More on the Census -
More on the Census - I heard over the weekend that some fairly dodgy alterations may have been made after the last one. One specific example I heard was from a woman who described herself as racially, rather than religiously, Jewish. She was told that this would have been revised to 'Other White' when the statistics were analysed.
If this is true, then it's not only offensive, it renders the whole exercise of gathering this information pointless. Still, no doubt I'll complete mine dutifully like the reliable soul I am......
I’ve set up archiving on
I've set up archiving on the site in order to get the size of this page down to something more manageable - hopefully anyone who's looking at this stuff has got the general idea of where I'm coming from by now. I still need to get the template to match this one properly, but it's getting there.
The marathon, as always, was very impressive - I was out early enough to see the leaders go by, then went back again to cheer on some of the fun runners - I love living on the marathon route, though I'm not entrely sure why it's so important to me - I think it's probably because it brings out a sense of the community I live in to see everyone cheering them on.
Forgot to mention the trailers I got at the cinema yesterday - Captain Corelli's Mandolin (*again*), A.I., and High Heels and Lowlifes, which managed the unlikely achievement of making a film to which the only reasonable reaction is "Oh my God, yet another British gangster film - and look, in a shocking twist, it's about *women*" look at least moderately entertaining. Still, I suppose that's what trailers are for 
Been to see The Contender
Been to see The Contender this evening ñ it's IMHO'd in quite glowing terms to the left. Realised while watching it that Bill Clinton's election to the Presidency must have brightened up the prospects of a generation of middle-aged film actors who suddenly found themselves in the 'could be cast as President' category. I wonder what the advent of George W is going to do for the portrayal of The Leader Of The Free World *snort*.
Tomorrow morning's the London Marathon ñ the nine mile marker's been erected at the end of my road, so I'll probably go along and cheer people on for a while. They literally run past Chris' back gate and my room when I lived there overlooked the route. The local pubs all open from about 9am and most of them usually play music from rigs outside, so it's quite a friendly, supportive atmosphere ñ though I'm only *assuming* that the runners find it supportiveÖÖ
Quiet end to the week
Quiet end to the week - the Laguna has gone now - *sob*. I think it was the best car to drive I've ever known.
Ho, and indeed, hum.
The thinking I’ve been doing
The thinking I've been doing (or some of it at any rate) on the subject of the need for ethical behaviour has made its way out into a slightly unfocused essay that's under IMHO to the left. It is strange how a number of different things can all hook into a common thread of thought - I read yesterday that The Co-Operative Bank, who I've been a customer of for about 6 years now, are about to conduct a review of their ethical trading policies. I took part in their last review three years ago, and was impressed by the seriousness with which they took it. I'll be interested to see what the latest revisions are when they've finished this exercise. It's coming up to the tenth anniversary of their policy.
Interesting mail from Charles about
Interesting mail from Charles about the nature of web-logging, which raises all sorts of questions in my mind about the other form of editing than the one I mentioned four posts back - the kind that determines what level of information I want to put in here in the first place. To what degree does this become an absolute confessional? What would I *not* set down here? If I learned I had a terminal disease, would I share that with the world? If I did something that I and everyone else would think of as 'wrong', would I?
I assume that these are questions that everyone who keeps a log like this with any seriousness has hit at one time or another.
On another note entirely, yesterday's Independent contained a column by David Aaronovitch that picks up on the news items about the slave ship that's been moving up and down the West African coast, and says some interesting things about not only about our unwitting complicity in slavery, but also our attitudes to its ongoing existence. As he points out, this isn't sweatshop labour for starvation wages of the kind that tends to be 'startingly exposed' by Panorama and its ilk, this is actual slavery. Check out the column, and then check out antislavery.org
Been out bowling with Barnaby
Been out bowling with Barnaby this evening. Although he beat me overall, itís astonishing how well-matched we are at this ñ the 9th frame of the last game we played, he got a strike and I got a spare, and if it had been the other way round, the result of the whole game would have been different. I love bowling ñ itís a strange thing, but in most games Iím *very* competitive, but in bowling, I invariably have such a good time that I donít care if I win or not. Which is probably just as well, given the wildly-inconsistent nature of my gameÖ.
Fascinatingly, Iíve had a mail
Fascinatingly, Iíve had a mail delivery failure note back from the mailing I did this morning telling some folks about the site, and instead of the usual ëaddressee not recognisedí-type stuff, the message actually says, and I quote directly: ìMail originating from that IP address is not welcome here.î
Charming.