Wednesday Zeitgeist

Late to work this morning because of trivia. Well, to be specific, because of the many beers Charlie and I consumed at trivia. The CEO said I looked like shit, which is always a nice welcome to work. We did OK considering the dearth of maths and science questions and even I didn't realise that I know Geri Halliwell's new baby was christened 'Bluebell Madonna'. The dual curse of too much time trawling the blogosphere and a near-photographic memory*.

• Talked about starting our own trivia. With questions about the atomic mass of Uranium (238 from memory**) and the form of Mersenne Primes.
  
• The Mathematical Structure of Terrorism: "When classified according to their frequency and intensity, however, the events of any insurgent war appear to follow a power law".
• I present to you The DaVinci Load. Why do porn script writers (do they have writers?) insist on using their powers for evil?
• Another Sky Press ... alternative publishing and some free works.
• I got a pay rise on Friday. It's only a token and I don't know how much till I get my new contract. Thanks to Howard and IR. Our CEO basically said: no-one has any rights. We have to use the standard contract templates, and well, we're all screwed. Wonderful. Good news is that I am safe here because of my outstanding knowledge of motherfucking goddam ******* tax.
  
• Grease Monkey: a rather amusing comic with talking apes. Everyone loves talking apes, right?
• Another neat little web comic: Busted Wonder
  
• Not work safe, but SexPacking is the best clothing catalogue idea ever. Gorgeous people get nude and shag, and you can roll your mouse over the clothes strewn on the bed to check styles and prices. Genius!
  
• Listening to Boys Don't Cry (The Cure, of course) on Monday morning made me want to cry.
  
• I have this superstition about the first thing I listen to on Monday morning ... it sets the tone for the week, paints the scene. Boys Don't Cry was not the first thing I listened to, just so you know ... it was actually Storm by Godspeed You! Black Emperor. 20 minutes of orchestral rock anguish and delight. About halfway through it hits this crescendo that drags my tired Monday spirit soaring.
  
• Everybody loves recursion.
• And that's a TV Show waiting to happen!
  
• Oh my god ... have you seen Niki(?) from Big Brother UK?
  This and then this proves the theory of evolution can't possibly work. How can natural selection not have sorted her out?
  
• Those yankees! Warship built from steel from the World Trade Center. A certain macarbe poetry to that one. For some reason it reminds me of the Battle of the Pelennor Fields ... the forces of Mordor throw the branded heads of the dead over the walls. We take what you destroyed, build weapons and then invade your country. Or something. You know what I mean.
  
• yWriter: planning software for writing. Lets you build scenes, characters, move things around.
• Although I want yWriter to be web based so I don't have to worry about backing stuff up. Hmm...that's an interesting side project. I could make changes to MediaWiki. I already use a wiki for jamming with story ideas ... need some tools to facilitate getting a linear narrative out of it.
  
• The Cinematic Orchestra is rather cool. All Things To All Men is a cracking song ... Roots Manuva is wicked. And the drums! I wish I could drum like that. All, like, jazzy and stuff.
  
• I have to drink less. And I hhave to stop drinking so much on a school night. God. Oh, and the plot of last Friday has thickened considerably ... remind me to tell you that story.
• More coffee. Much more coffee.
  

* My memory is to photography what a camera obscura is to a 1 gabillion megapixel camera. But still, it's an OK memory.
** I checked. And it is 238 (give or take). Why the fuck do I know that?