Back up again....

Yes well, "falling down" became "fell down", but not in the Hollywood sense of the term. I got ill for a week, so had to sit at home twiddling my thumbs. THAT was very boring. Yes, very boring indeed.

Anyway, feeling happy this weekend. I'm off househunting for a bit. I actually managed to find several properties online that hadn't already gone. You see, we have loads of estate agents online, but they may as well go under the title "Here's what you could have had...." as they never keep them up to date. So I'm pretty chuffed. If you're going to see one property, and take time off on a Sunday to do so, then you may as well see a shit load of them. So I'm off into those areas that I'd like to move to, tracking down some estate agents to see what they have to offer me in the "two/three bedroomed, period, cottage property sounded by countryside" department. I already have one, and it's not cheap, but what do I care?

Of course, I've never really spent much time in these areas I'm investigating. Why would I? I see enough beautiful houses that I can't have, without going looking for more! Anyway, crux of that is that I have no idea where anything is. I'll probably get lost, and in this day and age that is a feat one shouldn't miss....you just can't get lost these days. I'll leave my GPS at home, so I get the most out of following my nose.

What else? Off for Japanese again tonight...hmmmmm...and maybe go see this "Incredibles" that everyone is setting such store by....but first houses. There's something else too...?

Shit, Bank. Got to run.

p.s. Finished ALL my books. The DaVinci Code was ok, a little too "low brow" and predictable, but then I guess it wouldn't have sold in the numbers it has otherwise. Don't get me wrong, it was very good, but when I started guessing correctly how things were going to turn out, well, it lost its mystery.

I finished "Long Way Round" too. That was fab. It was really good to get up close and personal with those chaps, and fine chaps they are too. I'll just wait for the DVD now.

I'm on to "The Naked Empire" by Goodkind now, yes, en autre one. I can't buy too many books, otherwise what are people going to buy me?

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Falling down....

Man, I feel like Michael Douglas in "Falling Down" today...I was [ ] that far from losing it completely!

This has been a bad week.

Come on experiments - work, damn you!

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Long time....

Well it's been nearly a week since I've bothered writing anything. The old seasonal affective disorder has kicked in, which has led to a general unwillingness to get out of bed or do anything. That said, I have managed to do my usual run and sprint training - in the bitter cold. I'm not usually depressed all Winter, just at the start, when the clocks go back. I usually pick myself up and get on with it. I do actually like Winter. My best wardrobe is my Winter wardrobe - so many good jackets, overcoats, shirts, jumpers etc. The place where I live, and the nearby villages, are steeped in history. We are surrounded by picturesque Victorian houses and parks that feel very English in the crisp, cold weather. When the frosts arrive I will have more camera fodder. I will be out there, in the countryside with all my kit again. I need something for my Winter Greetings cards - my alternative to Christmas cards.

Nothing eventful has happened recently. Well, the Missus field hockey team is now 4th in the UK 1st division, which she's very pleased with. She is Captain of the 1st team. My experiments have met with a balance of success and failure, that have a net product of zero. This leaves me nowhere and with the results I need for the next paper still eluding me.

We went for Japanese tonight. Fabulous. I hadn't tried this place before. The reviews were just too good to pass up, so we were determined to go. Excellent service, great decor and the food was sumptuous. All organic, with no MSG or other crap in there. I'm back there on Tuesday for some Saké and Sushi with a mate. A note to self here: Kirin and Asahi are fine beers.

As much as I am a Japanophile, I was horrified last week when I watched a Kenyon Investigates documentary of Drive Hunting. This is the act of using load noise to scare a group of Dolphins into a tight bay. They are then blocked in and the hunters (murderers) move in to club them to death or tear them apart whilst they scream [Information at Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society]. They know that they're being slaughtered and they can do nothing about it. Their terror is very audible. Yet their screams fall on deaf ears, as the people of the few small coastal Japanese villages that engage drive hunting, such as Futo, are the latest in a long line of drive hunters, and are desensitised (brainwashed) from childhood. They don't see intelligent, warm, loving mammals. They see fish. I was sickened. They spout the same old mantra-like rhetoric when confronted. "If we don't kill them, they become too numerous and they eat all the little fish, threatening our livelihoods". Swap "little fish" for "chickens" and you have the foxhunter's line! Yah, yah, yah. Always the same. It's not our problem. We're providing a service. It's in the best interest of our communities. I'm sure the bastard Nazis said exactly the same thing!

It is up to the Japanese to sort this out internally though. I don't believe that Western protesters has any effect what so ever. The Japanese are a very proud people and to have a bunch of self-righteous westerners telling them that they're wrong just isn't going to work. The fact is, most people in Japan are unaware of what is going on, and were equally sickened at seeing the footage of the massacre. So it is probably a case of information, rather than conversion.

Again, foxhunting is a funny one. It is a popular one in Parliament as they bring it up every time they don't want to discuss the more salient issues that should currently be on the table, like pensions and war. Foxhunters hate little runty city slickers coming out to the country and protesting. They don't accept it and will never change because of it. It is up to us true country folk to make the objections heard by the hunters, i.e. their peers. I had several friends who were part of a local hunt. That was how things were in Cumbria. It is what you're brought up with. I was brought up by a Biologist father with a deep respect for Britain's few remaining native mammals, whilst others see them as vermin and won't be happy until we have nothing left! The chicken debate doesn't hold with me. Foxes are opportunists, if you can't be arsed to maintain your chicken runs, coups etc, then it serves you right you lazy bastards. No fox ever got mine, and we have two dens nearby!

Oh well, I've gotten political again. I'm trying to wind down from that at the moment as I have nothing to vote on at the moment.

Books on the go:

Pillars of Creation - Terry Goodkind
The DaVinci Code - finally started reading it - Dan Brown
Long Way Round - Ewan McGregor & Charley Boorman (good stuff).
Latest issue of Geographical.

Only a few this week. lol.

OK, I'm parched, must find water.

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Radcliffe....

I'm so impressed with Paula Radcliffe. She needed to win the [NYC Marathon], and she did. This helps the closure on the bitter disappointment at Athens in the summer; my Missus was just 50 ft down the road when she stopped for the last time, we were on the phone and I was watching live. It was terrible. So I sat down this afternoon - after going out to buy our new solid oak king size bed and super-large sofa (more on that later) - and watched avidly all afternoon to see her win, and she came through. Well done girl. Well done.

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The edge of reason....

Saw Bridget Jones's Diary tonight. Jolly good. Splendid fun. Nothing like a few hours in an idyllic England.

Back to real reality then. Fantastic title though....very true.

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Guy Fawkes Night...

Whilst arranging a Bonfire and fireworks in my meadow, for the benefit of the children of our neighbours, the bitter irony of what we celebrate is not lost on me. We are of course celebrating the botching of a militant terrorist bombing and the subsequent torture and burning of the "supposed" front man (though I'm not sure he was, I think it was some chap called Catesby?). The accussed were Catholic, and they wanted to do away with the Monach (James VI - being a Scot I say this; he was James I in England) and his protestant Government.

A battle of religion, based on hatred. The Catholics were persecuted and undermined by James I, thus perpetuating the sufferage started by Henry VIII and particularly his daughter Elizabeth I. A little microcosm of the events that were to take place some three and a half centries later, in Northern Ireland.

Whilst I despise terrorist acts, and agree that it was as well the act was not followed through, I'm not sure I can really care about the argument. It's one thing for two religions to fight, so polar are their views - despite, to be perfectly honest, their very similar origins - but for denominations of Christianity to fight...? I grew up with the backgrounds of numerous denominations, and I don't see what all the fuss is about. Perhaps if I believed in God I'd feel there was a huge gulf between the denominations? So I'll celebrate what? Perhaps just the political aspect of terrorism prevention.

One aspect that I do respect in the Anglican church is the conservation of pagan beliefs, all be it in the bastardised form developed in an attempt to propaganderise the Christian Church to the Celtic Britons...but none the less, were it not for this, all the cultural depth of these festivals would have been lost. I greatly disapprove of the stricter Christian denominations, which as far as I'm concerned are foreign and unwanted. They bring nothing to this culture, and frankly, they cater for a 2,000 year old desert-based society, and therefore never were, nor are, suitable for our rich and history-steeped British culture. Having said that, this "culture" of which I speak exists only in the educated. I'm afraid that the laity think culture is either something in yoghurt (is that asking too much?), or a pint of beer, curry, football, fags and tattoos.

Oh, and while I'm here, following a comment I read on someone's blog. I forget where. Circumcision is a religious act borne out of desert-based societies where young men could die from infections such as ballanitis, which is an infection of the foreskin often caused by sand getting trapped underneath, and not having access to water with which to wash. It also serves to restrict other supposedly "unholy" acts (damn Victorians). It is SO COMPLETELY anachronistic in modern culture that I am frankly amazed it goes on in the West - good grief, it's almost policy in the USA! One of a million little annoyances that hold us back from our true potential.

*Sigh*

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Long Way Round...

Respect to these chaps, Ewan and Charley. I have always liked Ewan, and not only because he grew up in the Perthshire town of Crieff where my family had long lived. When I first heard about "Long Way Round", it really clicked with me. Going on a motorcycle road trip is something I've always wanted to do - though to be honest, a round the world trip on a bike is not something I've ever considered!

Anyway, just got the book, and it is filled with poignant thoughts and unique experiences. They raised quite a bit of money for some worthy charities too. I have linked the [trip website] if you're interested.

After reading this, I am still adamant about doing such a road trip (either US based first, or around Europe). Just need the bike. Hmmm, not sure the Missus is going to like that! Having said that, she might agree if she comes along!

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Grrr...

So Bush has the majority in Congress, and he's got his second term. My worry is for those people who have to suffer at the hand of any conservative social and economic mandates that are undoubtedly going to be pushed through. I liked thisgirl's blog [here]. It reflects many of the sentiments I had yesterday. I wrote a very angry blog, but then deleted it; replacing it with the one currently there.

I understand that many of the people voting for Bush are intelligent and well read people, but I also understand that I great many of them live in cloud cuckoo land! As an academic, I have had cause to speak to many such people at various university functions; both Americans and the equivalent in the UK. These were people who were experts in their fields, but notably very few within the Sciences or Geography. When conversations got around to politics, civil rights and religion, I was frequently stunned by some of their views. These views were so at odds with their intellect, worldliness and my impression of them that I was sometimes left speechless.

Only recently I commented on that Senator, Dr someone or other Colburn or something, who had said that not only would he seek to the crimilisation of abortion, but he'd also seek the death penalty for those Doctors who performed abortions. People agreed! Noone in power should be airing such narrow minded views, unless their name name is Adolf, and their father's name Mr Hitler.

It is probable that many of these views are formed quite early on in life, possibly as a result of the familial culture. If these views aren't challenged, in a personal rather than theoretical context, they may persisit into adulthood. Thus, when a politician spouts the mantra with which people are familiar, it is only natural that people vote within their comfort zone. Ooh, change, bad. It may take quite a severe "encounter" to stimulate a paradigm shift in such people, usually when they are at the butt of their own narrow-minded views.

Of course, such views are inherent in strict and closed religious groups. There is no way around this, and it'd be a more prudent employment of time to talk a stone into floating.

I've written too many words over the years, complaining about narrow-mindedness. In my view, it is the single most destructive force in human nature. It is the route cause of so much hurt and I'm afraid I'm extremely intolerant to such people. Life is too short to have to suffer such willful ignorance.

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How hard can it be....?!

I think Jonny Huh? has it right [here]. It just shouldn't be this close. Why the hell is the US so polarised? Why is it so split? With ALL the information that the people have had made available, why is it that the voting populous cannot see the simple truth? I won't go on about it, as so much has been said already, but I'd like to say this. I hate that it is unsafe to be a Westerner full-stop. That really pisses me off.

So, four more years of Bush's unashamedly smug patriotism; no doubt four more wars too! If Bush really wants to redeem himself to the world, he'll be more proactive with the peace process in Israel/Palastine. Hopefully ol' Balir will rise to the challenge of encouraging this - it's about time they did something for us!

Of course, what I want to discuss is the US's environmental policies, with their rampant use of all the world's resources in their gas guzzling, throw-away culture. Just take a big shit on the planet why don't ya, the rest of us will clean up. Sure. They, of all nations, should bear the onus of converting to renewable energies - and if they do so, it shouldn't be at the cost of just shifting even more of their oil burning activities to third-world countries! Kyoto? What's that? Let's improve on that shall we?

Ohio is about to be declared. They think it's all over; it is now.

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National Geographic

So my November National Geographic arrived yesterday, and I particularly enjoyed the feature article "Was Darwin Wrong". I was worried at the choice of titles at first. Why? It is a favourite creationist refrain to state that Darwin "renonced evolution" on his death bed, which is utter tripe. A sad mantra that fails to understand that once a set of evidence is set is motion, the logic prevails and it cares not a jot who tries to retract it. Anyway, I decided that the title was good, as it might make those with a keen interest in seeing such ideas banned (in the facist, Marxist, Nazi, police-state, theocracy that they so desire), pick up the magazine in the hope that "new theological evidence" hath come to light.

What they'll get instead is an article that starts out quite lucidly, and sets the facts straight, before proceding into the more technical details, which I must admit, might lose a few people. None the less. Good stuff for a big journal.

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These did tickle me this morning...

Trying to vote:
[Satire 1] (at www.boomchicago.nl)
[Satire 2] (at www.thevoiceofreason.com)
[Satire 3] (at www.thevoiceofreason.com)

*grin*

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