Thank Allah

A moderate Muslim is heard. Cor.

I'm not saying that these views weren't present all along, but its nice to have it confirmed. Half the problem is our sensationist press presents stories about angry, rioting Muslims as though they were the only kind - rather like the Muslim press presents us as Westerners as all, Bush-loving infidel lackeys.

This man talks a lot of sense about the reaction of Muslims in the Middle East to the Danish cartoons and compares it to the non-reaction of those in South East Asia.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/15/opinion/15raslan.html?th&emc=th

Pictures of the Prophet - but not a cartoon

Following my last entry about the cartoon which doth offend, I thought I'd add this little fact I found out this morning whilst listening to The Today program on Radio 4.

There is an image of the Prophet Mohammed which has been sitting doing no-one any harm in the University of Edinburgh's art gallery. It was painted by 13th century Muslims and is the oldest known portrayal of the prophet. Now one could say that whereas the painting is reverent while the cartoon pokes fun, this was not the point I've heard. ANY portrayal of Mohammed is counted as un-Quranic. If that's so, how has this picture been hanging for decades without anyone being blown up or worse still, without there being a boycott on Scottish products? You know how much the Pakistanis and Egyptians just love their haggis? No, there isn't any pork in haggis.

Therefore I'm led to believe that there is a story behind the story. Nothing is what it seems is it?

I believe that the real behind the scenes tale will come out within the next few weeks, though I strongly feel you can't take away Iraq and the war with the Texas Yokel and Mr Blah out of the equation.

And while I am an ardent advocate of free speech, the fact that the French satirical magazine who initially published in France, have decided to publish the cartoons again, I think this is s step too far. Free speech is one thing, but deliberate antagonism, merely for the sake of doing so, is another. Time to move on, we know we can publish in Europe.

The cartoon doth offend

I’m nominally a Christian with critical opinions, regarding both Christianity, and life generally. Religion has been at the centre of more wars than just about anything else, including famine. I also believe that science, vested interests aside, is generally a ‘good thing’ and that the Enlightenment n Europe set us apart from the reigns of the spiritual and this is why we are mainly both wealthy and tolerantly pluralistic. The Catholic branch of Christianity didn’t hold all the moral or physical answers to our burning questions about how our world works, and because we are humans, and by our very nature curious, a few of us challenged the status quo. Long may we go on learning about our world – it is human to study, absorb and change our behaviour based on what we know and what we might find.

Of course, just because we think we know something, doesn’t make it truth, hence Thomas Kuhn’s “Paradigm Shifts” occur, these being major changes in the ways we examine the world. From Newtonian theories of Physics to Einstein’s. And isn’t that a jolly good thing? Religion, if left unchecked, does nothing positive in the name of progress other than hold us as a race back from scientific progress. I’m not saying all scientific progress is good progress, but it means that any superstitions (eg, “witchcraft”, and other so called heresies) don’t keep their foothold here for long. Religions aren’t bad in themselves – who could realistically say that Christ’s basic tenet that we should treat those in ways we ourselves would like to be treated is anything other than a positive statement about how we as humans should live? But absolute power, held by those with a vested interests in maintaining a religious status quo, are as easily corruptible as those with power in other realms. Religion isn’t created by God, but by corruptible humans.

So the cartoon was let out of the bag and all hell (or at least the promise of hell to us infidels) was let off by the more extreme Muslims. And this anger was over what exactly? Showing 12 ‘derogatory’ images of the prophet, so I’ve been led to believe, in fact pillorying him. Oooooh, what a shocker!

Sorry, but Jews have managed to get through a holocaust and have continued to develop what was already a useful tool – self effacing humour. My dad (who is a real Christian rather than a plastic one like me) can’t watch TV without hearing a stream of blasphemous words, as he regards them. Plenty of Christians feel as though their opinions have been steamrollered, or at least disregarded by mainstream UK politics and civil society. So in the face of being ridiculed, Jews laugh at themselves and Christians have developed thick skins, or have just switched off as much as possible from worldly society. Anyone who calls themselves a Christian in public and hasn’t developed metaphorical calluses has either got so much charisma that they can just brazen their way through the tirade of abuse, or can articulate themselves out of a situation decisively through argument. Regardless, Christians have learnt that to consider browbeating of their religion as a personal attack achieves nothing more than allow others to escalate at best criticism, at worst a kind of nagging mocking, levelled at them and their beliefs.

So what do extremists Muslims do to sell their beliefs as viable in a modern age? Oh yes, threaten to firebomb a Danish newspaper office, wave guns around, hysterically cry for the death of Europeans – hey, haven’t they learnt that us Euros stopped believing in God 80 years ago or more? Well, that’s rational isn’t it? That’s going to generate a shedload of converts. Do they believe an omnipotent prophet is going to need such puny assistance from the likes of mere mortals? And do they seriously believe that their actions will please the prophet? Perhaps they do. If so, it sickens me to think humans find this kind of action attractive.

Well I’m not a Muslim, though I have a great deal of time for those who are serious about what they believe in, eg, have thought about it and questioned some of the wilder actions of people associating themselves with the label. What I don’t have any time for is for childish playground antics (unfortunately the materials used aren’t just fists and feet, but guns and bombs – the mentality is the same and sucks equally). And I would argue to the death that almost* no-one has the right to censor any belief that another may hold. Argue with them until you’re blue in the face. Debate until neither of you can stay awake. Fight your cause with words, not violence.

The reason we in the west have progressed, made things, changed our ideas is through debate and by proving that even the most seemingly ingrained rules can and should be challenged. Debate and the freedom to do so. This is why God no longer “appoints” our monarch and the church is unable to put people to death for brewing up a few roots in their living room.

This extreme version of Islam takes us right back to the dark ages. No thanks, you’re welcome. Give me free speech every time.

***

Yesterday, to the surprise of many, Nick Griffin from the BNP along with his cohort was not charged with allegedly inciting racial hatred – I think most pundits thought he’d be at Her Majesty’s Pleasure for quite some time.

Good.

Its not “good” because I love the BNP and all they stand for. It would take the threat of facial surgery performed by an angry gorilla armed with a machete before I ever put an X in their box. It IS, however, a victory for free speech. Griffin and his nasty army may be talking complete guff, and, if they are, the best thing they can do is hang themselves with their own logical rope. I’d rather be shown how my plans will fail rather than be told that they simply will, “because I say so”. To be told he is a ‘racist’ is (let’s face it) probably true, but I find it heart-warming that a jury, who know the case better than me, can dissent and let him off. The question of Griffin isn’t the seemingly obvious one “is he or isn’t he a racist”? Of course he is, and by their own terms, I find Griffin’s views reprehensible, and I trust that the British public, by not voting for his party en masse, despite the piss-poor opposition until Cameron appeared, agree. Of more concern to me is “knowing that Griffin IS a racist, does he therefore have the right to openly enunciate his opinions”?
To suggest that Griffin’s views can be silenced by putting him away simply gives ammo to those who believe he is a hero of our times. But unlike many of our politicians of the increasingly nannyish times we live in, I do believe we are not entirely stupid. I questioned the logic of the NF when they were active in the area near where I grew up – Southall – in the late 70s when I was 12. I think the average voter can do likewise with this lot.

Let them speak. Then let’s mock them for the dangerous nincompoops they are. As the Tories found out during the 80s all the press slagging about their sleaze changed nothing. It took Spitting Image, a satirical puppet show of all things, to cause ructions within the party. Humour in the face of war really is the second best weapon. But the worst attack any can make (OK, with the exception of say, nuclear attack or having a piranha on the end of your finger) is to ignore your attacker. Works for me.

* When it comes to censorship I’m a good honest hypocrite here. The only exception to my rebuttal of censorship is on those materials which affect, or involves kiddies. The only right you have to watch filmed sex involving real children is the right to have your balls cut out with blunt garden shears. Slowly.

Job interview update

I did not get the job I mentioned a few entries back.

Bummer.

Back to manic, pointless bordom then. At least at the moment my job is run at full throttle. The other condition it can degenerate to is stop. Anyway, more on this when I get round to the annual summary.

Romfod - amusiing fact (it amused me anyway)

Been off the blogging for a bit - busy little me hasn't got time, or rather there are always more pressing matters. I'll try and write a summary of my 2005, if and when I get a few magic minutes. (Ha ha).

Anyway, this little fact amused me. The town of Romford's name was not, as you might imagine, named after a river Rom which could be forded here. This is the logical conclusion, right? Wrong. The town came first, the river was (and is) a stream originally known as the Murkeyditche. The name is a back-formation.

And having tried to cross it at various times while wandering through Eastbrookend Park, which runs behind our house, I can testify to its murkiness.

And that's your lot until I can be arsed to write again - which will hopefully be sooner rather than later.

Music: Lots -updating iPod so putting lots on and hearing most of it.
Books: Martin Lewis's MoneyDiet
Blog I like: Diamond Geezer's (Google-able), particular his somewhat obsessive diary of Bow Road station refurbishment which reminded me the Curious Tale of the Dog and the Night Time in its minute detail - find and read (warning, its long and you have to get into the spit or else it just seems a bit OCD-ish.

Party victim

After a rather so-so party held in the Green Man in Euston on Saturday, a few of us travelled back from central London to Daggers for a little drink and a post-party chat about shite all. We found this specimen having a well-deserved post-party snoozette on the Central Line.

Sadly, he was removed by a (very pleasant, I have to say) member of the British Transport Police who asked him where he was going. “Walthamstow” he said, somewhat blearily. Despite the train pulling into Liverpool Street where he could have picked up an overground connection, he insisted on going back to Oxford Circus. The copper asked him if he had been with anyone earlier.

“Well”, he said, “my wife was here when I fell asleep”.

So…the question – what on earth happened to his wife? Gave us something to speculate on while we travelled the long and well-worn path to the burbs.

The meaning of 'scundered'

I just realise that I used a word in my last entry, 'scundered', which most people won't have heard of.

Simple: its from Northern Ireland, and according to the BBC's "Voices" website, specifically from Belfast, where coinidentally, my wife hales from before her family moved to Craigavon in the late 60s (my mum-in-law has an old proddy "Shankill" accent).

It simply means 'embarrassed'.

You can have a look at other Northern Irishisms here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/voices/atilazed/a.shtml

Chav versus opera singer

The picture was blatantly swiped from Sha Crawford’s blog and illustrates to the uninitiated what a female chav looks like. Go and have a look at her site, it’s a fun read.

http://sha-crawford.blogspot.com/2005/05/chav-for-night-sleezy-men-free-drinks.html

A little story that warmed my heart:

Three or four chavs were gathered round a phone on the train back to Dover from Charing Cross. The phone was blaring some undoubtedly “lush” music. Annoyed at having her journey interrupted by this musical equivilant of shit, she put herself next to these fools and burst into song. These chavs found it very amusising indeed, giving her abuse for her efforts. But the good lady was neither intimidated, nor an amateur, in fact she was a pro opera singer on her night off. She delivered a full aria to the carriage, which then gave her a standing ovation.

The chavs, truly scundered, sulked off.

The world's saddest place

During our trip to Krakow, we visited Auschwitz 1 and 2, also known as Birkenau.

I can’t do this topic justice so I won’t try. Everything, which can be said, has been about the concentration camps of Germany, Poland, etc. There is no need to say any more. Plenty of information, should you want it, on www.wikipedia.org.

In my opinion, like I guess many others’, these camps are some of the saddest places on earth. The day, as you can see, was not the warmest – heaven knows what I must have felt like without the luxury of winter clothing, and for Krakow, this was not a freezing winter’s day. Credit due to the country of Poland for keeping the three camps in fairly good shape, for generations such as my own, to pay our respects to the slain and mutilated of the Hitler era. More importantly, for neither glorifying it by giving the “Experience” treatment, though tourism is inevitable. And for leaving them, as much as possible, in their bleak and mostly undisturbed state.

This is a photo I took from the watchtower overlooking the camp. The quality isn’t great, with reflections from the windows behind the camera, but the second part of the tour was rather rushed and, therefore, so were my pictures. It gives an idea of camp's scale - this was one quarter of the "accommodation" - the gas chambers were demolished two days before the Allies took over the camp and many of the buildings were demolished or have rotted.

Despite the necessary herding, I was more disturbed than I though I’d be, as were the rest of the coach. The journey back to Krakow was almost silent. That night, I contemplated on the atmosphere of the camps when everyone had gone home and the place remained bleak and silent. If you were a ghost-hunter, then surely this would be the ideal spot to detect the spirits of the painfully departed.

The word I think I'd describe my experience here is "awestruck", pure and simple. Here, in your face, is the evidence of death - not a death to a statistical body of people in a history book but real flesh and blood humans. In the main concentration camp, there were displays of belongings taken from the inmates as they arrived - hair, shoes, clothing. The dolls' clothes were somehow the most disturbing.

My great grandfather, Philip Jacobs, was a Jewish exile who moved to London in the 1920s, so I don’t think I can start to contemplate on what might have been if he’d stayed. You'd not be reading this, because I would undoubtedly not be here to write it.

Secret Santa

Nearly finished Christmas!

Bought the final Christmas present, for our Secret Santa do at work. Its for a guy I don't know at all, and since its secret, though a copy of "You Are What You Shite", a book I bought in Books Etc on the way home, appropriate.

For myself I bought a book about Lifestyle Envy by Alain de Botton and Merde Actually, the follow-up to A Year In The Merde.

Too tired to knock up a curry, so had turkey drummers (the adult version of Turkey Twizzlers I suspect) in macaroni cheese.
Yum.

Job interview

Four weeks ago I took an interview for a job at the civil service - name of dept etc withheld until I know more.

Why has it taken four weeks...and counting....for them to answer? I know I'm still a prospect as I get an email from them once a week asking me nicely to keep waiting and apologising for same. But I'd really like a firm reply, the waiting is doing me in.

The job is centred around two things I'm passionate about and so I'd almost eat my right testicle to get this job - which makes waiting twice as hard. Come one guys at the Department of Tr... oops, tell me I've got it. The interview was a two hour grilling, I think I answered the questions fairly robustly and even though I'm not a snivil servant, you know I deserve it.

Discovered!

Unrelated to the previous post - hence the entirely new entry - my blog has been discovered! Not by one of my many anonymous fans, but by a person at work, in fact one of my immediate work collegues. Frig me, I'll have to be VERY careful what I say now. This person informed me at the office Chrismas party (not bad as office xmas parties go) and the revelation thoroughly whacked me.

This has been an entirely private affair up till now, written for the entertainment and illumination of my good self in future years, and for any other unfortunate soul who stumbles into it via Google.

My sis Natasha came across a diary she'd written when we were flat-sharing in 1987 in Harlington, near Heathrow and it reminded her that her life then was interestingly shit. Its this kind of rose-tinted remindering I want to do. In fact, looking at his blog, I probably give the false impression that my life is far shitter than it actually is - mostly I go around with a sense of bewildered amusement mixed up with doses of boredom which unless you live the life an A list sleb is inevitable. So for the record, life ain't too bad, but I want to remind myself of the particularly good, bad or merely funny parts of it. So this dmn blog will just to reflect the bias of what I consider interesting. There are moments of sadness and regret and I include them too when I think its appropriate though often they are too personal for me or others for me to comfortable revealing all.

As to whether you find my Rants & Burblings interesting dear readerkj....well if you don't there are 10 squllion other diaries to find on the net, so find them and enjoy.

Piers Morgan's political commentary

We've just returned from Krakow, and there will be a few blog entries relating to this trip. More on that later, when I get the pictures from the camera.

I am reading "The Insider" by Piers Morgan and oddly enough he has just shown up on Question Time. I found his diary informative and it really gives you an insight, in a rather tabloid way, what is going on behind the scenes in civil and political society. For a £3.73 Tesco cheapo bestseller, a good read and one that cuts through a lot of the media bullshit. I'm increasingly looking for the news behind the news, and hisi diary is a pretty interesting glimpse into that hidden world.

He may be out of an editing job, but watch this space - a commentator who I think we'll be seeing a lot more of in future months, especially as the Tories, under Cameron, look like they might be almost worth of taking on Blair. He knows Blair better than most, and unlike politicians in the Labour party, don't have the same very skewed points to make. He's a sort of working man's Paxman I'd say.

Mood: Pretty mellow - the mellowest I've been in ages
Book: The Insider by Piers Morgan
Sounds: Madonna's new one and Stephen 'TinTin' Duffy's Greatest Hits which is an excellent slab of 80s nostagia which has aged well. And how could I forget, re-discovered Scritti Politti's commerical successese. Nicely aged too.

How accessible are Apple Macs? A subjective review

A friend asked me whether I'd give an opinion of the Apple
screenreader, Voiceover. I don't actually use voiceover as my main
access technology, being partially sighted. I do use it to read large
chunks of text, something I quite appreciate as backup, especially
when using the trackpad on the laptop, as this means I don't have to
constantly move my index finger to focus text. This blog entry is a review of what I know about Voiceover, and Applemac access technology generally.

Here's my general opinion of Voiceover.

Manual - you get an MP3 version on the Mac and you also pick up a PDF
version on the net. This explains things quite well and you should be
able to learn the basics of voiceover in about 2-3 hours if you go for
the MP3 version.

Compatibility. There are issues here. While many packages included
on the Mac's standard sales package work well, some don't work at all
and others need some serious tweaking by Apple. I'd like to hope that
these issues are cleared up with later versions of OSX. This depends
on whether Apple seriously intend to integrate Voiceover into their
operating system or are just offering it as a sweetener for the
massive American education market. Before Voiceover, Macs weren't ADA
compatible, so they could have lost out on a lot of sales if they
hadn't pulled their finger out.

Works well with:
TextEdit (the Mac's default word processor - not a bad one, but
lacking a few bells and whistles, but perfectly acceptable for 95
percent of all writing/documenting tasks. Also works with a third
party WP package called Nisus Writer Express which I like as as its
pretty well-featured for a package costing £35 or thereabouts. Nearly
as good as MS-Word.

Safari- works well with the standard Mac web browser, Safari. Does
not work with Firefox, a good alternative.

Mail - pretty obvious what that does. I don't use Mail a lot because
the Zoom cursor does not track with it (its worth bearing what tracks
and what doesn't if you/your users are partially sighted and likely to
use speech as a backup rather than using VO as their only access tech
solution). I use Gmail with Safari and this works well. However, VO
*does* work with Mail, and pretty well apparently.

iTunes. The Mac uses iTunes for a number of processes including CD
copying, MP3 ripping etc. Not accessible to voiceover - this is a
MAJOR failure on Apple's part. The script used to write the program
isn't Cocoa compliant, but as far as a user is concerned, we don't
care. It just don't work.

Appleworks - does not work fully. Another major failure since this is
their main "MS-Office" equivalent. I' ve heard rumours that the next
version will work properly, but wait for the fat lady to sing on this
one I think.

Navigating items. Apple's desktop, "dock" (a list of easily
selectable programs) and the "Finder" - what Windows calls Windows
Explorer, works very well and its easy to navigate with the voiceover
keys.

For and against:]

For
Apple Mac stability. Very reliable, mine has never crashed. You can
throw bricks at the operating system and the worst thing does is
briefly shrug. From my experience of Voiceover, I'd say this extends
to this. Voiceover is part of the OS rather than being a bolt-on
which makes it feel and act integrated.

What works, works well. While later versions of Windows have become
much more stable, the Mac way of doing things still makes quite a lot
of sense, though as Windows gets better, the "Mac is superior" feeling
which used to be espoused by Mac users is no longer applicable. I
like elements of both OS-es. Windows is just more familiar and stuff
is more likely to work with WindowEyes/JAWS out of the box.

Its included in the price. If cost is an issue, then a Mac Mini costs
£339 with Voiceover and Zoom included. A new copy of JAWS alone
costs twice that. If you are just into a bit of word processing,
email and Internet, then work it out for yourself

Voiceover is not a "special" technology. You don't get the
ghettosiation ethic that some PC products have. Every new Mac sold
can be used by a VI (within the limitations I've mentioned) out of the
box. This is a wonderfully liberating feeling. Also, means that
issues of the absolutely ridiculous (OK, I could use expletives here
but won't) lengths Windows PC access products are copy protected (and
all the user-related bureaucracy which goes with it) don't apply.
Keys, dongles, license rights? They just don't apply to Macs.

Against:

User might need to relearn access technology. My tech-savvy,
JAWS-using wife can't be bothered to learn Voiceover. If the user is
not familiar with an existing system, unlearning a familiar system
won't be a problem though.

The PC versions are industry standards, Voiceover is a new kid on the
block. There are much more support sites and VIs with JAWS/WinEyes
experience. Also Macs are comparatively rare in their own right with
5-7 percent of the overall PC market. GW Micro, Freedom Scientific et
al have been making and supporting their various access tech products
for years and know their stuff. While you might get lucky and find a
member of staff in Apple who knows about Voiceover, I'd imagine their
support team isn't half the leviathan

Third party Voiceover training might not be that easy to find. Hmmmm,
I feel a new niche for my good self here!


Should I or should I not....?

A few basic ground-rules.

Feeling adventurous? Go for the Mac but don't expect an easy ride.
The MacVsionairies user group is a great source of support and some
of the users on it are extremely knowledgeable. If you need to use a
particular Windows product, then obviously go for Windows and JAWS
etc.

Education purchaser: If classmates are using Macs by default then
also go for it.

Cautious buyer?
I'd stick to buying Windows PC and JAWS. You'll have to pay much more
you will have the sort of experience familiar to most blindies on
learning a new package with WinEyes, JAWS etc. This means good
support and availability of training. If Apple are serious about
Voiceover though, give it a few years and Windows based access
technology will have to serious drop in price (or SHOCK! HORROR! be
included as part of Windows, because if Apple are serious, Voiceover
will be giving the likes of Freedom, GW Micro and the rest a run for
their money. The Mac could in three to five years time, be the VI's
first choice of computer, simply on price alone.

Stay sane, avoid Watord

What do you buy for the woman who has everything? (That's her on the right). We are talking 40th birthdays. We are talking WIFE’s 40th birthday. And yet, after 6 mainly happy years of marriage, I’m still none-the-wiser. She’s a gadget freak, a technophile and, like me, thinks Asda contains all the fashion she’ll ever need, so clothes are not an option and she has all the technological whiz-bangs you could throw a stick at. I may have go down the jewellery route, but then she’d have to be there as its such a personal thing.

I suppose I could buy her a Mac. At least then she’d have a computer which works for more than five minutes.

Customer service at Watford Electronics, also known on the web as …no, if you want their site, go find it. I’m not going to help you as their service is the worst I’ve come across from a company, ever. It makes 02 seem like a company of semi-evolved simians.

Our Aries computer, a nicely spec’d one, with good components, packed up a month after we bought it (see previous excited blog entry). I’d guess it was the main motherboard taking leave of itself because it only got as far as showing us the BIOS info screen.

We called.

They said they’d pick it up (even after we reminded them we’d paid for onsite: they didn’t care). Having waited in three times for Amtrak to turn up, each time Watford then regretfully informed us (after waiting 20-40 minutes on hold for an answer) that Amtrak weren’t going to arrive that day because Watford hadn’t given them actually been decent enough to ask them to drive over to our house!). I could go on. If you are interested in getting a diary of all we went through, which fortunately Lynn kept as she didn’t trust their customer reps from the get-go, I’ll send it to you. We then tried to claim our money back. Either no replies to emails or constantly evasive customer service reps. We have had to involve Barclaycard who were so appalled after reading the log, that they couldn’t see how they wouldn’t be able to claw the money back on our behalf. We’re awaiting their further reply.

Now for anyone not familiar with Watford Electronics, they are one of the better-known independent PC manufacturers in the UK. They have 20 page adverts in Computer Shopper. They have been around since I was a kid, in fact our school bought loads of their kit. The company I work for, before going for Dell kit, kitted their offices with Watford computers. They are not, or sorry, were not, a Mickey Mouse organisation. They are also cheap without compromising on quality. The fact that our PC’s motherboard packed up doesn’t really count against them as all computer components might fail, even the best ones. That’s why you buy onsite maintenance.

Keep your head. Avoid them. Your sense of sanity will love you forever. Thank goodness for the reliable, trouble-free world of the Mac.

Mood: Lazy
Sounds: The magic of Radio 2 – I’m in the office, just about to leave so don’t have much choice about this.

I'm still blogging

I’ve avoided blogging for a bit because there has been nothing worth getting excited about. My job is as bad as ever and apart from that things are ticking along quite nicely. The Mac is working well and customer service from just about everyone we’ve had the joy of dealing with has been universally appalling.

I’m going to write a separate rant about this when I feel more motivated, but as its fairly late, Question Time is on TV and I’ve had a knackering week, me being the only person on the help-line, which should have five members of staff covering it, plus working a five day week when I have by right two working from home, I’m not motivated enough to do it. I’ve met an interesting bunch of yanks on a chat list called Blink Link, another blindy bunch o and we getting our rocks off talking about American politics and their relationship with the UK.

This always comes as a surprise, especially the reckless way the government of that country took it to war, but the Americans I’ve met on the net are far more clued up than us Brits give them credit for. So why is it that these people, who I would otherwise consider intelligent, likeable people, are only waking up to the fact that they were conned by Bush. Not that we did much better with Blair, but at least we plebs had the decency to disapprove of his warmongering.
I’m covering well trod ground here so will stop.

I’m writing this in Nisus Writer Express on the Mac, and so far, my favourite WP package. I just wish that MS-Word would talk to Voiceover then I’d use that. Oh yeah, it costs about £200 for the cheap version. Maybe not then. But Nisus is a friendly and competent package and there’s a good chance I’ll buy a proper licence since I’m only using the trial.

And finally, if you are wondering why there is a dog on the top of my page, its because Kizzie, Lynn's guide dog has retired. This is a picture placed in her honour on her last day as a working beast and demonstrates to the world that she isn't forgotten. Not bad for shot taken on the mobile. The tray was loaded with a full English breakfast, definitely deserved. She is now living the high life with a lovely family in commuter belt Surrey.

Gone but never forgotten, Kizzer. I never thought I'd be sentimental about a dog which wasn't even mine - just a pet. But they grow on you.

Mood: Tired
Book: Sight Unseen by Robert Goddard
Soundz: Madonna, Scritti Politti, rediscovered

iBook shocker

Has any iBook G4 owner reading this ever received a shock from their computer, of the “ouch, dammit” variety, while working with it plugged into the mains? I only noticed this the other night when I was beavering away.  My battery’s power level went into the red and so I did what anyone sensible would have, inserted the AC jack.  I was sitting on the floor at the time, and was wearing shorts, or I don’t think I’d have noticed it.

As parts of the computer touched my bare leg – namely the metal screw fitting, and the front catch was touching my chest, I noticed a slight burning sensation.  Since I had not been receiving injuries from I computer before that, I gathered it had something to do with me being plugged in.  I removed the AC jack and…job done.  No more eel impersonations.

Anyone else noticed this?

Trying to define sin

Sin. And old fashioned word with religious connotations, right? Well, I just happen to like the word – it carries more gravitas than say ‘doing wrong’ or ‘being bad’.

The reason I’m bringing up this issue is really related to a discussion I had with the facilitator in the Alpha Group I’m attending. We disagreed. Sherron, a lovely person, had the attitude that moral standards have dropped. I don’t actually agree with this. Bad news makes good copy, sells media space. That’s not to say we’re, as humans pure as the driven snow, this would be patent rubbish. But the evidence would suggest that in fact we are living more morally than in previous generations. Binge drinking is a hot topic at the moment. Alcohol consumption, in regular and immoderate amounts usually means there is something wrong with you or the structure in which you dwell – unhappy marriage, stress at work etc. Also, the British, as Kate Fox as pointed out, drink in order to become less inhibited. If that’s the case, then perhaps our greater consumption of alcohol is the explanation for the ‘death of Britishness’ – the stiff upper lip we are famous for.

Alcohol though. Peter Ackroyd, the source of all knowledge when it comes to London’s history, mentioned in his recent TV series, that in the late 18th century, there was a gin palace for every 35 people. That’s not a typo. A lot of gin palaces, and thus a lot of alcohol consumption.

The Victorian era is often looked about as some kind of ‘golden age’ of morality. Undoubtedly, some of our greatest engineers, scientists, innovators, architects and entrepreneurs came from this period. But on the other side, the poor lived in squalor mostly, with so called ‘illegitimate’ children being the norm in poorer parts of the UK. Poverty that we in the west have long been able to forget. And this leads to the reason I’m questioning the nature of sin. Much of the Victorian poverty was preventable. There were enough resources to house, clothe and feed everyone. When we think of poverty, we think of Africa or poor parts of Asia. So when you buy your trainers for £40 plus, do you think of the kids who stitched them up for a dollar a day? No, same the Victorians didn’t give a hoot for the east enders and those living in the mill towns of the north.

If I’m not making myself clear (and I seriously want to leave the office before it gets dark), then it is this. Christians and many Americans seem to have the attitude that ‘sin’ is something that we are entirely responsible for. Us, doing unto God as we would to others. “Responsibility” in this context means responsibility. There is nothing wrong with that – I can choose to be a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ person, though the distinctions are more than often a bit blurred.

Yet I can no more change the conditions of the third world poor than I can move 10 tonne rocks with my little finger. What we as a society can do is protest against corporations, unfair trading conditions which make overseas poverty inevitable, and that’s about it, unless we go into full term violence, as we did with the hated Poll Tax in 1990. It takes a lot for a Brit to do this, be assured. Mostly, the good people who campaign against unfair trading conditions, globalisation etc, do nothing more than raise the public sense of unease. And this is perhaps all they can do. Maybe, for example, it will take another natural disaster or three like Katrina before the likes of Dubya wake up and smell the coffee. Oh dear, no coffee, plantations got waterlogged this year. Thhhhaaank you.

Its all well and good trying, at an individual level, to be a sinless person, and yet its just as damn easy being white as snow to our neighbours and loved ones while watching big business and stupid power-gorged governments do nasty things to those they consider beneath them, which lets face it is 99 percent of us. Sometimes we have to do the ant thing – work as a cohesive team against them. And occasionally, it even works.

Final thought: the last time I hunted for a pair of shoes made in Britain by workers presumably paid a living wage, I wore my shoe-leather out.

Mood: Contemplative
Book: Life Expectancy, Dean Koontz
Music: Air con above my desk

Anonymous replies

Dear anonymous commentators

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Stock Aitken Waterman - the greatest songwriters of all time?

You can tell you are getting old when you find that the music you either paid scant attention to, or actively disliked at the time, sounds good to your ears compared to the vast majority of what’s out now. I’m not saying that all modern music is crap, because there are some still some excellent tunesmiths around, thank goodness. But, for example, the whole so called R&B genre is an insult to the real R&B groove, that from the American south and its foreign imitators. Now that’s the real deal. However, I digress…

I was listening to some 80s downloads on the old Archos, of which there are about 300 tracks, and the ones which really stood out in a good way were believe it or not, the Stock Aitken Waterman numbers. (The other totally standout track was ‘Busy Doing Nothing’ by Barbara Gaskin and Dave Stewart [the other one]. Now that track ought to be preordained as a masterclass in sound texture for novice producers – its bloody wonderful, with at least seven distinct textures, which all work together, strangely enough – go download then tell me I’m talking out of my arse if you dare).

Back to SAW. At the time, because there were so many of them around at once, and because quite frankly, the lyrics were and still are vacuous to say the least, I never paid as much attention to their songwriting as it deserved. But thinking about the song structures they used, the key changes, even the trademark Linnn Drum beat, considering their output was supposedly 7 songs per week, many of the tracks they produced were intricate affairs, and I feel now that any slating they got back then was via jealous musicians. You can fool people with crap for some of the time, but either we were really thick in the late 80s*, or the music wasn’t crap, mostly.

If you think I’m having a wind-up, take the chords to You’ll Never Stop Me From Loving You by Sonia. Mike Stock probably knocked this up in the few minutes between pulling his wire in the gents and glugging his fifth cup of tea that day. Play the chorus, slowly, using the grand piano setting of your keyboard. To me, its bloody genius. Well, come on, could YOU do it five minutes? Most musicians get off on the fact that that their songs are ‘crafted’, ‘masterpieces’, ‘a labour of love’ etc. To me, the real art of SAW is that they, oddly enough, didn’t sell out to crassness. Most the songs they wrote are eminently recyclable in the manner of a real classic, ‘Yesterday’ by Macca, the most covered tune ever.

Here’s the summing up the wonderful Wikipedia’s entry on Mike Stock (the chief composer):

“Although Mike Stock may not be revered as John Lennon or Bob Dylan are for thought provoking lyrics, his music does appeal to the heart and is sonically and creatively every bit equal to John Lennon or Bob Dylan, if not more so than the aforementioned artists. It is no more creative to write 'Imagine' than it is to write 'I'd Rather Jack'. It is also worth noting that Bob Dylan has never had a no.1 record. Mike Stock has had 17. “

Spot on. And I’ve even agree that ‘Imagine’, with its po-faced sentiment, and blatant politicking, is a truly awful record, possibly one of the most over-revered tunes ever written. I don’t have a problem with serious music, honest, but this song was written by one of the richest men in pop. How can you take it seriously? It makes me want to vom whenever I here it, I hate it that much, and I love the Beatles. Give me the Reynolds Girls any day. At least ‘I’d Rather Jack’ pretends nothing – its bubblegum and proud.


*Hmm, we did vote for Thatcher and her wretched government twice during that period. Possibly due to mass experimentation with the atmosphere, that’s my only sane conclusion.