30 Seconds To Mars

Really?
Well, that may be, but from my perspective transit time is going to be rather longer than that.
     Okay, that's probably jumping into the story head-on.  Let me explain.  I recently finished watching "The Giant Claw", which is definitely a film of two halves: one part is the actors, doing a fair job of acting, and in the case of Mara Corday doing a good job of looking good (Art?)

Hooray for Corday!

     - and the other half the execrable special effects that make the film a laughing stock*.  I can also confirm that the various boffins believe the Titanic Terror Turkey hails from an anti-matter galaxy -
     Ooops.
     The thing is, the nearest galaxy to our own is the Andromeda Galaxy, a.k.a. M31, although it's not made of anti-matter.  Still, for our purposes we shall pretend it is.  So, the nearest galaxy is 2.5 million light years distant, or, if you want it in Imperial measurements, 1,460,000,000,000,000,000,000 miles away.  Put simply, if the TTT were able to travel at the speed of light it would take 2.5 million years to arrive at Planet Earth.  However, it plainly cannot travel above 250 m.p.h. and thus it would take about 656 universe lifetimes to get here, which is quite a commute.
     Of course, I could be over-thinking this ...

Okay, I am over-thinking it.  There.  Happy now?

     What's that?  You thought this was going to be about Jared Leto's band?  Pshaw!  I was merely making a point about how fleet the TTT would need to be if it weren't to die of extreme old age before it made planetfall.  Anyway - Jared Leto?  He's an actor, you baffoon!
     Right, time to give the motley a fork and send it into the minefield!

Impressive Or Sad?  Only You Can Tell!
The answer had better be 'Impressive', because I know who your ISP is.  
     But enough of threats!  I had an idea earlier this week, of comparing two different yet similar works about the war as fought in North Africa during the Second Unpleasantness.  Art?

Art!

     I really do apologise.  Our resident sub-human sloven appears to have developed a bit of a crush on Mara.  It won't work, Art.  Now, get it right this time.

 These two works are "The African Trilogy" by Alan Moorehead and "Three Against Rommel" by Alexander Clifford, both autobiographical accounts of the campaign in North Africa from the early days to the Axis surrender in Tunisia.    These two chaps were both war correspondents and spent plenty of time in each other's company, so I intend to read and compare their differing accounts of the same events.  Because I can.
     Incidentally, the Clifford volume is a genuine wartime edition, published in 1943, and with an inscription (handwritten in ink) from 1944.  Art?

     There you go - verisimilitude.**
     Of course I now have to read both books all over again, which might be considered cruel and unusual punishment by some - though not your humble scribe.

Unusual Hobbies
As you should surely know by now, Conrad has an Unhealthy Interest in nuclear weapons, which is not really the sort of thing you can share with your colleagues in the workplace, and - actually I should have put "foofoodillies" instead of the N-word, as I am not entirely convinced MI5 have stopped the surveillance - unlike a series of unusual hobbies that were featured on the BBC website.  No!  They do not mention Bog Snorkelling (surely one of the dirtiest hobbies going) nor pylon-spotting.  
     What they did have - and, predictably, which I cannot find again - was the 'UK Roundabout Appreciation Society', which does what it says on the tin.  Art?

I'd buy one!***

     What's that?  No, Pylon Spotting is not an officially-recognised Olympic sport - yet - but it is real and here is a picture from a pylon-spotting afficionado.  Art?

A pylon.
In Croatia.  See - that's what makes it so different and interesting!

     In order to avoid getting sued, allow me to credit the website "Pylon of the Month" for the above photo, and here is a link to the fascinating blog itself - 

http://www.pylonofthemonth.org/

     I bet you never realised there was so much to know about pylons, eh?
     
Well, time to wrap up this particular post, because I still have to walk the dog, bake a cake, wash some laundry and take over the world - although given all that domestic stuff, becoming World Dictator might have to wait until Monday.

Behina Huni!^


*  Stock - bird - soup - do you see - O you do
**  Or, "truth", so often a stranger to these pages
***  But then, I am peculiar.
^  "Goodbye" in Ethiopian