Blimps are cool; dirigibles are cooler.

Just because I am bored and am waiting to meet a good mate at the pub for after work bevvies, I've decided to explain the "why" behind the name change to "blimps are cool". Turns out that biki is now getting hit in google frequently, probably due to the hdforindies and esoteric rabbit links here, and its getting indexed more regularly. Thus, it turns out if you search for blimps this blog comes up.

The thing is this blog isn't about blimps per se - its about blimps on an allegorical level.

"Blimps are cool" is actually a reference to the Station Agent (2003) a very good, sweet, indie film. In this little story [pdi], our lead character Finbar McBride is seriously into trains. He is a trainspotter* that actually spots trains, as opposed to breakbeats or guitar amps or b-movie actors. Later on in the movie, he is explaining trains to some people... and someone asks him about blimps and if he could tell them about blimps. He's dumbfounded for a moment and then replies, slowly, "yeah, blimps are cool too".

I actually found it to a very poignant moment - one that resonated with me. Some people like trains; I like blimps; others like cheese. I also really like Scotch. Thing is - its all cool. Geeks run the world. If there wasn't someone seriously into paper, we'd all be writing on papyrus. If there wasn't someone seriously into cars, we'd all be driving Model T Fords. If there wasn't someone seriously into pipes, well, we wouldn't be having toilets.

There are two kinds of people in the world: those who know who things work and those who work for them. Bruce Sterling said that as a prediction of the future. Now, I think that was the past (late industrial era). Sadly, I think the trend towards a culture of 'knowledge-workers' and 'the creative class' is that engineering skill (in a broad sense) is being absorbed into the belly's of the corporate monolith and upper managers** run businesses according to business models, not according to product. But thats another issue...

I think geek should be a verb. e.g. "Just now, I geeked geekdom". Or "look at these guys geek cheese". Basically, geek would become a verb to mean "engage in a certain topic in exceeding detail and depth".

*[just as a weird aside, that wikipedia article notes that "It is widely believed that many train spotters may be suffering from a form of autism." Hmm. Talk about the phenomena of medicalisation. Maybe someone just really likes fucking trains?]

**which are just politicians in a corporate setting. "Thinks he knows everything, but he knows nothing, he must be a politician" - George Bernard Shaw in some play who's name escapes me...

(Posted after the weekend... ah well!)