once again we sit here Monday, 23 May 2011 link

There's been a lot of chatter recently about the ratpure predictions of some insane American. The overall tenor of the reaction seems to have been "ha ha stupid Christians believing this madman." I can't join in with that - for one thing, it's not about "christians". Most of the Christians I know are facepalming as hard as the rest of us; equating them with this idiot is equivalent to confusing a moderate Muslim with that Abu Hamza al-Masri. And try as I might, I can't gloat about the fools who followed Camping. Some of them sold all their possessions, leaving themselves destitute. One woman tried to kill her own children to prevent them from suffering. This isn't funny; this is a sad, pathetic story of a delusional fool who got a lot of people to trust him, and then fucked up their lives good and proper. I can't laugh.

On the other hand, the matter of the Wellywood sign has been raised again. And there, I can laugh.

It's like that time when you were like 19 or so and you were pretty wasted and your mate Jonno (who's never been the sharpest crayon in the box) is really trashed and he's all like "Dude! You know what would be really awesome? It's be like if I got a giant tattoo of a chicken on my leg, right, so I can tell people I've got a 12" cock in my pants! Ha ha! Right?" and you go "Yeah, man, that would be awesome", and you laugh and shit, and you don't think about it any more except that a couple of days later you see Johnno and he like drops his fucking trousers, just drops them right there in Manners Mall and he's got a fucking chicken tatted up on his right inner thigh and you're like "WTF" and he's all "C'mon, bro, we talked about this, it's like an awesome funny joke, man" and you're totally "Whatevs, dude, I didn't think you'd like go and do it and shit" and he gets all defensive and is like "fuck you it's a great idea I'll get loads of chicks with this cos it shows that I've got a sense of humour and chicks always say that's what they dig in a guy man".

Or: just because something sounds like a slightly funny idea, doesn't mean you actually have to go and bloody do it.

I was amused that the CEO of the airport said that he expected "widespread support for the intent of a sign". Because it's the intent that matters, innit, not the actions. I'm not sure this is the look he should be going for. It makes the airport sound like an overprotective mother serving a sunday roast to a vegetarian child; "I spent hours cooking this! I just want to make sure you get enough to eat! I worry about you, you know; look, you're just skin and bone! At least have a little bit. I've got your best interests at heart! When you have children, you'll understand!"

Spent much of the weekend involved in various celebrations for M's fourth birthday. Four. Bloody hell. Pretty soon she'll be starting school, and then we'll really be in trouble.