Yes, it's Friday 13th and it's been dark all day. It's the end times. Or maybe January, which is almost the same thing.

So what's been going on in the world of my giant brain? Last night I dreamt about Rocky Horror and Time Curry was refusing to go on for his "Don't dream it, be it" number because he hadn't had his funding from the Arts Council.

While I was walking to work I was thinking about whether to buy solar panels for all the businesses around me with the infinite amount of money that I was wishing for. And then I thought it would just save them money which they'd spend on other world destroying things, so I should give them to individuals instead. Or maybe the council.

And then I saw a penny on the pavement and it occurred to me that, quite apart from the issue of inflation, the people in the fountains won't be accepting pennies for wishes anymore because they have iron in them these days.

Just think, if I wasn't so easily distracted I could have saved the world by now.

In the news:
BONG
Pluto definitely not named for the dog.
BONG
Greenpeace produce horrible scaremongering video of shite.
BONG
Alison decides not to let iTunes update itself just yet.
BONG
But doesn't Islam traditionally ban things made to look like living things?

ION: my new bunny icon still makes me happy.

This post brought to you by the need to use an appropriate title for this news story...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3631864.stm

Oh, and "Hollywood stunt pilots are waiting to snatch the parachute in mid-air to prevent the capsule hitting the ground." How cool is that?

Update: Bum.

Leviticus 20:13 If a homie also lie with homiekind, as he lieth with a palone, both of them have committed a dowriest cod: they shall surely be lau to death; their blood shall be upon them.

The Bible in Polari - thank you Tef!

My 'people I fancy in films and TV' list - just to cheer me up.

• G'kar (still)
  
• Spike
  
• Oz
  
• Daniel Jackson as played by James Spader
  
• Aragorn
  
• any naked ladies painted gold
  

Just so you know...

This is as cool as a whole hill-full of beans!

Go on, give me some - you know you want to! And be imaginative. The most unusual weapons may win a small prize...

Am trying to decide whether to go to the Holyrood tonight. I know I've been drinking far too often lately, like nearly every night, but I do want to catch up with folk. And going and not drinking is just not an option - in the Filmhouse it might have been (except that I didn't) but not in the Holyrood... Also, I must go to the gym at some point, really.

Meanwhile some privacy related news in the Guardian:-

Suicide bid on CCTV may herald new privacy law


Police and MI5 tapping of phones and emails doubles under Labour

Bong

ITV Digital viewers 'can keep' boxes

Bong

Thieves steal two miles of rail track

Bong

This week is Cop Shoot Cop lyrics week. Be very afraid.

For your amusement and delectation:

• A good way to get arrested at the airport
  
• High Times in pro-cannabis story shock
  
• An alarming January resolution
  
• and finally - Glam Rock Minesweeper
  

So, what have I been doing while I'm stuck here listening to that bloody brass band and not enough people are updating J to keep me entertained?

I've discovered dot_cattiness (hurrah for cattiness!)

I've been reading too many Savage Love columns (hurrah for sarcasm and downright rudeness!)

I've been reading up on Kwanzaa, but I'm still not sure what I think about it. I suppose that part of the point is that it doesn't matter what white folks like me think about it, or something, and I don't exactly object to that, either, but I do feel that inventing a festival that happens to run from 25th December and 1st January and then adding the injunction that people "should not mix the Kwanzaa holiday or its symbols, values and practice with any other culture" is just a tad unrealistic. Yes, I'm against Xmas taking over the world, but I'm also pro diversity and people will be eclectic whether you like it or not...

By the way, does anyone know if any religions other than some pagan traditions change the dates of their seasonal celebrations in the southern hemisphere?

Hurrah! The brass band has stopped! And I can go home soon - yay!

Offering you a kitten may be a tad tactless at the moment, so here are a bunch of red pandas - official holders of the ikklest animals on the planet award.