What In The World

Fortunately, I was reading through a piece on blog terminology and came across Blog Day - August 31^st. On Blog Day, one recommends 5 other blogs. Thus, gaze in the vertical direction and sample:

The Trick is to Keep Breathing

CN about to bash NS over the head with a rock in early 2006

It's glaringly obvious that NationStates is dead. Compared to its heyday of 2004, NS is now a post-apocalypse collection of the big regions that weathered the calm. The RPers are still there, but they never mattered. The PRP was right to complain about the complete lack of gameplay improvements as NS passed its 3rd birthday. Perhaps NS never was alive - Max Barry conceived it as a marketing exercise for his book Jennifer Government. CN was developed by Kevin (peace be upon him) as a perpetual nation-sim. The problem was there from the outset - it was soulless.

The Stars Look Very Different Today

Following on from my chance spotting of a Perseid earthgrazer in Zakynthos, the clear skies of the past week have led me to hang (uncomfortably) out of the window, uncomfortably twisting my neck upwards for extended periods of time. What did I see in that week?

She's Your Friend, Until The Bitter End

In just under 6 hours time, this blog will be a year old. It's not dead, in case the lack of posts gave that impression - I'll be typing-up my rêveries from holiday over the weekend, filling in the space between this post and the last Leia-fanboi post.

In one year I've managed to publish 138 posts, almost all of which would still be in my head or in dozens of text files lost in one of the folders in My Documents if I was still having to edit HTML on my old website.

Foreign 9: Trans-Europe Express

It happened again. The restaurant last night played an excellent Greek pop/rock song, somewhat reminiscent of indie-Natalie Imbruglia, and I have no idea what it was called. Last time that happened I was in the duty-free shop in the airport on Gran Canaria and they kept playing this catchy song. A few months later Las Ketchup topped the charts across Europe. I can only hope the same happens again. I'll recognise it if that happens, but until such a time I'll keep almost remembering how the chorus goes.

Foreign 8: Washed By The Sun, He Puts His Headphones On

I'm lying poolside listening to Ultravox's Passionate Reply - which is as good as its A-side Vienna. However, despite the discomfort and heat, I'm still wearing trainers. At home, indoors, I wear shoes constantly - walking about in socks is for children and slippers are the callsign of middle-age. Shoes are a symbol of readiness, as well as broadcasting that trainers are for exercising, not for walking. I don't like feet; along with capacity for cruelty, it's another horrible reminder we evolved from the great apes. Stumps along the lines of Metal Gear RAY would look far better. Just me?

Alas, this will be the final post before the usual post from 10KM altitude.

Foreign 7: Close to the Edit

Canadair CL-215s over Zakynthos

The parents have been chatting for the past few days with this couple from Leeds. Their eldest son appears to have emerged as the alpha male, gaining access to the pool girl. At least that's how I interpreted their game of tonsil tennis in the empty pool, late yesterday afternoon. Anyway, this afternoon we went down to the beach and rented out a peddle boat for an hour. The sky had been smoky again, so another bush fire. Luckily I brought the camera along.
About half way through, two water bombers passed nearly overhead. The beach was completely quiet, save the distant roar as they touched the water. I didn't get a decent picture of that because I have a medium-priced digital camera, without a telescopic lens, shooting through haze objects more than a kilometre away. They made two passes, but I only captured the first as I'd forgotten to delete the duff photos and ran out of card space - it's also hard to judge quality on a tiny screen when in direct sunlight, and in a rush. My bother (left) and the Padre are visible in the photograph to your right.

I think I got heatstroke, what with doing most of the peddling, being in direct sunlight, and being incredibly thirsty. Fun, nevertheless.

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