a hunger artist

Facebook vs. LiveJournal

Thu, 25 Dec 2008 23:16:04 GMT

Facebook is stale: log on, and then forget everything about why you're there, what there is to see, unless something jumps out at you. Then get bored of voyeurism and everyone captured and objectified in photos. LiveJournal: so much more effort and so much more soul. Several entries on my friends page, broken up with Sinfest, made me smile warmly. Yeah, LJ wins. Merry Christmas.

It's nearly winter

Fri, 07 Nov 2008 22:23:02 GMT

If the American system was anything like ours, they wouldn't have to wait over two months for a new head of state. An elected Prime Minister would be in power the next day. Of course, we have to wait for the last head of state to die or abdicate before a new king or queen can ascend the throne.

I'm pretty happy at the moment: my job is giving me reason to be up to date with political events and keep up with my philosophy. Capoeira is great fun; I'm training three times a week (and going to Brazilian Beatz tonight, where the group are doing a performance in... 40 minutes' time). And Bristol is intriguing to explore.

Italian poetry

Thu, 17 Aug 2006 19:50:59 GMT

Does anyone know any good Italian poets to read whilst travelling that country? We leave on the thirty-first.

Sun, 28 May 2006 12:34:27 GMT

I've been messing around on facebook for a couple of days, and just hanging around, getting up late. I haven't restarted my blog-writing yet, nor have I really got on with my jobsearch for the summer. But I'll begin one of those today.

Another year

Wed, 24 May 2006 12:27:13 GMT

Yesterday I finished my second year with an exam, answering questions on the changing Italian political system and the character of the 20th century dictatorships of Italy, Greece, Spain and Portugal (only one of those should be considered fascist, don'tcha know?). Since no one else i know had finished yesterday I played Enter The Matrix and watched the first film and slept. Today I'm paying bills, writing to my gran and looking up books about next year's modules, then going out for numerous drinks with various people, three different groups.

In the next few weeks I'll be moving down to London for the summer to live with my girlfriend and hopefully get some kind of research internship or something. It should be fun. A lot of reading to catch up on and a radio sitcom to write.

Sun, 09 Apr 2006 18:17:21 GMT

I'm researching communist parties in southern Europe, and as a consequence reading books and article written between the late 1970s and early '90s. Back then, politics was easy: there was the affluent bastions of democracy in western Europe and North America; the menacing Communist east; and the poor South, riddled with dictators and wars.

Today, everything's different. Europe's united, and the west is still at least pretending to be a bastion of freedom and democracy. Russia's still there, but it's not a direct threat anymore — no one's very sure what role it'll play in the future. China is the new menace as far as nation states go, but there's no threat of war — it's simply an economic and cultural competitor. India's rising up too, economically. South America has ousted most of its dictators and generals, Africa is zig-zagging towards peace and development.

The Muslim world is now the most obvious threat to the west, but it's not a united front like the Soviet Union was, and the particular threats aren't coming from their governments; rather they're coming from small-but-growing fundamentalist groups. If you're looking for a black and white picture today, it's the West versus Islam.

I want to learn more about Islam.

Birth date meme

Sun, 09 Apr 2006 11:12:34 GMT

This is a meme. I don't often do them. And I've done this one before, without it being a meme...

Go to Wikipedia and look up your birthday (excluding the year). List three neat facts, two births and one death in your journal, including the year.

Events
1903 - The Russian Social Democratic Labor Party splits into two groups: the Bolsheviks and Mensheviks.
1973 - Student uprising against the military regime in Athens, which led to a movement being named "November 17".
1983 - The Zapatista Army of National Liberation founded.

Births
1966 - Jeff Buckley, American musician (d. 1997)
1983 - Christopher Paolini, Author (who I only mention because he's exactly the same age as me and is a published author, the bastard)

Deaths
1558 - Bloody Mary

theidea.org.uk

Sat, 08 Apr 2006 20:56:26 GMT

I wrote a blog on the subject of that last entry: How white is white?

BNP gets "ethnic"

Sat, 08 Apr 2006 15:22:59 GMT

The BNP has elected its first "non-white" candidate, The Guardian informs me. Ha! Look at the picture on the main page — see just how "non-white" he looks! Oh, this amuses me... I imagine it's his name that has really caused the commotion. If he was called "John Smith" and happened to be Greek-Armenian (which, I'd say, is — culturally, at least — European), I doubt there'd be quite so much fuss. But oh, it's so funny. I'm glad it shows up the racism and ignorance of BNP members, even if it makes the leadership seem a little less so.

Anansi tales

Thu, 06 Apr 2006 20:59:26 GMT

The problem with reviewers is that they've read too many books, seen too many films.

I find it funny when people watch a film or read a book and moan about how predictable it was. A lot of stories are, but that doesn't matter. I hardly ever predict what's going to happen, mainly because I hardly ever give it any thought. I just enjoy the story, even if I do see where it's going. Not every story can switch as unpredictably as Dusk Till Dawn does in the middle, and it's pretty risky to try. Nothing wrong with taking risks, but don't expect every teller to take that particular one.

I just finished Neil Gaiman's Anansi Boys, thanks Rossy :)

Remember, remember

Thu, 06 Apr 2006 02:43:51 GMT

"Excuse me. There seems to be some sort of mistake. I bought a drink and some popcorn and now I have no money."
— Black Books, series 1, ep. 5

Tonight, I went to the cinema. But, heeding the warnings implicit in Bernard's bewilderment above, I took my own popcorn, freshly made. It's so much cheaper. Alas, it seemed a petty act of rebellion next to the explosives on screen. (Read my V For Vendetta article...)

Reading

Wed, 05 Apr 2006 13:20:47 GMT

Sometimes, when reading a book (for example), I sometimes get a little excited, or perhaps I'm a little tired, and my eyes skip ahead a sentence or a short paragraph. I go back and do things properly, but it always seems like I've missed something or I've cheated, and the skipping-ahead has left a black mark, as if someone had taken to the page with a black marker and scrawled a purposeless line over the bit I was reading. These marks are scattered throughout the book if I think of them, but I can ignore them if I try, so I do.

Mon, 03 Apr 2006 23:27:07 GMT

I've posted one or two short stubby entries, as you may have seen, and each time someone's asked me where I've been and how I am. So I thought I might as well kill as lot of birds with a single stony entry here, just as livejournal was designed to do.

Uni's all good, I've been on my easter break for a week now. I'm enjoying learning about Spain, Italy, Portugal and Greece (throughout the twentieth century and up to the present) in one politics module, and theories of justice in another. I'm writing two essays on justice and a report on the communist parties of the aforementioned countries. In philosophy I'm just looking at philosophy of language.

I'm in Leeds for the next week and a bit, relatively alone: there are three people in the house (including me) instead of seven, and I only have two or three friends still in the city, all the others having gone home. Next week I'm going down to London (to see rossywar? Has the little one mentioned this?), then up to Wolverhampton for the last week of easter and a friend's birthday. I quite like being around on my own and not having work to do urgently — though I should do a bit more work, starting tonight (a bit of reading, maybe) or tomorrow. It's alright, because I enjoy the work, it all fascinates me. I think I'll decide which other justice essay I'm going to do tonight. The one I've started is 'What responsibilities do rich nations have to the world's poor?'

I'm enjoying my music at the moment, Ani DiFranco and One Minute Silence as ever — I'm slowing doing a website about the latter, there isn't anything online about them after they split up and their own site went down. I've also got into Bright Eyes; I've been listening to the new Gorillaz album; downloaded a few tracks recently too, including Machine Head's newer stuff and some bits and bobs like 'American Pie' (Don McLean), 'Bohemian Rhapsody', the Bobs Dylan and Marley, the Beatles, Johnny Cash...

I watched Forrest Gump earlier — when I first saw it I think the fact that he inspired John Lennon's 'Imagine' and brought down Nixon with Watergate must have gone over my head because I didn't remember them at all! I'm glad I watched it, it's a good film. Heart-warming, in a way; thoughtful, funny and sombre.

*

There is so much to be learning about! I need to decide what to do my dissertation on soon... After reading Peter Singer's A Darwinian Left, I want to study a bit of Marxism. There's also the EU (I want to know more about it, and look at it as a positive institution promoting peace and democracy in Europe as well as a big bureaucracy), Latin America (a very interesting region; I'm working on an article on Venezuela for my blog), and most of the countries of the world, particularly the US, South Africa, China, Indonesia, Japan, Russia and Cuba. Oh, and France. And some Scandinavian countries. Maybe Canada too.

Languages are a work in progress too. ¡Estudio español! Y después quiero estudiar otras idiomas. (freetranslation.com). I'm not sure what it'll be next, but I've got plenty of time to think about it while I get on with Spanish — but candidates include Čeština, Japanese, Français or Italiano — or I could pick up Deutsch from where I left off at GCSE.

That pretty much brings you up to speed... I'm off to talk to my love now, and maybe read a bit before bed. Good night!

theidea.org.uk

Mon, 03 Apr 2006 12:05:43 GMT

The wikiworld will come. About wikipedia as an internet phenomenon. Also, if you haven't read my blog before, have a look at my rant about mislabelling liberals, about our racist professor here in Leeds, and my little chat about Big-Screen Documentaries. I'd love comments from you people :)

theidea.org.uk

Sun, 12 Mar 2006 14:09:28 GMT

theidea.org.uk is now my blog. Take a look at my first post :)

Again to London

Thu, 23 Feb 2006 12:00:33 GMT

It's my girlfriend's birthday today, so off I go to London. She's coming in from a trip to Amsterdam, I'm hoping to meet her at the station with flowers (I haven't given her flowers before). It's going to be a long weekend of celebration as it's her 21st.

Watched Wings of Desire last night; I think I prefer the German title, Der Himmel über Berlin, something like "The Heavens over Berlin". It might have been translated as The Angels of Berlin or something, though perhaps that hints too directly at the content of the story. Anyway, I quite liked it, though it is certainly the slowest, calmest film I've ever watched. I imagined Brian in Family Guy describing it to a blind man as he does in one of the episodes: "Nothing's happening, nothing's happening..." But it was good! Thanks to rossywar for the lovefilm subscription, I'm seeing a lot of films I wouldn't have otherwise!

I better be off.

Onion makes eyes water!

Fri, 17 Feb 2006 11:37:33 GMT

I usually enjoy The Onion, but this one's just a bit horrible.

Few, and far between

Mon, 13 Feb 2006 22:15:36 GMT

I might start writing here more. The thought occurred to me recently after I started using myspace to keep in touch with people, but then I found out it's owned by Rupert Murdoch, making it seem, well, unclean. It's also choc-ful of adverts and weirdos. Livejournal, by contrast, is independent and without ads, and generally its users seem more genuine and less in-your-face. A lot of userpages have music that comes on when you view them: that's all very fancy and might be a good way to hear new music, but it's also very annoying, especially when you have your own music playing or you open more than one userpage at once.

Plus, I know livejournal. I've been on it since around 2000, maybe 2001, I'm not entirely sure. Either way, it's been a while. I was considering getting a new livejournal, and I might yet do that. But that would be my third, and I'm not sure I can be bothered to go through the rigmarole of setting up a new account, choosing a name, setting the settings, et cetera.

I resolved at the new year to write in my 'real' diary three times a week. So far I've kept it up; there are some things I'd like to write publicly, so I might just do that here. For the most part, I like livejournal.

Mon, 23 May 2005 10:49:27 GMT

We went down to the woods last night. We had a barbeque and made it into a nice fire (so we all smelt of smoke by the time we got back). Stories and jokes were told, and we all had a good time! I haven't made a fire for ages. There'll be photos.

A life behind bars

Fri, 06 May 2005 12:12:03 GMT

She's spent three years in prison. She is three years old. I don't normally like to publicise these kind of cases, but read about Naomi Leong, the girl born in prison in Australia. That's a horrifying story. Australians, kick your government's arse.

Edit: ABC story

The election

Fri, 06 May 2005 12:03:20 GMT

The Liberal Democrats swung it here and took Leeds North West from Labour. I'm happy with the overall result — what more could we expect? I would have liked to see the Tories lose more to the Lib Dems and I wish they hadn't gained any. I'd have also liked to see the Greens win in Brighton, the only place they had a chance. Maybe next time, eh?

Also: The Tory leadership farce of the last 10 years continues: Howard is standing down.

Locations

Fri, 29 Apr 2005 08:54:11 GMT

I've been hitting random for about ten minutes and seeing where people are from... Mostly eastern US, a fews Russians, a South African, a Dutch guy and an Australian. There was one Brit too.

Politics

Wed, 27 Apr 2005 19:21:00 GMT

Two Q&A sessions with parliamentary candidates: one at the main campus in Leeds, the other at our halls, which my flatmate organised. There were the three main candidates on campus, and the same bunch plus the Green Party candidate at the Bodington one. About 150 people came to the latter — a good turnout we didn't predict — and a few more than that, perhaps, on campus. At both, the male dominance was noticable. One female candidate out of four; about 15%–20% of the audience at most was female. Why?

Random statements

Mon, 25 Apr 2005 16:01:23 GMT

Voting should be the very smallest part of your political action. I'm not a sociable person (or am I wrong about that?). There is no good proof for the existence of the material world.

Days of Grace - there goes another!

Sat, 26 Feb 2005 12:30:40 GMT

For anyone who knew of them, Days of Grace seem to have split up...