Another dog walk another thing of interest. Nice weather front formation. Dark clouds preceded by clear bright skies turning to overcast.
Facebook and me
So Mr Facebook! Our relationship is almost non-existent. The only influence I maintain on Facebook is from my wife’s account and my friends who find out about me from her.
There’s a history. I started a website in 1994 for the student union that employed me. I was in a sabbatical post in charge of clubs and societies so when we got some web space I wrote the union’s web pages. The latest which are absolutely nothing to do with me are at www.su.ic.ac.uk
I didn’t do any more web stuff until about 1999 when I bought some web space and had my own web pages designed using MS Frontpage. These were at www.iparish.org.uk
Other sites I’ve had are www.ianparish.me.uk and then www.iparish.plus.com and now finally this site.
The point is that when social networks really took off with myspace I had my own site. I didn’t need another website to write stuff or advertise my own presence to the world. So I pretty much ignored all social networking while I had a website. Facebook didn’t bother me, if people want to stay in touch with me or vice versa then we could talk or email or text.
Over the last few years I have recognised that it would be easier to keep in touch with friends if I was on Facebook but it’s too late. I refused for so long that I just can’t do it now. There are principles at stake. Not going to take the plunge now.
My wife finds this amusing and slightly annoying as I sometimes ask her to send messages to people for me, not that often though. Also I am on twitter, mainly to follow F1 and NFL. I keep in touch with one friend through twitter but basically I don’t do social networking. Just don’t see the need if you have your own website, which I do.
FFRF
Signed up to the Atheist out of the Closet campaign on Freedom From Religion Foundation website. Also starting to listen to their podcast. Like it.
They do very good work in USA making sure church and state separation is maintained. We could do with something like that over here, but our parliament is hard wired for religion. Our head of state is the leader of our church! We have bishops in the House of Lords ffs. When can we get rid of that? Current plans are to have representation from all major religions in the Lords. How stupid. When do you know to stop? How do you choose which religions? How big do they have to be? Remove all religious representation and let them lobby like everyone else (not that I’m keen on lobbying groups).
Sun once more
Out on dog walk. Weather much improved since lunchtime. No rain and plenty of bright skies. Lovely.
Summer?
It’s been grey all summer holiday apart from 2 days and now it’s rained for the last 24 hours. I don’t actually mind. Hot weather does me no good and 23/24 Celsius is just right for me.
I have noticed that whenever I edit an old post I get tweets sent saying such. Although not really annoying it does mean that minor adjustments get tweeted.
So I have adjusted my automatic Twitter settings so that when I edit old posts they will not be tweeted. Just did an edit of tags (or at least added some) and now have lots of tweets about these. Should have studied the WordTwit settings a little more closely when I installed it. Issue should now be sorted.
Mind you, virtually no-one follows me and pretty much no-one reads this website!
Treasure
Treasure the things you love.
Finger painting
What happens when you let your son paint without supervision!
Exciting life
How exciting is my life? This exciting: I love my new washing line cover!
Now you see it.
Now you don’t!
Vineyard
Grapes on a vine in a field. Walking the dog as normal. Pretty cool.
Financial Crisis Prediction
The date is 16 August 2011. A few days ago I had a chat with a friend of mine in Washington D.C. and we discussed the downgrading of the USA’s credit rating by Standard and Poor’s. We both agreed that there are at least two or three more years of finacial repercussions of the 2008 financial crisis.
It looks as though the Euro might implode and other countries might find themselves being downgraded. I don’t think the Euro will disappear it is too important for that but I do believe that there is going to be a whole lot more of hurt for the whole world as markets realign the worth of everything. Ministers and world leaders aren’t allowed to speak the truth about the markets for fear that it will make things happen quicker. Those who we expect to speak for the countries are largely self interested and afraid of completely wrecking what is seen as a broken system (by me). This inability to speak of more financial pain is leading to a protraction of the crisis.
I am glad that I work for the state in a roundabout way and not in the service sector. I think the next few years are going to go from pretty bad to worse. Such is life.
It would be nice to see governments finally reigning in corporations and banks so that there is more regulation. It appears that those in charge of these institutions over the last few years have made their cash and are now nicely retired in their gated homes.
Oh for the good old days of stability!? When was that?
Door to door
The other day I decided it was necessary to phone the police. This is what happened:
There was a knock on my door. I answered and a young man waved some paper in a plastic cover at me saying he was an ex-offender. I assumed the paper was some form of ID, his passport was also visible in the bag
I’d bought some stuff from people like these a few years ago and it was poor quality and expensive, almost as bad as Betterware stuff. So I said no thanks and this chap wandered further down the street. I shut the door.
I then heard my neighbour speaking to the other “salesman”. The “old boys” live next door. They are in their 80s and quite deaf and vulnerable. I do their shopping when it’s icy. I opened my door and:
“There’s a no-cold-calling sign in the window” I informed the second young man.
“Sorry I’m dyslexic” was the response.
“Well now you know so please leave the old man alone”, I requested.
“No cold calling signs are big with a red outline, he hasn’t got that so I’m talking to the old man. He’s asked to look at the gear so that’s what I’m doing”. The atmosphere was turning oppressive.
“Will you please leave him alone”, I continued.
Now the 1st ex-con started back towards my house.
“Sorry mate, did you want to buy something?”
“No”, I re-confirmed.
“Just being nosy then!”
At this my neighbour was left alone and both guys walked further down the road. The dyslexic one reading a text on his phone.
I never really thought that people could be rude or target old people even though I’ve seen it in tv. These two young men were pushy salesmen. I doubt they were doing this as part of a reform programme I think they were just out to con people. Real salesmen wouldn’t get aggressive with the public. They would maintain their professionalism. These two were just scumbags out to make money whatever way they can.
I phoned the police to let them know. Next time I’ll take a picture with a digital camera and post it.
Here are the google results for news items about ex-offenders and door to door sales.
BBC News
Barry District News
Whaleybridge Forum
South Kesteven
How to survive
This is what’s going to get me through the next few years of raising children. Good choice ww.
Son’s computer drawing
Title says it all.
Women and their stuff
A few years ago I was getting fed up having to dust around all the toiletries on the top of the chest of drawers (dresser if I had one). So I suggested to my wife that we get some convenient boxes for the stuff and then I can dust the boxes easily. Agreement was forthcoming.
Since that time I have one box and Bev has two. In the picture you can see a can of deodorant on top of my box on the right and a room temperature sensor as my 10 week old son still sleeps in the bedroom with us. On top of my wife’s two boxes is stuff. I have no idea what is in the boxes, I don’t ask. I also know that there is a drawer of more stuff under the bed. My wife has informed me that she cleared out the drawer a year ago and now what you see is all there is. Women and their stuff!
Solar Farm Pt 2
This is what the solar farm looks like at the moment. Plenty of solar panels. See what it looked like about a month ago. I’ll be interested in the power output and efficiency. I might get in touch with the company.
http://www.lowcarbonsolarpartners.com/ this is the company involved.
Trying to be quiet
It seems that I find it impossible to be quiet when needed. Not an ADHD thing but just a clumsy thing.
My house is quite small (compact) and I am normally cooking while my wife is putting my youngest to bed. So I’ll be washing up and trying to stir food quietly. It just doesn’t end up being that quiet! I unintentionally bang saucepans, drop cans and crash into the furniture. The more I try and be quiet the more noise I seem to make!
The kids sleep fine if there’s a constant noise but struggle with sharp bangs and crashes. This is probably an evolutionary thing (evolution is real, get over it you religious morons), constant rain or rustling is not a danger but sudden noises spell the end so run away.
So I think this phenomenon is the “don’t think of your name in lights” syndrome. When you try not to do things you end up doing them because you are thinking about the things you shouldn’t do. Richard Wiseman mentions this in his book Paranormality. For instance, on the last lap of a GT5 race I am mostly thinking of not crashing but I tend to spin off more in the last lap than at other times!
Trying our best not to do something often ends with us doing that exact thing. Oh, I’m trying to not buy a 3D tv at the moment!
It’s a 4 dickday
Contrary to what regular users of the internet may think a 4 dickday is or comprises I can assure you that this post is not concerned with matters of that kind!
I drive to work and drop my son off at nursery on the way. It is only about 10 miles at most but does take in tiny streets, village roads, country roads, dual carriageway, motorway and town roads. In the 20 or so minutes of travel from home to work I can normally guarantee seeing at least one example of poor driving. Whether it is inconsiderate and dangerous driving by tailgating, no indication, late lane changing or just plain silly behaviour i.e. speeding or cutting in. These incidents sadden me. Knowing that each of these activities increases the chance of accident bothers me. Generally I would put most of these incidents down to people trying to get somewhere too quickly. Although Some people are just stupid and don’t get manners.
Yesterday was a 4 dickday. I saw four examples of poor road craft. Hence 4 people were acting like dicks on the road. I would say that the modal value is probably 1 but the maximum value for a 10 mile journey has been 6.
I don’t claim to be a good driver, see my previous post on Constant Speed, but I think I am careful and cautious. More so since I have children. The important things in life are my family and friends. Being late is just how things go sometimes. I would love to drive my car or any other car to its limits but until I can afford track days at Brands Hatch that is going to have to wait. That is why I play GT5 and end up crashing, no pain there.
Better to arrive late than to never arrive at all.
Children – Post hoc fallacy delirium
I have two children. One is currently two and the other is two months. I love them both to bits and think it is the best thing I have ever done (bloody hard work too). I think that the best I can ask for is that they both end up with happy and fulfilled lives.
Anyway, the way we learn how to deal with children contains the biggest logical fallacy. We expect children to react to what we do and tell them. We hope and expect that when we ask something of that child they do it because of what we have done in the past. We expect that when I child is upset or being difficult whatever we try and works that particular time should work every time. Now that is a big no-no. I have become more and more convinced that children are complete random action generators.
They do not follow the rules of what we expect. They follow rules written in the edges of clouds and butterfly wings. We try something and it works, therefore it should work every time. Wrong. The reasons behind the action are different every time and so the reaction needs to change too. We are just very good at changing our reaction depending on what we see. We like to kid ourselves that we have it sorted and understand the children so well. We don’t. Humans just love the patterns in life and where we spend most energy and time gives us the biggest case for patternicity.
Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc!
World suffering and Star Trek
I just thought it would be a good idea to mention two things I have heard recently on a podcast. I have to thank Mike Hall of Merseyside Skeptics for these particular rebuttals:
Ever wondered why there is so much suffering in the world?
It’s because some people are dicks and shit happens. Therefore, we don’t have to worry about supernatural beings with beards in the sky.
Quoting the bible to me?
If what you’re saying would make the same amount of sense and have the same meaning had Captain Kirk said it in Star Trek then I will be willing to listen to your point. The bible is not the word of god. It is the word of men who believe in god. That’s quite a different thing.
There, two nice little things I wanted to remember.