17/07/2002 - Entry #15
Just what's so fucking "creative and challenging" about Neil fucking Young? Layabout waster.
So I'm not sick anymore, and I've finally managed to finish the model for work. I still have to texture it (paint it, basically), and possibly animate it too. But hey, at least it's moving forward. I've got about one week left to finish the whole thing, so I still need to get cracking. Yeesh.
I'm starting to worry about money. It probably sounds incredibly pompous and affected to say I'm only just starting to worry about money, like I've lived some kind of grand and magnificent life in my palatial home, but "it ain't even like that", as my ex-girlfriend would say. It's just that I have around £300 to my name, with no income. My Dad says he'd rather not pay me the child support he's kinda legally required to pay, and the Badlands work is pretty much unpaid. I'm gonna be leaving home again soon, since I'm only back for the holidays, meaning I'll need money for rent. I'll be moving in with Rich and his brother, Pete, so the rent is fairly favourable, but it's obviously a hell of a lot more than £300. I'd take out a student loan, but since I'm not studying this year, I'm not entitled to one. The only way I am entitled to any money, is if I get the University to accept Badlands as an official placement, in which case I'll be able to get a reduced loan. I won't get that until the end of the year, though. I can't take a full-time job and keep working for Badlands, which narrows my options. I'm gonna try and see if I can sign on for a job-seekers allowance, or housing benefit, or anything like that. But if I don't get it, then I'll have to try and get a job at the weekends maybe, which would obviously severely crush my free time to do stuff like this. Hmm. I'm worried.
For any of you who don't watch Oz on Channel 4, Tuesday nights, DO IT, you fools! It's one of my favourite tv shows ever, and it's just working its way towards one of its trademark climaxes. The racial tension after tonight's episode is at an all-time high, and I can't wait to see what happens next. TV at its best.
Hehe, everyone's favourite peaceful religious cult, the Falun Gong, are getting right on China's tits again. After they hijacked a number of television stations a couple of weeks ago and broadcast the message "Falun Gong is good" (in case nobody got my headline joke the other day), the Chinese government has once again attacked the group for "interfering with technology, agricultural modernization, entertainment and human safety." You'd think a three year crackdown on Falun Gong, including the outlawing of religious practice, would have slightly hurt the cult, but apparently not. They just seem to be pretty pissed off. Hehe. Bless 'em.
Chiv and Few have kindly linked to this article. "Domestic informants", eh? So essentially it's a giant neighbourhood watch scheme, in which anything unsightly is severely beaten, then? I expect sex offenders to be placed on the list of terrorist factions in the near future, possibly even named as one of the prime axis of evil.
"Paedophile you say? Let's roll!"
"Wh...you can't just barge in here like this!"
"Oh yes we can, Mr. Enemy of the State! Patriot Act, read it and weep! Ha! Where's your precious Allah now, freak?"
"Allah? But I'm Catholic!"
"Save it for the courts, God boy!"
*smack*
Not that there'd be a trial, of course. Ho ho, what do take them for, democrats?! They're an authoritarian republic now, fool. None of this voting malarkey for THEM. Why vote when you can scaremonger? It defies logic! No no, the proper way to run a nation is to deliberately capitalise on your citizen's incapacitating fear of anything and everything foreign, and use what little time you have to push ridiculous fascist act after ridiculous fascist act upon the populace. If possible, arrest random people in the streets on charges of being repeatedly foreign, thus milking the mistrust of certain minorities by painting them as the enemy in order to escape the public criticism that would inevitably follow if you tried to subjugate a section of society at any other time.
Then again, it's not as if this kind of thing hasn't been going on for years anyway. The knowledge of governmental systems of telephone-monitoring are publicly available. Random telephone calls are recorded and parsed through some computer, which listens for specific keywords such as "bomb", "whitehouse" and "Allah". Any phonecall in which keywords are found is flagged for a government official to review. Maybe I should recant my republic comment and replace it with "fascist regime". Let's see. Oxford English Dictionary:
"a political philosophy, movement, or regime (as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralised autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition"
"political philosophy, movement, or regime." Check. "that exalts nation and often race above the individual." Patriot Act, check. "and that stands for a centralised autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader." Mmmhmm, check. "severe economic and social regimentation." Getting there, check. "and forcible suppression of opposition." Sounds about right to me. Proof if proof were needed.
Obviously I'm deliberately getting at the current American government, cos I just plain don't like it (I never do). But still, the facts speak for themselves.
Also, while I was reading the above article, I noticed the other headline regarding John Walker Lindh, one of many Americans who fought for the Taliban. He's remarkable only in the sense that he's young, and fairly unremarkable at that. But what I liked was this quote:
"He played the flute and video and computer games - Splatterhouse 2 and Captain America & The Avengers among his favourites"
Now that's some journalistic genius right there. Firstly, Splatterhouse 2?! Splatterhouse 1 wasn't good enough for him or something? Lacking in splatter, was it? Did the makers of the game finally hit upon the winning formula of splatter that earned the accolade of John Walker Lindh's favourite game? Who the hell did make it anyway? Splatterhouse 2 isn't any game I've ever heard of. Surely they've just invented a game with as nonsensically violent a name as they could manage? And a fairly laughable attempt at that.
"So, what're the kids playing these days?"
"I dunno, I saw my nephew playing something the other day. God awful thing it was. Loud and obnoxious. I don't know the name. Un...Unreliable...Champion or something?"
"We can't run that, it sounds lame. Games these days are meant to be violent...like that Grand Theft Auto Pilot thing! We need a name that instills fear and scorn!"
"....How about Splatterhouse 2?"
"........Ah, sure, whatever. Let's go to lunch"
Secondly, Captain America & The Avengers? Where are they getting these games from?! Almost certain that 'Captain America & The Avengers' either never existed, or has been banished to such an obscure plane of existance for over a decade that nobody in their right mind has ever heard of it, I went looking for it. You'll be happy to know I found it. Head on over to this site and gaze in barely-containable awe at Jonh Walker Lindh's second favourite computer game, after the legendary Splatterhouse 2 of course. Gasp at the 8-bit graphics! Marvel at all 16 colours on display! Yes, this is truly modern gaming technology at its best, ladies and gentlemen. It's easy to see why such a visual masterpiece would be so close to Lindh's heart. You'll be sad to know that Captain America & The Avengers is no longer available to buy, its name never to be uttered outside of painfully manipulative news articles involving the concepts of "patriotism" and "America".
Please note, incidentally, the final remarks of the Captain America site above, and the overwhelming irony given the context.
Spurred on by the aesthetic magnitude of Captain America & The Avengers, I did a search for Splatterhouse 2, and lo and behold, it DOES exist after all. It too is an hilariously outdated computer game, dating back to 1990 (when John Walker Lindh was 10 years old, for the record). You can see the game here. I'm fairly damn sure nobody has ever played that game before. EVER. "Among his favourites" my arse. Among his favourites how? You mean literally among them? Like, he has a stack of favourite computer games, and somehow, inexplicably, these two games managed to get mixed up in there? Because that's the only possible scenario I can think of.
I'm assuming John Walker Lindh's favourite tv show is "Jayce & The Wheeled Warriors", and his favourite film "The Neverending Story."
Man, I love journalists.
Please sign the Guestbook. For the love of God, sign it now.