Istanbul modern

This has been my last day in Istanbul. I had not been to the grand bazaar, so I thought I would do that today. However my heart wasn't really in it. I don't want a carpet (true) or a new jacket (I don't wear the leather jacket I own). So instead I thought i would go to the Istanbul modern, a new art gallery close to the river. I started out OK, but got distracted by someone trying to sell me a carpet, so I ended up taking a different route to what I planned. I always knew that I just had to go right to hit the river. I did find a nice looking University. After somehow paying 10 euros for a street map I didn't need. I headed right towards the river. I thought this is so peaceful, away from the tourists. In fact as I walked around the back streets I suddenly thought this is a bit too peaceful. There was no one around. No nice Tourist policeman in his blue uniform. I was alone. I thought I am going to get my throat cut here. I started to hope for a welcoming sign of a carpet shop, where I would be safe, but poor. Anyway I found the river at last. I couldn't find the Istanbul modern. I saw no signs for it either. After looking at my map, I saw that I was actually on the wrong side of the river. In Istanbul one side of the river is in Asia and the other in Europe. This was the first time I got the continent wrong when I went looking for something. I walked over to the correct side of the river. Somehow in Istanbul they don't like to put the name of the bridge near it. Also Istanbul had one more bridge than my map! I wanted Galata bridge. I eventually decided i knew where I was, but I still could not find "Istanbul modern". After going from a tourist area, into what only be called "a derelict dockland area", fully of empt cafes and broken boats, I eventually saw a sign for the gallery. The building has been opened in 2005 so it was big and clean with lots of space. When I bought my ticket they put a red sticker on my chest with no explanation. The sticker fell off when I went to the toilet and i couldn't find it. This is the only way to view an art exhibition, when you are nervous that security will throw yo out for not having a red sticker. Everyone else had a red sticker. I didn't see any other stickers of a different colour. I found my self clutching at pieces of red on the floor in case it was red sticker. Anyway no one payed any notice to me. Perhaps I will bring the "red sticker idea" to Tate Modern in London. As you may imagine I didn't focus on the pictures so much. I did see some nice green and blues ones, but no really red pictures. The first floor contained pictures of twentieth century artists from Turkey. I found them all interesting without any of the anal theory stuff from the West. The basement had video installation type things, that don't do anything for me. (OK I did like the video of some eggs with some words on that kept moving. Janis Joplin sang in the background, but whether that was art, so something i could have done given three spare weeks).

money

I am spending a huge amount of money in Istanbul. Normally if I want to eat cheaply in France or Germany I will have a kebab. Here somehow a kebab is authentic local food, so I always end up spending over ten pounds for every meal., Also no chilli source! I am off for beer and french fries. It is a good thing that the beer is expensive here, otherwise there would be Britsh stag parties around and frankly that would suck.

A Passion for Killing

I spent some part of today reading a book called A Passion for Killing by Barbara Nadel. The book is a detective story set in Istanbul. I agree with the amazon reviewer to some extent in that the book was uneven in plotting. I did enjoy the setting and atmosphere. Turks hate carpet sellers as well. I will read one of the books earlier in the series. I got the book in a local bookshop for essentially twice the amount of money I could have got it in the UK. The guy at the bookstore tried to sell me a book about growing up in Istanbul (recommended in a guide book). This was about real people he said. My pseudo-intellectual cover was blown, because I really just wanted to read a detective novel. The park by the palace is good to read in. The light is good but is shady, so not too hot. I have not been bothered by anyone.

Topkapi palace

I went round the Topkapi palace in Istanbul today. This palace used to be used by the Sultans as they ruled their empire. The place is huge. I started at 9:40 and I left about 14:50. I am not someone who spends all his time listening to the audio tour guide. There were many rooms in the palace. One had a large number of swords and knifes. I saw a father talk to his some about the difference between a mace and an axe. At least i think that is what he was talking about because he spoke in French. I was touched by this. I also would like to know when to use a mace rather than an axe, perhaps I should have asked him. In the treasury there was a lot of gold. I was not too impressed with some of the pieces. There was a famous dagger that had featured in a famous film. The dagger had two or three rubies in it and it probably went missing. There was also a big diamond that impressed me. I would have liked to steal two large candlesticks made of gold, but they looked too heavy for me to pick up. There was a harem there as well. I was really excited by this. I had not released any sexual energy for some days. I had put on clean underwear. I was ready for some actions. Inside, I thought "where are the women? Where is the silk and fur? Who will fill my glass and feed me grapes?". The answer was f*cking no one. It was just another museum. Sure there was some cute American chick with a white skirt on and a black berry on, but I wanted dancing girls. In one room they had a couple of plastic models. What ever happened to living history. One Sultan satisfied 24 women in 24 hours there, but you would never guess that. At the en of the tour of the harem I had excess unfilled energy and I didn't feel like going back to my hotel room for some release. I did try to find the circumcision room in the main part of the palace. The lonely planet guide noted that the circumcision room had beautiful blue tiles. I couldn't find the room and was getting hungry. Perhaps if I had found the circumcision room, I could have finally forgiven my parents for what they ordered the surgeon to do 30 years ago. So I will keep that little flame of bitterness alive for a few more years.

river tour in Istanbul

I can't say I am a huge fan of organized tours. They do force me to do more tourist things that I would do on my own. Mostly becaue I don't get lost so much, or tempted by the evil drink. Today I booked a boat trip on a river called Bosphorus that sits between the European and Asian sections of Istanbul. There were about 40 people on the boat, essentially a coach load. It was small enough to roack up and dow, but I didn't feel too queezy. There were some nice palaces at the side of the river and one big fortrest that the Otmann built to seige to Constantinpole. I didn't realize that Jason and the Argonauts also went along one of these rivers when they went in search of the golden fleece. This made the trip more like history, rather than the Christian stuff lying around. I wish I had a sword so I could shake it at the monsters on the shore. The car driving here is a bit crazy. We took a tour bus to the river side. It was one the red buses that are used for city tours. At point a car cut into the side of the bus. There was the loud sound of scraping as the car and bus mingled. I thought this will take ages to sort out. Insurance numbers will have to be exchanged. The police will have to be called. A police car went past totally ignoring us. The driver and tour leader got out. A minute later they got back into bus and we were on our way. The tour leader said "there are lots of cars in Istanbul, but not many good drivers". Given the amount of cutting in and out, I am not surprised that they don't all obey hard core insurance rules.

food and travel

One problem with going to places where I don't speak the language is that I always worry that I will not be understood enough to buy food, so I end up starving to death. Once i have got that first meal, then I know i will live. i usually stand in front of the counter like a sad stray dog *clutchng a 20 euro note) and point. The servers take pity and a bowl of hot food comes my way. In Istanbul on the bus ride to my hotel i saw all those kebab shops. I knew was in heaven and that I would certainly not starve. After 2 straight days of kebabs, I tried some fish today. Yet another country where they don't serve chilli source with kebabs. I am off to try some more raki.

carpets

I have had a pleasent day wondering around some of the sites in Istanbul. I will post more about this later. A slight pain are the number of people trying to sell me carpets. i am minding my own business totally lost just trying to find something that is usually in front of me. Then someone will kindly help, and the start asking "where are you from?" The conversation will then end up them wanting to give me their card for a shop that sells carpets. This is not a big deal, but I have learnt many useful things. When I say I am living in Glasgow they immediatley say "Glasgow Rangers" and laugh. This tells me that not many people from Glasgow visit Istanbul, because any celtic fan would make sure they never say "Glasgow rangers" with a smile ever again. Also, when someone asked about the capital of Scotland, and I said "Edinburgh", he didn't look convinced that the city existed. I assume he didn't know of any famous football teams from Edinburgh. I decided not to tell him that Edinburgh is famous for "Trainspotting", "Rebus2, and "Dr Jykll and mr Hyde": junkies, drunks and murderers, but I doubted that would have helped, I made the mistake of saying one time "that I don't like carpets". As he said what does that mean.

Luton

I stayed in the easyjet hotel in Luton. It was cheap and very convenient for the train and airport. However, did they have to paint it so orange? I couldn't get any sleep, becaue of the glow from the walls.

Istanbul

I can't help feeling that God was against this holiday in istanbul. First off two days before I left there was a big bomb in Istanbull. They didn't hit the tourist areas. Since we get bombs in London and flaming cars going into Glasgow airport, it didn't make much difference. There seemed to be many other problems that seemed designed to stop me. As I got on the bus to go to the railway station, some kind spat on me by mistake. At the railway station they sold me a ticket to Newton instead of Luton. I didn't look at the ticket until I nearly got on the train. The bus driver from Luton to Luton airport didn't know the route. The people on the bus had to tell one time he was going the wrong way, I flew from Luton via Easyjet. One hour into the journey, the pilot reported that one passenger didn't have anough oxgyen to make it to Istanbul, so we had to turn back to Luton. I was all for letting the guy take his chances, but company rules are company rules. So instead of getting to Istanbul at 16:00 I was there at 19:00. I missed my ride to the hotel. So I got a shuttle with another company. They dropped me at the wrong hotel (with a similar name). Luckily it was close to te hotel I was meant to be at. To top it all, there was no minibar in the room. Just en empty fridge. So when I meet the devil in hell after some big bombing, he will no doubt say "we did try to warn you off, but you missed the omens. We don't want your whining in hell."

The highway men

I have just finished reading "the highway men" by Ken MacLeod. This is short novel set in a postwar Scotland. The dialogue and descriptions of the green bits of Scotland were good. I probably would never have found this book with out the buying choices made by the clever librarians at Hillhead library. (Perhaps they will excuse the fine now).

Parliament of whores

I find that as I get older I am definitely getting more right wing. I have just finished reading "Parliament of whores" by P.J. O'Rourke. O'Rourke is a right wing humorist and journalist. The book is about the American politics around the early 90s. O'Rourke is not a fan of government, particularly of welfare, although he seems happy enough with the military.

I sit in a hotel room in Marseilles. I am on the way to a conference in a nearby city. Easy-jet run a route from from Glasgow to Marseilles and this turned out the easiest way to go the conference. About the only research I did for visiting Marseilles was watching the film French Connection II sometime ago. I should go out and order Jack Daniels at a bar like Popeye did in the film. I got a hotel near the port area. It is a very civilized city, although there do seem to be some gangster types wondering about. The weather is not and sunny, certainly much better than Glasgow, where it was threatening to rain almost all the time. The women here are beautiful and sexy. I am probably not used to seeing a woman not wearing a thick rain coat, but I felt things in my loin stirring as I wondered around the busy streets. I was amused to see a Durex machines on the side of buildings. They would get destroyed in the UK. Why have some pleasurable sex when you can have more fun smashing a box of metal up? I still seem to be on heat. There are a lot of nice cafes around here, so I am not sure why I had dinner in a kebab shop. The French take their food very seriously. I got chips with the meat in my kebab. Classy. The hotel has decorated each hotel room in the theme of a different painter. I am in room for Paul Gauguin. Needless I can only afford to stay here for one night.

The quark machines

I am totally stressed out with upcoming conferences, but somehow I managed to find time to read "The quark machines how Europe fought the particle physics war" by Gordon Fraser. The book contained an account of the building of the various particle accelerators around the world. Perhaps I should have known some of this stuff. I now know who John Adams is. Some HEP people would be shocked that I didn't know that before. The reason I read this book so fast was because it is almost written like a thriller as one country goes ahead, and then another catches up. I didn't realise the long history of the LHC, that they even were planning to start it 10 years ago. It is interesting to reread about what happened with the SSC when there are current problems with particle physics in the US and UK.

The hacker and the ants

I have so much too do, but somehow last night I decided that rather than do work, I would finish of reading "The hacker and the ants" by Rudy Rucker. I can't be bothered explaining the plot, but it involved writing software for robots in various Silicon Valley start ups. Some quotes

"I sighed heavily. Look Ben I want to use a real language, not a LISP language. A language with documentation and support would be nice too, a language faminar to more than thirteen Taiwanese graduate students? Can I keep woking with SuperC?"

(There was a high level language to program the robots in one of the companys he worked at, that he started to like a bit later). Title of chapter seven "Bloodlust hacking frenzy". Another quote

"Even though Ross and I were still exchanging scientific information, we were at the same time in the throes of a flame war. But it didn't really matter. As Roger Coolridge had once told me, if you are a serious hacker you don't let flames bother you. Instead you grow thick scales."

Anyway the novel has a subplot of him breaking up with how wife that was not so interesting as the computer science stuff. Rucker has had an interesting career. He started by getting a PhD in maths. Then he wrote many Science fiction novels. After 10 years of that he got a job a University teaching computer science, with out an experience in programming. He then converted him self into c++/java hacker. (This explains some of his rants against LISP in his book, that surprised me for a Professor in a computer science department). Anyway I will checkout more work by Rudy Rucker. It looks like some of his work is infected by the hippie virus, but that is just the "pot talking" -- the hacker maths background seems sound.

Krav Maga

I borrowed "Krav Maga" by David Kahn from Hillhead library. Krava Maga is a martial art developed for the Israeli self defense forces. The book emphasized punches from boxing and low kicks. There was a small amount of work on grappling. I thought that some of the blocks looked a bit weird and slow. It seemed fairly practical, but I guess a more experienced eye would see faults in the technique.

the hulk

I am really tired and burn out at the moment. A week's holiday would sort me out, but I don't have time for a vacation until mid July. So I wonder around like some zombie and yawn a lot. So that is my excuse for going to see the latest Hulk movie last night. The first hulk movie gets dissed a lot for being too art house, but I think I enjoyed it more than the latest one. In the latest Hulk film there is a fight between the hulk and an artificially engineered soldier. I think that this is some kind of metaphor for the fight between physics and biology. The hulk stands for physics, because he has been injured by good clean honest gamma radiation. The nasty soldier was infected by some kind of nasty biological sh*t. My cousin's son put me onto a book called "the hero with a thousand faces". This book was meant to influence George Lucas when he wrote the original star wars movies. The idea in the book was that the heroes quest is really a quest for improvement of an individual's mental health. Anyway perhaps I shouldn't have jumped up and shouted "take that you mother fu*cking biologists for stealing our grant money" when the hulk trashed the super-soldier in the cinema.

Melt Banana

I have just been to see "Melt Banana" play at the Oran Mor, a venue a mere twenty minutes walk from where I live. Melt Banana are a famous Japanese hard core punk band. The lead singer is female. Among the many crimes against humanity that George Bush has committed, the trivialization of the the word awesome, may perhaps be the smallest one. Anyway melt Banana were totally awesome tonight. The lead singer had a huge amount of charisma. She wore a white sweatshirt and moved in a slow controlled way. The last tour of the band in the UK seemed to do 20 gigs in 21 days. Outside the Oran Mor I saw a small blue minivan, those guys are really hard core. I had been to see the band play before. John Peel used to champion them. He read out a pub they were meant to be playing at in Liverpool. I went there, but the gig had been moved to another pub. When I got to the new pub, the place was packed. At some stage the bar staff decided to not serve any more drinks. They would pull pints and then vanish. I think they had a secret stash of regular drinkers who had to be watered first. The pub was so full of people I could only see a little bit of black hair jumping up and down. All the people who used to go to punk shows seemed to be there.

diary

Chuck Palahnick is one sick f*ck. I just finished reading his novel "diary". Frankly the book is almost too bizzare for me to explain the plot. It does involve a failed painter, starting painting again. It was a clever book moved went along at a fast place. I don't think that Chuck teaches writing, so the book didn't contain any Profs. It is not clear how they could film this book, but then that was true of his book "fight club" and that turned out to be a great f

managing humans

A couple of week's ago I read "managing humans" by Michael Lopp. This is a great book about managing software projects. It is essentially a bunch of stories, since I believe the book started out some BLOG entries. There is extremely useful advice for getting the most out of a meeting. Also there is the "Monday morning freakout". I was happy to learn that I can now read a book, listen to music, an-ed watch TV at the same time because this is just NADD (nerd attention deficiency disorder). I am no longer alone. It has a useful glossary. I was amused to see his definition of collaboration, as "a word used to convince you to work with people you would rather avoid."

unleash the warrior within

I finished reading "unleash the warrior within". This is a self help book based on the author's experience of being a navy SEAL for ten years Even though I have a pessimistic and fatalistic attitude to life, I still like reading self help books. It is not so clear to me that insight gained fighting in the snow is going to help me in civvy street. I guess I should be more focussed. Perhaps less time writing blog entries and more time doing physics calculations.

father's day

I was amused to see what Tesco was selling for father's day: beer and car stuff. I still feel guilty that when I was a child I bought my mum, some clothes pegs for mother's day. I wish I could remember her response. If I was an emotional kind of person, father's day would make me think of why I don't have children. I can imagine my son giving a me present, such as something I really want, such a baseball bat. "What is the ball for?" "I thought we could play in park.". "No, boring", as I politely toss the ball out of the window. I would test the bat by hitting the door frame. "So son, let's go out. I want to teach you about responsible vengeance." For Father's day I got myself a Duvel glass. Duvel is a strong Belgium beer. I look so classy with my Duvel glass full of golden beer, not like a sad TV drinker in any way at all. Tesco have discounted the beer by 20%. I once payed five pounds for a bottle of Duvel in London town. Just another reason not to go further south than Manchester.

On Friday

I had just got to the bottom of the hill on Queen Margret drive, when I saw a white van for a cleaning company. A cloud of black soot jumped out of the exhaust and headed for me. I turned my head to the left and saw the crossroads pub has long thing stain glass windows. The wind dispersed the dirty cloud, so I continued on. Further on I saw a house with a long set of steps leading to an door. As I looked up the door slowly closed.

butthole surfers - a second chance

People always seem to complain when bands reform and start touring again. When I was maybe 19 the last sane boyfriend my sister went out with suggested that since the butthole surfers were playing in Manchester we should go seem them. At that time I didn't go out to gigs much, so I didn't bother to go. I regretted not seeing them play. If I can get my act together, I can make this good, since the butthole surfers are playing Glasgow next month.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

I went to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull last night at the Grosvner cinema in the West End of Glasgow. I am wondering around in haze of work stress mixed up with a slight dash of depression, with a topping of pure rage, so I almost had the shakes when I was buying the ticket for the film. There is a great line in Leonard Cohen song that goes something like "you stumble into the movie house to take away the pain." One of the friendly ticket sellers was trying to be helpful by showing me the seat number on the ticket, but he must of thought I was in a bad way, if couldn't find the word seat on a piece of paper. I did have enough energy to buy a beer for the film and limp to my seat. I enjoyed the film. It didn't suck and it passed the time.

a week in Berlin

There was aa quote from a famous America author that no matter where you travel you are still the same odious boring person. This quote haunts me as I spent the last week in Berlin. Somehow this was not so full of adventure as perhaps it should have been. I am sure there was a lot of decadence in Berlin, but it moves to a too a techno beat for my indie heart. I was also staying in Zeuthen. It took a while to get into the center via the S-Bahn. Somehow getting to Zeuthen involved changing trains even though there was one line. Any way I was actually there to work at DESY Zeuthen. Cat power was playing Berlin one of the nights I was there, but the show was sold out. It was incredibly hot in Berlin, I had to keep drinking to keep from evaporating. There is a nice lake at Zeuthen and lots of big trees. On the Friday there was a barbecue by the lake. There wasn't much cutlery, so they used a few pocket knives. I was happy I didn't bring one of knives, because I don't have useful things on it such a bottle opener, but it does have a single blade and a good solid lock to keep the blade from closing on the fingers. After lunch we walked to the edge of the lake and stared at it. I foolishly mentioned that it was too peaceful in Zeuthen for me. I need to work in a city where I can get mugged or murdered -- just to get that creative edge. Unfortunately just as I left Glasgow, there was a terrible murder at an Italian restaurant that our work group used to go to a lot on Friday lunch time. A new manager was knifed to death late at night. She may have served and perhaps even flirted with members of our group (but not me). When I was thinking of writing this, I was worried that the police might read this blog entry. Then they would come around and interview me. I had a great alibi ready in that I don't really like Italian food. Although I did like the mussels at this particular restaurant. They have found the people who did this (ok people have been arrested). One was a Spanish waiter who used to work at the same restaurant. We think he may have served us too. The guy was very jolly and used to complain that we didn't talk enough. Friendly people get on my nerves, but perhaps I should have not told the manager that. The butterfly effect and all that. Of course if the waiter I am thinking of is a different person to the one being prosecuted than I am going to crap myself if he serves us again. I will be able to show my martial arts skills to my work colleagues by going to the toilet and sneaking out the window to go the subway shop on Byers Rd to get a sandwich I could safely eat at my desk. Anyway the woman murdered was 25 and clearly didn't deserve that terrible end to her young life.

On late style

I just read "on late style" by Edward Said. I often wonder why I read books of this type. Ed operates on a much higher intellectual plane than me. Not withstanding that the book discussed operas. Frankly I would have to be dragged kicking and screaming to see an opera, even when bribed with some extreme sexual favors. The book was about the style of famous composers, writers and film makes in their final years before death. Ed is famous for a book about western attitudes in the middle east hidden in literature. Anyway that book is really big, so by reading "on late style" I can say I have read Said, by only struggling through 160 pages. I am not sure who I am trying to impress.

Punk IPA

I went to Tesco's on Saturday to get some provisions. Because it was father's day, they had a lot of beer on sale. They had a bottle of beer called "Punk IPA". In my mid twenties I used to listen to a lot of hard core punk, so the "do it yourself ethic" was part of my mind set -- although I am not sure I actually did anything myself. This beer was called "a post modern classic pale ale" The beer was tasty, don't get me wrong, but is nothing sacred. Punk has been turned into a marketing tool. I was planning a few more paragraphs of ranting about marketing of something as important as punk. However, when I looked the beer up on the Internet, I see that it is produced by a micro brewery in Scotland. Also they have a beer called "Physics". Yummy. Ok I forgive them. Now I just need to figure how to get more.

street fighting years

The hillhead library tempted to me to check out "street fighting years" by Tariq Ali. This was a memoir of his time as a political activist in the 60s. Ali was born in Pakistan, but came o London to study. He was a leader in the movement against the war in Vietnam in the UK. As part of that he was (and perhaps still is) a Marxist. He organized meetings and did speaking tours. He also did a lot of traveling. For instance he went to Vietnam with a group to inspect the situation. Given that the passing of years, everyone has become very cynical about the 60s, fu*cking hippies and all that, but Ali was part of the committed political wing. The Vietcong clearly viewed the antiwar movement as a second front in their war. Although I work at a University I don't seem to meet any Marxists. Where they all gone. Perhaps to wallstreet? My one complaint about the book is that the cover features John Lennon and Yoko Ono, but they actually appear for a page or two. I have nothing against Yoko Ono. I really enjoyed her last CD. However Lennon worked with that McCartney bloke who is still filling the airwaves with his sound puke.

bank holiday blue sky

It is another bank holiday weekend. I see the bluish sky outside and vague hints of the remains of the sun. Yesterday I walked out to the Botantical gardens in Glasgow when I had enough of my computer. It was a bit windy, but the park was full of people hanging out enjoying the weather. I certainly am enjoying the weekend more, knowing that it is probably raining in the south of England.

newspapers

I never used to like to read newspapers. However the internet allows me to just browse a few stories. Attention span and all that. After reading a recent story about a woman who finds out that her husband has been looking at a lot of porn on the internet, my impression was that she was pretty annoying kind of person. I can't help feeling that spending weeks in therapy, talking together, and screaming, is not time efficient. What the husband should have said was "I have needs too, so you need to use your mouth more or it is over bitch" or "get a job, we need a plasma screen TV." What we really need is a book on safe web browsig. How do you clear the web history. I didn't realise that firefox stored passwords in a way that can easily be looked at by other people. I do have some information on how to surf with out giving out the IP address. Perhaps I should get a book deal for this important topic. I could also do a newspaper column on relationships, I think I have real talent in that department.

Polystom

I just finished reading Polystom by Adam Roberts. I found this book in the scifi section of Hillhead library. The subtitle to the book is "two universes one reality". This made no sense to me what so ever as I read the first half of the book. The first half of the book seemed to be about some rich guy who picked a crazy wife, who knocked herself out by running head first against a locked door. Anyway this seemed a bit dull to me, so I stopped reading for a couple of weeks. Anyway his wife dies, frankly much to my relief, although I think I would have liked her if I ever got to hook up. The hero goes of to war on something called the mud planet. Somehow the novel changes. It slowly becomes a novel about computer simulations and reality. Things that I found annoying about the first half of the book, made more sense, or at the very least were more interesting. Surprise is good.

Jesse Sykes

Last week I was sitting at my desk at work trying to decide on a quiet evening of contemplation, or to go out to see some bands play in a dark stinking room with a tempting bar in it.. Anyway last Tuesday I decided on a night of music with Jesse Sykes at the Glasgow Barfly. The place only had about twenty people in it. The support acts were local, and they had brought a large part of the audience. Even though the audience was small, they seemed fanatically devoted to her. She sounded like a Portishead from Amsterdam, which surprised me because I thought she was based in Seattle.

speedracer

I went out to see the "iron man" film at the Grosvner cinema (in the fabulous West End of Glasgow) on Tuesday. Unfortunately their website is bust, so I got confused about the time, so I ended up going to see "Speedracer" instead. This film was made by the same people who made the matrix films. It was a very beautiful film to look at, but was a standard plot. There was a car driver and some crooks. Good wins in the end. I was the only person in the cinema, which would have been a bit spooky, but I had a beer with me, so I had hoppy company. The review in the Guardian said that you would enjoy the film if you were 12.

white powder

Although no one is kicking sand in my face I still worry about it. I have started taking the dreaded white powder to get stronger and fitter to mash heads. I have started taking the odd teas spoon of creatine in the morning. The martial arts club I used to train has folded so I need to get hard on my own. Too much soft living has slowed me down. Even though creatine is legal I like the idea of taking performamce enhancing drugs. My olympic ambitions have been gone for a long time, mostly because of my deep hatred of any kind of competitive sport. I have been doing more pressups, because I spent 14 quid on the big tub of creatine, so I want to get my money's worth. I am sure it is all going to end in tears.

the fall rise again

I first found out about the fall around 1986. There was a video on TV for "Mr Pharmacist" and someone in the room said "Mark E. Smith he never changes". I was just watching the video thinking who the f*ck is Mark E. Smith. I am not a hard core fall fan, but I have been to see them three times. There is so much music to get that I can't afford to get every CD produced by bands I grew up with up. However I was pretty excited by the latest Fall CD, "Imperial Wax Solvent". The first track is called "Allton Towers", so I had to buy the CD just for that. Somehow I really like the sound. I watched some old videos of Mark on the tube in early 80s. He looked handsome, not the rugged shell that he is now.

After the Gym

I went to the Gym this morning. I was feeling pretty good about myself as I walked out of the Stephenson building and turned into University avenue. The sun was bright and people were wearing their summer best to worship the first sighting of the blue sky this year. On the other side of the road I saw a guy with blue sweat pants on and no shirt. His body had taught muscles. He looked almost threatening. He stood on some railings about 1/2 meter in height. He then walked on them for a bit and jumped across the pavement. If I went to the Gym regularly and even hired a personal trainer, there is no way I could do what he did.

Hillhead library on bank holiday Monday

I went to Hillhead public library today to return some books and get some more. I was fumbling with my wallet trying to find my library card. The person dealing with me didn't ask for my library card. I think he was just being helpful, but maybe he just wanted me out of the library as quick possible. The books I was getting were "street fighting years" by Tariq Ali and Krav Maga by David Kahn. Somehow this was an unfortunate choice of books to borrow at the same time. Nowadays Tariq Ali is an intellectual who gets interviewed on channel 4. During the 60s I believe he was a political activist. I don't really know what Krav Maga is, but the quick look at the book shows it is a martial art from Israel. Somehow Krav Maga always comes up quite high in the martial arts book section of Amazon.

dreaming in code

I was pretty depressed after reading "dreaming in code" by Scott Rosenberg. This was the story of a group trying to write an information organizer called Chandler. The book was like a thriller, because it wasn't clear after half the book, that the project produced any working code. In fact it wasn't clear at the end of the book that they were ever going to getting anything working. Before I finished reading it, I did look at the web page to see the status of the software. Ummm The team who were building chandler seemingly did everything right. They used python to write the code. The project was open source. All their programmers and managers were very experienced. Still the project seemed to do very slowly. Scott also included some history of software engineering, with a lot of quotes from the book "Mythical Man Month". So the book also contains a good popular history of software engineering.

The rough guide to the conspiracy theories

People believe the weirdist shit. After reading through "the rough guide to conspiracy theories", I feel unclean intellectually. I was so excited to read that some people feel that Paul McCartney is dead, but was replaced before the Abbey Road album. A very reasonable hypothesis given his recent (last 20 years) work. The book contained all kinds of fantasies. The font on the book was incredibly small, so reading the book strained my eyes. As you may have noticed I am not leading an excited life at the moment. If you see me shambling down the street, I will now grab your hand stare you in eye and say "let me tell you about the Philadelphia Experiment." In my more lucid moments, I suggest you run.

The Poincare conjecture

Over the weekend I read "the Poicare conjecture" by Donal O'Shea. This was a book about the recent proving of the Poincare conjecture. It claimed to have some history about the reclusive Grigori Perelman who recently proved it, however there was little detail about Perelman at all (that is what reclusive means). The did a good job of explaining the history and background to the Poincare conjecture. I was feeling that I should have some idea about what this conjecture is about. What thing I never thought about was that if you continued forever on a journey you would eventually return to your starting point. Perhaps there is some subtle topological strangeness in the Universe. Given that nothing can go faster than the speed of light, this is a totally impractical insight. Such is the use of topology.

Adam Green gig

Last week I went out to see Adam Green play at the Oran Mor venue in the fabulous venue in Glasgow. Adam Green was supported by Noah and the Whale. I was excited to see "Noah and the whale" because they get played a lot on radio 6. However, their set didn't do too much for me. Adam Green is a crooner. At the start of his set I thought his voice was going to get lost in the instruments. I like his songs and singing style. At the end of the set, there was a little mosh pit near the front of the stage. Adam Green was part of a band called "The Moldy Peaches". There is a new film, called Juno, out that uses some Moldy Peaches songs. This has made them more famous. The sound track for the film made number 1 in some US chart. Unfortunately, the filthy critic really hates both the film Juno and soundtrack by the Moldy Peaches. What am I to think? The filthy critic is like my style guru. I am so confused.

the under cover economist

I have just read "the under cover economist" by Tim Harford. This book is about the economics of everyday living. It deals a lot with the price of coffee, an important issue if you spend your life in dire need of hot caffeine fuel. He made some good points about the price of goods in a supermarket. He claimed that the price of basic things at a fancy supermarket (Marks and Spencer or Waitrose) were pretty similar to those in a more basic supermarket such as Morrisons. However, in Waitrose the basic food is hidden by the more expensive stuff (freshly squeezed mango juice e.c.t.). This example was used to illustrate the idea of "scarcity".

Nuclear Energy in the 21st century

Last week I finished reading "Nuclear Energy in the 21st century". This book is a popular level book about nuclear power. It deals with all aspects of nuclear power, including mining the ore, transporting material, and the all important getting rid of the waste. It is clearly written by an enthusiast for nuclear power. The explanation of the science is brief but clear. In this age, where the LHC is sold as a telescope or a black hole factory, by Brian Cox and his merry band of publicists, it is pleasant to read something basic but clear. If feel slightly bad about even thinking about working in the nuclear industry, but it is not clear what else is going to power the modern world. Wind farms spoil the view from people's houses, so bring down property prices, hence are clearly no longer an option in the middle England. As for bio fuels, well what can I say.

swinging

I have just read "the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker" by Suzanne Portnoy. This is a book about "swinging". At 39, she finds she wants more sex, so leaves her loveless marriage, and start to sleep around in a very serious and dedicated way. This kind of book is advertised at "adult", but I didn't read it for arousal. A huge part of her life was dedicated to picking up men. She was raising a family and running a PR firm at the same time. I don't see how she had the time. Perhaps being the boss of a PR firm is pretty easy (a couple of hours a day). It was interesting to watch her rate men. I now know that giving someone a meal on a paper plate is a reason to break up. Also watching her thoughts as she went back to a man's flat, made me much more motivated to Hoover the carpet in the next (month or so). Also, she had a great comment about the advantage of dating geeky web guys: "they are so happy to be with anyone, that they are happy to please their partners". Good to know. Anyway I got more out of this book than "women are from Venus and men are from Mars". In that book I learnt that women like sharp knives

More books ..........

I like buying books too much some time. Two recent orders are: Nuclear Energy in the 21st Century: World Nuclear University Press Fun with Hypnosis: The Complete How-To Guide by Svengali

A balloon murder mystery.

On Sunday I saw a woman, wearing a black suit, leave the card shop on Maryhill Rd. She was carrying a large number of red balloons of various sizes and shapes. She walked to her small car that was 30 yards from the shop. One of the little red balloons broke free and started to follow the wind down the road. The balloon was close enough to me that I thought perhaps I should go running after it, to give it back her, and perhaps get a reward. However, frankly I couldn't be bothered. I didn't feel guilty, even if the balloons were for a shattered shaven headed little girl, sick in a white sterile bed. Losing one balloon out of ten could not make a difference to her life Run free little balloon, I thought, you too need to be happy. And the balloon followed the the eddies of the wind to a land free of grasping little hands. I suddenly thought that this was the mechanism that produced the white balloon rolling down the road that greeted me on Saturday morning. Run free little balloon, I thought as I headed to my flat to sip tea and forget the fate of balloons. I then heard a short bang. I turned to see the exploded little balloon "asleep" on the road. The car didn't even stop to check its tires.

introduction to the personal software process

I have just finished reading "introduction to the personal software process" by Watts Humphrey. I have owned this book for a long time, but since I have not read a book on software development for a while, so this weekend was a good time to read it. My understanding is that Humphrey was a manager at IBM when they first produced mainframes. When he started his job, many of the projects he inherited were not completing on time, so he introduced processes to improve that. In the book he is very big on timing the amount of time people spend doing things during the week. This provides data that can be used to estimate the amount of time it would take to complete a task in the future. He also likes programmers to review their code before they even try to compile it. There was a lot of discussion about "defect" (known as bugs) removal. This is an old fashioned book. It used software metrics such as LOC (lines of code), but he talked about the c++ language. Also his discussion of diagrams involved flow charts, with no mention of UML. However, I think the book was clearer for not introducing more modern terms. Some of the basic ideas, such as using measurements to estimate time to do things are basically sound.

Arthur C Clarke

Although I was sad to hear about the death of Arthur C Clarke, I have not read much of his work for over twenty years. If you have been following closely, I have been reading a lot of science fiction recently, but I have no interest in (re)reading the work of the old masters. I did used to read a lot of science fiction when I was in late teens. Then I used to read Clarke and Asimov, and Michael Moorcock. I moved away from science fiction, to try more literary fare. Also at that time I didn't know how to get hold of the stuff of more modern writers. I might have been a bit ashamed of my nerdy past. When I started living in Liverpool I got into Philip H. Dick, and the weirder outlaw side of science fiction. I am still fond of the work of Michael Moorcock, but I saw him on TV a couple of weeks ago. He was wearing a bow tie. I know he is old, but in my experience, only wa*kers wear bow ties. Look Michael, you used to play with Hawkwind! I remember a radio interview with Arthur C Clarke, where he said something like: "some day in the future everyone will have a portable power supply as powerful as a nuclear reactor". Frank Close was also in the same interview and he said "there has to be some evidence for that type of claim." Those black obelisks!

Eels and the multiverse

Before I got went away and got sick, I watched a documentary called "Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives" via the BBC Iplayer. This was a strange documentary about Hugh Everett III who invented the many world interpretation of quantum mechanics. The documentary was narrated by Hugh's son Mark Everett (known by some as E). The documentary was weird in some sense, because it was both a celebration of his father's life, as well as a settling of scores. There was not a lot of love in Mark's life. The only time he held his father was when he picked up his father when he died. There was a lot of sarcasm in the way the family talked. Mark hadn't done well (as in flunked) in maths or science. So part of the trip was him traveling to famous physics places such as Princeton to ask about quantum mechanics and his father's work. Everett did the work on the many Universe theory iof quantum mechanics when he was a graduate student. This interpratation of quantum mechanics was not popular, so he left academia to join industry. As time passed the many universes theory of quantum mechanics gained in popularity (not with me though of course), so before he died Hugh started to get invited to conferences. Reading between the lines, it was clear that Hugh was a bit bitter that his revolutionary theory had not taken off. However, he also seemed the classic Prof. type who was not very talkative. Some part of the documentary was sad. One of Hugh's daughters committed sucide. In her sucide note she said that "she would meet her father in a parallel Universe." Mark Everett is a singer and musician in the band called the Eels. The Eels are an alternative country band, who are famous enough to make the soundtrack for one of the Shrek movies. They are famous enough to have their CDs in the discount section of fopp. As part of my research I bourght a copy of the eels CD "beautiful freak". I didn't like it as much as some of the live tracks I saw on the documentary. The one problem I did see with the documentary was that it didn't mention that many physicists still feel that the multi universe interpratation of quantum mechanics is bollocks (and that includes the multiverse that the stringers like).

Isaac Newton

I have just read a biography of Isaac Newton by Peter Ackroyd. I had read "Hawksmoor" by Ackroyd, that led me to expect that the book would focus on Newton's interest in alchemy and his nonstandard view on Jesus. However, the book gave a good overview of all aspect of Newton's life, from his development of mechanics and calculus, to him leaving Cambridge to become Master of the Mint. I didn't pick up on connection of Newton's story about thinking about gravity after watching an apple fall, to "the fall" due to an apple in the Garden of Eden, until I read this book.

I lose my telekinetic powers

When I got up today I looked out of the front window to the road below. I saw a piece of paper blown by the wind straight along the dead center of the road. When I put my full attention to it, the paper stopped moving. I very naturally assumed that I was telekinetic. Before lunch I looked at the road again. This time there was a white balloon blown by wind. I stared at the balloon with all my might, but it kept on moving. So I am just normal, the paper in the morning stopped by chance. Similar to the same random coincidence that I thought about telekinetic powers after watching the "The Medusa Touch" DVD (with Richard Burton in) last night.

Cronus

Normally, like many people I look at DVDs that cost 15 pounds and say what kind of loser spends that much money for a new DVD. Normally I don't pay over 5 pounds for a DVD. However, last Tuesday I was in fopp on Byers Rd and I saw looking to give myself a birthday treat. Also I was sick with some kind of plague, so watching a DVD from my warm front room was going to be the height of excitement for me. What I decided to buy was "Cronus" directed by Guillermo Del Toro (This cost me 8 pounds, so I am almost half a DVD loser). Del Torro directed the fantastic "Pans Labyrinth", and also did blade II and Hellboy. The film "Cronus" is a vampire movie with a new family twist. An antique seller finds a mechanical beatle built by an alchemist. His life goes down hill from there.

The birth of consumer quantum mechanics

I am starting to think that my greatest contribution to science will be the flu-flight connection. If I take a quick trip to the US, I spend a week and half in brain dead flue mode, while I try to recover. It was my birthday on Tuesday and I wanted to go out and party. However, I was so sensitive to cold that I couldn't travel far. I went to Oddbins to buy a bottle of sake. The staff at the Byers Rd store told me they didn't have any in, but phoned a close by store to reserve me a bottle. I got the time and space thing mixed up, partly because I can't remember exactly the name of every off license in a 3 mile radius. The store with the bottle of sake with my name on it turned out to be a lot further down Great Western Rd than I thought. But I dragged my shivering flu wrecked body in search of rice wine. In the Oddbins store on Great Western Rd, the staff were very friendly. When they gave me my bottle, I clutched it to my chest. They told me that they usually don't sell any sake for months. But today as soon as my bottle was reserved, two other people came in to buy sake. "Did I know why that was?". I started to mumble something about wave function collapse, and that there was an amplitude for various people to buy bottles of sake. One person decides he needs sake, so the wave function collapses, and two more have to buy sake. But then I thought I haven't told them I am a physicist, so I can get away with saying "f*ck knows why. It is weird though". Of course the sake buying choices of the people of Glasgow may be further evidence that I am being followed and studied. As I walked back up the great western Road I saw a Chinese restaurant appear before by cough racked body. Its my birthday I thought, must have fun. I ordered chicken in a pot, because someone had told me this was authentic in someway. The food was nice, but the chicken just came in a saucepan. At the end of the meal I was given a fortune cookie. This is my fortune: "Eat something you have never tried before". Anyway not love and wealth again. The fortune cookie knows how to humble one. If I hadn't been sick, I might have wanted to try here. A nice bit of caviar and a cocktail of some kind. (If I had been well I would have gone to the barfly to watch a female Japanese drone metal band). Still I think this shows that you don't need a party (or your health) to have a good time on your birthday.

Potted plants at dawn.

I always thought it was rude to stare. As I walked into work this morning, I saw a man in a battered denim jacket carrying a large pink stuffed dinosaur with garish green eyes. In his other hand he carried a large potted plant about a meter high. He walked unsteadily with a degree of quiet despair. He looked to be over 40 with a face that had seen many pint pots of beer. As he walked out of door of the shop all eyes followed him.

Market Forces

While travelling somewhere I read Market Forces by Richard Morgan. This novel was set in the not too distant future. Wars and rebellions are traded as we trade stocks and shares. When executives have big arguments they fight duels in their cars on the highway. The story was based on a new junior executive joining a company. He became more aggressive and wild as the corporate culture sucked him in. There was a bit too much action for a good novel with a strong philosophical core, if I may make such a pompous statement. On a similar theme. I watched a documentary over the weekend about corporations. Everything went crooked, when corporations got the same rights as human beings under antislavery laws. The documentary had commentary by left figures such as Noam Chomsky. I liked the part where some anarchist had a demo at the house of the CEO of shell. His wife told them off, and later served them tea and biscuits.

tales From Earthsea

Many weeks ago I rented the DVD "tales From Earthsea" from blockbuster. I had another incoherent conversation with the clerk at the Blockbuster about anime, mostly because I was full of after work Friday night beer. The same people who were involved in the wonderful (my parents are greedy pigs) "spirited away" did this film as well. I had read The Earthsea Quartet by Ursula K. Le Guin and this is what attracted me to the film. I read the book some time ago, so I couldn't remember exactly what happened. However, this film seemed very different to that book. Looks like it was based on a book she wrote much later. Some of the film was about the "balance", which is some hippy sh*t for loving nature. The boy hero of the book murders his father for some unspecified reason, perhaps he was possessed, or perhaps his father was evil as many are. The history of these earthsea novels looks interesting, at least from the amazon reviews. Le Guin seemed to have a problem with the world she created. Ummm.

saw

I watched the DVD for the film "Saw" a couple of nights. This was a a violent horror film with a good deal of torturing on it. On the other hand it was well made and had some philosophical core idea behind it. Of course if you find nothing of merit in the writings of Marquis De Sade, then you will not enjoy the film. The film was popular enough to have them create a number of sequels. I think I have seen enough of the jigsaw killer.

tandem

I have been trying to encourage everyone at work to buy a high definition TV. I will be looking for a job soon, and the economy is not very healthy. Frankly now that Blue ray has won the high definition video format war (go Sony), I feel that people should also get a PS/3 just to be sure the wheels of UK consumerism don't stop turning. As I walked to work down Queen Margret Drive, I saw a tandem bike with a man at the front and a little girl about 6 years old in a pink coat at the rear. They were peddling hard and the girls pigtails were almost left behind. The silvery bike sparkled in the frosty air. Given, how fast children grow, I am not sure how long they would ride together on that particular bike. Still I should have told the little girl that if her dad is so cheap not to buy her a bike for herself, then he should get a TV for herself. Unfortunately, the happy family were cycling too fast for me to infect them with my cynicism.

stag

I went on a stag night out yesterday. I had some pleasant drinks in the counting house pub in the center of Glasgow. I bailed when the group decided to go to a casino. I don't really like gambling so much. I did enjoy putting quarters in slot machines when I was in the US (for the crashing sounding and crazy colours), but I don't have the patience to play cards or watch the roulette wheel spin. Playing cards requires skill and knowledge that I don't have. Most British casinos don't allow Russian roulette, so they really are no fun. After the casino there was talk of going to a strip bar. I don't have a moral problem with strip bars, but I have never gone to one. Part of the reason was that I worry that I would get the fear and sweats, and not in a positive erotic way, more in a crazy emotional problem way. I could barely breath when I was taken to see a belly dancer. Actually it was before a meal in a Greek restaurant. But as the flesh gyrated and wobbled, my own flesh became icy and pale. I tried to hide the shakes from the relatively normal couple I was with. Since Richard Feynman sometimes did calculations in a strip bar, I don't think that there would be any professional problems if anyone found out. Although I have had some association with the catholic faith, I don't think that traditional guilt is causing me problems. In that case I would have gone to the strip bar had a great time, but then felt a bit guilty the morning afterwards. Anyway after browsing on Amazon I have bourght the book by Belle de Jour. My path to mental health is assured.

steam boy

On Friday night I went into Blockbusters to rent a video. I have been waiting to see "Eastern Promises", but either it is not out yet, or they don't have it at blockbusters on Byers Rd. So instead I decided to rent "Steam Boy" a Japanese anime film. As everyone know anime is totally different to cartoons, because even though it is animated it is made in Japan, and hence counts as world cinema. The clerk asked me "do you like anime?" I panicked a bit, because the question "do you like anime?" could also actually mean "do you like cartoons". He was just being friendly, and recommended some new titles. I was full of post work beer so was less than coherenet in my replies. The next day I was wondering around Tesco I saw two things that interested me. One was a DVD of the trasnformers film for 3 pounds. The other was a blond woman, perhaps in the early 30s, in a jean dress. She looked sensible and in command of local reality, but not the kind of person you could invite around for some world cinema. I whispered "I like cartoons" to the cashier as I payed for my DVD, and walked out alone. I would like to point out that the steam boy DVD was very clever, and had Stephenson of steam engine fame in it (not a sympathetic character though). I am not sure that science came out well from the film.

cloverfield

I went out to see the film cloverfield last night. A bunch of annoying New Yorkers get attacked by a giant monster. The film is shot from the perspective of a dorky camera man. Perhaps not as profound as Godzilla, but a good way to spend the evening.

Death in the Afternoon

While travelling to Ohio I read "Death in the Afternoon" by Ernest Hemingway. This was a book about bull fighting. One time I was in Spain and another time I was in Mexico, I watched a bull fight on TV. Frankly I had no idea what was going on, whether that was a bad thing is open to debate. Ernest's book is a history about bull fighting and a guide to the spectacle. I now know the cowardly way t kill a bull. Hemingway got the nobel prize for literature, but he is not the kind of writer who uses big words. His writing always floats in a lot of alcohol. Eevn in this book, you can feel the pull of death and suicide, but somehow Hemingway makes it very sociable.

days between stations

I think I bought "days between stations" in the Oxfam book shop on Byers Rd in the fabulous West End of Glasgow. The book had very good blurbs on the back (Thomas Pynchon), so it wasn't your normal science fiction novel. I started reading it, but then stopped for maybe a year. It was a confusing novel, even with out the long lay off of reading the book. Somehow there was a black and white film that was never released. Also the desert was seeping everywhere. Various people were in and out love. What was it all about? Good question, I think somehow the film was reborn into reality. It was very well written, but it was not clear what he theme was. Anyway a sweet piece of literary fiction.

Another Valentine's day, another evening alone. I would feel sorry for myself, but my entire system is feeling diseased and wasted. Hopefully this is just due to the change on time zones and not all the people sneezing on the plane. I awoke with a splitting headache. I had to sleep more to get the pain from my head. I went to the post office to pick up two parcels: a shiny new tanto and a book on sexual technique. It would have been hard to explain the coincidence of the contents of the two parcels. I did order them at different times, but fate and the hand of God does strange things. As I said difficult to explain. Since I went to the post office, I tried walking down the Kelvin Way to Botanical gardens. There is an entrance to the park behind Tesco. It is a pleasant walk by the river. The vegetation is grey and partly rotting. The Kelvin way is a slice of country through the modern city. It is so quiet, in fact too quiet. Somehow people look happier on Valentines day. There is an air of expectancy in people's faces. The hippies have won, everyone carries flowers. I just limp and slink along. I finished off reading "Grave Peril" by Jim Butcher. These tales of a wizard in Chicago are slightly better for me than the steady diet of violence I watch on TV. Although various people get eaten and burnt, the words "I love you" are important to character growth, so it was a good book to close the final pages on, on Valentines day.

Ohio

I have been at a meeting in Columbus Ohio. I am staying in the Holiday Inn just opposite the campus of the Ohio State University. There is a 7-11 just outside the hotel. This is where I have been having breakfast and buying my late night beer. It has been really cold with a wind chill factor. When we walked out to lunch and dinner, I have not been so cold for a long time. At meal two days at a really nice restaurant my share was 51 dollars. When I lived in he US, I would have jumped out of the restaurant window if a food bill had come close to 50 dollars. However, given the good exchange rate, the bill was only about 25 pounds. This is not a big deal for a nice meal with beers. I have been feeling like a millionaire. Hello American have a dollar, it is worth nothing to me.

Good to great

This weekend I finished reading a book called "Good to great" by Jim Collins. This was a book about why some companies suddenly start to become very successful, compared to others in the same industry. The front of the book claims that two million copies have been sold. I would guess that a large fraction of the sales have been as gifts to Richard Branson. Collins is very down on superstar CEOs who spend more time getting publicity than running the company. Also he doesn't like firms just randomly buying other assets without any competence in the new business. (Painting them red and putting a V on them doesn't count) Collins doesn't mention Richard Branson, but writing this review, I have found that I hate him. Oh well, he can join the club.

Bay of Souls

I have just read "Bay of Souls" by Robert Stone. I stopped reading recent literary fiction, because I got tired of reading about the problems facing people working in English literature departments. So this novel didn't start too well dealing with the problems of a Professor of English. It was well written I admit. However, things heat up when he goes with his lover to an Island in the Caribbean.

No Country for Old Men

I went to see "No Country for Old Men" on Wednesday. What a great film! Trouble is now I know the the good guys don't always win. In fact the crazy and insane prosper, while the good either die or retire. It feels as though the Universe has changed. My head has been turned.

A test of my moral fiber.

I was siting down when I heard scraping sounds. I suddenly thought, there is a bird trapped in the chimney. How did it get there? There was a lot of scratching and what sounded like the flapping of wings. There is fitted fire in fireplace so there is no easy access to the chimney. I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do. Ring the landlord or the fire service for them to pull the bird out I have various tools that I don't know how to use. so perhaps I could have freed the little bird with my trusty hammer. The other option would have been to ignore the sound and spend the next two days listening to the poor bird die. We are not talking about a beautiful song bird, whose song fills the listeners with delight, or a mighty eagle that soars above us. I doubted whether it was a wise owl. It was more likely a pigeon and I was expected to free it so it could sh*t on my windows again. The sound died after a 30 seconds, so my moral character was not tested (probably a good thing). Perhaps I am going insane. It would be cool to see a colourful warped reality.

Recalled to life

I read Recalled to Life by Robert Silverberg while I was in Spain (that blue sky). This is a science fiction novel about a lab that discovers a way to bring people back to life who have recently died. An ex-governor is hired to do the press for the lab. It was clearly a clever philosophical novel, about the reaction of the church and other groups to this new procedure. There were number of loose ends like a Senator who is accidently murdered. Still you have to admire the book for dealing with the fear of death.

Why I joined the church of Scientology

I joined the Scientology movement for a day when I was 16. The clinching argument was that it payed better than picking strawberries. Unfortunately, as way to recruit people into Scientology there is some kind of personality test. I managed to fail this test. It was a very complicated test and involved running about and doing errands. It seems very unfair that Tom Cruise was allowed to join, but not me. I would have fought the decision to kick me out if I had known that William Burroughs went "clear". Over the holiday I enjoyed reading "The bare-faced messiah" by Russell Miller. This is the story of L Ron Hubbard who founded Scientology. Hubbard was a science fiction author who claimed to have found new insight into mental health (dianetics). The first part of the story was boring because it wall about him as a child who was loved by a large family. As he got older he started to start telling bolder and bolder lies. From the book it did sound that he had manic depressive qualities. He sounded immensely charismatic, and was a good confident speaker. Anyway just in case anyone from the Church of Scientology wants to sue me, you can read the book yourself and judge for yourself. There is track by Mike Skinner from the Streets who complain about camera phones making it hard to do drugs. Because if you are famous than there is always someone ready to take a video or picture to put it on youtube, or sell it to the papers. In a similar vein, it is hard to found a religion these days, because everyone's life is so well documentated. I also thought this when I read Joseph Smith founding the church of the latter day saints. It could be that the Internet and the camera phone will stop any further religions from being started, because there will always be ways to rubbish the founder. I payed 13 pounds for the book from Amazon. I knew it was secondhand, but it had a stamp in it that it was withdraw for sale from a London library. The stamp also told me the book was sold off for 1 pound. Even the anti-Scientology groups rip you off.

CDs

One part of "the lay guide" involved asking a woman around to look at your CD collection. There was a right and wrong way to do this. Umm, I am glad I read that because if I invite someone round to look at my CDs, then they are going to looks at my CDs. If I hear any negative comments, they get thrown out of the flat. Below is a list of CDs in my room with the computer, that a poor unfortunate visitor who be forced to listen to. Anthony and the Johnsons "secretly Canadian" (anguished singing). Elbow -- a cast of thousands (famous Manchester band) Jolie Holland -- Escondia (new country / folk) Violent Femmes -- Permanant Record: the very best of Gallows -- Orchestra of Wolves (new punk band) Can -- Tago-Mago (Kraut Rock) The lovers -- The lovers. french music Regina Spektor -- Soviet kitsch (distorted female singer) Blue cheer -- Vincebus eruption (Loud 60s blues / heavy band)

The lay guide

This week I finished reading "The layguide -- the rules of the game, how to become the ultimate pick up artist". In my defense of reading a book on picking women up, I would like to point out terms such as "the neg" or "wingman" are now part of the common culture. So a well read person needs to know them. I can rememeber exactly when I started reading this, but I dimly rememeber that I bourght it in Liverpool. Anyway I think it has taken over a year for me to finish this book. Given that the book is all about getting more sex, that tells that I didn't enjoy the book. I had the most problems with the first part, where the woman is approached. I would read a couple of pages and then I would get up and say "I am not saying that." However after reading the book I have decided that I am not going to use my favourite chat up line: "who is youir favourite singer out of Kevin Coyne and Phil Ochs?", anymore. Even after reading the book I still like so I am a lost cause. I enjoyed the second part of the book more. Somehow this seemed more useful. Are the women of Glasgow ready for the new confident me. Probably.

the naked Jape

The culture show on TV had Jimmy Carr do a segment on jokes. I found out that Jimmy had written a book with Lucy Greeves, called "the naked Jape." The book contained a history and analysis of jokes. There were also quite a large collection of jokes in the book. Jimmy Carr is more of a joke comedian, as he just tells many very short jokes. Many modern comedians, now tell longer stories. Armed with this new theoretical knowledge of jokes, I can finally add GSOH to my myspace and facebook accounts.

streaming media

I got a copy of "streaming media" by Tobias Kunkel from Amazon fairly cheaply. This was first published in 2003, so is a bit dated in these internet times. I now have a better idea of the streaming software that is used to play radio via the internet. I mostly read the book, because I keep having problems with firefox playing radio 6 via listen again. If I make any changes to firefox, all the settings that let me do "listen again" stop working. The book didn't take about firefox at all, but now I sought of know what a codec is. Also, I guess that this kind of technological information is required to provide movies on the web. So I now know how to set up a po*n channel, given the exciting way the job situation is going, this may be an option.

a brief history of the middle east

My holiday in Spain was a reading holiday. I also read "a brief history of the middle east" by Christopher Catherwood. This was interesting, but I felt I should know more about the British empire's role in the destruction of the Ottoman empire. I know that I should be embarrassed by the "Suez crisis", but I am still unsure what that was all about -- apart from something about canals.

Flashman

Before I went on holiday there were many obituaries for George Macdonald Fraser. I had never heard of the dude, but he was famous for writing the Flashman series of books. While I was in Borders in the center of Glasgow, I saw a single copy of Flashman so since fate willed it I layed out some silver and got some holiday reading. The book was set at the height of the British Empire. Flashman gets expelled from the Rugby public school and joins the army. He ends up fighting in Afghanistan. However, the main joke is that Flashman is a bully, coward, and a womanizer (the kind of person I have always wanted to be). So whenever there is any fighting he always tries to run away, but somehow things always end up with him being viewed as a hero, and all the real heros dead.

Bob Dylan and me

While I was in Spain I finally got around to reading "Chronicles" by Bob Dylan. I had been putting off reading it, because for some reason I thought it was going to be a tedious "kiss and tell" type book. Well frankly I had lost faith in Bob Dylan many years ago. I grew up listening to Bob Dylan. In the early 80s this was uncool for many reasons. At the time the charts were full of Duran Duran. If I had been cool then, I would have been listening to some arty post punk music, but I wasn't. Dylan was viewed as a spent force. Although he had put the fantastic infidels album, after a period of born again Christian music (that I actually quite liked). I didn't like the other albums he released in the rest of the 80s and 90s. Over the holiday period there was an article in Guardian about various artists who were washed up, but still put albums out. The examples were Rolling Stones and Paul McCartney (who has been crap for over 30 years now). The author of the article used Dylan as an example of an artist who was washed up, but somehow managed to move back into the fore front of music/art. I wasn't convinced by this, much as a like his albums after "Time Out Of Mind". The book is really fantastic. It jumps between various periods of his life. There are some scenes when he is just starting out in New York. Also there are parts about when he was recording "Self Portrait" and "Oh Mercy", neither of which are great albums. The stories he tells about making the records are more interesting than the finished music. When he was making "self portrait" he was hounded by people and was missing a normal life. When he was working on "Oh Mercy" he was feeling washed up as an artist. It is so cleverly written. Of course I don't think you get to see the real Dylan. There is still a lot of smoke and mirrors around, but I would't have wanted it any other way. Hey Bob Dylan you are back for me.

Head on

I think I am allergic to Doris Lessing's books. I almost ran out of books while I was in Spain. Luckily I found a good second hand book store in Nerja, thanks to the tourist office. On the dusty well filled shelves, I found two books by Doris Lessing, but somehow I wasn't ready. OK, she won the Nobel prize this year, but I just couldn't face it. Instead I bought "Head on" by Julian Cope. This was the history of the Liverpool punk scene, as seen through Julian's eyes. He was in the "tear drop explodes" and the book ends up about Julian's experiences in the band. Although Julian Cope is now the "elder" statesman of cool and underground music, he sounded like an annoying twat when he was young. There was a lot of pages about him having temper tantrums. He seemed to really hate "echo and the bunymen." I now know a bit more about Eric's club in Liverpool where the punk bands used to play around 79. Somehow when he started taking drugs, he became an easier person to be with, even when he did things like rip up a carpet in a hotel.

bull fight

Last night I watched a bullfight. OK, it was on TV, but this is the twenty first century. There was a horseman who stuck spears into the back of the bull. The bull´s neck was covered in blood. The horse ride would taunt the bull by reading close and trying to stroke its head as it charged. I watched two fights one by a man and another by a woman. When they showed the audience it was clear that the bull ring was nearly empty, (much like an athletic event in the UK), but there were enough people to cheer and throw down leather gourds of wine. The woman bull fighter wasn´t very good at sticking the spear into the bulls neck. Either it would come out or it wouldn´t stick. AS more spears entered the bull, it got slower and slower. At some stage the bull collapsed and died. The matator circled the ring and proudly begged applause from the crowd. There was some other kind of attack on the bull. One person on foot would provoke the bull. It would charge him. He would than grab the horns of the bull and other people would pull the bull of them. I don´t think that this was an accident. (Although one time the bull shook the guy off and bashed him on the ground. I don´t think that was meant to happen.) There was some charging at capes, but that didn´t seem the main part of the show. Even though that little TV screen has shown me much blood letting, it still didn´t feel right to see the bull get slaughtered in the ring.

Rain in Spain

How does the saying go, the rain in Spain stays mostly in the plane. Well I think not. Today it has been raining very heavily in the costal town of Nerja. I couldn´t tell from CNN whether the wheather was worse in Glasgow (otherwise how else am I going to enjoy the remaining day of my holiday). The rain makes it difficult to read outside. I am also running out of books, so I am going to have to look at the bookshop up the road to see what English language offerings that they have.

creative tension (not)

I was hoping that this holiday would be more relaxing than previous ones. All I do is sit on benches read my book and then eat. So far it has not rained and has been fairly warm. Since I have not tried to do anything, nothing has gone wrong so far. I feel that I may be relaxing a little too much. A bit of stress helps progress. The only English language show on TV is CNN. This seems to repeat so much that it does my head in. They are still playing a segment about two brothers in Afghanistan who have drug problems. I saw the same segment last year in a hotel room in Germany. I am trying to cultivate an image as a gangster. I am reading a book on streaming video, just so that people think I am so kind of technical porn king. The technical stuff on streaming video looks fairly complicated, not like they show on the CSI TV program. At home I spend a lot of time trying to get realplayer to work with firefox under linux. It work, then I may some minor change to firefox and I lose access to the BBC radio shows. Perhaps I will have some adventures in the afternoon. But first a spot of lunch.

Holiday in Spain

My last two trips out of Glasgow seemed to involve a lot of rain. I don´t want to complain, but I do see a lot of rain in Glasgow, so sometimes it is nice to go somewhere where I can see the sun. (Actually it is nice to see the blue sky). I am taking a couple of days in Nerja in Spain. This is a small town near Malga. I really came here because it is cheap at this time of year. My mum pointed out (somewhat bitterly) that it is one of her favourite places. We had a family holiday here, over 20 years ago. After I worked how to use cheap airlines I have been to Madrin and Barcelona, but I have tried to stay away from the hard core tourist areas that the British invade to get drunk in the sunshine. I felt I needed a break. Nerja is a smaller town, so it is not one of the main tourist areas for British holiday makers. I have heard a lot of English in the sreets. It is an older crowd who are the tourists. So much less drunkardness, but a lot of stopping in doorways. I did laugh when I walked 5 yards outside my hotel and found places where I could get an English breakfast. A pub close by had the Tennants T sign. (I actully drink more San Miguel when I am in Glasgow so drinking tennents would be a bit of change). After spending the day lazing around in the sun and just looking at the sea, I now kmow why British gangsters come here. I have mostly just been reading all day.

Africa

Tesco has been selling Tusker beer from Kenya. Being an international kind of dude, I bought a couple of Tusker beers. Particularly after I noticed that the brewers of Tusker beer were running a promotion where you could win a trip to Kenya. I kept buying the Tusker beer to help win the competition, because sometimes you need a lot of product to enter the competition, but in fact you only needed one bottle of beer. So far so good. There is now major unrest in Kenya because of the problems with elections. I posted off my application, on Saturday, in some kind of hope that the trouble would be over, when I would get my trip. I was watching TV. The police fired live rounds on a demonstration. The people fled very quickly. I just can't imagine how scared I would be running from automatic weapons.

white bicycles

I have just finished a great book called "white bicycles" by Joe Boyd. Joe was a record producer in the 60s and ran the famous UFO club in London (early hippy hang out). He produced the first Pink Floyd single. He also discovered / produced Nick Drake. So this guy has been around. Boyd did the sound for Bob Dylan's famous performance at the Newport folk festival in 1966. It was at that performance than Dylan went electric. Poor old grumpy Pete Seeger got very angry and kept asking for the volume to be turned down. Dylan and his band only played 3 songs. Boyd started out helping to promote traditional blues and jazz bands, so although he was excited by what Dylan was doing, he also felt sad because the Newport folk festival was meant to preserve folk traditions, and Dylan helped destroy that a little bit. Although Boyd didn't like people to be too traditional, because in some sense it make the artists pander to audience expectations too much.

The stake holding society

I finally finished reading "the stake holding society" by Will Hutton. This was a collection of his essays, that were published up to the first year that the nasty new labour people came to power. Will Hutton is a famous journalist and the essays cover a lot of ground. Hutton is part of the new left in that he believe in higher taxation and wealth redistribution that were concepts that disappeared when the labour and conservative parties became just two different factions of the global tory party. It was slightly depressing to read about the early years of Blair's rule, because everyone was still optimistic about the future. Hutton is pretty smart, but sometimes I wondered whether a royal divorce could be linked to the economic problems in the UK.

tradition

What is this thing called tradition? Is all human behaviour relative, or are there universal rules? I don't know. After over a decade of dragging my mum to the pub on Christmas day for a beer, this year she described this pub outing as a "tradition". Result! My other tradition is to drink sake on new years eve. I am not sure how many years, I have been doing that. On reflection is has only been two years, so that is clearly not long enough to call that ritual a tradition. Particularly as this year my bottle of sake was actually from California. Next year, I will be more traditional with sake from Japan.

The lost room

A couple of weeks ago I watched a DVD called "the lost room". This was a box set for a TV series. The lost room refers to a motel room that no longer exists. There were a series of objects in the room that have special powers, such as a key that could open any door, or a pair of scissors that could rotate things. There were groups of people, known as collectors, trying to get the objects. Some people thing the room and objects were part of God. Now that I look at the synopsis above it all looks a bit nerdy, ok it looks very nerdy. But I think I would enjoy life a lot more if I was searching for every day objects that had magical powers. If you see me wistfully clicking a new pen, then I am actually testing its magical properties, so I suggest you step back. There were very few episode (approx 6), so I was disappointed when it ended. I was talking to some people about DVDs in the pub. I noted that box sets were worse than cocaine, because they soak up so much time. (I would like to point out that I have never taken cocaine, just in case some nasty human resource person is reading this).

Can't stop Won't stop

I have just finished reading a book called "Can't stop. Won't stop" by Jeff Chang. This book is a history of hip-hop, mostly before 2000. It is one of the best music books I have ever read, because it also deals with racism and being creative in a corporate world. I now know who Afrika Bambaataa is and the importance of Grand master Flash. The book contains a lot of interesting material on political organization and compromises. When I read about the million man march in Washington, I kept thinking that I lived in the US then. My recollection of that event was through the prism of the media.

Christmas wishes (not)

I can't say I am A great fan of Christianity. The links my family have had with the church have never been a positive thing. I have always regarded Christmas as a holiday from the cold of winter. I usually send blank Christmas cards, where I write "happy holidays". (Ok sometimes I forget to write peoples names as well, because I am always in a rush). Thanks to Dawkins I now know that I should wish people "a happy Newton's day". Bah humbug!

Last year's resolutions

It is nearly the new year, so it is time to make some new years resolutions. I pulled myself from my lethargy on the couch, limped to the bathroom, and looked at myself in the mirror. My blood shot eyes, and beer destroyed body, shimmered with stress, and told me in the no uncertain terms that my dreams of a modelling career were finally over. But I thought what new years resolution could improve my elagantly wasted appearance. Last year my new years resolution was "going more mainstream". Instead of snorting when someone mentions that they like the killers or snow patrol, I was going to try smile and fake some interest in that person, even though they didn't deserve my attention. Anyway somehow hating the killers is hardwired into my brain, so that resolution lasted about 5 seconds. Also after reading Cope's last book on underground Japanese bands, I had to buy the CD Satori by the flower travellin band. When I heard the first track, I was disappointed because I thought it would make my head explode. After the second listen I think it is incredible. Even better, the CD cover for Satori claim that only 1000 copies were made. I have copy number 188. Fu*k mainstream music!

Vodka from Liverpool

Someone told me that there was a brand of vodka from Liverpool. Seemed unlikely, but it may have been true. I tried to order it in a Russian restaurant in Liverpool, much to the disgust of the waiter. Even the mighty google let me down, because I couldn't track vodka from Liverpool down. I found a bottle of Imperial Vodka, distilled in Liverpool, in an off license in Glasgow. The evidence is above. Now I need to search for something else. It passes the time.

TV

I have spent the last 5 days at my mum's house relaxing and doing the Christmas holiday thing. I was talking to my mum and brother about various technological things about TV. In particular the merits of digital TV recorders. I learnt how to use the joost internet TV while I was at home. Nice, but the interface needs more work. One of my other questions is what the f*ck is smileTV. It is one of the freeview channels, but is only on from 3am to 7am. As I get older I can't stay awake until 3am, but I am taunted by the TV page when I switch channels. Umm now I know.

Physics under attack

Although this is not a science blog, I feel moved to comment on the attack by the funding agency (STFC) on fundamental research into particle physics in the UK. Apart from the cuts in funding, what is also particularly annoying is that STFC have a number of "big questions" that are meant to focus research on important areas. The older funding agency called PPARC had questions such as "what are the basic properties of the fundamental particles and forces?", that can be potentially answered. With a new funding agency comes new big questions, the only one that is potentially relevant to particle physics is "why is there a Universe?" What sort of question is that? If you are nine years old then this is perhaps a reasonable question, but it is hard to even know how to start answering such a question. Who wrote that crappy STFC delivery document? If you put "why is there a Universe" into google scholar (that searches books and journals), then you only find that phrase in books on theology, philosophy of science, and one entry in "Nursing Administration Quarterly, 2000". If you search for the phrase "why is there a Universe" using google you find hits from Hawking and string theory people. So this question has nothing to do with physics, reality or experiment. Things would be much simpler in the US, where I would sue STFC because they broke the separation between church and state. In the UK I can only complain to that nice Richard Dawkins bloke, and let him spew some polemic at STFC. Things don't seem and better in the US, where the accelerator I have been focussing most of my phenomenological studies on has just been cancelled. However the funding for a new machine has almost been approved.

blood music

I know I keep promising to read at least one book by Doris Lessing (from the two I already own). As a warm up, I read "blood music" by Greg Bear. This is a great science fiction novel about a scientist creating intelligent cells. He injected the cells into himself, which frankly was a bit stupid. The novel works on many levels and is full of ideas. If you are wondering why reading "blood music" is a warm up to reading Doris Lessing, I would like to point out that Lessing is quoted on the wikipedia page about her as mentioning "blood music" as evidence that science fiction is an important literary form.

six the mark unleashed

I watched a fairly strange DVD called "six the mark unleashed". I thought that this was an action movie. There was a resistance movement who were fighting a supreme leader (by stealing cars). Normally action movies such as this one, end with the leader being overthrown, and everyone going off into the sunset. This film was different. It seemed to involve a lot of Christians, who were rebelling against the system by happily geting their heads chopped off. Looking at the reviews I think I would have got more out of the film, if I knew more about the bible, than that Jesus turned water into wine. Anyway this is what happens when you rent DVDs from the local library at Hillhead. There was an offer on, that if you checked out 6 books, you could rent a DVD for free. Given that I hardly read at the moment, this didn't seem like a good idea. (The cute librarian didn't look pleased).

Mountain Goats

When I lived in Lexington Kentucky during the early part of the 90s, I used to buy a lot of tapes from the Shrimper Record label. The tapes were mostly by lo fi folk bands. One of the bands I really liked were called the Mountain Goats. Tonight, I am going to see the Mountain Goats play at he Oran Mor venue that is just down the road from me! I am so excited. Emmy the great is playing support as well, so that will be cool. When I was in Lexington I think I was hoping that I could put one over John Peel by listening to stuff he had never heard of. When I came back to the UK, I heard that he played the mountain goats and Simon Joyner, so there was really no way to beat the man. Of the bands signed to Shrimper, I really liked "paste". Paste were some intense singer and complaining guitar. I was happy to see that the Shrimper Record label lives on (in a sense).