2008 #40 - No

Interesting week. This evening I watched Bush almost apologetically talk about the failure of the 700billon splurge thing. Apologetic it seemed towards the people that didn't want it. Desperate to save the people that seem to be saying they don't want to be saved. Desperate to save the people that knowingly participated in the years of madness and probably don't deserve it.

People are far too quick to discount the bail-out because it's for the banks. Why should they prop up the banks? In reality listen to what's being said and it's to create stability for the people of the US. You can ride it that far without much difficulty. This is why both presidential candidates can support the idea though they're supposedly opposites. The easiest argument against is that a failing business should collapse. This is how the market is supposed to work. Propping it up is artificial. The justification for this is that more than just the businesses will collapse. Everybody else's finances will too.

Or will the hardest hit actually be the people that took the most advantage, spending non-existent money on more than they needed and certainly more than they could genuinely justify being able to afford.

I'm not entirely decided on this issue, but as you can see i'm swaying towards the "let it burn" camp. This, however, is a luxury I have, not being American. How i'd feel were I over there, it's harder to say. Thankfully in the UK the government has far less interest in public opinion, and we're already on to the second bank with minimal consultation. Once we add it all up, as often is the case in these UK/US comparisons, we'll find ourselves with a figure around 50% of theirs even though we're about 20% of their size, no doubt.

On to more important matters.

1. I ate well last week. Home cooking from the past Sunday provided 3 meals for the more recent period, all healthy enough. Portion-wise I could stretch this pans worth to another meal, but there has to come a point where I admit I just can't eat the same meal five times in a week. I need to buy some freezer bags. Work food ethic is going well enough. Overall not as good as it's been, but still not bad.

2. I've not played for 3 days now. Rule stands.

3. This rule, as mentioned last week, is done. I will skip no.3 from now on.

4. Went for a night out in Birmingham. Turned into a Snobs type night. My jesus I hate that fucking place. How did anyone convince so many self-absorbed arseholes to walk into one building in one night I have no idea. Subside however is still a very nice place to relax to some metal. Good to see people I rarely see. Seem to have started a war with another friend (or perhaps not) on Facebook. All good. Very high school. I am taking the high road and ignoring it (which is a secret low road cos I hope that pisses her off). I do like people. Just not all of them, and not all of the time.

5. My playing has been improving again over the past week. When the right combination of motivation, pick, string and even hardened fingertips come together I can actually sound pretty good. My singing voice seems to be shit at the moment. I wish I could find some consistency in that area. I almost wish more for that than guitar skill. Do like singing.

6. Getting into my work over the past week. It's been quite interesting. Trying to meet the work goals in doing this, although predictably the real work gets in the way a little. That's not unusual.

7. Most thinking this week has been economic. I have resigned myself to waiting for the clarity we seek at work before deciding how to proceed. I might go back to my early tens plan of moving to the West Midlands, but I'm only luke-warm on the idea.

8. Didn't manage any exercise. Full stop.

Anybody reading this can't fail to notice that my goal reviews have been a bit lacking in focus over the past few weeks. This is partly because it's getting old writing the same stuff, partly because i'm just not doing as much towards them as I should be, and partly because i've lost sight of the purpose of some of them. I promise next week i'll try to do a longer review and get back to the actual points. Not tonight though. Incidentally I suspect I might have a faulty gas appliance. If I never write to this blog again, you can assume it killed me tonight.

Final thought (you know, in case I die): Democracy seems like a crock of shit much of the time and it comes in many flavours and degrees but for a brief period last night a democratically elected representative government appeared to work in the US. People said no, representatives said no, so the answer was no. Watching the anger was refreshing. It almost feels as if something big might be happening.