The Winter storm

The moon shines down through the trees casting its chill shadow across the ground. The wind crashes through trees sounding like a storm-tossed ocean, sailing on this ocean are ragged clouds, tinted silver by the moonlight, ghost ships of the sky passing silently by. Through undergrowth darts a hare by now exhausted, close behind, gaining, is a fox, they pass out of the woodland onto the heath.
The moon disappears behind bank of cloud.
Across the moorland where the dragon used to live the pair chase. Panic and fear courses through the hare’s body pushing it on, behind the fox determined, pursues it sensing the feast ahead, not long now, it’s waiting will soon be over. Now the rain starts and lashes across the plain, the wind rages across the moor and in the forest leaves fill the chaotic air as the wind rips them from their trees, a few cling on to their trees like survivors from a shipwreck.

Out onto the moorland, follow the chase: the hare heads for a lone tree. A once mighty oak stands straining, blasted by lightning many times, past storms having broken it boughs, but still it stands proud, another winter to see through, resting until spring returns. The fox chases on but as it passes the oak it feels a presence and looses concentration in the chase. Suddenly the wind stops and a silence falls, the fox cowers, above the clouds still rush by, the heather all around thrashes about. The fox feels a chill run through it and there is intense cold the grass all around turns crystal white.
As suddenly as the calm the fell, the storm returns fiercer than before.
An old tawny owl feathers ruffled by the storm shelters in a tree at the edge of the forest looks over the moor can all this happening. It sees the effect the presence as it appears to be rushing around the moor searching. The storm all around is reaching its height lightning dances around the hills, the searching spirit stops an intelligence is there sensing, questing, travels off at speed toward the lightning, when it reaches the hill it surrounds the tallest tree on the hill, the bark around the trunk crystallises with frost the spirit waits in its self made calm.
Suddenly a silver ribbon shoots down from the sky, the lightning strikes the tree bark and wood explode, the spirit flies skyward.
Silence falls all around and the rain stops, the wind ceases a sense of expectation fills the moor and forest, all the creatures fall silent. Gently out the sky frosted flakes fall. All across the landscape millions upon millions of flakes fall, slowly the country is covered in snow, deeper and deeper, ice forms on pond and lakes.


Winter spreads out across the land and the trees of summer sleep, only the pine trees and hollys are awake for this time of snow and ice. As dawn approaches high in the sky geese can be heard calling escaping the winter farther north.

In this time of cold the distant expectation of spring keeps hopes alive.

Smugglers' Moon

The wind blew across the moor, it could be best described as lazy as for the line of men walking across the moor is seemed to blow straight though them too lazy to go around. Each man had a lantern and as the moon hid behind a cloud each let his lantern shine out for they know the revenue men are elsewhere tonight and hopefully their trade won‘t be interrupted. Far across the valley toward the sea a associate sees the line of lights and signals out into the bay.

A galleon at anchor, sails reefed against the storm, her lookout perched precariously in the crows-nest fighting the feelings of nausea, sees the flash of light. He shouts down to Boson.
Five minutes later the splash of oars can be faintly heard. The captain is happy is now going to get paid, and relieved the contraband is off his ship.

A hour later the oarsman rowed in the harbour and landed the brandy.
In the dark town somewhere nearby a dog barks, the men disappear into the shadows of an old building, they look up and down the winding street but, see nothing, waiting in the silence a little longer, they then go back to the business and loading the cart, covering the loot with hay. They set off north keeping to the secret paths know only to a few of the more villainous professions. Travelling though the dark tree covered lanes and keeping close to the river they travel on, as they are close to river, if they are disturbed they can quickly abandon their cargo into it.
Ever alert to the noises around them, the sound of the wind in the trees blocks out any warning but they keep going. Past a manor house, nearly there now.

The sun starts to rise bright after the storm, they hide the horse and cart in a barn and head into town.
It’s market day, so business can be done, in the hustle and bustle they soon make a deal. Its to a pub for a lunch and the back to the barn to wait till night to recover the goods and close the deal.

Aggghhh I’m becoming addicted to iTunes.

I seem to be buying more and more music lately, and with sites like www.last.fm and myspace it’s become more and more easy to find great bands or artists and more and more difficult not to buy music. This evening I have bought two albums one called ‘Waking the Mystics’ by Sophe Lux, the second ‘Fox Confessor Brings the Flood’ by Neko Case. (Si, she’s not Japanese or a cat). I found Neko Case by Last.fm recommending her and Sophe Lux sent a friend invitation through myspace. The trouble is both are very good and I ended buying both from iTunes. Great music is now only 2 mouse clicks away. You don‘t have to make a trip to town and suffer crowds and idiots it just there.
I have recently brought the following


Fox Confessor Brings the Flood by Neko Case (Country)

Waking the Mystics by Sophe Lux (She seems to have a toned down Tori Amos/Kate Bush/Bjork thing going on )

Remnants of a Deeper Purity by Black Tape for a Blue Girl (Dead can Dance stylings surprisingly they’re not produced by 4AD)

Has a good home by Final Fantasy (Crap name but a great violinist somewhere between Seth Lakeman and Badly Drawn Boy (yes I know Badly Drawn boy is not a violinist but it's same sort of thing) )

Gravity’s Rainbox by Klaxons (Okish Rock I won’t by buying more)

The Worst of Jefferson Airplane by Jefferson Airplane (Old but still good)

The Silver Tree by Lisa Gerrad (Excellent to listen to when writing Mind-Dribblely blogs. The songs get my mind in the right place)

What a Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong (Obviously a vital addition to all music collections)

I have bought all these in the past month. And there’s always more great music to find.

And as soon as Alpiano gets it together and releases Alphino’s Lens Flare that’ll be added too!
Above my Last.fm recommendation for this week and I'm think of buying a Joanna Newsom album next. Click Click oops T'is Done!!

This Green and Pleasant Land

I walk down street and hear a couple of old people saying that when they were young everything was better, a bygone age sepia tinged and nostalgic.
As I walk on my senses are assaulted by 12 year olds drinking, swearing and smoking. Cars lit up garish, rush by. Radios beat out their music to the world. I worry I’m getting old myself and don’t understand the ‘youth of today’. Then I look back 2 decades to when I was 12 I never drank or swore in public, even the bad kids had some respect for their teachers, now it seems teachers can’t go five minutes without been sworn at.

I wonder why.

I walk on passed the Off Licence where fake ID’s excuses and protestations of innocence are all rejected, they swear and leave empty handed. Where are their parents, why does the manager have to risk his job because of these urchins and their parents lack of control?

I walk on by the police station that closes at 5, thieves knowing the nearest car is 15 miles away, but there probably PCs inside filling in forms in triplicate just because they stopped some yobs wrecking a bus-stop.

I walk on out into the country and see rundown farms next to cottages only used at the weekend, Range-Rover in the drive. I look over at the farm and between the decaying buildings the farmer’s children play, the farmer and his wife look on, they worry about bills and the fact they’ll be the last generation to farm this land. Their children could cannot afford to carry on the tradition and live in this rural idyll as they have for generations past.* I walk back to town, enough of this bleakness, I return home and then onto the pub, with it’s friendly staff and my good friends, whose talk of Sci-fi, goblins and life in general lift my spirits, sometimes deep winding conversations about life or maybe a frivolous subject of whimsy about nothing or flit back between each whatever the subject are always interesting, all this on a Friday night, I forget about the ignorance and idiocy outside and enjoy my pint. Why would I want to swap this for night-clubs deafening music and drunken punch up.

----


* I was intending to add in at this point a political aspect to the this piece although I tried to add it in several ways and spent the best part of an hour trying, but I couldn’t get it to feel right, So I’m going to make the point in straight essay form…
It seems to me that a lot the problems occurring today a to do the lack of respect people have with the government. If we have no respect for our leaders, then how can respect be gained for other authority figures. 2 million people marched against the War in Iraq, the government plagiarised a 10 year old graduate thesis on WMD to browbeat it own MPs into agreeing and we are still there now, we shouldn‘t stay as it not our country but we can‘t leave because of the mess made.

The control they want over aspects of public life doesn’t mean thing are getting better. They won’t allow people to use their on judgement gained though years of experience. I know from friends and my own personal experience as well as reading blogs linked above, that the police and healthcare services are in decline, one of which a government minister called the author a liar, I know who I would trust. I going to stop now before I bore you all, but one last point about the depth of which spin and marketing (lying) has sunk. On the London Tube they now have a recorded announcement to inform us passengers that the Service is Good, why do we need an announcement for this, we don’t all announce that were at work today it’s expected, this should be the norm, the norm doesn’t need to be announced.
Anyway that’s all for now.

Morning

A swan glided out the mist as if a ghost, illuminated by the first rays of the morning light serenity made real, cool grey blanket covers the landscape deadening sounds so only the gentle splashing of the river as it spills over pebble and through reed-bed can be heard.
In the distance trees look black as if frozen, made of granite; the standing stones of nature. Below a heard of cow wait, sleeping until the warmth of the day returns. Though this scene she glides.
In the distance a lone fisherman walks across the field towards the waterline though the swirling mists he fades in and out of vision, ethereal.
The swan startled by this leaves the river and fly off breaking the peace of the morning, wings thrash and water splashes up though the mist she flies gaining height, powerful wings beating down.

Suddenly she breaks though mist, from seeing nothing but grey monochrome the world is full of colour.
Below the landscape looks covered in cotton-wool but, above the sun now bright shines in a cloudless azure sky.
Hills and building burst though the mists into the clear looking like islands and rocky shoals, the warmth of sun on her back brings a deep longing for home, the north, tundra and midnight sun. Decision made she turns north, below in the world of grey the only sign of her passage is her wingbeats as travels on back to her homeland.

Cool Video art seqences

Just a short post today to let everyone know I'm still posting... I just found these Video art squences

http://www.glumbert.com/media/pictureday

or this on the same theme

http://www.atomfilms.com/af/content/me

and one on Love and Fear.

http://members.shaw.ca/yofrizb/

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Likes and Dislikes

I was reading the IMDB forum for the film Amelie. One the threads there was about naming 3 slightly unusual things you like and dislike, as the film does when introducing the characters.

Mine are...

Likes
Night walks, where if the moon is full everything is coated with a silver lustre and the world looks magical or if not you can see the milky-way and thousands of stars.

Lying in bed, safe, while a storm rages.

The smell made when the first raindrop hit the ground after a dry spell.

Dislikes
The sound of Nylon fabric rubbing against itself, it sends shivers down my spine.

Things being destoryed that maybe of some use. Hence I tend to hoarde stuff.

Closed minded people who never listen to other people's points of view.

The Journey Home

This is my first attempt to write anything like this, so if its really bad, I apologise in advance. So here goes...

Staring listlessly out of the tiny window, bright lights briefly spied, towns below full of activity and bustle glide underneath and the plane travels on through the storm-wracked night-sky.

A mixture of boredom and apprehension suffuse the cabin, quiet tense conversations are heard, details lost by the drone of the engines, somewhere a joke is made and a laugh is let out, quickly stifled as if here laughing is taboo. Soon silence rules in the cabin as landing approaches. Pitch and roll, the tension increases, out of the window a road flashes by, then a field, then lights, tarmac and then earthbound.

The aircraft stops, relief rises all around as this part of the journey safely over. Leaving the aircraft the whine of engines assaults the ears, wind whips across the empty airport pulling the rain into curtains which sweeps over passenger, plane and building alike, downing the briefly felt relief. Tedium returns.

To the passport control, all queues, rules, questions and induced guilt.

Onward to the baggage hall where tired people stand around like silent hunters, guarding their territory, waiting for the prey to be spilled out onto the conveyor, and then darting up, snatching their possessions and dragging them away.

Onward out past the throng of people anxiously waiting for relatives, each in turn smiling with relief as they see their loved ones, happy words and hugs are exchanged they are reunited, separation forgotten.

Onward out into the night again as the storm worsens, out into a parking lot obstinate luggage dragged and dumped in a car. Now out on to the night time roads, the rain splintering the scene into a yellow tinged kaleidoscope. Litter swept up by the wind crosses the street like some kind of urban tumbleweed wrapping itself around lamppost and railing, along the familiar deserted streets, a left a right and finally home. Shut the storm and the world firmly out behind the door.

Prometheus’ lure.





After helping friends’ who have just moved in to a new house, the boxes used to have transport their belongings needed to be disposed of, as the bin-men now won’t actually pick up anything not in a bag and only 3 boxes fitting in a bin bag we decided to burn them ( Not exactly environmentally friendly, but at least it’s carbon neutral -- They‘re cardboard).

Once we lit it and started piling cardboard on the blaze and as the flames rose higher, looking at the flames a kind of calm descended. We got some garden chairs, a beer and sat looking at the flames.
It got me wondering why… Fire can be lethal, cause us intense pain and can destroy our property, why would something so deadly be so enthralling?
We enjoy having open fires and even have flame effect gas fires if can’t have the genuine article. We light candles to mediate or create romantic mood in a room. Think of bonfire night, the original meaning has long been lost and effect of fire on the spectators is why I think it has lasted so long.
Many religions have fire gods and some more than one.
My guess is that it’s a deep-down primal part of the human psyche from the time we were living in caves and bludgeoning mammoths to death, at that time fire kept you warm, kept away predators and allowed you to cook. I’ve searched the net for anything to back-up my theory but I couldn’t find anything ( I guess I need lessons on searching). Also this compulsion for fire can become warped in some people and they become arsonists.

Why can't we do this at the Gym.

Enjoy!

It's Work Friendly, so share!

Reasons to keep your computer virus free.

Here is a story to hopefully encourage everyone to keep there computer tidy and virus free...

After Si's computer decided to continually blue screen after having downloaded a program from Limewire and we spent several hours trying uninstall various bits of software that seemed to be causing problems but we had not managed to solve the problem. It was then decided it was a lost cause and the only option was to get a new PC. So heres a timeline on the events of trying to get a new PC to work.

09:30 Leave to drive to Portsmouth to purchase a Barebones PC

11:45 returned with a base unit and new HDD a genuine copy of XP!

12:30 Having unpacked the PC we find it has no Video Card.

12:45 Get a 2nd Hand Video Card from local computer shop

13:00 Install Windows

13:20 Windows installed but we find the CD Drive now doesn't work in normal windows mode but
does in 'Safe Mode'

13:20 --> 17:00 Various cursing, swapping of equipment, cables and connectors, installing stuff in safe mode, a bit of re-installing and loads more cursing.

Finally get a different CD-ROM Drive working in normal mode.

Microsoft's troubleshooting program is useless.

17:15 Now connect old HDD and scan for viruses to new system

17:15:01 Beer Time! while scanning

18:15 The HDD had 13 viruses on it.

10 points to anyone who can why the old computer was crippled!

I.T. Tip of the day (Virus Scan everything, Download as little as possible from suspect sources and keep the virus scanner up to date).

Blog aggregators and freeware.

There seems to be only one area where Myspace blogging has an advantage over blogspot blogging which is you are informed when a Myspace blog is updated.
The good news is a program called RSSOwl (and it's free!) is a "Blog Aggregator" this looks at the RSS feed and highlights new blog entries from all your favourite blogs which includes Myspace blogs.

Secondly in the geek themed post is a method for preventing getting viruses from dodgy limewire downloads. Which is to look for a free program the does the same job at www.sourceforge.net. This is a community of geeks for produce some first rate software for free and often have programs that do almost the same as commerical programs but without all the bits you never use, so the software normally runs a lot faster and takes up less space on your hard drive

For Office workers and members of the Rat Race....

New Environmental policy? All you need are Owl Magnets!

New Labour has tried to trial a wiki style policy document. DEFRA (Dept for Elimination of Rural Affairs) is the department that has be chosen to trial this and not surprisingly the Great British Public has taken this idea to its heart and thoroughly trashed the document. Its worth reading as some of the additions are hilarious. For example

What tools can be used to deliver the environmental contract? Spade, Organic Yoghurt Stirrer, Old washing up liquid bottle, Sticky Back Plastic.

and of course Owl Magnets

It has been so thoroughly messed around with that it's now useless for anything other than having a good laugh at, and the Administrators have gone back to 'official' version. This is still a good laugh for example from the water saving section.

What would an environmental contract for water look like?

Citizens will:

• think about water usage in their homes
• turn off taps when not using them
• have fewer baths
• use rainwater for watering garden etc
• obey restrictions on water usage in times of water stress.

that'll certainly allow ministers to talk about 'The Great Unwashed'.

I assume the idea is so the bureaucrats can enlist the public to help write policy documents and get "buy-in". But if the Dear Leader fails to listen to 2 Million people marching against the war in Iraq then Civil Servants and Politicians can hardly expect this exercise to be taken seriously.

As for the choosing DEFRA to trial this seems very odd especially as their staff don't have to time to pay farmers because they are too busy leaping naked off filing cabinates.

This just seems like another New Labour fad that Allows the government to...

• look cool by keeping up with new technologies even if they are not fit for purpose.
• claim it is listening to the people when it publishes what ever intended to in the first place.
• blame the public when the policy fails.

But expecting this to work just shows how out of touch it is with the public and technology. If it actually wanted people's input it should have instigated some kind of discussion forum. Then after extracing the sensible replies, produce a document from to be commented on, update again and so on. Basically as one would for any business document that require input from many sources.

I mean who thought this up, one document with a thousand authors?? Have they seen wikipedia? That's full of errors and omissions and the people who update that are generally support the principle of wikis!

Cool Program for fans of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials

Neonavis.com have produced a free bit of software that simulates Lyra's Alethiometer.

Gap Year Begins

I have now left work and now look forward to my gap year.
I'm starting to plan the trip although, I'm only really planning on getting to Queenstown to see my brother, Dave.
I'm not of these people who need to plan a trip down to the last day. Doing this just seems a good way to loads more stress when the plan inveitably goes wrong.

My current plan is to spend a few days in Singapore mainly to get over some of the jetlag then flying on to Christchurch, stay there a few days and then a coach on to Queenstown. I'm thinking a coach would be a good idea as I can see more of the country than I would flying, plus if the aircaft is based in Queenstown Dave has probably worked on it. :-P
Thanks to all the travelling I've done at my old job* I'll have enough hotel points to not need to spend anything on hotels getting out there and 2 weeks more as well!


*Cool, I can now say old job

Pubs, Yappie Dogs and Boobies

Since leaving work on Wednesday, I have seemed to spent most of my time at various pubs. Which has proved most interesting... for instance I have seen Jennie's amazing impression of a yappie dog. [Click here] to see it in it's full technicolor glory. This is a true work of performance art and I she should take on the road.
Someone who I will not name here to protect the guilty had great delight in shaking her very nice* boobies at me much to my embarrassment. Also for some bizarre reason that I forget now we seemed to end up discussing whether the 'Vicky Pollard' style of speech is a creole or pidgin or something else. Any answers would be grateful received.
I've also been back to work for the weekly pub outing which included these two dodgy characters and this evening will be back in town for more drinking fun


*her description but I have to agree