Nothing specific on my mind today. I've been busy with work, which is a shame as such. It's fine looking at new systems and architectures, but everything comes down to money, so I've got to fit the systems into the business case, instead of simply saying "these are best for the job". So those people who reckon capitalism is the best methodology for organising human affairs are missing a beat right there.
We should have been down in Eindhoven today at the Reggae Sundance festival. Four days in a tent with chill music - Steel Pulse, Alpha Blondy, Culture, ISrael Vibration, etc.... Instead we're at home, because the girls have been sick all week. They're getting better, but just aren't well enough for such an undertaking. A real shame - mind you, it would hardly be a sundance. Following July's heatwave record, we've had a monsoon, and it's really broken these last couple of days. It's definitely gonna be more of a reggae raindance.
On the other side of the world, the Atlantic is having a quieter time of it for storms than they'd feared. So far. The Pacific, on the other hand, is having anything but a quiet time. After Australia's record season, China has just got ravaged by its eighth storm so far this season - Saomai (up to 'S' already!). And the entire Northern hemisphere has been hit with extreme heat. California and New York have seen records, as well as Holland and Spain. Not to mention Korea, where I've read newspaper reports that were so keen for a cooling storm that they were actually regretting that Saomai passed them by!
Meanwhile, the god-botherers are still busy knocking ten tonnes of shit out of the civilians across Lebanon and Iraq and Afghanistan. The UN Security COuncil are meeting tonight to approve a 15,000 strong peacekeeping force to Lebanon, which is just about the stupidest fucking pretext crap I've heard since Korea (and I'm not old enough to remember that, but I get the feeling nobody was standing up and shouting 'Are you fucking mad?' loudly enough back then too.)
So the troops of the West will be in place from the Mediterranean coast to the Hindu Kush, along the Silk Road to the foothills of the Tibetan plateau. Those countries in between who might complain - like Syria and Iran - are portrayed as next snack in the bastards' banquet. All the countries that Islam spent a millenium conquering are being occupied by troops whose figurehead leader is a fundamentalist Christian maniac. Any wonder that the Islam god botherers shout about crusaders?
Not to mention the rapture nuts who are waiting for Armageddon.
I'm getting used to being in this house a bit more now. To sit here tonight and drink and write helps. It still takes some getting used to though. I'm listening now to 'Missing You' - the lament of the homeless in mid-Eighties London. My time, my people. I look around and wonder when we'll get caught out - wonder when "they" will realise I'm just faking this respectable shit. Sometimes, i think that's paranoia. Other times, I remember that I *am* just faking it.
I don't intend to be mortgaged or wage-slaved for the rest of my life, by any stretch of the imagination. Sure lots of people say that - but the last few years should show anyone who doubts that I can pull a hell of a lot together when I'm so inclined :-)
Of course "they" only care fundamentally about money. They'll give you money iof they can make money off of you, and have a reasonable security that you're going to keep making more money for them than they have to give you. Which kind of brings me back to the nature of capitalism, and here's another flaw. The company I work for is disturbingly dependent on me, which they at least acknowledge, but if anything other than money was important to that organisation, they might be able to claim some loyalty from me. But any loyalty went up in flames twenty years ago together with the barricades at orgreaves. Loyalty to capitalists was marched underfoot in Armthorpe and Easington twenty years back as the riot police and troops dressed up as coppers marched into pit villages across the North of England.
So fuck them all. The rich get richer as usual. The bosses look after their own. The bosses in a company now still come almost exclusively from the middle class and the rich.
Scum like me is useful. But we should never forget how disposable we are - and be able to dispose of the dependency on wage slaveryjust as quick as we can when the chance arrives.
And that doesn't mean get-rich-quick self-satisfaction. Getting rich on the backs of others' slavery might be the American dream, might be the proud boast of a handful of self-made rich men who are complete cunts. Doesn't interest me. I don't want my wealth to be funded by exploitation, slavery, famine or colonialism.
Damn, life's tough being moral :-)
A police car and a screaming siren -
A pnuematic drill and ripped up concrete -
A baby waiting and stray dog howling -
The screech of brakes and lamplights blinking -
That's entertainment.
A smash of glass and the rumble of boots -
An electric train and a ripped up 'phone booth -
Paint splattered walls and the cry of a tomcat -
Lights going out and a kick in the balls -
That's entertainment.
Days of speed and slow time mondays -
pissing down with rain on a boring wednesday -
Watching the news and not eating your tea -
A freezing cold flat and damp on the walls -
That's entertainment.
Waking up at 6 a.m. on a cool warm morning -
Opening the windows and breathing in petrol -
An amateur band rehearsing in a nearby yard -
Watching the tele and thinking about your holidays -
That's entertainment.
Waking up from bad dreams and smoking cigarettes -
Cuddling a warm girl and smelling stale perfume -
A hot summers' day and sticky black tarmac -
Feeding ducks in the park and wishing you were faraway -
That's entertainment.
Two lovers kissing amongst the scream of midnight -
Two lovers missing the tranquility of solitude -
Getting a cab and travelling on buses -
Reading the grafitti about slashed seat affairs -
That's entertainment.
