Bignjuicy

.. are distant cousins as it turns out. In a complex family history that spans five generations, it seems that both Bushes are descended from the infamous McReagan brothers [ See * below ]. The pair, Donald and Ronald, were notorious in County Wexford around the turn of the 18th Century for potato rustling. Donald fled from Ireland in 1790 to escape the law and settled near Texas in the US where he made his fortune selling low cost weapons of mass destruction to despotic foreign regimes. Ronald, by contrast, served his time in jail and was then deported to West London where he lived out his life as a boot cleaner at the local church. Ronald’s son became a priest and later went on to be elected pope. Rumours that George W. Bush makes a guest appearance on Kate’s new Album, Aerial – [ In the shops from November 7th ] – are being neither confirmed or denied by EMI spokespurple.

Patchy posting partly because of ‘autumnal flatness’. A sense of fag endedness, lethargy and Post Dublin Traumatic Withdrawal Syndrome [ PDTWS - snappy eh? ]. I’ve got tons of stuff I could post but don’t really know where to start. I feel a saga coming on – we’ll see.

Well, after The Clocks Go Back I’m really writing this next Tuesday or something like that. Apparently 8 out of 10 cats that expressed a preference would rather we worked Central European Time all year. That would mean two extra hours of daylight in the winter evenings and probably mean we could stay up all night in the summer. Anything has to be better than this annual gloomfest. People have been moaning about it for years yet nothing ever gets done. If most people want it – it’s time we made it happen. I feel a campaign coming on – we’ll see.

The Catholic Church may be faced with a bill for 170 million quid to ‘compensate’ all those abused by priests since way back. [ Doesn't include all the psychological damage inflicted on their 'flocks' - wonder when this will begin to hit the courts? ] . I didn’t see a single nun or priest in the streets whilst in Dublin. Are they going out in civvies now or just not going out at all? I remember when Religous personages would stride confidently amongst the faithful as though clerical aristocracy. Times have changed. Truth will out. It’s not over yet by a long chalk – you’ll see.

Disturbed to see Madonna puslating her pelvis [ expensively flat ] to the Abba sample single she’s cobbled together. [ Needs a few more million to pay the medical bills for her fractured coccyx? ] There’s something very wrong about a middle aged woman thrusting her crotch at the camera for dollars. Breaking taboos? Pushing boundaries? Confounding convention? Perhaps. I’ve been conditioned, I know. What’ll she be like when she gets to 80? – Hope I won’t see. Did you see the video too?

Outside The Four Courts, Inns Quay

Shamrock on St Stephen’s Green

City Council Building, Wood Quay

Merrion Square

Heaven

Smokio
The Irish smoking ban, as seen in operation in Dublin, seems to work fine. Aside from the delight of being in a real Irish pub all evening it was great to emerge smelling of nothing but the heady aroma of black gold and with eyes dewy from laughter and not carcinogenic gas. The downside of the ban seems to be the wall of smokers that greet you as you enter every pub or who block the pavement as you walk by. This, and the large numbers of walking smokers on the streets and in the parks, desperately trying to suck fags down their necks before entering their workplaces. I’d guess that smoking has declined in Ireland and will continue to do so as a result of the ban. A total ban does not seem to be a problem. Why can’t we do it here without all the pussyfooting around?

gidonup
gidonthescene
likeablogmachine

I’m back from the brink drink.
Only just. More soon…

Alas Horatio
You may well be burning your old underwear tonight in an act of civic remembrance. Not so where I am. The locals didn’t much care for Horatio so they blew him up. The remnants of his pillar are now in the Civic Museum.

Weather
Is crap. Beer is good. Very very good.

The road outside is covered with fallen autumn leaves. The sky today was grey. It was cold outside. The rain fell in sheets this evening. It’s refuse collection day tomorrow. The piles of black rubbish bags left out by neighbours complete the fag end of the year scenario that greets me as I look out of the window.
Bugger that for a game of soldiers. I’m outa here.
I’ve booked a flight for 29p. I’m off to pack my toothbrush and lucky pants. I’ll wave to you as I fly over. There’s a rumour that they have the interweb where I’m going. There may be some dispatches in the coming days. On the other hand…

Someday all of the internet domain names in the world will be used up – or will they?
Probably not. The pressure is growing to have ever more suffixes available so that the web can become more intuitive, subdivided and British [ we know our place in this country ]. Meanwhile, good old blogspot.com continues to provide free webspace to the masses. But, if you were starting a new blog today would you be able to find a choice domain without having to resort to buying your own? [ as some of us have to ]

I decided to think of ten blog titles and then check if the domains are actually occupied by anyone. Blogger has a policy of never deleting a domain once assigned – so the fact that one may be occupied or otherwise indicates something about humanity – I think. Can you guess which are real blogs and which are ‘blogs yet to be established’?

1. eatmyhorse.blogspot.com
2. bignjuicy.blogspot.com
3. loser.blogspot.com
4. elephant.blogspot.com
5. womble.blogspot.com
6. grunge.blogspot.com
7. noggin.blogspot.com
8. flambednostrils.blogspot.com
9. katebush.blogspot.com
10. haroldbishop.blogspot.com

Surprised?

Idiotic
I always get annoyed when watching films where two enemies are having a punch up as the out of control plane / train / truck or other vehicle they are in rushes them headlong towards certain doom. Stupidity and division abounds in human behaviour and this exemplifies it very well. ‘Oh look, we’re both heading for oblivion – I know, lets slug the hell out of each other’. I know it’s dramatic tension in the movies but sometimes life imitates art all too well.

The UN are assessing the emergency following the earthquake in Asia as a bigger challenge than last year’s Tsunami. The crisis in Pakistan for those homeless without shelter is deepening with the onset of winter. The need for helicopters to transport emergency relief supplies and the injured is huge. So how, in all conscience can the Pakistan government refuse the offer of aircraft from India? Who bloody cares where the aircraft come from or who flies them. As long as they bloody well fly. I’m fairly confident that the Pakistani citizens rescued by Indian aircraft will not be refusing to fly them. Bloody politicians. It’s immoral to sit around refusing help when your citizens are dying.

Tomorrows World
Over the years I’ve seen numerous design projects that are aimed at providing emergency shelter to the victims of natural disasters. Each was supposed to be quickly deployable following an emergency. Yet, even though it is 2005, it seems the best that can given is ‘winter tents’. Worse, there are not enough tents in the world to satisfy demand. It’s not as though earthquakes never happen is it? Better to spend a $few billion on bombing the hell out of Iraq than stockpiling hi-tech emergency shelters to save lives. I wonder how many shelters you could buy for the cost of cruise missile?

One eye

1 left – no 6. Further clue posted – gwan gwan.

drD couldn’t be arsed to post anything – being tired and emotional after a busy day tending to his cultural obsessions and enduring the indignity of UK public transport wherein he was surrounded by faux hawked twennysomethings with mobilebleepyboingyannoyingsoddingringtonitis and screaming three yearolds and twennysomething gels with mp3 players avec megabase and halfarsed train guards in crimplene scribbling all over my ticket with ink that came off on my new shirt grrr and complimentary cupsoftea which tasted of gnatspiss and apart from that briefly negative ejaculation I had a lovely day thankyou.
More soon.
Need drink.

It wasn’t long ago when, if I wanted to get some train travel information, I would phone up the local station, ask my question and get a quick straightforward answer. Then came the advent of ‘National Rail Enquiries’. A central call centre with access to a database of all train information. Just about acceptable, except the people you spoke to didn’t know your local area and, strangely, didn’t seem to have access to the vital information that told them your train was being replaced by a clapped out 1980s bus. Today I phoned ‘National Rail Enquiries’ to check the time of a train. Upon dialling I was immediately connected to some classical music. No indication that I had reached the correct number. I decided to hold on in the hope that I had. After 45 seconds I’m connected to a person with a very strong Indian accent. I give details of my enquiry and am given information which sounds as though it’s being read from a script. It’s difficult to follow; the intonation is difficult for my ears. I begin to suspect I’m dealing with an Indian call centre. After hanging up and a bit of searching – sure enough, it appears that UK National Rail Enquiries has been shipped to India. It’s all about money. Somehow, knowing that railways were invented in Britain, it seems very wrong. Rather than take pride in our heritage and give a world beating service everything gets reduced to the cheapest possible basis. How long before the Chinese take on the lucrative call centre trade for even less money?

End of era
News reached me today of the passing of a relative who was the source of some upset in the past. The feelings are still strong. The funeral is soon. There’s a sense of obligation to attend – to ‘do the right thing’ and to be seen to do it. Somehow I would feel hypocritical to go and I would also have to see others whom, in any other circumstances, I’d never want to see. There may be some small personal advantage in going but I can live without it and, in fact, would feel better about myself for not taking advantage of that. I’m writing this, I suppose, as a marker of how I feel right now. Does it matter anyway in the bigger scheme of things?
Which brings me to..

Intrapersonal thinkers:
Spend a lot of time thinking about and trying to understand themselves.
Reflect on their thoughts and moods, and work to improve them.
You understand how your behaviour affects your relationships with others.

Other Intrapersonal thinkers include: Sigmund Freud, Gandhi, Grahame Greene.
Careers which suit Intrapersonal Thinkers include: Psychologist, Teacher, Pilot, Child care worker, Explorer, Drama therapist, Music.

So now I know.
What kind of thinker are you?