August 21st 2008
Have you been watching a lot of the Olympics? I read a wonderful article by Mark Steel this evening. Here are a few quotes:
One morning, after achieving four straight hours watching the Olympics, I realised it was time to stop when the commentator said, and these were the exact words: "You have to say, that is a very important moment in the history of Algerian judo."
...When a British athlete wins, the most common reaction seems not to be an embittered gutteral "Yes – go on for Britain," but a share in the personal triumph as we learn about the athlete's background, the family that couldn't afford to go, her old schoolmates that cheered her on. If we personalised the foreign athletes, we might feel a similar way about them.
And in that respect sport is indeed like war. Because just as commentators are likely to shriek: "This is a fantastic run from Tidsdale, Tidsdale for Great Britain, what a run, oh Tidsdale, Tidsdale, Tidsdale, it's Tidsdale who gets a bronze, the winner's a Kenyan and then a Swede but bronze for Tidsdale," in war we learn of a dead soldier's grieving family, angry friends, devastated colleagues and sense the misery. But if it's foreigners we get: "Afghans claimed between 30 and 50 civilians, killed somewhere on a hill today. Now here's Alan with the sport."
August 16th 2008
Using the "Ink Incident flash file, I've created 3 new ecards and 1 desktop wallpaper.
The ecards are:
Happy Bleedin' Birthday
My Heart Bleeds For You
F*** Your F***ng War!
This builds on the success of the first splatter ecard which I uploaded on the 26th July 2008.
Apologies if the anti war one offends you, with the swearing!
August 12th 2008
Garfield Minus Garfield -- A new link: Garfield Minus Garfield is a site dedicated to removing Garfield from the Garfield comic strips in order to reveal the existential angst of a certain young Mr. Jon Arbuckle. It is a journey deep into the mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against loneliness and depression in a quiet American suburb.
August 11th 2008
Two new photo galleries: King's College, Cambridge, and some cows.
Plus, 2 interesting articles about shopping and children.
August 10th 2008
Two new John Pilger articles which made me go "wow!":
THE LIES OF HIROSHIMA ARE THE LIES OF TODAY
OBAMA, THE PRINCE OF BAIT-AND-SWITCH
If you have ten minutes to spare, try reading them. They might look long and imposing, but really, give it a go, you might surprise yourself...
