think she was being as much of a gobshite, no she was being a gobshite and it pissed me off but I was without question on a short fuse anyway. I have been caught a bit unawares with this one, I expected despair and melancholy and I got lethargy and distain. You live and learn.

Song Of The Day – The Cult ~ She Sell Sanctuary

Original Comments:


Rachel made this comment,
it is kind of nice to know that someone understands what you’re on about. too bad here in america we haven’t gotten the politicians out of their caveman tendencies.
Visit me @ http://palmysinfullbloom.blog-city.com

comment added :: 19th July 2004, 03:43 GMT+01
Jen Tate made this comment,
For lack of a more eloquent way to console you, feel better soon!
Jen

[Redbaron responds – Kind of you, thank you, no further eloquence necessary]

comment added :: 19th July 2004, 06:56 GMT+01
David S made this comment,
Yes, great results, I’m very pleased with the way they went.
Visit me @ http://glasgowdave.blog-city.com

[Redbaron responds – I’ll just bet you are GD, I’ll just bet you are!]

comment added :: 19th July 2004, 13:00 GMT+01
Katie made this comment,
Out of credit, got gastroenteritis (sp?-sorry ill) but ok. take care.x
[Redbaron responds – Not good, but better than what I was starting to fear!]

comment added :: 19th July 2004, 18:21 GMT+01
David S made this comment,
what do you mean by that Red Baron?
comment added :: 19th July 2004, 19:52 GMT+01
Pimme made this comment,
The Cult…now there’s a band that I’m familiar with!
Visit me @ http://pimme.blog-city.com

comment added :: 20th July 2004, 04:45 GMT+01
baracuda made this comment,
Pretty decent results there, fair play to Respect.
Visit me @ http://myveryownblog.blog-city.com/

comment added :: 20th July 2004, 20:59 GMT+01
baracuda made this comment,
By the way that link on the top right (the D-Day landing one) appears to be dead.
Visit me @ http://myveryownblog.blog-city.com/

comment added :: 20th July 2004, 21:05 GMT+01

Comment

Mundaneity (Orig. posted Blog-City)

Filed under: Ex Blog-City, personal — Leave a comment
July 18, 2004

pict1488jpg.jpg
Solarised Bricks
I’ve gone into a sort of mental hibernation mode at the moment, I haven’t yet hit the mood wall, whether this is anything to do with the weather brightening up I don’t know. I have spent a lot of the day playing with my digicam, hence the bricks picture which I solarised on the cam itself, it’s quite a swank cam so it can do that sort of thing. It’s not been a great day tho’ my ear is throbbing and I still can’t hear a lot and for some reason my foot is getting worse and giving me quite a lot of trouble. I think I’m going to have to bite the bullet and go and see the quack, who is shit but I might get a referral to somebody who has a modicum of competence. I am a little concerned because after all it was April when I did it so that’s now 3 months and for it not to have healed isn’t good.

Enough of that sort of thing, what else is there? You’ll have noticed the new blog arrangement, basically it isn’t finished, I shall be talking to my Creative Director – Mr Robert Red about the new layout and the necessary ammendments, but I did think it was time the Baron’s blog came of age a little, I may tinker with the colour if I can get something half decent. Any ideas and technical advice is always gratefully received.

I am thinking of starting Evil Genius Anonymous after it appears some of the Baron’s Blog friends appear to be just as warped as he!

Song Of The Day – Maroon 5 ~ She Will Be Loved

Original Comments:


Pimme made this comment,
I like the bricks…a nice form of high art. There’s probably a market for photos like that one!
Visit me @ http://pimme.blog-city.com

[Redbaron responds – Thanks mate, you should see the solarised people ones, they’re a bit mad. They reminded me a bit too much of a dream I had about nuclear holocaust earlier in the week!]

comment added :: 18th July 2004, 02:54 GMT+01
baracuda made this comment,
Wow, 85 consecutive days blogging. I’m not sure whether to be impressed or appalled.
I’ll start with impressed for now. I went for 9 days last week…
Visit me @ http://myveryownblog.blog-city.com/

[Redbaron responds – No I think appalled would be more accurate!! Actually you get into a routine on it, one of the reasons I decided to continue was that it keeps me thinking about what to write and also forces me to write at a specific time every day. The fact that I don’t have enough of a life to ever mean that I miss the routine is another matter entirely!]

comment added :: 18th July 2004, 03:35 GMT+01
Bob Red made this comment,
okey dokey matey!
I think what you need to do is re-size the ictures on your gutters as they are making the whole thing look squashed.
In particular the RESPECT link at the top left could be the smoking gun! and on the right its either the ‘truefresco.org’ link or unfortuantely the clock.
see how you get on and let me know
Red
[Redbaron responds – I tried putting the clock in the header and it made a right mess of everything so it has to stay where it is. The truefresco link is part of the referrers board so I can’t remove that without removing the board and it’s better than the BC one.]

comment added :: 18th July 2004, 10:44 GMT+01
john made this comment,
I like the new look and in honour of the recent poll results feature ‘Respect’ more prominently please.
Visit me @ http://bigjohn.blog-city.com/

[Redbaron responds – For a request like that Big John I am only too happy to oblige -no sooner said than done. There will be a blog on the results shortly.]

comment added :: 18th July 2004, 13:40 GMT+01
David S made this comment,
this looks very squashed, I think it is the clock to blame, can you not make it narrower, if not I would remove it because it is spoiling the look and perhaps the header is a bit too big, detracting and taking the eye away from the central point of the blog entries
Visit me @ http://glasgowdave.blog-city.com

comment added :: 18th July 2004, 20:58 GMT+01

Rachel made this comment,
well…let us know when you hit the wall…so we can either speak words of encouragement and helpfull…ness..or…we can stay away. 🙂
Visit me @ http://palmysinfullbloom.blog-city.com

comment added :: 18th July 2004, 23:25 GMT+01
Rachel made this comment,
i think everyone has more or less told me to get a life..at one point or the other…it’s just gotten alot easier to ignore them. 🙂 i do like the update…ness…it’s really quite cool. it’s a bitch to load..but all good.
Visit me @ http://palmysinfullbloom.blog-city.com

comment added :: 18th July 2004, 23:41 GMT+01
Rachel made this comment,
‘mad’ is such a strong word. i like to think of it as ‘continuous loyalty’. seeing as how i have gotten into the habit of commenting on every entry, to not pick up on it would be a disruption to my routine. 🙂
Visit me @ http://palmysinfullbloom.blog-city.com

comment added :: 19th July 2004, 01:12 GMT+01
Rachel made this comment,
ah, back to fifth, working my way up. and i think that the blog buds are just as warped. but it’s a good thing, for i’m bonkers, and yet i bear the title proudly!
Visit me @ http://palmysinfullbloom.blog-city.com

comment added :: 19th July 2004, 02:05 GMT+01

Comment

Another Personality Disorder Test (Orig. posted Blog-City)

Filed under: Ex Blog-City — Leave a comment
July 17, 2004

You are an SEDF–Sober Emotional Destructive Follower. This makes you an evil genius. You are extremely focused and difficult to distract from your tasks. With luck, you have learned to channel your energies into improving your intellect, rather than destroying the weak and unsuspecting.

Your friends may find you remote and a hard nut to crack. Few of your peers know you very well–even those you have known a long time–because you have expert control of the face you put forth to the world. You prefer to observe, calculate, discern and decide. Your decisions are final, and your desire to be right is impenetrable.

You are not to be messed with. You may explode.

See that there, that bloody tells you that does, don’t mess wid da Baron, I’s a bad Mu’erfucker. I’m more Devastatin’ than Devastatin’ Dave. I really must start to work on improving my intellect rather than prey on the weak! Muwahahahaha!

Song Of The Day – Rolling Stones ~ Wild Horses

Original Comments:


moog made this comment,
woha!! where did you get that test from?
Visit me @ http://jealoustwin.blog-city.com/

comment added :: 17th July 2004, 19:06 GMT+01
moog made this comment,
You are an SRDF–Sober Rational Destructive Follower. This makes you a font of knowledge. You are cool, analytical, intelligent and completely unfunny. Sometimes you slice through conversation with a cutting observation that causes silence and sidelong glances. You make a strong and lasting impression on everyone you meet, the quality of which depends more on their personality than yours.
You may feel persecuted, as you can become a target for fun. Still, you are focused enough on your work and secure enough in your abilities not to worry overly.

You are productive and invaluable to those you work for. You are loyal, steadfast, and conscientious. Your grooming is impeccable. You are in good shape.

You are kind of a tool, but you get things done. You are probably a week away from snapping

Visit me @ http://jealoustwin.blog-city.com/

comment added :: 17th July 2004, 19:11 GMT+01
Bob Red made this comment,
wow im a SEDF as well… you know what? we could very well be the same person. I mean look at the evidence: Bob Red, Red Baron… and you never see us in the same place together!
Anyways to dispell that myth(!) where did you find that thing about shares??? Didn know i was being floated :oP

Red
Go Potato!!!!

Visit me @ http://bobred.blog-city.com

comment added :: 17th July 2004, 21:32 GMT+01
Red Baron made this comment,
You know between the 3 of us we are quite a scary bunch according to that test. Moog I think yours is even scarier than mine and Bob’s!
Visit me @ http://redbaron.blog-city.com

comment added :: 18th July 2004, 01:14 GMT+01
moog made this comment,
i am probaly about a week away from snapping too…but thats a usual thing. no big deal.we should be planning to take over the world…
Visit me @ http://jealoustwin.blog-city.com/

comment added :: 18th July 2004, 13:38 GMT+01
Rachel made this comment,
woah..that hit home…SEDF.huh….kind of weird to know i can relate to people to that extent…hmm…
Visit me @ http://palmysinfullbloom.blog-city.com

Comment

Silence (Orig. posted Blog-City)

Filed under: Ex Blog-City, personal — Leave a comment
July 16, 2004

It’s very quiet everywhere at the moment. Blog-city has tumbleweeds blowing thru’ it and my hit count is down to practically nothing. The University is deserted, all the students are gone and many of the academics seem to be taking this week off, and much of the admin staff seem to have followed suit. So all in all it’s a desolate feel about things and the weather here isn’t especially conducive to make things feel a lot better it’s that after rain atmosphere, it’s rather appropriate really with very few people about it sets the landscape nicely. It doesn’t help that my ears are very blocked up at the moment so I’m deaf in the left and partially in the right, that adds to a certain isolation that the lack of any visual stimulus merely exacerbates.

I had thought that my trouble motivating was just on Monday but I haven’t managed to kick-start the brain at all yet so I’ve rather given this week up! But look at the difference it made, I managed to make 2 ham-fisted attempts at blog humour within as many days having had a complete sense of humour failure for quite some time. It just proves that my humour clearly requires no brain power whatsoever!

I also managed to achieve full integration into the Windows Active Directory network for the Macs running OSX now this might not sound much to you but it’s probably the single most significant achievement in my short work career at the Uni. It is dull but important and all the groudwork I have done with substance and aesthetics for the reemergence of the Mac community will sadly pale into insignificance for the techies on the PC side as they have been trying to get us to tow the line with their stupid server shit. Bastards -now that I have it working I feel I have the Luke Skywalker hand of the Dark Side now -the Mac people may start to see me as a double agent!

You know things are getting bad when you’re reduced to talking about work, especially when you’re an IT engineer.

Song Of The Day – Echobelly ~ Dark Therapy

Original Comments:


haywood made this comment,
haha, baron coming out with the StarWars refrences I love it! Yes Bill Gates is most surely Emperor Palapatine.
10,000, in your face!!!!!!! woooooohooooo I’m drunk!

HAywood

Visit me @ http://cjh9999.blog-city.com

comment added :: 16th July 2004, 05:09 GMT+01
protagonist made this comment,
GAIJIN WRITES:
Sorry everything is so quiet around town. Same here. Everyone seems to be taking time off, going off to conferences and such, it is a bit silent among the people I know in Kyoto. Sorry you are under the weather. I hate that feeling of not being able to hear. Hope you are doing better today.

comment added :: 16th July 2004, 06:48 GMT+01
MrDan made this comment,
It’s quiet here too. Gemstone is taking a few days off because she’s “bizzy” in the real world – so that’s my bloglife down the drain! Perhaps I should try leaving the house?
MrDan

Visit me @ http://alien.blog-city.com

comment added :: 17th July 2004, 03:16 GMT+01
Rachel made this comment,
i hate silence, except when it’s welcomed. i hate awkward pauses, on the phone, or in person. but sometimes, you just want time to think.
Visit me @ http://palmysinfullbloom.blog-city.com

comment added :: 18th July 2004, 23:18 GMT+01

Comment

Descent (Orig. posted Blog-City)

Filed under: Ex Blog-City, personal — Leave a comment
July 15, 2004

For a few days now I feel that there has been a very definite sense of incoming, it’s like the first soundings of the air raid sirens. Whether this is coincidentally in parallel to the demise of the summer weather I do not know, it is of course that ‘tricky’ time of the month financially when the money has run out some days ago and there exists no cogent plan to come up with the rest of what is needed. The fact that I have so far managed, for years, to come up with a plan at all month by month that has staved off financial penury and more importantly prison is sadly no consolation for whilst I have self-belief that the fiscal buccaneer in me has the wherewithal to get me out again, there is always the knowledge that one day he may not and then I’ll be stuck and every month I’m thinking it could be this month. It may be that I just run out of ideas, or things to sell or weeler-dealer schemes to pull rabbits out of ever-decreasing sized hats, or it may be that I try my schemes but this time they just don’t come off. It’ll happen one day, the law of averages says that and I’ve done it too many times to beat the odds ad infinitum.

I’m not saying it’s the sole reason for my almost monthly malaise because sometimes that comes without an implicit financial reason on pay day for example, and I used to get it as a teenager when my monetary worries pales into insignificance by comparison to now. But it is without doubt a strong catalyst perhaps because of the sense of not being in control, I don’t like that sense, I don’t mind being in the speeding bus going a wee bit too fast and almost losing it but only if I know I am marginally under the maximum speed at which I am able to bring it eventually back to heel. Fear is a most powerful master.

Another thing that happens without fail money troubles or no is the increase in ‘creative’ output, ok standards vary but quantity goes up markedly. The interesting thing about having a blog is that you can have things in draft and over the last few months a pattern has emerged as the emotional doldrums approach I can have up to 7 entries or so queued and nearly finished, by a couple of weeks afterwards they have all either been used up or I am struggling to capture the right nuance to enable me to finish them so I then I guess creatively enter the doldrums, it has been an eye-opener for me because I have never had this sort of examination of my output. Currently I hve 5 queued entries. Interestingly I have been more inclined to humerous output this week which is the first time in a while it’s as if I’m burning up energy. The key point is that when it is happening I have to write, my head goes into overdrive and I have to write it down or I can’t sleep. I had to get up at 2.30am on Tuesday morning to write something down and it led to the tea blog.

I don’t know exactly why I sensed it coming days ago but I did and I don’t understand why it took so long but this afternoon I started to get the fuzzy head feeling, only slightly but it’s coming a little more this evening and I suspect it will build up for the next day or so, hopefully I’ll be ok by Saturday, I hate being in this sort of mood when I’m with the children. It’s rather strange almost voyeuristic that I know its coming and I know there isn’t anything I can do to stop it but it isn’t here yet and I can prepare for it, baton down the hatches so to speak. This is one area where blogging has really been quite important, before this I’d’ve just waited for it, dreading like trying to stop yourself slipping down a sharp incline. Now I can think and rationalise and seek to understand it and how it works perhaps in time with a view to managing it better or differently or maybe both.

So there you go, to be forewarned is to be forearmed as it were, don’t say I didn’t warn you, we’ll see how things go shall we. Roll on the weekend. Best laid plans of going to bed early fail again. That’s my blog shift over, the Baron clocks off and hands over to our American BC cousins to keep the light burning until Brett and Protagonist S wake up for their turn.

Song Of The Day – Led Zeppelin ~ Led Zeppelin I (The Whole Album as a single 44m50 MP3)

Original Comments:


Pimme made this comment,
If it’s in your head, get it out and onto paper or on the internet…that’s the only way to get sleep.
Visit me @ http://pimme.blog-city.com

comment added :: 15th July 2004, 04:58 GMT+01
Jen Tate made this comment,
I admire your blogging dedication. If you are having mood cycles, maybe your life needs a change. That sort of thing worries me :]
Jen

comment added :: 15th July 2004, 05:30 GMT+01
A visitor made this comment,
Ooh, RB, I’m right there with you in waiting-for-something-to-happen-ness. 😦 Must be the moon phase or summat.
L

Raingoddess

comment added :: 15th July 2004, 11:45 GMT+01
moog made this comment,
i reckon its the moon, im like that too….
Visit me @ http://jealoustwin.blog-city.com/

comment added :: 15th July 2004, 13:30 GMT+01
MrDan made this comment,
I had a 24-hour dip into depresso-mode yesterday, but I appear to be fine today (I hope I’m not speaking too soon). I have no idea what was different about yesterday compared with the day before it, or with today. I sometimes see these mood swings coming, but the odd one still takes me by surprise.
MrDan

Visit me @ http://alien.blog-city.com

comment added :: 15th July 2004, 18:55 GMT+01
mands made this comment,
The good thing is that I dont feel depressed at all today.
And I have been for the past two weeks.
So I can hug all the ones that feel like so.
Doing shifts is not that bad after all*

Hugs

comment added :: 15th July 2004, 19:43 GMT+01
Rachel made this comment,
ah, well, as long as we’ve been warned. 🙂 sorry ’bout the fuzzy head feelin’.
Visit me @ http://palmysinfullbloom.blog-city.com

comment added :: 18th July 2004, 23:16 GMT+01

Comment

Tea (Orig. posted Blog-City)

Filed under: Ex Blog-City, Humour — Leave a comment
July 14, 2004

I’m quite passionate about tea, I get withdrawal symptoms when I haven’t had any and if I don’t have a lot of tea in the morning that is so strong you could tar the M1 with it I simply do not wake up.

Now, being Irish, regardless of where I was born or what I sound like, I am more than happy to diss the English at every available opportunity but there are certain things that I consider a little more sacred, cricket, cornish cream tea, oak-smoked back bacon, seaside fish and chips and the most sacred of all -the cuppa. Now when I say ‘the cuppa’ do not mean I am putting all tea made in England into the same bracket, there are people who drink the most god-awful muck sometimes it looks like mushroom soup and tastes akin to dishwater as if the tea bag has been shown to the cup at some point during the brewing process. Do not even start me on the fruit shit, who in the hell wants to drink that it’s the quickest way to hell if you ask me! By and large tho’ English tea is black and strong with a good spot of milk, just enough to make it the colour a good deep sinister brown. If the colour makes you think it’s strong enough to ask you if you want a fight then that’s about perfect. The sort of stuff that comes out strong in a transport caff even tho’ they have had to water it down twice before giving it to you. Red Bull -bollocks, give me a jolt from neat transprt caff tea every time you have to talk to them really nicely to get a full cup neat but the Baron has long hair and can masquerade as a large woman if it gets him what he wants! It’s the effect of a double espresso and you feel like Popeye whilst you drink it!

So anyway when I was reading Neil’s blog about the German java game about towels on sun loungers and it refers to the English not being able to “cook” proper Tea I felt it was only fair to offer some resistance to that libellous remark. After all the Germans are a nation who drink rosehip tea which is like that viscous shit your mum gave you when you had the runs as a kid, then there’s peppermint tea which is like a Consulate cigarette in liquid form or for the non-smokers amongst you it’s similar to just melting down a polo. As if this were not bad enough when they buy ‘proper’ tea they buy shite like Lipton’s or Winston Churchill or Westminster or Houses of Parliament tea, fuck off that’s like walking into your supermarket for some beer and coming out with something called ‘German Brau’ it’ll have cost you 39p a can and be about 9% you’d probably go blind if you drank a whole 4 pack! Furthermore when the Germans get this box of ‘Nelson’s Column’ or whatever the fuck brand it is, they stick it in a bloody coffee maker and let the cold water boil around it. Aaaaaaaaaaaaargh, that’s not proper tea it’s only one step up from mushroom soup, asparagus or golden vegetable or something, one thing it most certainly is not is tea. So on this occasion I say ‘Fie’ to Fritz and ‘bagger orf back to your boiled cabbage’.

Right, that’s the Germans sorted. Then we move on to the real foe……….. the Americans! Oh yes you didn’t think I was going to let you get away with it, I’ve lived in your country, I’ve seen you desecrate this most regal of drinks in the foulest ways imaginable. One particular incident that I do not remember fondly was being in a cafe and having ordered tea was presented with a glass with warm water and a tea bag on the side. I confess it took a good few seconds before my incredulity subsided enough for me to speak.
“What the devil is that?” I blurted,
“That’s the tea you ordered, Sir” the waitress replied.
“Oh no my dear” I retorted upping the social stature of my accent a good couple of notches “that most certainly is not even remotely related to anything that I would have ordered.”
“I’m sorry, Sir” she replied tersely “You did order tea”
“Quite” I said, now realising that I was going to vanish in a puff of pomposity if I proceeded any further down this line of enquiry, I gesticulated at the Tea/Coffee making area and intimated that I wished her to follow. I dunked the tea bag she had brought into the insipid water in a glass and then availed of a coffee mug in which I put a new teabag and poured boiling water over it. I stirred both cups removed teabags and put some milk in, the waitress looked aghast. I then invited her to taste the both. At which point her accent seemed to become significantly more like Betty Boop as she confessed that the one I had made was a completely different drink.

Now this was one example on an occasion when I was looking for somewhere to hang out and I had some time to kill, most of the time I just wouldn’t bother ordering tea in the US because the bloody coffee tasted more like the tea I wanted and I hate coffee. I am ashamed to admit that the worst episode was yet to come and concerned someone to whom I am related altho’ I would add that said individual had resided in the US for some 17-18 years at that stage. The incident involved a cup of cold water a teabag and a microwave and I am saying no more, the memory is seared into my conscious!

To be fair it isn’t only the English who can make a good cup of tea. The Irish have a similar philosophy using similar type of tea, the Arabs have a strong tradition of good butch tea and the Russians, well they know where it’s at, a good cup of Russian caravan will blast the cobwebs out, really chewy smoky texture.

OK so I quite like my tea! Problem with that?!

Song Of The Day – Dodgy ~ Cold Tea

Original Comments:


Jen Tate made this comment,
i ❤ tea. mostly green, though.
Jen

[Redbaron responds – Ooh a new person, outstanding, for regular viewers I will point out this is not Jen as in Jen we have met before this is a different less rabid Jen!]

comment added :: 14th July 2004, 03:26 GMT+01
rayts made this comment,
i’m learning to appreciate drinking tea these days (esp. the Chinese tea)…but only when i’m in my parents house. you see, i just can’t take the taste.
[Redbaron responds – Jasmine tea is nice with chinese food or just in the afternoon but for morning stuff it has to be strong enough to kick your teeth in! You are young Grasshopper but you will learn!]

comment added :: 14th July 2004, 07:04 GMT+01
john made this comment,
You forgot to thank our American friends for Iced Tea, Ugh!!!
Visit me @ http://bigjohn.blog-city.com/

[Redbaron responds – I think the advert says it all, the guy drinks Lipton Ice Tea then goes and actually volunteers for a mullet -nuff said wide bloody berth to that one. Iced Tea I ask you, it tastes like a fecking ash tray! I’d rather drink coffee ugh! I’ve had 1 Icetea in my life and 7 coffees.]

comment added :: 14th July 2004, 16:19 GMT+01
mands made this comment,
We should go out for tea sometimes, but I’ll have coffee please
comment added :: 14th July 2004, 19:33 GMT+01
moog made this comment,
i love tea, and i love coffee, and i love green tea, and green tea with lemon, and i make my own mint tea with a bit of basil…mmMMMmmm teas!
Visit me @ http://jealoustwin.blog-city.com/

comment added :: 15th July 2004, 14:55 GMT+01
Bob Red made this comment,
ok,
The only thing for it, is to remove all content from you gutter that isnt standard blog city issue.
Then one at a time add them, and review the site after each one. Painstaking i know, but it will find the offending item. Personally, my money is on your counter just above the ‘kernow blogs’ section.
[Redbaron responds – Shit, I had a nasty feeling it was going to entail something like that.]

comment added :: 18th July 2004, 18:52 GMT+01
Rachel made this comment,
i have become quite fond of raspberry tea…quite good. all my hippie friends are all in love with tea, i think they got me hooked.
Visit me @ http://palmysinfullbloom.blog-city.com

comment added :: 18th July 2004, 23:12 GMT+01

Comment