November 30, 2003
"A winter's day in a deep and dark December..."
London in the winter gets very little light, if you've lived in the southern hemisphere it's a big shock to suddenly be deprived of the sun's attentions. Last year I found myself enjoying walking about in the dark nights, it gave me time to myself. However lately I've found it oppressive and slightly disheartening. The only real benefit being that Westminster Cathedral looks all the more inviting with its night lights on.
I find it very easy to slip into a routine of sleeping late and rising late and very often I get only 2-3 hours of daylight. On wednesday I slept so long that I actually received no daylight.
There doesn't seem to be very much of any interest to post today, especially pursuant of the NATCP.
Today's snapshot is a photo of a tree I found interesting whilst walking about central London. The road it's on is parallel to Oxford Street and I walked down it with Kev a few weeks ago. Anyhow the Church was holding an antiques fair of sorts which we inspected in search of tacky items for Kevin to buy Beth as a memento of his stay in London. Sadly the Churchyard was disappointingly low on 'crappy stuff' so we instead carried on.
I can't even explain why I particularly liked that tree, I just did so I snapped off a couple of shots with my trusty 610.
Tomorrow is, of course Monday and with Monday comes Counseling and Company Law. A healthy array of side-dishes if there ever was one. I'm left to wonder how my tutorial class did without me on last week's tutorial. Perhaps this week they might actually answer questions. I can only hope :)
Later
John
Snowcraft
I have a few Christmas rituals to which I stubbornly adhere. Most of them do not apply until the Christmas Threshold is passed (my father's Birthday on the 1st of December) but there was one I was able to indulge in today.
That particular activity being the annual 'Playing (and eventual beating) of Snowcraft. I first encountered this lovable little flash game in late 2000 and it provided me a whole load of fun as I honed my skills of winter combat, my plucky Red jacketed crew bravely facing down the Green shirted thugs from around the neighborhood, pelting the little stinkers with heavily charged snowballs and avenging their fallen comrades.
In order to beat Snowcraft (and I suggest you go and play it right after finishing this article) you have to duck and dodge out of the hail of fire. I normally fight by starting the game in a mad rush to get all my guys into the safety of the bottom left hand side of the screen (" 'Ave it Greenies! Your diagonal trajectory cannot reach us here!") and then take one member on a pelting mission, slipping in and out of the range of fire squeezing of a hail of snowballs at point-blank range. This technique has been developed over years of play and all other methods were exhausted first (including the "ARTILLERY!!" style long distance lobbing which can't save you forever). Even using my 'commando' techniques it still takes about 6 games before I'm back on 'top form'.
The game is an absolute corker, it was the best flash game I'd ever played when I found it and nothing has come since to take its crown. I only wish there was a sequel :)
Later
John
November 27, 2003
"Coincidence? That's Joincidence with a 'c'! "
For the record the title today comes from a mocking Chandler quote from Friends (is there any other kind?).
Well, The Times had its first day as a dual-format paper today but I was sadly up far too late to grasp a tabloid copy. As a result I enjoyed my customary broadsheet but my curiosity remains heightened, perhaps tomorrow I will be more fortunate in my efforts to obtain one of these rare miniature journals.
I spent the day at home today (or should I say 'yesterday' given the advanced hour) but managed to find some excitement in it.
Naturally I could write about the Queen's Speech but since I'm an utter Blairite I'd do nothing but praise it for tackling the issues that need to be tackled; Public sector reform, Asylum and the NHS. The finer points of policy are hard to debate online as people tend to wear their political affiliation on their sleeve (as I do).
However I will instead share with you a remarkable feat of coincidence.
I was talking with my sister, Chiara on the phone on Tuesday and in the course of conversation I brought up the fact that Conrad was heading off to a Movie Premiere with his family that night. Apparently a relative of his had written the film's screenplay and hooked them up with some tickets.
"Wait," my sister interrupted. "Does Conrad have a sister?"
Conrad does have a sister, I happily informed Chiara that her name was Stella and that she was probably in year 12 now.
In a flurry of further conversation the following transpired:
Chiara and Stella had been hanging out together for the past 3 months and had become firm friends. More strangely they had done all this whilst completely oblivious to the fact that their brothers were also best friends. Conrad's mother, who I have spoken to on many a car ride has actually driven them places on several occasions.
All of this, approximately 3 months of continuous friendship and neither had any idea of the sheer coincidence involved. Even someone who knew all four parties: Conrad's mother, failed to put the jigsaw together. It is really astonishing and totally bizarre.
Conrad's reaction when I told him was a great deal of laughter. It really does go to prove that age old maxim held up by the Disney Corporation "It's a small world after all!".
Today's Snapshot is a view of the table in the sitting room with my books spread out in study (Property Law as it happens) a plate with the crumbs of a Pain au Chocolat (much needed nourishment for the 'hard slog') is visible, testament to my unswerving dedication to study *cough*.
What is more, the 'Archived' button in the Snapshot window now takes you to a .Mac photo-album which I'll use as a simple, yet elegant way to archive and store my Snapshots from now on. I knew that $99 was worth it haha!
I had considered using it earlier but thought it would be too much hassle, however having seen what it would take to set up a script-based image gallery to a suitably slick standard and integrate it into this site I was quickly thrust back to my initial plan. After using it I realized that I shouldn't have presumed anything other than simplicity and quality from the .Mac interface, it works how I want and it doesn't make any fuss. I just added today's photo and it took no time at all. Kudos to Apple.
There is only one problem I've spotted at the moment. I have no idea how or where to include a link back to this site so either I make the archive window a popup, which I am much loathed to do, or I find a way to edit the .Mac template. For now you'll have to use your Back buttons if you want to see the Snapshot Archives. They aren't much at the moment but I reckon that by late December it will start to look like quite an impressive collection :D
Later
John
November 26, 2003
Newtopia
I think one of the first topics this webblog concerned itself with was the Apple Newton Messagepad and my efforts to obtain one. Well as is obvious from those early posts, I did get my hands on one and the little devil has been my favourite toy around the Law Library ever since. When other products simply fail to meet up to the standards of a piece of technology that was last manufacture in 1997 you have good reason to go 'retro'.
I love 'Denning', my MP2100 dearly but he's always had one problem and that is his inability to keep up with lectures. See I type at over 60 wpm but my handwriting is appallingly slow. I've long argued that exams today ought to allow candidates the use of a keyboard attached to a no frills word processor without a spell checker but sadly I'll probably have to wait till my children reach exam age for that luxury to be afforded to students. In my experience, styli based input is always inferior to a good old-fashioned 'QWERTY' keyboard.
The Newton had and indeed still does have the world's best handwriting recognition system, but it doesn't make up for my complete inability to write at a decent pace or to a decent standard of legibility, most people achieve at least 98% accuracy with their Newton's Handwriting Recognition, I get more like 65%. That may be acceptable for casual notation but when you're in a lecture and you want to take notes you can't really keep up. What is needed is a keyboard.
The Newton did have a keyboard accessory built by Apple but it's notoriously hard to get hold of and quite expensive (about £50 normally). However I've had the good fortune to find one on eBay going for a very low price as a result of a missing key ( '0' as it happens but I rarely have to use that number in Legal Notation ;) ). If I'm lucky enough to win the auction (and it would seem I will be) then I'll be able to take notes with a keyboard without having to buy myself an iBook and Denning will have a new lease on life.
As I wrote earlier this month I'm really enjoying Bluetooth so I'm particularly intrigued by this man's efforts to get Bluetooth compatibility going for the Newton.
Keeping the Newton compliant with modern standards is nothing new, it already has full support for ATA flash storage cards which ramp its capacity to an excessive maximum of several Gigabytes when a top of the range Message Pad 2100 only had about 5mb shipping as standard. The MP2100's two PCMCIA slots also mean that it has room for some connectivity to go with your vast storage card, I own a 56k Modem card and Ethernet Card and the MessagePad can also be used with a PCMCIA WiFi 802.11 card for wireless internet access and email.
Nonetheless Bluetooth is by far the coolest thing I could imagine the Newton getting access to in the future and he seems pretty damn close. That'd be an awesome development.
In the meantime I'll just sit and hope I win my auction.
Who decided what Lemsip should taste like?
I've been laboring under the cold I caught from my little sister over the weekend. It's a simple sore-throat / cough affair which is unfortunately rather debilitating. I think it's gotten better today thanks to hours of sitting wrapped up warm and being effectively pampered by my grandmother. I might have actually finally gotten through to her that I don't want to listen to her woes all the time even though I never actually managed to tell her (I had resolved to in the elevator up to the flat).
She always looks after her family, in fact she does far more than a woman ought to at that age, with all her cooking and cleaning. Not unlike my mother, although she berates herself for 'being such a doormat', and my grandmother does not. When she doesn't insist upon informing you, in excruciating detail of her troubles she really is just out to look after you (in between ruining weddings and such like).
Being sick in the same house as my grandmother is a startling experience which I have had several times before. She at once keeps her distance from you to avoid the contagion and yet at the same time can't stop fussing over you. I appreciate a good bit of fussing, what with being a man and all but I'm not in the business of pretending I'm dying of cancer like many of my gender, so it works well for me.
Most conversations are akin to those held between Father Ted and Mrs Doyle
Mrs Doyle: Will you have a cup of Tea father?
Father Ted: No thank you Mrs Doyle, I'm doing alright thanks
Mrs Doyle: Oh won't you have a nice cup?
Father Ted: No thanks Mrs Doyle, really I'm fine
Mrs Doyle: Aww go on father
Father Ted: Really I'm ok,
Mrs Doyle: Go on go on father, have a cup of tea
Father Ted: I'm quite alright Mrs Doyle I won't have a cup of tea
Mrs Doyle: Go on go on go on go on
Father Ted: N-n-
Mrs Doyle: Go on go on go on go on go on go on go on go on go
Father Ted: Alright! I'd love a cup of tea Mrs Doyle
Replace "cup of tea" with " slice of toast" or "bowl of congee" and the names and you get a pretty good idea how what it's like. God help the woman I chloro-*ahem* marry.
For the record 'Congee' is a chinese dish which is essentially rice boiled to the point at which it is more liquid than solid. The slush is then typically served with meat and veg and some soya sauce, it's an acquired taste despite being startlingly bland. I happen to like it.
Today's snapshot is a photo of the tracks at Victoria tube station. Where I would have been were it not for this blasted cough.
Later
John
November 25, 2003
"Hey! It's Jackie Chan!"
I'm watching Police Story I, arguably one of Jackie Chan's greatest films. Anyhow I just saw the signature bus chase and suddenly the bus was rocketing down the hill to my old Sixth Form College! I had to take a screen shot to show you guys because it's just so funny to see them fighting and chasing, along with a brilliant stand-off on the very road I used to drearily watch pass below me on the way to class.
Anyhow: Here's the picture with some annotation.
Seriously Rocking Movie and seeing my old School is rather apt given that I watched it primarily to get a healthy dosage of Nostalgia. In fact I just laughed as the bad guy said "It's time to celebrate! Book a room at the Country Club" which my family still has membership to haha!
Man. This movie isn't even as badly scripted as expected! The story isn't too bad and my only gripe is that it's dubbed and not subtitled. The action is incredible, the complete disregard for any safety and the fantastic acrobatics of Jackie's stunt team make the very fact that the cinematography isn't too flashy all the more appreciable. I don't think any films made today would be able to put this much live action kung-fu into one continuous take, all those cables and crashmats force the action to be split into a series of tight cuts.
To think.. There's another couple of sequels that follow this film. God bless the internet, I'll never be short for entertainment.
Later
John
November 24, 2003
Zoctagon.com
Kev's back with his new domain. It's finally online after much server wrangling and can be found in my links section. It is also, of course accessible through his new domain, the immensely cool www.zoctagon.com.
Today's afternoon snapshot is a picture of a part of the Sainsbury's local I frequent when my supplies are running low. I'm still looking into getting the snapshot section to work the way I'd like it to but it all seems a bit annoying and fussy. Until then the archived pics won't be viewable.
I'm planning on dragging my ass out of the house to go to a poker game with Lee and some other guys. Ought to be a laugh although I think I have Francesca's cold. I must have done something to really piss off the universe if I'm getting sick this often. What with the sheer quantity of all natural Cranberry Juice I consume. Still, I consider being slightly sick and playing poker preferable to sitting around in this flat being sick and having my grandmother try and drown me in her sorrows.
Turns out the flat has to be emptied on the 4th and 5th of december and consequently will be little more than an empty shell. To be honest I couldn't imagine an environment which would be worse for me in my current condition so I guess I'll have to press on to find some sort of temporary accommodation before finding a place for next year.
I've had some second thoughts concerning the proposed medication. Anything that helps would seem prudent at this point.
I find it hard to strike a balance between writing pure news/article based posts and personal stuff. Admittedly I'm not exactly the most open of bloggers but I do sometimes need to use this space to speak about what I'm doing and indirectly how I'm doing (albeit rarely). I hope that it doesn't phase people who might only be here for one thing or the other. I assure you that this won't degenerate into "I got up, I ate a donut, I went to uni" LJ fare but I'm no Instapundit either.
Anyhow, if you're here (and more of you seem to be each day to my great gratitude) I figure you'll pretty much have got a decent understanding of what this Blog is all about. A New Labour, Catholic Law Student with a lot on his proverbial plate and a passion for current affairs.
The NATCP (No Angsty Teen Crap Policy) reigns supreme!
Later
John
(Update: Cold's gotten worse, can't make the poker game. Doh!)
Top Gear
If you are English then you doubtless have heard of Jeremy Clarkson. Top Gear presenter extraordinaire and occasional columnist for The Times. He's tall, opinionated and frequently hilariously funny. Even if he can't go 20 minutes without verbally bitch-slapping the Left, watching his shows is always a treat. In particular the brief self-titled chat-show he presided over who's frequent features included "things to put in the microwave" and "how to make a spud-gun".
I was watching Top Gear last night. It would appear that Andy Duncan of Samizdata.net was also fixed to the screen enjoying the 'petro-sexual' car-fest.
Unfortunately upon deciding to write this article I realized I am everything that Jeremy Clarkson rails against on his show. I'm New Labour, I take public transport every day of my life and I love bus lanes. Cars are things of beauty and I'm certain you can derive a great deal of pleasure from driving them but I'm just not inclined to do anything more than be a passenger. No license, no intention of acquiring one. I'm just another one of John Prescott's leftie cyclist bus-riders. Suddenly this article had lost any sort of objectivity it might have laid claim to.
Anyhow I don't mind his constant bitching about Bus Lanes. They interfere with his pleasurable driving so I can understand him getting pissed off.
What I can't bloody understand is what Andy Duncan concerns himself with in his article. Namely Clarkson's rant against speed cameras.
But he topped both of these eloquent outbursts, last night, with a graphical display of the failure of Britain's current fevered rash of police speed cameras. Ten years ago, he reported, there were virtually none of these in the UK. Now there's one outside virtually every other front door in Britain, with ten notable exceptions. You'll find just four speed cameras, in total, on the ten worst roads in Britain, the ten stretches of road with the worst casualty statistics. So what's been the effect of this plague of speed cameras on road accident rates? Absolutely none, said Jezzer, with a four-foot chart to prove it. 'The figures are exactly the same as they were ten years ago.' Oh, and by the way, the police currently take £73 million pounds in annual profit, from speed cameras, with convictions every year rising from a quarter of million, ten years ago, to just over a million now..The nanny state has thus increasingly criminalised those of its heinous taxpayers who've dared to disobey its do-gooding driving directives. For instance, by travelling at 31 miles per hour on the outside lane of a stretch of dual-carriageway in Reading, where I nearly got done the other day because muggle-brain here thought: 'This surely has got to be a 40 zone', until corrected by a more observant passenger, who'd spotted the tiny 30 mph sign right on the lip of the 40 miles per hour roundabout.
And yet police chiefs wonder why they're struggling to get convictions out of juries, these days, even though these juries are full of angry people turned over by speed cameras. Police chief constables really are woodentop
Right so let me get this straight.. People are angry that they're being caught breaking the law and that as a result of (and let me emphasize this as heavily as possible) breaking the law they're having to pay a lot of money to Police Departments.
I'm sorry, these cameras are clearly getting in the way of your god given right to break the law and get away with it.
"So? What are we going to do about them?" Quizzed Clarkson.
Well How's about don't break the frikkin' law?
Dear god.. That's like burglars complaining that people are installing security cameras! Their primary arguments are that they don't alter accident levels and that they make the Police a whole heap of cash.
I noted that the chart his co-presenter used to demonstrate this fact curiously ignored any possible rise in car ownership in this country, I don't know of how much relevance this is but it seems to me that if more people are driving cars and the number of accidents are staying the same then the average number of accidents per car are decreasing. Incidentally I don't very much care if someone presents data which shows the number of cars hasn't increased because this point is totally insignificant as it doesn't demonstrate that the cameras aren't doing their job, which is curiously enough, catching people speeding.
See the problem is that people assume that the cameras are there to improve road safety. Ostensibly this would seem their raison d'etre, however that is simply a goal ancillary to their catching people speeding. There is some hope that people will stop speeding as a result of the fines and that this would reduce accidents but that isn't their primary aim as I've already noted. However according to the moronic logic of the anti-speed camera lobby this negates their worth.
"Look they're not doing their jobs! Get Rid of Them!" They cry in anxiety as their precious vehicles pose for the camera's loving flash.
OK even if you are correct in your assertion that they aren't changing accident levels, please would you be so kind as to remind me again how this makes it illegal or unjust for them to catch you for breaking the law?
Then Clarkson complains that Police Departments are making a lot of money from this. You what!? Police Forces getting money from people who break the law is a bad thing? Police forces are in need of more government funding from innocent tax-payers at the moment and we're supposed to believe that it's bad that they get money from criminals?
The problem seems to me that there is a genuine movement to obfuscate the same thing I've noted repeatedly in this post. Driving over the speed limit is breaking the law. Do not and I am going to say this again, do not insult my intelligence by suggesting it is somehow wrong for you to be punished for breaking the law.
You can spend 4 hours writing an essay on why the cameras don't solve traffic accident problems but you can't deny that driving over the speed limit is breaking the law and that you ought to be caught when you break the law. This isn't a complex issue Mr. Clarkson. Go back to talking about something funny involving cars, musing about some metaphor for the newest BMW's handling, breaking the law is a crime and you deserve to be caught for committing a crime.
(Yeah I repeated that phrase a lot but it's the only one that matters)
Later
John
The tabloids are among us
According to an article I read in The Times on friday (incidentally my apologies for the lack of updates over the weekend - no internet access at my house in Rowhedge) my favourite newspaper will be publishing two editions in London on wednesday. One Broadsheet and one Tabloid sized.
The move follows The Independent's crossing into dual-format printing. The smaller, commuter-friendly edition of The Independent has been available in London since the end of September and it has gotten quite a decent reception.
I'm of two minds concerning the move to print a tabloid format edition.
First I am a dreadful example of the ancient adage "fools rush in". Generally upon being presented with something new my youthful enthusiasm kicks in and I eagerly race to embrace it, occasionally with less than stellar results (my purchase of OS 10.0 for instance). My natural first thought would be "I'll give it a try".
In additional support of the "pro-tabloid" camp I have my happy experience with the inaugural editions of iMail in Hong Kong (shortly before said publication dropped to a standard so pitiful that not even the appalling lack of decent journalism in Hong Kong could motivate me to buy it). It was pretty cool to have a small manageable paper that you could read outside in the sub-tropical humidity of Hong Kong .
However on the other hand, I derive considerable pleasure from opening up the large leaves of The Times, one leg draped gracefully over the other in emulation of some Woodhousian gentleman laid out on a sofa in an elegant Hotel's lobby, the very picture of a colonial Englishman. There's something rich about the size of a broadsheet, your eyes do not so much dart about the page like the flitting attentions of a suitably skittish insect, passing from one light to another, you instead turn your whole attention to the other part of the page as if panning across some vast continent of sumptuous type-font.
Despite its size, reading on the Tube is a simple art to perfect. If practiced well, rather than inhibiting your neighbor's freedom of movement you invite the fellow to indulge in some other part of the page from his vantage point atop your shoulder.
So in conclusion I shall probably buy a copy of The Times in tabloid form on Wednesday. Why not? I might as well test it out at least, given that the entire product has been engineered for my delectation (I am after all a commuter-consumer and therefore a principle part of it's demographic of appeal).
Still, I feel that it will take rather a lot for me to surrender my romantic view of the newspaper I so cherish. I suspect that in spite of my initial enthusiasm, I will not be one of the converted.
(PS: Today's snapshot is a picture of my little sister, Francesca offering me a salutation of sorts :) )
Later
John
I take it all back!
If you have had the misfortune of engaging me in conversation concerning the English History GCSE/A level syllabus you will know that my most frequent gripe is that we have Hitler and the rise of Nazi power in post-war Germany rammed down our throats for nearly 4-5 years.
"Not more Hitler!" I would exclaim as the books were distributed at the beginning of each term, thoroughly unenthusiastic about the prospect of learning the same lesson again.
However I take it all back. That's right all of it. All my griping and moaning as the Beer Hall Putsch and the night of the Long Knives were told to me again and again throughout my student life.
Why the change of heart? Well very simply because I've learned what the future might have been if I hadn't sat through those lessons. In a forum debate on some issue (where I conceded a point concerning a quote I didn't think President Bush would have the audacity to issue but in fact did) I took issue with my distaste for the over-use (particularly where employment of the phrase is hardly qualified) of the term 'Nazi'. Here is the effective conversation with the posts concerning other topics blanked.
Myself:
whilst I retain a definite distaste for the suppression of freedom in any form and find the whole matter discussed here utterly abhorrent I balk at the suggestion that the US Government is "no better than Al Qaeda".For whilst it remains a trait of the left leaning populous, to who's ideals I subscribe that we often project a far greater evil upon our own organs of authority than might be necessary the thought of comparing what remains a legitimate governing body with a terrorist organization is intellectually unpalatable.
It is no different from the practice of ascribing the term "Nazi" to any arbitrary exercise of power.
Them:
Interesting Trivia! The term Nazi, comes from a shortening on National Sozialist... Meaning one who seeks after Socialism and a profound loyalty to the Nation. So once could argue that you could label most americans as Napis... National Capitalists... Or perhaps Napus... National Republicans, meaning those who support the ideals of a republic, not referring to the political party... Interesting that being a Nazi is in no way evil, or at least it wasn't before SOMEONE gave it a bad name...
Myself:
Whilst your entomological analysis of Nazism is accurate it fails to take into account that National Socialism was a farcical name for a political organization which represented no socialist ideals. To state that the Nazi party was anything more than Fascism at its most elemental, is fallacious. Anyone who believes that the party had any Socialist ties is duped in much the same way a large number of Germans were.The reason I object to people referring to organizations or bodies as 'Nazis' is because they clearly aren't stating that they pursue Nationalistic aims with Socialist underpinnings (indeed it is firmly established that to do so would be inaccurate for the reasons above). In order for such an interpretation to be made the person would have to say "they are national socialists". They use the abbreviated term 'Nazi' as a standalone synonym for oppression, absolute rule and prejudice.
Being a 'National Socialist' certainly isn't indicative of anything other than political ineptitude. Being a Nazi is something quite different for it is impossible to extract from Nazi ideals, a political foundation built upon anything more or less than hatred for the Jews, the November Criminals and the Communists who's forms congealed into an ideological whole, galvanized by fear and became a monolithic representation of the suffering of Post-War Germany.
Them:
All quite true, but I did actually address that... In the statement "Interesting that being a Nazi is in no way evil, or at least it wasn't before SOMEONE gave it a bad name..." Not nearly as thoroughly as you stated it, but still roughly the same thing... The someone I referred to was Hitler, or more generally the Nazi party of Germany.
Myself:
Actually the party which Hitler joined was called the "german Worker's Party" the term 'nazi' never even existed until Hitler sought to change the name with the consent of the rest of the GWP's 'ruling council' to the NSDAP, abbreviated to 'Nazi'.There never was, at any point in time, a 'Nazi' before Hitler effected control of the GWP. The term simply didn't exist in common vernacular.
Being a 'national socialist' is in no way evil (just a bit contradictory given nationalism's synonimity with extreme right politics) , being a 'Nazi' is.
To re-iterate, No one gave 'nazi' a bad name because it did not [i]exist[/i] prior to the establishment of the fully fledged Nazi Party, circa April 1920. There was never a time at which the term was not inextricable from Hitler himself because in the short period of time before Hitler's command of the party was not absolute the party was not known as the Nazi Party.Concerning the Bush quote. I am appalled that he offered that view as a Catholic myself and as such my initial reaction of disbelief is suspended. That was the most indescribable display of bigotry it has ever been my misfortune to witness (short of the elevator ride when I was told that my fellow rider would find it unconscionable to send his children to a school where children of Indian ethnicity were taught).
This shouldn't be mistaken as an assault upon the mental capacity of my opponent, for she is to my knowledge an extremely intelligent and capable thinker. This is an assault upon the disgraceful priority of tuition that Hitler's Rise to Power evidently received in her education. Her own good will and decency lead her to give Nazism the benefit of the doubt as a defensible political stance, I suppose it is as much an indication of the trust put in America's future that it will never descend to such a level of political manipulation and menace that the full history of Germany's descent into hatred and malice is not recounted to students.
Later
John
November 21, 2003
Dear god I can't stop laughing.
Conrad of The Gweilo Diaries has an update from Hong Kong on the crocodile which has somehow made it's way into Yuen Long. The scaly fiend has been evading capture for the better part of a month now despite the addition of highly capable Croc-Hunter John Lever to the croc-squad.
So what does Legco do when the going gets tough? Why, it leaps from the speeding cart onto the backs of the horses and takes the reigns by force. Apparently a group of Legislative Council members are going to actively pursue the croc themselves.
Conrad quotes from the SCMP thusly:
I'm all prepared," Mr Chu said. "We have six experienced fishermen who are used to catching big sharks in the open ocean, and we have a few legislators ready to go."
I have images of them sliding down poles from the Legco chamber into jumpsuits with Tung's face badged on their shoulders.
"Quick! To the legislative council executive minibus!"
*the minibus exits Legco at high speed and crushes a barrier outside as it does so, preferably with a jet of largely ornamental flame protruding from its rear*
Gee.. I wish the members of my legislative and governing bodies were more pro-active. Perhaps they're so weak willed because they were elected on a principe of universal suffrage, that system never produces such upstanding, hands-on candidates.
"Down with this Sort of Thing!"
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| Well at least Fathers Ted and Dougle can say something without alluding to the "Zionist Conspirators" or "Oil Baron Baby Murderers" |
One particularly astute gentleman posted a still from an excellent episode of Father Ted on David Carr's write up of the marches, which I duly seek to Plagarize (thank you, Mark Holland!). It is simply superb and brilliantly applicable. It therefore sits to the left of this paragraph.
First up. Some quotes from The Times.
As a giant screen displayed images of Mr. Bush, Jake Wayne, 5, could be heard asking, "Is that Bush, Daddy? Does he kill people."His father, Mike, laughed, and said, "Yes. Yes."
"That's right son, and when the revolution comes you'll swear your undying loyalty to Comrade-General Mao"
No I'm not insinuating some sort of Communist conspiracy, but what is that if not the political brain washing (for this is too far removed from mere 'indoctrination') of a 5 year old. Actually I'd wager that the child had a more astute grasp of the fineries of world affairs than 80% of the crowds (I'd know, I went to school with them!).
"It's just the hypocrisy," Mr. Wayne said, explaining why he was demonstrating. "They supported Saddam, and then when it no longer suited their interests, they got rid of him, and on spurious grounds."But, in light of the fact that Mr. Hussein was corrupt and widely reviled by his own people, do most Iraqis really care about motive?
"They may not care about motive, whatever means necessary," Mr. Wayne said. "But what is happening today, the chaos, shows that it does matter."
So what Mr. Wayne is astutely articulating is that whilst the Iraqi people support and agree with the ousting of Saddam irrespective of whatever nefarious intentions the protesters might suspect, it was wrong for us to remove their despotic murderous overlord because he and his fellow revolutionaries think he had an ulterior motive.
Sorry about that Alla, we shouldn't have freed you, Mr. Wayne has afforded me clearer sight and I see now that it's the process and not the result which is instrumental in determining the morality of the cause. Sucks to be you I'm afraid.
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Hooray! I get to say "Not in my Name!" for once! |
You know it seems kind of funny that the students pictured on the right would hold up that sign after the last poll run by The Guardian. Guess what? They still don't speak for everyone, in fact they don't even speak for the majority any more so it seems rather audacious to present such a view.
Bluetooth!
Currently Listening To: Isn't it Romantic? from the album "Frasier"
My Bluetooth adaptor arrived this morning at the decent hour of about 9am. Naturally I signed for it and immediately returned to my bed.
When I eventually surfaced I plugged in the adaptor and iSynced my phone. It was absolutely, the coolest thing ever.
I quickly downloaded all the photo's I had taken with my phone's camera and was pleasantly surprised at their quality (which is shrunk to about 30% in the snapshot window). I also altered my phone's background to a snippit of my Desktop background (a picture of the Hong Kong skyline taken from a position other than the peak, the height of photographic unorthodoxy).
I quickly yearned for more cool stuff to do with my new adaptor and downloaded Salling Click. I installed it, set up my phone with the default menu, opened up it's iTunes controller and pressed the phone's joystick. iTunes started playing, I pressed it again and it paused. I pushed it up and the volume raised and then I went and plonked down the best £7 I've ever paid for a shareware app.
Afterwards I got to fooling around with the program and realized the sheer vastness of it's capabilities. This thing allows my phone to control any application which can be apple scripted (read: every application worth it's salt), control the mouse and do all manner of cool stuff. For instance when I get a call on my phone it shouts out on bluetooth for iTunes to shut up, pauses the DVD I'm watching and set's my iChat status to "on the phone". I called myself just to watch it all work, it's incredible! When I put the phone down it shouts out for everything to return to normal and the iTunes play, the DVD rolls and my iChat status turns to Available.
To think, when I first thought about having my phone work with my computer over bluetooth I was immensely enthusiastic about it being able to move along slides in Keynote and I barely even use Keynote. This much functionality moves it right out of the 'Geek Toy' group and into productivity related technology.
If you have a mac and a bluetooth phone then I demand you check out Salling Click, you won't be disappointed.
Right, I'm off to bed.
Later
John
Backlog!
Currently Listening To: Can You Forgive Her- from the album "Very" by Pet Shop Boys
(Kindly disregard the totally discrediting iTunes choice, what can I say? I was feeling nostalgic)
I prostrate myself before this woman. For she has saved myself and probably at least 7 by-standers from a Blogger->Movable Type import motivated murder-suicide (trust me, I have some particularly sharp spatulas in the kitchen).
I spent ages going through my code and wondering what on earth was wrong with it. The error message itself displayed a sample of what the code should be, which was identical to what I fed into the CGI script. Then I read her post on the Movable Type support forum and fixed that issue. However I had failed to omit all the line break tags from my posts and they promptly gammed up the works. She swiftly pointed out that as a possible cause of my import troubles and I corrected it. The result being all my old blogger posts are online on this blog. I have continuity!
She was also kind enough to link me to a post on her own blog which talked about how to code a Photoblog. Looking at some of the ideas she used makes me think I might be able to automate further the snapshot window although I don't mind working it manually (well its not really 'manual' per se as I have a lot of scripts to do the dirty work now, but it certainly is more work-around than problem-solver).
I also worked a lot on my CSS for this site (cascading style sheets, for the less net-savvy, like fancy HTML). It may not seem much, indeed it isn't much but it took me a ridiculous amount of time to do. "Why?" You may ask. Well, that's simple.
Because I was working on my Style Sheet using an editor in my FTP application and every time I rebuilt this site using my new Style Sheet, Movable Type, ever so helpfully, wrote it's own Style Sheet over my toil. Picture if you will, a man hammering a nail into a plank of wood and then, imagine another man on the other side knocking the nail right back out again and you will have a comprehensive understanding of the scenario I unwittingly bumbled around in for a good 5 hours.
I am so glad this whole ordeal is over. By some standards this was a positively breezy domain change, (you can really uncover some bear-traps in that field of web-mastery) but I wouldn't want to go through it again, at least not without the knowledge I now possess.
As my Import script savior noted:
"np!!! I had a bitch of a time doing it myself and so I didn't want anyone else to suffer"
I wholeheartedly empathize with her position. If anyone at all has trouble with this I'll give them any assistance I can, by all accounts I got off lightly and I dread to think what a mess this site would still be without her help.
November 20, 2003
Morning's Here
Every day I am awoken by a clip from the Sitcom "Friends". The clip's star is colloquially referred to as the 'singing man' who greets each dawn with the same song opposite Joey's bedroom. He's introduced in the One where the girls lose their flat and Rachel is driven insane by the man's early morning serenade as she is forced to bunk up in Joey's old room.
The song he sings is effectively named "Morning's Here" because that's its first line and my sister and I used to sing it in Hong Kong jokingly. It is actually based entirely on a Chuck Mangione track called "Feels So Good" on which his virtuoso french-horn performance kicks a bit of Jazz guitar up and down groove street (Chuck of course being mentioned numerous times in Friends, for instance in the episode with the beach house where phoebe tries to find her father and finds her mother instead) but the words are made up. So infectious is it, that you just can't stop singing it, just as I never grow tired of hearing it wake me up (my wife, if any girl is foolish enough to marry me, is going to kill me in my sleep, fearful of the morning serenade). The lyrics are these:
"Morning's Here
The Morning is Here
Sunshine is Here
The Sky is Clear
The Morning's here
Get into Gear
Breakfast is near
The Dark of Night Has Disappeared"
It's kinda goofy and nonsensical but after a night like the one I had its nice to wake up to :)
Oh and an explanation of Today's snapshot (yay it's working!): It's a view of Westminster Cathedral, a monument which is not 4 minutes from this flat and the Centre of the Catholic Church in England. It's on the short walk to Starbucks so I pop in and settle my conscience and thoughts when I feel I could use a bit of a helping hand from God (and that's often these days).
Later
John
Taking Shape
Ok so I've done some CSS bashing. There's still a lot of work to be done but the main elements are finished (phew). Soon I'll be able to just enjoy blogging instead of bothering with all this CSS.
Tomorrow is thursday which means that it's also Sale and Supply of Goods and Services tutorial day. The tutorial group is typically almost as silent as my Company Law group but for an entirely different reason: the thick oppressive atmosphere generated by our tutor. The man is astonishingly authoritative in the classroom and demands respect by his very demeanor. I haven't been in a study group like that since Year 7.
Anyhow the set question is on rights of property in sale of goods which is a straightforward subject so I didn't need much time to prepare for it.
In other news I spent some time wrestling trying to get Movable Type to accept my old Blogger posts. It should be able to import them and is giving me an error which helpfully quotes the offending line of code and offers the means by which one might amend it. However upon closer inspection of it's suggestion you discover that the code is precisely identical to what you have written yourself. I dropped a post of the Movable Type support forum so I ought to be ok soon enough.
In case you are wondering what the box in the top left is for and why it is called "snapshot" I shall explain it's purpose. Previously (in this site's 2nd incarnation) a poppy sat in that corner in the lead up to Armistice Day and I got some emails about it being a nice touch. They made me realize what I ought to use the box for and so that little space will contain an icon or photograph, which I took that day using my mobile phone camera which is either interesting or material to the matter of my posts. I ought to be able to start using it in that way tomorrow when my Bluetooth / USB adaptor is due to arrive (hooray!).
For now though it is off to bed for me. University at 10am after all :)
Later
John
November 19, 2003
Interesting...
Andrew Sullivan points to a very interesting poll conducted by The Guardian.
The survey shows that public opinion in Britain is overwhelmingly pro-American with 62% of voters believing that the US is "generally speaking a force for good, not evil, in the world". It explodes the conventional political wisdom at Westminster that Mr Bush's visit will prove damaging to Tony Blair. Only 15% of British voters agree with the idea that America is the "evil empire" in the world.Mr Sullivan characterizes this as 'a good thing'. Now I thoroughly agree with his belief that most people in England seeing the US as a force for good in the world is pretty spiffy. However how can anyone not be disturbed by the knowledge that 15% of British people think America is some form of despotic evil overlord?
What can be inferred from this poll is that on my walk to Victoria Tube Station, for ever 200 people I pass 30 think America is The Evil Empire™ (booooy will Kruschev be pissed, he worked so hard for that title). 15% of people in Britain today hear the proverbial 'empire march' from Star Wars each time they see George Bush take to the podium. I'm sharing my tube carriage with at least 13 people who are certain that the Whitehouse has a secret underground lair in which Donald Rumsfeld lurks, embraced by the sweeping arms of a deep black leather chair (preferably stroking a cat of some variety).
People are actually content to believe that the nation, from who's sacrifice and toil our very survival has been gleaned for more than the past half century is a force for evil in the world.
Dear God no.
There is something deeply wrong with this. Yeah sure, I've swallowed the bitter pill that is the dominance of Tabloids over the Broadsheets in this country. I've learned not to be annoyed by those who can't use "Tony Blair" outside a sentence involving the word "spin". For in the bigger picture these are matters which amount to little more than the bobbling of fibres over the surface of a woolly jumper. But that view of the United States, held by those 13 people on my underground carriage, is gross ingratitude, ignorance and idiocy. It is with a heavy heart that I contemplate accepting it's existence.
Later
John
November 18, 2003
Kung Log is set up
I thought I'd take the time to thank Kev for the use of his domain. If it wasn't for the use of Plastic-Rabbit I'd not be blogging now (those banner ads would have killed me off). So here's to Kev - My Blogging Mentor and Facilitator.If you're here then chances are you read the notice on my old blog. I had some trouble getting that posted because I messed up my Blogger settings and was really afraid that I'd not be able to tell anyone to re-direct :)
I hate having a generic looking blog so I'll get to work on the CSS immediately.
In other news a guy by the name of Simon emailed me an answer to a question posed on a previous post:
"Where are our Andrew Sullivans? Left leaning writers who supported the war on Iraq? Anyone? Please!"His reply?
"Easy: David Aaronovitch (Guardian/Observer) and Nick Cohen (Observer). Hope this helps"It's like someone just handed me a Gingerbread Latté with a whipped cream topping in one hand whilst using the other to dunk Michael Moore in a big trough of pulped copies of "Dude, Where's My Country?"
Thanks Simon :)
Later
John
Good News and Bad News
Good News and Bad News
The bad news is that site will no longer be updated, the Good news is that www.whatcomestopass.com will be.
That's right! I bought myself a domain! Stop lugging around here and head to www.whatcomestopass.com w00!!
Later!
John
Hell Yeah
Ok.. So I got's me a Movable Type weblog on my own frikkin' domain.
Why'd I do this? Well this blog has been around for about a year now and it hasn't died on it's ass which is an genuine rarity in Blogging terms. As a result I've comissioned a proper domain for it and moved it up to Movable Type.
People warned me that setting up MT is hard. I actually found it easy and uncomplicated but that's almost entirely down to Hostica my new host ,which has a spiffy MySQL wizard.
Oh apart from where I accidentally uploaded MT's image file in ASCII instead of in Binary and then flipped out thinking I had screwed up mt-load.cgi. I actually re-installed all of MT before realizing what the real reason was behind the lack of User Graphics.
I'll get to working on the CSS soon but I don't think I'll be using a carbon copy of my old one. For now I'll just be digging my domain :)
Later
John
November 17, 2003
Blogtastic
It's nice to be able to get away with truly abominable style and grammar in your writing. Blogging is the easiest way to avoid these two virtues of good word-smithery so naturally I take to it like a duck to water.
British TV needs to stop sucking. I mean seriously, things are really bad at the moment. If I hear one more 'political editor' waffle I'm going to scream, its all spun and full of crap. I cling to my copy of The Times each day like a castaway holiday-maker to his rubber ring. Not unlike the plump german tourist, I am bobbing in a veritable sea of sub-standard political punditry. It pains me to think regular brits are positively yummying up the crap that is hurled at them day-in day-out from their TV sets. What I want from my TV is the news, nothing more or less than the facts. At what point did English people decide that they needed to have everything spun like a top to make it digestible?
Yesterday Kev arrived and we went to the Saatchi Gallery. It was spiffy and we saw everything, even Damien Hirst's pickled animals. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Counseling was nice this morning and it was followed by a rigorous Company Law lecture (ooh the exertion). I then spent an hour preparing for my tutorial and once again was the only person who knew anything. 2 Questions in and it was all "Someone other than John". But realizing that she wasn't going to get anywhere without having me answer questions (For pities sakes people am I the only person in my whole year who likes Company Law?) my tutor resorted to "go on then John" which she must have said at least 15 times. It was an earth shattering display of ineptitude from my fellow students.
Finally she became determined to force an answer out of the rest of the people in my tutorial group and we wasted about 10 minutes on a question that only needed a 1 sentence answer. I'm not trying to be pompous, I just know my stuff, the reason I'm writing this is because I'm pissed at my fellow students for not knowing their stuff. I've realized that the phrase "You only get what you put in out of Tutorials" is total bunk. Everyone in my class is getting a 1st class set of notes from me and I'm getting ridiculously bored at having to wait through the long periods of silence before the tutor relents and allows me to answer a question. In the words of my Uncle Jason; "sounds like they made you a dope deal man.. And you're the dope".
Didn't manage to head out with Kev to see the Science Museum Lord Of The Rings Exhibit or do anything else this afternoon as I was snowed in with work and the museum closed too early. What's more he leaves tomorrow afternoon so I'll miss going again but at least he'll be able to come to the flat and copy 40 That 70's Show episodes to take back to Beth.
Oh and I've realized why I'm no longer the top search on Google for "John Swaine". It's because the words aren't even on this site anymore so the google bot is having to infer it from a ridiculously deep link. I'll plaster my name somewhere at some point to ensure that some stupid Genealogy initiative doesn't steal my crown again.
For the record and in accordance with my NATCP I'm still "not doing well" in case anyone wanted to know.
Later
John
November 15, 2003
Hooray for Free Speech
A particularly interesting passage from The Times on Friday caught my eye. The article entitled "Still Special" referred to the special relationship between the United States of America and the United Kingdom of Great Britain, drawing heavily on the words of its principle architect, Winston Churchill.
Of particular poignancy is the last paragraph, from which I shall quote:
"Mr Bush spoke of the right of his opponents to protest against him when he reaches British soil, indeed he seems to regard abuse on the streets as an occupational hazard. But the president is entitled to a fairer hearing than he has received and to be treated as a politician on his merits rather than be caricatured as a cartoon figure. Those who are so contemptuous of a nation which has so clearly been a force for good in the modern world need to contemplate, even if only for a moment, the possible alternatives. this trip should be thought of as part of a continuing and extraordinary bond between peoples. Presidents, prime ministers and political controversies will come and go. The special relationship, as Churchill hoped, should be more enduring"
The key phrase amongst that remarkably insightful passage refers to the constant fall-back position of the anti-bush activist of referring to the man in terms of a bumbling idiot. An imbecilic cowboy who's profile has been constantly distorted by the press and media. There is nothing wrong per-se with cartooning and caricature. There is however something wrong with assuming that they provide anything more than an exaggeration of that person. One of the most criminal aspects of the most anti-Bush lampoon is that it depicts him and those people working in his administration as simpletons and regrettably a lot of remarkably stupid people, upon presentation of such an image come to one devastatingly idiotic conclusion:
"I am more intelligent than that administration"
I am certainly not going to claim that Mr. Bush is mensa material. I don't think he has the intellectual prowess of Churchill or Roosevelt, but the man is certainly not an idiot.
There is a book I bought upon President Bush's inauguration. It was entitled "The Bush Dyslexicon" and on the cover was a picture of Mr George W Bush with a cartoon speech bubble emanating from his mouth. Inside that bubble was written "They Misunderestimated Me", one of his more famous aural screw-ups but also a particularly telling one. People did both Misunderstand and Underestimate George W Bush. Precisely because people thought he was such a prize fool, a village idiot, a halfwit they presumed that he was not a political force and ultimately he won the presidential election. Admittedly one could debate the legitimacy of that 2001 result all day however his party later cleaned up at the national elections in the states.
I remember reading a great article in The Onion which made me laugh but, like many Onion articles had a point. It was about Laurence Pettibone getting angry at people who criticized the rebuilding effort in Iraq with a "well why don't you do it then" attitude. This paragraph was found towards the end and hints on the same principle I'm trying to establish:
"Those working on the reconstruction effort are not just a bunch of idiots," Pettibone said. "Many have studied Mideast policy for decades. They have extensive experience serving under past presidents. What have you done? You read an article in U.S. News & World Report !"
By insinuating that President Bush is some sort of intellectual bantam-weight a lot of people have fallen into the age old mind-trap of thinking: "He's stupid.. I think I'm intelligent, therefore I must know more about him on this issue".
I have been honestly told by immensely, truly magnificently stupid people that George Bush is "thick" and by further application of logic that they know better than him.
See, mate. When you have 3 GCSE's to your name you don't presume to know more than the collective intelligence of a Whitehouse Administration nor a man who is fundamentally no political fool.
A lot of people who will be out there, lining the streets of London ought to take a look at what they plan to say in their protests against the President's trip here. More importantly, who is it they are going to protest against?
George W Bush? Or his cartoon caricature, riding on his steed (undoubtedly facing the wrong direction) with Tony Blair trotting alongside in the form of a poodle.
Those who answered the 2nd option need to recognize that they are, as Jack Straw so succinctly put it, "basing their argument on a parody" and as he also noted: a calculation with flawed variables will always reach a flawed conclusion.
November 13, 2003
The Ego has Landed
Currently Listening To: Runaway Train from the album "Grave Dancers Union" by Soul Asylum
Michael Moore is in Britain parading his ignorance right now. I have no time for the man after I read the head numbingly stupid errors in his knowledge of British politics and constitutional affairs in his first book and then was dealt a sucker punch of idiocy when he turned his rabid attentions to Tony Blair. How ironic. The self styled left-wing liberal named Mr. Blair the "worst Briton" despite him being the man who has done the more for the welfare state and public sector reform than any man since Clement Atlee. How idiotic does one have to be to utterly discard a man who has effectively put into action all the policies championed by one's self because he happened to agree with Mr. Bush?
Moore's frustration and ultimately, his desperation with the president is showing. Unable to enact that famous 'grass roots revolution' he has called for in the past he's resorted to shabby journalistic practice and sensationalism. Espousing liberal theories and socialist dogma with all the knowledge and finesse of a bar-top philosopher. The left wing might well need help in America but there is no such need here in England, whilst the man is so indescribably ignorant as to the nature of British politics as to shock me, I remain perplexed that he can't see past Mr. Blair's concordance with Bush in their policy concerning Iraq.
As the BBC noted during one of Mr. Moore's book promotion meetings:
A rowdy question and answer session brought out both the best and worst in Moore. His snappy comebacks were always amusing, but his impatience with some of his more verbose inquisitors betrayed a reluctance to be drawn into genuine political debate.
There's a reason why he's unwilling to be "drawn into genuine political debate". It is simply because the man is utterly ignorant of what that entails. His grasp of the principles of left of centre policy is either thoroughly wanting or he is utterly reluctant to articulate it and recognizing the supreme rarity with, which the man's mouth closes (presumably only whilst chewing) I have to say that proposition sounds remarkably suspect.
Were it not enough that Stupid White Men contained a glaring error concerning the UK constitution (he was complaining about the lack of a single constitutional document in the UK and in doing so highlighted not only his comprehensive ignorance of British principles of constitutionality but was simultaneously oblivious to the Human Rights Act 1998 and the United Kingdom's position within Europe) he goes and puts his foot in it again in Dude, where's my country? by proffering the most imbecilic example of abject ignorance of our Constitution in suggesting that we, in the UK can "call for elections whenever we want".
The left wing does itself no favours by championing idiotic sensationalists like Moore. Where are our Andrew Sullivans? Left leaning writers who supported the war on Iraq? Anyone? Please!
Later
John
November 12, 2003
SGA-Goodness
Currently Listening To: Runaway Train from the album "Grave Dancers Union" by Soul Asylum
I didn't get much sleep last night for one reason or another and so was really tired when I woke up. In order to get through the day my mind decided I needed the quick burst of energy that only jelly could provide (no, don't ask me why, I think you had to be there to get it and I clearly was not). Remarkably it actually worked and I felt oddly energetic, not needing to yawn at all until I got back. Narrowly missing the guy who came to deliver my phone charger, although why that was the case is something I'm unsure of. I can't remember doing anything other than getting on the Tube and riding it to Victoria so I ought to have been back well before him. Weird.
Anyhow pursuant of their obligations under the Sale of Goods Act 1979 and the Sale and Supply of Goods to Consumers Regulations 2002 to furnish me with a choice of rejection, cure or refund, Orange clearly took note of s.35(2) which concerns the waiver of the right to reject and more specifically the intimation that the buyer has accepted the goods before he has had "reasonable opportunity of examining them for the purpose-
(a) of ascertaining whether they are in conformity with the contract, and
(b) - not really applicable at all in this instance.
and no (4) doesn't apply because I don't consider 5 days to be a lapse of 'a reasonable amount of time' without intimating to the seller than I am rejecting them.
Basically meaning that they weren't total tossers and immediately sent for a replacement, non-dead mobile charger to be couriered to me. You'd be surprised how many companies will flagrantly disregard their obligations under the various forms of Sale of Goods legislation in existence today although for the most part the big ones are quite good about it (they have legal teams which inform them of nasty lawsuits in potentia hidden amongst their clumsy actions).
I'm also going to get hot on the trail of the Sheryl Crow CD I bought but never received. Even after emailing the seller I've had no reply and still have no CD. This means war! Or alternatively a black mark in someone's Amazon Marketplace account feedback!
Later
John
November 11, 2003
Lest We Forget....
Lest We Forget....
Over half a century ago the brave men and women of this great nation laid down their lives to defend the whole world. The children born on the eve of the great war's passing were old enough to enlist and die in the Second World War defending the freedom that we know and take for granted today.
Today I offer no substantive update to this weblog save a prayer offered to those valiant people who offered the greatest sacrifice for the greatest virtues of our society.
I counted 10 people in a bustling metropolitan walk to the post office who wore their poppy with pride. That's about 1/80 of the number wearing a flippin' teddy bear on Children in Need day. Lest we forget indeed.
In fact when I first stepped out into the street I realized I had forgotten my poppy and almost got run over as I halted and ran back to the flat. I always try to buy 2 poppies. One for the days leading up to the 11th and then one for the 11th so it doesn't look like it's been mangled and had forgotten to pin my new one in.
Our Father, Who art in Heaven
Hallowed be thy name
Thy kingdom come
Thy will be done
On earth as it is in heaven
Give us this day our daily bread
And forgive us our Trespasses,
As we forgive those who trespass against us
And lead us not into temptation
But deliver us from evil
For thine is the kingdom the power and the glory
ForeverAmen
November 09, 2003
Gah
Gah
Its 6am. I'm still awake.
See I have a problem here. If I go to sleep now then chances are I won't wake up till like 4pm and if I do that then getting to sleep tomorrow will be a total bitch. However if I don't sleep then I'll crash out at 4pm and wake up early Monday morning which is a comprehensive waste of a sunday.
I hate waking up before I've had enough sleep so getting my ass out of bed at 12pm is hardly an option. However I've somehow lost that "48 hours no sleep - no problem" nature that I had when I was 16.
This totally sucks.
Looks like I'll have to go for the 'drag my undead carcass out of bed after only 6 hours sleep' option.
I still have the cold but its more benign now so I will be alright for Monday's university. I'm planning on redoubling my efforts at uni both to make up for my sickness (doh) and to try and get a headstart on the exams. Probably won't be fun but it's better than moping around feeling sorry for myself.
One thing's for certain. I'm not going to be able to drag my carcass out of bed for church... Hang on.... I wonder.. Nope.. There isn't a "Ridiculously Early Mass" so it looks like I'll be going 'heathen' tomorrow (it's like going 'commando' only far less satisfying, albeit with less chafing).
Later
John
November 06, 2003
Phoney!
Phoney!
Currently Listening To: Don't Look Back In Anger by Oasis
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| My New Phone! |
Its camera is spiffy and I may have to use it on a more regular basis :D Think the next purchase for me will be a Bluetooth adaptor for this computer so I can use my mobile as a little digital camera for this blog. Sure I like blogging but it seems a bit onerous duty to have to lug around a digital camera wherever you go, so having it built into your ridiculously sexy mobile phone
Andrew Sullivan provided a great link to a very good article from the Arab News by Fawaz Turki. Here's an excerpt:
Is it too early to adopt a revisionist view of the US war in Iraq and for this column to admit its mistake in having vehemently opposed it from the outset?At issue here is whether the Iraqi people have benefited from the overthrow of the Baathist regime and whether the American occupation will eventually benefit their country even more. I’m convinced — and berate me here from your patriotic bleachers, if you must — that what we have seen in the land between the Tigris and the Euphrates in recent months may turn out to be the most serendipitous event in its modern history.
See, you can oppose big corporate America and understand what the war on Iraq was really about. As Mr. Turki noted:
No, I don’t believe that by going to war, America had dark designs on Iraq’s oil or pursued an equally dark conspiracy to “help Israel.” I believe that the US, perhaps willy-nilly, will end up helping Iraqis regain their human sanity, their social composure and the national will to rebuild their devastated nation.
I may not think to highly of Bush's domestic policies being left wing in my own beliefs but I can at least recognize when something is and when something is not an oil grabbin' Big Business Bonanza.
I saw a banner outside the Houses of Parliament upon which was written
"Stop the genocide of innocent Iraqi Children!"
Ignoring the obvious syntactial errors of the passage I felt it prudent to say: "We just did".
November 04, 2003
Still feeling sick annoyingly
Still feeling sick annoyingly
Just a quick post before I try to eat something, bleh. Thank god for Lemsip MAX STRENGTH Capsules.
A third man, Hashem Ali, a former security official, joins them, and suddenly an argument breaks out. "Iraqis should be proud of the attacks in Fallujah," says the newcomer, adding that security was much better under Saddam. "Yes, in the mass graves security was perfect," says Hillal, to which Ali has no answer.
An excerpt from this Time article. A good read and a clear demonstration of the thing which most of the pro-war lobby has been screaming since the war ended. life is better in Iraq. Read it all the way through. From a magazine who's quality had been dropping in standard to a pit of liberal insulation since 3 years ago when I read it religiously. A the end a man speaks of how his wife went into premature labour from the stress suffered under US bombing, their 4th child was born but died an hour later.
"We made a sacrifice for this freedom," says Muhssin, without bitterness. How long will the freedom last? "Forever, I think. And it'll be better after a month, and after a year, much better. I think so."
Apparently Ranj is back from Iraq. He went there for the summer but I haven't seen him in Uni. It'd be nice to speak to him and get his take on things. Nothing was more fun than seeing some Anti-War protesting students squirm as my Kurdish friend gave them a verbal history lesson :D
Gah! My grandmother just arrived, thankfully being sick I can ward her off but nonetheless, I can't think of a more miserable way to spend the day than listen to her endless moaning and whining. Doh, I'm doing exactly that, I best -W00!!!! She just said she has to go back to cook Grandad and Uncle Jason's dinner! Sweet Sweet Lord I praise thee! Hopefully she'll be off before my Dad calls, as he's supposed to be dropping me a line so I can sort him out with some quality iChat AV goodness :)
Later
John
November 03, 2003
Bleh
Bleh
I'm sick. No to ways about it. I've had the beginings of the symptoms for 2 days and this evening I think its been pushed beyond all doubt. Ass.
Still at least I won't miss much tomorrow at uni as I can pretty much get away with reading it from the book. Still totally lame.
Today I had a Company Law tutorial which once again was reduced to a conversation between myself and the tutor as no one in my tutor group knew what the hell was going on or just felt like they were in school and hence were trying to just get through unnoticed. Come on already! This is University! You only get out what you put in... Although in fairness I think what they all got out was a load of my notes and I got 1 hour of talking to the tutor so they came out the better, I like all my tutors its just a bit pointless sitting there and talking through the subject with them.
Counseling was good as it always is. My counselor managed to extend the time she could spent with me so that they could help me through my exams.
Urgh.. Too sick to type.. Sorry
Later
John