The Swedish authorities have seized the servers for The Pirate Bay torrent site to see whether or not they have broken copyright law. And there we were, thinking it would be our last port in the storm. Chances are this will turn out OK, but the logic and sensibility of us internet folk never seems to translate well in 'real life'.
Today's media is up in arms about a 29 year old Bristol man who got stabbed in Knowle-West via some mentally challenged conflict. Let's put a few things straight: Knowle-West is the city's white ghetto. It's a shithole: it's where the council stick the white trash and no one actively chooses to live there unless they really have to. Over the last few years there has been a goodhearted attempt to create a community spirit, improve crime, reduce drug use et al... but when it boils down to reality, it's still a violent, dangerous shithole. That's South Bristol for you.
Nobody who knows Knowle-West can be the least bit surprised at this news story - in fact, people get stabbed in this city all the bloody time. As a friend of mine put it earlier: this is just a case they've chosen to highlight in order to humiliate the government's doomed-to-fail knife amnesty. Instead of tackling knife crime, why not tackle the causes of the violence?
Friday evening I went out with my co-workers, drank a little too much and fell over on my ass - tearing up my knee in the process. The two hours in Casualty were... fun? Slightly drunken? Shared with drugged/bleeding people anyway. I had an X-ray, and while there's no definitive diagnosis because of the swelling, they think I've torn something akin to a ligament and will be in pain for the next three weeks. I have an outpatients appointment with a consultant on Thursday, and probably won't be at work for at least a week. Here's hoping there's no long term damage, because I'm heading back San Diego in July and a damaged knee is really going to mess with my plans, not to mention my commission at work.
Oh wow. Stadium rock/heavy metal band Lordi actually won the Eurovision song contest, a show usually dominated by unbearably cheesy pop music. This is absolutely revolutionary - check their fantastic performance. I've been cheering them on for the last 3 hours! God bless every single Finnish person who got off their arse to make this happen.
The Flickr redesign went live this afternoon while I was at work. While I hate that Apple/the iPod has had such an influence on current webdesign, I think I like the new look of the site - it's like someone erased all the pencil drafting and we're left with this... borderless wonder. Still minimal, still colourful - and thanks to the lack of fuss, the photography itself is now accentuated even more than before. Quite useable, all in all.
The last hour of work tonight was punctuated by a resoundingly awesome, and very unexpected thunderstorm. Not much rain, but the thunder and lightning was absolutely evil - even cut a few of my calls off. It's in the process of rolling away now, just a few flickers of electricity now, but walking home felt like strolling through an impending apocalypse.
