London Matt

Keep posting

2009-10-21T15:19:00.001+01:00

As long as i remeber to I'll keep posting on here too, as well as at the new location.

moved...

2009-10-20T17:08:00.002+01:00

have moved my blog over to http://mattlopezdias.wordpress.com

Alan Turing - A short blog post for a man with a huge world impact

2009-09-11T14:30:00.003+01:00

A very welcome apology for Alan Turing. Now maybe they'll apollogise for all the others prosecuted for the same "crime". As well as apologising for all the other volumes of terrible things done in the name of this country.

The world is incalculably better because of Alan Turing (you are reading this blog on what is at it's heart a Turing Machine), but the world lacks all of the incredible things that he would have brought to it because he was persecuted and died too young. Think of that, those that persecuted and prosecuted him robbed the world of all that he would have brought to us.

Please think about that (yes you the Daily Mail readers) next time you bully someone, think what they won't achieve that they might have if you'd just left them be.

The Addiction So Many Of Us Have

2009-08-31T07:02:00.002+01:00

I have been eating pretty much a good diet for the last few months.
Nothing fancy just no sweets, very little chocolate and very little
processed food. By now I had forgotten how much better I had been
feeling than I did when eating a shittier diet.

For the last couple of days for some personal stress reasons I have
had moments of eating shit again, sweets, chocolate and for lunch just
general fridge grazing rather than making something balanced. And
yesterday was the worst of those days, in the evening after staying up
way too late for no decent reason I came over feeling really awful,
the stupid thing is it reminded me that before my recent better eating
regime I had had these moments of feeling awful fairly often, but had
just gotten used to them.

This has all gone to draw my attention to the reality that eating a
crap diet is an addiction like any other. We don't recognise it of
course but that is normal with any addiction. We eat a diet that to
put it at its most dark is killing us, shortening our lives. Most of
us know what a healthy diet is yet we live in denial that what we eat
is not that bad and what the hay, we like it so we are going to
continue eating it.

Well to me that all sounds like an addict. Our behaviour is not what
we want it to be, we won't give something up that we know is causing
us harm. We lie to ourselves and others to facilitate our addiction.

Bill Hicks

2009-07-27T11:47:00.004+01:00

I wanted to write and entry about Bill Hicks, now I just think I am going to sound like a illiterte tit. I just love him, there is so much right with how he looked at life, personal experience, personal freedom, corporate bullshit etc... I can't pretend to know what he really thought about anything, but I do beleive there was a lot of personal truth in his work.

It's just a ride, and we can change it any time we want. It's only a choice. No effort, no work, no job, no savings and money, a choice, right now, between fear and love. The eyes of fear want you to put bigger locks on your door, buy guns, close yourself off. The eyes of love instead see all of us as one Bill Hicks

For someone who could have been so easily miss-understood to be very aggresive to people he actually loved people, loved life, was fascinated by the human experience. He raged against what he saw as wrong with the world.

Bill said (in his act) "I like my rock stars dead" well I agree and it seems I also like my comedians dead too, Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor etc. It was part of a piece on how he likes his artists to "play form their fuckin' heart". The greats put their total heart and soul into what they do, their pain, their loves, their fears everything, and I think maybe more than most Bill totally did this. I'd still rather love him as a current living artist though.

I loved him when I was younger, he spoke to me as a teenager, and speaks to me just as strongly or maybe stronger now.

Oh I am proud to claim one of the only jokes I have ever made up myself I found out later was also a Bill joke. "Why do Christians enjoy wearing crosses round their necks, would Christ really be keen to see any of those if he ever came back?" Bill told this joke so much better than me, but I'm proud to have once thought the same thought as him.

Breast Implants

2009-07-23T23:18:00.002+01:00

There are not many things that make me feel the way I feel about breast implants, it brings me to tears, that women would want to do that to themselves, in some misguided idea that big tits are somehow essential to looking and feeling like a beautiful woman. Not sure I can actually talk to eruditely about this, I just long for the time when people will wake up and accept themselves as they are and not think that if only they had hug tits the guys would like them and they'd feel like a glamour model. It's all just totally misguided and would be funny if it wasn't so tragic.

The Single Greatest Love Song Ever Ever Ever

2009-07-22T20:31:00.002+01:00

Kate Nash - "Birds"

She was waitin` at the station
he was gettin` off the train
he didn't have a ticket so he had to run through the barriors, again.

well the ticket inspector saw him rushin` through he said, girl you don't know how much i've missed you
but
we better run
cause i havent got the funds to pay
this
fine
she said
fine

so they ran out of the station
and jumped onto a bus with
two of yesterdays travel cards
and two bottles of bud
and he said you look well nice.

well she was wearin' a skirt
and he thought she looked nice and
yeah she didn't really care about
anything else because she only
wanted him to think that she looked nice
and he did

but he was lookin' at her yeah
all funny in the eye
she said c`mon boy
tell me what you're thinkin` now
dont be shy

he said alright i'll try

well the stars up in the sky
and the leaves in the trees
all the broken bits that make you trip up and grassy bits inbetween
all the matter in the world
is how much i like you

she said what?
he said let me try and explain again

right birds can fly so high
and they can shit on your head
yeah they can almost fly into your eye
and make you feel so scared
but when you look at them
and you see that they're beautiful

thats how i feel about you

right birds can fly so high
and they can shit on your head
yeah they can almost fly into your eye
and make you feel so scared
but when you look at them
and you see that they're beautiful

thats how i feel about you
right, thats how i feel about you

she said what?
he said you
she said what are you talking about?
he said you

right birds can fly so high
and they can shit on your head
yeah they can almost fly into your eye
and make you feel so scared
but when you look at them
and you see that they're beautiful
thats how i feel about you

right birds can fly so high
and they can shit on your head
yeah they can almost fly into your eye
and make you feel well scared
but when you look at them
and you see that they're beautiful
thats how i feel about you

right thats how i feel about you

she said thanks i like you too
he said cool

Truth, Trust & Friendship

2009-07-21T13:52:00.003+01:00

If a friend of mine lies about something serious I don't care, I trust my friends and they can lie about whatever they feel they need too, I simply presume they had their reasons, that is not to say I would not be hurt by a lie but that I would always forgive it. This makes me in some peoples eyes a bit of a looser or someone asking to be walked all over, if it does then so be it.

I just don't see it's possible to have a friend you don't just trust as a matter of course, otherwise how can I have a conversation with anyone, if you don't take your friends at their word then you can never have a meaningful conversation.

Also I very much believe that trust begets trust, if you offer unsolicited trust you receive it back.

Enviromental Behaviour Theory

2009-07-19T06:51:00.003+01:00

Being a world of people most of whom believe that the world and therefore nature was made by a hand, was manually put together, they have this underlying attitude that it can also therefore be fixed by hand, because they do not recognise the unique and massively delicate version of events, that would have taken billions of years of evolution to make the world we now have. They see nothing wrong in it changing so rapidly, because to them it was built in 7 days so therefore surely it can be fixed in a similar if not shorter length of time, as opposed to it taking billions of years to build so any rapid changes, e.g. destroying the fish populations of the oceans in as little as a hundred years of insanely aggressive fishing, 100 years to them is a long time, where as 100 years to an environmentalist or a geologist is less than a blink of the earth's eye. Not the mention the issue of there being a parent figure so we can all act like irresponsible children to the world, just playing with it till we break it, as opposed to non religious people who take the role of guardians of their earth, a fragile and beautiful place that is the only home we can hope to have for a very very long time. So my question to non environmentalists is "exactly which planet do you have picked out once you have finished wrecking this one?"

More great writing

2009-07-13T12:01:00.003+01:00

Someone just reminded me how much we need good writing in the world, and also how tomorrow is too late to start something. This lead me to notice I had not written anything for a couple of months.

I have mentioned this once before how I love the phrase "saving the world by doing what you're good at". Stephe Fry talked recently about how it is better that places we occupy and the tools we use are beautiful. I feel these are similar issues. That if we just try and bring something good into the world, whatever we do, whatever we enjoy, whatever we are good at, we must do it, do it with honesty and frankness.

What I am trying and failing to say is if we have something to add we should do it, and do it well.

exciting moments from my childhood no.1

2009-05-05T16:08:00.001+01:00

watching Back To The Future on vhs, the message at the end "...to be continued" i freaked out, ran up to my bedroom and blasted out Huey Lewis and the News, on my mission cyrus one amp, good times.

Inspirational Women in Technology

2009-03-24T22:37:00.003Z

In honour of Ada Lovelace day today 24th March 09.

After hearing about this idea I started to think about who I could write about, and this exposed how few women I could think of. But for me the person I would have wanted to write about is Ada herself. I had heard about her some time ago. Ada sounds like one of those deep thinkers who can see beyond the imideate limitations of the days technology. The thought that someone could have written a computer program before the electric light bulb had been invented, well when i first heard this to me she sounded like a genius of the highest order.

If I was not so tired i would also write about how interesting i find helen sharman, but i guess i can edit this in the future so maybe this line will be replaced with a little about her too.

She should be an inpiration to all thinkers in what ever field.

Timing

2009-03-11T12:48:00.003Z

The saying goes, the secret to great comedy is timing, well the secret to the comedy that is my life is also timing.

You can't affect the order in which things happen to you or when they happen, and you sure can't help how you feel about them either, so best just see it all for the comic story it is, accept it and hopefully enjoy it.

Body Image

2009-02-17T10:33:00.004Z

I confess I only read the early chapters of "The Beauty Myth" as with so many books I intend to get back to it one day. I wonder what percentage of people are unhappy with how they look, I am assuming it is extremely high.

The very things we find most ugly about our bodies are often the very same thing that someone else finds most attractive or cute about us.

Just rambling I know, but it's one of my current thoughts at the moment.

Well in the interests of improving my own feelings about my body image I have included this half naked picture of myself.

Open Source

2008-12-23T11:55:00.003Z

OK I am sure that many people far more qualified than me have written many words on the wonders of open source, regardless I am going to add some more.

I first came across ubuntu pretty much by chance when I purchased a web server that had it as the installed operating system. There was a choice of systems, I think my choice was based in no small part because I liked the sound of the name, trivial but true. This led me to want to learn more about what ubuntu was, procrastinator as I am, approximately 18 months later i am running my laptop on ubuntu and am a total - podcast listening - convert to ubuntu.

Open source software is the future, I am sure of it, for so many different reasons, not just because but in no small part because of the lack of cost.

I am now thinking with an open source mind for all of my future projects, the one I am most excited about is my open source movie. A feature film I intend to make - at last after many years of planning to - will be totally and in as pure a way as possible open source, all the components are to be open source, script, music, visuals, sound, all of it. I await with understated, patient but no less tremendous excitement to see how it will turn out.

Cry Like A Baby

2007-01-28T11:55:00.000Z

My daughter was watching some TV celebrity show, with celebrities skating or something, anyway the important thing than when the loosing couple for that week got voted out she was uncontrollably upset, she did not want them to have to go home.

Watching Disney's Lady and the Tramp with her also brings out what you would expect, crying when sad things happen to people (or animals). As adults we get so desensitised to everything in order for us to function. We accept many sadnesses around us, we close our eyes to it. But we then get too good at just closing our eyes, we eventually learn to close our eyes to everything.

Is not inactivity while others are suffering the greatest violence a person can effect?

Marine Lance Cpl. Eric J. Bernholtz

2007-01-11T17:27:00.001Z

I happend across this guy browsing through flickr.com

I wanted to read more about him, and hearing more about him has touched me, he seemed like a nice guy.

What a shitty thing war is.

http://www.militarycity.com/valor/1013380.html

http://www.flickr.com/photos/52961928@N00/
319688800/in/set-72157594415476434/

Disaster Response in 2005

2005-11-01T10:18:00.000Z

"ooh ooh better not send any trucks or helicopters yet, I have not checked with the PR people whether that would look good and have not checked with the lawyers, can we send trucks, what if someone complains and sues me, ooh ooh don't know what to do, too scared to actually get off my butt and f***ing help people who are suffering and dieing"

Saving the world through whatever you are good at

2005-10-10T11:20:00.000+01:00

I once heard a phrase "Saving the world with perl". The perl it refers to is the programming language. I think this means that if you do what you do with a good heart and an honest and open mind, with a bit of thought for the rest of the world, well then the world will be saved.

It is hard to see how or were our little contributions to the world have their impact. But they do have impact. So if we try our best to do what we do with honesty, maybe some way down the road the world will improve because of our actions.