The now

"Not one day goes by without me staring expressionless at the face looking through the mirror;  an echo of haunted dreams, as a single thought courses its curse, 'what have you done?'   

The crawling litany of jabbing accusations, lost hopes, poisoned emotions, make way for the shrill piercing credits of some bad on-screen flop.  The sole items in the ever present catalogue are simply lines of bizarre choices, pleasured, knotted, and filleted aeon's ago.  Never fading forever carping,  'what have you done?'  

Fat-bottomed top-heavy ships moving through a force-five hurricane would fare better - with no-one at the wheel.  In this space? Navigation is simple, instinct driven, rarely examined for fear of meeting the harsh realities of self.  That ravenous entity just outside of waking vision, biding, waiting, for another moment of lapsed weakness.  A right moment to occupy, and wreck afresh its primal need of chaos.

Sluicing splashes of icy water randomly play within the mornings ritual, arcing freshly unturned memories - unwelcome visitors - into the spotlight of now..."

Another babylon 5 loss

I was, and still am, a fan of the babylon 5 sci-fi show written by j. michael straczynski, and was sadened to hear of the passing of another of it's fine actors; namely jeff conaway at the age of 60 on friday 27th may 2011, who played security chief zach allan.

Despite appearances in grease, taxi and many other shows and films, it was his portrayl of zach allan which has always remained with me.  His passing, along with that of richard biggs - playing dr stephen franklin - who passed away in 2004 at the age of 44, and andreas katsulas - playing g'kar - who passed away in 2006 at the age of 59; leaves the main cast of babylon 5 a little bit smaller, but never forgotten.

May they all meet for a great festival of spoo tasting, beyond the rim.

Lazy work-shy layabout wastrel

I wasn't going to bite, but sadly i just couldn't help myself.

More than 77% of voters (extrapolated from a 2,203 sampled group) think long-term benefit claimants should do community work in return for their benefits.  69% of voters (again from the same 2,203 sample) think claimants should lose their benefits; yet completely fail to mention buy-to-let landlords making a reasonable earner off the sponging sub-classes.  51% (again of the 2,203 sample, so 1,102 of them) indicated that no-one should get any help unless they had paid into the system through national insurance and tax.  There is no mention made of how long those hoping to get help should have paid into the system, or even if there's a lower contribution or time limit to the contributions wastrels have to reach, before been deemed worthy of the splintered crutch.

After some moments pondering on the remarkableness of spinning whilst flying, another thought hit me.

Why leave it at that!

For example, I'm remarkably careful at home - now that i'm more teetotaller than alco-binger.  I don't smoke indoors nor do i set fire to pans whilst fast asleep in the bath; so surely now i won't need to pay anything towards a fire-service?  I rarely go out at night, and avoid rowdy places - somewhat difficult in one of the most populated boroughs in london.  So probably shouldn't pay anything towards the police or ambulance services either.  As i have no wish for children of my own, i don't see why anything of mine should be paid towards schools or the education of those who have numerous offspring, or towards those over 18 who should, by then, be able to support themselves in the betterment of their intellect so ensuring they're able to pay into the tax kitty, and so build up a golden-pot for their inevitable frequent bouts of unemployment.

I don't swim in the sea nor do i boat, climb mountains nor walk fells; so lop some off the air-sea rescue services.  I don't want trident so cut a few pounds (say one sixty-seven millionth) off that.  As for the royal family, if it saves a bob or two, we should use cardboard cut-outs.  Do away with parliament (the buildings), and let them set-up a marquee in westminster square - now that the demonstrators for peace have been evicted for making the place untidy.  It would certainly cut down on the excessive spendthrift nature of today’s governments.  As i'm always in 100% top-tip condition, i shouldn't have to contribute to the health service either!

There must be some other areas ripe for swingeing cuts?

Something else...

Oh yes, why are we paying so much extra on food when the profits are creamed off in bonuses?  Why not give small-holder farmers a decent slice of the gold-dust and at the same time reduce the cost of food, so the increasing poor can still afford nutritious fare.  We are, after all, supposedly living in enlightend civilised times.

Despite the increase in commodity prices, food companies are still raking in billions of annual profits.  So let's do away with supermarkets - apart from the co-ops.  All communities should be forced to grow their own food, erect fences around each postcode, to keep out -  or in - any trouble and simply use air-drops for occasional essential supplies and those times a swat team are required.  Naturally such aid would only be given to those who have paid their full tax whack, everyone else can simply stand by and watch behind electrified barbed-wire laser mounted fences.

Hm, what about the sewage system?  Dig up all the pipes.  Surely those in cities are subsidising those in rural areas who also have the same access to just as good a water and sewage system?

So that's the first swing of the fiscal-responsibility bat.  I presume the return swing should be aimed at those corporations claiming they're not making enough money so need to cost-cut (decimate the workforce) whilst paying less tax towards the country's coffers than one of their cleaners (allegedly), or less tax than someone on the minimum wage, whilst awarding themselves 7 or 8 figure sums.  Yes i know they're worth it, after all it takes a certain mentality and group-think to dream up money-making scheme after money-making scheme, gouging the maximum possible cash from the herd - sorry, "customer", without causing a rude awakening in the horde.

But before i continue straying wildly, why are 5.5 mn adults not working?  From reading headlines an assumption could be falsely reached that they are all "lazy work-shy layabout wastrels!"  Hardly factual, but hawks tend to tread warily around actual facts when defending the indefensible, somewhat reminiscent a vincent price character being forced to suck on something cross-shaped and garlicky!

So why aren't they working, and why do papers like the daily trail happily castigate the unworking trolls in the barbecuing glare of their readers early morning trembling espresso's  - like baiting growling lions by throwing rotten meat at them?  Plain and simply, money.

Not that many years ago, a brighter future seemed but a blinking dream away - twinned as it was with the threat of imminent nuclear annihilation.  A time when computers (all 5 of them) would herald so much free time, that people wouldn't know what to do.  That we'd all be working 1 day a week, not only to improve ourselves; but to galvanise society as a whole.  An event so grand in our evolution, it would shove humanity eagerly towards the next stage of development.

Quite.

Billions still starve, 1 in 7 of the worlds population live on less than $1 a day.  All the while the globes resources are continually plundered to provide those of us who can afford it with 20+ choices of everything, whilst a growing (small) band 'just can't manage' without their 10+ figure bank balances.  Millions die of preventable diseases.  Millions die from preventable industrial accidents, and let's not talk about the wars fuelled by weapons manufactured in less than a dozen countries, used in wars 99% of the worlds population don't want, couldn't be bothered with, but are expertly manoeuvred into some sort of side by the clarion calls of nationalism.

I believe i'm straying.  Back to the uk and the lazy bones.

Does their face fit?  Do they have the skills? Maybe not, or maybe there just aren't 5.5 million jobs in the country?  After all why pay someone a higher minimum wage, when you can outsource your now flexible and float-able off-shoots to greener luscious pastures with less wages to pay and less requirements when it comes to sacking time?

I noticed a change the other day, when making a call to one of the annoying companies i use.  Initially i couldn't quite put my finger on it.  Simply thinking that this is new, a well travelled and cambridge educated (drop-out) was now biding his time by phone-answering and waiting for the next torrent of abuse by an annoyed customer.  Until somewhere during the course of the conversation his south african lilt finally pierced my perception, and language recognition finally kicked in.  South africa is still a functioning country - despite many who said it would tumble into a bonfire of flames; and whilst it might be party to less stringent labour rules, there's a strong possibility it has cheaper labour costs than mumbai.

At the same time that particular penny melted, so did the recognition my monthly subscriptions hadn't reduced to reflect this change (as cost and cheapness is king once a business grows past the 'mom & pop' stage), that it started me wondering where all those fiscal savings, which are now been made, were been shovelled?

I hearby stick my digit in the air and admit to a slight error in my earlier reading of the poll sampling numbers.  It wasn't, as i indicated earlier in this ramble, a sample size of 2,203 but actually 2,022; the percentages however remain the same.  An area the piece failed to include, which would have been interesting, is where on the disappearing(!) strata of the classless society ruler did the respondents hail from?

A comment from the usa i read in the trial summed it up succinctly:

"There is very little decent paid work left in the UK now. "Globalization' has put pay to the UK being any way productive. China, India have been given it all. The skills needed have now gone and are lost. Aspirations and ambition are things of the past, like hard work, how can 'hard work' be a means to anything when most of that earned money is taken in taxes to pay for the army employed by the state and local 'authorities' and the remaining wages keep people in poverty? Idiots who shout out "I'd work for nothing because I'm proud" are missing the point. You work to live. There is nothing clever about being a slave. 21st century UK is a disgrace. Over 30 years the dole culture has been allowed to grow because the politicos know the real harsh truth that UK is finished economically. I hear 'training' mentioned. Training for what exactly? Or do they mean those open New Deal prison schemes to 'punish' the unemployed and line the pockets of the private rogues operating them. Appalling."

Gambino, USA, 21/5/2011 03:54

"If there's not a revolution soon, we'll all just end up in the drink."

The number of job hunters to jobs here in the uk is purportedly put at 37:1.  What's the betting that if such a move was ever implemented, that orange-suited compliance would be the preferred solution of the day; by those whose idea of a hard time is the bother of finding a crease in their favourite shirt.

I can categorically (ahem, cough) state, my head was in an acid bath for the period as i was trying to clean my tongue,  and so played no part in such a silly poll.  It's not my fault i have to lay around around all day with my feet up sipping gin through a straw!  That's just no fun at all, let me tell you.

Bringing light to the eating of cardboard

I do hope you've pooped your daily allowance of cardboard - and i'm not talking about those dry bran cereals - but actual refined wood pulp, otherwise known as microcrystalline cellulose.

When you browse the aisles, picking through the plethora of vitamin supplementation, do you pounce on the bottle of vitamins that contains in it's ingredients list, the term 'refined wood pulp', or do you plump for the far more scientific sounding term (and so must be good for you) 'microcystalline cellulose'?

What sort of wood pulp? Freshly hewn from virginal forest wood pulp? Recycled wood pulp that had been used by those unfortunate not to have permanent shelter for years kind of wood pulp?  Wormy wood pulp?

Just wood pulp.  Hmm, more roughened and crumpled paper with my steak please.

End of the count

Well 24 hours after the rapture, it's all looking a bit too depressingly similar!

Yippee!

Now if i could only think of something that could make me $74 mn, by just opening my mouth and spouting nonsense... how many minutes to go until the 21st december 2012?

Beglad

Taking a break from studying - especially as headphones are now permanently attached - i had a sound abuse itch that required scratching; so in best copy and paste mode i popped together 'beglad' over the weekend. 

Compared to the other motley tracks i've cobbled together over the past months, this one's a smidgeon (a miniscule smidge mind) improved - with the proviso it's listened through headphones. 

Eventually, i'll listen to my output through speakers or even decent headphones.  Until that day arrives, be warned.  Listening through speakers over headphones is only recommended for the brave, or (for those like myself) the foolhardy.

You can find this little ear-bleeder in the reverbnation widget on the right hand side.

Now onto other matters... nick clegg in it again, bees making a comeback, eurovision nightmares, politician in fiddling drama as strad goes missing... 

Missing things

A wedding and an assassination?

Damn that thames mudbank.

I have nothing against or for royalty, they are after all royal by the appointment of the imaginary sky being and so have nothing at all to do with any underhand skulduggery, wars, plots, machinations, or even schemes.  Plus it's always good to have new blood pumped into a family, otherwise it's simply a re-run of the "hills have eyes."

Ah yes assassinations.  After trillions spent bombing the blazes out of two countries, allowing the priceless destruction of antiquities, imprisoning thousands, monitoring our every move for the sake of our security, allowing the tainting of a wide-spread of people, trampling over cultural sensibilities; all of a sudden when it comes to osama bin laden, they get all coy and pay an obsequious nod to traditions by undertaking a burial (or dunking) at sea.  

Did they stick him in a gun turret, or a torpedo tube and pop him out that way?  

The pendulum.

The tides of spring

It has been a while, and i tried stuffing my head in a pillow, in a thames mud-bank, but all to no avail; everywhere i looked, nature was at it.

Rampantly going at it, hell for leather, hammer ‘n tongs, the precursor acts of next-generation off-spring production – and that’s just some of the residents!

Yes, i was once more loitering by the door and sipping on a spoonful of something which, at a distant juncture probably did resemble and taste like coffee, but now had more in keeping with old saloon bar floors (thank you red mountain clone), but definitely minding my own business – apart from cocking an ear to the wind for a passing bus crash, or low flying police chase ‘copter, or even for the tell-tale whine of hi-velocity gun shots, it’s that sort of town.

That wasn’t to be.  Instead my vision was spoilt by lacrymal bluetits perched on a branch within spitting distance, chirping and chirruping without any type of documentation, molesting one another there and then in full light of day without so much as a bird-box attempt at modesty!

It made me pine for a catapult, or even a small trebuchet.  Indeed, anything which would have put an end to such needless displays of sexual proliferation – the penalty of having a couple of light years distance and 180º degree turnaround from my previous existence.

The bluetits on their own would have been bad enough.  But no, nature has to continue poking its rear-end in to my face, oblivious to the fact that i’m gouging my eyes out whilst screaming “bugger off!”

The bluetits are soon followed by pigeons who are coo-ing, billing and mounting each other like the apocalypse is just around the corner – due to a bill about to become law stating that all rubbish must be bagged, covered, and disposed of upon penalty of, or else.  Even the neighbours cat has started licking my fingers whenever I bend down to stroke it, then poking it’s bottom in to the air, purring and happily growling.  Then when I walk away, it digs it’s claws in to me as if to say, “where do you think your going? You haven’t even started yet!”

So yes spring is well and truly in the air, the saps rising and bouts of humping merry making will continue in earnest.  After all, lots of people are going to be very very busy getting the population up to and past that 10bn mark.