Maycont2

It was a bit of a dull day, really weather-wise, so it was a bit daft of me
to choose today to do one of those touristy London things I had always
meant to do, but never quite got around to: climbing up to the top (well, bar
the cross, anyway) of St Paul's cathedral. It's one of those things you do
when you visit other cities in foreign parts isn't it, ascend towers and
look in awe at the rancid suburbs of Vienna, Chisinau or St Helier.

Anyway, the views were great, whether they were of the Holy Cathedrals
of Commerce to the east, looking over to the Tate Modern and the Milleniumm
                                                                                 Bridge,or further
                                                                                 across the river
                                                                                 to Westminster.These
                                                                                 shots were talken
                                                                                 with my digital
                                                                                 camera, by the way,
                                                                                 but saving them as
                                                                                 .jpg files seems to
affect the colouring somehow- I can't upload them as .bmp files either, so I'm
a tad confused. This is all getting too technical. There's also a shot here
of Nelson's tomb in the crypt. I assume he's buried in the
floor, rather than actually in that coffin-type sculpture on
the top, but I was too embarrassed to ask anyone.

    more info at www.stpauls.co.uk

On my way back to the tube,I found
that old habits die hard: I started
looking at some of the properties I
used to inspect in my days as a
Rates Officer. To the right is 85
Fleet Street, a listed building. I told
the guy who used to run a
newsagents kiosk on the ground floor to move his stock from
one of the rooms to another in order to save money. I wasn't
supposed to help out theratepayers like that, but he was always
so drunk that I kind of took pity on him.(Click pic for a better view)

back to May 4th-7th

to quick menu

Shameless Quote of the day:

"We're functioning with peacetime constraints, with legal requirements, in a wartime situation in the Information Age, where people are running around with digital cameras and taking these unbelievable photographs and then passing them off, against the law, to the media, to our surprise." Donald Rumsfeld

They're not really unbelievable, are they Donald? No-one's claiming these ones are fakes are they?Passing them off, against the law? Don't make me laugh Donald.

Should anyone be surprised that this has happened? Read this BBC report for some
interesting thoughts on the matter.

Being immersed as I am in youth culture, I
found something quite useful on the web the
other day: it's an automatic translator that
allows you to translate standard English into that commonly
used, as the website announces, by a 12 year-old user of the internet. It also appears to render English into that strange
written dialect that appears as text messaging on mobile phones.
Sadly, it doesn't appear to offer a reverse service, but it may have its uses. It could become a tool that is used as a kind of
Lingua Franca for the youth of our beloved, enlarging European
Union.

See, for example, how it translates Churchill's celebrated call to arms from our increasingly redundant mother tongue into this
newspeak:

"We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God's good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old."

becomes

BTW W3 SHAL GO ON 2 TEH 3ND WA SHAL FIGHT IN FRANC3 W3 SHAL FIGHT ON TEH SEAS AND OC3ANS WE SHAL FIGHT WIT GROWNG CONFIEDNCE AND GROWNG STRANGTH IN TEH ARE WE SHAL DEFEND OUR ISLAND WUT DA COST MAY B WE SHAL FIGHT ON DA BACHES WE SHAL FIGHT ON TEH LANDNG GROUNDS WE SHAL FIGHT IN DA FEILDS AND IN TEH STRETS W3 SHAL FIGHT IN DA HILS WE SHAL NAV3R SURENDER AND EVEN IF WHICH I DO NOT FOR A MOMENT BLEIVA THIS ISLAND OR A LARGE PART OF IT WARE SUBJUGAETD AND STARVNG TH3N OUR EMPIER BYOND DA S3AS ARM3D AND GUARDED BY DA BRITISH FLET WUD CARY ON TEH STRUGLE UNTIL IN GODS GOD TIEM DA NU WORLD WIT AL ITS POWAR AND MIGHT STAPS FORTH 2 DA R3SCUE AND TEH LIEBRATION OF TEH OLD WTF LOL!

Click on Sir Winston to try it yourslelf! RESPECT!

Not that the above needs any further comment, but my happy dreamings have been interrupted by another week. How very inconvenient. Now that I've sweated blood over another animation, here are some less than inspirational quotations I found hanging around the Web appropriate for the day that dare not speak its name:

Just because you're happy doesn't mean you're right

things are going to get worse before they get even worse

a straight answer indicates that the person you're dealing with wields no power

The only difference between Christianity and Consumerism is the lighting

Beauty may only be skin deep but the skin is the body's heaviest organ

Stupidity's cause hasn't been advanced much by its many martyrs

If you don't use your mind, someone else will

A Christian is a man who feels repentance on Sunday for what he did on Saturday and is going to do on Monday. (Thomas Ybarra)

forward to May 11th

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