Well, we got married on Saturday and we couldn't have asked for a more perfect day to do it - the sun shone, people were happy and there were no fights!
Apart from the best man forgetting the rings, having to do a dash back to his house and then back again, it all went perfectly.
Happily married.
It has a nice ring to it.
I had no idea who Michael Vick was until sometime yesterday. He is some american football player that plays for the Atlanta Falcons? Is that right?
Then I remembered where I've seen the name and what it was connection with. This guy is a PoS. Involved in dog fighting and racketeering - not just watching it but breeding the dogs for it - and then I saw a picture on another blog of one of the dogs and the condition it was in and I was almost sick. Sports men and women are held up to be role models and this guy is (almost) as bad as a paedophile. Children and animals are helpless creatures. I've owned rescue animals myself. We take them in and we look after them but this was unbelievable.
I won't post the link to the picture I saw because (seriously) however cold-hearted you are it would be upsetting. But this guy got 5 years and a $250k fine. Pathetic.
Here's hoping that he meets some guy called Bubba in prison who wants to make him his little puppy, or better still is thrown into a ring with another prisoner to fight to the death for their entertainment. Hopefully this asshole will never ever get another job again.
***** EDIT ***** Now with a working link in the post (hat tip to Bou for pointing that out!)
Generally it has to be said that I don't see the war on terror in the same way as a lot of the US based readers of IMAO and over at Harv's/Grau's. Harv wrote this post and got rather a sharp response from someone who I am guessing is a democrat and got righteously pissed about what he read there, but even then I felt that there was this element of political point-scoring about it rather than an unbiased look at the facts. Simply put it is not the fault of Regan, Bush Snr and Dubya and the evil (sic) Republican party. I seem to remember Carter managing an almighty screw up with the Iranian hostage crisis and that there was a certain Bill Clinton in office at one point too and I'm pretty sure they had nothing to do with the Republican party either. How come they never sorted it out Mr Ranter? Probably because, at that point, foreign policy objectives were mainly to do with counteracting whatever moves the Russians made and gathering allies, or fighting a war by proxy (the whole of Central America for a time being used as a ideological and physical battleground) rather than actually giving a s**t about the people in those countries.
Oh, and before anyone points it out, we were no better. Our stupid crappy ideas of piece meal-ling off bits of the Middle East to anyone who bothered to help us during WW2 paid real dividends, huh? Or how about how we destabilised the entire region by promising the Jews a homeland (conveniently forgetting the Palestinians that were already there). Our foreign policy was (and probably still is - history will be the judge) a masterpiece of duplicitous treachery and lies. Colonial ambitions tend to mean that the people subject to them are treated as if they don't exist.
So the political point-scoring cuts no ice with me. The original post was simplistic and, I feel, naive to a point of embarrassment in trying to tar all Muslims with the same brush but the response was clearly a left-wing pop at some right-wing rhetoric. There is no simple answer, or solution to the issue. To stand by your beliefs, Mr Left Wing Ranter, is not a sign of weakness but then neither is questioning the information that you are being given. To have an absolute belief in something to the point where you defend it so vigorously perhaps gives you something in common with these people that both Republicans and Democrats now so vilify. It is the means to the end that are so despicably different. We value the right to free speech and self expression and these terrorists, these guerillas, cannot value this until they realise that the cause they are fighting for will take these freedoms away in an absolute and final fashion.
How many of you take photos?
How many of you have hard copies of those photos?
Now how many of you have them burnt onto a CD or somewhere on your hard drive?
It has been hypothesised that in the future there will be a dearth of paper records and that many of our older documents will be stored digitally. Whereas in ages past we have referred to the paper trail to learn about events, family histories, social changes, etc we are now entering an age where so many documents that are work related or just personal are stored digitally.
Take your diary. We used to write diaries when we were kids. Samuel Pepys wrote a rather famous diary, as did Anne Frank and numerous military leaders such as Patton and Napoleon. Can you imagine it if they were to write theirs now?
"Invaded North Africa. Stupid Italians ran away LOL. Germans were well 'ard tho. That Rommel is a crafty SOB. Gonna have to give him a slap."
Or
"Russia is WELL COLD in winta! Shoulda stayed at home but them Ruskis had it commin. Teach 'em to mess wit me!"
Lacks a certain something doesn't it?
So in the future will archaeologists be trawling through thousands and thousands of hard drives, flash cards, mobile phones to find our social history? What about companies like M$ and Google? Do they now have a responsibility to preserve this information for future generations?
...gonna get married.
So there.
In less than 2 weeks too.
This is one of the two occasions that I will be wearing a suit as well :-)
I touched on this earlier with my Harry Potter post but I feel it has value to be examined in further detail as to what I mean.
Star Wars/Star Trek
Normally I would run a mile when examining things like this because anyone (and I mean anyone) who is a hardcore fan of these films/series gets very worked up when an outsider deigns to write a piece on them but here goes...
I have picked these two as they are probably the best known to the general public. Both have spawned a mythology that vastly exceeds the core body of work that originally existed, and that in turn has lead to the official production of more material that continues to perpetuate that world. For example there are ship plans for the various craft that appear, languages, races with physiology and cultures, history that far exceeds what the original creators ever laid out for them. What is particularly interesting is that even when there is no official material being produced these universes continue to expand and grow organically through the input of fans - internet forums, conventions, all these add to the sense that these 'exist' and continue to be fleshed out.
In the case of Star Wars it is particularly interesting that George Lucas went back in time with his films to flesh out the pre-history rather than going forward and expanding on what happened to the Empire after the rebels won. Did the rebels take control? Did the Empire cling on to power? I know that there are some books out there that expand on these possibilities but what Lucas did very cleverly is leave it open ended. Star Trek is the same. There is no overall goal in Star Trek to be achieved. It just goes on.
Harry Potter
This is where Rowling failed so utterly. She tacked an ending on to satisfy herself without any real understanding of what this would do to the fan base. To have left it open ended would have given rise to an infinite number of possibilities. Did the Death Eaters all fade away? Did the Ministry stay as it was? What did Harry do once he had completed his tasks? It wasn't as if she caught up with them a year after, or a couple of years down the line. Effectively with this trite ending she had written off a significant chunk of the principle characters lives with a stroke of her pen.
It is so a missed creative opportunity to expand on the whole world she had spent 7 books establishing, to expand on the hints of mythology she had given glimpses of. An infinite world of possibility ended at the stroke of a pen.
Was it a lack of will or ideas I wonder?
Harvey on his blog mentioned this cartoon series that was shown over here in the UK in the early to mid 80's and to be quite honest I was surprised that it got shown at all over the pond.
Star watches some kids TV these days and frankly it's shite. Bratz? That's supposed to teach my little girl what exactly? Dress like a hooker and people will like you, or that money and items are the most important things? And for the younger generation Teletubbies? Things that cannot speak (and with, in some cases, questionable sexuality) going round doing what exactly? Bah!
These TV programs are the best ones I can remember watching when I was a kid. I wonder how my kids would react to these now...
Danger Mouse
It ruled! Terry Scott as Penfold the cowardly hamster, David "Del Boy" Jason as DM himself! With the crow Stilleto "Itsa alright boss", Baron Greenback and Count Duckula as villains how could it fail?
Battle of the Planets
A kind of animie for young kids. It has surprisingly strong plots and good characterisation, an awesome theme tune and the heroes were kids too. Looks crude now but it was compulsive viewing!
Jackanory
We used to watch this at home and, with a reading culture instilled by my english teacher mom anyway, it introduced us to more wonderful books but from an early age gave us a sense of drama and characterisation in our reading.
Playaway
For some reason I found time to watch this as a child. Admittedly now my memory of the program is more to do with the inclusion that the host projected, making you feel he was talking to you. Ah, nostalgia.
The Muppet Show
Saturday, 6PM and this was on without fail. It was anarchic, very hit and miss, funny, had unbelievable guests willing to humiliate themselves at the hands of some of the most bizarre and scary puppets ever made and practically spawned an industry of its own.