Friday, January 23, 2004

SONGS in my head today: I Love your smile [Shanice], Can't Hurry Love [The Supremes] and more MOTOWN classics. Shanice, listened to properly for the first time since I was a second former, and yes, the song is just as good as it was in nostalgia.

SAINT OF THE DAY St. Vincent (died 304). Born in Spain, Deacon and Martyr. Killed in Valencia during the reign of Diocletian. Known to St. Augustine among others. Sometimes considered patron of vinedressers in Spain.

LINE OF THE DAY
Batman Forever
Batman: Commissioner Gordon?
Dr. Chase Meridian: He's at home. I sent the signal.
Batman: What's wrong?
Dr. Chase Meridian: Last night, at the bank, I noticed something about Two-Face. His coin. It's his Achilles' heel. It can be exploited.
Batman: I know. You called me here for this? The Batsignal is not a beeper.
Dr. Chase Meridian: Well I wish I could say that my interest in you was... purely professional.
Batman: You trying to get under my cape, doctor?
Dr. Chase Meridian: A girl can't live by psychoses alone.
Batman: It's the car, right? Chicks love the car.
Dr. Chase Meridian: What is it about the wrong kind of man? In grade school it was guys with earrings. College, motorcycles, leather jackets. Now, oh, black rubber.
Batman: Try firemen, less to take off.
Dr. Chase Meridian: I don't mind the work. Pity I can't see behind the mask.
Batman: We all wear masks.
Dr. Chase Meridian: My life's an open book. You read?
Batman: I don't blend in at a family picnic.
Dr. Chase Meridian: Oh, we could give it a try. I'll bring the wine, you bring your scarred psyche.
Batman: Direct, aren't you?
Dr. Chase Meridian: You like strong women. I've done my homework. Or do I need skin-tight vinyl and a whip?
Batman: I haven't had that much luck with women.
Dr. Chase Meridian: Maybe you just haven't met the right woman...

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Indiana Jones: "How did you know she was a Nazi? "
Professor Henry Jones: "She talks in her sleep."

Rebel Rebel - David Bowie
Rebel Rebel you've torn your dress
Rebel Rebel your face is a mess
Rebel Rebel how could they know
Hot tramp I love you so.

La Corriere Dello Sport (ages go)
'...But to the great teams, the imprint of grenius has always been indispensable. Look at Milan, so perfect and calibrated in all its mechanisms, but unexpectedly vulnerable without the sublime whims of Savijcevic. Baggio can't be measured just by his goals...he is the lethal weapon against desperate situations, days that go wrong, games which are bewitched.'


MOI seems to be decisively incriminated in Goldenberg. Link is from the Standard today and might not be active tomorrow. Nation link is here and this will definitely change tomorrow. I'll put up a permanent link next update. More...

On HEIDEGGER today, the miracle of revision; I know nothing about him now, but I'll know enough by three o'clock to take an exam...Exams in general have alternated between sublimity and shitness.
Slightly more considered thoughts when I've actually done with them.

UNITED loss to Wolves. Pace the boozeman, a one-off. Keane looked his age on the day, which was wholly unexpected. All will be well soon, once they return from the Dubai break, get Saha integrated and put a couple of games under their belts.
We keep paying a bloody premium for players! Saha is good but (the reported) £12 million is silly money.

NEW NUNCIO to Burundi, after recent tragic events. Link here

THE PASSION I'll have more on this next update. Seems contradictory statements are being issued by various people who should know better.

SAF! This joke is BLEEDING to DEATH! Stop!

Saturday, January 17, 2004

SONGS in my head today:Gorecki's Symphony No.3: Sorrowful Songs, Dvorak's Symphony no. 8, Mellon Collie and the Infinite sadness [Pumpkins] (and most especially Fuck You (Ode to No one) and 1979), and Intellectualise My Blackness [Skunk Anansie] over and over and over again.
Oh, and "Jamming with the Boozeman", played loudly to the tune of "Jammin'".

SAINT OF THE DAY St. Anthony of Egypt, the Abbot (251-356).
Patronage: (list not exhaustive) against pestilence, for amputees, animals, basket weavers, butchers, cemetery workers, epilepsy, epileptics, gravediggers, graveyards, hermits, Hospitallers, monks, pigs, skin diseases and rashes, swine, swineherds.
The founder of the Christian monastic tradition; at twenty he sold off all his inheritance except that which he needed to maintain he and his sister after hearing Matthew 19:21 in a church, and then went to live in the desert. He lived there, with 3 or 4 interruptions - notably in 305 to guide those who wished to follow his example, in 311 to strengthen the Alexandrian Christians against persecution and in 350 to preach against Arianism - for the rest of his life.
The story is told of him that he once wrestled the devil, after which he was weary and seemed dead, at which time God came to him and to Anthony's question "where were you when I needed you?", He answered "I was here. I was watching your struggle. Because you didn't give in, I will stay with you and protect you for ever".
His biography was written by Saint Athanasius

SAINT TRUMPS In order of priority :
-BVM trumps all,
-Apostles trump all except BVM,
-Gospel writer trumps other Apostle,
-Martyr trumps non-martyr,
-any before 800 trumps any after 800 except Doctors of the Church,
-female Doctor trumps male, in fact, in general, female trumps male,
-married trumps unmarried,
-hermit trumps worker who trumps philosopher who trumps theologian who trumps monk who trumps clergy,
-more than 5 miracles worked during lifetime trump geographical and occupational trumps,
-Africa trumps all other regions, East trumps West until 1054,reverse afterwards.
More rules, some modifications as soon as I can think of them.

ARGUMENT Yesterday between me, the might-be-an-idealist who really thinks that the outside world can be shown incontrovertibly to exist on idealist premises, and the Smudger who thinks this position a pile of shit. He claims I'm quining physical objects, no, actually, I'm pretending to Quine physical objects.
I've never really been any good at epistemology, a defect that must be remedied before I graduate...

SRECKO KATANEC , an integral part of the scudetto-winning Sampdoria side of 1990-91 led Slovenia to two major tournaments before resigning after the 2002 World Cup. He's since been hired and fired by Olympiakos Piraeus and is currrently unattached as best as I can tell.

AARON RINGERA is almost certainly the best man for the Kenya Anti-Corruption Authority Director's job. He has held the job before, he's a very competent judge, he's widely known for the quality and independence of his mind, and in a sense he's owed the job after all the crap the previous administration pulled on him when he last held it.
The anti's need to buy a clue: the constitutional issue is non-existent; he can certainly resign from the judiciary before taking up the job - the separation of powers could only possibly be threatened if he continued to serve as a judge after starting his new job, and the fact that he's GEMA is neither here nor there, or rather ought NOT to be either here or there, but has been brought into play by people who at this stage in Kenyan history really ought to know better.
Yes, I'm a Ringera-ist.

Tuesday, January 13, 2004

SONGS in my head today: Loser [Beck]. Spooky, just because I was humming the tune (semi-consciously) AND talking to someone German last night and inevitably "sprechen sie Deutsch auf, baby", popped out (luckily, not undeniably loudly). I have yet to live down the embarrassment. Must engage with world more.

SAINT of the day: St. Hilary of Poitiers (315?-368), convert from paganism, exile, defender of orthodoxy against the Arians and Doctor of the Church

MORE wonderful adventures. During a visit today to the local mental-health facility in the (very enjoyable) company of Bombadil and Plato, we were challenged to a game of pool by a lady who was
1.clearly not entirely sane.
2. By her own admisssion, unaware of the rules. (She was sure she could learn though).
Plato, having the size, experience in dealing with unusual social situations and general air of authority that I entirely lack, proceeded to explain the vital regulations in a deliberately vague manner. Which is how I ended up paying attention in pin-drop silence to the lady's increasingly skilful attempts to scoop the balls into the pockets using her cue.

CHEWING cinnamon sticks is a surprisingly pleasant alternative to smoking. As is indulging other vices. My excuse anyway, for recent gluttony.

UC SAMPDORIA I've loved them since watching the game they played in 1990-91 away to Juve. Ended 0-0, but it was a game of beauty, (I didn't know it was possible to enjoy nil-all draws) Attilio Lombardo was dashing down the wing, Mancini and Vialli were together up front and Pietro Vierchowod was dominating attackers in most steely fashion at the back. Also, what names! Invernizzi, Mannini, Katanec, Mikhailichenko and others, all to be memorised and repeated in awe later... Sampdoria duly won the one and only scudetto in their history that year. I followed all their games that season and the next, and have loved them from afar with gradually diminishing ardour, until very recently, when I came across their site here. The affair has been rekindled. Has anyone got old Panini stickers from 1990-91 to sell?

Sunday, January 11, 2004

NO SONGS in my head today. At all.

SAINTS of the day: St. Theodosius, one of fifty soldiers martyred in 269. Also, feast of the baptism of our Lord.

SMOKING I have given up . A bit of a cliche, yes, but it was killing me and nicotine patches smell so much nicer. Not smoking has left me feeling, simultaneously, virtuous and depressed.

SAW this earlier today and I haven't stopped laughing...'How do you tell a Communist? Well, it's someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It's someone who understands Marx and Lenin' - Ronald Reagan

YES thanks very much. I've noticed that the Return of the King has been and gone. And I've had nothing to say about it. I will, at length. After I've watched it for the 4th time. So wait.

EVERYBODY, put your hands together for the boozeman, a friend of long standing whose dedication to beer and quality music is boundless. Welcome to the blogosphere, Tom!

HTML tag for emailing me is horrendously placed and looks crap. Thanks, I knew that. I'm working on it. Any more complaints ?


Thursday, January 01, 2004

SONGS in my head today:New Year's Day and October [U2]

SAINTS of the day: Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God. Feast of Telemachus whose intervention in about 400 at a gladiatorial contest may have moved Pope Honorius to abolish them completely.

HAPPY NEW YEAR all. God grant his grace and peace all year and in those to come too. My love to you all.

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