Monday, March 17, 2008 at 07:39PM Warfare destroys incalculable numbers of lives every year, and the story below pales by comparison to the everyday tragedies that unfold on the news. Strange that the pilot should feel such guilt over one life out of so many. Sad and poignant that a writer's life should be so much more valuable than others.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article3564346.ece
Monday, March 10, 2008 at 07:23PM 
It was a beautiful morning. The air was dry as old bones and bitterly cold making the sky a serene winter blue*. Unfortunately I hadn't noticed; a problem at the office was working me over. Most of the way through my double expresso, one of the wild stories that Terry Pratchett writes about leapt upon me. Stories like this seem to lurk in coffee shops; slightly wierd and needing just long enough to finish before my morning parking space stops being free and therefore infested with traffic wardens. When it was done, my problem seemed somehow diminished - avenged even - and I realised what a lovely day it was after all.
It's here and its completely free-as-in no-really-its-free and I dedicate it to some people who really ought to know better**.
* like that amazing blue jelly* that you used to get in the seventies that was probably made from whaleskin and refined carcinogens.
**there is nothing wrong*** with my the aforementioned people, they just had a bad patch, but it's better now.
*** oh so sack me
Saturday, February 2, 2008 at 10:35AM At the risk of sounding like the a total internet saddo and getting myself on the suckerlist of every badass scamgeek in the room, I'm going to make the following admission.
I'm so pleased I'm dribbling.
So, Icarus, why have you decided to demean the excellent and growing reputation of Icarusquay to the point that, yeah it may in fact jump the shark?
I'll tell you why.
I broke my achilles tendon last September. While that's another story and forced me to chill for a few weeks, one of the plans that it laid to rest was a trip to see the Terracotta Warriors (wiki) at the British Museum (wiki). I'd promised to take my Mum for whom The Smoke is a place of bestial evil which dare not be assailed without an escort. Too right. Unfortunately my partner would also rather put out her eyes than go to London - quote 'there are people there' so plan B was a non-starter. I promised to rearrange and sold the tickets on fleabay.
At face value.
They sold in 8 minutes, proving that I am a Muppet.
'Damn', I thought, 'I got the price wrong again.'
Anyhow. That should have told me something. So when I came to re-book tickets, they were sold out. So I went back to fleabay. Now my naive mental processes go like this - I sold at face value, lots of other people will be doing the same. Okay so I'm actually an idiot and I deserve to be on the suckerlist of every badass scamgeek in the room. Not only were the prices totally nuts, the tickets were all for 3.15 am on a Sunday, with the attendant risk that either I, or my Mum, or both would be so knackered that we would fall asleep and in fact be mistaken for one of the exhibits and sent back to China in a crate.
So after much searching, I went back to the ticket office and guess what, there are still 10,000 tickets available, but you can only use them if you have a Sainsbury's carrier back from circa December 2007 (which is pre-history for my up-to-the minute pre-senile meta-singularity mind). So back I went to fleabay again and - wonder of wonders - people are selling Sainsburys carrier bags. On fleabay. And I bought two. For £10 each. In the peak-demand-pricing, fast-buck world of today, that saved me £60. No really.
And its recycling too.
They arrived yesterday and lo, I was filled with joy. Which goes to show - in this time of traders trying to loose a billion dollar profit because they weren't authorised to make it and possibly triggering a global recession - value is not always where you think it is.
Thursday, January 24, 2008 at 10:06PM The Register used to be a good read, but it's jumped the shark and off my shortcut bar which needed a prune anyway. Why? Because of poor quality peices like this, with some responses here
It's not the attack on Pullman which bothers me, he's big and ugly enough to look after himself. It's the sheer drivelry of the argument that finally did it for me. Its badly written and childish, somewhat like a vandalised wiki page or a dodgy Amazon review. I like to think that when I get to a website, someone, somewhere has tried to impose some kind of quality standard. Incidentally, I notice from Orlowski's wikipedia entry that he thinks wikipedia is 'undergoverned'. Pot. Kettle. ROFL.
Friday, December 21, 2007 at 08:56PM Japan has decided not to hunt humpbacks at all (this year) no doubt disappointing the discerning diners of Kyoto. All of us at Icarusquay feel that this is a result of and vindication of our campaign on this blog.
Yay for us. Kind of.
Anyway, I notice they are still killing the other whales. Political sleight of hand? Couldn't possibly comment.
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