Neil Hopcroft

Before I rename you, Mr Bond…

FBI urges police to watch for people carrying almanacs

“WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI is warning police nationwide to be alert for people carrying almanacs, cautioning that the popular reference books covering everything from abbreviations to weather trends could be used for terrorist planning…The FBI noted that use of almanacs or maps may be innocent, ‘the product of legitimate recreational or commercial activities.'”

I assume this was issued as a serious warning? What is going on here? Anyone who is stopped for a routine traffic check who is found to have a map in their car opens themselves up for suspiscion?

Lets ask ourselves a question – is it worth it? Is this level of paranoia worth the invasion into our lives? What happens if we’re not this paranoid?

I wonder if this paranoia is a reflection of nervousness on the part of the leadship of US? They don’t believe in themselves. They are in a position where they have a lot to lose. So they are defending themselves by clamping down on ‘terrorist-like behaviour’. Perhaps what should be happening is for someone to ask themselves, “Why would people want to attack us?” Sure, you have to believe your opponent is irrational, if he were rational he would behave how we expect him to, and he isn’t behaving that way.

Time to read the Unabomber Manifesto.

Damn you, venta, everywhere I go now I am constantly thinking to myself “That’d make a really good shot for ‘curve'”. I must have twelve now, perhaps I could do a variant where I enter twelve shots for the same word? Or perhaps one shot that covers as many of the words a possible? (like this which covers at least motion, curve, road, grey, evening, sky and possibly autumn)

Apathy – The Cause Thats Not Worth Fighting For, by Simon Hendley, is a booklet about how apathy really rules the world, it investigates the difference between an active choice to do nothing (apathy) and a passive actuality of not doing anything (laziness).

I worry that there is a slight fuzzying of the causal relationship seen here between apathy and despotic leaders, perhaps despotic leaders see opportunity in other peoples apathy, rather than the lack of apathy in the despotic leader causing problems for everyone else. But I might be overanalysing.

This is a subject that warrants a good deal more pages, but I doubt anyone could be bothered. Maybe there are other works out there, but I can’t be bothered to find them…

Ah, I can think again now.

AM I LATE? SO MUCH TO DO, YOU KNOW HOW IT IS.

MIDNIGHT MESS AT LUNA SI SAUR.

DISTRACTED BY GIRL IN PVC WORN AS IT SHOULD LOOK. CANT CONCENTRATE ON ANYTHING ELSE RIGHT NOW…

It seems last years resolution of sorting out my career has been somewhat more successful than my previous ‘sort my life out’ resolutions – sure, its not completely fixed yet but things are looking a lot better now than they did this time last year.

What else do I need to sort out? There is something to be said for stating these resolutions very publically (as was pointed out to me by timsmith when talking about giving up smoking). But what should the resolution(s) be? There are two things that come to mind – I’m not very good at relaxing and I’ve an irrational fear of intimacy. But I don’t know how to solve either of those, and I suspect I’m not in a good environment to actually do anything (other than introspect) about either.

What else can I do to make my life better?

I think using half a bottle of Tabasco sauce to ‘liven up’ tonights meal might have been a mistake.

Over the rainbow

I don’t care what it sounds like, I want one.

(The technology inside the electric guitar has been set since the 1930s: Magnetic pickups convert string vibrations into electrical impulses. Gibson’s new Les Paul, with proprietary Magic technology, does something else altogether, something no other guitar does. An audio converter inside the instrument’s body translates string vibrations into a digital signal that can travel over a standard Cat-5 Ethernet cable)

…I wonder how difficult it’ll be to upgrade the firmware? It could breed a whole new set of viruses that make your Les Paul sound like a coathanger bashing a dustbin, or a sack of hammers falling down a stone staircase, or something…

Better still, you’ll be able to get a webcam upgrade to broadcast your gigs live from stage.

Oh the fun we’ll have.