I've been totally neglecting this place, haven't I?

Um... work is as usual. Finished and informed everyone of the new Style Guide, but it seems everyone has pretty much ignored it going by what's appearing on the site when I'm not there.

It's too fucking hot to do anything.

I've had one driving lesson, and have another in half an hour or so.

We bought some drawers on the weekend, despite heading out to look at cots and strollers.

No progress on the recording front.

I've decided to try and watch all four previous seasons of Lost before the new one starts. It's perhaps the only show that requires revision before each season.

I've made about $4 from Google Adsense from fightingdantasy.blogspot.com to date. That's about 10c an entry. Bought a whole heap of the books I'm missing.

And woo hoo, Blur are back together. Finally.

Yah.

But I haven't really been in the mood to. But this is interesting: I turn 10,000 days old on Friday.

So is this thing I found; no prizes for guessing what it's a parody of...

This is a tale explaining the manner in which My way of life was rotated along a Y axis until it reached a position roughly 180 degrees from that which it started If I could have 60 seconds of your time, simply place your posterior in the selected location And I will relate to you the details of how I was made the male monarch of the district of the City of Los Angeles, California commonly referred to as Bel-Air (coordinates 34.08333 -118.44778)

In the western region of the “City of Brotherly Love” known as Philadelphia my mother expelled me from her womb and indeed that is also where I spent my childhood in my mother’s care The majority of my time was spent in a recreational area containing such diversions as a jungle gym, swing set, sand box, etc. I was typically at the height of leisure while frequently at a temperature slightly below what might be considered standard room temperature Outside of my educational institution I was engaging in a game of basketball with some of my friends When a couple of gentlemen who seemed to be of the disposition to cause a great deal of mischief Began causing a great deal of chaos and disharmony in the area in which I lived I was involved in one rather small bout of fisticuffs after which my mother became concerned for my general safety and well-being And she informed me that I would be moving in with her sister and her sister’s husband in the previously mentioned community of Bel-Air

I puckered my lips and exhaled forcefully to produce a shrill note in order to gain the attention of a taxicab driver and as the driver approached I observed his California vanity plate which in place of the traditional jumble of alpha-numeric characters, used only the letters F, R, E, S, and H, spelling out the word “fresh” and from his rearview mirror dangled a pair of oversized, fur-covered cubes decorated to look like the six-sided dice commonly used in gambling and board games In such a situation I could have made a statement about the unusualness of this particular taxicab to the point of it being nearly unique Instead I cogitatively decided against it and instead informed the driver that he should deliver me to what was to become my new home in the community of Bel-Air

We pulled up to a large domicile sometime between the hours of 7 and 8 o’clock And in a loud tone of voice I informed the cab driver that at some undetermined point in the future I would again detect his odor through my sense of olfaction I gazed about the region of land that I was destined to rule, reflecting on my arrival Where I would claim my rightful place upon the throne, from which I would govern the community of Bel-Air as monarch.

So yeah. I'm going to go back to filling in the hours with meaningless activity.  I might post later.

...layout. That last one just wasn't quite doing it for me. Or the IE, Win95, 640x480 computers at work. Cause there's nothing else to do there on weekends at the moment, especially when you can't hear the music you're playing cause of the renovations upstairs, and the customers are barely able to stay more than two minutes.

I'm not gonna do the course. It's too short notice, and in four weeks no doubt I'll have something else to fetish over. It's the way it always has been and always will be. There's another intake in July, if I'm still keen by then. Somehow I feel being 26 and earning minimum wage will be all the motivation I need to sign up then, considering it's entirely feasible I could earn more per week on the student allowance and working part time, with a pot of gold at the end of the tunnel. Or rainbow. Or whatever it is I'm supposedly following.


No one should have to work in summer. It's too freakin' hot. Let everyone go on holiday, and if anyone wants to eat, they can make their own food, or find someone like the ant in that fable by Aesop, and bludge off him.

Do you ever get the impression that some people just aren't as bright as they think they are? Actually, I'm sure dilbert_blog covered this already. Damn. But anyway, I'm sure my particular take on it will be different. And more basic.

Basically (see?), there are multitudes of people out there who can't spell, use correct grammar or punctuation, or understand logical philosophical arguments, yet they somehow manage to function as a part of society just fine. They get good jobs, bring up children, make important decisions... without screwing up. I'm not saying that the ability to spell is directly useful in any of those things, but if someone isn't able to tell the difference (and yes, there IS a difference) between your and you're, how can we know they can tell the difference between, I don't know, purple cordial and methylated spirits? The brake and the accelerator? Right and wrong? Okay, so the difference between right and wrong is a little more debatable than that between cordial and meths, but that's what makes it even scarier. If I can't tell the difference, with all my spelling and nunchuck skills, how can an idiot?

Sometimes I just feel I've made a lot of bad decisions, without realising it at the time. Not like, 'hmmm, I wonder what will happen if I puncture my heart with a pair of scissors,' type bad decisions, but big picture types. Like, going back to uni for a year and a half for no apparent reason, or making a big deal over things that really weren't in the grand scheme of things all that important. Those kinds of bad decisions. Yet, this whole time, people who not only didn't care about stuff that didn't directly affect them (and whom at the time I figured were heartless fascist assholes), but whom also couldn't string together a coherent paragraph in writing, these people have been making advances in the world, getting good jobs, cars, houses, the lot.

Maybe I just think too much. As I mentioned in an earlier post, when tested for my strengths and weaknesses by the computer training centre in regards to reasoning and logic, I got a perfect score, in half the time available. So why can't I make a logical, reasonable and quick decision when it comes to organising my life?

Well, I'm writing this blog entry to distract me from tidying the house, so it's probably cause I'm lazy :p That, and what seems logical at one point often doesn't, come another. Ah well. Sometimes I think being an idiot would've been easier, but only if I was never anything else - there's no use becoming one, cause then I'd just miss what I used to have. Despite this, I often think it's happening anyway, whether I like it or not.

What is up with the phrase, 'the exception that proves the rule?' It makes no sense. Does anyone know? Cause if I have a rule, and then I find an exception, then as far as I'm concerned, the rule is void, or has exceptions. Does a rule have to have exceptions in order to be a rule, as the phrase implies?

A wikipedia search for 'the exception that proves the rule' brings up the page for Candida Doyle, the keyboard player for Pulp. Okay... A google search brings up a page that explains the phrase is descended from the latin, 'exceptio probat regulam in casibus non exceptis,' which translates as, 'the exception confirms the rule in the cases not excepted,' which to me sounds like a phrase no right-thinking human would ever have the need utter.

Turns out no one these days ever uses the phrase in its original context - that when the rules are bent, pointing out the exception implies there was an original rule to be bent, and that making it clear the situation in question is an exception to it reaffirms there was a rule to bend in the first place; hence, 'the exception confirms the rule in the cases not excepted.'

It does not mean when something unexpected happens, this proves what we expect to happen normally does so according to some rule.

I'm doing the later shift thing today, it's about half past seven at the moment, and no one has been in the store for the last hour, bar two little English girls aged about 6 and 10, who listened to Avril Lavigne, Robbie Williams and Neil Young, yes, Neil Young, and didn't buy anything.

Which means I suppose I can choose to play anything I want.

I was browsing through tariqa 's friends page and came across an entry by gettingstronger  about religion; Jehovah's Witnesses, to be exact, but it doesn't really matter what denomination of which branch of whatever Abrahamic religion is being discussed, cause there's nothing like a good religious flamewar to get me excited (and the ones on fark.com are always already godwinned by the time they hit the main page).

I once 'converted' a friend from atheism to agnosticism through pure logic, which was pretty simple really. Here it is, copy and pasted directly from my old blog.

"Athiesm is flawed because it assumes that you know with 100% certainty that a deity of any sort does not exist; the only way one could know this is if they were omniscient (all knowing). To be omniscient and knowledgeable to this degree, one would have to be in possession of some kind of supernatural power - ie, a deity. Being a deity to prove atheism is a paradox. Therefore, to be an athiest is to believe in a paradoxical situation, and illogical".

Hehe. So that's atheism out of the way. As for organised religion, most people who believe a particular way do so because their parents do, or the society they were brought up in does; they then refuse to change, much in the same way people who grew up in the 1970s often refuse to believe any band could be better than Zeppelin. Now, Zeppelin may be gods of rock and and the creators of heavy metal, but they're not gods in the sense of being omnipotent creators of the universe. It's okay by most Zeppelin fans for other people to like different groups, like Duran Duran or Rammstein. They're not gonna go to hell for being into Nickelback (unfortunate as that may be), just as they themselves aren't going to Heaven simply by liking Zeppelin above all others; by stairway or otherwise (couldn't help it).

Religious people are different though. They do believe they're going to a better place once they die - why else would they go for it in the first place? However, the vast majority of them also reckon non-believers are NOT going this fabled better place. Now lets say I was born somewhere in Jordan/Palestine in the 12th century, or thereabouts. I'm gonna be a muslim, right? I mean, the only christians I'm ever going to meet are going to be sword-carrying knights here to reclaim 'their' land by force, which isn't a particularly good image in 12th century Islamic Palestine. Now lets say I die when I'm about 25, kicked to death by an angry camel or something.

So, I get to the pearly gates, and it turns out Rastafarianism is the one true religion. I'm all like, what the hell? How was I supposed to be a Rastafarian? Haile Salassie isn't even born till the 19th century. As a result, I'm not allowed into Heaven. Or the Mormons had it right. Once again, I'd never heard of Joseph Smith... Or even Christianity, which I'd heard of - unfortunately, I was born in 12th century Palestine, raised Muslim, all my friends are Muslim, everyone I know is Muslim... the Christians were these white assholes who came and killed people and pillaged the land, and didn't follow Mohammad, like EVERY SINGLE OTHER PERSON I'd ever met. Why would I be Christian? So instead, I go to hell. Thanks for giving me a chance, Jesus H. Christ

Why else would most of the Muslims in the world live approximately in the same area? Most of the Christian societies together? It's not out of fear; people do intermingle, particularly nowadays. But chances are, you meet a white American, if they're religious they're gonna be Christian. If they're Arab, there's a good chance they'll be Muslim. Meet an Indian, they'll be Hindu, most likely. If religion was something people actually chose for themselves independently and without outside influence, based only on the 'facts' and beliefs of each, you wouldn't see so many families and societies consisting so predominantly of a singular religion and/or belief system. In other words, people, on the whole, believe what they are taught, and find it hard to admit what they've believed all this time, what everyone around them has told them could be wrong.

BUT... due to the argument above in blue text, at the same time I can't discount any of the religions as being false. Just cause it's popular/bigoted/unlikely, doesn't mean it's wrong. Perhaps I'd have been lucky to be born in 12th century Palestine, cause if Islam is the correct religion, chances are I would've been pretty devout. But I wasn't, so I'm instantly condemned to wherever it is infidels end up.

Lets say one day a scientist proves a particular religion to be the correct one. Would everyone convert? No. There are people out there who still believe the Earth is flat, you know. Would this discovery strengthen the church/heirarchy of the particular lucky faith? No. Suddenly everyone would know exactly what it is they had to do in order to ensure their lives are lived correctly. There would be no need for the church/religious leaders at all. This sounds logical, no? Science would be able to tell us exactly how to live our lives. So, if we were 100% certain our particular faith was true, we wouldn't need to be told what to do. If this is the case, then why do people go to churches/mosques/temples at all?! Churchgoers I assume are 100% sure they're believing in the right thing, in which case they shouldn't need to be told by a pastor about their beliefs. They should already know.</font>

I can only gather from this that not even people who go to church are 100% sure they've chosen the right religion, in which case, the one true god is gonna be pretty pissed off. I, the agnostic, would probably have a better chance of getting into heaven. This leads me to my next piece of logistic deduction:

You don't need to have faith in something that is true; it just is, faith is not required. Churchgoers are told they need to have faith in Jesus; this can only lead to the conclusion not even church leaders are entirely sure what they teach is correct. And if church leaders aren't sure, then why the hell should anyone trust them? And if church leaders can be wrong about one thing, how can anyone know they've got anything right at all?

Cause it's what people have been brought up to believe, and they're too afraid to admit everything they've been taught might be wrong.

This entry got a lot ramblier than I expected, cause it's been truly dead here at work. Three people have been in here in the last hour and half, and no one has bought anything. I've got another half an hour in here, so I think I'll just go read Star Wars stuff on wikipedia. Did you know New Zealand has the highest number of Jedi per capita in the world, according to the latest census?