Away 2, What Should I Take With Me To The North?

As has become traditional over the last few holidays, the late evenings are occupied with a film from Sky Movies - tonight was a modern favourite of mine, The Day After Tomorrow.

Toward the end of the film, I was reminded of the fact this I've always felt more comforable in the cold. That led to a more disturbing thought - a sort of irrational sense of national pride. That irrational feeling made me put Idlewild's 100 Broken Windows on. [03:20, Track 3, "These Wooden Ideas"]

The only explanation can be found in music:

"We love the Winter/It brings us closer together"
Manic Street Preachers, The Masses Against the Classes, 2000

Is it customary for Scottish bands to sign about the cold? Listen to Build a Fire by the KLF and you'll begin analysing Franz Ferdinand lyrics.

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Away 1, Continued

Well, I didn't sleep for that last hour on the flight. I couldn't find the energy to continue with this either.

The next character from the departure lounge was a Spanish gentleman, probably in his early 30s. In tring to describe him, I get an image of Guy from Green Wing in my head. Just imagine him tanned and wearing an orange jumper and blue Clarkson-esque jeans. He received a call on his phone and then went on to talk fairly loudly in Spanish and wondered aimlessly around the lounge whilst talking.

Away 0.5: Exploration

Arguing with the birthday-taxpayer yesterday evening, I hit upon that the present is infinitely crappier than the predicted future because his generation failed to change anything: namely, going to the Moon (or not going, to be more accurate). The taxpayer brings in the cost - because they started analysing everything for cost-effectiveness. 'People are starving in Africa' - because you insist they pay back ridiculous loans from the 60s despite the people you elected holding the G8 summit and agreeing to ease the costs - that was only last fucking June. 'Let's fix the problems on this planet first' - You've had over 20 years to do that. 'There's nothing on the Moon' says the Six-O'Clock News viewer - oh, apart from Helium-3 which, though fusion, would slash Carbon emissions from energy production immensely.

Having won that, as indicated by the line of discussion ending, I later broght in the fact that Columbus did not discover America: not because the people living there already discovered it, not because the Vikings stumbled on it, but because Columbus died denying he had found a new continent. I then posed a question: Should Columbus have gone to the Americas when the Old World was still plagued with a myriad of economic, social and political problems? We agreed the Americas were better off unknown - but we needed something to distract the people from the aftermath of the Reconquista.

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Away 1: Airborne

It's highly unusual to be in a plane at this time of year. I find myself in a June-mentality - though what that is escapes me.

As I write this, I'm armed with my digital camera. However, the view out my side of the plane consists of various shades of blue fading to black. Meanwhile on the other side, a vibrant red sunset is in progress. El Capitan says we're over Belfast already, which I was about guess when I finished that last sentence. WTF is 32K Feet? The European flight crew's minds have been poisoned by imperial measurements.

Belfast, Prij, 2006

It's Been One Week

There was a lot of sneezing and coughing last Friday (24th) afternoon at college. Perhaps that's where I got it from, regardless, I was fine right up until about 8PM when, despite being in the presence of a fully lit gas fire, I felt very cold. By midnight I couldn't stand it and went to bed - an unusual move on my part.

Limited Capacity

The UN Convention on Biological Diversity has said that humans have pushed the limits of what the Terran ecosystem can handle. I could have fucking told you that. I could have also told you that we need to do something about this now. Not lay out progress targets for 2010, because like all great progress targets (Kyoto Protocol, Live8, The Middle-East "roadmap" to Peace, ad infinitum) they won't be met. I know it, you know it, the delegates who sign such agreements know it.

Choice: Shit/Shite

Pepsi has filed a lawsuit against arch rival Coca-Cola over an advertising campaign which it says is false and deceptive
BBC News

Who would have guessed an advert could possibly be deceptive? It's the whole fucking point of the advertising industry. Wow, my breath doesn't smell, but it sure itsn't minty fresh! I think I'll buy some refreshing chewing gum so I can have trendy 20-something friends - the variety you see in Pringles, M&Ms, Wrigley's, Coke, and promotional tie-in adverts.

You must have seen that awful chewing gum advert where the guy is in a subway station (plainly an American one, because I've never seen one in this country that stank of America so much - hey, we all speak English) and he gets out his chewing gum and everybody becomes friends, because everyone likes receiving gum from a stranger... A stranger's just a friend you haven't met. Makes me want to vomit.

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