I love me more than a thousand babieses

Lets Clear Up Some blog points.

The first line of The Manic Street Preachers song 'Faster' is…

'I am an architect, they call me a butcher'

It's one of my favourite songs. The inexplicably popular TV program Eastenders has a longstanding character with the name of Pat Butcher. Put them together and that is why this blog is called what it is.

Okay, now lets move on to the colour scheme. I didn't choose this hot brown on brown action. It reminds me of Caramac, and I hate Caramac (it tastes and looks like sick). Blogger chose it for me, and I was way too lazy to argue with it. I am however aware that it is disgusting and that I should change it, but I've had it as my colour scheme for over 18 months now. It feels like I'd be putting down a puppy. Not a particular cute puppy, but I'd still feel bad about putting a one eyed, six legged small mongrel to sleep. What do you think? Keep or get rid? Let me know.

I'm really bored at work today, hence this blog about virtually nothing. I have a new phone with exciting games on it, I can play with that later on. I can also have a venture outside to find my current CNPS nemesis (85). Bar that, I have no idea how to fill the time between now and 4:30. I've even completed the word puzzle in the paper (make 20 words of 4 or more letters from IHKOCTOPT, all which must contain the C, and not include purals).
I may download 'Little House Of Savages' for my new ringtone, but that is hardly going to pass 6 hours is it?
Part of the problem for my boredom is that I am way ahead of schedule. I was a year ahead but by slowing down I managed to claw that back to 6 months. Then, the bastards went and pushed the project further back so I've ended up being 18 months ahead. It's quite likely that within the next 18 months they'll cancel the Nimrod anyway, so there is a big chance that no work I can do from now on will have any effect. Motivating!
It's strange in a way that I've worked on Nimrod (and support for Nimrod) for nearly 8 years and if the project is cancelled I'll have wasted my time. They'll have spunked out 200 grand to get me to achieve nothing at all. That'll look great on my CV. I think I'd better change it to say I've been in prison for the last 8 years.
It seems odd that the government will have spent billions of taxpayer's money on the development of quite a good aircraft, to then sack it off to save money on production. Ah well, I guess we'll have to wait and see.

I just thought of something to write about, but then forgot it almost immediately. This job has rotted my brain.

We went round to visit the Taylor family last week. Jo had vanished on a course (probably to avoid us and our unreasonable demands for tea). So that left Nick and Grace to entertain us. I know Grace is only about 8 months old, but she doesn't seem very chatty. She just seems to cry when she's left with us. Nick just fussed over Grace.
I don't want to seem unreasonable, but what about me? We'd gone round there with presents for Nick's 30th, and he ignored us for large periods of time where he looked after the little 'un. I'm not bragging here, but I'm far more fascinating than any young child is. I can talk, walk, sing and dance. Yeah, and I'm only listing the obvious things here. I could go on forever.
But, no! We were expected to be fascinated in a small human crawling around and drooling. If I did that, would anyone find it cute? No! So why should there be one rule for children and one rule for adults?
If I have a child, I'll be treating them like an adult from day one. I'll even but him/her their first pipe as an infant. And I don't mean 'crack' pipe, I wouldn't be an irresponsible parent. It would be your standard and rather elegant tobacco pipe.
Let's see, hmm, I've known Nick for about 122 months. Grace has known Nick for 8 months. That means that I've known him 15 times longer, I should get 15 times as much attention. Tsk!
Me me me me me!
Xian says I'm a lot like Larry David. I can't see it myself. Nick Taylor though is just like him (or at least was before he started giving children inflated importance over longstanding friends).
So we bought him that on DVD for his birthday. I hope he noticed that I didn't bring a cute baby to his birthday to steal the attention away from the birthday boy. No, I didn't. But did he have the same courtesy for me?
I think it would be undignified of me to answer that.

What have I done to my neck? No, really, what the fuck have I done to my neck?
I woke up yesterday with a sharp pain in the left side of my neck and it isn't any better today. Sleeping wasn't the easiest thing last night. I can't look to the left either, which makes driving slightly random.
I suppose it'll go soon, but it's a bit of a pain in the arse this pain in the neck.
Last Wednesday we went to see Hope Of The States at T'Mill. The lead singer Sam wasn't very well and they didn't play for long. Still, the sound seemed better than it has been for some, and I enjoyed it. Not as much as when we saw them in Manchester but they played 'Static In The Cities' this time and that was worth the 9 quid entrance fee on its own.
We had a quiet weekend, which was nice. This year seems to have been chockablock with events and fun, it was nice to stop for a weekend and do some first class pottering. Liam came round on Saturday night and drank lots of vodka, I made up a curry on the spot which seemed to work in a way. I also made some Indian breads (I can't remember the exact name), which didn't go as they were meant to, but tasted okay anyway.
Even though I enjoy having a busy life, it's nice to recharge the batteries every now and then.

I've got the new Manic Street Preachers CD on my desk. I finally got round to buying it at the weekend, but haven't listened to it yet. Gone really are the days when I'd be queuing outside HMV on the day of a Manics release, waiting for the shop to open.
When 'The Holy Bible' was released, I listened to little else for 1994 (and much of the year after). It was so fucking angry, confrontational and exciting. It was also better than 'Gold Against The Soul', which bar for a few tracks seemed a bit "soft-rock" to me. On the 'Holy Bible' it was obvious that something was wrong with Richey Edwards, the bile spilling into his lyrics showed a man who wasn't a happy soul.
When Kurt Cobain killed himself, even though you knew he had problems and wasn't happy at all, it was still a real shock when he finally did himself in. With Richey, it seemed a bit more 'open' I guess. There were articles about him in the NME, where he looked emaciated and was spending time in The Priory. From what I read and heard he was barely eating (bar small bits of chocolate), harming himself repeatedly, and seemed to be suffering a (quite terminal) depression. I'd read so much of what this ludicrously intelligent man had spouted, interviews in 1994 seemed to consist of garbled randomness, occasionally interspersed with the clever and completely self-aware thoughts of the old Richey deep inside.
It wasn't any real shock that he went missing, when there was quite obviously something dearly wrong. The Manics resurfaced again after some time out, and 'Everything Must Go' was the very best they could do. They couldn't make 'The Holy Bible Pt. 2'. Richey wasn't there anymore for one thing, and his lyrics had largely shaped the sound of that album. It would also have seemed somehow inappropriate to release such a downbeat album after what had happened. There were several songs with Richey's lyrics however, and some of the old anger still remained. The album tried to be optimistic though, even though it sometimes found this to be immensely difficult to achieve.
In a strange way, Richey Edwards disappearance made The Manics popular. 'The Holy Bible' wasn't a commercial success by any means, 'Everything Must Go' was far more accessible and the publicity that occurred due to the disappearance/suicide of Richey Edwards, had aroused the interest of music buyers.
For me though, it sort of diminished from there. Subsequent Manics releases didn't really have me poring over the lyrics, or shouting at the top of my voice in nightclubs (something which 'Faster' will still do today).
I'd always wanted to see The Manics live and managed it twice in 1999 (well 1999/2000 as they played over the New Year, whilst I stood alone surrounded by people shaking hands and hugging). I enjoyed both gigs but it had become bloated by then. 'This Is My Truth…' was soft and mellow, the antithesis of 'The Holy Bible'. The loss of their minister of propaganda, the success of later albums, the loss of the fire inside from playing big stadiums to thirty-something who hadn't even heard of your first three albums, it all added up to a band seemingly going through the motions. The glitter covered oddbods in home-made slogan t-shirts started to drift away.
The band knew this, and even though horrible experience had told them to never go there again, they tried to make an angry shout-back to the mid-nineties. 'Know Your Enemy' was okay, but it didn't seem like their hearts were 100% in it. I don't blame them, they are rich, older and settled down now, it's hard to go back to what you were without seeming like fakers.
I'm going to see them in December; I'll always love the band, but it's more for what they were than for what they are.