Pagga Log

Ragabashing?

Hi there folks, I've a theoretical postulation to make.

But first...

THIS IS NOT AIMED AT ANYONE SPECIFICALY.

And I want to be crystal blinking clear about that. Okay?

Right. glad that's out of the funking way.

Now then, if, right? IF. That means that this is theoretical, not real. You're LARPers, you'll get the pigging hang of it.

An individual frequently offers their opinions and views in an open forum of debate, only to consistently find that people en mass, misinterpret, misunderstand or take offense at these opinions.

My question is this, is this indicative of either;

a) some sort of problem with the world at large, they're to touchy or self obsessed or whatever.

OR

b) some sort of problem with the individual, they're unknowingly tactless, ridiculously opinionated or just plain irritating, whatever.

Now before you all get up on your pooting high horses or whatever you people have these days. I'd like to re-affirm, THIS IS NOT AIMED/DIRECTED AT ANYONE SPECIFIC. Nosir.

Your comments on this theoretical scenario would be appreciated.

Oh, for the record i'm voting B) one person has a problem. Rather than A) The whole world is wrong and one person is the only well adjusted person ever.

Thankyou.

Legion.
(the Admin who says "Darn")
Asklegion - coming soon.

Heyyy, what did you expect?

I'm a dick.

Conspiracy or just serendipity?

TELETUBBIES: Nazi Hybrid Greys in Disguise sometimes its hard to tell if people are taking the piss.

And sometimes it's easy.

Oh and with reference to the recent game of Mornington Crescent, played in the backrooms of Pagga, I would like to applaud Mr Machiavelli on his skillful use of Winnie The Pooh precedent.

How many sweeties? Call a dentist...

Results of the Trick or Treat meme.

Gosh, that's a lot of candy

I'm Wulfir and so's my wife

I'm a great big firey flappy thing...

Well the weekend was fun, as I got older. And of course, in order to ensure that I had an extra special birthday, the powers that be made the weekend longer. Ah, the joys of being special.

Friday night, hopped on the Midnight Coach with Mr Parr, who despite telling me that 'he can't sleep on coaches' was out like a light before we left the capital, the drinker of shandy and southern comfort that he is. Next thing we knew, we'd arrived at South Shields.

Mr Parr met my folks, who aren't THAT scary, we recharged batteries and then, after a quick sightsee round the rather lovely Northeast coast, proceeded to the Bridge, to meet all the absolutely lovely people there.

I was, of course late. Despite determinations not to be. And the pub was packed. And of course, the arrangement were haphazard and shoddy, but everyone appeared to have had fun, so that's all right then, and I promise not to be that shoddy again. Honest.

Katie's Rennie and Bacon had traveled down to see me, which was ace of them, and it was lovely to see the pair of them and me feel all the more special. (Arwel was their by proxy, in the form of a lovely cuddly lizard, which was one of many fine gifts. Thank you all of you.

A pile of amazing people were there, for me! Including The Sunderland Massive, Rich Guerney, Peeb, Jo, Ms Kelly West, my old friend Kay and the entire Midgard crowd.

After many pints and a fair few 'are we going for a curry now?' chants, as we finally staggered toward Rupali's. Overpriced, and famed for it's comedy curry's. Nice though.

Sunday, the actual day of my Birthday was spent playing Midgard. The plot was 28 days Later, with spirits, swords and general Saxon weirdness. Absolutely ace!

The a quick dash back to Sunderland to see those who weren't able to make it on the Saturday, followed by the long, sleepy journey home.

Thank you every one. You are all shining stars, each and everyone.

You are Form 0, Phoenix: The Eternal.

"And The Phoenix's cycle had reached
zenith, so he consumed himself in fire. He
emerged from his own ashes, to be forever
immortal."


Blah, blah, blah.


Me? A big flappy firey thing? Ah well, I suppose I'm good at bonfires and barbeques.

Which Mythological Form Are You?
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Rectal Meat

Hi.

Just finished work and off for a curry.

Alarmed that the guy who runs the Coventry internet gaming store knows Aidan and Charlie from Liverpool.

Bollocks. have just noticed one of my lights needs refocusing. Bastard.

In addition one of my co-workers seems to have trapped herself in a cage.

Perplexing behaviour. Good news though, after four weeks of touring, I finally got a contract today. I'm professional now.

Coventry is however not fun, perhaps it's the job, but i don't like this town one bit.

Opinions please, is it worth me hauling my ass back to university for one last year to get a full degree rather than a HND in theatre tech?

Or should I just drink piss?

I can't believe i havn't fucking written fuck yet. Cunting hell!

Oh, ah. I see what I've done now. Curse my rectal meats.

G'night kids,

Legion.

MMMMMMMMMMMMMmsgh;weruihasegl;r;zosjghz;srjklghz;sio

I'm wasting your time and mine.

zldfuivzh;sdf

fglzxghzvl;uzxho

dfjl;zdfkjzxhdf;buhuxbhubnhjjobnj

Not really about anything...

Saw Kill Bill last night. Suffice to say, It's an example what happens if you let a Hong Kong Action movie geek make his ideal film. And that's a good thing. (Did anyone get the triangle/I ching things that kept popping up? Couldn't work out the reference.)

Alan Moore's The Courtyard is shortly coming out in Picture Book format. Looks good, and as it's hard to find a copy of the short story itself, it's also a great idea.

(A thought occurs to me: Do Mythos cultists have books for their kids? Y'know, "Where's Hastur", and "See Investigator Run", that sort of thing.)

Oh, and I meant to put this up ages ago: Blaine plays chess with homeless protester, courtesy of Orbyn

Strange idol's dot the landscape...

The Big Merrino

It's been a long strange trip all in all. I'm at Sydney airport now after a trek up to the Blue Mountains, down to visit Luke in Syndey and then back to Canberra to say goodbye to Sarah's folks. Wow in a word...

The Blue Mountains were amazing, even the trip to them was a wonderful introduction to Oz. I looked on amazed as a flock of parrots flew by the car, exclaiming 'they're Green!' to an amused Sarah.

We stayed in a very cozy B&B in Leura called Broomlea, it had a four poster bed, an open wood fire and fried breakfasts, pure bliss. Leura is this rather posh town high up in the mountains, just down the way from Katoomba where we spent most of our time when we weren't sight-seeing. It's a town that reminded me a lot of the Lake District, that feeling of slightly decayed grandur filled with walkers, backpackers and the occasional coachload of Americans.

The biggest sight to see is Echo Point and the Three Sisters. You get almost an 180 degree view of the mountains and a valley older than the Grand Canyon that is almost untouched by human hands. It is stunning.

We also took the 'Scenic' railway, it drops you 250ft straight down into the valley so you can walk over raised walkways through the temporate rainforest to look at the gum trees, waterfalls and the like. It's quite peaceful and it's nice to see them managing peoples desire to walk through this beauty with minimal damage to it. I'll stick up some photos when I get back to base.

Jenolan Cave's were everything they promised to be, the Temple of Baal was this cathedral like cave with crystals all over the walls, It was lit by the Victorians so you get an amzing view of it as the guide gradually leads you round it turning on the lights. Our guide told some wonderful stories about lost caverns with lakes in them big enough to float a battleship in them, it's just a wonderful place.

Sydney was to be honest a bit of a come down compared to the Blue Mountains, it's quite an American style city and the road in with car dealerships and large neon signs was a rude awakaning after the mountains. We had fun with Luke who showed us the Rockerbilly dancing scene in the town and we took the ferry over to Manley where Sarah lived when she was quite young.

Then back to Canberra and we finally managed to get up and see Mt Stromlo observatory that was partially destroyed during the bush fires nine months ago. Sarah used to live there and it was quite a shock to see the thousands of acres of burned forest and the massive old telescopes lying in ruins. Ironically the newer buildings like the student houses survived but the 1920's vintage telescopes and main building were gutted. I was almost as shocked as Sarah at seeing what I imagine were these lovely old telescopes lying ruined. But it wasn't all bad they're already testing a new telescope up there and we had a look at the plans they've got for restoring and rebuilding things up there. (I'll stick a link up to the book they've doneon the place when I get home).

We also went over to Tidbinbilla, one of the three ground stations for the Nasa Deep Space Communications Network. I mean with a name like that how could I resist. It wasn't the most impressive visitor center in the world but it was just nice to go and have a poke at something like that. Next year looks to be interesting in space with about 14 different missions being flung at just Mars. It should be a much better year than this for space exploration.

Anyway I should be boarding my 23 hour flight home in about an hour, hope I get some sleep this time *crosses fingers* otherwise going in to work the day after tommorrow will be interesting. Wish me luck.

Oh I almost forgot about the sheep, it's the Biggest Merrino in the world and it's built of glass re-inforced concrete. They have a thing for BIG things overe here, it's joined by the Big Prawn (the orginal big thing), the Big Prospector, The Big Koala and the Big Cake amoung others. The weirdest thing is that when they light it up at night, it's eyes glow. I'll stick the postcard up at some point.

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!

Hi.

I'm on tour. Big big thankyous to Mr. Ben and Mr. Wood and Mr. Rafferty et al for putting me up in sunderland last week.

I'm Production LX on The Twits, it, combined with a number of recent events in my immediate past have left me a hollow and thouroughly stressed man.

I've not been online for over two weeks.

TEN FUCKING EMAILS! TEN! THAT'S IT?!

bastards.

This is great i'm surrounded by mewling, drooling, mucas-producing children. Whoo.

My fellow crew is good, as are my cast. My equipment is FUBAR. to the point where some of it's stopped obeying the laws of physics.

It is the start of my wednesday. I'm into my 30th hour of work since monday. I'm so weak from the loss of precious, precious assblood.

Fuck.

This can't continue to be this shit. On the plus side my strobes are working.

Fuck! FUCK! My shows starting!

Bye

Legion.

Nothing is ever here. Why do you look? Fuck you.

Bad movie suggestion of the week CARRY ON knife fucking.

No more tales from Sleaze Castle

Just heard that they will be no more Sleaze Castle. Ever. And I'm buggered if I can find my copy of the spin-off 'Surreal School Stories, which featured the wonderful all girl anti-secret society, the Maisonettes.

It was great, in a early nineties, geek-tastic freakish sort of way. But now it seems, we're doomed never to find out what the hell was going on.

Sleaze Castle combined the charm of Doctor Who, the wackiness of Love and Rockets, some unique Northern charm and squeezed in 101 geek references (such as Uncle Marlon being asked to mind the oranges, or a whole load of the charcter speaking in code.)

Confused? Check out this: Ancient Fertility rites... and you'll see what you missed.

B-day plans

I will be 28 on the 26th of October. I will also be in Newcastle on the 25th.

The current plan is to go out on the 25th (a saturday) and have fun. Everyone who knows me invited to come along.

I will be in Newcastle from 1pm for people who want to catch up and go for a coffee.

I will definetly be at The Bridge pub from 5pm. It's here:
http://tinyurl.com/lt07 for those who don't know it. pLease join me. Bring the usual freaks.

At some point there will be curry, and possibly a quiet retreat to a friends for gossip into the small hours. Some of the posee wil run off to go clubbing, but I won't be.

Note that the plans are a bit a vague. i was kind of hoping someone could suggest a decent place to get a curry.

Says it all really

Odd weekend. Spent most of it with Sam 'Raffles the Gentleman Thug' Lee talking nonsense to the wee small hours of the morning and helping one the housies pack.

Kris, Paggahouse's crazy red head has fled to Ireland to do something clever. And seduce young Irish skate punks, apparently. Knowing Kris, I expect to hear about it on the news shortly.

For the Mythos geeks.

Geek


What's Your Personality Type?
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"U use ur big words to shield away the truth"

Found this whilst randomly trawling the web:
Arguing with idiots 1
Arguing with idiots 2
Arguing with idiots 3

Haven't laughed so hard for days.

Journal Entry, 14th October 1853

Have just returned from the caves known to the natives as Binoomea or 'Place of Dark Spirits' with little to report. Rumours of native drawings of the mythic Bunyip proved to be unfounded however the cave known as 'The Temple of Baal' was most impressive and a fascinating example of local geology.

However I have not returned empty handed, I found some intriging geological formations for sale in a local shop, the wiley Oriental proprietor claimed they were 'Dragon eggs' or some such nonsense. I was intrigued however as I had not seen spherical formations such as these described in the standard texts on the area.

I have despatched examples of such to my esteemed colleagues in the Society, Professor's Rafferty and Andrews. I hope they can shed some light on them...

Heroes Vs Zombies

According to this website my secret identity is The gallant Gorilla Falkon, fighting crime using my Omnipotence and Gorilla Catapult.

Which is a good thing, as we currently have a zombie infestations. Let's see, we have sexy zombies, web savvy zombies,lecherous Zombies and musical zombies.

She just smiled and gave me a Vegimite Sandwich

Off to the blue mountains today to start our holiday proper, the last few days have been filled with moving boxes around and being shown off by Sarah's parents to their friends.

We've been rescuing Sarah's possesions from the basement of her sisters house and despite loosing a few books and clothes to rot it's been mostly successful. In fact I'm sitting typing looking at a genuine artifact of the late 80's, a denim jacket with a big smiley face on the back. Am I bad man for trying to pursuade her not to throw it out?

>Scroll? Y/N

I've survived meeting Sarah's folks with only minimal brusing, her mum is lovely but very enthusiastic when it comes to hugging. And I've managed a whole five days without murdering her father with an axe, I think I deserve some kind of medal (Sarah deserves a bunch of them). But I've been good and apparently parents approve of me, so I must be give some sort of good impression. The scary thing is when her mothers friends tell her we're 'such lovely newlyweds' !

Managed to get out and about into Canberra a bit, Sarah's mate Jill ribs her endlessly about her town's reputation as the biggest small village capital city in the world. Yes it's just a big country town at heart but it's very beautiful surrounded by blue hills and mountains with parks and lakes everywhere. Oh apparently you used to be able to go up to the parliament building, a large hollowed out hill, and roll down the sides but you can't any more due to fears about terrorism, ho hum.

But Sarah's also been a bit sad as we've also seen the devestation caused by the fires in January. Gum trees have this odd habit of exploding when you put a match to them and this combined with unseasonal winds created a firestorm that gutted vast areas of forest, destroyed 500 homes and Mount Stromlo, the obseravtory where Sarah used to live. It's weird to see these acres of tree stumps where pine forests used to be. We're going up to Mount Stromlo on our way out of town today, note to self to be extra supportive today.

Off to the mountains in a few hours and Jenolan Caves, where we will be exploring the Temple of Baal and the Pool of Cerebus.

Ed's answers to Craig can be found here

1. Who is your favourite artist/band?
Music wise I'm listening to a lot of Lamb, Biffy Clyro, Moxy Freevus and The Darkness. I'm also getting into folk again (it's my brothers fault).

2. What do you plan to be doing in 5 years time?
I'll be working in either Print or Internet 'New' media, as either a Senior Editor or publisher. Or running around saving the world. Depends what happens in the next five years, I'm not sure what the next 5 weeks holds in store at the moment.

I'll have seen at least two continents, not counting Europe, up close and personal and I won't be living in London anymore.

Probably still involved in Pagga, but hoepfully it'll be big enough to run itself by then.

3. If you could spend a day with any one person, who would you choose?
Either of my grandfathers would be fascinating, they were both amazing men. Jesus would be interesting, as would Lao Tzu, but I'd need to speak ancient tongues to get away with it.

4. Are you planning to organize another Pagga convention?

Get asked this a lot. The short answer is Yes, but not next year. The long answer is: Provided there's a team of at least 7, dedicated people on it, then yes. About half the people I'd consider asking need to cut their teeth on organising events first, the other half are dab hands at it, but I'm not sure how much they'd be able to help.

Pagga itself needs a lot of work. The board software is creeky, we've been threatening to do a print publication since we started the project two years ago, and I'd like to have a better, more reliable list of shops for the events diary, etc.

5. What events/games are you looking forward to playing?

Loads. In no special order:

Grand Design is always a joy to play. The next one will drop me in the thick of it (again) and I'm pretty sure my Detective monk is doomed. (I blame Andy Raff for the instinct that fun=impending doom).

Matt Heath's Fading Suns LRP looks very promising, and it's sci-fi that I get to play. I am permanent crew for Aliensphere and Waypoint, and I love sci-fi.

Looking forward to Oddysey. I trust Boogieman Games to come up with a high quality event, and the game will book up very fast when they announce it. Seriously. I'd send them a cheque now.

Evarchion and Artificer are both cracking sounding games, as is Ben Stewart's Elven Court game. Same goes for the first Midgard fest. With any luck I'll get to play not crew all of these. Looking forward to the birth of regular North East games.

They call it the red eye...

And dear god they mean it, total travelling time to Canberra via Bangkok and Sydney was about 40 hours, total sleep in that time was about an hour. I don't know what it was but I just couldn't sleep on the plane, perhaps it's because they call it 'cattle class' for a reason. I even ended up watching bits of Terminator 3, which I could do a long rant on but I will save that for later and merely say it is a devils arse of a film.

Bangkok was very strange, I drifted through in an almost dreamlike state, occasionally finding that I could only move with exaggerated leg and arm movements. I became alternately attracted and then repelled by brightly coloured things, monks for example.

I also began to understand the colonial mentality, stepping off the aircraft into a sweaty 31 degrees made me yearn for a G&T and a native to waft me with a fan. Soon I started to want to shell the whole airport from some kind of gunboat to destroy the legion of brightly coloured cloth elephants (A genuine souvenir of Thailand no less) who were all staring at me. I left just in time.

And so here I am in the strange land of bouncing giant mice, deadly drop bears and poison spitting spiders as big as your head. It's all rather strange, I'm currently sitting in a house in what to my mind looks very much like Ramsey Street, but Sarah thinks I'm just being strange.

I'm getting that subtle sense of dislocation you get aboard, Sydney has a very definate feel to it like all big cities and it hit me that I just wasn't in my home town any more. It's not the big things that get to you it's things like the fact the pedestrian crossings over here make noises like space invaders, weird.

Oh semi-interesting fact about Sydney, the red light district is also Kings Cross. There are all these familiar names like Lewisham and Croydon on the map not to mention Penrith and others further out that still amuse me. Oh not to mention places like Tuggaranong and Woolloomoolloo are just funny (not to mention difficult to stop spelling).

And finally sad geek note, while wandering through Sydney in a daze before meeting up with Luke we wandered past the fountain used in the Matrix for the scene with the Woman in the Red Dress. So who wants to touch me?

Off to the mountains in a few days, will try and post pictures here at some point as well.

In the future, we will be older

When it the century turned, a lot of people joked "Hey, where's my Jet Pack?

The short answer is: We don't deserve them. The richest, most powerful nation, (Who granted, have power scooters) still regards sexuality as a valid factor in judging a murder trial.

Tw@s.

Dragonthief is right. We don't have to rail against the hatemongers, their own actions speak louder than words.

Ed's Getting Old

Answer to Cam's Laminated List MeMe Here

I will be 28 on October the 26th. That's a Sunday. I am at a loss as to how, exactly, to raise the roof on this occasion. Anyone got any bright ideas?

Baggy stole this idea from a friend of hers who stole it from the TV show, Friends. Basically, if you could have a laminated Shag list, who would be on it. Mine has two sides.

Male

David Bowie - Oooh, blonde. Second crush. (First was Captain Kirk, but he's not real, and no, I don't fancy the Shat.).
That said, he's wrinkly these days, so maybe this cheap knock off will do.

Anthony Steward Head - Gentlemanly. And manly.

Vigo Mortenson Because he likes to go fishing. No other reason. honest.

Johnny Depp in Fear and Loathing mode no less.

Will Self I'm not explaining this one.

Female

Vannessa Paradis - sweet, innocent, foul mouthed, what's not to fancy?

Melinda Clarke - I have this thing for scream queens. Stop sniggering.

Hudson Leick - Crazy woman, very, very fit.

Alyson Hannigan She just cute.

Dina Meyer Hmm, big red curly hair....

Secrets and special sauce

Answers to Eddie777's Me Me here

Well, the weekend was rather lovely, though I was reminded why I avoid travelling to Manchester by train.

Don't get me wrong, the city of Manchester, for it's cleanliness and friendliness can drop rocks on London, but getting there and back by Virgin train is a nightmare.

And of course, I forgot my mobile phone, because I was of to Here Lies The Conspiracy, and I always forget to bring a phone. This was bad because I didn't know how to get to the place I was planning to get some kip at was.

Thankfully the lady sitting next to me on the phone was very sweet (thank you Jules, I hope your course goes well) and a rapid call to Zephyrus, Aka Kelly West whose phone number I could remember, meant that she could send an email to King Andy to pick me up and take me to his home, thus negating the need for me to be a hobo for the night.

Got to catch up with the frankly wonderful Ms Bacon and meet her new bloke, Chad. Who's lovely, and exchange smutty comments with Chris Perry.

Talked for ages with Mr Mason and got him addicted to Hero-Crack.

The LRP games was of the same superb quality I've come to expect from Boogieman Games . Highlights included possibly one the nicest ghost story-style encounters I've ever seen, a superbly put together 'alien' and some top notch roleplaying, because, as the name suggest, everybody has secrets in this game. Everybody is in a conspiracy. It was nice to see some good friends as well, including Derrick, Sean, Ian A,Smitti,Rich Polley,Cam, Rob, Alex,Nev, Keir and Kate Lee, and loads of great people.

The Journey back was delayed by about 2 hours (hence no post yesterday). Fortunately, Virgin trains are equipped with there own internal radio station (for people who are to tired to read but to buzzing to sleep), and also provide taxis home (Bless, and me with heavy LRP kit and all).

Did notice that the radio-edit of Electric Six's Gay Bar omits the line 'Let's start a nuclear war', but not 'I want to put it in you". Freaky.

Answers to Eddie777's Me Me.

1. How has religion (or lack of one) influenced your life?

My mother is very Catholic, and I went to church every Sunday up to about age 11 or so.

I questioned a lot, and I found answers elsewhere that felt more 'right' than the ones presented to me by the local priest. (Though he did try quite hard).

I have faith (though I'm not Christian), and I've found it to a very useful and powerful mental tool to have, though like many things, it works best in moderation.

2. What justification for harming or killing a human would you potentially accept, if any?

By being here, my existence harms others, as does almost everyone elses, and no, I can't justify it, nor am I willing to give up TV and chocolate. (though I have been tempted in the past).

If I really had no choice, and it was to protect myself and others from serious harm, then seriously harming someone is justified.

Euthanasia is a thorny issue, though I do think any law that condemns someone to live in perpetual, uncurable agony is flawed.

3. To what extent do you support the system by which the country in which you live forms governments and holds them accountable?

It's the best we've come up with so far. It's not fair, just and it's certainly not how I define democracy, but it's better than out and out tyranny. It's frustrating to think that it's taken so long to progress so little.

4. What changes, if any, would you make to the process of question 3?

Change can not be wrought by a quick fix, only gradual social influence. I'd change the education laws so children are given the tools to think: Mathematical, Scientifically, Philosophicaly, Culturally, etc. A muscle only stays strong if it's exercised, and that goes for the brain. A few generations of that and we'll have a better world I hope.

5. If your moral beliefs differ significantly from the majority of your friends and family, in what respect do they differ and why?

Well, I'm far more liberal than my parents, and I'm quite moderate compared to some of my my more radical friends. Also, I don't define people as seperate from beasts.

6. To what extent do the rewards of romantic love justify the associated pains?

Precious things are precious because they have a cost.

7. What do you miss most about those who are no longer part of your life?

Too much to describe without going all John Betjeman. I'm too nostalgic for my own good, though I have long learned the lesson that you can never go back.

Some of the things that make me who I am have irrevocably changed me and the people around me, and after that, there's no going back.

That said, I have no regrets. Stuff I'd have done differently to see what happens yes, regrets no.

Woman in a glass box?

Anyone catch Dracula: Letters from a Virgins Diary on BBC late last night. It was a re-telling on the classic tale through the medium of ballet...and black and white film. Very, very strange indeed and very hammer horror. They got the old classics in like 'Tis a VAMPYR!' which was nice but I still haven't heard a good reason why Lucy's mother was in a glass box for most of the performance.

Oh and I've finally caught the video of I Believe in a Thing Called Love by The Darkness. It's marvellous, glam rockers in space battling giant squid with their laser beam guitars, pure genius. And they're releasing a Christmas single as well, " It's got a kiddies' choir, it's got full tubular bells - it's your basic full-on Christmas experience," band member Justin Hawkins said. Just how much fun can four lads from Wales have?

Stuff and Nonsense

Well after my knackering trip up north yesterday I am on the late shift tonight, so this is a bit of a grab bag of bits and pieces. Managed to catch up with Rob, Cam and Roz, very pleasant and it was nice to talk to them in civvies for once.

Surveillance photos of dangerous revolutionaries on display.
An exhibition at the national archives shows that Suffragettes were the very first 'terrorists' who were placed under photographic survelliance by the police in the UK. Makes you think when you see pictures like the woman forced to be photographed by a policeman holding her round the neck, like a lot of radical movements in the UK the suffering of these women often gets brushed under the carpet.

In other news, when two tribes go to war. ICANN, the internet's ruling body, gives Verisign a deadline over it's new web search page that's high-jacked all unregistred domains on the internet. Great idea for them, free advertising, lots of money, pity it screws up a whole load software the rest of the world uses to fight spam mail among many other parts of the internet. This could get interesting.
[via NTK]

Oh and a big up to all those off to the Here Lies the Conspiracy event this weekend. Hope you have a storming time.

The freedom to gossip

The Footballer Rape reports, the current object of tabloid obsession, brings up some interesting points about gossip and email.

How does one possibly hope to legislate gossip when we can spread rumours and facts at the speed of a phone line. And if everyone has heard the rumours and the alleged evidence, how can one possibly hope for a fair trial?

One result of this sort of thing is that The Law Commison wants to give more power to the Internet Service Providers Association, which worries me.

If it's given to much power, then free speech in this country becomes even more limted. The flipside is it being a toothless dog like The Press Complaints Commison.

Because it doesn't matte rhow much you try, you want take away our urge to gossip.

Hate is the new black

Ahh, Hail Eris. She has better footware than you. No, really.

Fun is good, some is here Cleopatra They've got a song to sing, and if you want to take that away from them then you're worse than Hitler.
Here is you'renew best friendyou must look at him and think pure and sexy thoughts. Not too sexy though or you'll die.
The Art of Science! Can you feel it'sstupid Power? Good. See, I'm right. Love me.
Here is a game. No, over here, dumbass.

Going away now...
tired...
so tired.

Plus the screaming from upstairs implies that Mark's found the gift I left him in his bed. A hollowed out melon full of sedated starving rats.

Heehee.

I scampish and funny.

I also weep blood for some reason. Hmm...

Night folks.

Legion

Fooled you!
There is nothing worth reading here...

..there never is.

Don't send random party invites to strangers.

It is dumb.

LOTR froth

If only Frodo had web access.

Still haven't seen the trailer yet, though I think John Kovalic describes the froth about it exactly.

Answers to Sam Harber on the 'More' link below.

1) Would you pick up a hitchhiker? Why?

Depends. If I had more than just me in the car, definetly. If it was just me, maybe. Depends on who it was after a ten second scan of them as a I shoot past. Anyone could be a nightmare a total pleasure to meet, so it depends on how safe the situation looks, and how easy I felt I could get out of the situation should in turn nasty.

2) Say something positive about Myra Hindley and Ian Brady

They have caused public debate on the death penalty, and the nation still seems to against it despite their crimes. Surely this a positive thing.

3) Why do you not return to the northeast?

I do regularly, to visit. :). Mostly, the work is in London, as are a chunk of friends. I'd like to live the Northeast again at some point, I've plenty of friends there, but I wouldn't mind living in a few more places first before I do. I';d love to live in Manchester too, or possibly Scotland.

Still, a part of my heart is in my home town. It would be nice o go back some day.

4) What would it take for you to vote for the party that is opposed to your normal stance?

If there was good chance I could help destroy a safe seat, I would. I despise the whole idea of 'voting for X because my Dad does'. It's not a football team, it's politics.

I was horrified to hear that some parts of the country they are streets that won't vote for Party X because 'we have gardens'. By that they mean, the people who live there don't want to be seen as working class, so won't vote a certain way. So the election system becomse another way to keep up with the Jones's. Madness. Pure madness.

5) When is it appropriate to fart in public?
People fart all the time, it's part of being a super-ape. Farting in front of the queen is a definite no-no mind.

Testing 1,2,3

testing rss feeds...

Excellent, just for all those who want to can get Pagga.com as an RSS feed at
http://www.pagga.net/log/index.rdf.

Just the basic stuff at the moment but I'll continue to play with it. So if the Livejournal crowd fancy they can access us through livejournal.

Oh and some wise words from Tom Cotes, someone who has been in the trenches of running on-line communities long before I was and who created one of the inspirations for Pagga, Barbelith.