Sunday 16 March 2008

An enforced day off

The station had the day off yesterday, only the newbies were out. The rest were shut up inside downloading porn off the internet and w**king themselves silly all afternoon so I couldn't get inside to use a computer. What? You thought I had my own computer? Where would a penguin get the cash to buy one? Where would I plug it in? A workstation would look pretty stupid bang in the middle of the rookery, now wouldn't it? Alright, I could lie down and use a laptop but I think even a macBook Pro might find it a little cold down here at this time of year.

It's funny, this rookery being all male and the station being all male, except for Frau Doktor Gerhard, who unfortunately from their point of view is gay! Evolution has equipped us for six months without sex in the freezing cold, we don't even get the urge. It's a pity humans evolved along a different path. The stuff those guys have on their computers. Makes my eyes water sometimes!

Anyways, went and had a little toboggan down the bluff yesterday. No doubt some newbie is already thinking fame, glory, professorships etc having seen for the first time a penguin careering at 40kph down a hill in the snow and then laboriously waddling back up to go and do it again. Ah well, just wait until he sees what the 'gang' have got planned!

After I swopped places with old Havelock I got to thinking about the book I'd just finished. Now Davies is very pro-Poland. Polophile? No, that's a 'mint-lover'. Polonaisophile? No, 'dance-lover'. Bugger, no dictionary. Well, anyways, you get my drift. So despite being a good little historian, as historians go, he can hardly restrain his fury at Stalin's betrayal of the Home Army in Warsaw nor the Western Allies ineffectualness in persuading him to do something, anything. Harsh as it may sound to Europeans, the more you read about Uncle Joe (Stalin), the more like Mother Teresa Hitler seems. Hitler, Franco, Genghis Khan, Atilla the Hun are just not in the same league. So why does a species that goes "ah bless" at stories like Moko and the Whales line up behind an individual who makes an orca seem the very epitome of kindness and polite behaviour? I don't really think you could've evolved that much in fifty years! Oh I know all the reasons, had to defeat the Nazis, facism was evil, didn't have any choice etc etc etc. But by the thundering penguin, Stalin?

Oh, and if you thought I was a little bit too sweeping about you and your insatiable urge to get into the water with dolphins. I was chatting with Cozy yesterday who's just finished Eragon - rubbish he says, Anne McCaffrey crossed with Tad Williams (not even Tolkien!). Very popular he says it is, I mean you guys even want to talk to imaginary animals!

2 comments:

  1. We just finished Eragon. It's not bad. Kids loved it.

    I think the problem is that your rookery is too intellectual. Lighten up!

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  2. Yes, but it's not worth all the fuss that was made about it. He simply took all the fantasy books he'd read, threw them in a pot and mixed them all together. If someone's going to make shedloads of money, we'd like to see the suggestion of a spark of originality.

    Oh he's typing, I'm dictating. I don't write English only read it and I only speak 'Penguin'. I just hope his translations skills are as good as he says they are.

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