Friday 25 December 2009

Happy Christmas



It's Clichéd to be Cynical at Christmas, something away from the usual Christmas play-lists (sleighlist?).


 Thank you for reading, it's time to log off and to pour a drink of your choice.


Hope you have a wonderful peaceful, loving Christmas.

L x

Monday 21 December 2009

What They Found Out About You

A while ago I used Amazon to buy some electronic equipment and a gift for my niece. When I returned to the site the incredibly complex algorithmic stuff which made their recommendations concluded I was the sort of individual who'd be interested in pornographic DVD's and Peppa Pig books.

Thankfully nobody was peering over my shoulder otherwise they'd be left with the impression I was someone who buys nothing but bongo flicks and children's literature. Also imagine I really was buying skin flicks, it certainly wouldn't be the sort of thing I would want passed around.

This was just after one buy over time I'd imagine they'd have a more accurate picture to an almost creepy extent. Imagine the crap Google knows about you, but hey if you are not doing anything illegal, you've got nothing to hide, right kids? What if this information leads to them concluding you are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered you night be bothered.

A woman in the American state of California is most certainly bothered and is suing Netflix (I guess the UK equivalent would be Love Film) for breaching her privacy after exposing her rental history to outside developers who could make a educated deduction (using sources like IMDB) that she was a lesbian, something she would not like to widely known. I speculate what DVD's would lead someone to conclude they were lesbian, the complete Prisoner Cell Block H box set perhaps? I'm drifting into lazy stereotypes I'll admit, the point is if exercising your right to remain in the closet (and even those not) remember finger prints will be left online even if the evidence is cleared out from the local computer.

Yes if you're trans you'll know this as you cant obtain a licence to tranny without IT knowledge.

Friday 18 December 2009

Hairybum and Smith

"So whose the patent Dr Hairybum?"

"Someone called Lucy and Its pronounced Haribom by the way, Dr..."

"Smith, the writer couldn't be bothered to come up with another funny name. Is she still asleep or has she finally topped herself?"

"Sleeping, again."

"Anything we can do for her?"

"No! Apart from offering more and more happy pills she's an absolutely fucking hopeless case. Doubt there's a cure for what she's got, it's too much to deal with and I'm not sure she's got the fight in her."

"Only one thing for it then..."

Thursday 10 December 2009

Picking A Caterpillar To The Maypole


It's advent and time to light the first candle on my home made advent crown having just bent some wire coat hangers out of shape and wrapped in some possibly non flame retardant tinsel to mark the first of four* posts before Christmas. The final post will be marked by a big brass band marching into the studio and playing Good King Wenceslas, Silent Night and 911 is a Joke (actually I may have imagined the last one) and it all feeling Christmassy and stuff.

One of the features of this time of year is the end of year list or countdown. You are probably sick to death of end of year / decade lists by now, if you're not you will be. They are a great way to fill space during a quiet news period and do sometimes provoke a interesting debate.

A good end of year / decade / century list should have a number of entries which everyone agrees are classics, some which are debatable but have some merit, a few flavours of the month which every critic hypes up but will be deservedly forgotten, an "ironic" entry and something to make you exclaim WTF or words to that effect. In some ways its like Catch Phrase where there is a familiar saying like 'Up the garden path' and there is something which they've clearly made up out of nowhere like 'picking a caterpillar to the maypole' for which you were left thinking "nobody in the world has ever said that, ever".

This is not to be confused with the television list show which is just 50 clips which we could afford, randomly arranged.When it comes to books you just get reminded of how many good books you will probably never read in your lifetime even if I was a speed reader.In some ways I guess its like picking a caterpillar to the maypole.


*May not be four, my recent output hasn't been exactly prolific :).