i am sparticus: Words

I believe in Street Spirit

Somebody please tell me you where listening to Radio 1 tonight and heard The Darkness do a session (are they still called session's now the evening session is gone?) for Colin Murray? Please back me up by agreeing that the Darkness covering "Street Spirit" by Radiohead was the best thing in the history of Old School "we sound like queen" rock.
If you didn't hear it, tough! Unless of course I manage to get my Minidisc of it into an mp3 file at some point...

ENTRY 725

Blog blog blog… why am I finding it so difficult to think of things to write about? I guess I'm just not programmed for this kinda thing! Argh, speaking programmed… why is the guestbook full of stooopid geeky Linux bllaabbppggfff and RAM? That's what it sounds like! Why can't we talk about more current issues that EVERYONE can join in with… Like war, or peace, and how France and Germany have it right when they have a plan to disarm Sadam PEACEFULLY!! I'm with the Europeans! How about YOU?

Scriputriiizzzzzeerrr

Vaguely interesting things that happened today:
 Saddam Hussein challenges Bush to a live debate. Saddam's reasons are that a debate with George Bush will give Dubya a chance to prove why war is nessecary. The Whitehouse says it'll never happen, but I think I speak for everyone when I say "That's so gotta happen". Just think how humourous it would be.
Bush: "We, the people of America, consider you a tyrant and an evil man, you have lots of nasty weapons and oil, and we want them both"
Saddam Hussein: "I have no illegal weapons"
Bush: "Come on, ya gotta have some!"
Saddam Hussein: "I have no illegal weapons"
Bush: speaks to his aide by his side "He says he hasn't got any weapons, is this a good thing?"
Saddam Hussein: "I have no illegal weapons"
Bush: "yes you do"
Saddam Hussein: "no I don't"
Bush: "oh yes you do"
Saddam Hussein: "Oh no I don't and you can't prove it"
Bush: "My daddy told me you'd be mean" runs off crying
NB I'm aware that that was rubbish, but by tomorrow everyone will have done something like it, so I thought I'd at least get ahead of the bandwagon
Come on, it'd be funny seeing Saddam Hussein to outwit Bush in a debate, especailly as it'll be in English and that's not even Saddam Hussein's first language. Plus it'd be really nice for the American media as they really support the current US government, and the tv ratings on such a debate would be so high. It'd be like the US government giving the media a little rating present as a reward for being so loyal.

&nsbp; In other news that'll have to be summarised really quickly as I should probably end this before it gets any worse. I really like the intro to that new chilli peppers song, because it sounds quite Rage against the machine like. Although I like neither the read hot chilli peppers or Rage. Odd.
&nsbp; Finally I finally started writing my talk on Luke 19:1-10 today. About time

Good news, bad news

Good news! I've found out that the meeting the thursday evening turin brakes are playing has been cancelled! rock on \m/
More amounts of rockage as Tom McRae is playing the night after and I can go to that gig, and somethingcoporate are playing the night after that, and they are quite good, AND I can go see them for free. triple giggnes... mmmm
Bad news! O2 have messed up again (haha suprise! for more 02 fun see here and then here and then finally here). It's not as major as last time's drama, my phone still works, but all the stuff like online bill viewing, txts, e-mail to txt (so the sms thing is bust) and other services are broken. NOT MY FAULT!

A says he's glad to be here

For this post I was going to rant about why democracy is a flawed system, and why the country needs to have more fascism. I'm not entirely sure of my reasoning (I write a lot more about it here, but basically it boils down to this.

• The people who know the most about running the country, are generally those who are running the country (with the exception of Bush)


• The people who know the least about running the country are generally the people who aren't running the country (with the exception of Bush)


• Why should the people who know the least, have such a say in running the country? What happens if the leaders are right, but we disagree because of our lack of knowledge and experience?

I was also going to write about Martin Luther (Not King Jr, just the first original Martin Luther) who was perhaps one of the greatest people of whatever century he lived in (the 15-16th century apparently). For example...

• He learnt Latin, realised that the Roman Catholic church was teaching heresy , and promptly wrote out why the Roman Catholic church was wrong (they taught that you had to do things to be saved, the Bible teaches the only way you can be saved is by faith in God) and nailed it to a church door.


• The Pope tells Martin Luther that unless he says that he was wrong, the Pope will throw him out of church and into the damnation of hell. Martin Luther says that unless the Pope can prove from the Bible that he's wrong, he'll not change his mind. He also says that the Pope isn't morally perfect, and burns the Popes note telling him to stop saying what he's saying


• The Emperor summons him, tells him to he has to change his mind or he'll be considered an outlaw thus making killing him legal. Martin Luther says "Unless you can prove from the Bible that I have made wrong statements, I cannot and I will not take back anything. My conscience is bound by the Word of God. Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen.". The Emperor gives him 20 days, after which anyone can kill him freely


• He's locked in a castle for his own protection, while he's there, he decides to translate the new testament (the part of the bible which happens after Jesus is born, the AD part if you like) into German. Some time after he gets out, he translates the rest of the Bible. As you do.

So I was going to write lots about him, as he's pretty impressive. If you really want to know more, read more here.

Finally I was going to write about how Internet Explorer is actually quite rubbish when it comes to making websites and we should all switch to Opera 7. I was then going to go on to say that in response to microsoft deliberately making msn.com act up when viewed in Opera, the good people at Opera released a version of there browser that alters the pages msn messed up into the language of the swedish chef from the muppets. Read more about it here.

Anyway in the end I wrote about all of them. At a stupid hour. I'm so going to bed now

The Adventures of Mr. Sparticus and Miss Stetler

Here are the highlights of Sparticus' exciting adventure back in time, up to Edinburgh…

Anti-War Demo in Glasgow. Woo yeah! DON'T ATTACK IRAQ!! No no no! It was so much fun. Felt like real 70s hippies… yay! Traveled over there with 3 bus loads of students… complete hippie community going there. They had all the home-made banners, drums, tambourines etc. GREAT!

Later in the week we found this cute little cafÈ called "Forest" (bottom of the Grass Market for all you Edinburgh people). It’s a tiny (vegetarian) place, run completely by volunteers, so doesn't make much profit. To add to the thrown together, chill-out hippy effect, they have artwork all over the walls and a big huge swirling trippy mural on one whole wall and a huge book case full of crazy second hand books, and an old record player and big comfy couches and second hand cups and spoons and the best Chai tea around!! Its great. Total traveler, student, artist's cafÈ. YAY… that’s the way to go!

At the end of the week, Sparky and I spotted this gorgeous flowery, red top which I bought and makes me look like I just came back from an adventure in the 70s. Hee hee. It so lovely and floaty and totally summery! BRING ON THE SUNSHINE!

So to conclude, yes Eponymous, I think I've caught "Hair" fever, but not quite to the extent of giving up precious heavenly baths! Ha ha :P

Take Me To Your Blackened Sky

Contrary to popular belief me and the good stetler haven't been arrested by police for riotest behaviour OR kidnapped by anarchist communist pacifist hippies (although the hippies did come close at one point).
No instead we've been not updating our website, as is all the fashion these days, and instead we've been getting out and about and doing other such noble things.
When I say noble, I really mean ummmm... I have no idea. I thought I could gloss over our lack of updates by writing a post so witty it would dumb found you all into submission. Alas though it seems as though this will have the opposite effect and instead baffle you so much that you'll do something drastic. Like stop reading.
Here

In other news, I'm taking this youth group I run bowling tonight. I pity the person who gets in the way of my bowling ball! I have no idea what that means, nor why I said it
Oh and {kinesis} have a new site...

War! What is it good

War! What is it good for? PROTESTS, that's what! For me and stetler are right now in a big carpark at the glasgow s.e.c.c. because of this massive anti-war protest. It's a nice sunny day and thousands of unhappy communists, pacifists, hippies, muslims, christians and random student type bums.
Anyway i guess you'll all read about this or see it elsewhere, but y'know you won't know the other person. So yeah.
oh and the speakers are increasingly loud and wwf wrestler-type which means increasingly entertaining.
If terrorists attack or riot police start with the water canons you'll hear it here first.

Getting the painters in

Ah today at work was so strange…
It was almost closing time at the cafÈ, and my boss Bruno and I were doing the final clean-up etc. when this painter guy came in (who Bruno had obviously asked to come). They started talking about how Bruno wanted the cafÈ re-painted, this is kinda how parts of the conversation went:

Bruno: …and I want the ceiling re-painted too.
Painter: Ok, do you want to keep it white?
Bruno: Yes, but maybe with a few highlights on the details at the edge of the ceiling...
Painter: Like red?
Bruno: Maybe something light, just subtle.
Painter: Red or gold maybe?
Bruno: Hmm, gold would match the light fitting.
Painter: You could do it red on one detail, then white on the next, then gold on the next, then white, then red, then white, then gold, then white, then…. (and so on and on!)
Bruno: Hmmm, I need to talk to my woman first.
Painter: But you know what I mean, red then white, then gold, then white, then red, then wh…ummm, yeah white, then red, then … (totally muddled by now!)
Bruno: Yes, I should talk to my wife first, she's the artist.
Painter: Yeah, so red, then white, then gold, then white… you know you need to have the white there to break up the two other colours. D'ya know what I mean?
Bruno: Yes
Painter: Or you could do red on that bit (pointing at some corner part of the ceiling), white on that bit, then red on the next, then white then red, (and again on and on..)

By this time I was about to cry! He was doing my head in completely.
Soon though, they managed to get onto the subject of ladders (coz our ceiling is super high, as with lots of old Edinburgh buildings).

Painter: I'm going to need a good ladder to do this part of the roof though.
Bruno: We have this ladder. (Magically produces ladder from back of cafÈ)
Painter: Oh, (once at top of it) this won't do, its only 6 foot. I'm going to need one about 10 foot.
Bruno: Well I can borrow one from my neighbor.
Painter: Yeah, it'll need to be at least 8 feet.
Bruno: Ok, I'll check with my neighbor.
Painter: (climbing the ladder again) See, I can only reach this high, it'll need to be a good bit taller.
Bruno: like 8 feet, ok.
Painter: yes, 8 to 10 feet at least, you know, so I can reach the ceiling.

Arrrgg… you can imagine how I was feeling by this stage. So I decided to focus on my watch for the last few minutes of my shift so I could run from that place as soon as I could!

Yo! I'm at this crazy

Yo! I'm at this crazy conference style thingy for careforce and it's kinda cool, although the rooms are freezing, in an Oliver Twist style way. Well I imagine that Oliver Twist lived in a cold place. But the food is most excellent and quite un-Oliver twist like which is good. Speaking of which i need to go eat. I've stolen a scottish flag though. Hooray!

Totally Bogus Dude!

I watched Bill and Ted's Bogus Adventure (or possibly Journey) yesterday. It was no way as great as their Excellent Adventure but it was still good. I guess I just thought the bits in Heaven and Hell where so surreal kinda ruined it.
Anyway that's my Bill and Ted review. I say it as by way of an introduction to the fact that I too am going on a bogus journey (see the tenuous link there?), well a journey anyway. You see I'm away for the next few days at this Careforce Conference where I'm sure I'll learn lots and lots and lots of handy youth work stuff... However I will be lacking the wonders of the internet, so expect updates to be rare. Or possible in the form of mobile phonage. If I can sort out the stupid bugs in it...

Oh yeah I also watched that Second Coming program on ITV last night and while it makes no sense (If he believes in all that was in the Bible which he does, how can he be the Son of God? he'd have to say that everything in the Bible was wrong, but he doesn't. How very confusing) it does make for good watching. I especailly like all the in-jokes they have. Like that dude's best buddy is called Pete, which is like Peter, who was one of the disciples closest to Jesus. Their where some more ones, all of which where far cleverer than that but I can't remember them with my poor addled brain.
Nevermind, I'm off now

Hippy Hair

This is terrible behavior… we have 2 people blogging on this site and still don't seem to be able to write anything interesting… or even frequently!
Well, despite the fact that I cut a chunk out of my finger with a bread knife and now can't type particularly well, I'm gonna to be brave, bare the pain and keep typing for the sake of the life of this wonderful website. (I'll clean the keyboard of the blood later)
So last night I went to see the Broadway musical "Hair". One of my work-mates (the oh-so-talented Marie Tay) was acting in it and it sounded brilliant so I had to go along. If you don't already know, it’s all about this group of hippies in '68 and their attitudes towards love, life, God and war. It so brilliant… especially the music and dancing and colour and clothes all that great hippie stuff! WEHEY! So good! And well done Marie… You were outstandingly brilliant!
So I had a great Saturday night… how was yours?

Grr i'm on a stupid

Grr i'm on a stupid train and it's stopped. And it's not even a station. Michael Moore once said something like "maybe you'll get your trains running back on time. Or at least back on track." haha.
That's not a happy thought :s
but still. I digress not that i had a point in the first place. Oh but the trains moving now at least. Hooray! Oh and in crazy final news the guy opposite me has amazing hair. If only he knew he was about to famous courtesy of iamsparticus.co.uk

get your thinking caps on!

So I told you all about the calendar award I won, and went to collect down London way in January… well, just in case no-one believes me, here's the proof!
Unfortunately I don't actually have the calendar with me in that photo, so you guys can't tell me what you think of it and whether you, as members of the general public, think its marketable. I guess with putting it on the web though, I'd also run the risk of nasty people copying MY ORIGINAL idea!
Oh, and the crazy-brain-frazzled-mad-scientist-looking guy next to me, well he represents the company who sponsored the student category… be nice to him, he gave me £100!
Oh, and a general question to everyone reading this… as part of my next project at college (which also happens to be for the D&AD Awards) I have to design some free promotional postcards. You know the type you get in pubs, cafes, student unions or at the cinema… well, I would love it if you could think back for a moment, to the last time you picked up one of those postcards, and tell me why that particular one caught your eye. There will be a prize for the person who's answer leads me to my final design! Hee hee… happy thinking!

Blogging by mobile phone?

Blogging by mobile phone? Haha I think so. Woohoo who would have thought GPRS would have a point? Not me that's for one. Now if only i had something to say... Ah whatever! So cool.
oh i can think of one thing. It's snowing! Haha joy!

icey icey days

Yesterday it snowed! YIPPEEE! I know you all probably couldn't care less, but I'm excited!
I was in Loch Lomond over the weekend, staying in this big grand old castle of a youth hostel... its so beautiful there, by the lake with swans and lots of sheep! Oh and i found out this really cool thing... if you shout 'bunch' at a group of sheep they will all bunch together... no kidding! How cool is that!
So yeah, it started snowing as we left Loch Lomond which was exciting. Then as we got about 20 minutes from my house, still on the by-pass, everything stopped. All the traffic started crawling along the road real real slow coz all of a sudden the snow had turned to ice on the road and big trucks were slipping around the place! Quite scary but exciting at the same time! So we ended up taking 90 minutes to do a 20 minute journey, especially as our journey was made up of a series of hills too which didn't really help!
Anyway, I was sooo hoping that it would snow lots and lots more last night so that I couldn't get into college this morning but no such luck :( Booo! But it turns out that we've been given the wrong new time-table so without me realising it, we now have a very cool new multi-media class which I've been so looking forward to! So I can now just mess around with interactive animation type things all day - and say that I'm working! YAY!!
Oh, and on that note, here's a little link... Joe Cartoon ... very funny, entertaining flash - you must MUST visit!!!