I can’t believe I always do this: post for a while, then go completely awol for about three months. In my defence, m’lud, I have just moved house…
Back to the plot: we have a new house! It’s a late-sixties mid-terrace in Bath, not too attractive from the outside but I figure that we don’t generally have to look at the outside ;-)
Wales: land of dragons, rugby and rain. We saw none of the former two, but did have a few spots of the latter on our recent camping trip near Pembroke. We popped into Tenby (great town walls), went to a chocolate farm and a vineyard, and walked from Freshwater East to Stackpole Quay, where we had treacle tart (me) / strawberry pavlova (Kathy) and cold drinks.
At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated, “If GM had kept up with the technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25.00 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon.”
In response to Bill’s comments, General Motors issued a press release stating “If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:
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Word of the Day: Consumerism
the theory that an increasing consumption of goods is economically beneficial. a movement advocating greater protection of the interests of consumers. I knew about (2), but wasn’t aware that (1) was part of the deal too. After 9/11, Dubya was telling everyone to “spend, spend, spend” for the good of the economy. The thing is, in the long-term this approach to economics is unsustainable.
Don’t you love it when you find someone saying stuff you’ve been saying, but they’re saying it in a much more joined-up way?:
“The sheer ugliness and anonymity of motorways seem only to reinforce their destructive environmental impact. Yet even motorways have their poets and celebrants. But what are they doing to our soul?”
— Motorway culture and its discontents
I’ve just come back from visiting Kevin Hopkins, who was best man at our wedding. He lives in Petersfield but we also spent time at his parents’ place in Andover. Had a great barbeque there yesterday and Sunday roast (lamb) today, with watching the All Blacks devour Ireland 40-8 and a visit to some of Petersfield’s hotspots (Folly’s, Vertigo) in between.
Vertigo is scarily like Flicks in Andover — in terms of clientele, music policy and even the club’s layout.
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Oh well. The World Cup is over for England. Again. At least it wasn’t as painful as 1986 (Maradona cheated), 1990 (Penalty Shoot-out Hell) or 1998 (Golden Goal disallowed and Penalty Shootout Hell). At least we qualified for the finals, unlike 1994 (cheers Holland). I am disappointed, but I feel ultimately that the better team won. England just weren’t good enough over 90 minutes. Maybe if Brazil were a football ‘enemy’ in the same way that Germany, Scotland and Argentina are, we may have raised our game accordingly.
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Useful LG DVD Player info.
UPDATE: This is 2003, if you hadn’t noticed. I found the above page in 2002. Go there for info. Don’t bother posting "I need a hack" because I don’t know how to help!
Blimey guv’nor! Has it really been over two months? You call this news? Anyway. Yesterday we went to Bicester Village, one of the ever-growing number of out-of-town “designer” outlet centres. It sucks, it really does. It’s the bottom of the consumer capitalism barrel. Naomi Klein would say that it’s private space masquerading as public space. I would say that it was an interesting experience, much like the Trafford Centre in Manchester, except at least BV was outside so my eyes and throat didn’t dry out.
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