Told you I was on catch-up - heres some more of the back-log: Some of this has had an outing before and is not "new"
This is stunning:
Is this the end of the world? If so, it's a bit more boring than I imagined: an invisible apocalypse
Great.
I go on holiday, turn my back for a few weeks, come back and what has happened? The banks are on fire and we're at war with Iceland. As I type these words (on a Friday morning, fact fans), Sky News is zooming in on a screen full of red flashing numbers, apparently willing them to fall yet lower. The problem is a lack of confidence, they keep saying, cutting away every so often to show a big plunging downward arrow or a shot of a City trader holding his head in despair.
I'm a bit sick of that whole holding-his-head-in-despair schtick, to be honest. It's about time they tried something more spectacular. Surely it's time for a revival of that great cliche of the 1930s, the ruined City whizzkid hurling himself out of the window? The credit crunch high dive. Extra points if you manage to pull a backflip on the way down, or crack your jaw on a window cleaner's cradle somewhere around floor 35. The ultimate high score goes to the first one who manages to successfully update his Facebook status using an iPhone seconds before slamming into the pavement. "Danny is plummeting to his doom." Click here to tag him in a photo.
Is this the end of the world? If so, it's a bit more boring than I'd imagined. So far, it's been an invisible apocalypse. Poke your head out the window and there's little evidence of charred debris. Perhaps that's yet to come. Like I say, I'm writing this on Friday morning. By the time you read it, it'll be Monday. Maybe we're already bartering with coloured pebbles or fighting over water or something.
Still, there's no point in worrying. If we're going to be plunged into some kind of barbaric medieval dark age, I might as well be philosophical about it, because there's no way I'll survive more than a month. I'd be hopeless at fighting over basic resources and don't have any essential manual skills, such as the ability to hunt and skin rats. Perhaps I can learn the lute and become a minstrel, or perform bawdy jigs in exchange for pennies. Assuming there are any pennies. Hey, maybe just before all currency is finally declared worthless we'll get to experience the whole wheelbarrows-full-of-worthless-banknotes thing, like they did in Germany just before the war. That'd be a blast.
It all seems particularly bizarre, because just over a week ago I was in Las Vegas, as part of a US road trip I'm writing up for the Travel section. The casino put me up in an outrageous suite the size of a millionaire's bachelor pad. It had a pool table, a butler, and a shower in the lounge with a lapdancing pole in the middle of it. The windows looked out over the Las Vegas strip; specifically over the multimillion-dollar fountain show at the front of Bellagio. I visited a nightclub full of pricks who danced around tossing banknotes in the air, then returned to the suite, which alongside a pool table and a butler, also came equipped with about six gigantic, wall-mounted HD plasma TVs, every single one of which was screaming bad news about the economy. I felt like I was trapped inside a terrifying satirical sci-fi flick.
And it had to happen, obviously. For years, money was just appearing from nowhere, or so we were told. People bought houses and bragged about how the value kept zooming up, and up, and up. In fact they didn't seem to be houses at all, but magic coin-shitting machines. It was all a dream, a dream in which you bought a box and lived in it, and all the time it generated money like a cow generates farts. Great big stinking clouds of money. And none of it was real. And now it's gone. Your house is worth less than your shoes, and your shoes are now, in turn, worth less than your mouth and your arse. Yes, your most valuable possessions are now your mouth and your arse, and you're going to have to use both of them in all manner of previously unthinkable ways to make ends meet, to pay for that box, the box you live in, the one you mistook for an enchanted, unstoppable cash engine. I hope you've got a nice kitchen. Maybe that'll take your mind off things. And sell that Alessi smoothie maker while you're about it. You can't afford fruit any more. It's tap water at best from now on. It's good for you! Really, it is.
All of it was a dream. All that crap we bought, all the bottled water and Blu-Ray players and designer shoes and iPod Shuffles and patio heaters; all the jobs we had; all the catchphrases we memorised and the stupid things we thought. Everything we did for the past 10 years - none of it really felt real, did it? Time to snap out of it. Time to grow our own vegetables and learn hand-to-hand combat with staves. And time, perhaps, to really start living.
2/11/08
Went to see Quantum of Solace last night – the plot rattles along in a typical Bond style with multiple locations covered. It is good quality hokum and action and very enjoyable for that. I did feel that there were a number of editorial “jumps” and that the film was about 15mins too short. Does this indicate an anticipated reduction in attention span? The film could have been fleshed out a bit and would have been better for it.
Then enjoyed the excellent fayre that is tea at Zeffs. This is always a treat and I particularly enjoyed the cheesy tortellini with tarragon butter and baby veg.
This morning had a trip to Church as per usual. I am thinking that I do not spend enough time on the “Gone Fishing” and I need to make it easier to contact everyone who is interested and this will free up the notices at the beginning of the service. This week I will make it my job to take this forward and bring this work back on track. I was also musing on the nature of belief. This came out of Debi’s question last night – “Is there ever a “Just War””. If we take this back to the bottom this would start with the question:
“Does everyone have a belief system?”
This can then be followed with a number of questions including:
“Does our gift of consciousness leave us with no choice but to have a belief system?”
“Is belief inextricably linked with consciousness?”
“Does consciousness mean that a belief system will automatically happen?”
I am struggling with the question in this case as you can see.
“If a machine were to become conscious would it develop a belief system?”
Our current methods of software development would naturally lead us to “lead” a machine to develop a belief system based upon our human experience and not upon its own experience.
“How would a machine act if its belief system ran counter to our own?”
“How would a greater intelligence act if it had this chance?”
“Would a machine tolerate our existence?”
“Should we even try to create an artificial intelligence if it were to threaten our very existence in this way?”
“Would we even stand a chance if this machine became “aware”?”
“Would we even spot this “awareness” before it is too late?”
Moving on from this we can then look at how our beliefs affect how we act
“Does our belief system merely act as a way for us to personally rationalise the world in which we live?”
“Are other people’s belief systems equally valid?”
“Should we respect other people’s belief systems?”
“Is it right for us to attempt to impose our beliefs upon others?”
“can this be used as a justification for war?”
This runs right to the heart of who we are and what our position is within this world. We can merely see ourselves as “animals” here as briefly as others with life upon this planet or we can see ourselves as a group who have been given a supreme chance to adapt to our environment and affect the future of everything else on this planet. This responsibility is important and our beliefs will colour this.
Feb 22nd 2009
This laptop is having serious problems – not quite sure why but I guess it is telling me that it is time it was replaced – I don’t want to spend money so I am going to complain about it until I finally capitulate.
Went to a “meeting” last night – not quite sure what it achieved but it was interesting nonetheless. For my own part, I gained a small insight into how other people think. I am still unable to understand quite why, when asked to be honest, people hold back and fail to explain what they really think. This then leaves you looking a bit like the “odd one out” when you say what more than one person is thinking. Committees and meetings are all very well but they don’t actually get the business of work done, merely talk about the possibility of work.
I have been challenged in the last 10 days or so and the “Gone fishing” has been rearranged for March so that is quite positive. I also think that I could take this one step further and look at a deeper level of Mens ministry. Not an easy task I hear you say. This would mean that I have to advance my scriptural knowledge somewhat but this is no bad thing and nothing I have not needed to do anyway.
Having Phil Dixon to lunch helped to crystallise these views – he spent time at a church in Seattle “Mars Hill” which has a significant male bias. Phil gave me a wonderful statement to work on “Men in the West are quite immature (in respect of their interpersonal relationships)”. This led me to thinking how we can move on from that.
Had a wonderful discussion on the relevance of the Church in todays society. This is a very live issue and runs to the heart of a lot of the problems we have. Bishop Sentamu had this to say recently:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/4681357/Archbishop-of-York-Dr-John-Sentamu-Christians-are-regarded-as-mad-by-society.html
This neatly encapsulates a lot of what I think and also draws a framework for some of the issues which are causing me to think. We risk losing the ground to the atheists or even the Islamic world by just being too darn soft for our own good. However we should also seek to distance ourselves from the particular form of nasty bigotry laid before us by the “Westboro Baptist church”. These people are truly horrible and it is hard to reconcile the gracious words of the New Testament with their homespun brand of hate and spite. In fact you cant do it so don’t try. I think the ultimate position would be this: to be described as “normal” by someone who didn’t know you were a Christian. This begs a question or two:
1. what did they think was normal?
2. what criteria do they think fit the bill for most Christians?
3. who is setting the criteria by which the majority of the public are judging the behaviour of Christians?
4. why are Christians allowing these people to set the criteria and why are they not setting the criteria themselves?
It is very interesting that we feel the need to tread lightly in the affairs of muslims and “respect” their views and ideals but can treat Christianity with contempt. There are places where even-handedness can be found but it is often in the hands of liberalist-humanist-atheists who, although they wont admit it, have their own set of beliefs.
Actuall thats about it!!! For now
23rd Feb
Back at work after having 2 1/2 weeks off after breaking arm - a long story and I haven't documented it here because I have been neglecting this form of communication. I have also got a new car but again the whole story has been in existence elsewhere..
Read an excellent document - it can be found: http://relit.org/porn_again_christian/ Read it if you dare!
Monday 23 February 2009
Sunday 22 February 2009
a right pile of taurean excrement
I found all this in my "working file" and realised you hadnt had the joy of it so here it is in all its glory - I keep saying I will do this more frequently but never seem to manage it. Actually what I really need to do is give you some of it and the rest at an even later date and I need to start a new "working file" as more seems to end up in there than ends up on here...
August 19th
So long, no action. This is primarily due to laziness but also a result of busy-ness. The books I have long since been recording on the “visual bookshelf” element of Facebook, so have no need to record them here. This leaves this area free for my own brand of spit and vitriol.
Yes I am still sick of no-money-dossers. Having explained to one particular idiot this afternoon that I would have put their dog to sleep rather than run up a £700 bill if they had told me, they asked me if I was serious? Of course I was I replied, if that is all you can afford then that is all you will get. I also pointed out that I would really rather have not spent hours pissing about with their dog and making it better if I was not going to be paid. Hopefully some cash will be forthcoming but I am not optimistic.
The computer engineer has been here all day and we have a new server. Rather unusually everything seems to be working fine and I rather think it will remain so. I hope to finish painting the laundry floor tonight. This was a major job over the weekend and I am looking forward to finishing it off.
On top of all the other things a rather nasty feral cat bit a quarter of the nail off my left index finger this morning and this necessitated a trip to A&E to make sure I had adequate antibiotic cover. Scrubbing up is going to be murder for the next while. The offending cat is now frozen.
The laptop suffered a major system crash last week and had to have a complete reinstall of Windows. Fortunately my data was all up to date and I only backed-up 2 hours prior to the crash. Not quite the major issue we had last time but still pretty annoying.
30th September 2008
Don’t seem to be able to get the hang of this at all - I have not touched this document for over a month, but have been active all over various forums on the internet.
These forums provide a modicum of interest but sometimes all they do is wind me up.
The MSE forum is full of people who should never have been allowed access to the internet, being too thick to fully comprehend the topics on which they are passing comment. “Daily Mail” rules OK I fear. If places such as these are representative of the population as a whole then we can be sure and safe in the knowledge that intelligence is firmly in the hands of a very small minority.
The RCVS forum is dominated by one individual and as such appears to be a way of him foisting his ideas and views upon a larger group than he would normally have access to. It is therefore nearly as narrow in viewpoint as the body it seeks to vilify (the RCVS).
The Facebook group “Stupid things pet owners say to vets and vet nurses” suffers from a similar lack of perspective.
All of these provide diversion but I think I will attempt to stop spending time with them. I shall rejuvenate my self posting here and reconnect with the real world.
Facebook itself does at least provide connections with people I know in real life, but could border on obsession.
Things move on and so do I.
But….. Muddled thinking appears to be the norm these days. A recent oration by an itinerant preacher was a good case in point. I am sure the congregation lapped it up but using “child abuse” as a shock tactic to get his point across was a very low point. His kind of vitriol gives the secularists all they need to wage a successful battle against organised religion. I am sure his types are preaching the length and breadth of this land but I for one would like to see the death of this “fundie” claptrap. His view that it was almost “child abuse” to give children the “stories” from the Bible without the “truth” of the gospel and without “bringing them to Jesus”, was a very poor show. I could see a counter jibe at Prof. Dawkins equally vacuous “child abuse” argument but it was pointed out to me that he may not have been intelligent enough to have worked this out and it was more likely an attack on the creeping secularisation of religious teaching in schools. If so then it was an attack from an ill-informed viewpoint and just as valid as anything the “Daily Mail” would concoct.
October 6th
A very depressing day; but at least it was dry. I am absolutely sick to the back teeth of seemingly endless discussions which have only one single root – money or more accurately; lack of money. I want to tell all these people to “sod off” and go and bother someone else, but this would only create further difficulties. I had every single damn variation of the Pet-Aid discussion.
One client claimed that she now owned the dog (as opposed to the actual owner who was presenting the dog) so that she could attempt to use her PetAid certificate for the patient. This was because the patient was suffering from a severe skin disease which would require a lot of intervention (and cost). The dog had been taken on by a young woman in full knowledge of all its various ailments and she had already failed to return the dog to us for assessment of its progress after the previous examination some 2 months ago. The dog is now necessarily so much worse and has been left to deteriorate to such an extent that recovery may be very hard indeed.
It got worse, it really did. Another new patient was presented requiring surgical intervention and I just knew from the outset that we were going to run into trouble with the financial aspects. On explaining that the cost would be £250 the client calmly asked “how is that going to affect me financially?”. That bears no further scrutiny.
My business manager presented me with an unpaid bill for sorting out the boiler. This bill in itself was not unreasonable but my business partner had asked for a “breakdown” of the labour charge. This had not been forthcoming from the heating engineer and we had not been able to make contact with him to ask for this and he had not returned our calls. On close reading of the bill it seemed quite obvious to me what the labour charge was for and I felt that it was well explained. I really don’t know what my business partner was expecting but I suspect that he just didn’t fancy paying the bill. I struggle to keep going with this person, and am at a loss to know what to do. I suspect my only option is to “walk away” but I don’t think I am quite in a position to be able to do this just yet.
The staff are also suffering quite a lot at the moment, primarily due to the shortage in staff. We lost a full time nurse in July and a part time assistant in September and these were in addition to the member of staff who has been on maternity leave for the last year. This is compounded by holidays and training. This is not helped by those who fail to read their rota and not turn up until much later than they should.
I also had another prescription request. I find it very hard to believe that the profession quietly acquiesced to this legislation. Either we don’t care that much or we are all far too law abiding for our own good. I managed to get the client to take enough medication to cover the remainder of this month until I can at least charge them for the privilege of writing the script. I now realise that I have not given her enough of one of the medications and I will almost certainly need to provide them with their requested script FOC in this case. It is, of course, fairly obvious that the charging period will be finite. At the end of this period we can, at best, expect regulation of the costs and at worst a reintroduction of the demand to allow free scripts. I would wish that at least one member would stick their head above the parapet and demand a charge from someone during the “no charge” period. I guess that I now have this opportunity (see above), but am probably way too “chicken” to actually do it.
We also have the ongoing 24/7 working issue. This is causing much discussion within the profession, as the RCVS is currently giving it some hard thought. The MRCVS discussion group provides a lively debating forum but I feel that some of the ire directed at the RCVS is unfounded. In this case it would be useful to identify what or who they think the “RCVS” is/are. I think the RCVS is not some large faceless organisation; it is the sum of its members and the council they have elected to help with progress in the decision making and policy direction. The employees (such as they are) of the RCVS are merely acting at the council’s direction. Therefore to what or whom are we directing our comment? The logical conclusion of this is that we are directing it at ourselves! In this case we could therefore be held to be “navel gazing”. Perhaps we are directing our comment at the legislation and charter which hold our college together. In this case we would be urinating into the wind as these show no realistic chance of being changed in the near future.
With respect to the 24/7 issue, I really can’t decide where my sympathies lie. I think I would agree with an opening to deregulation in this area: to let the “market forces decide”. I would also like to see a removal of the obligation to make a home visit “on demand”, although on careful reading of the GTPC, it would appear that a refusal backed by a rational and recorded thought process is more than adequate to satisfy the DC.
I despise being coerced into seeing patients, where I have no realistic chance of being paid. I despise the chance of being woken at any time of the night and the stress that this causes. The RCVS council would do well to actually recognise the stresses that these obligations place upon the profession. This of course being a profession where suicide and drink/drug problems are flagged up as very real issues.
The good news was that the results of the Coniston Trail race came through and I managed a place of 104 out of 298 in a time of 55minutes. Given that this was an 11km course and much more suited to the road racers, I am quite happy. 600 had entered for the race but the weather on Saturday had probably put an awful lot of competitors off. The ground was extremely wet underfoot and there were streams to cross and distinctly muddy ground. I had worried that I might have some problems leaving the carpark, as this too was quite filthy. I moved the car from its original parking place as I was at very real risk of sinking deeper into the mire.
October 7th
Have to take the car to the garage once again, as its electrical innards are playing up once again. This is hard on the heels of its previous sensor problem only a few weeks ago. I guess that we are facing a new car sooner or later but that this is the price of running a 6yo vehicle.
October 31st
I wrote a whole load of stuff in this document last night but it has all disappeared – very annoying.
(Update 22nd Feb 09 – I know where it went now – all in the blog posted – cut/paste instead of copy/paste – now there will be duplication – ha ha!)
The rest over the next few days - buena suerte mis amigos
August 19th
So long, no action. This is primarily due to laziness but also a result of busy-ness. The books I have long since been recording on the “visual bookshelf” element of Facebook, so have no need to record them here. This leaves this area free for my own brand of spit and vitriol.
Yes I am still sick of no-money-dossers. Having explained to one particular idiot this afternoon that I would have put their dog to sleep rather than run up a £700 bill if they had told me, they asked me if I was serious? Of course I was I replied, if that is all you can afford then that is all you will get. I also pointed out that I would really rather have not spent hours pissing about with their dog and making it better if I was not going to be paid. Hopefully some cash will be forthcoming but I am not optimistic.
The computer engineer has been here all day and we have a new server. Rather unusually everything seems to be working fine and I rather think it will remain so. I hope to finish painting the laundry floor tonight. This was a major job over the weekend and I am looking forward to finishing it off.
On top of all the other things a rather nasty feral cat bit a quarter of the nail off my left index finger this morning and this necessitated a trip to A&E to make sure I had adequate antibiotic cover. Scrubbing up is going to be murder for the next while. The offending cat is now frozen.
The laptop suffered a major system crash last week and had to have a complete reinstall of Windows. Fortunately my data was all up to date and I only backed-up 2 hours prior to the crash. Not quite the major issue we had last time but still pretty annoying.
30th September 2008
Don’t seem to be able to get the hang of this at all - I have not touched this document for over a month, but have been active all over various forums on the internet.
These forums provide a modicum of interest but sometimes all they do is wind me up.
The MSE forum is full of people who should never have been allowed access to the internet, being too thick to fully comprehend the topics on which they are passing comment. “Daily Mail” rules OK I fear. If places such as these are representative of the population as a whole then we can be sure and safe in the knowledge that intelligence is firmly in the hands of a very small minority.
The RCVS forum is dominated by one individual and as such appears to be a way of him foisting his ideas and views upon a larger group than he would normally have access to. It is therefore nearly as narrow in viewpoint as the body it seeks to vilify (the RCVS).
The Facebook group “Stupid things pet owners say to vets and vet nurses” suffers from a similar lack of perspective.
All of these provide diversion but I think I will attempt to stop spending time with them. I shall rejuvenate my self posting here and reconnect with the real world.
Facebook itself does at least provide connections with people I know in real life, but could border on obsession.
Things move on and so do I.
But….. Muddled thinking appears to be the norm these days. A recent oration by an itinerant preacher was a good case in point. I am sure the congregation lapped it up but using “child abuse” as a shock tactic to get his point across was a very low point. His kind of vitriol gives the secularists all they need to wage a successful battle against organised religion. I am sure his types are preaching the length and breadth of this land but I for one would like to see the death of this “fundie” claptrap. His view that it was almost “child abuse” to give children the “stories” from the Bible without the “truth” of the gospel and without “bringing them to Jesus”, was a very poor show. I could see a counter jibe at Prof. Dawkins equally vacuous “child abuse” argument but it was pointed out to me that he may not have been intelligent enough to have worked this out and it was more likely an attack on the creeping secularisation of religious teaching in schools. If so then it was an attack from an ill-informed viewpoint and just as valid as anything the “Daily Mail” would concoct.
October 6th
A very depressing day; but at least it was dry. I am absolutely sick to the back teeth of seemingly endless discussions which have only one single root – money or more accurately; lack of money. I want to tell all these people to “sod off” and go and bother someone else, but this would only create further difficulties. I had every single damn variation of the Pet-Aid discussion.
One client claimed that she now owned the dog (as opposed to the actual owner who was presenting the dog) so that she could attempt to use her PetAid certificate for the patient. This was because the patient was suffering from a severe skin disease which would require a lot of intervention (and cost). The dog had been taken on by a young woman in full knowledge of all its various ailments and she had already failed to return the dog to us for assessment of its progress after the previous examination some 2 months ago. The dog is now necessarily so much worse and has been left to deteriorate to such an extent that recovery may be very hard indeed.
It got worse, it really did. Another new patient was presented requiring surgical intervention and I just knew from the outset that we were going to run into trouble with the financial aspects. On explaining that the cost would be £250 the client calmly asked “how is that going to affect me financially?”. That bears no further scrutiny.
My business manager presented me with an unpaid bill for sorting out the boiler. This bill in itself was not unreasonable but my business partner had asked for a “breakdown” of the labour charge. This had not been forthcoming from the heating engineer and we had not been able to make contact with him to ask for this and he had not returned our calls. On close reading of the bill it seemed quite obvious to me what the labour charge was for and I felt that it was well explained. I really don’t know what my business partner was expecting but I suspect that he just didn’t fancy paying the bill. I struggle to keep going with this person, and am at a loss to know what to do. I suspect my only option is to “walk away” but I don’t think I am quite in a position to be able to do this just yet.
The staff are also suffering quite a lot at the moment, primarily due to the shortage in staff. We lost a full time nurse in July and a part time assistant in September and these were in addition to the member of staff who has been on maternity leave for the last year. This is compounded by holidays and training. This is not helped by those who fail to read their rota and not turn up until much later than they should.
I also had another prescription request. I find it very hard to believe that the profession quietly acquiesced to this legislation. Either we don’t care that much or we are all far too law abiding for our own good. I managed to get the client to take enough medication to cover the remainder of this month until I can at least charge them for the privilege of writing the script. I now realise that I have not given her enough of one of the medications and I will almost certainly need to provide them with their requested script FOC in this case. It is, of course, fairly obvious that the charging period will be finite. At the end of this period we can, at best, expect regulation of the costs and at worst a reintroduction of the demand to allow free scripts. I would wish that at least one member would stick their head above the parapet and demand a charge from someone during the “no charge” period. I guess that I now have this opportunity (see above), but am probably way too “chicken” to actually do it.
We also have the ongoing 24/7 working issue. This is causing much discussion within the profession, as the RCVS is currently giving it some hard thought. The MRCVS discussion group provides a lively debating forum but I feel that some of the ire directed at the RCVS is unfounded. In this case it would be useful to identify what or who they think the “RCVS” is/are. I think the RCVS is not some large faceless organisation; it is the sum of its members and the council they have elected to help with progress in the decision making and policy direction. The employees (such as they are) of the RCVS are merely acting at the council’s direction. Therefore to what or whom are we directing our comment? The logical conclusion of this is that we are directing it at ourselves! In this case we could therefore be held to be “navel gazing”. Perhaps we are directing our comment at the legislation and charter which hold our college together. In this case we would be urinating into the wind as these show no realistic chance of being changed in the near future.
With respect to the 24/7 issue, I really can’t decide where my sympathies lie. I think I would agree with an opening to deregulation in this area: to let the “market forces decide”. I would also like to see a removal of the obligation to make a home visit “on demand”, although on careful reading of the GTPC, it would appear that a refusal backed by a rational and recorded thought process is more than adequate to satisfy the DC.
I despise being coerced into seeing patients, where I have no realistic chance of being paid. I despise the chance of being woken at any time of the night and the stress that this causes. The RCVS council would do well to actually recognise the stresses that these obligations place upon the profession. This of course being a profession where suicide and drink/drug problems are flagged up as very real issues.
The good news was that the results of the Coniston Trail race came through and I managed a place of 104 out of 298 in a time of 55minutes. Given that this was an 11km course and much more suited to the road racers, I am quite happy. 600 had entered for the race but the weather on Saturday had probably put an awful lot of competitors off. The ground was extremely wet underfoot and there were streams to cross and distinctly muddy ground. I had worried that I might have some problems leaving the carpark, as this too was quite filthy. I moved the car from its original parking place as I was at very real risk of sinking deeper into the mire.
October 7th
Have to take the car to the garage once again, as its electrical innards are playing up once again. This is hard on the heels of its previous sensor problem only a few weeks ago. I guess that we are facing a new car sooner or later but that this is the price of running a 6yo vehicle.
October 31st
I wrote a whole load of stuff in this document last night but it has all disappeared – very annoying.
(Update 22nd Feb 09 – I know where it went now – all in the blog posted – cut/paste instead of copy/paste – now there will be duplication – ha ha!)
The rest over the next few days - buena suerte mis amigos
Thursday 29 January 2009
This is a piece of shameless plagiarism and lazy research in that I nicked it from a post on a forum I frequent, but found it funny and I think you might:
Here are the winners of this year's Washington Post's Mensa Invitational which once again asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter,and supply a new definition:
1. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period of time.
2. Ignoranus: A person who is both stupid and an asshole.
3. Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.
4. Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.
5. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.
6. Foreploy: Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid.
7. Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high
8. Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.
9. Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.
10. Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)
11. Karmageddon: It's like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a serious bummer.
12. Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.
13. Glibido: All talk and no action.
14. Dopeler Effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.
15. Arachnoleptic Fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked through a spider web.
16. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets intoyour bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.
17. Caterpallor (n.): The color you turn after finding half a worm in the fruit you're eating.
The Washington Post has also published the winning submissions to its yearly contest in which readers are asked to supply alternate meanings for common words. And the winners are:
1. Coffee, n. The person upon whom one coughs.
2. Flabbergasted, adj. Appalled by discovering how much weight one hasgained.
3. Abdicate, v. To give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.
4. Esplanade, v. To attempt an explanation while drunk.
5. Willy-nilly, adj. Impotent.
6. Negligent, adj.. Absentmindedly answering the door when wearing only a nightgown.
7. Lymph, v. To walk with a lisp.
8. Gargoyle, n. Olive-flavored mouthwash.
9. Flatulence, n.. Emergency vehicle that picks up someone who has been run over by a steamroller.
10. Balderdash, n. A rapidly receding hairline.
11. Testicle n. A humorous question on an exam.
12. Rectitude, n. The formal, dignified bearing adopted by proctologists.
13. Pokemon, n. A Rastafarian proctologist.
14. Oyster, n. A person who sprinkles his conversation withyiddishisms.
15. Frisbeetarianism, n. The belief that, after death, the soul fliesup onto the roof and gets stuck there.
16. Circumvent, n. An opening in the front of boxer shorts worn byJewish men.
I have managed an 18mile run, which was a bit of an effort as I haven't run that far since October last year. A weekend on call looms so apart from gym trips I will be limited for physical acticity over the next few days. I do need to get out and play some golf but the weather is very variable - I might get some action tomorrow if the rain holds off for long enough.
Here are the winners of this year's Washington Post's Mensa Invitational which once again asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter,and supply a new definition:
1. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period of time.
2. Ignoranus: A person who is both stupid and an asshole.
3. Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.
4. Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.
5. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.
6. Foreploy: Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid.
7. Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high
8. Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.
9. Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.
10. Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)
11. Karmageddon: It's like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a serious bummer.
12. Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.
13. Glibido: All talk and no action.
14. Dopeler Effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.
15. Arachnoleptic Fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked through a spider web.
16. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets intoyour bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.
17. Caterpallor (n.): The color you turn after finding half a worm in the fruit you're eating.
The Washington Post has also published the winning submissions to its yearly contest in which readers are asked to supply alternate meanings for common words. And the winners are:
1. Coffee, n. The person upon whom one coughs.
2. Flabbergasted, adj. Appalled by discovering how much weight one hasgained.
3. Abdicate, v. To give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.
4. Esplanade, v. To attempt an explanation while drunk.
5. Willy-nilly, adj. Impotent.
6. Negligent, adj.. Absentmindedly answering the door when wearing only a nightgown.
7. Lymph, v. To walk with a lisp.
8. Gargoyle, n. Olive-flavored mouthwash.
9. Flatulence, n.. Emergency vehicle that picks up someone who has been run over by a steamroller.
10. Balderdash, n. A rapidly receding hairline.
11. Testicle n. A humorous question on an exam.
12. Rectitude, n. The formal, dignified bearing adopted by proctologists.
13. Pokemon, n. A Rastafarian proctologist.
14. Oyster, n. A person who sprinkles his conversation withyiddishisms.
15. Frisbeetarianism, n. The belief that, after death, the soul fliesup onto the roof and gets stuck there.
16. Circumvent, n. An opening in the front of boxer shorts worn byJewish men.
I have managed an 18mile run, which was a bit of an effort as I haven't run that far since October last year. A weekend on call looms so apart from gym trips I will be limited for physical acticity over the next few days. I do need to get out and play some golf but the weather is very variable - I might get some action tomorrow if the rain holds off for long enough.
Saturday 24 January 2009
warning: ill tempered ramblings
As I said, right at the beginning, this (blog) was started to record the minutiae of my life, and was intended as a way for me to keep a record of these events in the very likely event that I go nuts and lose the ability to think. Facebook took over a bit, especially for the books, but there is still a place for my musings. I dont expect anyone to agree with me and I may change my mind next week but a least it will give me an idea of what was exercising my brain at the time it was posted. It has been very sporadic, but that is just because I rarely remember to keep it up. The following is very typical and although intemperate, is currently representative. I really do need to get out more...
A Storm is brewing over the showing of the anti-Muslim film “Fitna” by Geert Wilders http://www.mediawatchwatch.org.uk/. This site is very useful for pointing out what is happening and it always pays to be aware of the atheist / humanist fools, as much as it does to be aware of the fundies.
Maybe this makes me a sit-on-the-fence neither-here-nor-there person without a definitive view but I don’t really care as I think it might just give me a more balanced viewpoint. I would not like to be packaged to any of the narrow-minded bigot groups and I would resent the limited philosophical outlook this would allow me to have.
Here: http://ifyoulikeitsomuchwhydontyougolivethere.com/, you can see what happens when opinions are allowed to run freely. The site points out the loonies who frequent the BBCs Have-Your-Say website – it is truly amusing and quite worrying in equal parts. This: http://ifyoulikeitsomuchwhydontyougolivethere.com/the-twat-o-tron/, can provide almost endless amusement.
Back to the point in a round about sort of way and bringing together the above. The MWW website is attracting comments about the cancelled showing of “Fitna” and I can only conclude that they are reaching the depths previously only attained by posters to "Have-Your-Say". You can easily see this happening here: http://www.mediawatchwatch.org.uk/2009/01/23/house-of-lords-fitna-show-cancelled/#comments
I fail to understand why such vitriol is required by "atheists/humanists", or anyone for that matter, in order to make their point, they just look a "bit stupid".
A Storm is brewing over the showing of the anti-Muslim film “Fitna” by Geert Wilders http://www.mediawatchwatch.org.uk/. This site is very useful for pointing out what is happening and it always pays to be aware of the atheist / humanist fools, as much as it does to be aware of the fundies.
Maybe this makes me a sit-on-the-fence neither-here-nor-there person without a definitive view but I don’t really care as I think it might just give me a more balanced viewpoint. I would not like to be packaged to any of the narrow-minded bigot groups and I would resent the limited philosophical outlook this would allow me to have.
Here: http://ifyoulikeitsomuchwhydontyougolivethere.com/, you can see what happens when opinions are allowed to run freely. The site points out the loonies who frequent the BBCs Have-Your-Say website – it is truly amusing and quite worrying in equal parts. This: http://ifyoulikeitsomuchwhydontyougolivethere.com/the-twat-o-tron/, can provide almost endless amusement.
Back to the point in a round about sort of way and bringing together the above. The MWW website is attracting comments about the cancelled showing of “Fitna” and I can only conclude that they are reaching the depths previously only attained by posters to "Have-Your-Say". You can easily see this happening here: http://www.mediawatchwatch.org.uk/2009/01/23/house-of-lords-fitna-show-cancelled/#comments
I fail to understand why such vitriol is required by "atheists/humanists", or anyone for that matter, in order to make their point, they just look a "bit stupid".
Wednesday 10 December 2008
This Is a test to see if the system will work . I was quite keen to work out how to use all the features of this new phone . It took me a bit of time to get the email to work. I have even had a very long distance chat over the internet to sort out connection issues! This Is all very exciting (I know I need to get out more) but I have to be able to use every possible phone feature.
Wednesday 19 November 2008
Masters of Creation
Ripped from Orbital who ripped it from Russel Davies; just about sums it all up I think:
“You are becoming gods. There's a new master of creation; and it's you! You've unraveled DNA, and at the same time you're cultivating bacteria strong enough to kill every living thing. You think you're ready for that much power?”
"You Lot,?”
”You Lot ?”
”Cheeky bastards... You're running around science like kids with guns, creating a new world, while the world you've got is stinking, but, hands up, hands up; anyone who thinks you've got it right?”
”Yeah, there's always one. I can see you.”
”If you want the position of God, then take the responsibility!”
“You are becoming gods. There's a new master of creation; and it's you! You've unraveled DNA, and at the same time you're cultivating bacteria strong enough to kill every living thing. You think you're ready for that much power?”
"You Lot,?”
”You Lot ?”
”Cheeky bastards... You're running around science like kids with guns, creating a new world, while the world you've got is stinking, but, hands up, hands up; anyone who thinks you've got it right?”
”Yeah, there's always one. I can see you.”
”If you want the position of God, then take the responsibility!”
Sunday 16 November 2008
panem et circenses
The alien anthropologists admitted they were still perplexed and
On eliminating every other reason for our sad demise
They logged the only explanation left
This species has amused itself to death…
Roger Waters: Amused to Death
This seems strangely apt in the face of a rash of advertising for the rather-less-than-erudite “Zack and Miri make a porno”. We truly have reached the peak of human achievement in that case; haven’t we? I would also like to think that it rather weakens the case for evolution as it would appear that we are taking deleterious steps rather than making progress.
... iam pridem, ex quo suffragia nulli
uendimus, effudit curas; nam qui dabat olim
imperium, fasces, legiones, omnia, nunc se
continet atque duas tantum res anxius optat,
panem et circenses. ...
Richard Dawkins might like to think we are developed to such a degree that we no longer have need of religion and that the power of rational thought will carry us forward to a glorious new future but I give you “Zack and Miri make a porno”.
On eliminating every other reason for our sad demise
They logged the only explanation left
This species has amused itself to death…
Roger Waters: Amused to Death
This seems strangely apt in the face of a rash of advertising for the rather-less-than-erudite “Zack and Miri make a porno”. We truly have reached the peak of human achievement in that case; haven’t we? I would also like to think that it rather weakens the case for evolution as it would appear that we are taking deleterious steps rather than making progress.
... iam pridem, ex quo suffragia nulli
uendimus, effudit curas; nam qui dabat olim
imperium, fasces, legiones, omnia, nunc se
continet atque duas tantum res anxius optat,
panem et circenses. ...
Richard Dawkins might like to think we are developed to such a degree that we no longer have need of religion and that the power of rational thought will carry us forward to a glorious new future but I give you “Zack and Miri make a porno”.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)