Neil Hopcroft

(since I got tagged by scifilittlemy)

Four jobs I’ve had:
– postman
– clockmaker
– industrial spy
– arms exporter

Four movies I can watch over and over and over:
– Brazil
– Simple Men
– Fast and the Furious
– Taxi

Four places I’ve lived:
– In the country
– Tokyo
– Cambridge
– London

Four TV shows I love:
– N/A

Four places I’ve holidayed:
– Paris
– Bude
– Munich
– Sestriere

Four of my favourite dishes:

Four sites I visit daily:
– livejournal
– www.inselkampf.co.uk
– stockbroker
– aa traffic news

Four places I’d rather be right now:
– somewhere hilly
– by the seaside
– near a waterfall
– not having to go to work tomorrow

Today I greeted the horse, as I often do, on my lunchtime walk. Normally he is very quiet and doesn’t say much but today he told me about his recent adventures. He described a wonderous land and his travels through it, and asked if I would like him to show me what he saw.

I climbed aboard and we headed toward a huge old rotten treestump where the door to his fabulous new kingdom could be found.

As we entered the misty swamp where the gateway emerged we heard what sounded like the screams of an infant. The reeds were too high and the fog too thick to see the source of the distress. There was a fresh smell in the air, not like the swamps we have back home, something idyllic about it if only the child would be quiet.

We found a pathway of stepping stones through the bog which took us to firmer ground, from where the sounds were clearer and we could investigate further. Presently we came upon a group of crocodiles of arbitrary bigness, one of which seemed to have its jaws around a baby. It was too late for us to save the wretched child, I looked around for its mother but could see no sign of her.

My guide took me away from horrible beasts as quick as he could, through the forest, up a nearby hill whereupon we happened across a clearing. In the centre of the clearing was a herd of unicorns, creatures I had never believed existed. They were smaller than I had imagined they would be, maybe three feet tall, but otherwise shaped much like my guide. They saw us and attempted to talk to my companion. He said he had never heard such a tongue as these animals were using, that he could comprehend nothing about their intentions.

Suddenly a rustling in the bushes from one side of the clearing caused alarm in the herd and they started to run. The tiger broke out of the shrubbery and followed the stampede, not glancing twice at us two strange creatures in its land.

We followed, driven by a morbid desire to see how the kill works here. Running, running, running through the forest, ducking the wayward branches of trees, canopy high so I can’t see the detail of the leaves and we’re moving too fast to focus on those that have fallen to the ground.

Eventually we catch up with the remains of the herd. Skewered on the solitary horn of one of the beasts there was a surprised looking bear, the poor creature had been in the path of stampede and been impaled.

There are many more things I could tell you about that strange place, but now is not the time. There are some pictures of the things I saw – somehow all the creatures in these pictures look like knitting, but the real things were very much like those in our world, but very different at the same time.

“15 minutes and it all breaks down, take my data like a head crash baby, yeah.” … remixed

Stop sniffin the glue, check out the Subaru

High milage – surprising number of Honda Accords in that list…maybe thats a clue for my next car?

Today the whites are that bit whiter, the sounds that bit sharper, lights brighter. So bright they’re burning my eyes, leaving colour, shape, in their wake, but no definition.

I’m not sure I’m really enjoying this headache – perhaps it could stop now? I’m quite aware that I’m lucky I don’t suffer them too often, and that normally they’re only a few minutes long when they do come. Today has been different, and I’m hoping there isn’t more where that came from.

“You are in a maze of twisty countries all alike”

Deflections on trusting trust

8088 Corruption – 30fps, on 4.77MHz processor. Just proving it can be done, now why do we have minimum requirements a hundred times that to run the operating system?

“I squash dead fish between my toes, Try not to step on any bones, I turn around and I go home” (erm, maybe thats not working…how about XBox found abandoned on beach?)

A fabulous evening out, as ever Otway is full of treats and really not the most together of stage performers…but thats why we love him. We got to hear hits from his 20 year chart career, the 7th most popular lyric in 2000 years (beating U2 and the Manic Street Preachers), Blockbuster taken to another level of distortion, Bachman Turner Overdrive overturned and “I will survive” in the style of Bob Dylan. Why weren’t you there to share the madness?

John Otways World Tour visits Cambridge tomorrow night (sat).

Who is going?

…tracing the money behind global terrorism.
By Loretta Napoleoni

This book starts out with a collect-a-set of bits that beginings of books have…Forward, Introduction, Preface, Acknowlegements and Prologue.

It then launches into a whirlwind tour of the American view of the terrorist map (the IRA are conspicuous by their absence – I presume because they now feel too uncomfortable for an American audience). There are lots of strands of information, most of which don’t seem to meet up in any coherent way. They paint an overall picture “Can you see what it is yet?”

It would be easy for someone reading this book to dismiss its contents as the work of a conspiracy theory nut. That may be, but she is at least reasonably well informed.

Of course I’m target audience, largely disgruntled with society and how it works, looking to find some validation of the conspiracy theories I hear.

For instance, there is a detailed description of the “Afghan Pipeline” for delivering American arms to the Mujahideen to fight the anti-Soviet Jihad. This term is now used to describe the oil pipeline across the country. The pipeline that was negotiated by the Bush family as part of their UNOCAL oil business. Odd how those talks seemed to fall apart in July 2001. Now, if I was cynical I’d attempt to link that to the apparent demolition of the WTC and the associated death of John ONeill.

Like I say, plenty of fuel. But either you’re convinced by the conspiracies or you aren’t – if not this book will just make you angry at wasting your time reading it. Otherwise its a lot of good solid information around which to hang your favorites.