Zip Zap Boing!
Alors! Le Brunette est parti.

Yup, the Brunette is partying. She finally up and left, apparently we need "a break"...

No, that's a complete lie. She's had to go away for work, but it looks rather cool, she's working here:



The top mark is the hotel, the bottom are the portacabins where they actually work. It's air conditioned, because apparently it's quite hot there. The hotel looks nice though:



Frankly, I'm jealous. I'm stuck in London working while she's swanning off skiiing somewhere.

Humph!

Actually, I'm doing ok, other than bursting into tears at innapropriate points due to terrible spelling errors.

I've been shopping, I bought leeks, broccoli, corn on the cob, onions, and my dear friend Mr Moments (Goulden, not Magic) brought me some lovely fresh garlic, so I am vegging out. Because the Brunette doesn't eat things which don't have eyes. (Meat and potatoes) and occasionally some tomatoes, and letuis.

We came back from the Burgh on Monday, having seen some good shows.

No Obvious Trauma -Unpacked Theatre Co. - absolutely fucking fantastic. They're on in Croyden at the Warehouse after the festival I believe, and I would recommend the show to anyone who has ever expressed an interest in theatre. If this show doesn't appeal then you should probably shoot yourself now.

Budapest Kiseret and G City Monologues - Firefly - Aside from being named after a great sci fi series [They existed long before Whedon thought of the name] they do great theatre. G City is Batman based, and was up last year. Better this year, with subtly different cast and set, and the same powerful and thought provoking play. Budapest Kiseret was a whole kettle of fish away from G City. A much more cerebral play, it explores ideas about different sorts of journey and includes gypsies, really crap wine and instant mashed potato.

Moths Ate My Dr Who Scarf - Toby Hadoke - I was dragged to see this by people I was up with, and never having liked Dr Who very much, I didn't really expect to enjoy this, but aside from informing me about Dr Who, and making me want to watch some of the early episodes (I came to it about as late as you can, and have only seen Ecclestone and Tennant) it is also a very funny one man show about obsession and the ramifications of that Geekiness that nature bestows upon some (myself included) I wound up crying at the end, which is a measure of the power of the show, or of how tired I was. Definitely the surprise hit for me.

Patrick Monaghan - A pleasantly funny family stand up show - a genuinely lovely guy whose good humour and likeableness makes up for not having class A material all the way through.

Brendon Burns - This is the third year running. I'm fairly bored of his trilogy by now, although having said that every year I keep going back, and I always end up laughing till it hurts, which is the main point. Still I wish he'd leave God out of it. Next year twill be new different stuff, and I will go and see him again. Just remember...

God botherers?

They've all got AIDS,

religious AIDS,

the worst kind.

...they knew the risks.

Heh.

That won't mean much to you less you've seen it.

We also went to comedy club for kids, and were the only people without kids there. Saw some good folks rubbing crisps into their hair.

The Jekyll and Hyde seemed to have stopped doing Monster Burgers, for which I will never forgive them. The woman tried to convince me there was a food shortage, but why they couldn't have put two of their normal burgers on top of one another like they usually do is beside me.

Battered Haggis is still one of my favourite things, but I discovered that battered (whole) black pudding is also pretty damn good. I tell you, you can never have too much curdled blood in one meal. Arthur's Seat is still there, and I would post pics, only I can't be bothered.

Back at the ranch things are proceeding apace. Show starts soon.

I must go and find out the recipe for macaroni cheese.

Good bye, and Good luck.
- posted by Buntifer @ 8/30/2006 07:06:00 pm

 
Well...hmmm
Ciao bambini, Come stai?

I'm having fun at the mo, actually. We have been laying lino and we've finished building the set, and it is being varnished, and if we are all good boys and girls it will slide into place and bolt down a treat next week. Of course, if we've been bad boys and girls then the God of Stage Management will make all our measurements wrong and subtly harden the floor of the space so we can't put any screws in. He's already blowing bubbles in the lino.

I was reading an article on how to do crazily comlex google searches, which could come in handy, and I was trying some of the examples, and I came across this. Look at the web address when you load this up. I'm sure I've found it before, but it baffles me. Call me paranoid, but I find it very difficult to believe that this is not a piss take site directed specifically at my atheism.

Maybe I'm wrong. I've tried searching for google caches of it to see how long it has been running, but it doesn't seem to exist. Google links to it don't exist, yet it has 273 entries in the guest book.

ok - I'm an arse. I've just remembered finding this last time - any url with www dot SOMETHING dot blogpot dot com will link this site.

For example: this

Actually that doesn't work, sadly. I think you are limited to the number of letters you can abuse them with before it cuts you off.

I'm still not smoking, which is boring. It has made going to the pub slightly duller. Obviously I need better company. [no offence intended to anyone who might take it.]

Mum said to me recently that she'd been to dinner with an ex smack head - it's ok, he was a merchant banker while he was doing smack, which is fairly common in that area. [Yeah Jordie...] and he has recently given up smoking tobacco, and then taken it up again, and said that he would rather have to give up heroin again than tobacco. So I'm going to take up smack. Obviously.

I have to leave. I have to go to Tesco's. It's an odd compulsion I have...to do with eating...and shoes.
- posted by Buntifer @ 8/24/2006 06:30:00 pm

 
I have news!
Which is news to you, not news to me, cos I already know it. But it is good so far.

I am (this isn't the news) addicted to listening to More Sileage's myspace tracks. My favourite is "I'm a Man." Possibly because I am, but possibly for some other reason. I have also discovered The Young Knives, whose track "Weekends and Bleak Days (Hot Summer)" has stuck in my head.

Right - news. I'm a non-smoker. That's it really. And it probably should be qualified with a "so far." It's officially been two weeks since I had a cigarette. I know it takes longer, and it may take much longer, as the real challenge is coming- next weekend I am planning on going to Sianodel's house and gaming, and I have never not smoked at a gaming session, so I am looking for any hints for what to do to try and not smoke. I'm thinking licorice root if I can get it, so I have something to stick in my mouth.

And in other news. Cycling is getting easier. It only actually takes about eight minutes on my bike before I get to work, and my legs are hurting less. I'm developing cyclists calves. Slowly.

I'm glad to see that everyone thinks my idea for the banning of vegetarianism is a good idea, and I will be putting it forward in the next parliamentary session I bother to attend. I don't know who voted me in, but their getting their money's worth of apathy.

Christ! I sound like a real politician, don't I. I should put in a disclaimer, I have never, will never, and would never run for parliament, despite the fact that I would be almost certain to be voted in within seconds of standing. Unlimited dicatator of the world is the only post I would accept, and even then only if I was asked nicely and offered a lifetime supply of Ben and Jerry's. (my lifetime, not the lifetime of the ice cream.)

Simon's still going. Hasn't made much progress. Edinburgh in two weekends.


- posted by Buntifer @ 8/12/2006 09:49:00 am

 
Le Weekend
Well, we had Mr Ranting down for a day or so. Nice to see him, and Ms Pedog who stopped yapping a while back, but kept kicking, as it were.

There ain't masses to report, other than that I am feeling that Oxfam owes me. I have far too many books that I find when I go in, and they just suck me into buying them. Still, at least I can offer them a good home. In the Marlow Oxfam we also found "Passing through the Netherworld," a board game based on dying and what happens next. In ancient Egyptian times anyhoo. I guess it's like snakes and laddes only when you step on a snake you come back to life. Or go to hell. Whichever..

Apparently it is like Backgammon, which I have a sneaking suspicion is what made the Brunette want to buy it. Up until around six months ago the Brunette hadn't ever played backgammon. I had, in bars and with mates, and enjoyed the game. Blebber did a show which needed a set, which was duly bought from props money, and after the show, consigned to the back of a cupboard. I asked if I could take it home, and was given permission. So I started teaching the Brunette backgammon.

Backgammon is a game very definitely of two halves, and it is true to say that while the first half is strategy and planning, a skillful half, the second is mainly down to luck. I considered myself a fair hand at it, other than needing constant reminding of how to set the damn thing up, and I was looking forward to playing the Brunette, with anticipation of some easy victories followed by some more challenging matches.

We played through the first time, with me talking the Brunette through her moves, going through the rules, some tactics etc. She won, through luck and since I was playing both sides basically that time, I didn't mind.

She said she had figured it out, and we played a proper game. I was determined to make it close, because I know that the Brunette could give up in disgust at this stage if I beat her too easily and she felt she wouldn't make any headway, and, the dice fell for her. She won. I didn't mind, this was good, she was enjoying beating me, and feeling that she had a good grasp of the game. It was time for me to assert my superioroty and win a game, just to show that I did know what I was talking about.

I haven't won a game since.

I've come close, but the closest I have come is two pieces left. I think the Brunette saw the sentence in the quick start guide to this Netherworld game which said "similar to the modern game, Backgammon" and realised there was something else she could rinse me at every time.

It's very frustrating.

And, I missed a friends birthday party, a joint party of two friends. Nobody who reads this knows them. (except you Mum)

But at the party another friend and his band played. More Sileage

I went to their myspace, and their songs are wicked. Try them - you might like them
- posted by Buntifer @ 8/06/2006 07:24:00 pm

 
And in the latest news
The CO2 we keep pumping out into the atmosphere is combining with sea water to ford carbolic (or carbonic, I never could remember the difference) acid and turning the sea into acid. Way to go Kyoto! (You can chant that)

I just realised that the Brunette and I do a bit for the environment (not much mind, we haven't got organised enough to get ourselves carbon neutral yet, although I want to find out how much it would cost)

For starters, we don't recycle. Biggest myth in recycling history. "Recycyling is good for the environment"

IN FACT: Recycling (most things) is bad for the environment.

Technically, well, NO. It isn't. In fact, it's bad for the environment. All of it.

With the exception of Aluminium, and that isn't good for the environment, it is good for us, because Aluminium is a very rare resource on earth, because ninety percent or more of it is tied up in silicates in mud and clay, and we haven't figured a way of extracting it yet.

Glass = better to tip it in the sea and wait till it gets turned back into sand again.

Paper = better burnt.

Plastics - well, I'm willing to give a little on this one, again, recycling them is no good for the planet, but it is good for us, because again they are a non-sustainable resource.

That's pretty much everything people recycle.

The reasons that it is bad for the environment are:

Trucks to and from pick up points, to and from factories, and to and from distributors waste more energy than is saved by recycling.

Recycling itself tends to use more energy than making from new - glass-->glass : for example must be sorted, washed, melted, formed, cooled, washed and then distributed, whereas sand
-->glass must only be melted, formed, cooled, washed and distributed, and it isn't as if sand is a resource we are likely to run short on.

Paper gets sorted, bleached, mulched, formed etc, and then the bleach gets pumped into rivers. Nice. Way to go. Over ninety five percent of paper nowadays is made from sustainable forests anyhow, so again, not a resource we are running short on.

Plastics are very difficult to sort, there are various types, PVC, HDPVC, and others I can't remember the letters for, and each is a different type, and at present we don't have a quick and
easy sort method, so it is time consuming and energy inefficient to sort. We should be landfilling them and earmarking the sites for later excavation once we can sort them properly, mining plastic if you will.

Recycling is just this pervasive popular myth that does NO GOOD WHATSOEVER except for making people think they are helping out, when really they are about as helpful as George Bush at a Peace Conference.

right.

Point two.

Neither of us are veggies, and we eat a fair amount of beef and pork, and not that many vegetables (the Brunette doesn't like eating green things) so we get rid of animals, which breathe O2 and exhale CO2, as well as getting rid of cows and pigs, which also fart vast amounts of methane (to the extent that they are the worst source of methane contributing to global warming) and we don't kill harmless little plants which breathe CO2 and exhale O2

the Moral of this story is: Vegetarians are bad for the Environment

The reason I switched to colours there is because it makes me happy to realise this. Vegetarians are always preachy and arsy about how they are much better than we meat eaters (or omnivores) and how they are better for the environment. Well they're not. They are killing the things that are helping us, and helping the things which are killing us.

Therefore. I would like to propose a motion.

This house would ban vegetarianism.

Except on exceedingly serious medical grounds.

And even then, I think we'd be better off without someone who wouldn't give their life willingly if they were forced to stop eating meat.


So there.

I am aware that I have rambled again. But I think I have a fair point - Bush, take note, this is how to deal with greenpeace, I bet they're all fucking veggies as well. Fucking hippy treehuggers.

New job proceeding well. Gym proceeding promising. Bike making legs hurt regularly. Reading very good book.


- posted by Buntifer @ 8/03/2006 05:40:00 pm