When you think about it

Blue Gillespie - The Oblivious

2010-05-28T05:28:00.003+08:00

Lyrics (c) Blue Gillespie

Have you thought beyond the lie that all is real till the day you die?
That what we're told is all there is and nothing is said in silences?
Have you stopped to think? Gasped in your stink?
Have you seen the link to nothing's brink?

Soak me in your ignorance I'm jealous of your flaws
I'd be happy like you if I didn't open doors
To sincerity to awaken me
To really see just what could be

Teach me oblivion
Please show me how to come
Show me oblivion
Give me a loaded gun

Tell me all the secrets to how you live so bland
Quenching curiosity your head deep in the sand
Tell it plain to me to enable me
Throw away the key to my philanthropy

Teach me oblivion
Please show me how to come
Show me oblivion
Give me a loaded gun

Babies left on filthy streets
Hit by grime in violent beats
Boarded up in an empty home
Nowhere soft to sleep no telephone to call for help

Teach me oblivion
Please show me how to come
Show me oblivion
Give me a loaded gun

This just might happen to me
Trapped in this solitary
Fuckers have swallowed the key
To the man I could be
Fitting in filthy dark shame
Trying to ignore the pain
Searching for someone to blame
Waiting to die again
Losing the seeds I can sow
Losing the me that I know
Having no true place to go
Having no room to grow

Blue Gillespie is:

Gareth David-Lloyd - Vocals
Anthony Clark - Guitar
Nick Harrison - Drums
Rhys Bryant - Bass

They can be found at:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Blue-Gillespie/140836548672?v=info&ref=ts
http://twitter.com/bluegillespie

Grrrrowling all the way to the bank

2009-05-14T16:09:00.004+08:00

I'm fed up, so I am going to have a public moan, which is unlike me.

I am sick of 'teens with issues'. Right now my brother is dying of cancer, so I don't give a flying f*ck about who said what to upset whom. I don't care that someone's Mum is (gods bless her) trying to make them behave in a civilised manner. I don't give sh*t that X or Y 'can't be bothered', 'don't like' or otherwise doesn't want to act like an adult about stuff.

'Teenagers' were invented in the 50s by cynical marketing people, are maintained to this day by that same mechanism, and in my opinion should be damn well uninvented. I don't agree with paying 'teens' to get an 'education'. If they want an education they would attend regardless. Most of them just want to avoid the world of work and adult responsibility for a couplke more years, and their parents and our swestern society indulge them in this regard. They have unearned disp[osal income and they spend it on crap like tattoos. (Yes, I had a student complaining to nme this week that he couldn't get the new tattoo he wanted because he hadn't yet received his Education Maintenance Allowance). The majority of them are pig thick, arrogant, self-centred little ar*eholes who need a good dose of reality.

There, rant now finished.

One Good Turn

2009-04-16T02:43:00.002+08:00

My best friend sent me this as part of a chain letter. I don't do chain letters, but I like the story so I've decided to share it. I don't know if the story is true, but I'd like to think it is.

His name was Fleming, and he was a poor Scottish farmer. One day, while trying to make a living for his family, he heard a cry for help coming from a nearby bog. He dropped his tools and ran to the bog.

There, mired to his waist in black muck, was a terrified boy, screaming and struggling to free himself. Farmer Fleming saved the lad from what could have been a slow and terrifying death.

The next day, a fancy carriage pulled up to the Scotsman's sparse surroundings. An elegantly dressed nobleman stepped out and introduced himself as the father of the boy, Farmer Fleming had saved.

'I want to repay you,' said the nobleman. 'You saved my son's life.'

'No, I can't accept payment for what I did,' the Scottish farmer replied waving off the offer. At that moment, the farmer's own son came to the door of the family home.

'Is that your son?' the nobleman asked.

'Yes,' the farmer replied proudly.
'I'll make you a deal. Let me provide him with the level of education my own son will enjoy. If the lad is anything like his father, he'll no doubt grow to be a man we both will be proud of.' And that he did.

Farmer Fleming's son attended the very best schools and in time, graduated from St. Mary's Hospital Medical School in London, and went on to become known throughout the world as the noted Sir Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of Penicillin.

Years afterward, the same nobleman's son who was saved from the bog was stricken with pneumonia.

What saved his life this time? Penicillin.

The name of the nobleman? Lord Randolph Churchill .. His son's name?

Sir Winston Churchill.

Someone once said: What goes around comes around.

Motto of a True Friend

2009-04-13T16:31:00.000+08:00

1. When you are sad -- I will help you get drunk and plot revenge against the sorry bastard who made you that way.
2. When you are blue -- I will try to dislodge whatever is choking you.
3. When you smile -- I will know you finally got laid.
4. When you are scared -- I will rag on you about it every chance I get.
5. When you are worried -- I will tell you horrible stories about how much worse it could be until you quit whining.
6. When you are confused -- I will use little words.
7. When you are sick -- Stay the hell away from me until you are well again. I don't want to catch whatever you have.
8. When you fall -- I will point and laugh at your clumsy arse.

This is my oath..... I pledge it to the end. 'Why?' you may ask? 'Because you are my friend'.

Friendship is like peeing your pants: everyone can see it, but only you can feel the true warmth.

Thanks to:

http://www.bestoday.com.au/sick/archives/newsworthy/

I'd love to believe in angels

2009-04-13T16:08:00.002+08:00

So beautiful.

Thanks to:

http://www.bestoday.com.au/sick/images/angel_male-thumb-360x389-1630.jpg

Etymology

2009-04-13T02:57:00.000+08:00

Cretin
From the French "Crétin," which originally meant "Christian."

Thanks to: http://www.westegg.com/etymology/

Still Here

2009-03-21T22:50:00.003+08:00

Still here !

Important Link for Creative People

2008-06-13T06:25:00.001+08:00

I like Neil Gaiman's writing. He has his own blog, where today he says he as yet has not definitely been asked to write an episode of Dr. Who. (It would be mega cool if he was given that gig, though !)

More importantly, though, Neil has a crusade running at the minute to get creative people to write a will. Go here to see the details and to take action:

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2006/10/important-and-pass-it-on.html

Artist Trading Cards

2008-06-04T02:59:00.002+08:00

One of my nascent hobbies is that of trading ATCs. If you are interested in trading leave me a message and your email address. I'm also interested in ATC Meetings in the vicinity of Manchester Uk, so if you know of any drop me a note.

2008-05-16T15:33:00.008+08:00

Rangers Fans in Manchester

As a Mancunian I want to speak about the Rangers situation in Manchester.

I don't agree with attacking policement, but neither do I agree with the way fans were treated recently.

This picture (courtesy of BBC News) illustrates the reason for the mayhem.

Cram that many people into a space, promise them entertainment, exploit them to the utmost with inflated prices for food and let them consume masses of booze, then disappoint them, well you see the result.

One of my favourite places in Manchester was attacked. Fans started prizing off the security screens from the windows in their attempt to damage property and caused ordinary citizens who were just trying to enjoy their own city to fear for their lives. But didn't commercial greed in the city as a whole have a role to play in all of this ?

Still here

2007-06-05T19:36:00.000+08:00

Hi

I've not vanished into the ether, I've just been very busy with Life and work. ~~~waves~~~

The Nature of Memory

2007-04-17T23:24:00.000+08:00

This is a quick note for now to remind myself to look into this fascinating subject more closely.

What do we really remember ? How do we remember ? Why do we remember ?

The enquiry is triggered because I had a moment of sensory remembrance yesterday... I bought a can of 'Diet Pepsi' (TM ?) as I was walking home from work, and the taste of it triggered a momentary sensory flashback to my childhood, a kind of reverse deja vu. In yesterdays moment I found a complete remembrance of a corresponding moment in childhood, because the Pepsi tasted exactly the way it had at that instant in my childhood.

More to follow...

The Trap - BBC2 Documentary

2007-03-12T06:25:00.000+08:00

I just wanted to flag up this excellent documentary to people. There are two more episodes to come, 9pm Sundays. This week's episode looked at how a simplistic model of human behaviour has come to dominate interpersonal relationship theory and practise in the Western world since the cold war. This horrendous, cynical theory purports that:

a) people who see themselves as working 'in the public interest' are dangerously unpredictable because there is no definition of what 'the public interest' might be, and therefore they are zealots and need to be eliminated from positions of power

b) the ideal employee is predictable, and therefore is the person who is motivated wholly and exclusively by self-interest, and who therefore can be manipulated through the use of 'incentives'

What a disgusting theory ! Yet how prevalent it's application has become !

No wonder life is so miserable and governement and business management seems so detestably unethical presently ! The person who came up with this theory, and those who sold it to the world, should be taken out and flogged, in the public interest !

That's the wonder of Wikipaedia

2007-03-02T07:23:00.000+08:00

You may already know that I am an avid roleplay gamer. Recently my games have had me visiting Wikipaedia a lot, and it fascinates me how the Internet, and Wikipaedia in particular, can lead to all sorts of adventures of discovery.

Lately I have explored Darwinism, Robert Burns, Magnetism, Mesmerism, Ahura Mazda, Various Sumerian deities, and a whole bundle of science stuff I couldn't really get to proper grips with, but enjoyed anyway.

I love the whole concept of public access and community journalism. Wish I had a connection that could accomodate stuff like U-Tube too.

Enjoy the lateral thinking journey which is the Internet, folks !

Choosing which 'it' to think about

2007-01-02T03:49:00.000+08:00

I've been doing a fair amount of reading over the holidays. I bought a couple of books which I thought might help me get my head together about some recent events. I'll not go into what that's all about on this blog, it's covered elsewhere. The stuff I have been reading is about two topics, 'Transcendence' and 'Change'.

I'm still processing what I have learnt about these topics. The process was prompted by something a friend said to me in relation to the situations I'm dealing with; I can't recall her exact phraseology now, but it amounted to the idea that 'Change happens for a reason, and Good comes out of it, no matter how cr*p things look at the time'. It's a piece of philosophy that I signed up to a long time ago, so the timely reminder hit me in the heart when it came.

One of the books I've been reading is "Pagan Spirituality", by Joyce and River Higginbotham. Not a book I'd pick up normally, but I have really been enjoying it. I recommend it if you sometimes wonder what Life is all about and where we are all headed. I'll also caution that it requires some suspension of disbelief, a degree of political awareness and a modicum of cynicism to get the best out of it.

The other thing I have been doing over the holidays is watching Season 2 of Battlestar Galactica. Whilst this is an excellent series I would not recommend it if you are experiencing any degree of depression, since it is unremittingly dark and gloomy. Consider yourself warned !

Happy New Year, Everyone !

Absent but not missing

2006-12-15T05:30:00.000+08:00

Hi folks

Still very busy here. Probably by now I have no readers left for any of my blogs, but I'll keep writing anyway when I can.

Have a lovely Christmas, Yule, etc..

Absence makes the heart grow fonder

2006-11-09T21:19:00.000+08:00

Apologies that I haven't made any fresh entries to my blogs recently. I'm experiencing a busy time in my life and can't fit everything in that I'd like to. Since blogging is a hobby and not an essential, it's suffering. Back on board as soon as I can. Thinking of you.

Encouraging Others

2006-09-20T06:30:00.000+08:00

I'm wondering whether it would be a good idea to encourage my students to start a blog. I'd like to have them devise and maintain a team blog, so that they could share their experiences and get to know other dyslexics via the medium. I'd like them to talk to the world about their experiences. Other dyslexics could gain an insight into the work they are doing and non-dyslexics could gain an insight into what a dyslexic's life is like.

Linking my blogs 2

2006-09-12T20:37:00.000+08:00

I've been persuaded to look again at how I link my blogs, if indeed I do. Someone whose opinions I value made the comment that if you're reading a blog about football, for example, you probably won't be interested in a blog about archaeology. The feeling my friend had was that some of the information on my collective blogs was inappropriate for just anyone to be able to read, even though I have an 'honesty and openness ' policy running; I know there was an element of concern for my privacy and safety in what was said, which I appreciated.

I really don't know how I feel about it. The point is taken, and as a consequence I have unhitched my most 'advertised' blog, the roleplaying one. Aren't blogs, by their very nature, open to 'just anyone', though ? They are 'self publishing', or else could be termed 'vanity press'.

It's a dilemma for me. Nothing that appears on the Internet is 'private'. Defending copyright is very difficult unless you have corporate resources to back you. Free speech comes at a risk and can prove costly in many ways. But blogging allows you a voice, if only a very small one, and that feels like something everyone should have a right to, even if it's not the case worldwide.

On that note, here's a link to Amnesty International.

Linking my blogs

2006-08-23T07:00:00.000+08:00

I wasn't sure about this. Most of my blogs are interconnected, so you can flit around all of them if you want to. The exception is my one 'diary' blog, which again is themed, not just a list of all my 'daily doings'. You'll maybe notice there isn't a link for it on this blog presently, though you might find it if you look hard enough.

I, kind of child-like, created some business card type things to give to people when I started this project, but so far the only people I've given them to have been my boyfriend and my best female friend. The problem is, I don't necessarily want everyone I know to know everything about me. Yet this runs counter to my thinking on the topic of honesty and the way I want to shape my blogosphere 'land grab'. *Ponders*

Inviting the World into your living room

2006-08-23T06:52:00.000+08:00

Anil Dash's article has me thinking about the parameters I want my various blogs to have. Subject is already defined - I have different blogs for different topics, all of which I have some degree of passion about. I hope my passion is evidenced by my 'voice' in each of my blogs.

Who may stumble across my blogs and whether they become regular readers or commentators wasn't something I knew to consider when I set out on this journey. In some ways it wasn't relevant, or I might have considered it. The point, for me, is to make the journey and to experience what blogging is about, plus I have enough ego to want to give my opinions and express my feelings about the things I have a passion for.

I didn't know, until I listened to Anil's presentation, that some bloggers do regularly correspond with those who comment on their blogs, though I did ponder this when I posted about 'blog etiquette' a while ago. I hadn't really thought about that, or about how willing I was to talk to (potentially) the whole World. Equally, the idea of the whole World trudging across my living room carpet is rather horrifying.

I am guessing, though, that the reality is inevitably going to be smaller scale. Certainly if people are going to become regular visitiors they must have an interest in my ramblings, so 'common interest' will act as a filter to start with. Of the people who visit, apparently only around 1 in 8 will actually leave a comment, so that is the next filter.

So far comments have been limited to 'nice site' or waves from face-to-face Friends, so not a lot there to correspond about - filtered by whether a comment is of a nature to require a response.

My final filter will be whether your comment is of sufficient interest to me that I can and will spend the time to respond. Regular commentators who have something of value to me to say and who mind their manners are the most likely to actually make it into the category of people I will correspond with. I will correspond, since I love letter writing, though I am notoriously bad at doing so in a timely fashion and tend to write a lot when I do write.

Having done the chat experience, I also prefer corresponding with real people who I might eventually manage to meet face-to-face, even if that might involve travelling a bit further than to the local shops.

Audience and purpose in blogging

2006-08-22T23:06:00.000+08:00

I recently listened to a podcast by Anil Dash (of Live Journal fame), discussing what a blog is / can be and what purposes they serve.

I found it here:

http://neologies.blogspot.com/ and at MeshForum2006 http://www.itconversations.com/shows/detail1069.html

In the podcast he talks about the expected use for blogging - 'citizen journalism' versus it's use more common use for social networking.

Interesting statistics offered suggested that the ratio between writers and readers (of LJ) is in around 1:6 or 1:8 and that a big factor in obtaining and keeping an audience is shared context / interests. Dash suggested that real influence is not about how many people you reach, but how relevant and meaningful the site is to the people who do use it.

Apparently most people like to read something they feel is 'exclusive', whilst authors can usually only cope with corresponding with a certain number of people within their blog social network. Dash indicated that the most correspondents people seem to be able to handle is about 150, and observed that "Nobody has 1,000 friends". A strategy he did suggest for handling large audiences was to offer them an opportunity to be part of the exclusive 150 you do choose to correspond with.

Gossip / reminiscence were cited as the two most common types of content for blogs, the minutiae of people's daily lives, and a comparison was drawn between the content of blogs and the content of 'historical' letters now held to be important.

Not surprisingly, there are indications that frequency of 'hits' is related to the frequency with which you post, and some readers will visit a site several times in a day.

A member of Dash's audience asked if, because the majority of bloggers are young females, whether a 'Feminisation' is happening, since many bloggers use their blogs to express their feelings, and was there now a change occurring in people's perception of 'what matters' ? Dash indicated that a trend of undervaluing the degree of influence blogging has exists, and that blogs are actually now competing with the more traditional news media.

What I refer to as 'voice' was also discussed - what tone people write with, what behaviour they exhibit in their writings and what they will tolerate in comments. The parallel was drawn about blogs being your 'living room' - that by operating a blog you are inviting people into your living room for a conversation, and how people are expected to behave in that context, including how the author behaves (For example, if you swear at home then maybe you are going to use bad language in your blog test as well).

Sustaining blogs was also commented on, and Dash seemed particularly interested in how blogs are affected by changes in audience / changes in your 'voice' / people projecting their lives through you, you being public property. Commercialisation of blogs and 'selling product' were also topics discussed and Dash gives a very interesting account of how his audiences reacted when a move was made to charge for some LJ-related products.

It's a really interesting article, if a bit long, so please do have a listen. I'll be posting my own thoughts on some of the topics covered in due course. Please cut me some slack, though, since I am very new to blogging and I had never even heard of Anil Dash 'til I tripped over this article. I'm not informed enough yet to get into discussions of how much of an authority he (or others) may or may not be on such topics.

Metacognition - Thinking About It

2006-08-15T18:32:00.000+08:00

Interesting blog discovered on the topic of elearning, called Internet Time Blog, so I've put it into my links list.

Metacognition is really important to what I do for a living. I teach people to do it. I try to do it myself. To do it you need to be self-aware and conscious of how you learn. I'm a very reflective person and I like stuff like this.

This blog of mine is about thinking, about questioning, about learning. Part of it is about recording what I've learnt about blogging and where I've learnt it from, hence the 'Experiencing the Blog' posts.

Questioning is a really important activity. I learnt this in my first job. I started out with a research job. It was a great job, but a fixed contract, so I couldn't stay doing it forever. I learnt never to trust a source without checking out it's credentials and without cross-referencing to other sources. I learnt that some sources are more reliable than others, and that some writers have better credentials than others when it comes to the accuracy and quality of their information. I'm trying to apply this when I look at how other bloggers do things. I'm also trying to make what I write interesting !

Experiencing the Blog 4

2006-08-15T17:11:00.000+08:00

People are beginning to find my blogs now, which is really pleasing. Masquerading as Me has been picked up on most. People have been quite complementary about the content and forms so far, which is also nice. I don't know if there is an etiquette for acknowledging comments, though ? I might need to look into stuff like that. My thanks to those who have responded so far, your comments are much appreciated and I'm really pleased to see my blogs becoming populated.

A bit later...

Okay, I've been away and had a nosey at other blogs. Most useful so far have been

Ward-O-Matic

Cafe Mama

and

Cadence90

I would have put a comment up on Ward's site, but I was asked for a password so I guess there's some sort of 'members only' thing going on there ? All people are welcome to comment at my various blogs, but I will always delete blatant advertising and may censor foul language if it's used in a way that's unwarranted or else remove the comment entirely. I don't like swearing, and I will be applying the 'Living Room Principal' mentioned at Cadence90, which I feel is very appropriate.

Who do you write for ?

2006-08-09T19:44:00.000+08:00

I've been reading about the therapeutic benefits of keeping a diary today, and I know a lot of bloggers use their blogs for this purpose. My query is who the target audience for such blogs and paper-based journals might be ? Do you write for yourself ? Do you write with a specific set of readers in mind ? Who ? Does it affect your writing style ?

My 'voice' is a little different on each of my blogs, which is one of the reasons for separating things out in the first place. This particular blog, which I consider the 'root' blog, is here to try and elicit responses from people on topics of interest to me. I do use it diary my growing understanding of the use and abuse of blogs as well, though - hence the 'Experiencing the Blog' thread.

I've kept diaries in the past, for various reasons and for varying lengths of time (usually it's a fad and goes away again after a little while). I don't want to expose my soul to the world in general, so my blogs aren't diairies, with the possible exception of 'Bullied At Work'. The reason that one is different is because in the back of my mind is the thought that I might one day a) use it as some kind of evidence of what happened to me b) might encourage other people to talk more about bullying too.

So I ask again, who are you writing for ?

What we expect is what we get

2006-08-09T16:53:00.000+08:00

I just read an article in "Psychologies" (Sept 2006) about how some people hoaxed their way into mental institutions in 1972 by faking symptoms of schizophrenia. The article's author, Claudia Hammond, makes this observation:

"What fascinates me... is that once a patient was diagnosed with schizophrenia, anything they did was taken as confirmation that this was true...once we have a view of what somenoe's like, we look for anything that backs our ideas and explain away any evidence to the contrary."

I think that's quite an astute observation.

Experiencing the Blog 3

2006-07-28T20:52:00.000+08:00

Do I have a short attention span ?

Well I didn't think so, but I suspect I may already be becoming bored with blogging. I've looked around now at a few 'recommended' blogs and haven't really found anything much that has touched a cord with me.

Or maybe I am just disappointed at my own blogs not being grasped to the bosom of the world and recognised immediately for the precious latinum that they are ?

I have done 'diaries' before, and remain determined that I won't just spout bull that has no relevance or value to anyone but myself. The Earth's resources are too precious for me to burn electricity just to flatter my own ego or satisfy some half-formed wish of mine to be a 'writer'.

I'd rather be a painter anyway.

Experiencing the Blog 2

2006-07-27T18:32:00.000+08:00

Experiencing the Blog

2006-07-25T22:36:00.000+08:00

I've spent some more time re-learning html since I started this thread. I've played around with various colour schemes and templates and I think things are starting to take shape. I haven't yet figured out how to change the colour in the heading bar of the Moto template, though. Suburban Wytchery has a part-altered heading bar, but really I'd like the whole heading bar to be the same colour.I've learnt to put in the lkinks to my other blogs, which is good. I think I need to spend some time browsing other peoples blogs now to increase my knowledge.

I now have four blogs ! I decided to compartmentalise things, because my interests are quite varied. I've not yet learnt how to link from one blog to another though. I will in time, and then I think this blog may become a 'blog farm' ? I found that term at Wikipaedia.

I've started reminding myself how to deal with html too. I did a web design course three or so years ago, so I did recognise some of what I saw when I first viewed a template. I've managed to make minor changes to the look of two of my blogs so that they are more legible and easy on the eye.

Whether anyone else will ever view my blog or comment on it remains to be seen. I don't plan on letting any advertisers in, so no publicising my blogs by that method... Of course that's assuming my blog is of enough interest to anyone else to prompt them to comment anyway.

In the beginning

2006-07-21T18:35:00.000+08:00

In the beginning there was a novice blogger and a blank page. The novice blogger wondered what to say to the world from the dizzying heights of her new soapbox tower...

She pondered what others might expect and what others might already have said in their blogs. She never did like doing what others expected of her, though. Nor did she really care much what others had said in their blogs before her. This was a New Land of Blog, where the fences had not been set yet and the thoughts were still free to roam unmolested.

The novice blogger looked into her own Land of Think and rounded up her favourite Thinkboxes to transport them to the Land of Blog. They struggled a bit when it came to getting into the canoe, and the canoe nearly sank with their weight, but in the end they all got there safely.

Welcome to the BlogLand of When You Think About It