freedom of speech must be protected this is why

today I just want to say that I for one am welcoming bush’s visit. at last he has decided to mend fences. in iraq, although there is a long way to go, there is democracy, and I’ve always thought that democracy is a good thing. thus, the time has come to put aside our differences and work together.

surely this is a step in the right direction at last.

now this is funny!

i know i shouldn’t laugh, but it was funny. this morning for breakfast i had croisants, but my helper didn’t know how to cut them properly. sh tried cutting them sideways, like a rolll, and squidjing the butter and jam in, then cutting them into chuncks forr me to pick up. You know me – i slowly started to chuckle at these totally desecrated lumps of warm french bread. I then proceeded to eat them, getting rather sticky in the process.

i am currentlly having difficulties with my extended keyboard. it seems to be working now, but a moment or two ago it was going haywirde. too much dribble in it i suspect.

This May well amuse you guys.

this week is reading week. having written most of yesterday, i spent most of today reading. the fifhtieth chapter of summon the lambs appeared online, and it continues to be a sleek and sophisticated – and rather addictive text. I am also quickly finding how much off s git charlie chaplin was: mr. lynn’s biography of him exposes him as a hard and fast comunist. however, I’m starting to think lynn may be a little biassed. its still an exceelllent read though.

we just got back from my grandparents’ housse in london. my maternal grandparens arrived in london from cyprus in the late 50s, relatively poor. they met, and raised 3 children. these gave them 6 granchildren.

sitting in the front room of haycroft gardens an amazing statisic hit me: those grandchildren all hold or are doing degrees; 3 are doing PHDs; 2 wen to oxford. oddly, tho, I am unique in studying an arts subject.

Not bad for immigrants, eh mr. howard?!

Given the recent upsurge in the debate between Darwinism and Creationism, I will attempt to objectively compare and contrast the merits of the two theories. Both need to be given equal respect if one is to be methodical. However, if one has only empiricism in mind, the discussion will be one sided.

Working in the Galapagos Islands, Charles Darwin proposed that all beings on Earth had evolved, and were adaptive. This happens through the process of random mutation and natural selection. It follows that life on Earth has been in a constantly changing state for millions of years. This gives us a time frame from which to work from. The bible says, on the other hand, that the Earth was created 7000 years ago. This offers us a nice contrast which we can use.

First we can use plate tectonics as a test. The Earth’s crust moves at precise speeds, causing continental shift. There is strong evidence that Africa once met South America. Fossil remains of one species exist on both sides of the Atlantic, suggesting that they were once joined. At current continental speeds, they split about 150 million years ago.

This number does not marry up with Genesis. Moreover, the creationist claim that man existed alongside dinosaurs does not add up. Bones decay at a pre-defined rate, showing that the dinosaurs etc existed at a time which agrees with the tectonic data. If such fossils are only 7000 years old, then our theories about decay must be wrong. These decay rates are based on ions, which are part of nuclear physics. If these decay rates are wrong, it would throw all of physics out the window. The fact remains that there is no mention of such beasts in the bible.

WE see similar tales in Cosmology. When we look at the most distant stars, they appear red. The Doppler Effect suggests this is because the stars are moving away from us. Apparently when the paths of such stars are traced, they all originate from one point – the site of the Big Bang.

However, creationists claim that this evidence was planted by either God or the Devil to test our faith. If so, why did God go out of His way to so convincingly disprove Himself. All the available evidence points to a lack of God, from atomic physics to fossil evidence of ancient fish in the Himalaya. It’s true that I myself have heard this evidence second hand, and thus could have been lied to, but on the sheer volume of evidence 9including my experiences at Hebden) All my instincts rule out the existence of a creator. One can argue even with this, but then one might argue forever. What, then, is the purpose of asking the question?

I heard about this while I was eating breakfast. it’s quite an interesting project, and I think it would be good for preservation, which I strongly believe in although I reserve the right to eat meat. however, I think it’ll take two or three centuries to complete. good luck to the scientists!

Not that we see much of that around here! we at alsager are too busy playing football and hockey in the name of sport science to do much proper science. what the smeg is sport science anyway?

whatever it is, it seens to be rather noisy.

went 2c the tekkies about msn. said they’d get back fto me…on tuesday!

grr off to watch football

god frigging dammit. microsoft wants me to install the new msn messager, but my pc won’t let me because of the security protocol bullshit luke set up. now i can’t talk to anyone.

NOT FUCKING HAPPY!

I read last nnight that ellen macarthur has beaten the record for sailing around the world. she impresses me a lot. if it was up to me, i’d comission her as an admaral in the royal navy.

got into uni today to find that he work I emailed myself hasn’t arrived. bugger!

another 1500 word day. hurrah!

think i’l sleep well.

boy, did i overdo it last night? started off ok, but my friends kept topping up my beer. the disco was rather cool, and at one stage tthey played Greenday’s Basketcase, which is one of my all ttime favourite songs.

spent most of today reading: got through a fair chunk of the story of film by mark cousins, and thee chapliain bio arivedd so i rread two chapters of that. i forwent my nightly trip to tthe bar in order to read – its a fascinating work into chaplain, who, I already realise, was a very ambiguous, rather troubled character. the way Lynn uses reasoned, witty debate is marveloous. to top it off, i also read my daily dose of Palin.

quite, quite excellent

i’m very tense tonight. my arms are going into moro quite frequently, and my back aches. bed early tonight.

the library still hasnt got the biography of chaplain i asked for. i”n not complaning – i still think its remarkablre that i have access to any book I want. its by knneth s. lynn, who wrote an excellent biography of hemingway i read three years ago. I l=ooked hynn up on google: he was a conservative, although not a hard liner. this has taught me academic briliance has no reguard for politics, and somene might be conservative and still be invaluable. yes, i know the fact that i ofthen forget this shows how polittically immature I am, but hey, i’m learning.

this weekend, we went to visit kat amd mark in ushaw moor near durham. i like to visit my big bro – ok, we’ve dicagreed on one or two subjeeccts, but the fact remains that i’m dead proud of both my broothers. we got up early yesterday and drove up. i love car journeys – they give me a cjhance to read, think, etc.

got to their place – a smalll, homely terrace with fish – at about 11, and spwnt the rest of the day talking, wwatching football, drinking tea and readding my culture handout. m+k made a very nice lamb cobler, and I slept attheir place. (airbeds kick ass!)

this morning, mark helped me get dressed. it occcured to m that we hadn’t slept under the same roof since he left for oxford, when I was 15 or 16. hmm. I see far tooo little oof my brothers these days.. mum and dad slept in a local b+b.

having watched the australian open, we hadlunvh at a tres nice seaside resteraunt, ovvverlooking a calm north sea nder a blue sky. drove along the coast to the mouth of the tyne, round and back to shaw moor. we dropped m+k off, dad had a nap, and drove homee.

dad put radio 4 on. I must say the iraqi election seems to have gon ewell. I was against the invasion, but I believe democracy is the best form of government. for better or worse, iraq now has democracy, which is a good thing surely.

perhaps the yankss have been vindicated. hmm…

i’m currently working my way through the library’s collection of charlie chaplain films, and tonight I came across something quite, quite interesting. ‘a king in new york’ is one of chaplain’s later films – 1957, i think – and for once I was very impressed wwith it’s politicism. the film concernzs a depposed kingg who moves to new york. hre he’s a celebrity. while touring a school, he meets a young commnist, whose parents soon get tangled up in the mccarthy trials. the film has an anti-mccarthy feel, which given the times in which it was made, is both srprising and dangerous. chaplain himself was hauld in frront of those trials after the film was made, and I was surprised at the boldness of the film.

it’s certainly ignited my interest in ‘the little tramp’. i hope to get his biography from the library soon.

I fear the old addage is right – one can feel lonelyin a crowded room. for somee reason, i felt lonely at tonights disco. it started off ok – i went to the footie social, and had ben to the ffootie match earlier, but during the disco, i felt lonelyy. everyone was dancing, but i perched mmyyself on the pool table, watching. Fell off said table…bar staff madee executive dcision to send ‘matty’ home, couldn’t argue.

tired

i ache. went to the theatre last niight, as my friend nick said there was something good on. “cool,” i thought, “a relaxing night at the theatre”. while the thing i saw was in the theatre, it was not a play. there were no seats; the audience walked around a big box in the middle of the hall while four actresses climbed in and out of it, sayiing random lines it seemed. at one point we were ushered inside the box for more random line saying. all I could gather is that it was about a robbery at an art gallery. all the audience had to stand for the duration, about an our.

i ache all over.

in litle over 4 days i have finnished a 250-page book, which I haven’t done in ages. its such a great book, by turns life affirming and heatbreakingly tragic. I regret to say that it has imbued me with a distrust of medical doctors – the evidencce that anne macdonald was intelectually competent was abundant, bbut still the doctors of st nickolas’ (the hospital where she lived) refused to believe that she was anything other than severely retarded. apparently, shee had estimatd the speed of light from watching the moon landings, and had worked out pythagoras from the nappies they put her in. how ironic. I myst say that ii admire annes courage, and rosemarry crossley is now simething of a personal hero.

if reports that some 600 kids are still in long stay hospital are correct, it is surrely my/our duty to free them. annes and roses sheer determination and stubbonaess proove tha such feets are possible. whatt a great book. now, however, i must get back to studying…

this works aain, does it? good-o! well, better write something. first, libraries kick ass – been in the uni library lots this weeek. plus, they managed to get me a copy of the now out of print “annie’s coming out” from the british library. how cool is that?! its a seminal work on communication aids and disability rights; its also a bloody good read. I haven’t read for several hours straight since kenneth lynn’s biography of hemingway, but yesterday I read an entire afternoon away. bliss. next, alsager mmu won the interfaculty cup against man met. yaaay. went to see one of the football matches (boy’s 1sts), and we won 3-1. bill invited me along. yaay!

thursday night, the guys took me to a local pub for a bingo night run by a dubious-looking old man. had a great laugh making up on the spot poetry, chatting and getting drunk. last night, went to he charity disco in aid of the tsunami appeal. great fun. danced a lot. at one stage I had a girl on each arm. woohoo. pretty as [censored].

great fun!

if, last year, I saw that A is possible for me, and B is ‘normallly’ almost always an outcome of A first time, then nature demands ,that i go through B. therefore i reallise that everything following a natural course of events, and I tke it as proof that everything remains possible for me.

I can smile again.

lazy day today. been invited to a college footie match l8r, which I plan to go with mark s to. bill invited me. should be cool.

bought a copy of the independent today. we’re encouraged to do so for writing 1. needed a tabloid for purposes of dexterity, but i sure as hell aint gonna buy a trashy one. the lead today is on the courts marshal in iraq. we colonial british are back to old form, abusing native peoples in their own land. tea, anyone?

heart still hurts, but its on the mend. i feel rather cheerful. i can go back to ogleing girs without feeling guilty!

its pissing it down outside, and I’m sure as hell aint going out tonight. we just ordered a take-away pizza, kababs etc for our flat, to be picked up from reception by my home helper and unice, a mature a/b exchange student from oz who just moved in with us. i’m looking forward to a quiet night in,

the bar was empty last ight. everyone goes to a nightclub monday, and I’d need a p.a for this. bar empty, I had an idea. I went over to kellet to see my friend jenny. I told her the situation and she offered to take me for free! also, it seems a few of the guys might be going to the lodge tonight, and they offered to take me. i had been feeling somewhat lonely all evening, but that little walk to kellet cheered me up.

Reading michael palin’ss books at http://www.palinstravels.co.uk never fails to cheeer me up. for various reason’s i’ve been feeling rather down. I simply cannot stop worrying about life on the ‘net, and what fairly random people across the atlantic think of me. phuk knows why I worry about it – I just do.

However, I’m currently reading himalaya. Palin makes me feel walm, seemingly assuring me that there is a world out there. the following paragraph made me laugh out lound, and I’ll smile all day.

“The fort where the horse-eaters held out is still there, sitting low on a promontory round which the muddy grey river swirls. Its 25-foot-high, 240-foot-long walls still stand, but they look a little sad, with plaster cracked and fallen away, revealing the bare bones underneath. Groves of tall trees loom over the bedraggled ramparts and beneath them contented cows chomp their way through fields of wild cannabis.” woo. high cows! thats some wild shit!

as a blogger, and a human being, it is my duty to post the following link:

http://www.4christina.org

and don’t forget the people of southern aisia!

told myself I wouldn’t go online today. told myself i wouldn’t even turn the pc on.the last through days of my online life have been rather stressful. i’ve been fairly stressed outt, and have been moocching around the house all mmorning. I have finally located the problem. its time to hoist sails, if only for a while.

i need a holiday. a good one. no more cheeshire, no mooree england, no more stupiid blog. no more worrying about spelling. I want to see mountains and rivers and lakes. i want to drink coffee in rio; sip fosters in sydney; see the amazon. Iwant to go on mighty ocian liners in carribean waters, and walk anong the animals of the massai. this morning, mum challaged me. if I can organise a holiday, she will pay for it. what an offfer! just point me towards the airport.

of course, by their own admission, the parents are getting to ond to pull me up the andies, so I need a PA. any vvolunteers for an all/most expenses paid trip to…whherever the pin lands on my atlas?

last nights radio 4 programme on cosmolgy reminded me of how fortunate i am to have a genius of a brother. I guess I have forgotten that recently.Me and mark have had arguments over a few things – not least inclusive education – yet i love him. He’s the cleverest person I know. even though I doubt we’ll ever see eye to eye on one or two subjects, I still count im as a good friend. this, I think, Is the nature of true friendship, and I apply this principal to all friendzs and comrades.

Dunno why i said that, but it feels important.

ahh…radio 4 rules! whatever theyre talking about, I find it innately relaxing. nothing was happening at the bar, so i came back hear, and, since nobody was online, i started to stream radio 4. they were talking about relativity, and i thought about mark.

1 thing tho – when ppl come online and start chatting, streaming breaks down. d’oh

Yesterdays entry was silly. scratch that – yesterday was silly: I had a great afternoon in crewe with mark s., as I wanted to experience some cafe culture. Although mark pointed out that there was no such thing as cafe culture in cheshire as the mean age seems to be about 75, we went anyway, and spent a nice afternoon chatting and reading.

the silliness started in the evening. the usual disco was going, and I popped into brandies after tea. got the usual carling, sat at a table….went to talk to a few girls…they offered more beer…drank…talked more….bribed another beer from a girl whos e mum is one of my homecarers, and she doesnt want me to tell her mum she’s been smoking….drank ransom…more offers of beer. why couldnt I say no? mind, they were rather pretty,+ but, boy, do I have a hangover!

okok, call me an insecure idiot, mut I havent heard from becca since ysterday morning. its worrying me, because i don’t know if she’s not talking to me for some reason, or is just busy. ok, I know full well she’s busy, but the thought that i’ve done something wrong keeps nagging at me. mind you, I havent heard from mark and luke for longer, and I’m not worrying about them.

I mean, this is silly: to my knowledge, I haven’t done anything to offend her, and I know she’ll be fine. guess I just miss her.

if your reading this, becs, just leav a message so I know all is ok: that goes for Luke, mark, dad, mum, uncle aki, cyril, and all the rest.

ahh – I missed that. I just spent a pleasant two hours looking through back issues of ‘screen’ in the library. Alan gave us a list of theorists/writers to look up, so I hit the shelves. believe it or not, I’m well known in the library: I like it there, and two hours just slipped by.

film is halfway between science and art. many writers treat it as a scieence – or, at least, a pseudoscience – proposing theories and models, most of which stem from marxist, or marxist-feminist tradition. this includes the frenh new wave. i am really looking forward to getting to grips with it – head stuck in a book, as the sounds of the library murmer and grow faint.

peace.

Read this article – I’d want to know who can come up with the best punchline. becca is so far winning, with “He wants his head looking at!”

the second i walked into the canteen, it was like eric idle saying “cheer up bwian – you know what they say?” Suddenly, I felt happy again – people saying “happy new year, matt” or “thanks for that brandy”.I was among friends, able to go where I pleased. I chatted to trish, my culture lecturer, and all the worries of the world were gone. she made me laugh, for the first time in a couple of days, by telling me about her friends devil-cat; I told her about my worries, and she rminded me that everyone has such worries, not just cripples.

moping about the house for four weeks must have made me rather twisted and cynical. now I have all term here to look forward to: going to brandies, getting pissed, talking to friends, seeing two of everything. theres also lots of interesting work to do, essays to write, films to watch. I have soome great books to read, including “the history of tilm” by mark cousins. I began this on saturday, and it promises to be a very intereesting read.

so, in short, I feel back to my old self – no more moping, feeling sorry for myself: if i do, you know its high ime I headed for Brandies.

you are clearly a clever person. I like to think I am too. We can both see the absurdity of this: flame wars are something which ‘leet haxers’ – or whatever they name themslves – conduct, in a bizarre version of lip-flashing.

we are both university studentss. I am, admittedly, an arts student, but i have a firm belief in the socratical method. I would be more than willing to debate this issue through other channels if you wish. To be sure, I do not rightly see what i wrote on my blog which got yoou so adgitated.

I will, however, amit that I myself got upttight earrlier: although they do mollycoddle me, I do not take well to my parents being abused. my behaviour was indeed immature.

Talk online soon?

as a blogger, I have a right to extract what I will from other people on the net. i can interpret their work as i see fit, as I did yesterday with la guerra. Of course all fictional work is open to interpretation, and, according to most literary theory, this interpretation may not necessarily agree with the original author’s. moreover, once a work is out in public, it belongs to the public, not some irate premenstrual author. she knows who I am addressing, and on her LJ La Guerra has effectively declared aa flame war. well, she has one, and I will teach her not to make some stupid accusations