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Thursday 20 November 2008
Vital Statistics
Not being one who does subscribe to the 'blogs as popularity contest' school of thought, I don't tend to pay a great deal of attention to my traffic logs. I'm occasionally intrigued to see my referrers, and search terms are always good for a laugh, but the actual numbers don't hold much interest.
However, I thought I'd take a look at which of the newly-selectable stylesheets is proving the most popular*, and while doing so, I suddenly noticed something.
Even without today's traffic, March has proven to be the busiest this place has been (in visits), ever. There've been more than a fifth again the number of visits than the previously busiest month, which was August last year. Not to mention one hundred additional referrers (I can't get at all of those just at the moment, but I will.
So what happened? Did lots of people suddenly discover me a month ago and add me to their recommended reading lists?
*It's the default, by the way. Followed by Barber Shop, Red Nose Day, The Blues, The Greens and Negative in that order (though note that the last three have been around less time than the others).
Absolutely Fucking Outrageous
I've been generally quiet on the subject of the war since it started, feeling unequal to offering judgements on much of what we're seeing, and also increasingly unable to view the situation with equanimity owing to family circumstances.
But....
Today's Sun carries a front page story (massively) headlined 'Proof', which details the destruction of an 'Iraqi terror camp'. According to the publication (which I will absolutely not credit with the description 'newspaper'): "The discovery of the base was seen as proof that Saddam Hussein IS directly involved in terrorism in Britain."
The article then goes on to describe the findings at the camp, which was operated by the group Ansar al-Islam, and quote 'terrorism experts' and 'intelligence experts' in discussing the possible uses of the Ricin that it's alleged was found there.
Several minor details, however, seem to have passed right by the Sun 'journalist', possibly the most significant of which is that Ansar al-Islam, linked as it is to al-Qaeda, strongly opposes Saddam Hussein's regime. The BBC at least took the trouble to point out this fairly basic fact, together with the detail that so far, no Ricin actually has been found there. The Independent also points out that Mullah Krekar, the Ansar al-Islam leader has frequently denounced the Iraqi leader.
I'm not stupid enough (and certainly not naive enough) to be surprised by agendas in reporting, but I don't think it's unreasonable to expect a lack of outright lying.
Blogshares - WTF?
Okay - am I just the only one who didn't know about this?
My blog is apparently trading at $177.61 today.
Blogshares appears to be a system that allows trading in, well, blogshares. I'm in their system, though I don't know why, as are Dave, Lisa Jane, Stuart and Kenny (all of whom allegedly have links to me), as well as Oin, Gert, Sarah, ChrisC, John, Tammy, David and Clayton (who allegedly don't, even though most of them actually do.)
(Also note that I just by definition increased the value of the shares in all those blogs, as the system is based on linkages. I hope you're all grateful.)
I say again - WTF???
Seriously though - did anyone else know about this?
[Via Metafilter]
Sexiest In Sci-Fi
SFX Magazine have published a supplement showcasing the finalists in their ''Sexiest Sci-Fi Stars" award for this year. Generally-speaking, all terribly predictable, but the lists are below - anyone like to state a preference? I know what mine are :-)
The Men:
Viggo Mortensen (LOTR)
Tobey Maguire (Spider-Man)
Tom Welling (Smallville)
Orlando Bloom (LOTR)
Elijah Wood (LOTR)
Ben Browder (Farscape)
Alexis Denisof (Angel)
David Boreanaz (Angel)
James Marsters (Buffy)
Connor Trinneer (Enterprise)
The Women:
Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy)
Alyson Hannigan (Buffy)
Charisma Carpenter (Angel)
Eliza Dushku (Buffy/Angel)
Kristin Kreuk (Smallville)
Liv Tyler (LOTR)
Jolene Blalock (Enterprise)
Jennifer Garner (Alias/Daredevil)
Claudia Black (Farscape)
Alyssa Milano (Charmed)
The List
Alison and I have this list of films that we'd like to go and see. In the last couple of months, it's been getting longer as more we want to see are released, at a quicker rate than others drop out of being on release. This is compounded by the fact that we've been truly dreadful at organising cinema trips recently.
But today we finally made it to see something. And weirdly, it's one that had indeed dropped off the list and been consigned to 'wait for the DVD' limbo. But out of nowhere, my local cinema has retrieved it for two screenings this week.
It's The Quiet American, based on the novel by Graham Greene, and starring Michael Caine and Brendan Fraser. So for the first time in an age, I have something new to write up a review for. Let's see how long it takes me to do....
Gridlock
I don't often post links to games, but I thought I'd make an exception and share Gridlock with you. Getting the blue block out of the box is frequently a lot harder than you'd think. It's curiously addictive for such a relatively 'unexciting' game. [Via diamond geezer]
Northern Lights
Having discussed the South Bank Show on Philip Pullman a couple of weeks ago, I resolved to read his His Dark Materials series. I managed to get started on Northern Lights this week and I was very impressed with it. In fact, I was also a little surprised that it was a children's book at all - kids these days must have significantly wider vocabularies than in my day - the language is pretty damn' impressive. The themes too are hardly childish - the effects of experience on innocence, honour, betrayal, torture and some very high concepts, all realised within a created world fascinatingly dissimilar to our own. Simon mentioned that the first book is actually the slowest of the three, so I'm looking forward to being carried along in the next couple.
Categorisation
Earlier in the month, when I was putting this new look together, for the first time I set up Movable Type so that I was categorising my postings. The categories aren't displayed, because I haven't decided how I want to use them, and I can't imagine ever wanting to do a 'list by category' index page, but I thought I'd put them in place so that I had them to experiment with. I went back and categorised some previous postings too, but the thought of going back through the entire journal to do so is a bit frightening.
Anyway, in an idle moment, I thought I might at least post what the categories are, and the way my postings split out among them. So without further ado:
Blogs and Blogging: 21 Entries
Comics: 2 Entries
Just Plain Weird: 3 Entries
Life: 42 Entries
Links: 14 Entries
News: 11 Entries
Politics: 19 Entries
TV and Film: 13 Entries.
I'll try to do a monthly revisit of this obviously-fascinating subject.
From The Guardian
Courtesy of trips to meetings and the joys of the AvantGo Guardian channel, I've actually managed to do some reading of the thing today, so I thought I'd share a couple of items.
"Last month Stephen Downs was handcuffed and arrested after refusing to take off a Give Peace a Chance T-shirt in a mall in Albany." Gary Younge on America's intolerance of dissenting voices.
"Blair accuses opponents of war of "appeasement" - in spite of the fact that, in many cases, their active opposition to Saddam's dictatorship well predates his. (I signed the 1987 early day motion against arms exports to Iraq. Blair and Gordon Brown didn't.)" Tam Dalyell expanding his view that Tony Blair is essentially a war criminal.
Forum
I've mentioned it occasionally in the past, but here's an unashamed plug. Comic writer Mark Millar (The Authority, Ultimate X-Men, The Ultimates), hosts a forum on his website, and I seriously recommend it. As well as comic-related discussions that manage to rise well above the "Everything Marvel/DC/Image/Dark Horse/CrossGen (delete as applicable) publish is automatically crap, nyer nyer nyer" level, the News and Current Affairs area frequently generates an impressive level of debate, and The Pub is always good for sordid discussions on any number of subjects. (I've been contributing to the "Does size matter?" discussion this evening.)
My total post count there since it relaunched a couple of months ago is a bit weedy, largely because it was one of the sites I couldn't access during my DNS trouble, but I'm working on increasing that standing. Though I'll never compete with the regulars.
Seriously - for a mix of comics and non-comics stuff, where everyone is welcome, I'd recommend dropping by.
UPDATE - 00:40 Thursday morning: You see, this is exactly the sort of conversation I like about the place. Pointless, but ever-so-slightly challenging.
Almost Forgot
Happy birthday to you.
Happy birthday to you.
Happy birthday dear Lara
Happy birthday to yoooooooo.
Bile And Loathing
"It's easy to hate models; we'd all like to make a living getting fucked in speedboats and staying hooked on other peoples' [sic] heroin. But a model who's an ungrateful asshole to boot actually deserves the inevitable cruel fate of her lot: an early middle age of sagging tits, Botox, secret Rogaine treatments and fat stockbroker boyfriends with hairy backs."
The New York Press has published its first list of The Fifty Most Loathsome New Yorkers, and a strange mix they are too. That's Naomi Campbell extracted above, by the way.
Warning (highlight to view) - copious quantities of bile and a reference to "Drew Barrymore's well-worn snatch" ahead.
The Negativity Of Insomnia
Hmmm. Pretentious, even by my standards.
Not that I was feeling particularly negative while not sleeping last night, but as I was awake, I put yet another alternate stylesheet up. This one's called 'Negative', although it isn't truly a reverse of the default, because some of the contrasts weren't very good. But it's white on black, so I can call it negative if I want to. As always, you can set your preference via the browser if you've got one clever enough, or as a personal default over yonder.
Ripper News
Buried in an item about the unbearable Manchild is some insight from Anthony Head into the currently-likely format of the much-discussed Buffy spin-off featuring his character. It looks like the new thinking is to create a feature length TV film, rather than a series, at least at first. [Via Ain't It Cool News]
More Gloom
Well, exactly a week after the last funeral I was at, I found out last night that another friend's parent died earlier in the day. Not someone I'm so closely connected to, this time, but even so, contributing to an ongoing air of gloom among my friends. Clearly a bad time of the year all round.
Bloggers In Real Life
Part two of an occasional series:
Just in from meeting with Oin and Tammy, after a very pleasant evening. After meeting Cath a few weeks ago, this could almost be described as becoming a habit. Anyway, after a few beers and the first Thai food I've had in an age, I'm feeling fairly mellow, so I may see if I can put the mellowness to use and try to get a decent night's sleep.
Cheers guys.
Economists, Conspiracists And The Free Encyclopedia
A new selection of links which have caught my eye:
How Economists really work. (Requires Flash)
How to create an online oddity out of a *very* strange supposed conspiracy at the heart of the British government. [Courtesy of Gerard.]
And
How to create a very different kind of encyclopedia. [As discussed with ChrisR yesterday.]
The Blues And The Greens
Meant to mention at the weekend that I've put two new optional styles for the site in place. You can choose your preferred default from the About this site page.
I've been dabbling in all sorts of different combinations of colours, with what I will have to admit are mixed degrees of success. My 'Rainbow Flag' efforts have been particularly unfortunate. I'll keep trying. In the meantime, if anyone has any particular preferences I'd be interested to hear.
Putting these up has also given me the opportunity to indulge in possibly the most obscure cult TV reference I've ever managed. Anyone who spots it, let me know - I'd be gratified to know that it's not just me.
Fraternity
I've been spending a lot of time lately thinking about my brother and our relationship. The reason for this, as is probably obvious to regular readers, is his imminent departure for the Gulf in his role as one of 'our boys'. We've had an interesting, often volatile, relationship over the years, and I'm not ashamed to waste some of my bandwidth and your time sharing some of the things that have been going through my head in the last week.
To start with, some background: There's a four year gap between us, which is far from ideal - as I left junior school, he started it: As he started secondary school, I was in fifth year and studying for my O levels. So we always had to battle against fundamentally different interests and priorities (he was the sporty one, I was the bookish one). And by the time he decided to jack in his A levels and sign up, I was away at university, so there's been significant distance between us for much of our lives.
When he signed up, I had to re-evaluate a great deal that I thought I knew and felt about him. He seemed to grow up from the annoying little git I'd always had to deal with into a responsible adult almost overnight. The antagonism we'd always had towards each other eased up, and a different, more balanced relationship emerged. I had to deal then with the possibility that one day he would be sent into a conflict zone, and indeed into conflict, which is perhaps why I'm managing to deal with his upcoming posting with as much equanimity as seems to be the case. (Interestingly, I never thought that my mother had actually taken that reality on, which I think is borne out by her current reactions....).
He's achieved a huge amount in the last fifteen years, taking on a difficult trade, and an often highly-academic one, with diligence and remarkable success. At the ceremony to mark his most recent certification and associated promotion, he won the award for having been the best student at both practical and theory components: My mother was in floods almost before they'd finished announcing his name....
I think that, without ever really noticing it, we've become far more alike than I for one ever thought possible. Taking different roads than those which most obviously presented themselves to us, and creating careers that no one in their wildest dreams would have anticipated for either of us back in our school days, we've both managed to reach points where we can hopefully admit to a degree of satisfaction with our achievements.
We also have some very specific shared understanding of family - when I heard he was going, my first thought was to make sure he had me, and not mum, down as his "In the event of a catastrophe" person. (No way do I want her to be getting that phone call.) He, of course, had already made sure of it.
I don't see him often enough these days, and I clearly won't be seeing much of him in the next six months at least, but he's never far from my thoughts. And at the risk of descending into entirely unaccustomed sentiment, I'm very proud of him.
It's Getting Closer
Dave, ChrisR and I have just had an interesting conversation about a great many things, including some ongoing discussions about the collaborative web industry and some technologies that might help it become a reality.
But *far* more importantly, we've seen Chris's long-promised new website. It is real, it is happening, and we're very firmly informed that we should expect it this very week.
And Dave and I both said that we'd blog it in order to create irresistable pressure on him actually to make good on this pledge.
A Blog Of Choice
This week, I'm choosing Musings of a Single Mum to turn the spotlight on. Trudi has the distinction of having known me longer than anyone else I'm still in touch with outside of my family. She's not-so single these days, having met Kevin a while back, but has kept up the name. Tru's battles with the bureaucrats in trying to sort out proper support for her son Joe, who has been brilliantly misdiagnosed at various times, demonstrate that she has the patience of a saint.
Musings is a place to go for some insights into the life of someone who's not afraid to air their dirty video in public. As it were.
So I Lied
Well, I was awake, so I've been watching some of it. Muted is certainly the word. I missed Michael Moore having a go at Bush, but no doubt it'll be on the news later. I just watched the Best Director award be given to Roman Polansky. Though not actually given to him, of course.
Kirk and Michael Douglas (the former looking, well, let's just say 'past his prime' shall we?) have just done the announcement for Best Picture (Chicago), and so it's all over bar the shouting. This time last year they'd just switched transmission from BBC Two to BBC One because it was over-running so much, and this year, they're finshed. Who's betting that they learn no lessons and that next year is back to the over-indulgent schmaltz-fest of years gone by?
Change Of Plan
In the normal course of events I'd be staying up tonight to blog The Oscars like last year, but the more I look at the uninspiring nominations and the more I think of the likely-heightened saccharine factor given current circumstances, the less inclined I am to give up a much-sought night's sleep. I think I'll watch the edited highlights tomorrrow.
Unfriendly
I'm not going to make any of the obvious comments about the shooting down of a British jet by an American Patriot missile in the latest in a long line of American 'friendly fire' incidents, nor attempt to make capital out of so tragic an incident.
What I will comment on is that I heard Blair's comments on the deaths involved in the first helicopter crash while driving on Friday, and I haven't had a chance to comment on it since: I don't think I can recall a time when I was so ashamed of the man we elected to lead us as when I heard him attempting to make those deaths somehow meaningful.
And The Winner Was....Rye
Though the weather was certainly less pleasant than the forecast suggested it might be, we decided to head towards the coast and visit Rye, which remains one of my favourite places in England. After a wander round and lunch, we went on to Winchelsea and Hastings, before heading back up through Kent. Disturbingly, we found ourselves contemplating property prices and commuting time, which led me to reflect how unlikely it would have seemed twenty years ago when we drove to Leeds and Manchester for comic marts that one day we'd be driving around checking out houses.....
And in the evening, we had some fantastic seafood - which living in the middle of North America, Simon tends not to get very much.
I've just taken him to the airport for his journey home, and now I'm off to today's demonstration. It's all go.
Big Night
Went out with Simon, Chris, Alison and Philippa last night, and ended up having a rather bigger night than I originally expected. Still, I've got the day off today, and Simon and I are heading off for a day trip. Where will we end up? Who knows?
More details as they become available :-)
Stress, Pressure, Stress
Last night Dave and I stopped off in the bar downstairs for a swifty and found ourselves sitting at the next table to a man who clearly takes completely the wrong things far too seriously. He was actually standing up from the table and shouting at someone via his mobile, demanding to know "Well when did you speak to them? This morning? This afternoon? Last week? Last month? No, I will not calm down, I'm operating on four hours' sleep here, and I'm not going to put up with this." Then he sat down to eat and managed to put away a very nice meal without any of it touching the sides or stopping in his mouth long enough to be tasted, with the relentless drive of his knife and fork only interrupted for him to take a swig from his drink. Once he'd finished he sat staring intently in our direction but not seeing us - just grimacing and occasionally glancing down at the paper in front of him. He even came back from the toilet just as he got there to pick up his ringing phone and then took it in there with him.
So just for him and onyone who thinks this might be like them: The Department of Trade and Industry's Work/Life Balance Campaign site.
And Speaking Of Coalitions
The Stop The War Coalition are organising another national demonstration against the war this coming Saturday. Full details on their site.
So That's It Then
So the first strikes are done, with who-knows-how-many more to come. I'm loving the fact that our own Mr Blair, though the primary member of this 'coalition of the willing' is no more a member of the 'coalition of the informed' than the rest of us, with the BBC reporting that he was told about the attacks after they happened by reporters.
Did anyone else see that clip of the news being broken by White House spokeman Ari Fleischer when he just popped his head out to say that yes, it had started and that Bush would be speaking shortly? How scary does Mr Fleischer look? He's never exactly been warm, but last night he looked positively mad.
Lord - The Oscars....
It suddenly occurs to me that it's The Oscars this Sunday. I guess that means it's almost time for this year's Oscar Blog. And I have a client meeting at 10am on Monday morning. Oh well.
Off To War
(Not a political posting, surprisingly.)
So, curiously coinciding with the events of the first two days of this week, my bother's being shipped out to the Gulf shortly.
I don't really know what I think about that at this point.
Post-Funeral
Well, as a celebration of Cyril's life, I think today could hardly have been bettered. Extended family came together with many of the people from the Ramblers' Association he went on his walks with, and assorted hangers-on like me. Though time didn't ultimately allow for all the contributions from those present to be heard, the overall sentiment was certainly strongly expressed.
To be honest, I had certain ambivalent feelings about the prospect of offering a thought of my own. Not out of any uncertainty about my respect for Cyril, but because of my own discomfort over the essential dishonesty of our relationship. Despite the better part of ten years as his son's partner, that was never how I was presented to him. I daresay he knew exactly what was going on, but the polite (possible) fiction was maintained. So I would have felt awkward offering a comment. In truth, it's a little difficult: The 'official' sons-in-law had their parts to play, and even my own predecessor as unofficial son-in-law was invited to speak, having known Cyril for so long. I just stood around being helpful where I could and flailing slightly whenever anyone asked how I was connected.
Still, that's not even remotely important in the greater scheme.
'Bye Cyril.
Tweaking
The sharper-eyed stopping by may have noticed that there's a slightly more defined look here. I've added a pixel to all the borders and increased the margins at the sides of the page. I was feeling that, although I like this new layout, it wasn't quite clearly enough demarking the content sections. Happier now.
Politics Of Sentimentality
And another thing:
Various of the papers, plus quite a few of the people who text and email into the BBC Breakfast News programme, seem to be touting this view that if we go to war, we should all swing behind the conflict in order that 'our boys' should feel the unswerving support of the folks back home. I gather this is somehow supposed to make them feel better about being put in harm's way.
I hope that 'our boys' will forgive me if I find this to be a degree of hypocrisy quite beyond my meagre means. Members of my own family might get dragged into this conflict, and even then I won't blindly support the war. I'll hope that no one is harmed, of course (impossible though that hope is), but I won't suddenly find the deaths of innocent civilians palatable, just because of some misguided sense of loyalty and sentimentality.
Politics Of Disappointment
I meant to mention earlier, but what the hell, let's have a separate posting:
I missed the beginning of an interview of Radio 4 this weekend, so I'm not sure who it was being interviewed, but it was an American man who was being asked why 'the West' (whatever that means) had spent so long propping up Saddam Hussein, including during periods when he was oppressing and killing his own citizens, only to turn around when he started making use of the fruits of that support and denounce him as the greatest threat to world peace? The interviewee's response was that Saddam had shown his true colours and turned on his former supporters; that sometimes it's not possible to predict the outcome of one's actions, and that having created a bad situation, it was then the responsibility of those who had done so to rectify it, even up to initiating armed conflict to do so.
Which actually sounds relatively reasonable, and does at least acknowledge responsibility, which is more than I've heard most supporters of the war do. But it did make me think that if turning out to be different than how your supporters expected, turning on them and needing then to be removed by violent means is a viable working model, then this Labour government should be very worried indeed.
Politics Of Cynicism
Judging by the interview with Welsh Secretary in today's Guardian, 'New Labour' has finally hit rock bottom: "After the war is over, though, Mr Hain makes clear that the "trajectory of the government" will need to be changed in order to enthuse party activists."
The bottom line seems to be that the 'reward' for supporting Blair's warmongering will be the return of the Labour Party (or at least some of its policies) that we all thought we were electing in the first place.
The Absence Of Formality
I mentioned the other day that someone I know had died. The funeral is on Tuesday, and because of Cryil's very specific feelings about solemn (and especially religious) ceremony, his family have decided to have a full-on celebration of his life, dispensing even with mourning clothes, and encouraging people to dress as they feel comfortable.
Which is great, and absolutely in keeping with the man's view of life and death, but does make for discomfort in my mind at least about the 'right' clothes to wear. It's not a problem, and I'm not looking for advice, but it'll be a fine line that gets drawn between my innate sense of the formality of such occasions and not overdoing things in the specific circumstance. It's made me realise how strong are the inculcated manners of our society.
Coughs, Quotations, and The Semiotics Of Hair
Some links drawn to my attention this week:
The transcript of the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire segment featuring the allegedly-cheating major. Read like this, how blatantly obvious does it look? [Via Reassuringly Shallow]
I found this West Wing Quotations compilation while looking for the CJ quotation I've got in Just A Thought at the moment. Every line a winner. (Just replace the 1 in the link with 2, 3, or 4 to get the relevant series quotations.)
And Simon pointed me at the section of The Chap Magazine entitled 'The Semiotics of Hair', which is suitably strange by itself, but move on to the section called 'Trouser Semaphore' and marvel at the online demonstration of the art in action for a truly surreal experience.
Not Waving, But....
By the way, I've had passed on to me the details of an 'End of an Era' night to mark the (effective) passing of somewhere I used to work. It's on Friday 28th March, and if I tell you it's happening at The Street, you'll know which company it is if you ever worked there. I'm not sure about going along, but everyone who used to work there is invited, so I'm spreading the word.
"One Of These Days"....Is Today!
Well, in a rare show of energy, the additional facility I've been meaning to set up and that I mentioned this morning I'd get round to one of these days is here.
By selecting your preferred option on the 'About this site' page, you can apply one of three stylesheets to the site and as long as you accept the cookie, it will always appear as your default. I've only put three alternates together so far, but I might knock up another couple over the weekend.
Also, users of suitably-clever browsers can select their chosen style via the relevant menu choices.
All part of the service.
Seeing Red
One or two people have remarked to me that they rather like this new colour scheme. And against all expectation, so do I. So I might leave it in place for a few days after all.
Next specific development plan is to sort out a selection of stylesheets and let people set their preferred look as their default. One of these days.
A Blog Of Choice
As this latest design excludes the former 'Blog Of The Day' space, I've decided that once a week I'll select one of the blogs on my 'Friends' or 'Familiars' list and just do a paragraph about it, why I read it, and what kind of stuff it covers.
I'm going to start (rather randomly) with A Blog's Life. Actually, it's not entirely random - I've been reading Pat's site for about a month now, but haven't ever mentioned it before, so I thought an overt plug was called for. This is a place to go to for crosswords, comment on items from the newspapers and the world at large, and some quirkily entertaining linkage. Also, a lovely design that I'm much in envy of. On days when I can actually access the outside world, one of my daily visits.
My favourite recent posting is yesterday's quoting a letter in The Telegraph which said:
"Sir, As many of us don't like referring to 'gays' and as some don't like being called 'homosexual' would 'badger-watcher' be a description all could live with?"
Red Noses, Etc
Well, in the absence of my sitting in a bath of baked beans all day - and don't even think it - I'm at least making a gesture to Comic Relief here. For one day only: Look - it's all red!
Actually, I rather like it.
Anyway - today is Comic Relief's Red Nose Day, this year subtitled 'The Big Hair Do', and various people up and down the country will be raising huge amounts of money for the always worthy causes that Comic Relief support. And it's not too late to be one of them, of course.
Horrifyingly, I remember spending the very first Red Nose Day in a costume, raising money and generally making a complete fool of myself. A group of us went out that evening around the local gay venues on a trip we called "Cruising for the Pink Pound", and in this same thick costume I'd been wearing all day, I almost collapsed from the heat. Probably not the sort of thing I'd do nowadays, but I was a student in those days, the past is another country, and besides, the wench is dead, etc, etc.
UPDATE - My beloved bank, Smile, are donating 10p every time anyone visits smile.co.uk today - you know you should, don't you? (Corrected because I typed 1p at first, and Chris just loves correcting me :-) )
Giving Something Back - Redux
I mentioned a while ago that I was thinking of giving some time to a charity which provides business education to students and schoolkids. Today I did my first event with them. Blue Skies brings kids from various schools together and offers them the opportunity not only to be given some basic business facts and guidance, but also puts a group of people who run their own businesses in front of them to answer their questions.
I was very impressed by the level of interest. Fair enough a few sat there with their headphones on and were totally uninterested, but most paid attention, some took notes, for goodness' sake, and the questions were all sensible and focused on the practical aspects of self-employment.
Well worth having done, I think.
The Inter-Not
The high-speed internet connection into our building died at about 4pm yesterday, and only came backat lunchtime today.... Six people all working off dial-up, all used to the rather magnificent connectivity we usually have - not a pretty sight....
The Joy Of Maps
Forgot to mention, in the wake of Sunday's trip to the Transport Museum, that Simon and I were both waxing lyrical about the tube map. Henry Beck's original vision (including the innovations of making all lines either horizontal, vertical, or at 45º, and expanding the central area relative to the rest in order to improve the clarity of the most crowded zone) was, beyond any question, a work of genius. I was noting that it's interesting how the big bus maps at interchange stations are now adopting the same kind of stylised map to show the routes that pass through them.
Anywau, in one of those lovely bits of coincidence, David at Swish Cottage has produced an overlay of the actual shape of the tube on overground London. (Pre Jubilee Line and DLR Extensions, but very interesting all the same.)
Ending
A very close friend and his family have spent much of the last few weeks at a hospital, watching over their dad, who was very ill. He died last night, so I just wanted to take a second to say "Goodbye Cyril", and offer a moment of my own, here, to mark his passing. An amazing man; he was walking the Machu Pichu trail the year he turned eighty, and the Great Wall of China the year after that. Exactly as everyone expected from that kind of energy, he battled on during this final illness longer than anyone thought possible. He had more drive than most people half his age, me included.
South Bank - Showed
Watching last night's South Bank Show on Philip Pullman and his work was enlightening in many respects.
First I should say that I've not yet managed to read any of Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, though I have every intention of doing so. My perspective is slightly skewed, therefore. But the debate about his antagonism towards organised religion (and specifically the way he presents it in "children's books") seems to be relatively straightforward in that he acknowledges it himself, and quotations from the books used in the programme make the clarity of his viewpoint very obvious.
The SBS discussion brought in, perhaps inevitably, Peter Hitchins, one of the most outspoken critics of this element in Pullman's work. Hitchens' view seems particularly informed by a parallel he draws with CS Lewis's Narnia stories, suggesting that His Dark Materials is actively in opposition to, indeed, created with the intention of destroying(!), Narnia. (See Hitchens on this subject in The Spectator. Note - contains major His Dark Materials spoilers and minor Narnia ones.) During the programme, Hitchens spoke on several occasions about Pullman's 'agenda' in writing these anti-Christian works, but it's ridiculous, I think, that he did so as if this represented some opposite to Lewis. Because *there* was a man with an agenda.
The Christian allegories in the Narnia books are well-known and documented (here's a brief overview, for instance), but in some senses, not overt in an initial reading. Or perhaps it's fairer to say that they become more overt as the series progresses - by The Last Battle, they're bloody obvious. Initially though, in The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, it's apparently just a rousing adventure with heroic children, loyalty, treachery, fauns, and a really cool (if somewhat prissy) Lion. Most ten year olds reading it wouldn't necessarily pick up the Aslan/Christ parallel, for example.
Simon mentioned that he knew someone who read the books as a child and missed all this completely. When re-reading them years later, her reaction upon realising what was really at work was one of annoyance, or even anger, at the fact that she had been, as she saw it, deceived. Which I think is entirely reasonable, because to some extent that's exactly what had happened. Pullman's agenda is at least out in the open - in his world, the religious icons are openly undermined. Lewis's worldview, on the other hand, is horribly insidious and certainly presented in an underhand way. In fact, I'd say it's also simply horrible - (spoiler ahead, highlight the text to view it) - the children at the series' heart are shown to be rejoicing that they are all dead because that way they get to be with Aslan (Christ) forever. How sick is that?
Hitchens dislikes the books because he thinks they are yet another step on our journey to becoming a godless society. I can't help thinking that, if Lewis and Narnia represent the thing he thinks we're losing, we're on exactly the right road.
Client Lust
Well okay, maybe not actual lust as such, but I meant to note that I was bitterly disappointed to discover at the end of last week that one of our clients I wouldn't have minded getting to know better has a girlfriend.
Ho hum.
Transports Of Delight
A few years ago, I directed some filming at the London Transport Museum, and as is often the case with these things, managed to see not much more than the very limited parts the camera was actually pointing at. Simon had never been, and wanted to do so, so today we went. It's a lot of fun, and well worth checking out if you're in town and you haven't. The history of London's transport is facinating anyway, and they manage to present it in a very entertaining way.
We also loitered in Foyles, and were reflecting on childhood reading memories - Emil And The Detectives, The Moomins, Agaton Sax, and Uncle, among others.
A Wasted Day
Well this is irritating.
I've been sitting around since 11.30 this morning working on a theoretically straightforward server transfer for one of our clients. The word theoretically is used in some anger in the previous sentence, as I'm still messing around with it six hours later, having discovered that the new account was set up with neither PHP nor MySQL included. So there switching back and forth between accounts and the changes that have been required have left me frustrated at both the process itself and also the total waste of the day. And it's all still onging, of course.....
The Lost Art Of Convalescence
It's funny how lots of things sometimes conspire to form a pattern. I was having a conversation with Chris, Alison and a couple of others a few weeks ago about, among other things, the expectation to rush back to work after sometimes quite serious illness. The example of the chest infection that Chris and Alison both had last year that triggered ongoing problems for both of them was a classic example. The fact that both of them still suffer to some degree from the aftereffects yet both were back at work as quickly as possible is pretty significant. We were reflecting on the fact that once upon a time, hospitals were supplemented by cheery places called Convalescent Homes, where people who had had operations, or particularly debilitating illnesses could take the time to recover properly. This whole concept has gone away entirely now, and we're left in the kind of world where Dave can't even get a hospital bed the night before his major operation, but has to go, check in, then be sent home overnight (on his own recognisance, so to speak. You know - the way open prisons work....) Then it seemed like he'd barely been operated on before they were turfing him out.
We discussed the attendant rise of all those cold cures which are advertised in ways that suggest that being sick is an admission of failure, and that anyone taking a day off is weak, and at the mercy of less scrupulous colleagues (you know the ones, I'm especially thinking about LemSip Max Strength, but it's far from the only culprit).
And recently, I've been particularly aware of this same thing via an absolutely shocking set of tube ads for Lockets throat lozenges which again suggest that all sorts of terrible things (infidelity, stolen ideas, etc) will be perpetrated by the scumbags with whom we apparently all work should we ever run the risk of being off sick.
This is all of a piece with the way our society pressurises us all to get our work/life balance all wrong. It's interesting that the ads all focus on work situations, and therefore feed off and into the far greater sense of job insecurity which we all feel today compared to previous times.
But in the longer term, we're doing ourselves damage by not taking the time to heal and properly recover.
Reconnected
Bizarrely, with no one having changed anything, and for no reason either way that I can tell, this morning I'm able to connect to my own site and the various others that have been giving me trouble. I don't know what that's all about, but anyway....
I notice that Ron Davies, having admitted that he was where he previously claimed not to have been, seems to have dug himself into a hole all over again. Now, far be it from me to comment on whether what it's claimed he was doing is indeed the case, but shouldn't he at least acknowledge that his judgement is a little unreliable, given his track record?
Digressing for a moment into Gert's world - she recently found herself, as I have occasionally in the past, repeatedly drawn to a right-wing-flavour blog (mine was this one, which I discovered after he commented here). Gert's views on hers are, as is always the case, well thought-through and sensibly-presented, and I commend them (and her of course) to your attention.
Also, she's not having a very good time of things at the moment, so send warm and supportive thoughts her way.
We're halfway into Fairtrade Fortnight, but as I've barely been blogging, I forgot to mention it before - so consider yourselves slapped round the head about it now.
Headsessions thoughtfully connected me to Metafilter In The Ruins, which while not as sharp as it might be, certainly illustrates some key steps on the road to rhetorical implosion which Metafilter has lately trodden.
In my grand clear-out last weekend, I set aside a box full of old (and not so old) comics that I simply don't have space for any longer, and which I was going to send to the charity shop. Coincidentally, Owen blogged about the sudden influx of comics into his life, and now I have a new home for them, and an opportunity (eventually) to meet up with him for more than a passing encounter on an anti-war demonstration.
'Nuff said for now - more later.
Disconnected
I've got this mad situation going on at the moment whereby I can't access my own site (and by extension my installation of Movable Type) from my machine at work (which I distinguish from my machine at home rather stramgely, as they're the same machine, just on different connections). So hence the reason for my lack of postings during the day recently, and my evenings are pleasantly given over to catching up with Simon and, this evening, being on Dillon-visiting duties, as Chris has had to go away. I'm sure that come the weekend all the stuff I've been saving up will appear.
But don't hold me to it.
Self-Sufficiency
Long-time readers will perhaps recall a discussion of whether a Meritocracy is really a good thing. Last week, Dea Birkett reflected in The Guardian that Ellen MacArthur's snapped mast was possibly a good thing, in that it puts the lie to the idea MacArthur regularly peddles that anyone can do anything if they really try. Birkett suggests that such messages can cause significant damage when individuals may be trying as hard as they can, but still be the victim of circumstances. It may just be me, but I'm seeing a thematic connection.
Old Friends and Other Distractions
Simon arrived yesterday, and consequently, my evening was much given over to discussions of, variously:
mad noises we used to generate using the 'ENVELOPE' command on the BBC Micro;
trends in masculinity as seen in English literature;
comparisons of UK and US versions of various reality TV series;
the conversation he had on Friday with a creator of (very) well-known British sitcoms;
stuff.
I can see my evenings being quite interesting over the next couple of weeks.
Out There
Just a couple of quick space-related items:
The New Scientist has an item about the way electric charges are created by impacts such as meteorites on ice. Which has interesting potential implications for Europa.
And Pioneer 10 has sent its last message home.
The Soundtrack To Spring Cleaning
Something's coming over me, I'm so dizzy I can't see
Can't make out the forest for the trees
Warning: Woeful domesticity ahead.
I've been tidying, cleaning, reorganising, ditching junk, and generally making the flat look somewhat presentable for most of the weekend. Not just because it's time for spring cleaning, but because old friend Simon is arriving for a couple of weeks tomorrow. He's over from the US to research his new book, and is going to be bunking in the living room for a bit. As my living room had remained the storage space for stacks of stuff I'd had to recover from Chris's attic when he moved, it seemed that the time had finally come to do something about it all.
They say necklines to the waist
you change your body to keep up with the pace
the rich buy dearest 'cause they want to be sure
the poor can't afford to be that insecure.
Along the way, to keep my rather daunted spirits up, I've been working through a large chunk of my singles collection and rediscovering loads of stuff I haven't listened to in years in some cases. Singles are an odd thing anyway, as I tend to think they relate to very specific point in time, and it's interesting to remember the exact reason for buying certain things. A few examples (and note that I'm admitting to the ownership of these, so sarky comments will not be appreciated):
Viva Maria, Viva Victoria
Aphrodite
Viva le Diva, Viva Victoria
Cleopatra
Yes, Dana International's Eurovision winner sits on my shelf. It's dreadful, by the way, but I bought it one Monday morning a few weeks after the Song Contest when Chris and I were going on holiday to Spain that afternoon. I thought it was a suitably camp anthem to mark the start of a week away. And actually, given that it was playing in every bar we visited, very apt. I ended up singing along to it with a gorgeous bloke one night in what was possibly the campest display of my entire life.
If we part our hearts won't forget it
Years from now we'll surely regret it.
Kylie's Give Me Just A Little More Time is locked inextricably in my mind with an Australian guy called Mark I used to go out with. I had my copy of it with me on the trip to Sydney when I first met him, and he'd never heard it before. We ended up er, 'making out' to it, and I left it with him, so I had to buy the copy I now have as a replacement.
Lovesick;
My temperature's high
Just met a girl
Who believes we can fly.
James' Just Like Fred Astaire - Do you ever have one of those moments when you buy something that turns out not to be what you thought it was, but in the event you prefer it? That's what happened here - GLR had been playing something I liked and I decided to go and get it. I'm unsure now why I was so convinced that it was this, and equally uncertain what exactly I was really trying to find. Oh well, I'd like James years previously, so this was a good reintroduction.
The other thing that really struck me was how many 'single' singles I have - that is to say, how many I have which represent the sum of my collection of the artist's work - I'm one of those people who won't buy an album on the strength of liking one track, so I've got loads of odds and ends. The Frank and Walters, Joyrider (both quoted above), Semisonic, The Candyskins, Gigolo Aunts, Kenickie, Gin Blossoms, Echobelly, Propellerheads, among very many others, all represented by one single and nothing else. This trend is also partly explained by the number of items I bought having heard them in clubs back in the day.
I might do another review of the stories behind odd items another time - it's quite fun to think back.
PS - The Joyrider version of Rush Hour is radically different from Jane Wiedlin's original, but still not bad - rather (if you'll pardon the pun) harder-driving.
Recently Commented On
I had to craft the most ridiculous fudge to make it work, and I'm still entirely unclear on why the straightforward solution wasn't, but anyway - cast your eyes left-wards, and you'll see that a list of postings most recently in receipt of comments is now available. Progress.
Relatedly - as of the comments on the new design this morning there are now actually more comments on this blog than there are postings. Just thought I'd mention it.
Done For The Moment
Well, I'll need to tweak a little over the next couple of days - there are some additional bits and pieces that are giving me some trouble that I want to work on, but all the primary content is in place.
I've decided on a bit of a 'back to basics' approach - got rid of the DHTML navigation and a few of the additional bells and whistles in the interests of clean, simple and accessible. Hope you like.
Things still to do include adding in the 'Recently Commented On' list, tidying up a few little details to get an even better level of accessibility going on,get rid of some tabling that's still in use in some content areas (links and opinion specifically), and add back in a couple of extras that I'm still trying to decide on the benefit of.
Note - if you're viewing this in Internet Explorer 5.x on a PC, you may find yourself thinking of telling me about the one pixel gap at the end of the section headings borders in the left and right columns. I know about them - I have tested this thing you know. The reason for them is the absoutely shocking (mis)implementation of the CSS 'box' model that MS built into 5.x. It's their browser that messes things up, not my beautifully compliant HTML/CSS. Likewise, the difference in font rendering between IE and Mozilla has been thoroughly pissing me off as I've been playing with the CSS. If you're interested, the Mozilla/NS6 version looks more like I actually intend it to. I may have to worry about everything looking right across browsers at work, but I'm damned if I'm going to keep pandering to crappy implementations with work-rounds and fixes in my own space. If the code is right then that should be sufficient.
As I've said before - my house, my rules.
