Month: March 2003

Half way through March b’god

Opinions

Well, I’m against this ridiculous war. Personally couldn’t care less about UN legality or whatever. Taking life is wrong, the deeper teachings say one should give up one’s own life rather than take another’s (it’s more subtle than this, but it’ll do here). What is needed in these situations is wisdom and I don’t see a lot of it.

Just think:

If I hit you then it’s OK for you to hit me, it legitimises it. The war “proves” all of the allegations of bias and mayhem that the Arab nations have been making against the west for all these years. It insults the dead and recruits more extremists. Education and attacking poverty are the only answers to terror. One life is too many, and no, before you start on that worn-out rubbish, I’m not defending Saddam, get a grip. Two wrongs do not make a right, never have, never will. I lack the vision to see where the ultimate good may lie, I’m only a simple human being and won’t pretend otherwise.

If it’s OK for “us” to effect regime change using violence then it’s OK for “them” to do the same to us. So watch out Tony, George, and co. you’re making terror legitimate. Have you thought about that?

Music

Listening to Fishbone, Truth and Soul is pretty accessible, The Reality of My Surroundings quite hard – I found Junkie’s Prayer very sad. If you believe the web guide to the band they haven’t got the success they deserve. I can half see it because they are so eclectic, still interesting.

23 Mar : Buddha season on BBC2

Not bad, I liked what Richard Gere said but noticed that he still has ego to call his foundation that helps displaced Tibetans the Gere Foundation. I suppose that the celeb name helps raise money. I can’t fault the motivation though and I’m glad someone with the power has helped others. I have heard that the foundation also helps the diaspora’s neighbours so that there isn’t any resentment. I wonder if the politicians in the UK and elsewhere have the sense to learn from this example?

23 Mar : Llangollen : Mile end mill

Borrowed a Perception Amp to try. Not what I’m looking for, a little more interesting than the Big EZ but not enough of a difference. Borrowed a Transformer and fell in love with it. Would like to try it with the medium end caps. Got talking to an owner who said the long end caps are like clown’s feet and very tippy. Fran, the manager, recons that it might be a bit long with the caps on for the famous summer rivers in England. Nose wouldn’t bury without the caps unless there was a lot of current.

22 Mar : Thornberry’s Movie

Took the kids to this. Very good, very moral, lots of jokes and of course the bad guys lose. Gentle entertainment.

16th March Outdoors show : NEC

First time to one of these events. It was interesting if very tiring. They had a pool with a waterfall so that the play boaters could compete. It looked good except that they kept being driven to the sides and running out of space. I wonder if we could put something like this at Merseysport in the Albert dock in Liverpool to add some interesting paddling. I may have a think about this.

I sat in various boats, still looking at Liquid Logic, but I really liked the Wavesport Transformer. It has different length end fittings depending upon what you want to do in the water. They guys from Pirahna wanted me to get their Sub 6 200 and dissed the Transformer.

15th March : Diary of an Action Man : Unity Theatre, Liverpool

Took Jon and a friend to this play. Very well done, some of the actors had disabilities and there was signing throughout but they did it so well that it worked and wasn’t a problem. The plot revolves around a small boy who wants his dad to come back home, his dad was a soldier and he has fantasies about him being action man. Well acted and put together without being worthy. I didn’t realise (but it’s obvious) that deaf people use mobile phones to communicate over distance using texts. One of the irritating blights of modern life actually has some kind of upside.

Further on and further up

Frogg Manor

The meal was every bit as good as I hoped. It’s a really civilised place as well, no hurrying, no crowding.

Liquid Logic Session

I loved the kayak when I tried it on moving water but it was a little sphincter clenching at times. I remember going over a drop that I normally bounce straight through and it just stopped and then sucked me into the (playable but not in a difficult boat) stopper. I thought I was there for the duration but I got a front ender and rolled up out of the stopper. The curved ends made it interesting if you wanted to force your way across the eddy fence into the current. Unfortunately the guy selling the boat was harassed by one of the teenagers and gave in for a quiet life.

River Leven (16th Feb)

Took a group from the club. Rather large (15) but I had plenty of cover from experienced paddlers. Only one swimmer. Poor Greg rolled up to find that his wooly hat had fallen over his face and, of course, he had to keep bracing so he couldn’t push it out of the way. Fortunately he didn’t panic while the rest of us couldn’t stop laughing. A paddler from another group was playing in the wave and pushed him out. Paddled the Big EZ.

UML Course

We did a week-long UML course using Rational Rose. It was very useful and I’ve finally found out how to use Rose. The UML bit made sense of those millions of books I’ve been reading for a while. It’s interesting to realise how much people have been bullshitting me. Rose is still a bit primitive for drawing things but if you use it properly it gives you traceability end to end from analysis to design, right through to implementation. I also like the ability to save shared packages and version them independently.

Pen Pads Ceildh

We had a very successful Ceildh at the club, everyone dancing, people getting thanked for their contributions etc. My favourite moment was Len getting an award for least improved forward paddler, when he teaches forward paddling to the point of obsession (how can you improve on perfection?). Rosie was awarded club member of the year, quite rightly. The kids had a dance, Deb really enjoying it.

Forms 6i

Installed latest patch (dated Feb 2003!) and the problems I’ve been having seem to have gone away.

River Lune (again) 1st March

5 of us from Friends of Allonby and Pen Pads. Nice paddle. One of the people from the club’s beginners class, good to see her improving. I will probably run an introduction to white water group in the next month or so. Rosie managed to get out too, which was great, she doesn’t believe her own ability which can be a bit frustrating. One (very embarrassed) swimmer, who wasn’t the beginner. River level lower than last time.

Fitness campaign

I’m going to the gym again and trying to cut out the fat and chocolate. The older you get the harder it is, I think the old metabolism slows down. There’s an athlete hiding behind this growing gut, if only because you have to have muscle to move the thing about.

Tom Lehrer

Go out and buy some Lehrer if you don’t own some. A friend bought the complete CDs and gave me his duplicates.

Books

Got a lot out of Agile Software Development Ecosystems (skim read it and read the interviews more carefully). Interesting book. Want to work in that kind of environment, which we are trying to do. Borrow it or get work to buy it for you, though.

Was recommended Building Web Applications with UML – good if you don’t know what a web application is but do know UML. I skimmed 2/3 of the way through to find anything new. Borrow it or get work to buy it for you.

A nasty experience

An acquaintance of mine visited a porn site 5 years ago and paid his $5 to view piccies of people doing whatever it is they do. It turns out that more recently the site has been used for rather nasty stuff and he’s been accused (by the cops) downloading questionable material. It would be laughable if he hadn’t been hounded out of his house and home because somehow the information got out. I hope he gets some serious compensation from them. I’d want the cop’s testicles on my wall as a trophy if it was me (that’s very un-Buddhist of me, but you know what I mean). So the moral is – stay away from those internet porn sites, you never know what the evil bastards might get you into. Then the superzealous cops come knocking on your door and ruining your life. Hey, $5 (5 years ago) to screw your life, very cheap.

Blessings upon you all, even the superzealous.