plooptionary

The isolation of being cool

ploop — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 11:48:09 +0000

The hidden messages in restaurant menus

ploop — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 11:41:53 +0000

If you’re here becasue you’ve received an invite for breakfast and are checking if I really exist – then here’s a graph just for you. It follows a meal I had in a supposedly marvellous restaurant in central London …

Exam results and coloured ink

ploop — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 11:13:43 +0000

I read through a proposal yesterday and was totally blown away. It looked, smelled and, I’m sure, would have tasted lovely. Everything was on brand and I could see it was oozing success. This morning I re-read the proposal and you know what? There’s almost no substance. In those 15 pages, nothing had been committed to and nothing actually said – never has so little looked so damned nice! Of course, this says very little about my own rigour – was I really like a six year old in front of a fruit machine yesterday? I don’t know.

But I do know this – it’s easy to get dazzled by the lights.

Check the queue at the popcorn for your film review

ploop — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 13:19:10 +0000

No introduction need apart from to say, my friend James Kent was at the movies the other day and half way through a member of the noisy audience shouted ‘Come on my Son’ at the screen …

Review: Legion (cinematical.com)
Indie Film Makers Rejoice in Openfilm (crenk.com)
Disney’s Takedown Of Roger Ebert’s Tribute To Gene Siskel (techdirt.com)
Hollywood films ‘follow mathematical formula’, scientists find (telegraph.co.uk)

Never trust anyone who is capable of spoiling the end of a film

ploop — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 09:43:57 +0000

If you’re at work there’s one sat near you now. Someone who loves to spoil the ending of a film you’ve yet to see. Here’s a tip. That person, the one who’s likely to spoil an ending is either: overpromoted and not bright enough to be doing the job they’re in, feeling like they’ve been passed over for promotion. Eiither way, they have something to prove – and they use the information they’ve gained by watching a movie as a power play. Never trust them – with information, sweets or your email passwords. If they can spoil the end of a film, they will think of nothing at wrecking your career. You’ve been warned.

Dumb Movie Twist of the Week: Bret Favre Subplot in “Valentine’s Day” (kylesmithonline.com)

Does madness only hunt out the mad?

ploop — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 15:02:54 +0000

It does interest me, although not that much, that certain attributes tend to find certain people. It can’t be a coincidence, for example, that UFO’s only ever land in the gardens of people who dribble when they’re being interviewed on TV. You can’t tell me it’s a fluke that everyone who is gifted the ability to read the future from a crystal ball always looks a bit mystical and witchy. And people who are blessed with a combination of racism and arrogance seem be those people who find it easier to get on TV news interviews.

I can also be no coincidence whatsoever that the gentle art of snobbery always seems to find itself inside the hollow souls that you dread being stuck near at parties.

The holy trinity of rap, sort of

ploop — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 10:29:56 +0000

I am so truly incredulous that the body set up to stop MP’s stealing money via expenses is going to cost six times more than the money the MPs were stealing in the first place, that I can’t even put pen to paper.

I’ve had to transfer my mind elsewhere – into the world of music – to stop me thinking of it. £6.5 million per year, every single year, to stop MP’s wetting their beaks. See I can’t do it …

Policing expenses a snip at £10,000 per MP (libdemvoice.org)
Expenses authority to cost £6.5m (news.bbc.co.uk)

Keeping torture behind closed doors

ploop — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 10:42:03 +0000

So, the UK Government has lost the Binyam Mohamed torture appeal. Maybe I’m seeing things a little too simplistically here – but why should how he was tortured be kept quiet for ’security reasons’. What he said – yep, I can see why that should be sat on. But how we made him say it? Come on …

Torture evidence must be revealed (guardian.co.uk)
Torture case appeal court ruling (news.bbc.co.uk)

Find someone to blame if life isn’t working out

ploop — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 09:54:09 +0000

I am not turning into the person I had planned for myself, that’s a fact. The person people see is not, in fact, even the person I think they should be seeing. I know I’m not alone – at 18-19 anything was possible … then kids!

Lucy Thorpe, an old colleague, nailed the excuse for me when I was lamenting my existential crisis over on Twitter. I was feeling sorry for myself and she offered me someone to blame. It’s the children’s fault. Without them I’d be a jazz poeting traveller with houses and women around the world.

So let this come as a warning to you all! Yes, that includes you Charlotte and Dean …

Spiders – a force for good or evil?

ploop — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 12:08:51 +0000

I don’t have a problem with optimism in dogs. I love it. Every next second is potentially the best ever to a spaniel and I accept that. In people, however, optimism can be tiresome. Come to think of it, pessimism can be tiresome too – yet I don’t mind that in cats. So there you go, 2.5 sentences wasted on my indecisiveness.

I do however, have some top notch science at hand to workout which breed of human I am dealing with. It involves the simple introduction of a spider.

Ladies – Seeing the Glass Half Full May Be Your Path to Better Health? (healthmgmtrx.blogspot.com)
Paula Bloom Psy.D.: Evangelical Pessimists, Stop Trying to Convert Me! (huffingtonpost.com)
Use The Optimist Creed to Create Your Success (myventurepad.com)

plooptionary

The isolation of being cool

The hidden messages in restaurant menus

Exam results and coloured ink

Check the queue at the popcorn for your film review

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Never trust anyone who is capable of spoiling the end of a film

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Does madness only hunt out the mad?

The holy trinity of rap, sort of

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Keeping torture behind closed doors

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Find someone to blame if life isn’t working out

Spiders – a force for good or evil?

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