[thought for the day] friday evening

Tomorrow is a new day.

[systemic failure] trumps all

There are analogies everywhere. Captain Blackadder is unprincipled, intelligent, scathing and lives on his ability to get out of scrapes. Just how he ends up in a WW1 trench at the Somme, ready to go over the top on the order from above is largely due to systemic failure and the dislocation of people who might have helped him, being in the wrong place at the wrong time and being maddeningly unaware of the real situation and how little time is left. No one is specifically down on Blackadder but as he discovers - every avenue he tries, every string he pulls, every favour he calls in - they all come to nothing. For example, having already dismissively discussed the old chestnut of sticking two pencils up his nose, putting underpants on his head and saying 'Wibble', as a means of escaping the front line on the grounds of insanity - he has a much better plan. The general owes him a favour. This is his very last chance and he manages to get a call put through from the front line where he is. Naturally the general is not impressed and says they're now all square - here's some advice on how to escape - stick two pencils up your nose, put underpants on your head and say 'Wibble'. With his last chance gone, he resigns himself to his fate. Similarly with Hillary, whom this blog has mercilessly berated - now today I feel some sympathy for her. Even with a few victories under her belt, including the last triumph, nevertheless the die has been cast and she is being dragged inexorably to the due date of the convention where she just does not have the capacity to reverse the result, barring a miracle, despite substantial support from certain well placed sections of the community. That was me today. My main support could not move without a report from the man who had promised him that he'd help - this was two weeks ago in a total time frame of four weeks. Still today the report had not come through so MMS phoned him, puzzled. Oh the man hadn't understood he was meant to help - he only thought he was finding things out in general. Mad scramble, phone calls left, right and centre at the highest echelons - all willing to help but alas, system wise, now too late. Direct line to the one man in the country who really does have the power to help. Away on holidays and had extended them to the end of next week. So powerful people willing to do what they could but the other end of it just not in town. And even if it does, by some miracle, produce an eleventh hour extension of time past the end of May, which technically it now can't, requiring representations to Moscow which take up to a month - even if that did happen, it would buy another week or two. Cut to the Higham story. He came over here years ago and unwisely risked all on one throw for one particular lady. Someone in Germany thought it the most romantic story she'd heard [more exciting than the book actually puts it]. Heady days with huge risks, all depending on remaining here and looking as if it would be successful. Life on the edge and intoxicating. It wasn't successful though but Higham still found himself in a position where he could survive, he increased his business round town and as long as he remained local, there was more than sufficient coming in to have a quite reasonable life, depending entirely on word of mouth connections. Everyone gave him to understand that this was their desire too - that he remain - so foolishly he sold up overseas, no family now alive and consolidated here. In short, there was absolutely nowhere out there to go but multiple choices within this town. This year, as a result of various setbacks and with his partners all doing stints overseas for a number of reasons, the margins were very fine, coming into the summer. But that hardly mattered as he was in a secure position in an inexpensive country and June/July are the traditional months where the finance rolls in. This flat for example - his as long as he remains but the moment he goes, all equity gone - nothing leaves the country with him except his pack. That's why suddenly today he saw the end. Booted out ten days from now, cut off from his local supply lines, no access for legal reasons to his western money, nowhere to go out there, having consolidated everything here, end of this blog, end of these friendships, end of local friendships - a new life on the run. Exciting for a 30 year old except that he's not 30 anymore. And there it is. One can only laugh and with one overriding nightly theme - that Higham has a date with an airport twelve days from now [eleven days tomorrow] and nowhere beyond that in any sustainable way. Not entirely true of course. Certain blogfriends [three of them] have made kind offers and they would be lovely but the operative word is "sustainable" and to return to first person, singular, I can't drop myself on someone else for more than a few days simply because I was foolish enough not to provide myself with an escape route. Sleep now.

[church rises] tourism in a drought area

Reuters reports: Perhaps the most striking image of Spain's drought, so severe it has forced Barcelona to ship in water, has been that of the underwater church which emerged from a drying dam. For most of the past four decades, all that has been visible of the village of Sant Roma has been the belltower of its stone church, peeping above the water beside forested hills from a valley flooded in the 1960s to provide water for the Catalonia region. This year, receding waters have exposed the 11th-century church completely, attracting crowds of tourists who stand gazing around it on the dusty bed of the reservoir. Like it. Like it very much. Might pop over for one of the services. Would they be praying for rain?

[friday caption time] would like to have one of these

[facebook] the social network war

Facebook has banned Google's Friend Connect access to the Facebook API, saying: We've found that it redistributes user information from Facebook to other developers without users' knowledge, which doesn't respect the privacy standards our users have come to expect and is a violation of our Terms of Service. Oh, that's a good one. As Michael Arrington of Tech Crunch says: Facebook is all about openness and data portability, as long as that doesn't involve openness or portability of data, it seems ... Arrington adds, tongue in cheek: This of course has nothing to do with the fact that Facebook launched their own nearly identically named product called Facebook Connect three days before Google's Friend Connect. This is how it has been described: Facebook announced its Facebook Connect, what it calls the "next iteration of Facebook Platform," which allowed third-party developers to develop social applications for the site. When it is rolled out ---also "in the coming weeks"-- participating sites will be able to share Facebook users' friends lists, their "real identities," photos, and videos. There's a fine line between being supercautious and paranoid but this blog feels there are legitimate issues. Daviswiki gives a run down on some of the privacy issues ... Facebook is commonly referred to as Stalkerbook, due to its many features that allows you to track people in your network, especially when you are friends with those people. And Ian Parker said: Just remember who funded the building of Facebook and why it is there. It was funded by DARPA's Information Awareness Office, and is there to collect information about you and build a profile on you. Thats why they don't like pseudonyms. In an article on the organization some time back, Ian Grey commented: I've deactivated. I did [this] after reading your first post and a bit of surfing about the dodgy stuff. This is when I realised I couldn't actually unsubscribe! I'm Still in LinkedLn and MySpace though. Longrider summed up my thoughts when he commented: As mentioned on your other post, I have never signed up to this "service" - nor have I signed up to MySpace. Nor will I ever. It's easy enough, should one try, to find out my real identity, but I reserve the right to publish under a pseudonym. And, frankly, any organisation (remember Blogburst?) that claims rights to my material can take a walk. Given this organization's antecedents, given that it is an information gathering and disbursing machine to "trusted third parties", given that there is no unsubscribe function and given the really intrusive nature of the questioning they do on you, in a jaunty style of language, e.g. "what's the story here', it seems most unwise to allow any but the most perfunctory details to go to them. At best you're going to be spammed. At worst, you are on a giant database to be used at their discretion. At least it is to be hoped that they're not incompetent, like these people: Even if we ignore/excuse the massive amounts of lost data already by this government as institutional failings of the system and processes of the Civil Service rather than government ministers, these last two cannot be explained away like that. Thunderdragon then goes on to explain.

[thought for the day] thursday evening

Possibly not the most intelligent decision, beneath a conceivably descending scimitar, to indulge in Leonard Cohen: As someone long prepared for the occasion; In full command of every plan you wrecked - Do not choose a coward's explanation That hides behind the cause and the effect Ha, ha, how did he know that? So, in lieu of an operational net connection, whisky and Cohen is a heady brew: I was pretty good at taking out the garbage Pretty good at holding up the wall I'm sorry for my crimes against the moonlight I didn't think the moon would mind at all There is a crack, a crack in everything That's how the light gets in. So you can stick your little pins in that voodoo doll I’m very sorry, baby, doesn’t look like me at all But I'm stubborn as those garbage bags that Time cannot decay, I'm junk but I'm still holding up this little wild bouquet. I wish you all good evening and see you come the day. :)

[interim report] indecisive signs

This post is specifically for the friends who have shown a kind interest in my situation of the past three weeks and its denouement today. The news is that there's no actual news but most definitely some signs. Three or four of us are reviewing those signs right now, trying to see if they indicate anything. Various representations were made on my behalf and I have no way of knowing how they went. However, this morning I was asked to submit all my documents [passport etc.]. That's all. This is being viewed by some positively but it could equally mean that they want one final look before definitively saying no. I'm being advised not to think this way. The other move is that the Min will be in town tomorrow and wants to see me at 2. That also could be a good or a bad sign. So the fact that the authorities have been so swift - they promised to give an answer some time today or after today and asked for the docs first thing this morning - well best to just wait until tomorrow and put it out of mind in the meantime. Another problem which has cropped up is that there is something wrong with my internet connection. Either it is the provider or it is what the Mac says - a problem of the port connection. Hope it's the former but it means I get internet for a few minutes only. Therefore this has been pretyped and posted quickly. I'll try to come back with a thought for the day later but apologize that I haven't been able to check any mail today. Plus we've had no hot water in our house for a week and no one knows when it will come back but the good news is that the lift has started working again. Lovely cool 8 degrees today with hail and 25 knot winds. More later if the internet works.

[thought for the day] wednesday evening

At 50, everyone has the face he [or she] deserves. [George Orwell]

[blàr chùil lodair)] let's reenact it, shall we?

The Quiet Man does some interesting things and one of them is: I've just been to see a re-enactment of the Battle of Olney Bridge, a battle in the English Civil War. Well that's lovely, TAOQM but that got me thinking - if you, dear reader, were to re-enact a classic battle, which one would it be? For me it would be Culloden, not through any dislike for the Scots, mind but because I once saw Billy Connolly re-enact the Highland Charge all by himself and thought that was worthy of an accolade. Overview of the battle The weather was very poor with a gale driving sleety rain into the faces of the Jacobites. The Duke's forces arrived around mid day and initially deployed in three lines. Upon observing the ground and rebel dispositions, the Duke thinned his army to two lines. It began with an artillery barrage and the Jacobites were under heavy fire. Although the marshy terrain minimized casualties, the morale of the Jacobites began to suffer. Several clan leaders, angry at the lack of action, pressured Charles to issue the order to charge. They did eventually do this and even reached British forces and then in a total of about 60 minutes the Duke was victorious. The Highland Charge One of the most fearsome aspects of the Scots was this all out charge and: The government troops had finally worked out bayonet tactics to challenge the dreaded Highland charge, [supposedly learnt from the Blackwatch, the original Highland Regiment in the British Army], and broadsword. The Jacobites lost momentum, wavered, then fled. It was done this way - as a row of Scots would reach the government troops, each of the loyalists would thrust his shield out front to counter his immediate man but would jab 45 degrees to the right, behind the shield into the Scot diagonally opposite. It was surprisingly effective. So what's your battle you're thinking of re-enacting?

[travel] five to try before you die

The danger, coming up to a possibly enforced overseas trip in peak travel season on no money, [just don't want to contemplate that prospect today], is not to be negative. So when I read this piece on cliched holidays: Finally, you round a corner, fight off a few more touts in your crap Italian, and there it is: the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Oh, and a large grassy area... Filled with about 10,000 of your closest friends... Each taking their own "hilarious" shot of their Contiki tour buddy pretending to prop up the falling tower. ... after shuddering a little, it seemed best to go the opposite way - go positive. Here are five travel things, IMHO, it's probably essential to do at least once before you get old: 1. Tick off some of the essential places - London, Paris, New York, Rome and their environs; 2. Safari of some kind either in Africa, the north of Australia, the Gobi, wherever; 3. Some sort of spiritual journey - either to the land of your forefathers or to the Holy Land - some sort of pilgrimage in the Chaucer tradition; 4. Some activity based trip, e.g. skiing in Kitzbuhel, hunting in Namibia, whatever; 5. The grand tour or luxury cruise - saved up for, transported to far off lands, all facilities laid on. Just the once, mind. Mine was the Grand Tour of Europe. One we particularly enjoyed, sharing driving duties, was to hire an open-topped Megane and tear all over Tenerife, particularly at the peak, way above the clouds. That took some beating. Some other ideas were advanced here.