email archives		2007, March 26, Monday. I had a rough couple of weeks at work - all my own fault. I took on a freelance project on top of my regular job. Adding 43 hours a week to my full time job (which needed at least 60 hours a week for a particularly difficult project) nearly washed me up. Given that I believe we're close to being washed out as an economic system (see previous posts), turning down the chance to make 4,000 pieces of paper would be a bit silly. Getting by on 4 or 2 or 0 hours of sleep a night really got to me after a while. I started to spin scenarios in my mind - if I couldn't take the stress of work any more, what would I do? Go back to America? - I really don't want to do that. Which leaves Europe, or Ireland in my case...rest on the sofa watching shite TV for a week, then get my act together and do my own work full-time. I may move or not, depending on events - but it's good to be free to do what I want. I'm seriously thinking of moving back to Ireland in late August/early September. I'd be able to focus 100% of my attention on idleworm. I've got a few ideas on how to make money from the site. During the recent work-frenzy here, I became really aware of just how tired I am of working on other people's projects - mostly pop-culture ephemera. It's about time I became more self-reliant financially (assuming the global financial system doesn't blow a gasket first). I'll have to make a final decision no later than the end of July, to arrange the move and flight. I haven't been back to Ireland really since 1998 - that's the last proper holiday I had there. The place has changed drastically since, I know. Anyhow, that's why posts have been few - I'm f*cking exhausted. The one thing I'm glad of though, is being free to make the decision to move wherever I like. Not everyone is so lucky...as in Dennis Perrin. Trapped in the Mid-West Nascar wasteland and unable to move. That's the downside of having a family while living in The Empire: These days, it's grimy pick-up trucks bearing jingoist stickers and NASCAR numbers. Hummers driven by housewives on cell phones. Consumers in public slowed by fast-food weight, flashing dazed expressions. Young women in the drug store arguing about which celebrity is fattest. Young men trying to look tough while speaking in sentence fragments. Rednecks reeking of booze ahead of you in line at the store, being allowed to buy more booze for the road. Sadness. Complacency. No positive or creative engagement. Marking time until time runs out. Joe Bageant had to wait until his family was grown before escaping to Belize. Here's a question and answer between Joe and one of his emailers. Here's what the fuss with Iran is really all about - refusing to sell Oil for Dollars... Gary Brecher writes the best review possible of The 300 Why does the "Land of the Free" have the hightest incarceration rate in THE WORLD? Amazing examples of Disney "re-using" previous animation! Permalink --- Discuss this post in the idleworm forum. 2007, March 7, Wednesday. It's been a while between updates - I've been incredibly busy over the last few weeks - a freelance animation project that had to be dealt with. That, and the fact that I've been having trouble FTP'ing to my site to update it. Anyhow, things appear to happening at quite a clip... Namely: the biggest development in modern history (if correct): Saudi Arabian oil production appears to have peaked, according to the knowledgable editors of "The Oil Drum": "Saudi Arabian oil declines 8% in 2006" Folks, if this is correct, then we are totally F*CKED. Part of me wants to watch the disgusting edifice of modern society crumble to dust, but the other part knows what that means, and it isn't pretty. If the KSA has peaked, then the world has peaked. If the world has peaked, then it's game over. You can drive a hypbrid, or grow all the corn you want, and it won't make a blind bit of difference. All the world's giant oilfields now appear to have peaked - Da Qing, Canterall, Burgan, The North Sea, and now Ghawar. To replace them, you need a LOT of medium to small sized fields. Some simple facts: the last year that we found more oil than we consumed was ~1980. In the 1960s, we discovered six barrels for every one we used; today we use six barrels but find only one. You don't need a degree in physics to see the problem here. More: Ghawar is dead. The obituaries just keep rolling in. “Kuwaiti oil production from the world's second-largest field (Burgan) is ‘exhausted’ and falling after almost six decades of pumping” according to the chairman of the Kuwaiti state oil company. The L.A. times tells us that “Production at Cantarell, the world's second-largest oil complex, which provides about 60% of Mexico's crude, averaged 1.78 million barrels a day in 2006. That's a 13% drop from 2005.” The famous North Sea basin and it gigantic Forties Field, the oil find that made Britain a petroleum exporter for the past 20 years, is about to experience a precipitous production decline. Back in 2000 we learned that China’s only super-giant field, Da Qing was also at death’s door. Texas Oilman T. Boone Pickens says World Oil production is at or close to peak. Britain peaked in 1999: North Sea under Fire from Peak Oil Here's a great essay by Kevin (of cryptogon.com), about his Escape from America If only this nine year old Canadian could escape too. God, what a hellish country America has become. More proof on the above: Operation Falcon Fred, A True Son of Tzu Bratz dolls - training young girls how to be cock-sucking whores. Stoke up the fires of Hell, Satan - you're going to be run off your feet... A graph showing the difference between Science and faith An amazing photo of Mars, taken from ESA's Rosetta probe. Lakes of liquid methane on Saturn's moon, Titan. Permalink --- Discuss this post in the idleworm forum. previous posts - about us - contact