So, it's been a while.
I've been distracted over the last few weeks by a wide variety of things:
XBOXLive, depression, weed, crazy busy full time job, online radio, novel writing, avoiding celebrity snuff, (and I don't mean B fucking B!), more XBOXLive, planning a trip to Amsterdam, another crazy busy full time job, lots more weed, shitty shitty public transport, physical exercise, depression and XBOXLive.
No, you're bleary old eyes do not deceive you, the words physical exercise did feature in that list.
Doing really badly with the whole managing-depression-via-diet thing since xmas so started working out again as that's supposed to be another effective tactic. Has slowed the slide somewhat, might stick at it for a bit, see what happens.
The celebrity snuff mentioned was of course the proud and civilised throttling to death of human being Saddam Hussein.
Plenty of people got bent out of shape about the second video, ie the one with the hostile live studio audience, but it was the what not the how that sickened me.
The guy was a shit and one of the main things that made him a shit was that he killed people.
He deserved to be held to account for what he did, but seeing the cold fear in the guy's eyes as he approached the noose just reaffirmed me that killing someone, anyone, is an utterly abhorrent thing.
Of course the videos in question, which I have successfully avoided viewing again since that first glimpse, spread across the globe almost instantly thanks to this imaginary space we're currently occupying, the internet.
You'll notice that many of the distractions listed above involve being online and while I haven't been blogging I have been making good use of my new broadband and laptop.
While spending all this time online I've noticed a few, well three obviously, things that sent me off on minor tangents, so here we go.
evolution
Technology is evolving at such a pace we can't keep up. I've mentioned this before, citing the body's remarkable ability to handle being pierced but utter vulnerability to high speed impact.
Getting stabbed is something that's been around so long our organs have evolved so that they are loose enough to be pushed aside rather than being held fast and penetrated.
The speeds we can now travel at in all kinds of motorised vehicle are absolutely novel in evolutionary terms and so we've had neither time nor opportunity to adapt.
Well, this point was demonstrated to me quite graphically while playing on XBOXLive with my good friend, (and soon-to-be-travelling buddy!) GeordieKeith.
(For those unfamiliar with online gaming, players have headsets that let them speak to one another.)
So we'd taken a break and both retired to relieve and restock ourselves. I came back first and was waiting for GK to get his skinny arse back in the game.
Sitting there I realised I was watching the door to upstairs, as if GK was about to come down my stairs having been to my loo.
Even weirder, when GK finally did return, the first thing he said to me was that as he had re-entered his own front room he had glanced over to the sofa expecting to see me sitting there!
Putting time in on the consoles side by side is something Gk and I have done for years. The sudden insertion of a good stretch of the M62 between us, without removing the ability to chat and play, was beyond the basic understanding of both our bodies.
Thinking about this blog on the way home from work today, I noticed another example of this. A woman at the bus stop was talking on her mobile and waving her hands all over the place.
Everyone does it, you can't help making the gestures even though the person in question can't see them.
something = stomach
Being online 24/7 has revolutionised my listening habits too.
The dangerous ease with which individual tracks can be purchased through itunes means that I have a small but growing collection of songs by bands I wouldn't normally listen too.
One such track is When The Sun Goes Down by Arctic Monkeys. I have a lot of respect for the AMs, they're just not quite my thing. That track however is like some kind of musical opiate.
As mad as it may sound I get a real kick out hearing a successful, mainstream, respectable band singing in a real Yorkshire accent.
I love the utter dirth of h's, the glottal stops instead of t's and the fact that the following words actually rhyme beautifully when said the White Rose way during that song:
something = stomach
Mondeo = anything
Honest, listen to the track, you'll see what I mean.
Anyway, thinking about that thrill I realised that through the online world a vast diversity of cultures can be put on a more level playing field, including my own!
This great big thing, possibly the biggest thing we've ever made, gives us the room to let even the smallest pockets of tradition and lifestyle thrive.
special interest
Following on form this last point a good friend of mine recommended I look into online radio. As outlined above there's so much room, and such low overheads, that there's a specialist radio station for just about any kind of music you can think of.
StonerRock.com run K666 which has been playing through laptop pretty much constantly since I found it.
It's like my own personal radio station and yet I've never heard of the vast majority of the bands being played!
Seems like the internet really does know everything, even what I like before I know I do!
Unlimited freedom, space and possibilities, sounds like a step almost on a par with the creation of the written word. It certainly carries with it the potential to completely change our nature to a similar degree.
Unfortunately this process will take time. We need time to adapt, to feel our way toward that potential, to get our eye in, find the zone etc.
Time may not be something we have, long term, however as the first steps are now been taken towards regulating the net.
I read an article in the current New Internationalist about some third world nation where, in the past, every available square inch of surface in public space was covered with posters.
The posters concerned everything from political campaigning to local bands. It was a way of life, an incredibly complex organic network that was actually incredibly efficient at it's purpose: communication.
The article closed by relating the changes that came with tourism. Being, by definition, non uniform and home made, posters were ugly and dirty.
The posters were swiftly removed and replaced with?
Of course, ADVERTISING.
All that public space that had been put to such good use while not actually being owned or policed by anybody was gone.
In it's place was gaudy clone after gaudy clone of homogeneous, western, consumer capitalist bullshit.
Now that's possibly the thinnest metaphor I've ever written, does it really need explaining?
Let's enjoy what we have right now, just keep checking the horizon every so often yeah?
