Sick, Sorry And Tired

Watched 6 episodes of the BBC comedy series Red Dwarf. Didn't eat anything.

Today a British soldier died in Iraq, bringing the total to 100. More than 100,000 Iraqis are said to have been killed as well as several thousand US soldiers.

Started writing a huge list of tech stuff that I want to learn about over the next few months. Will post it here soon.

Recently I have been eating very little apart from the following:
Soup
Chocolate
Paracetemol

Still can't sleep much.

Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)

Although I woke up many times during the night, feeling fevorish and bored, it was so bad because I was never cold(as I was in a sleeping bag)

While trawling through Wikipedia I discoved a link to Tim Wright's website, Cold Storage Tim Wright made the music for the cult Amiga game "Shadow Of The Beast II". I downloaded a couple of MP3's of the soundtrack to Shadow Of The Beast II and listened to them off and on all day. The game has been a huge influence on my life, and the name Karamoon was taken from it. Reason enought for you all to learn about the game, play it, listen to the music and buy the t-shirt.(they go for about £40 on ebay)

Watched a Jonathan Meades documentary called "Meades Eats: Fast Food" on BBC4. It was all about English people being crap at cooking, eating and buying food. Yet again all I can say is that Meades is God.

Off to watch the new series of "The Mighty Boosh" on BBC2, one of the few comedies in recent years to be worth 30 minutes of my life. Good night, and good luck.

Friendship Month

Met my friend Phil for lunch to plan our radio show. We got a lot done and I feel we have a good chance of getting a show. Initially the show would just be for four weeks as the radio station will be using a temporary license but later it would be every week forever:)

Ate lots of soup today, and some bad curry. Drank two pints of coke, some Lemsips and some hot chocolate. Avoided sweets, so maybe things aren't too bad.

AG emailed me this evening. Among other things, she said that she is going to dedicate the whole of February to keeping in touch with her friends by email, phone, letter etc. I too am going to do this. February is going to be my first and last "Friendship Month". From March onwards I'm going to be super-organised:
I'll use AIM/ICQ, MSN, Tor etc.
I'll start using VOIP
I'll send a card and letter to everyone who's address I have
I'll post to my blog at least twice a day
I'll call a friend at least once a day

Yet again I'm going to have to sleep in my sleeping bag, wrapped up in my duvet, just to have even the smallest chance of staying alive during the bitterly cold night.

Sleepless in C-attle

When I went to bed at 1:30 this morning, I knew that the only way I was going to survive would be to climb into my 4-season sleeping bag and then wrap myself in my 13.5 tog duvet. I still spent most of the night awake and in pain. My throat is so sore that, in my half-asleep state, I kept thinking I must have stabbed myself in the neck, possibly as some kind of protest against the rising cost of chocolate.

Breakfast this moring consisted of "Tomato Rice Soup" which I'm told is a well-know American dish. It was jolly good for something that came out of a can. A bit like my past.

The Dead And The Dying

I'm feeling truly shit. 'Flu, a sore throat, insanity, general irritability and bad hair are all conspiring to kill me. It's possible that I may last a few more days but, in case I don't, please take this opportunity to post some comments on my blog and email me: karamoon (at) gmail (dot) com

The sky was beautifully clear tonight so although it was fucking freezing, I spent quite a while watching the stars (and discussing the possibility of hijacking a space shuttle) with my friend Yoshiko.

On Tuesday I called British Telecom to inform them that the light and windows in one of my favourite telephone boxes were broken. The woman I spoke to claimed it would be repaired in couple of days. I assumed that she was on another planet yet today I noticed that they telephone box had been fixed. It just goes to show that I am great.

No More Nukes

Attended a meeting tonight about the Faslane 365 campaign. Faslane is a nuclear base in Scotland, it is home to some of the UK's Trident nuclear missiles and submarines. Faslane 365 is a campaign to blockade the base for a whole year, starting in October this year. I'm not sure if such an ambitious project can be successful give the apathy in this county, but it will certainly be interesting to see what happens.

I had a nutritious dinner consisting of a Cadbury's Creme Egg and a bag of Haribo jelly sweets. Fuck.

Wake Up, Sleepy Head

Managed to get to bed at a sensible hour last night. Due to the cold I had to sleep with extra blankets and bed covers. Possibly as a result of this, I woke at around 5:30 am. A couple of minutes later it was 7:04 am and Ed Pacman was wondering why I wasn't up and ready to run...

A slow day at work. Spent a long time chatting on SDF. Tucked up in bed by midnight.

If This Was LJ

If this was Live Journal, my posts might look something like this:

Music: "Too Young" by Phoenix
Mood: Fucked-In-The-Head
Food: Nothing, I'm fucking starving. Send Kara a goddamn food parcel already!
Shoes: None
Weather: Shite, but hey, this is England
Eyes: Right
Odour: Old books and cobwebs
Reading: www.Bloggerheads.com

To be honest, I don't read any LJ pages, so I don't know what they look like. It would be kind of odd if they looked like this, but I guess it's possible.

Man With A Plan

I think I may be on the verge of getting a weekly local radio show. Hopefully I'll get a demo show recorded this weekend. So far the radio station, Future FM seems very enthusiastic.

"His motive[...], it's in his dreams"(Manhunter, 1986) Things are finally coming together. Soon Tokyo Robotnik will become something, something big and real and wonderful. Success will be when Karamoon and all his friends are working together, they shall be free. They cannot be stopped. Until then, Karamoon will continue to have sleepless nights, longing for the silence of the lambs.

I'm waiting in anticipation for the Datrecorder blog, which I imagine will cover all the crazy stuff that goes on in Birmingham, with photos and possibly podcasts as well. Watch this space.

Note: If you are reading this you should also be posting comments, reading Tokyo Robotnik and emailing me: karamoon at gmail dot com.

(Japanese)Food For Thought

The Tokyo Robotnik empire is finally starting to take shape! I've just started two new blogs and am assembling a team of experts who will help me to run them.

Nihon Tasty is about Japanese food, cooking and eating. Snack Fan Japan is about Japanese snacks such as Pocky and Cup Ramen.

More Tea, Mr Tea?

As loads of people have emailed me since my post regarding Mr T, I probably ought to explain who is is.

Mr T is the presenter of a motivational video for kids called "Be Somebody or Be Somebody's Fool". The video is very hard to get nowadays but there are some clips from it on various websites. Mr T's main advice is that you should respect yourself and love your mother. I urge all readers of this blog to do some googling and learn about Mr T.

In other news, Karamoon is about to start two new blogs!!! One will be about Japanese snacks, the other will be about Japanese food in general.

And Suddenly There Is Change

Norwich is still fucking freezing. It took all my energy just to leave the house to buy chocolate this evening. On the way back from the convenience store, something magical happened, something that has made several years of failure all worthwhile. I'll post more details in the future, suffice to say, Karamoon is a very happy bunny.

Mister Tea

Some of my afternoon was taken up with learning all about Mr T. Some of you may not know who Mr T is, if that is the case then please email me for details: karamoon at gmail dot com.


The following facts may be of interest:

- Mr. T destroyed the periodic table, saying Mr. T. only recognizes the element of surprise.

- Mr. T can walk on water. He can also walk on fire. His preference however, is to walk on fools.

- Every time a church bell rings, Mr. T pities a fool.

- Mr. T scared the black out of Michael Jackson.

- When in the presence of Mr.T a magic-8-ball ALWAYS predicts PAIN!

- Satan sold his soul to Mr. T.

- Mr T tried to break the speed of light in the A-Team van because he wanted to prove that quantum physices was a bunch of Jibba Jabba.

- Mr. T shot J.R

- When Chuck Norris interrupted Mr. T's breakfast of diesel fuel and shovels, Mr. T stood up and Chuck Norris sh1t himself, knowing a roundhouse kick to the face was useless to Mr. T's pity

- Mr T does not hunt because the word hunting infers the probability of failure. Mr T goes killing.

- Mr T counted to infinity - twice.

- When the Boogeyman goes to sleep every night he checks his closet for Mr T

- Mr T ordered a Big Mac at Burger King, and got one.

- When Mr T sends in his taxes, he sends blank forms and includes only a picture of himself, Mr T has not had to pay taxes ever.

- Mr T can touch MC Hammer.

- Mr T likes to knit sweaters in his free time. And by "knit", I mean "eat", and by "sweaters", I mean "babies".

- Mr T died ten years ago, but the Grim Reaper can't get up the courage to tell him.

- Mr T doesn't sleep. He waits

- Mr T has already been to Mars. That's why there are no signs of life there

- President Bush did have an exit strategy for the Iraq war. However, Mr T was too busy that day pityin' fools

- If Mr T is late, time better slow it's foolin' ass down

Sleeping Beauty

The great Karamoon didn't fully wake up until after 12pm today! This was after a series of very strange dreams, some of which told Karamoon that getting the Tokyo Robotnik Magazine started is the only way to save his friends, the world and the human race.

An Important Question

How Many People Under 40 Really Know Who Abbie Hoffman Was?

The Princess And The Pea

This evening I got an email from a princess. I don't mean someone who is like a princess, I mean a real princess. She emails me occaisonaly, usually to cheer me up. Her email certainly did give me a much needed motivation-boost, which was most selcome as I was just about to give up everything. Although AG, as she is known, is a genuine, 100% authentic princess, she still has to do a day-job(she's a translator, a food-safety consultant and a philosopher, among other things) and, thankfully, she reads blogs.(Princess AG, if you are reading this blog today, please email me again!)

In other news, I've been hunting out all the tech stuff I have secreted around my house. Unbelievably, it all seems to work. I've now got a couple of Cisco routers set up by my main PC and loads of nice toys covering my desk.

The Karamoon Who Came In From The Cold

At 12:30 am I met with Emily and some others from the Norwich Stop The War group at The Greenhouse Cafe, which is crap. The cafe had a few shelves of used books for sale. I bought "Lewis Carroll's Games And Puzzles" compiled by Edward Wakeling. It's published by Dover, my favourite publisher. Dover use great paper and bind their books very well. They also charge very reasonable prices. Please visit their site www.doverpublications.com and buy some books!

I ate some Lemon Drizzle Cake, which was quite pleasant but I drank some kind of natural vegan Coke substitute. It tasted of medicine and made me want to kill.

We set up a stall in the city centre and spent a couple of hours handing out leaflets. It was very, very cold.

We returned to The Greenhouse Cafe where I had a drinkable cup of breakfast tea. We had lost some people due to the cold but those of us who were left, Emily, Vic, Peter, Jan, Luzie and myself, had a long discussion on how life will change over the next 10 years as natural resources (rapidly?) run out. We didn't reach many conclusions, the main question is whether to try to reverse the trend, or whether to find a remote place and set up an independent community.

Sleep Stalking

Had a quick morning run with Ed. I had to cut it a bit short due to the fact that I was pretty much still asleep. Ed had some French boy in his flat who wouldn't leave. Sounded quite harsh.

Work has been hectic this morning. Just Em and I here, with a constant stream of students, phone calls, exams and enrolements. My teeth hurt.

A sales call today:
Twat: Can I speak to the owner of the business?
Karamoon: No, I'm afraid not.
Twat: Why not? Aren't they there?
Karamoon: We don't take sales calls.
Twat: This isn't a sales call.
Karamoon: It sounds like one.
Twat: I know but it isn't. This is 4UBusiness, I'm just calling about your
current mobile phone provider.
Karamoon: We don't take sales calls. Goodbye.[Hangs up phone and laughs]

Met Jon after work for a weekly haxor meeting. Nobody else turned up. We discussed tech support, Cisco, manholes and tunnels. On my way home I resisted the urge to spend several hours in a phone box.

Listened to "Off The Hook" and "Off The Wall" while looking for my Cisco routers.

Windoze Blowz

Our Windows 2003 server fucked up today. I spent about two hours trying to sort it out. In the end I had to call a friend for advice.

I had booked a place at a lecture on Japanese archeology but I felt unable to attend. I went home and read Make magazine.

Watched most of the second series of the BBC comedy "I'm Alan Partridge".

Calling All Callers

I recieved an interesting histry lesson in a pub after work. I now know a reasonable amount about Iraq(1902-1939). That will come in handy when I start knitting.

I was tucked up in bed by 5am, after several hours in a phone box. Phone are fun. Very fun.

Back On The Brain

Been listening to old Brain Damage shows downloaded from 2600.org

I watched a repeat of the Jonathan Meades documentary "Jerrybuilding" on BBC4. It was great, as is everything he has ever done. I then forgot to watch the Ross programme on Hong Kong films.

I'm thinking of making a Jonathan Meades fansite...

Pajamas In The Daytime

A good run with Edward Pacman this morning. Each run is easier than the last, but I still need to improve quite a bit before I'll get back to the level of fitness I had a few months ago. Maybe it will be easier once the mornings are warmer and brighter.

I bumped into an old friend on SDF. She's pregnant. I remember when she was just a kid(2 years ago). It's so fucking scary. Age and death are always with me now.

Later Than Late

It's been a long day. In the morning I went to a meeting to launch an envoronmental campaign group in Norwich. I then had lunch with Emily and then had tea with a bookseller who wanted advice on streamlining his business.

At 15:00 I met a friend of mine, Yoshiko for afternoon tea. Yoshiko is a petrologist studying Environmental Sciences at UEA. We went to a cafe near the telephone exchange and drank hot beverages of reasonable quality. Most of our discussion centred around undergroud exploration. Yoshiko has spent a great deal of time carrying out inspections underground and told me how I could find horizontal inspection tunnels called adit tunnels.

Yoshiko and I also discussed working conditions in Japan. Yoshiko recently worked for 90 days straight. Poor working conditions are, perhaps unsurprisingly, really fucking Japan up. The brith rate is dropping and the population is rapidly aging, meaning there won't be enough young workers to support the elderly.

On my way home I found a pay-phone and spent a couple of hours there. When I finally got home I couldn't sleep so I spent a few hours reading wikipedia. I finaly got to bed around 3am.

Giant Robot

Picked up the new issue(39) of Giant Robot magazine at Borders bookshop. There were some really great articles and features, the best being an interview with Wayne Lo, an Asian-American serving life in prison for shooting some students at his university.

Jon from Norwich 2600 came to meet me. It's been several months since I've seen Jon. I didn't recognise him as he has cut off all his geeky long hair. We went to a quiet pub to catch up and discuss tech stuff. Phil was unable to join Jon and I, probably due to a foot injury.

At The Coalface

Work, work, work. I imagine that this is what being dead is like. Days spent reading Bash, Bloggerheads, B3ta, Wikipedia and Google Groups. It's easy to survive work if you just play around and also eat lots of unhealthy food. But is it living???

One of my students passed a computer maintainance exam today after several months of study. I'm glad he did as I am his tutor...

Workin' in a coal mine
Goin' down down down
Workin' in a coal mine
Whop! about to slip down
Workin' in a coal mine
Goin' down down down
Workin' in a coal mine
Whop! about to slip down
Five o'clock in the mornin'
I'm all ready up and gone
Lord I am so tired
How long can this go on?

Fatso's Speakeasy

Strange day at work today. We were meant to talk about what can be done to make the company profitable. Instead we just talked about nothing all day, and had a bad lunch at "Fatso's Speakeasy". Such is life.

Due to some political BS happening in the US at the moment, the hacker radio show "Off The Hook" was 2 hours long, instead of the usual 1 hour. Although it was still kind of crap, at least it gave me something to do for 2 hours.

Wed Nes Day

Back at work after 4 days. Fortunately Claire, our work experience girl came in so I spent quite a while chatting to her about travel and security.

Girls On Film

Watched a very decent TV programme on Japanese film presented by Jonathan Ross on BBC Four. Next week the programme will be on Hong Kong cinema. I can't wait.

Brass Eye

Watched a couple of episodes of Brass Eye on dvd. Spent many hours reading about Brass Eye, The Day Today, Chris Morris, Alan Partridge and other related stuff.

Sunday, Cruddy Sunday

I watched Lost In Translation while doing some stuff for the Tokyo Robotnik website.
I watched it partly because I had to and partly because I had been discussing it with some other SDFer's last night. Watching Lost In Translation is a way of returning to Japan for me.

Next time I meet someone really stupid, I'm going to hit them, very, very hard, just so they know what it's like to be both stupid and have a broken jaw. The inspiration for this comes from the character Kelly in Lost In Translation, a girl so dumb she deserves to be shredded. It is alleged that Kelly is based on Cameron Diaz.
I quite like the idea of being famous for beating the stupidity out of people.

I watched Wargames with the commentary on. The things we do...
I went swimming this evening but, as usual, spent most of my time in the steam room and sauna. When I got back I ate an exceedingly large bowl of stirfried noodles with chicken and oyster sauce.

Tokyo Robotnik Is Currently Recruiting!

Tokyo Robotnik is looking to expand its team. There are several oportunities with the web team at the moment, so if you are living in Japan and want to write for the Tokyo Robotnik site, please get in touch.

Karamoon Is In A Very Bad Place

On my way home from work I went to a discount book shop where I bought a diary for £1.50 and an A4 box file for £2.50. This is the extent of my life. There is no more. Just this. Fuck.

Work is Teh Suxor

I've been back at work for two days and already it's killing me. As far as jobs go, mine is fantastic. I work with great people, little is expected of me and things are generally fun. The pay is very low, but that;s not such a huge deal. The problem is that I just hate work. Working sucks so much. It steals my time and my soul and my will to live and my hair. How long must this go on??????

A bunch of SDF users from the UK will meet up next month in London. I'm very excited about it as it could become a regular thing. I'll probably give a talk on something very technical. Or not.

Midnight At The Oasis

Met up with Mr Cross, Emily and Edward at a cafe/bar/whorehouse. I drank hot chocolate while Ed and Em drank bear and Cross drank red wine. We left around midnight. Sad but true.

It rained on the way hom. I couldn't sleep so I read and tried to listen to the latest Off The Hook.