| Monday, February 26, 2007 |
| I'LL CALL YOU |
I like my new telephone, my computer works just fine, my calculator is perfect, but Lord, I miss my mind! ~Author Unknown
I have a very chequered history with mobile phones. I didn't get one for a long time after everybody else had one. Eventually I was given one by my then girlfriend so I had no excuses to be out of touch.
That phone met with bad ending - which was a genuine accident - I dropped it down 5 flights of stairs.
I then didn't have a phone for a few months.
NOTHING BAD HAPPENED TO ME AS A RESULT OF NOT HAVING A PHONE.
The next one I got was a bit older. In another genuine accident I dropped it into a pint of water. End of phone 2.
I then didn't have a phone for a year.
NOTHING BAD HAPPENED TO ME AS A RESULT OF NOT HAVING A PHONE.
I was given a third phone and at a new year party a few people were arguing and they were all a bit out of it (Scottish new year parties are like that - they usually don't stop till about February). I tried reasoning with them and it didn't work so I microwaved my phone. This ended the argument and became the talking point of the evening.
I learned two things because of this...
1. Mobile phones that have been microwaved retain their heat for a long time.
2. Doing something stupid stops an argument more quickly than trying to reason with people.
I then didn't have a phone for another year or so.
NOTHING BAD HAPPENED TO ME AS A RESULT OF NOT HAVING A PHONE.
I honestly can't remember how I got the next one although I am sure I got it for free. I got a bit drunk and upset one night and smashed it.
Then I went away for a year (as I intimated a couple of posts previously) and my employers gave me a mobile phone. My friend in the place I was in was drunk and thought it would be a good idea to jump about on my bed. SHE smashed the phone.
And now I am home, and I don't have a phone again, but unless my work plans change then I don't need or want one.
Some people you meet are just permanently under the tyranny of their mobile phone. They spend more time sending pointless texts back and forth than they do talking to the people they are with.
Don't get me wrong, there are a very few situations where a mobile phone is both a useful and positive thing, but these situations are far fewer and further between than most people think.
One day I was taking a class and one of my students (she would have been about 19) said something along the lines of "I just don't understand how people lived without mobile phones, I just couldn't do it."
I stared at her for a minute and said "we used our wits."
Labels: mobile phone phones telephone cellphone |
posted by michael the tubthumper @ 5:53 pm  |
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| Saturday, February 24, 2007 |
| WHAT?????????? |
It has long since ceased to surprise me when our overlords do something despicable. The only thing that still surprises me is how little we tend to do about it.
I came across this in the Miami Herald yesterday...
Florida's prosecutors are floating a proposal to the Legislature to give them the power to secretly falsify public court records -- with a judge's approval -- for undercover law enforcement purposes. Read the whole thing here...
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| posted by michael the tubthumper @ 12:14 pm |
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| Thursday, February 22, 2007 |
| SO.... |
The 'Celebrations' for the 300 year Act of Union are about to begin. I can at least guarantee there will be no celebration of such a thing on this site. I made the picture above and it obviously still applies.
It seems though, that Prince Harry will be serving in Iraq.
We are assured that he will perform "a normal troop commander's role" which consists of "leading a troop of 12 men in four Scimitar armoured reconnaissance vehicles, each with a crew of three" from the regiment's "A squadron".
Furthermore, the Sun newspaper (sic) says that "Harry made it clear to defence chiefs he would not accept a compromise of doing a safe desk job in the war-torn country."
This all may or may not be true but I just can't imagine that he will not receive some extra degree of protection.
Nevertheless, this is all wonderfully beside the point. The people who won't be getting any extra protection are the people of Iraq who have been left in the most dreadful circumstances due to the effects of an illegal and murderous war.
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| posted by michael the tubthumper @ 1:27 pm |
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| Sunday, February 11, 2007 |
| ALL WHITE PEOPLE LOOK THE SAME |
I have been keeping a secret.
I have actually been out of the country for a year and only recently got back -that is why posting tailed off so much on the blog.
It is extremely strange to be home. To not be the only white person, to not be a lot taller than everyone (I am 6' 4").
Since I got home I have been seeing random people in the street and thinking I know them only for that to turn out not to be true. There can be only one reason for this...ALL WHITE PEOPLE LOOK THE SAME. It's the only answer I can think of.
Anyways, its nice to be home and posting will become much more regular again now that I am back...
Also, I learned a few things on my travels and one of them was that you should never overload your donkey cart...
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| posted by michael the tubthumper @ 4:28 pm |
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| What is Tubthumping and who is doing it? |
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Name: michael the tubthumper
Home: Glasgow, Scotland
About Me: Tub-Thumper - 1. A speaker or preacher who for emphasis thumps the pulpit; a violent or declamatory preacher or orator; a ranter. This blog will be a combination of reasoned posting somedays and an occasional rant.
28 years old, I write and research for a couple of websites and also do my own stuff.
See my complete profile
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| Thumping The Tub Video |
I have made a few short movies. Here are links to free downloads for them all in the order that I made them (as far as I can remember). Please feel free to use, distribute, disagree with, shout at etc etc
Praise The Lord and Pass The Ammunition
This was a REAL song from World War 2. I was so stunned by it I had to make a movie
How Far Is It From Here to Nuremberg
This is my attempt at a video for the excellent, if worrying, David Rovics (see links) song
What You Like
I believe the word for this is "splenetic". Only 20 seconds long.
Imperial Measures
What is going on in Iraq? Some things you knew, some you didn't. A couple of bits of info are out of date now.
Wish You Were Here
Wish You Were Here is a 6 minute film about the unprecendted rate of animal extinction we are currently experiencing
Gorillas and us
I don't like creationism, neither did Douglas Adams
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| Recent Thumping |
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| Older Thumping |
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| Links |
spinwatch
adbusters
internet archive
art not oil
blairwatch
bushflash
camcorder guerillas
corporate watch
campaign for press freedom
noam chomsky
common dreams
counterpunch
cost of war
david rovics
democracy now
dissident voice
the dossier
downing street says
etims
robert fisk
food not bombs
global research
gmwatch
impeach blair
indybay video
killing hope
lobbywatch
mediachannel
medialens
mickey z
mixed up records
george monbiot
mark thomas
john pilger
radio 4 all
schnews
snow shoe films
sourcewatch
tom englehardt
ukwatch
video activist network
howard zinn
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U.S. MONETARY Cost of the War in Iraq - other people are spending too, and the human cost is much higher
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| some of the blogs I look at |
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| Arse of the month |
The inaugural 'Arse of the month' award goes to our very own Scottish First Minister Jack (Joke) McConnell. He seems to spend a lot of his time sucking up to english politicians and yet it appears they don't even know his name. Follow the link to see..
NODOBY KNOWS ME
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| It's All Gone Scottish |
A list of some other Scottish sites and blogs most of which, if not all, are pro-independence. I don't agree with content on all of them obviously. Some are Scots at home, others abroad.
The Scottish Patient
Kim Ayres
Our Scotland
average tosser
1820
big stick small carrot
J. Arthur MacNumpty
World of Jack McConnell
The Firefox Chronicles
Independence 1st
Radio Free Scotland
Scots and independent
Scottish Independence Guide
TCOAW
Small Nation
Inveresk Street Ingrate
Radical Glasgow
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| Want to Swot? |
If you like this site and think it is time to start getting informed here are a few real favourites of mine that will help you blow away the corporate and government propaganda you are constantly bombarded with. It is added to every so often.
politics and the english language
Beyond Hope
the gore exception
your tax dollars at work
a cultural chernobyl
choose life (not trainspotting)
shooting an elephant
a war crime within a war crime...
the menace of liberal scholarship
the modern era of law
naming the problem
the four ages of sand
a news revolution has begun
come september
money is the cause of poverty
countering corporate power
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| Other Stuff |
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