Under Her Spell

Monday, 10 April 2006

Okay. 30 days later.....

New Journal

 

I admit - I am never here. And I think it is because this interface just bugs the crap out of me now. It was better whan I came here, but every since it has changed it has started to annoy me.

So - new (actually old/returned to) journal. 

01:25 Posted in Journal | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this

Wednesday, 05 April 2006

V

I realise I have not been posting a lot about politics, freedom and liberty recently - I really have been going to town in my other journal and don't want to duplicate it.

All in all the situation is this - every move Blair makes takes more freedom from the people who need it the most. The public are almost entirely willing to support him in this endeavour, because they believe it will make them safer, not realising of course that they are the ones who need the protectings he is slowly stripping away.

 

Meanwhile we are told daily that the situation in Iraq is proceeding nicely, when it has been in a state of civil war ever since the invasion and occupation three years ago. 202,000 people are dead because of the occupation, and it shows no signs of getting any better. But people remain convinced that it is not infact a civil war, either because the people fighting the war are terrorists, not soldiers, or because the people fighting the war are not infact fighting for Iraq but instead are terrorists allied with Al-Qadea, just there to make a mess of things.

 

And Bush has pretty much evicerated the constitution in the USA and is hell bent on turning the USA in to his own private kingdom, on world domination (who would dare stand up to him if he bombs every nation that does?) and in extending the colonistion of the middle east from Iraq in to Iran.

 

Saddam Hussien has no chance of getting a fair trial now that he is to be tried for genocide by the people he is supposed to have massacred.  And okay - he is a pretty bad man, but in a democracy (or any civilized nation) we are told that everyone is innocent until proven guilty, and that everyone is entitled to a fair trial. This has to be applied to everyone equally, if you start to pick and chose then the whole concept has gone out of the window.

 

The ID card bill will pass and the database-big-brother state will become reality before the end of the decade. Yet people are still convinced they will be safer and more secure.

 

So - to sum up - people are stupid. 

00:57 Posted in How liberty dies | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this

Work'n'stuff

I really am not coming here as often as I should, but I just don't have the arsedness I used to.

I have to give this more thought.

 

But the look on Lucy's face when Ed hits the ball is just fantastic :} 

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Thursday, 30 March 2006

The Glory Of Luna and Ginny

Ginny is my new phone.

 

A while back I had two computers, and me, being me, named them Willow and Tara. (Willow was the more powerful of the two, but Tara was the one that was used to provide Willow the space she needed. Yeah - it made sense when I thought it up, but now....). And I got in to the habit of naming my "toys" after witches. (The fact that my beloved is nicknamed Amy is something that has NO baring on this at all, I swear).

 

So - Ginny is my new phone. Because it is small and powerful and not at all red (smirk). So far I have used Ginny to take pictures of a hotel room, find the adress of a hotel I was trying to get to while I was on the platform at Watford, send random pictures to my sweetie and so forth. It's kind of fun having a phone that can do this, and since she was a free upgrade it seemed a good idea.

 

Luna is a deisel powered 206 Verve. And so called because she is moonstone-blue :} And this past Monday she managed to  get me home from Carnforth on less than 1/8th of a tank of petrol, even with standing traffic and a motorway that made me take around 30 minutes to do a stretch I would normally do in five.

 

So - all hail the glory of Luna and Ginny! 

15:37 Posted in Geek Stuff | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this

More Gemini News plus News in General

So - my sweetie called late on Monday, and asked if I would like company this week. So she is here now (she actually came down yesterday, but I have been in work the past two days) and I am on holiday from tomorrow through Tuesday (back at work on Tuesday). Which is nice.

 

Meanwhile it is quite possible Gemini is in crisis. Pretty serious crisis at that.

 

15:30 Posted in Journal | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this

Monday, 27 March 2006

The exodus?

The staff at Gemini are split in to four groups - developers, analysts, office managers and directors. In the six and a half years I was there, no one from the office manager or director group has left (as you would imagine), and only one analyst has left (and he knew he would be leaving when he started - he moved to France with his wife about 18 months after I started).

In comparrison there have been no less than 18 members of the development staff who have left (plus two more who were asked to leave). 

And now a second analyst has handed his notice in. Apparently I am in no way to blame for this - someone likened my departure to the ravens leaving the tower - which I am either really glad or really annoyed about.

But this is scary stuff. Developers leaving - that's nothing new. But for the first time in the history of Gemini an analyst has decided to go of his own accord. What does that mean for the future?

 

15:54 Posted in Work | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this

Saturday, 25 March 2006

What in the name of god?

Someone was really thinking of writing a novelisation of The Lords Of The Rings films?

 

00:17 Posted in What the hell? | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this

Thursday, 23 March 2006

V For Vendetta.

V for Vendetta is really good - I can highly recommend it. The rest is
commentary and spoilers, so read at your own peril
[SPOILER]
Obviously spoilers for V for Vendetta

It wasn't what I was expecting. I don't know what I was expecting, but I am pretty sure it wasn't that. It was three stories in one. The first was partly what I was expecting - the story about a fascist society being overthrown by the people. In the future, everyone who is "suspect" (that is not white, not christian, not straight... you get the idea) has been arrested and "disappeared". Anyone who questions the status quo disappears as well. The cascade came after a "terrorist" attack on a school, a water depot and the underground - a biological attack that killed thousands of people. The government used the ensuing fear and outrage to pass a number of laws, that eventually lead to the society described above. V takes action, and blows up The Old Bailey, and threatens The Houses of Parliement the next year. He stirs the people to action - they start to question the status quo and stand up to the government. Riots ensue and - well the films ends a year after it starts, and we don't see the outcome. The next part is, unbelievably, a love story. Evie and V. V reads - a lot - and is very, very eloquent when he talks (seriously - I have not been that impressed in a long while), and he pretty much seduces her. Things go badly in the middle - for various reasons he tortures her and imprisons her - but in the end she comes back to him and she is the one who detonates the Houses of Parliement. And the final part of the story is A Phantom Of The Opera story - V was imprisoned in a detention center, and experimented on by various people. The exact details are unclear, but it involves exposure to radiation of various sorts and injections of various sorts. The treatment comes to an abrupt end when the detention center is blown up. V escapes but is scarred beyond recognition. He then makes it his life's work to punish the people who did it to him - and he does. One by one he kills those responsible (including a priest who likes little girls, the propaganda mouthpiece of the government and a doctor who was in charge of the experiments) - and then he turns his attention to two other people. The terrorist attack on the tube, the school and the water plant was actually the act of two people - the chief of security and the High Chancellor of The Government. His last act is to kill them, then he dies. It was really good. The three stories are woven perfectly, and it's not obvious at first what is going on. And at the end - I realise that this is going to sound terrible, but the destruction of The Houses Of Parliement looked amazing. Absolutely beautiful, and accompanied by the 1812 it was amazing. And even more so cause of the story that lead to it. The prison scenes were compelling, the romance part was really amusing. Stephen Fry was superb - you get the idea. And the fourth part. The fourth part is the most complicated, and somewhat subjective. Tolkien said that a story is just a story - that Lord Of The Rings was not a commentary on the first world war. So - was this a commentary on the current situation (or the potential situation) in the UK? The Koran is banned, muslims are all arrested, executed or deported. Homosexuals are criminal simply because of who they are. The government has a great deal of it's stock in faith (for want of a better phrase), and to question is to become suspect (and to become suspect is to go missing and never come back) V blows up one building - a symbol of the government - and is at once labeled a terrorist. He then starts killing people, and his label is cemented. Yet he doesn't kill these people because he is advancing his agenda - he kills them out of revenge. But the government seize on the deaths to label him a danger to society - a terrorist. Futher more he is stiring up the people to rebel against the government - again treason, if not terrorism. But the government outlaws freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of choice, freedom of sexuality - are there not certain circumstances where to rebel is the only proper course of action? This film - from a certain point of view - says that terrorism is undeniably right - a potentially dangerous and somewhat surprising message to send in these times. Anyways. I think the most disturbing part was something that happened in the middle. Evie had to dress up as a twelve year old girl to talk to the priest. And - well she looked.... okay however I describe this it's going to sound bad - but she looked really cute. And my reaction, which I voiced outloud was "oh my". And two seconds later the priest (the one who likes little girls) walked in and said "oh my". This caused some hilarity from the others :}

[/SPOILER]

01:25 Posted in Films | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this

Tuesday, 21 March 2006

202,706

An average of 7 people per hour have died over the last three years because of Bush and Blair. Seven per hour, every hour, for three years.

 

And they did it in our name.

Doesn't that just make you feel light and fluffy?

 

01:38 Posted in Politics | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this

Monday, 20 March 2006

Nice weekend

I picked up my new car (Luna - based on the colour despite my Amy's objections), and then went round to my parents for a meal (A mothers' day/birthday thing combined). Also bought another Have I Got News For You dvd, which was pretty funny in places, and really funny in others ("though you should probably be careful when you type 'manhole' in to your search engine")

 

And a piece of software that might actually prove more useful than it seams - a novel writing thing that allows you to do characters, relationships, events and everything. Now in some of the stories it won't be any help, cause there are very few relationships, but the timeline thing could be useful (except for the stories of Rogue Squad Ten, which need a better name, the timeline runs from 352 BC to the present day, which will prove to be QUITE a long time!)

 

Anyway - work.

Well - bed. Then work.

 

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Wednesday, 15 March 2006

A double bass is like a woman

Otis Lee Crenshaw is really entertaining. I think the "A piano is like a woman", "Half A Man" and "Do Anything" songs are my favourite, but all of them are good. I have ordered another of his albumns and it will arrive forthwith.

 

Down to Watford tomorrow, staying over to Friday. Means I don't get to pick up Luna until Saturday, but it can't be helped (on that topic I registered Luna today and did all the finance and insurance crap), and I do get to spend the night in a very nice hotel and talk to the guy who wrote the software I am now supporting, so it could be worse. And w/t laptop that is going with me, I might even be able to stay in touch with my honey-bun, which is always good :}

 

The Gemini Film Club is gaining more and more members, so hopefully it will soon supplant the original and become the one true body. And I will rule - I ALONE WILL HAVE THE POWER. Bwahahahahahahaha!!!! (Or - you know - it will be a mailing list that everyone will forget). The knowledge base is less sucessful though - only five people so far, and two of them are me.

 

Now - food.

 

23:22 Posted in Journal | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this

Evil will always win.

These are all thoughts that have been bouncing around in my head for a while, and I figure it was about time I put them down on paper. Only one thought at a time will come out in each entry, cause otherwise it will get too confused.

So - first thought. Evil will always win.

Why? Well - because it's stronger, more devious, far more attractive and generally more seductive than good. And consequently it is a lot easier to fall in to the trap of doing evil than doing good.

Take darkness and light (for example). A good metaphor for good and evil, and one that is used in quite a lot of literature ("dark elves", "dark wizards", "the side of light", "the dark side", and so on). If you look at it one way - darkness is an abscence of light. It implies that when you take light away, you get darkness. But that's not entirely true. Because by default, the world is dark. Light has to be provided - to overcome the dark. You turn on a torch in the dead of night, you light a candle in a powercut. From what I remember of my church days (yes - I went to church. Don't faint) the opening of the Christmas Carol service was "Once In Royal David's City" - a choir boy carried a single candle, from which all the others were lit. The symbolism is pretty obvious - there is one source of good that provided good to the rest of the world. But it also exposes the fatal flaw in being good - you can wipe out the sources of good, and there is no way to get them back. If you blow out all the candles, you are plunged in to darkness. And it doesn't even have to be you - someone else could blow them out and plunge you in to darkness.

And if you relight them - it only covers a certain area. Darkness is always there, and you can only light certain areas.

(I am NOT getting in to a discussion about Jesus being all powerful, cause mostly he is a myth made up by old white man to enforce their power over the lower classes. Or at least that's what I think, which is why I don't want to get in to the discussion)

Meanwhile - back to evil and good. By definition, good has to be virtous. If a hero uses methods that are less than perfect, he is considered imperfect, if not fallen. Bond could easily triumph if he just walks up to the bad guy and shoots him in the head. But that is not heroic - it is murder. Heroes should not kill unless in the utmost need, and even then it is generally considerd a failure.
But the bad guys - they can murder with impunity (even though they generally get their come-uppance at the end) because they are bad - it is expected of them.

Another example of this would be World War Two. It is generally held that Germany and Japan were the bad guys (and Italy I guess), and we were the good guys. And so we celebrate our glorious soldiers each year and commemerate their sacrifice for their country - for the side of light.
But World War Two was brought to an end by an act of near genocide. The only use of weapons of mass destruction EVER in the history of the world. And it wasn't done by terrorists, it wasn't done by the bad guys - it was done by us. The good guys. We obliterated several thousand people at the push of a button - an act that was undeniably evil in it's nature (if it wasn't then why are we so worried about Iran? Why are we so worried about terrorists with portable Hbombs?). And the worst part of it was that - because we defined ourselves as the good guys - the act was sanctified and washed clean, and we remained the good guys despite commiting the worst war attrocity in the history of modern warfare.

In The New Adventures Of Superman, a cloned Superman is created, and he is exactly the same as the real one - same powers, same strength - everything. And yet when someone points out that two such matched people would always fight to a draw, the reply comes "if the difference between winning and losing is picking up a bus full of people to beat his opponent to death with, he will do it". Evil has no limits - it can do whatever it wants, but good has no such freedom - they have to protect the side of light.


Evil is seductive, and people are easily seduced. Someone gives you five pounds to tell a lie - one that would never hurt anyone - and you might think about it. But someone gives you five million pounds for the same lie - it might take a bit more thought. I would consider myself a pretty moral person - I live by a set of ethics I have defined (for my own use) and tend to stick to them. But I am pretty sure that I am not the paragon of virtue. And (without sounding too obvious) there are almost certainly people in the world who are less prinicpled than I am. There are probably people in my street who are less principled than I am .

The Lord Of The Rings, Harry Potter, Babylon Five, Buffy - stories replete with examples of people becoming attracted to the dark side because of the power it offers. Someone who feels powerless, unloved, scared - someone shows them another way and they may be tempted to jump at it regardless of whether or not the way they are jumping at is good or bad. They can rationalize, they can justify it to themselves, but they will find themselves fighting for the dark side before they know it.

I realise none of this is new - Neiztche said pretty much the same thing (only he would have spelt his own name right) and said it better and in far fewer words, and as I said there are various stories that have enough examples to sink a boat.

So - what is my point? Well my point is this - we are in, we are told, a war with evil. In which we are cast as the good guys, and the "terrorists" are cast as the bad guys. And people keep asking me why we shouldn't use any means necessary to stop terrorism. If they are willing to use suicide bombers to kill us, why should we not respond in kind? Why should we not lock up terrorists without charge for the rest of their natural lives? Why should we not execute them? Why should we not shoot terrorists on the street? Why should we worry if prisoners are being abused in far off countries? Why should we worry if terrorists are being held without charge for five years in America? They are the bad guys. We are the good guys.

But the problem is - evil always wins. We can fight terrorism and retain what makes us good - the idea that there are some things that you just DO NOT DO to other people - and we might lose. Or we can just embrace the darkness and wipe out all our enemies by any means necessary. But at that point evil has won anyway - because even though the bad guys have been destroyed, the evil has passed in to us and will carry on its work from there.

Eveasyil always wins. It's just a matter of how little you make it work to do so.

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Tuesday, 14 March 2006

Ok - my real 400th post :}

So - my vampire world is not coming together, and I am stuck writing the data dictionary for 40 tables worth of database at work.

But what does it matter? Cause my new car comes on Friday, and hopefully there should be vast acres of money saved by diesal instead of petrol - in theory I should go through a tank every two weeks (ish) instead of every four days (which is what it is at the moment).

 

My investigations in to Press Gang series 3 - 5have proved pointless - the cost of six episodes is more or less the same as the cost of 14, which is a tad more than I am willing to pay (for now!)

I have this mad urge to wind people up at Gemini about Milosevic (cause I am not entirely certain that he passed away naturally).

And - 2.4 Children really is as good as I remember it :}

 

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Sunday, 12 March 2006

400? Eh.

Technically, it's my 400th entry. But since I have one entry that is kept private cause it contains the correct version of the spoiler code, this is only really my 399th.

But anyway - I bought a new car today, which should be delivered with in the week. And then - well then I did a bad thing. I meant to buy "Undead and Unemployed" (which I did), but I also bought DC Series 5, 2.4 Children (1-3) and two CDs. I resisted the urge to buy Hex Series 2 (which was quite hard to resist) and Dead Like Me Series 1 (which was less hard, because even though it was cheep, it is a pending birthday present).

 

So - all in all a good day. And now I am off to bed, to sleep, perchance to dream, so I can see the face I long to touch, to kiss...... anyway - you get the idea :}

 

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Friday, 10 March 2006

Wheeeeeeeee!!

In theory I should have a new car by the end of the month. It will be more or less exactly the car I have now, just with Airconditioning and a disesel engine (cheap fuel! well - exepnsive fuel but MUCH LESS of it!)

 

Bounce!!! 

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A song from my youth (of sorts)

14:50 Posted in Music | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this

Thursday, 09 March 2006

A good day

Despite the fact the police are going to be allowed to continue to murder and maim, and despite the fact the American government has just handed over all of the freedoms of their people to a dumb guy with a stupid grin, and despite the fact that the US government has just woken up to the fact that Iraq is, infact, in a total mess, today was a pretty good day.

The import was done (leading to minor database issues, but nothing too serious) and now I can run the applications. All I need now is a source control system to call my own, and I can start doing some real work. And I have already found some stuff we can do - stuff that does beg the question what the hell the original developer was thinking (who in their right mind calls fmSystem.Create?) but stuff that should be easy enough to fix.

 

And my notepad program continues, and I have a whole new idea for a world in which stories can be set (though it does kind of sound like Harry Potter and Babylon Five came together in a weird fusion, but eh - I can work round that). I will tell you more about that, and about Ginny, tomorrow.

 

If I remember.

 

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Monday, 06 March 2006

Please Read.

Please read and support their cause

17:18 Posted in Politics | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this

So - should I just admit defeat?

I mean to come back here a lot, then I get distracted. By Poppy, Luna and Lucy, by various fanfiction archives (www.fanficauthors.net is awlays fun), by work, by writing the Potter RPG with a passion (I am just discussing Karma and the affects on casting spells and other such things), and by vast acres of reading due to the second hand bookshop and other fun things.

 

So - I am going to try to force myself to write at least once a day whether there is anything to tell you or not, so that I get back in to the habit of doing it.

 

Tonight I will tell you all about Ginny :}

 

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Wednesday, 22 February 2006

Another in the sporadic series of WebLinks

Being a medium or fortune teller ("they have no-one but themselves to blame for their death". This is at least fair, since if they were any good at their job, you'd think they'd have foreseen this, and stopped telling fortunes)

(from here)

 

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