It has been so long since I last posted that I cannot remember the thread of my thoughts and even if I was to re-read the previous posts, I would still not be able to recreate the point I had reached. A lot of water has passed under the bridge. The laptop HDD died and required recovery by a very expensive team of experts. It is now working perfectly, although it takes time to sort all those little settings out e.g. for instance I am using “Word” at the moment and the default font is Times-new-Roman and I hate it and need to reset it to something more acceptable like Tahoma. At least I have all my files now and that should make the talk to the nursery children on Friday a bit easier – I have a powerpoint for that.
Currently I am reading “More Bollocks to Alton Towers”. If you have not read the first one then you will not understand the second, but it is a glorious celebration of the Great British tourist attraction. I love it as it provides me with masses of potential points for further investigation. I guess you are either a bit of a nerd or you’re not. I am also reading “You don’t have to be evil to work here, but it helps” by Tom Holt – again Tom is a bit of an acquired taste and the only way to describe it is to say that it is absurdist fiction set in a very normal world.
The Angels and Airwaves gig at the Manchester Academy on the 10th of April was fantastic, but very very sweaty. I have not been that involved in a gig since I was 20. The support “You, Me at six” were very good and certainly a better opener than Biffy Clyro for Linkin Park. The next gig should be a lot more sedate – Jethro Tull at The Sands in Carlisle.
The other major event of the last while, was our trip to Africa. I have written a diary and as soon as I have copied it in, I will post it here, as I don’t want to have to do things twice. Tanzania is fantastic and I would recommend anyone to go there. You do need to do it some style to make the best of it though. We went with CC Africa as a tour operator. They are a fantastic company and their lodges are superb. We flew in and out with Emirates business class. Their service is always great and for that distance peasant class would be horrible.
I did however watch “I am Legend” on the flight – avoid like plague. I am so glad I never bought the movie. I have also watched “The last King of Scotland”, since being back home – that is superb, although not a comfortable watch. The Simpsons movie is not bad – a reasonable plot and some good comic moments – not a classic but enjoyable all the same. “The Baker” with Damian Lewis is a great British comedy and is easily up there with the best high-budget jobs, even though it looks to have been shot on a home video with a budget of 20p.
Back at work now though – things tickling along, but as ever could always use a bit more cash.
Running going OK again – need to get ready for the K2B now. The Grizedale10 went well on the 15th March – 77mins for 10 miles and came 78th out of 250. I was quite pleased indeed. Holiday and work have conspired against training for the last month but am hoping to get a good 20mile run in on Thursday. I am also booked on another trail run in October. Firstly need to get that K2B out of the way – less than 8hh this year would be good.
Tuesday, 22 April 2008
Tuesday, 18 March 2008
too darn busy or too darn lazy
6th February 2008
Seems to be a bit of a better day today – perhaps bad weather draws out the chavs from the woodwork. Weather seems cheerier and so far have not had any idiots through the door. Have now downloaded my Digi souvenir pack from the Linkin Park gig on the 27th – excellent collection of MP3s and jpgs and the rest. The “new” PDA arrived yesterday and works perfectly – came with a bonus sat nav software so will have to get a GPS receiver to make it work! Definitely a very difficult week to spend any time contemplating anything deep as have no time for that at all. I need to understand the nature of “reality” better to have any concept of how to fit a “god” into the quantum model of the Universe. “God” is not just “in the detail” I believe that he “IS the detail”. This is so opposed to those who cannot accept that the so called non-overlapping magisteria do in fact overlap and indeed combine to give a complete answer. I also believe that there is no way we as a race will ever fully comprehend the structure of the Universe as our mind cannot expand that far and indeed Roger Penrose hit the nail on the head when he suggested that we need a separate way of doing physics to cope with understanding how the Universe works. The “Emperors New Mind” is an excellent introduction to this topic. Brian Greene’s “Elegant Universe” is easier to read and Penrose “Road to Reality” is unfathomable without degree level math / physics.
8th February 2008-02-08
Got it! I am a non-realist Christian – stick that in your web search and see where you end up – At least that is what I currently believe – I will need to look deeper and study the philosophical constructs behind this but I feel that it may offer me a way of viewing things the way I do. I find the current trend toward muscular atheism to be as inflexible and unthinking as the monotheistic religions themselves. I do not feel able to associate myself with the self-appointed heads of this new way of doing things e.g. Dawkins and therefore need a more considered approach to my theology. We shall see how this all works out in the fullness of time…
24th February
Have been skiing and busy hence no further writings- poor discipline I’m afraid. Tested positive for TATP at Manchester airport on way out to Switzerland – oo-er. Well at least my laptop did but it appears that other substances can mimic this one and it may be my working environment may have contributed. 2nd test was clear so it was allowed through. I have now generated some security paperwork – I hope I do not get any further issues as that was not really all that funny. You will have to stick TATP into google to find out the info but I suspect that GCHQ monitor all instances of this and probably will “flag” this blog as potentially interesting – I can assure you it isn’t.. Still reading “Pies and prejudice” by Stuart Maconie and am working through “The Witches of Chiswick” by Robert Rankin. If you have never read any Robert Rankin – go out and buy some now – you could enlighten yourself by reading “The hollow chocolate bunnies of the apocalypse”.
Had another occasional “Gone Fishing” mens group meeting at Walney church last night – watched the film Amazing Grace – very good indeed – truly uplifting and a film that everyone should watch – I will certainly have a second sitting.
Have had plenty of time to consider matters divine whilst on the drag lifts in Saas Fee - slow progress but I am coming to an understanding. It would appear to me that we choose our particular theology partly based on what we have been exposed to culturally and partly due to what makes the most consistent sense to us. This does not deny a place to the divine but does mean that what we “use” as our construction of “something other” allows us to group together with other members of the same thinking and form a “church”. In my case this happens to be Christianity but it could just as easily be Islam or Buddhism or “Big Box Fella” (see Robert Rankin). It also fully allows science to exist and provide its own explanations of the world around us. Science at the level of the Universe or at the subatomic level quite often slips into “theories” rather than facts and this alone means that by no means does it fully explain our Universe.
12/3/08
From another blog:
The crew of artists on the China project came and ‘enjoyed’ tree planting in a light snowfall and moderate temperatures - above freezing. They stayed at Parkamoor but did complain of cold. I guess contemporary clothing is just not geared up for cold, damp conditions. I usually suffer from being too hot, tweed and wool is just too much in the heated environment. There is no way people will ever be able to go back from the level of heating that is now the norm. I noticed this recently while staying with friends, their house was full of eco stuff, they had carbon offsetting coming out of all ends. Each year they were planting 6 tiny trees which the label proclaimed would offset an average family’s carbon output. That might have been true but it would be 10 years before they jointly offset more than an average families wind breaking. And all this stuff is as nothing if you have your entire house heated to 24 degrees as they did. My recent experience with central heating (I have moved to a central heated house while Lawson Pk is under the builders) has helped me realise a lot about contemporary society. I realise that central heating is the cause of sloth, anger and dysfunctional behaviour. It is impossible to get the temperature right, the non directional nature of it causes the background temperature to inexorably rise, this terrible heat means that if you do anything more than just sit in your vest and pants you become bad tempered. The rise in the divorce rate is - I now realise closely linked to the development of central heating.
Heating is one of my BIG bugbears - my staff complains it is always cold in our building - I maintain that 16-18 degrees would be more than adequate outside (a lovely late spring day) so it should be more than adequate inside (at any time). I draw the line at maintaining "a healthy draft" like some friends of ours do (That IS cold). Everyone seems to moan about their gas bill and price rises, but the way to combat that is to keep the cost the same and use less of the stuff. Despite my inner need for stewardship of resources, I remain in staunch denial over the global warmng issue, particularly CO2 - the human effort is a mere 6% of the total - true we shouldnt produce CO2 if we can avoid it, but our efforts to stem the tide are mere piddling in the wind.
18th March 2008
Slowly plodding on with System of the World and have now finished reading “I predict a riot” by Bateman. That book is mad. How Bateman gets away with writing what he does about NI, I’ll never know, but he is fairly balanced so that may explain it. Now onto Keith Ward’s book “What the Bible really teaches – A challenge for fundamentalists”. This seems to be a very interesting read and quite a challenge. As I have heard said before and will repeat here “The word fundamental has mental at the very heart of it”. I would personally like to dismember anyone who puts the words creation and science together (they do not go together – you would have to be a retard to think that), as that is the kind of crap that fundamentalists come out with all the time. They blind themselves to other sorts of thinking. There is much that we do not understand about the Bible in the same way that there is much that we do not understand about science. To have a blind belief that excludes all of one whilst accepting all of the other without question, does nothing to forward the cause and is a best unhelpful and at worst complete nonsense. My understanding of theology is at best limited but even I can see that we need to consider the views of a wider group and looking at the extremists on either side is only mildly instructive. Well It has been some time but maybe I will add some more rather sooner than last time.
Seems to be a bit of a better day today – perhaps bad weather draws out the chavs from the woodwork. Weather seems cheerier and so far have not had any idiots through the door. Have now downloaded my Digi souvenir pack from the Linkin Park gig on the 27th – excellent collection of MP3s and jpgs and the rest. The “new” PDA arrived yesterday and works perfectly – came with a bonus sat nav software so will have to get a GPS receiver to make it work! Definitely a very difficult week to spend any time contemplating anything deep as have no time for that at all. I need to understand the nature of “reality” better to have any concept of how to fit a “god” into the quantum model of the Universe. “God” is not just “in the detail” I believe that he “IS the detail”. This is so opposed to those who cannot accept that the so called non-overlapping magisteria do in fact overlap and indeed combine to give a complete answer. I also believe that there is no way we as a race will ever fully comprehend the structure of the Universe as our mind cannot expand that far and indeed Roger Penrose hit the nail on the head when he suggested that we need a separate way of doing physics to cope with understanding how the Universe works. The “Emperors New Mind” is an excellent introduction to this topic. Brian Greene’s “Elegant Universe” is easier to read and Penrose “Road to Reality” is unfathomable without degree level math / physics.
8th February 2008-02-08
Got it! I am a non-realist Christian – stick that in your web search and see where you end up – At least that is what I currently believe – I will need to look deeper and study the philosophical constructs behind this but I feel that it may offer me a way of viewing things the way I do. I find the current trend toward muscular atheism to be as inflexible and unthinking as the monotheistic religions themselves. I do not feel able to associate myself with the self-appointed heads of this new way of doing things e.g. Dawkins and therefore need a more considered approach to my theology. We shall see how this all works out in the fullness of time…
24th February
Have been skiing and busy hence no further writings- poor discipline I’m afraid. Tested positive for TATP at Manchester airport on way out to Switzerland – oo-er. Well at least my laptop did but it appears that other substances can mimic this one and it may be my working environment may have contributed. 2nd test was clear so it was allowed through. I have now generated some security paperwork – I hope I do not get any further issues as that was not really all that funny. You will have to stick TATP into google to find out the info but I suspect that GCHQ monitor all instances of this and probably will “flag” this blog as potentially interesting – I can assure you it isn’t.. Still reading “Pies and prejudice” by Stuart Maconie and am working through “The Witches of Chiswick” by Robert Rankin. If you have never read any Robert Rankin – go out and buy some now – you could enlighten yourself by reading “The hollow chocolate bunnies of the apocalypse”.
Had another occasional “Gone Fishing” mens group meeting at Walney church last night – watched the film Amazing Grace – very good indeed – truly uplifting and a film that everyone should watch – I will certainly have a second sitting.
Have had plenty of time to consider matters divine whilst on the drag lifts in Saas Fee - slow progress but I am coming to an understanding. It would appear to me that we choose our particular theology partly based on what we have been exposed to culturally and partly due to what makes the most consistent sense to us. This does not deny a place to the divine but does mean that what we “use” as our construction of “something other” allows us to group together with other members of the same thinking and form a “church”. In my case this happens to be Christianity but it could just as easily be Islam or Buddhism or “Big Box Fella” (see Robert Rankin). It also fully allows science to exist and provide its own explanations of the world around us. Science at the level of the Universe or at the subatomic level quite often slips into “theories” rather than facts and this alone means that by no means does it fully explain our Universe.
12/3/08
From another blog:
The crew of artists on the China project came and ‘enjoyed’ tree planting in a light snowfall and moderate temperatures - above freezing. They stayed at Parkamoor but did complain of cold. I guess contemporary clothing is just not geared up for cold, damp conditions. I usually suffer from being too hot, tweed and wool is just too much in the heated environment. There is no way people will ever be able to go back from the level of heating that is now the norm. I noticed this recently while staying with friends, their house was full of eco stuff, they had carbon offsetting coming out of all ends. Each year they were planting 6 tiny trees which the label proclaimed would offset an average family’s carbon output. That might have been true but it would be 10 years before they jointly offset more than an average families wind breaking. And all this stuff is as nothing if you have your entire house heated to 24 degrees as they did. My recent experience with central heating (I have moved to a central heated house while Lawson Pk is under the builders) has helped me realise a lot about contemporary society. I realise that central heating is the cause of sloth, anger and dysfunctional behaviour. It is impossible to get the temperature right, the non directional nature of it causes the background temperature to inexorably rise, this terrible heat means that if you do anything more than just sit in your vest and pants you become bad tempered. The rise in the divorce rate is - I now realise closely linked to the development of central heating.
Heating is one of my BIG bugbears - my staff complains it is always cold in our building - I maintain that 16-18 degrees would be more than adequate outside (a lovely late spring day) so it should be more than adequate inside (at any time). I draw the line at maintaining "a healthy draft" like some friends of ours do (That IS cold). Everyone seems to moan about their gas bill and price rises, but the way to combat that is to keep the cost the same and use less of the stuff. Despite my inner need for stewardship of resources, I remain in staunch denial over the global warmng issue, particularly CO2 - the human effort is a mere 6% of the total - true we shouldnt produce CO2 if we can avoid it, but our efforts to stem the tide are mere piddling in the wind.
18th March 2008
Slowly plodding on with System of the World and have now finished reading “I predict a riot” by Bateman. That book is mad. How Bateman gets away with writing what he does about NI, I’ll never know, but he is fairly balanced so that may explain it. Now onto Keith Ward’s book “What the Bible really teaches – A challenge for fundamentalists”. This seems to be a very interesting read and quite a challenge. As I have heard said before and will repeat here “The word fundamental has mental at the very heart of it”. I would personally like to dismember anyone who puts the words creation and science together (they do not go together – you would have to be a retard to think that), as that is the kind of crap that fundamentalists come out with all the time. They blind themselves to other sorts of thinking. There is much that we do not understand about the Bible in the same way that there is much that we do not understand about science. To have a blind belief that excludes all of one whilst accepting all of the other without question, does nothing to forward the cause and is a best unhelpful and at worst complete nonsense. My understanding of theology is at best limited but even I can see that we need to consider the views of a wider group and looking at the extremists on either side is only mildly instructive. Well It has been some time but maybe I will add some more rather sooner than last time.
Tuesday, 5 February 2008
Grrrnnnnnggggghhh
5th February 2008-02-05
Storming week so far… My staff have been told to f**k off by some scabby chav idiot who I am now going to ban from the practice and today yet another idiot gave a load of abuse to another member of staff after being asked to pay their outstanding account before having further treatment. I really need to find another way to make the same amount of cash as this is really not worth the effort. The other way, of course, would be to double the prices and drop all the charity schemes and see who actually stays – I bet we wouldn’t lose. I am sick of chav scum and skanky dossers; they make a complete mockery of the vast numbers of clients who behave in a reasonable manner. I can cope with complaints but not rudeness.
The Palm PDA died last week and after much messing about I bought a second hand one off Ebay whilst I try and decide on what to do in the long term. It would be just my luck for this one to outlive the first! I am quite taken by the UMPC particularly the OQO Series Version 2. PDAs seem very ahrd to get hold of now and I suspect the market is about the be taken over by the UMPC.
I finished the Stuart MacBride “Dying Light” – very good – but very formulaic – I should not have read it so quickly after the last one. Am now reading “Pies and Prejudice” by Stuart Maconie – a wonderful diatribe on “Northerness”. Am I a real Northerner – I was born in Reading after all..?
Storming week so far… My staff have been told to f**k off by some scabby chav idiot who I am now going to ban from the practice and today yet another idiot gave a load of abuse to another member of staff after being asked to pay their outstanding account before having further treatment. I really need to find another way to make the same amount of cash as this is really not worth the effort. The other way, of course, would be to double the prices and drop all the charity schemes and see who actually stays – I bet we wouldn’t lose. I am sick of chav scum and skanky dossers; they make a complete mockery of the vast numbers of clients who behave in a reasonable manner. I can cope with complaints but not rudeness.
The Palm PDA died last week and after much messing about I bought a second hand one off Ebay whilst I try and decide on what to do in the long term. It would be just my luck for this one to outlive the first! I am quite taken by the UMPC particularly the OQO Series Version 2. PDAs seem very ahrd to get hold of now and I suspect the market is about the be taken over by the UMPC.
I finished the Stuart MacBride “Dying Light” – very good – but very formulaic – I should not have read it so quickly after the last one. Am now reading “Pies and Prejudice” by Stuart Maconie – a wonderful diatribe on “Northerness”. Am I a real Northerner – I was born in Reading after all..?
Thursday, 31 January 2008
Hell this is going to be long:
Well - I have posted nohting online since the 5th of January and this is because I am 1) lazy 2) busy and 3)have tried a hard written log. I started that one on the 21st of January and I will put the collected thoughts on here now:
21st Jan:
One queston that I found myself asking was : "Would I be able to write more freely with a pen than a keyboard?". This has now been answered - No. Certainly I had legibility concerns and these are being felt now that I am putting this onto the Blog. They were certainly well founded. The speed of writing may be faster with the pen, but it is a close-run thing. The keyboard has the benefit of edit prior to post, ink is too permanent once written. I think I will have to go back to the "scratch file" Blog again and make more effort. I am hoping to put my thoughts here although not my book idea (Someone could nick it), that I will leave on my desktop.
It would be easy to fall into the trap of thinking that what I write is of any importance to anyone ther than myself; on the contrary it is of the utmost unimportance. The commission of thoughts in an archivable form is what I wish to achieve. So much goes through my mind and so quickly, that I barely have time to dwell before moving on and I would perhaps like to look back over those thoughts. Even now I have altered this written post to allow for new thoughts.... The handwritten posts may not all end up here as there is so much and I need to move on so I will probably slip the rest in, on a later post.
I wonder if I should try and slow down and contemplate, or do I let my mind race as usual. This is a permanent problem for me and I have no way of being able to control it as yet. I did think that takng up slower pursuits may help and I think they might. I may also seek to take a retreat to solitude at some point later in the year. I felt Peter Jones series "Extreme Pilgrim" had a lot to teach us on the benefits of solitude and seeking the face of God. I would like to emulate this at some point. It certainly got me wondering wwhat would happen if I could throw of the shackles of modern life and money and tail-chasing and live in a "monastic" way..
Another question is whether I will improve my writing skills in this way. As stated earlier I am not that good with the English language and have to get my wife to look over any written works.
I was reading "the 13 1/2 lives of Captain Bluebear" , but have now finished this and moved on to another Police procedural "Dying light" by Stuart Macbride - gruesome but good. The "System of the World" by Neal Stephenson is taking a pace and I have at least moved past 100 pages now!
Looking forward to skiing now as is only 9 days to go. I do wonder if a 40yo can improve beyond the current ability - Josh certainly has youth as an advantage. I need to try and take on board all the tips from last year and see if we can move forward.
22nd Jan
Made a decision last night to get a grip on my finances, as the change in drawings at the end of November still hasnt quite sunk in and I am still struggling, but have an action-plan now so should be able to bring it all under control. A new mental state is required and I need to bring this to bear in so many areas of my life. Improvments in my weight are also required and these have been made by cutting out the cakes and reducing what I eat generally. Hopefully I can pull my BMI to the lower end of the normal range rather than the upper end of the range.
I also need to master what I actually believe in as this is fundamental to who I am. The contemplation of this may take time and takes into account that which I have written above. I feel I may be somewaht away from the mainstream and my faith position is based on a holistic view of the Universe and takes inot account all "rational explanation" as well as "faith based ideas". Confused - you bet. I need to embrace this change of pace but it will be a challenge.
29th Jan 2008:
Nothing for the last 7 days again.
The book thing is in my mind again...
Tomorrow looks like a good day so maybe I should get out with the camera - and indeed I did and got lots of good shots - I think I should try and photograph as much of the peninsula as I can.
A long run is out of the question as I did a 26mile epic in 4hours on Friday and 20mins at pace on the treamill was quite an effort last night anyway.
Linkin Park were excellent on Sunday night at the MEN - Josh was very impressed as well. Biffy Clyro were a solid support act, weak in openign but warmed up in the end.
31st Jan 08
Today - finally
Is it me or is it the rest of the world? I feel unable to get on top of all the developments in technology. The story is that my Palm is dying and this is a real issue as I totally rely on it for my working life. Indeed it may now be totally dead as I cannot reboot it at all. I then looked at the iphone as a replacement but this does not yet have 3rd party software ability as Apple have locked this but may release a SDK in the near future. It seems to rely on Web 2.0 funcitonality and indeed some of the Palm's functions may be replaced with web-apps but some may not. I could write my own.... Me write AJAX apps?? Confused - even more so.
Typing all this up has taken so long that I am now going to have to do some work! Maybe I should get back into the habit and it will then be easier...
21st Jan:
One queston that I found myself asking was : "Would I be able to write more freely with a pen than a keyboard?". This has now been answered - No. Certainly I had legibility concerns and these are being felt now that I am putting this onto the Blog. They were certainly well founded. The speed of writing may be faster with the pen, but it is a close-run thing. The keyboard has the benefit of edit prior to post, ink is too permanent once written. I think I will have to go back to the "scratch file" Blog again and make more effort. I am hoping to put my thoughts here although not my book idea (Someone could nick it), that I will leave on my desktop.
It would be easy to fall into the trap of thinking that what I write is of any importance to anyone ther than myself; on the contrary it is of the utmost unimportance. The commission of thoughts in an archivable form is what I wish to achieve. So much goes through my mind and so quickly, that I barely have time to dwell before moving on and I would perhaps like to look back over those thoughts. Even now I have altered this written post to allow for new thoughts.... The handwritten posts may not all end up here as there is so much and I need to move on so I will probably slip the rest in, on a later post.
I wonder if I should try and slow down and contemplate, or do I let my mind race as usual. This is a permanent problem for me and I have no way of being able to control it as yet. I did think that takng up slower pursuits may help and I think they might. I may also seek to take a retreat to solitude at some point later in the year. I felt Peter Jones series "Extreme Pilgrim" had a lot to teach us on the benefits of solitude and seeking the face of God. I would like to emulate this at some point. It certainly got me wondering wwhat would happen if I could throw of the shackles of modern life and money and tail-chasing and live in a "monastic" way..
Another question is whether I will improve my writing skills in this way. As stated earlier I am not that good with the English language and have to get my wife to look over any written works.
I was reading "the 13 1/2 lives of Captain Bluebear" , but have now finished this and moved on to another Police procedural "Dying light" by Stuart Macbride - gruesome but good. The "System of the World" by Neal Stephenson is taking a pace and I have at least moved past 100 pages now!
Looking forward to skiing now as is only 9 days to go. I do wonder if a 40yo can improve beyond the current ability - Josh certainly has youth as an advantage. I need to try and take on board all the tips from last year and see if we can move forward.
22nd Jan
Made a decision last night to get a grip on my finances, as the change in drawings at the end of November still hasnt quite sunk in and I am still struggling, but have an action-plan now so should be able to bring it all under control. A new mental state is required and I need to bring this to bear in so many areas of my life. Improvments in my weight are also required and these have been made by cutting out the cakes and reducing what I eat generally. Hopefully I can pull my BMI to the lower end of the normal range rather than the upper end of the range.
I also need to master what I actually believe in as this is fundamental to who I am. The contemplation of this may take time and takes into account that which I have written above. I feel I may be somewaht away from the mainstream and my faith position is based on a holistic view of the Universe and takes inot account all "rational explanation" as well as "faith based ideas". Confused - you bet. I need to embrace this change of pace but it will be a challenge.
29th Jan 2008:
Nothing for the last 7 days again.
The book thing is in my mind again...
Tomorrow looks like a good day so maybe I should get out with the camera - and indeed I did and got lots of good shots - I think I should try and photograph as much of the peninsula as I can.
A long run is out of the question as I did a 26mile epic in 4hours on Friday and 20mins at pace on the treamill was quite an effort last night anyway.
Linkin Park were excellent on Sunday night at the MEN - Josh was very impressed as well. Biffy Clyro were a solid support act, weak in openign but warmed up in the end.
31st Jan 08
Today - finally
Is it me or is it the rest of the world? I feel unable to get on top of all the developments in technology. The story is that my Palm is dying and this is a real issue as I totally rely on it for my working life. Indeed it may now be totally dead as I cannot reboot it at all. I then looked at the iphone as a replacement but this does not yet have 3rd party software ability as Apple have locked this but may release a SDK in the near future. It seems to rely on Web 2.0 funcitonality and indeed some of the Palm's functions may be replaced with web-apps but some may not. I could write my own.... Me write AJAX apps?? Confused - even more so.
Typing all this up has taken so long that I am now going to have to do some work! Maybe I should get back into the habit and it will then be easier...
Saturday, 5 January 2008
too long since last post
Well. Its has been a long time – almost a month – still not totally into the habit of social networking and blogging. It has been a busy time so that might explain some of the slow progress.
I finished the Confusion in the week before Christmas; although it is not a final ending, and I am still completely clueless as to how this extremely large story will conclude. I have started the System of The World and I will keep myself updated with the progress – I don’t actually believe anyone else reads this – it is merely there so I can keep a track on my life..
I also finished “Cold Granite”. That was quite good and I am looking forward to the next one. I have since started and got almost half way through Robert Goddard’s “Name to a Face”. This is typical RG fare with a hapless protagonist finding himself in a series of improbable situations and I am sure it will all be sorted in the end. Quite good.
Back at work after Christmas period,; although I never was away fully really. Christmas was … different… this year. A trip to Lincolnshire for Xmas day was actually quite good. We saw all Debi’s side of the family and enjoyed her mum’s hospitality. The late night drive back to the Lakes was tiring but at least we got back so we could spend Boxing Day with my family.
Boxing day went quietly as well; Nanna failed to say anything outrageous and there were no major rows.
The real interest happened later in the week
A “dinner party”, Oh how the fuck I hate that phrase, with some interesting topics of conversation but when they are being discussed with someone who has all the intellectual capability of a fruit fly, it is well… interesting. If my family happen to read this it is nothing to do with them. Anyone who still thinks docking of dog’s tails is a reasonable process, is a (fill in your own perjorative term).
This is taking so long to post that I have managed to finish the Robert Goddard – a good book all in all and based on a not too far fetched premise. Very typical of his work but good nonetheless. The only question is .. which book next??
This post has taken too long – I am now reading “The 13 ½ lives of captain Bluebear” – very strange but quite compelling – a sort of word cartoon – don’t know where it will end up, I’ll keep myself informed.
I finished the Confusion in the week before Christmas; although it is not a final ending, and I am still completely clueless as to how this extremely large story will conclude. I have started the System of The World and I will keep myself updated with the progress – I don’t actually believe anyone else reads this – it is merely there so I can keep a track on my life..
I also finished “Cold Granite”. That was quite good and I am looking forward to the next one. I have since started and got almost half way through Robert Goddard’s “Name to a Face”. This is typical RG fare with a hapless protagonist finding himself in a series of improbable situations and I am sure it will all be sorted in the end. Quite good.
Back at work after Christmas period,; although I never was away fully really. Christmas was … different… this year. A trip to Lincolnshire for Xmas day was actually quite good. We saw all Debi’s side of the family and enjoyed her mum’s hospitality. The late night drive back to the Lakes was tiring but at least we got back so we could spend Boxing Day with my family.
Boxing day went quietly as well; Nanna failed to say anything outrageous and there were no major rows.
The real interest happened later in the week
A “dinner party”, Oh how the fuck I hate that phrase, with some interesting topics of conversation but when they are being discussed with someone who has all the intellectual capability of a fruit fly, it is well… interesting. If my family happen to read this it is nothing to do with them. Anyone who still thinks docking of dog’s tails is a reasonable process, is a (fill in your own perjorative term).
This is taking so long to post that I have managed to finish the Robert Goddard – a good book all in all and based on a not too far fetched premise. Very typical of his work but good nonetheless. The only question is .. which book next??
This post has taken too long – I am now reading “The 13 ½ lives of captain Bluebear” – very strange but quite compelling – a sort of word cartoon – don’t know where it will end up, I’ll keep myself informed.
Friday, 7 December 2007
Still here
I write again… The Confusion is proving a slow read but I am in the last section of the book now and I believe I can see a way to the conclusion of the trilogy. Cold Granite by MacBride is shaping up as a good police procedural and although nothing special is certainly an easy bed-time read.
Heroes… Well I predicted how it would end – a tad twee I thought but nonetheless suitably tied up and rounded off. It has been an excellent series, very well put together and I would look forward to buying that on Blu-ray in the New Year as it will be fantastic in HD.
The computers have been SNAFU all day – the computer engineer came this morning – a mere 20 hours after the call was logged (this on a 4hr service package). He messed around for 4 hours and then when his part finally turned up it was for a MAC and not a UNIX machine. We now have no computer system at all and they are supposedly coming back tomorrow to fit the correct part (if it arrives).
Fortunately the work has been quiet today and we have not had too much to cause a major challenge to the system. I am still here til 8PM though.
Friday 7th Dec – computers fixed now and the guy also sorted a minor driver issue on another machine so we cant complain too much!
The Confusion still continues and I am now on page 725 so concluding soon and I can get onto the 3rd book – perhaps if I spent less time on the internet and more on reading it would get finished sooner – thinks…
On call all weekend – hope its not too bad – should be able to get out to the gym though – also might start thinking of the dreaded C word (Christmas). Cake was made last weekend so decoration at some point in the next 2 weeks.
They say that it takes 21days for a habit to be ingrained - this blogging thing has yet to get to that stage and I dont know if I can keep it up - I really only wanted it to be a way of keeping track of the books that I had read and the films I have watched. In the meantime I discovered Facebook and I think I may be developing a slight addiction..
Heroes… Well I predicted how it would end – a tad twee I thought but nonetheless suitably tied up and rounded off. It has been an excellent series, very well put together and I would look forward to buying that on Blu-ray in the New Year as it will be fantastic in HD.
The computers have been SNAFU all day – the computer engineer came this morning – a mere 20 hours after the call was logged (this on a 4hr service package). He messed around for 4 hours and then when his part finally turned up it was for a MAC and not a UNIX machine. We now have no computer system at all and they are supposedly coming back tomorrow to fit the correct part (if it arrives).
Fortunately the work has been quiet today and we have not had too much to cause a major challenge to the system. I am still here til 8PM though.
Friday 7th Dec – computers fixed now and the guy also sorted a minor driver issue on another machine so we cant complain too much!
The Confusion still continues and I am now on page 725 so concluding soon and I can get onto the 3rd book – perhaps if I spent less time on the internet and more on reading it would get finished sooner – thinks…
On call all weekend – hope its not too bad – should be able to get out to the gym though – also might start thinking of the dreaded C word (Christmas). Cake was made last weekend so decoration at some point in the next 2 weeks.
They say that it takes 21days for a habit to be ingrained - this blogging thing has yet to get to that stage and I dont know if I can keep it up - I really only wanted it to be a way of keeping track of the books that I had read and the films I have watched. In the meantime I discovered Facebook and I think I may be developing a slight addiction..
Tuesday, 4 December 2007
Tuesday in the twilight zone
Tuesday seems to be a bit of a long day - mostly because I have to work til 8PM this evening. Finished the "Animal theology" book by Andrew Linzey the other night - he makes a good case for being vegetarian / vegan but I havent yet signed to the cause. The final chapter on genetic engineering as animal slavery makes for an uncomfortable read and a considered approach to the arguments - food for thought indeed. Why do good people fail to act? Because they simply do not fully believe what they say they profess otherwise they WOULD act.. Now reading Stuart MacBride "Cold Granite" - police procedural set in Aberdeen - seems to be routine fare so far - I'll let you know.
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