Bored of Swine Flu

Now I know that its actually a serious matter and that people have died, but really I'm sick of hearing about swine flu. And yes I'm aware that this very blog is only adding to the problem.

From what the media keep telling us you would think its the black death and we are all going to die sooner or later. Of course the public pick up on this and all the gossip is about killer disease's.

I understand that it is a killer disease. But the point that's being missed is all flu is a killer. We live with it all the time and it kills us off with out anyone normally giving a damn.

So far, in the UK, 29 people have been killed by the piggy fever. Yet every year in the UK 3,000 -4,000 people are killed by "normal" flu. In 1990 30,000 people died in an epidemic. Whats more global deaths in 1918 killed around 100million people, which puts the deaths during WW1 into the shade somewhat.

You can trust me on those figures by the way, its my job to find such things out and they are proper offical stats and every thing.

So given those figures about just what is the big deal about 29 deaths. Sad and tragic though those deaths are they are nothing to worry about. We have not reached the levels of what we deal with every year.

If one was into conspiracy theory's, and they have a passing interest for me, one could point a finger at the government. After all it distracts us from expenses and the economy. And the media do love a good scare story. A headline of telling us we will all die is going to sell papers.

Perhaps this thing will kill us all off and perhaps it won't. But whats annoying to me is all this speculating that gets reported as news and the scaremongering that goes on.

Anyway to combat my fatigue on this issue I will from now on change the words swine flu to zombie infection every time I hear them. A global zombie plague is much more interesting and exciting. Every one loves zombies, well until they try to eat your brain.

In other news I am now obsessively bound to find out all info I can on Thomas Paine, John Wilkes, Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage. The first two turned up in the story of Thomas Cochran, which is in itself very interesting, and seemed like some cool cats. My interest in Babbage and Lovelace has been sparked by a brilliant online comic about them which can be found at http://2dgoggles.com/.

Being a researcher, geek and obsessive its vital I found out all I can.

Todays picture is Babbage and Lovelace in comic form.

The Dream

I had an interesting dream last night

Now I know that other peoples dreams normally come across as dull. They are the ultimate in "you had to be there", and of course we are never there. But every now and again I pop up with a dream that is pretty weird of interesting.

Last night while in the arms of Morpheus I dreamt that I was a tennis player, a female tennis player. I was playing on centre court at Wimbledon.

Thankfully i didn't look like me. Being 6ft5 and 15st the sight of me in a skimpy tennis dress would not be pleasant.

No instead I was a good looking blond woman.

Perhaps if Freud was passing comment he would come up with all kind of ideas on why this happened. I suspect he would get very excited about me running out of juice and my racket going all floppy. But no one should take Freud seriously, he was clearly nuts.

I'm not one to put great meaning into dreams and I maintain that stance with this one. Its simply what happens when you listen to a podcast that goes on about female tennis players. I highly recommend the collings and herrin podcast, but only if you don't take offence all that easily.

Zombies vs Robots has been done. The artwork was amazing and the reason I bought it. But the story was a bit dire and childish. Having said that its the comic I would of written given any talent. After all you have zombies, robots, lesbian amazon warriors, a zombie minotaur, zombie lesbian amazon warriors and mermen. Whats not to look, stupid story or no?

Have now moved onto Charlies war, which is about WW1. Have already spotted two historical errors and I'm feeling nice and smug.

todays photo is that poster

A Day of Rest

Its a Sunday, the day of rest.

Believe me I take that whole rest part seriously.

Not because of religious beliefs, I'm just lazy. But not lazy in a bad way. There is more than one way to be lazy. I have a job and I get my work done. If I want to do something then I do it. But I do like to be lazy in my free time.

Right now its 13.30 and I am still in bed wearing just my pants. As indeed I am most Sundays. I might venture outside for a fag at some point but that's about as adventurous as I'll get.

No doubt there are some who are always busy and would accuse me of wasting the day away. So be it. DIY and gardening seem to be the big things to do on a Sunday. Lacking a garden or projects round the house I'll pass on those. To much pointless effort anyway.

When I worked in a garden centre on a Sunday I would watch the endless customers and think what are you all doing, its Sunday, chill out.

Besides the two best things that one can do on a Sunday is read a book or listen to some music. Not much effort required for ether of those.

Life should be lived at a slow pace, taken time to enjoy whats going on. All this rushing about, where does it actually get you. Look at nature, its the slow moving animals that live the longest and have the less hassle. I'm happy with me bear like existence.

"if a man loses pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away"

Henry David Thoreau

todays picture is a lazy bear

Thats a Fact.

The mysterious people known as "they" will often tell you that you learn something every day.

Perhaps that's true, but I think its not likely to be useful, interesting information. One must pick up all kinds of things during the day, mostly pop culture references.

Now being the geeky type I am rather partial to learning some facts when ever I can. And being obsessive researcher who spends a lot of time on line allows me to indulge this fact finding mission I have.

Take yesterday for example. I was busy minding my own business when I stumble upon a site that had an interesting fact.

After a male bee has mated its genitals explode, inside the female.

To be honest I'm still laughing to myself about that one even 24hours later.

That's now stuck in my head and I will be telling it to lots of people.

I do have a drive to learn things. A combination of my as mentioned geeky obsessive ways and also, I guess, being called stupid a hell of a lot. But we should always be pushing ourselves to learn new things. To turn ones back on education, of any sort, is to waste ones life on pointlessness.

Since the last blog, a gap which was longer than I had intended, I have since finished both Watchmen and V for Vendetta. Enjoyed both. Liked how Watchmen deconstructed the whole super hero thing. Which had kept me away from comics for a long time. V was good as well, anyone who fights for people to hear Trojan Records is ok by me. On now to Zombies vs Robots. The guy behind it did some art work for one of my favorite bands, Reuben.

Those poor bees

Todays image is of the killer bees tag team from WWE. (no I never heard of them ethier)

Its not cricket

Or rather it is cricket

The Ashes gets under way today. Whats more it gets underway in Cardiff. That non English place somewhere out there in the wilds of Wales.

It seems that for a lot of people this is all rather controversial. Words like "disgrace" and "outrage" have been used ever since it was announced that a game of cricket would be played outside of England.

Some people it seems really don't want this game to take place in Wales.

Now there have been times when the venue for a cricket match was important. Should people had played in South Africa during the apartheid? If people play in Zimbabwe are they helping that fruit loop who runs the place?

But of course this is a Wales, its a nice place. Your not supporting an evil regime or oppressing a race of people.

Some people are talking of a hidden plot by interested parties pushing a Welsh agenda.

Those in the anti party do seem to overlook the fact that the governing body of cricket it the England and Wales Cricket Board. That's its proper official name. Glamorgan, from Wales, is a county team and has done very well.

Whats more that ashes team that did so well in 2005 had a Welsh man in it. To prove the stereotype correct he was called Jones and he took the 2nd most wickets for us. Another Jones played he had Welsh parents. He was actually born in Papaya New Guinea. (Lets not forget the 2 South Africans and the coach from Zimbabwe)

So Wales, I feel has the right to host a humble game of cricket.

Why bring all this up in a blog? I mean who actually cares about cricket?

I like cricket and I don't really care.

The point is this is just another example of people getting very worked up about something that really doesn't matter at all.

All this anger, passion, media coverage and discussion. Well it could just be put to much better use.

People are dying across the world for various reasons. Human rights are being taken away from people all the time.

If instead of getting angry over something that means nothing one got angry over something important then perhaps we could make a positive change.

Instead of writing a letter to a news paper complain that the Welsh national anthem will be played at an English game why not write a letter to the government asking them work towards the ending of torture?

There is always a good reason to make a stand and to get angry about something. To shout loudly that this will not do.

To often we simply pick up a course that is not worthy of such passion.

Today's photo teaches us that running naked at a big man with armour and a block of wood is never a good idea.

Maps

I like maps.

I have a real fascination with them. They interest me greatly.

Maps weave a spell over my mind, even if its some where I shall never visit I still like to have a wondered around the place via a good map.

I just spent my lunch hour in a book shop looking at The Routledge Atlas of the Second World War. A rather fine, if slightly pricey book of, well the name gives you the gist of it all.

Of course I am obsessed with world war 2 and for that matter most things that have to do military history. Perhaps that's where the love of maps comes from. You tend to See rather a lot of them when you study wars.

But I think its wonderful that we can know where a certain group of people where at a certain time. That their position is recorded. Not only that but recorded in relation to the rest of the world.

It amazes me that we can have on a piece of paper a recognisable and more importantly, a usable representation of the world.

That's why maps are both fascinating and important. How else would we know where we are? or how would we know where we are going.

Perhaps one can get through the day with out looking at maps. But you life will be dependent on having someone somewhere draw a map. How else did that road get made? How else did people know where to find Britain to bring in that oh some vital chest of tea?

Of course now we have sat nav to guide us. But that's taken the romance and fun out of it all. Its to clinical.

Its not the same as unfolding a map and plotting points and planning routes yourself.

On the whole I just like looking at maps, they let you know where everything is, where its supposed to be.

They are just so reassuring.

I'll turn the heating down then.

Its hot, damn hot.

That's all I seem to here this week.

Why do these people complain to me? There's nothing I can do about it. There's nothing anyway can do about it.

Its not like I left the heating on.

Sure I'm a bit hot and sweaty but, really, whatever the weather it never bothers me.

Cold, wet, hot its all the same to me.

For the simple reason that you can't change it.

I see no reason for making an issue out of something you can not control. That to me is just turning you into a person who is never happy and just likes to moan about every thing.

Sure my balls are stuck to my leg.

But this weather lets us have ice lollies and that song by Will Smith.

The weather should not be a topic of conversation that is used as much as it is. At most it should only ever be kept to one sentence. But people use it to fill silence with others they have little in common with.

I can do with out people telling what is obvious and already know to me.

Talking of ice pops, I nearly threw away years of a staunch avoidance of Nestle (baby killers) products. In a moment of childhood longing I picked up a Fab ice lolly and was about to hand over my money when I spotted the hated Nestle (baby killers) logo. Despite the out stretched hand of the shopkeeper I stuck to my guns and replaced it with a more ideological sound mini milk.

Has anyone else noticed how good damn hot it is?

Today's picture is Emiliana Torrini enjoying the sun.

The Half Camp Man

I'm prone to using an over the shoulder bag.

Its a very useful thing, just the right size for my needs and causes me no bother at all hanging off my left hip. It always has to be the left hip, having it on the right would just be weird.

One would expect to find some thing of great wonder in a knapsack such as this. The one ring or the egg of mantombi would feel at ease while wrapped in its cloth embrace.

Instead it houses a book and a spare pair of pants. Which, I suppose are their own kind of special treasure.

Recently I have noticed that this bad has made me half camp.

My left arm swings out in an odd arch to avoid hitting the bag. The fact that it hangs of my hip means my left leg does a strange kind of limp. My left buttock behaves in way that causes its right sided brother to look askance.

The right side has manged to stay manly. Well perhaps not manly. Shuffling along like a sleepy zombie is not really manly. I've never walked like a boxer on his way to the ring.

I have a bisexual walk

But I suspect my walk would be rather more awkward if I didn't have the bag and kept my orange in my pocket.

Todays photo is of Superman being a dick. As proved over at http://www.superdickery.com