not twisted, but sprained

17:9:2001 : cold :: link :: 16:50 Ooh! The BBC Archive Treasure Hunt. Got any episodes of Z-Cars hidden away? The BBC will gladly eat humble pie and copy them off you... Head like a hole. 11:46 Too ill. Cold/flu/thing. Head hurts, brain full, can't work. Arg.

16:9:2001 : blowback :: link :: 10:30 All is well in the cocoon. I didn't see much worldwide universal grief on Oxford Street yesterday; everyone, including me, was happily rushing around, getting on everyone's tits and spending vast amounts of cash as if nowt had happened. Arbeit macht frei, or something. "What price now for a shallow piece of dignity?" Things discovered so far this weekend: Thai vegetables + balti sauce = tasty but very crunchy meal. The dull thud of nostalgia programming won't stop: last night on BBC2: I Love 1994. Next week : I Love 1995 - the year I did my A-levels and went to university. Week after: I Love 1924 - Remember inter-war poverty, hunger and class divide, presented by Jeremy Beadle and Nik Kershaw. It's starting to get cold, and that means cold noses all round. Wrap up warm, everyone.

14:9:2001 : isolation :: link :: 10:00 "We must remember throughout that you cannot preserve freedom by eliminating it." The inevitable political backlash against encryption is starting. When will these people gain clue? Banning something only stops legitimate uses. Those who work under the law will by definition not adhere to it, and develop encryption of their own. The result? Regular users get spied on, and the spooks still can't intercept what they want. Everyone loses. 9:42 It's cold this morning. Had to break out my long coat to withstand the harshness of a North London dawn. The duvet didn't easily give me up this morning. Re: USA, I'm beginning to worry far more about the effects upon individual people. I sense a horrific Diana-esque mood about the place, and whilst grief is natural, it's also unsettling to think there's little else to talk about, to feel, to be involved in. I'm actively ignoring the media whirlwind, for I have a job to get on with and problems and priorities closer to me. Is that unfeeling of me? I call it pragmatism, and recognition that better minds than me are in place to make real differences.

13:9:2001 : black n' red :: link :: 12:20 So sell your suit and tie and come and live with me Leukemia schizophrenia polyethelyne There is no significant risk to your health She used to be beautiful once as well Plastic bag middle class polyethelyne Decaffinate unleaded keep all surfaces clean If you don't believe me, sell your soul If you don't get into it no-one will Radiohead, "Polyethelene Parts 1 & 2" 10:55 Voyeurism. We are all voyeurs. Media gives us this untold power to see and evaluate from afar. Once hooked, we can't get enough, and evil is interesting to the human psyche. I've lost count of all the links to material described with words such as 'horrific', 'disasterous', 'unreal', etc. Drugged on outrage; it's not a healthy way to be. The attacks in New York and Washington were not attacks against freedom, democracy, or any other meaningless political term Tony Blair may care to throw around. They were attacks on a nation - yet with 'Western' increasingly meaning 'America and those that cling to it', the UK is being allied with a country with a long history of using rhetoric to mask its brazen attempts to shape the entire world to its economic advantage. 'America' is not a synonym for democracy - it is a synonym for capitalism, globalisation (read: spreading of one set of cultural values and influence around where it's not wanted) and generally throwing your weight around. Yes, it is an unquestionable tragedy that so many died; but we must not let this cloud the issues of cause and effect that lead to these attacks. Nor must kneejerk jingoism give way to further persecution of innocent people. 9:40 Back. Craziness has dominated the past few days, both in the world and closer to home. We leave for Iona in seven days. I. Cannot. Wait. I have no desire to add to the whirl of hyperbole and fantasia that's currently whirling around; it sickens me to think that the recent Bangladeshi floods and the devastating earthquake in Turkey went virtually unmentioned in the mainstream media. It takes deliberate disaster on a Western behemoth such as the USA to inspire horror; proof that as a world, we're about as global a community as amoeba on Saturn.