September 2002 Archives

This is very strange.

http://dogcatcher.com/optical/ab.jpg

Try downloading a copy and playing with it in your favourite graphics program.

I feel so dirty. I've just bought CDs from Sainsburys of all places.

But hey, they were £9.99 each which is a good $pound; cheaper than most other places.

If anyone's interested I bought the new Coldplay album, the new Peter Gabriel album and the Avril Lavigne album. The last of those was a complete impulse buy as I've heard her single on MTV a couple of times and really like it. She sounds like a mini-Alanis. This is a good thing.

I spent a large part of the 1980s on political demonstrations where the size of the crowd was consistently underestimated in the media. "The size of the crowd at the CND demonstration was estimated at 250,000 by the organisers - official police figures put the number at two dozen".

It's therefore very tempting to see the estimates of the numbers on yesterday's Countryside Alliance march as being doctored in the opposite direction. The papers are saying over 400,000 people marched.

But I wasn't there and I therefore have no way to make my own estimate, so I'm just going to have to accept the published figures. I'm not going to lower myself to using the same tactics that were used against me twenty years ago.

We have a fence in our front garden. And it's looking a bit worse for wear. So we've been getting quotes from fencers to replace it.

In front of (and, to be honest, generally intertwined with) the fence were two bushes. Don't ask me what type of bush. I don't understand foliage. In order to make it easier for our eventual fencer to replace the fence I decided to remove the bushes.

So on Saturday, I set to with a saw and destroyed the two bushes.

And then on Sunday the fence fell down.

You know you've got a dilapidated fence when it's the bush in front that's keeping it standing!

In the UK we have an organisation called the Countryside Alliance. It's a group of country-dwellers who want us townies to stay out of their lives and let them carry on living the way they have for thousands of years. Actually, it's just a front for a bunch of murderous thugs whose idea of a good time is chasing a fox for miles and then letting a pack of dogs rip it to shreds.

They're currently very angry because the government has quite rightly decided that this practice is barbaric and is moving to make it illegal. They're so incensed that they'll all getting on their horses and their tractors and coming up to London this weekend to tell us just how bloody annoyed they are.

This leaves me with a dilemma. On Sunday, do I go up to Embankment and shout "GET ORF MOY LAND" at them all or do I go and visit the countryside - which will be a far more pleasant place without all the bloody yokels.

I love flying in helicopters.

Of course, the only times I've ever been in a helicopter were both taking the "Flight of Angels" over the Victoria Falls so that might well influence my feelings on the matter.

I'm currently working just over the river from the Battersea Heliport so all day we can hear the sounds of rich people flying in and out. Makes you realise just how many people can afford their own helicopter.

Maybe that's what I'll use as my signal that I've got enough money - when I can afford my own helicopter.

Today I went to see the Bodyworlds exhibition before it finished its run in London.

The exhibition consists of a number of anatomical displays. There are a large number of smaller displays which show various parts of bodies, but the major part is the two dozen complete bodies which are displayed in various artistic poses. For example one man stands there, complete except for his skin - which is thrown casually over his arms like a raincoat.

And in case you're not clear - these are real human corpses. The owners donated them to the exhibition before their death. The Bodyworlds people then put the body thru a process they call "plastinisation" which preserves the it and allows them to create these "works of art".

I enjoyed my trip to the exhibition. I'd recommend it to anyone. Although I confess to finding the juxtaposition of art and science to be a little strange.