Scoville Units Unite

Catching up on my blog list has been fun. I was reading about the policy of E-mail zero where you aim to keep your inbox at 0 e-mails at all times by constantly properly filing your mail. Having fallen behind around 2 years ago mines is ever growing. I figured going for RSS zero was a first step.

My RSS reader now has 64 unread posts in it down from a constant of around 800 a month ago. Basically I had been stuttering through every blog trying to catch up and failing. I decided to work my way down, getting one to zero then trying to keep it there, rinse and repeat.

I managed this on all but one blogs, which has around 40 left and another with 8. These are all pretty heavy reading articles so I am moving through these less slowly.

After that I will attempt to tackle the yahoo account inbox (currently 6000+ items, 200+ unread). To be fair I have had the account for over 10 years. Hopefully when I get it to zero I can consolidate the mail I have and what I get to decide if I keep it or move to a better mail system. Given the time it will take I might migrate to Google Wave, which looks fantastic

Anyhoo, this was a long diversion to post praising one of the blogs I keep an eye on. Max Dunbar regularly posts on a wide range of topics including book reviews. His review of Terry Pratchetts Small Gods is absolutely superb and bang on the money. First review in ages to remind me why I love a book, film etc.

Wow, the reactionaries are really on the march lately.

Californias Supreme Court rules that no more gay marriages can take place.

For an accurate summary of this insanity see this Center For Inquiry post.

Can anyone point to an argument against gay marriage not based on religion. I have looked and looked but can’t find one.

Fred Phelps and his very close knit family have garnered yet more publicity for claiming to be coming to Scotland. Considering he was banned from coming last month it’s highly unlikely he’ll get here, or buy a ticket, go to the airport or do anything more than putting out a press release.

And what a release!

Yes, Westboro Baptist Church pastor and members will fly to Scotland and conduct these religious education, protest, and warning pickets; to wit: “Be not deceived; God is not mocked” Gal. 6:7. Scotland once blazed with Gospel light, in the days of the likes of John Brown and other able and sanctified Puritans and men of God. It is a moral and spiritual tragedy that such a matter as the pervert Scott Rennie should even be entertained. The curse of God is on Scotland. She is beyond redemption.

God Hates Scotland – Land of the Sodomite Damned.

Are you seeing a common theme with homophobes, and I don’t just mean their repressed sexuality.

Just found out that my Uncles brother-in-law Ben died today. He had been ill for a few years and was one of the friendliest guys you could ever meet.

He taught me to play Chess when I was 5 holidaying in Aviemore. It was something which really set the seeds for my interest in games, logic, maths and of course programming.

His son lives in Australia so the funeral will be delayed until he can return.

There are two stories about Perth today in the papers – both of which are horrendous.

The first has been overlooked by the national news: Woman beat for seven hours.

A woman was beaten for seven hours by her partner, the neighbours at around midnight heard cries resembling shrieks from a horror film. Neighbours were wakened by her screaming No, no. Stop..

Thankfully one of them eventually phoned the police at 7:30am. Why the fuck it took one of them 7 hours hasn’t been explained.

The other has reached the national news. Some cretins objecting to a bike race around Pitlochry spread tacks over the road on a downhill stretch. Hundreds of tires were punctured, not only on bikes but on an ambulance and police car supporting the race.

The only local quoted in the Courier against the half day road closure.

We may not leave our homes for any essential items and, much more importantly, the whole community is prevented from attending the Sunday Christian services.

I wonder if the roads would be closed and the residents ‘restrained’ if we were of other faiths or nationalities.

I was under the impression that we were attempting to fight discrimination. Perhaps not if you are white and Christian and don’t cycle.

What a maroon.

I am used to seeing all the scam letters from SEO companies guaranteeing first place on Google etc. Lately a friend has been getting pestered by phone calls.

Today she had one from Google.

Or at least a company impersonating Google.

The company was First Search Consulting (). A bunch of snake-oil selling cowboys.

I won’t link to their shit website as it:

• Plays music when you load it
• Doesn’t have valid HTML
• Will help them in search engines

Amusingly, like all SEO companies, their own search results are pitiful. The only search page keywords which get them on the first page of Google are the company name.

SEO isn’t the only thing they do though, oh no.

They also do Broadband and Web Design.

On broadband, they don’t actually have that yet, but they are taking orders for a too good to be true deal. Their expertise in the area shines through when they mention they need your MAC code, which changes on a monthly basis.

Fuck knows what they mean by that.

A MAC code in relation to broadband would be a code put on your network card when manufactured which stays the same forever unless you go into the guts of the software and intentionally change it. It certainly doesn’t change frequently never mind monthly.

But their web design side.

Holy crap what an abortion.

Their portfolio has 9 examples of their work.

None of which validate.

Nine of which have table based layout.

These fucking cowboys shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near computers.

Well I have just won my second competition in 6 months.

On the SSP site there is a monthly competition run with philosophy football.

I just won their Miners Strike t-shirt.

The new competition is to win an International Brigader t-shirt.
Edit – which I won too!

Not being on Facebook, posting this here is a little I can do to help. I would rant about moving into the 21st century, but it is a church we are talking about, moving out of the bronze age would be a good start.

Please sign the online petition in favour of Scott Rennie the gay minister who is in danger of losing his post within Queen’s Cross Church due to his sexuality.

Here is what you have to do:

1) sign up to Facebook

2) go to the petition created by Anne Gourlay and sign

3) In case anyone needs some background then this is a useful article

4) pass on this to your pals

Let the right one in is a Swedish vampire movie which has just been released in the UK. I had been interested in it since I read about it late last year and finally had the chance to see it when it was showing at DCA.

Unusually for a vampire movie the vampire and main character are both pre-teens. The dialogue was sparse with most of the characters feelings being expressed through their actions, the way they touched each other, glances, tapping on walls to communicate, little notes left – it is surprisingly sweet. No doubt this is part of the reason Hollywood is already remaking it – what do you mean there’s no witty sidekick or party scene!.

That was mostly the romance side of it, the vampire lore was excellent. I have been getting sick of vampire movies which have to be different by introducing new rules or breaking conventional ones. Sunlight was a killer, blood was required, a minion watched over the vampire during the day (who slept in a bath covered in layers of thick material with the windows covered), cats were not happy, those bitten were infected.

The best of all was the title piece – what happens when you are not invited in – excellent and unexpected interpretation. I had been so used to invisible barriers from watching Buffy.

Really worth the wait, I especially enjoyed it as between being ill over the past month it’s been a while since I touched any non-English films in the unwatched pile. I didn’t fancy reading loads whilst watching. Even though the film was close to two hours long the dialogue was so sparse that it wasn’t too much of a strain to ease back into the habit.

The other amusing part of the night was that on the other side of me from me was another couple. The woman kept jumping and gasping at all the semi-shocking bits, including a hit in the face for Oskar. It couldn’t have been more cliché if they had stood up clapping and cheering at the end. I had never experienced that before suppose I am so desensitised to horror and horror tropes* that I had forgotten some people do this.

* Whilst watching two horrors last week I kept going now or fake when the trope or twist on the trope was away to be used. Some of them were so appalling and cliché.

I just finished reading two books I grabbed cheap in Virgin, Zavvi, Head.

First up was Mark Thomas with As Used on the Famous Nelson Mandela: Underground Adventures in the Arms and Torture Trade. This was really interesting, funny and horrifying in equal doses. Some brilliant anecdotes of groups set up to take on arms dealers.

Next was Mark Steel with What’s Going On?: The Meanderings of a Comic Mind in Confusion. I had been looking forward to this as it covers the last ten years or so. Each chapter has a mixture of the disintegration of his private life, the disintegration of any lonely last principles in the Labour Party and the disintegration of his relationship with the SWP.

Each of these is quite depressing and bitter to read and the contrast of the three leads to a real understanding if what he has been going through.

Recently I also read Jack Jones Union Man: Autobiography and have just started on IOU: The Story of the Debt a book I got in Poundland and has a first chapter praising Bono so looks to be pretty shit.