Refuge

I have now moved my blog to wordpress.com.  This means that all new posts can be found at the following address: http://jacobbutler.wordpress.com.

Before we begin - another quick notice. I have a new (extra) blog, located at http://balcoragate.wordpress.com. It's called Gateway and it's a place for me to post shorter, more "single-subject-orientated" (which is certainly not a word) posts. Right. On with the post (which is short today, due to the necessity of mock exam revision).

Whilst the title of this blog is Refuge, the URL is "retreatretreat.blogspot.com". When I started the blog I never mentioned why the sub-domain is "retreatretreat". So that's what I shall do now. It refers to a song named Retreat! Retreat! by Sheffield-based group 65daysofstatic (who I believe I have mentioned before). (In my opinion) its quite an incredible piece of music, though it my not appear so on the first listen, expecially for those not familiar with 65daysofstatic. In a way, it is even something of a departure for them. When set against some of their other work, the main theme which runs throughout the piece is remarkably simple, yet never boring. I once had the opportunity to see them perform live, which was both a loud experience and also very cool. Their web-site, which also functions as their blog, has audio and video clips which can be viewed free. The video for Retreat! Retreat! can be found at: http://www.65daysofstatic.com/video.php?u=retreat_retreat.flv&name=Retreat!%20Retreat!. The song which plays automatically when the homepage of their site loads (obscurely titled Install a Beak in the Heart That Clucks Time in Arabic) is also rather brilliant.

Just a quick word to mention that my brand-new, shiny web-site is finally up and running, at http://www.jacobbutler.co.nr.

Possibly more posts soon...

On a recent visit to Tate Modern in London, I was handed this as I entered:

And with good reason, considering the gaping abyss which physically (and according to the artist, metaphorically) divides the aforementioned Turbine Hall:

Clearly a health and safety risk. I'm surprised there wasn't a security corden keeping the vulnerable public back from this serious danger.

School starts again tomorrow. Weirdly, though, I don't have the usual gloomy feeling that I have at the end of a holiday. Maybe its a false sense of security, and the full horror of the change will hit me after the first day. Either way, it means more work, obviously. At least I think I now know what I'm doing at University. It will probably be computer science if I can resist the urge to change my mind.

In other news, an article on the guardian unlimited website lead me to a report by the left-leaning think-tank 'Compass', detailing numerous faults of Boris Johnson, MP, who is currently campaigning to be the Conservative candidate for Mayor of London. It's an interesting read. Boris doesn't come across favourably. I'll say no more. The report itself can be found here.

Hopefully I will still find the time to write here during school time. Not that the curriculum is incredibly strenuous, and that certainly doesn't imply I am at all bright, as familiarity with my school would reveal.

As I write this, a loud music event is taking place not far from my house. The key word being loud. Irrelevant, really, but it adds an unnecessary air of disdain.

I just came across an item on the "Have Your Say" section of the BBC News website, asking for views on the new gambling legislation in the UK. The "Have Your Say" "feature" of the BBC site causes me genuine annoyance. Their use of the imperative form is interesting. Do they want everyone, regardless of whether they actually know anything or, indeed care at all, to say something, just for the hell of it? One comment began with the words 'I'm not sure what to think yet'. WHY BOTHER WASTING BANDWIDTH AND YOUR OWN TIME WRITING THAT YOU DON'T HAVE ANYTHING TO ADD TO THE DISCUSSION? Seriously, though. What's the point?

Moving on, the reason I mention this is that it seems paradoxical for the government to allow advertising for casinos on television and still claim that children will be unaffected. They banned tobacco advertising. Then again, this is the government that supporting the Americans in actions that Dick Cheney himself judged in 1994 would lead to a "quagmire". How perceptive of Cheney to realise this so far ahead of time. And how extraordinarily absurd that this all went out the window nine years later. I was both bemused and unsurprised when I read this on MichaelMoore.com, a while ago. Anyway (my single most used word to link completely unrelated topics, or try to stop myself from go off on a tangent), I digress. Overall, it just seems like the gambling businesses are out to make as much money as possible, and the government is willing to do their bidding, possibly expecting support in return. I know. Sounds unlikely doesn't it. I'm probably just being overly cynical. Or realistic.

Silence. Well, they say it's golden. In my case, it's as a result of concentration on other things, like my various, but ultimately equally pointless essays, for school. I also got round to finishing the design of my website (www.jacobbutler.co.nr), then promptly decided to redesign it again, soon after having finished it. It's been an odd summer holiday. Most of the time after the trip to England, I have spent doing the above, and have only left The Hague once, and that was to get my hair cut in Rotterdam. (Indeed, I am so averse to change that I still go to the barber's I went to in Rotterdam, out of some distorted laziness which means I find it easier to take the trip to Rotterdam than to find one in The Hague. It was quite nice to go to Rotterdam again, though, with all the tall buildings and the 'big city' feel to the place. I've just realised that I'm still inside brackets. Better get out.)

Something which came to my attention the other day, and you will have to excuse my vagueness but I forget the precise details, was that some part of the Anglican church in America has allied itself with a group of churches in Kenya, due to what Radio 4 termed as their deep opposition to homosexuality. Normally I couldn't have cared less about this kind of thing, but it's funny (as in peculiar) because, unless I am being very naive (which is perfectly possible), saying you are opposed to homosexuality is like saying one opposes the Earth orbiting the Sun. Oh. What a minute. Bad example. The point is, opposing something does not somehow refute its existence. I assume their issue is really with their consecration in the church. It just seems like a peculiar way of saying it.