This is the store of “things”. You never know when you are going to have to make a rocket or volcano. Just one of those things that you do for your children.
Pricing Regime
The following pricing strategy seems ridiculous to me. Normally it’s “better value” to buy the larger pack of waffles. The waffles are cheaper individually at 14 4/9 pence per waffle compared to 14 4/5 pence per waffle although I would argue that this difference isn’t worth worrying about.
With this price reduction regime the smaller pack of waffles is much better “value”. The small waffles come in at 10p each and the larger pack of waffles requires 11 1/9 of your hard earned pennies per waffle. This, to me, just doesn’t make any sense as a pricing regime.
You possibly thought this website couldn’t get more mundane but I would like to think that I have stooped lower than before!
Air Force
Here’s an update on my Armada. January is complete, just imagine what it’ll look like at the end of the year!
American Sniper
I went to see this film last night. Here’s what I thought of it on IMDB:
I rated American Sniper (2014) 4/10 #IMDb http://t.co/1EDYTFJedX
— Ian Parish (@iparish) January 31, 2015
I think I’m possibly too old for these films. I just wasn’t impressed. It might be that I had already read some reviews and they weren’t very positive or it might be that I’m just a grumpy old lefty.
MILD SPOILERS FOLLOW
I grew up with war films. I thought they were exciting. I thought they generally made war look glamorous. The motives behind wars always seemed justifiable. Then I saw lots of Vietnam movies and you start to realise that war is used by governments to maintain their economic advantage over everyone else. I should probably write another communication about my views on war and killing people. So, back to this film.
A man, who loves his country so much, sees something bad and gets angry, he signs up to be a Navy Seal. He’s a good shot with a rifle. He trains to be a sniper and then gets sent off to war. Along the way he marries a woman. We’ve all seen Navy SEAL training videos, we know what they do and that they are tough. Nothing new there. The training part of the film completely missed all of the important aspects of training. It looked like a video game where the first 20 minutes teaches you how to play the game.
Being sent off to war and then being liberal with the truth means our man gets even more angry at everything and kills plenty of people fighting for their own country. He carries a bible all the time, because god obviously justifies all the killing. His tour fucks him up and when he returns home he’s not the man he used to be. He bears a grudge against a “baddie” sniper and keeps returning to Iraq in the hope of getting the baddie first. Our baddie has a wife and children but we aren’t allowed to know his reasons for being in this war especially as he’s not an Iraqi.
Sniper boy gets more and more disturbed but we aren’t really shown this. We get snap shots throughout the movie but no in depth analysis. We have an Iraqi tour followed by a bit of home life where he’s obviously troubled but it’s all superficial. Finally our boy kills their boy and he wants to come home, he’s done his job. Never mind the Americans that are still getting killed.
In the end our sniper does good and becomes himself again once he helps veterans. We see him talking to a shrink and after a couple of minutes he appears to be normal again. Bollocks. This film was entirely uncritical of any elements of war. It would have been far better had we seen more of the other characters and their fight with normality. also, this film has been compared to The Hurt Locker, which I also thought was shit.
This is essentially a cowboy movie for the modern MTV-editing age where we aren’t allowed to have feelings and thoughts and questions. Did I say, it was directed by a cowboy star? Some of Clint’s movies have been awesome and great. This one was shit.
Ex Machina
Overall, this film is worth watching. Hence my IMDB rating:
I rated Ex Machina (2015) 6/10 #IMDb http://t.co/bNRyhFshWl
— Ian Parish (@iparish) January 22, 2015
As ever, you should see this guide to my ratings.
Firstly I think I should point that there are certain elements of this film that don’t ring true. The single person who invented the world’s most used search engine is also a stunning engineer able to create wonderful human looking androids along with inventing a new medium for the processor which also happens to be AI capable. This is not how I suspect it will be done. However, let’s get over that.
First thing: the house was lovely, a wonderful creation, I hope it’s mostly real.
Second thing: Ava looked awesome, really impressive graphics and design, very organic.
Now, the story line. This was generally good although I was reminded a lot of Blade Runner as it progressed. My mind kept going back to the voice of Gaff shouting:
It’s too bad she won’t live! But then again, who does?
The story told us to be wary of recluse like figures who are really intelligent. They will use you to fulfil their own aims. Then, towards then end there was a switcheroo which was nice. I liked the manipulation in this film. I liked the simplicity of the sets and the wonderful scenery, although there were random cuts of foliage to remind you we were in the wilderness [which creates quite a few logistical issues for me].
Overall, at times this film may have seemed slow but I think that’s a reflection on modern film making where action is the requirement rather than making people think. This is worth a watch.
Set Up
Here’s a look at my flight simulation set up. There’s a decent screen for the PC, the 10.1″ tablet which displays a moving map image and the HOTAS system for controlling the machine. I am going through the process of setting up the programmable functions of the stick so that flying is efficient.
What do I do? Hard to explain. Last night I went from Sint Maartin to Anguilla and landed successfully. My current favourite plane is the Dassault Rafale.
Amazing
Isn’t our planet amazing? It always manages to impress even when not doing much at all. This is the view of a rainbow over Maidstone, early 2015.
I don’t have anything else to say which given the context of recent Fooyah.net communications is a good thing.
Armada
This is my 800th communication on Fooyah.net. As I have been quite angry recently you should be pleased to know that I have taken up paper folding for some of the day to calm me.
This is my armada of planes so far this year. Thanks to Penguin for the gift. Only another 300 or so to go!
Books
I have to admit that I am still angry. The events of the last week have really annoyed me.
There’s all this hate in the world. Wouldn’t it be easier if we just followed the basic rule of “do no harm”. It’s not hard. It’s just three little words.
Now, I’ve an idea where we can start. Let’s have a look at the books where religious people get their morals and guidance.
“I will … smite Egypt with all my wonders.”
“God wants to be remembered forever for the mass murder of little children.”
“Kill … before the Lord and … sprinkle blood round about.”
“Both parties in adultery shall be executed.”
“God sends evil spirits that cause humans to deal treacherously with each other.”
“Beating your children will make them wise.”
“Jesus sits on a white cloud with a sharp sickle in his hand. When the angel tells him to reap, he kills all the people with his sickle”“Christians and Jews (who believe in only part of the Scripture), will suffer in this life and go to hell in the next.”
“Allah will punish the disbelieving Jews until the Day of Resurrection.”
“Those who oppose Allah and His messenger will burn in the fire of hell.”
“Allah curses people by making them deaf and blind.”
“Disbelievers will be given a painful doom.”
So, if your book of guidance includes passages like those above don’t you think it’s time to stop using that book for your religion. It’s no good saying we only look at the good bits that are relevant to us today, it doesn’t work like that. You lend credence to the whole book. It doesn’t take much to turn bored angry teenagers and men into violent arseholes and it happens everywhere but you using this book [just the good bits] mean that all of the book can be used to proselytise.
If your book says crap like the verses above then it is time to change the fucking book.
The Russian headline is there above to show that even non-religious countries can be fucking stupid. What a crock of shit. It feels like there’s a storm coming with all these governments cracking down on human rights.
Now, there’s a 0.001% of all people who are very very nasty [I made that statistic up]. But what atheists don’t do is go around doing things in the name of their religion or a shitty holy book.
How about we change all religious and governing rules into the following:
Be good, do no harm
There, that wasn’t so hard was it.
Sincerely Held Beliefs
This is a follow up to my previous communication. I think there’s more to say and yet I don’t want to add to that published communication. I am still on a rant though so feel free to skip to the album reviews if that’s what you prefer.
To draw a cartoon of Mohammed or any picture of him would be claimed to insult a deeply held belief that it is wrong to draw the prophet because it says so in a book. I am sure that this belief is “sincerely held”. I am sure that people have lots of beliefs that they consider to be deeply held and very important. However, just because your belief is deeply held it doesn’t mean I have to respect it.
If you have the beliefs then I can have my own. Maybe I’m a pastafarian, I have a holy book and a community that agrees with me. I can even claim they are deeply held and sincere beliefs. Once that happens you have your view and I have mine. Then we have a problem. Who is right? Who’s view is more important? They are both sincerely held beliefs with no ultimate authority.
Oh, sorry. We do have an ultimate authority. The law of this land. The law decides what is ok to do. The argument is made in front of the judiciary and then a decision is made. Part of living in this country is that I must accept what the law says. I might not agree with it, but I have to accept it. If I want to change it then I must petition government and the lawmakers. If I don’t like it enough then perhaps I would move to a country where I agree with their laws more. You are not at liberty to impose your views and ideals on me in this country.
I don’t care if you have a sincerely held belief. That shouldn’t get have anything to do with your actions or behaviour towards me or my society. If you want change then you do it through the correct methods.
48.8592°N, 2.3703°E
I am following the press and jumping to, quite sensible, conclusions about the motivations for the murder of 12 people in Paris. They were murdered because they did the job that is necessary in a free country.
It is currently believed that the 12 people were murdered in revenge for printing a cartoon depicting Mohammed a few years ago.
If you know me or read these communications you will understand that I don’t “get” religion. It is quite obviously a false representation of the universe. However, I do understand why people are religious. I get that. However, I am quite at liberty to think your beliefs are crazy. I am also at liberty to tell whomever I want that I think your beliefs are crazy. I don’t do this [too much] because for some reason it is considered bad to insult someone’s beliefs in a sky-fairy, zombie god child or burning bush. That, I also don’t understand. Why is it so taboo to say what I think about a virgin woman impregnated by god to have a son who he knows he will kill, oh, and then resurrect? Why can’t I even question religious holidays and ceremonies without feeling as though I am committing a massive faux pas? Isn’t it crazy that we have whole degree courses and careers dedicated to studying something demonstrably at odds with evidence? I digress.
As I have removed religious texts from my moral guidance I need to explain that there is no ultimate right or wrong, no ultimate moral authority. We, as a society, have decided over time what we consider to be acceptable behaviour and what is not. Originally these rules were derived from religion but they aren’t anymore. Laws change over time to reflect how society changes and what society [generally] accepts. Yes, there are always going to be people on the fringes of societal behaviour and beliefs and these people will make lots of noise but they can fuck off. Our judiciary makes the decisions and I am glad I live in a free country. I am NOT going to use the free speech argument because I honestly don’t think we have that in this country [UK], I am unsure that it is enshrined in law. It can’t be because an hate speech or aggressive tweets could land you in lots of trouble, we also have thought crime in the UK.
Whether you are religious or not you probably agree that killing someone is a BAD thing to do. It’s immoral. It’s against society. You may or may not extend that to the state killing by using the death penalty or going to war. I do think that war can be justified but I struggle with that very much. It is clear to me that we have a duty to give people freedom. My current thoughts are that “freedom” means a free and fair judiciary [thanks to JPW] and a liberal penal code, this may or may not occur within a democracy. For example: it is wrong to outlaw homosexuality, although legalisation was a recent thing in the UK. It is definitely very WRONG to have the death sentence for homosexuality. This paragraph could go further but I need to move on.
In what is generally called The West we are free to insult our politicians and other leaders. We can draw cartoons of them. We can write songs about them. We can make fun of them. For them it is considered part of the job [where is Spitting Image now?] This is freedom. It is our laws that allow us to do that. This should be a freedom everywhere. If you can’t do these things then I hope that one day you will be able to. You will have a long struggle ahead but we can all live in a world where we can rip into those in power.
We also make fun of religion. If my joke makes you question your religion then your religion isn’t up to much is it? If you can’t accept my joke, my valid point or the fact that your holy book was written many years after the events and from hearsay and is not really what happened then YOU have the problem. If the historical evidence doesn’t fit your religious narrative then the problem is yours. You are very welcome to insult me, my thoughts and beliefs and my ideals. I am still free to have those views.
If the image on the left is fine, but the image on the right offends you then I guess you have the right to be offended. However I have the right to produce this image. You need to get over it. Stop being outraged.
Killing 12 people because they belonged to an organisation that published some cartoons, some drawings proves that you are fucked up. You represent the worst of your religion. The worst of Islam and you do a disservice to all Muslims. While we must remember that 3 people killed 12 others today we should also remember that the vast majority of Muslims do not go around killing people because they hold different views and morals. They accept that, much like politicians, people will question them and what their holy book says.
It’s been quite a while since the major Christian faiths went around the world killing everyone and fucking things up quite a bit. But they did do it. And they did it in the name of religion. For a thousand years you could be killed or imprisoned for being the wrong religion in the “western” countries. But, we matured. We moved religion to the fringes and outside government. We now have religious and cultural freedom. Not yet in the USA though. There are MANY problems with the religious right and Christianity imposing crazy laws to oppress the rights we take for granted [and many Catholic countries too]. I am not claiming we are perfect. We aren’t, there’s still progress to be made. We spend more on dog food that we do on feeding the poor.
It appears these 12 murders were committed in the name of Islam. Islam needs to stand up to the fringes of its society and push-back, it should reform those fringes. Islam needs to shout as loud as possible that it is a reformed religion and extremism won’t be tolerated. It’s easy to take young men and radicalise them. It’s what young men are good at. In the West we have sport, PlayStation and music videos. We can distract many from the outliers of society, but we don’t always succeed. We still have people who do bad things. It’s what happens in any society. We try to minimise that though. We do this through freedom of the press, freedom of society, freedom of the judiciary.
I know this sounds all high and mighty. I can see that people would think I am shouting “aren’t I a good atheist and all the religions, especially Islam bad. Isn’t the West wonderful with its freedoms and Coca Cola”. Well, at the moment, most world wide terrorism is Islamic. It’s Islamic states that sponsor this terrorism. What country has the death penalty for atheism? Saudi Arabia (where women can’t drive too). I am not trying to hold the UK up as a beacon of excellence. We do plenty wrong, like invade a country illegally on dodgy evidence and then rationalise it post hoc. We have tortured. We have spied on our citizens. We have interned people with little evidence. We are not perfect. But we are at least trying to do the best we can. Also, if I want to question politicians I can. I can become a politician if I want. I can drink whenever I want I can eat what I want. I can believe in what I want. I don’t have to go to church. I am free to live my life how I want to.
We should not be surprised that murders like these things happen. What is abhorrent though is the reasoning behind these killings. Religion can be a good thing, I’m not sure it’s necessary, but it exists for now and so we should tolerate it when it is a force for good. Also people seem to take it so seriously. But we should NOT accept ANY reason or organisation that legitimises and encourages murder.
If you would like to read more cartoons that uses Jesus, Mohammed, Moses and a barmaid as its main characters then you should read JesusandMo.
“Here we stand.” Brilliant by @alexmassie on #jesuischarly http://t.co/AMIJUVYQMY
— Iain Martin (@iainmartin1) January 7, 2015
Here’s a cartoon:
All Part Of The Plan
“It was meant to be”
“It’s my destiny”
“Whatever will be will be”
What a load of shit. All of these sayings just lend credence to the idea of agency behind your life. The concept that someone or something is controlling YOUR life. The idea that the great zombie sky fairy is looking out for just you and not necessarily any of the other seven billion people on this planet.
The idea of agency is so built into us that it’s hard to get rid of it. It takes a lot of effort to give up thoughts of our destiny and the plan.
We are so enamoured with the concept of agency that we see it everywhere. Hollywood makes films constantly suggesting that there is a plan for us all, look at the messages and what you are told. There are bullshit books that tell us about the universe working for us, see The Secret or the bible or any other religious text referring to a sky-fairy.
Your life is mostly in your control, but you will regularly get fucked over by things outside of your sphere of influence; politicians, bankers and the economy and mostly just random events. There’s a great lie enforced all the time by the media suggesting that we can control the economy and that our politicians are able to tinker with the tax rates to build a stronger country. This is rubbish. The amount of the economy that the government has direct control over is not enough to impact our growth or economic health. We are pretty much at the mercy of such a complex system where there is no overall control that it is more comforting to think we can blame particular politicians. We feel uncomfortable with the idea of randomness and things just happening.
I might get started on agency and our belief in control with respect to the monarchy and society as a whole. How we give our trust to government and yet fail to understand the randomness of the world. But, I shall leave that to another communication.
You are the person who can change your life. There is no destiny. There is no great plan. However much you aim to control your own life you are still going to be subject to random events, things that are outside of your control. Other things are going to mess you up.
There is no plan.
Birdman
Right, before I type more I need to collect my cup of tea from the kitchen. Perhaps you can look at this tweet:
I rated Birdman (2014) 8/10 #IMDb http://t.co/03HtGS0etG
— Ian Parish (@iparish) January 3, 2015
So, this is where I tell you what I thought of the film. I really liked it. I’m not sure what the fuck I watched but I thought it was great. I’m going to write this before I go and investigate the film and figure out what happened so that you get a more “raw” review.
I liked the story line. It was quite brilliant casting as Michael Keaton was my first movie Batman and I pretty much still think of him as such. He acted brilliantly. The style of filming with the camera walking around the theatre was great. I loved the sound track although I would say that jazz drumming is not my thing it really added to the film, it made it more simple than a different type of score would have.
The filming or post production was really clever as they removed the camera from the reflections in the mirrors. This made it feel more ghostly as the camera moved around. All the cast were great and I think their performances really made the film.
This whole thing was a great experience. Well worth seeing.
POTENTIAL SPOILERS FOLLOW
I’m not sure if the writer, Raymond Carver, is meant to be fictional or actually existed. It’s something I’m going to look up.
I thought the film caught the paranoia of stage actors brilliantly. Along with their terrible egos. Now, I don’t really know any stage actors, I’m just extrapolating from my days treading the boards.
I’m not sure if the whole telekinesis thing is meant to be real or just a figment of his imagination. I hope it’s real, but then, TK doesn’t really exist!
I’m not sure what the last scene meant although I know what it was.
I am now going to go and read a little about this film. It’s unlikely I’ll post that stuff here. Go read it yourself.
Simulation
If you are a regular reader of these pages you will know that I love playing Gran Turismo on the PlayStation. I always have. My relationship with GT goes back to when it was first released and playing it with my landlord when I lived in Gillingham. GT and Crash Bandicoot are two reasons I bought a PlayStation, or PSOne as it is now known! You can see other communications about GT here and my gallery here it’s been a while since I added new photos to the GT gallery and I should try and do that soon (it’s a quite lengthy process).
Gran Turismo defines itself as The Driving Simulator. Which is probably about right. It’s quite likely to be the most realistic driving game on the market, especially in terms of the physics model it uses. I haven’t played any other driving games really and so I can’t comment. I am also not a racing driver so it would be hard to me to comment on the realism. It amuses me when people describe certain computer games as unrealistic. How would you know? If I was a real racing driver I probably wouldn’t be playing GT.
I recently bought a new home PC. See this communication and the follow up to that. this made me think I could have a flight simulator and I tried installing FSX – The Microsoft Flight Simulator, last version. It turns out that FSX hates Windows 8.1. Some people got it to work and some didn’t. I didn’t want to spend ages digging into why it wasn’t working and the only way I got it to work was to turnoff some graphics function which made it look pretty rubbish on the big screen that I have. So, I had to turn to the only other alternative AFAIK.
X-Plane [I could link to the official site but then you could JFGI]
If you want to see why this is a good program then go no further than Randall Monroe’s What If? blog and see how he used it. I downloaded the demo version and played with it a bit. It is pretty good. You are stuck to the Seattle area in the demo but most of the rest of the game functions well. If you want you can use this program properly and use it professionally. Also around the time of doing this I ordered the X-Plane 10 Global edition. It contains the scenery of the world in it. All of it. I ordered this from the USA website as I didn’t want part of the profits going to a third party seller. It seemed the fairest way to buy it. I didn’t read the small print as I ordered it though. It could take six weeks to arrive. Customs issues apparently.
Here are my tweets.
I’ve ordered @XPlaneOfficial Global edition but I ordered it from the US, over Xmas, I’m waiting. And hoping.
— Ian Parish (@iparish) December 19, 2014
Number 1 son just took the Goshawk for a flight. He was pretty good. pic.twitter.com/cTDErPHNgR — Ian Parish (@iparish) December 21, 2014
Just arrived! 60GB now installing. pic.twitter.com/jVfWCSum20
— Ian Parish (@iparish) December 28, 2014
Just read the instructions. It’s 75GB and about 6 hours to install! — Ian Parish (@iparish) December 28, 2014
It looks like I ordered it 8th December and it was waiting for me after I got home on the 28th December. I guess that’s not bad. I’ve also installed a Saitek joystick and throttle (HOTAS) comnbination. I’m currently getting to grips with all the buttons and programming some functions into the joystick.
Here’s a gallery of some of my screen shots so far. I have been tweeting them so you might have seen them before. I’m trying to work with real time and weather in the program so far hence my flights are taking place around the world. I also need to work on my landings. Currently the Sabre is my favourite plane. It’s fast enough to be fun but easy to handle.
I spelt “Harbor” the American way, for accuracy.
I’m quite curious as to whether there is another type of simulation game I would like. On the Megadrive I played a submarine simulation but I would get bored quite quickly and send out a “ping” just to liven things up. I think a nuclear power station simulation would be a bit of a laugh, but then you’d try to recreate the “big ones”, Three Mile Island, Windscale, Chernobyl and see if you could have stopped the outcome. It’d probably take up a bit more technical knowledge than I have and then I’d get kidnapped by some dodgy regime to set up their nuclear program [Oh, no, that’s what Imperial did in the 80s, teach various countries their nuclear knowledge].
I don’t think I would find playing the Sims that exciting. Much like PlayStation Home doesn’t really bother me. I’m not that sociable in real life I don’t what to spend “virtual” time being sociable. I like games that challenge just me. I’ve played SimCity, but I played it once, for about 12 hours, non stop. And then I stopped.
With racing cars and aircraft you can make things happen fast. It’s about getting the timing correct. I’m not that sure that any of the following would bother me much:
- Train Simulator
- Fairground Simulator
- Farm Simulator
- Goat Simulator [it exists]
- Car mechanic Simulator
Also, I don’t have the time.
Long Time
This is the follow up to this communication. I am happy to say that after about 10 days of waiting I finally picked up a new tower PC from PC World in Chatham. I have been using it to waste plenty of time.
The main reason I bought the computer was to do some music stuff in collaboration with my best mate. I’ve been inspired to have a go and create stuff. This is a new direction for me. If you want to know more then pop over to twitter and see what happens.
Still playing around with our first ever song! No idea how long this will take. Am aiming for 4 ish songs buy the summer!!
— DBL_MF (@DBL_MF) December 22, 2014
So, I have the computer back. It took about 2 days to set it up to my liking. Most settings copied across from my Microsoft account which was nice. If you want to see more reasons for me getting the PC then look at the next communication.
I’m happy again, but I don’t have enough time to do all the things I want to. Too many projects.
OUTRAGE
[The title needs to be shouted in an Ian Paisley type voice.]
Have a look at these:
From my humble point of view it seems that we are outraged often these days. The media jump on the OUTRAGE bandwagon pretty quickly. The media believe they represent our views, what the population think. But they don’t, they just tell us what to think. The media is controlled by few, very rich people who want to keep us supressed and the politicians jumping from one thing to the next. The politicians have to be seen to be doing something. Using “outrage” allows the media to claim “public opinion” but I doubt they’ve really surveyed this. It’s what the string pullers want, not what the public want.
I’m not happy with the definitions given by the Cambridge Dictionary. Outrage to me is more than anger. It’s almost violent. Nothing seems to make me this angry. Perhaps I am too old and have an aire of cynicism about me now, although I feel I’ve been like this all my life.
I would like the media to gain a sense of proportion [and for Christmas I want a unicorn]. Let’s use “outrage” when it means something like Blair taking us into an illegal way. Let’s use outrage when it’s something really worth fighting for. Let’s keep the public informed and tackle the politicians when they aren’t fighting for social justice and freedom for all.
[happy christmas]
Blue Bell Hill
As I ‘ve mentioned before in this forum I do feel lucky to live here. My normal running route now takes in part of the North Downs Area Of Outstanding Natural Beauty. This is a photo I took from the top of Blue Bell Hill overlooking the valley of the Medway.
I think the real view is much prettier, this doesn’t really capture it!
Apologies And Why They Annoy Me
I’m fed up with people, mostly MPs apologising for their dim-witted ill-informed opinions/behaviour. I taken some clips from the BBC website. Here they are:
So, these people feel that they did wrong and believe that apologising means it’s all ok. I think the recent spate of politicians apologising just shows how bad our representatives are [I’ve no evidence that apologies are becoming more frequent, just I am noticing it more]. If you do something wrong while in the position of public office, then fuck off and resign. Grow some balls. Become a better person.
If someone says something that they later regret [because it affects their position of power] then we should embrace what they say and use it to inform debate and discussion. I want sincere apologies and education. I want reformed behaviour. How do you show you are truly sorry? You reform.
An MP plays Candy Crush during a meeting. Why? What is wrong with his job/meeting/attention span? After our representatives are caught out they should use this as an opportunity to explain themselves, not run and hide behind an apology. The media should use this as a chance to inform and educate.
Tory Peer says the poor can’t cook. She apologises because that’s easier and quickly forgotten rather than explaining her comments and having an informed debate about why she said that. Is there a reason she believes this? Perhaps we should educate her and the rest of society. This gaff should have been used as a tool for informing people what is really going on in society and facing up to our collective responsibilities. Informed, evidence based discussion is how we change people’s minds. Apologising is the easy way out.
Image from #Rochester pic.twitter.com/rOjTgpskmF
— Emily Thornberry MP (@EmilyThornberry) November 20, 2014
This tweet caused no end of trouble for the MP. I don’t understand why. She tweeted a picture of a house from Rochester. It looked pretty standard to me. She apologised. That was easy. What we didn’t have was a debate, an informed discussion about what that picture meant. We didn’t use this tweet as a opportunity to educate and inform people. The mass media used “outrage” to force an apology rather than look into the deeper social issues. We shouldn’t pretend that houses like this don’t exist, we should work at getting everyone involved in our society.
My message here is that I want people to stop apologising for things they say or do. It’s easy to apologise. It’s easy to stand up and say sorry. What is harder is admitting you have biased or poor views of the reality and then trying to change future behaviour and inform and educate people.
“I deeply regret posting that naked picture of my cock on twitter and apologise for any offence caused” – a poor apology.
“I wish to inform you that I am a bigoted old man who lusts after young women. I thought that posting a picture of my cock would encourage women to want me back. I realise that I am the product of a mostly misogynistic world where women are treated like property and I will now work tirelessly to educate people and to improve the balance of the sexes within our patriarchal inherently sexist society. I have joined the following organisations and will form a political committee with powers to adjust laws and highlight the injustices we have in our society.” – this man would get my vote.
I’m not sure where I’m going with this. I’m annoyed by people apologising and thinking it’s all forgotten. I want apologies and then a CHANGE in behaviour. I want reformation. I want education of the issues. I don’t want these issues just dismissed with a simple apology.
I think this communication, as rambling as it is, goes with another to come. It will be titled OUTRAGE.
Lisa
Lisa was a friend of mine. We spent about six years going to air cadets together. And then, when I was at university she died.
Eventually I hope that some of the communications in this site are about people who influenced me. People I am proud to have known. People I remember.
Lisa and I lived in the same village. I think she was a year older than me. We didn’t socialise in the village. We met when we ended up at the same air cadet squadron. In those days the Sqn put on a minibus to collect kids from the “villages” so we could get to parade nights. Eventually, once we were older, we ended up giving each other lifts into town so we could attend cadets. We would chat a lot and discuss the latest episode of “Happy Days”. Lisa was also a campanologist. I have no idea if she was religious or not, but on Sunday’s that was her thing. Once for my birthday she bought me “Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols” on tape. Quality.
One day when I was at university I met my dad for lunch and he told me that Lisa had died. She was playing football and collapsed. They didn’t find out what happened. I was slightly shocked at first but I accepted it. I was sad. Of course I was. The pain I felt was at the thought of losing the person I had spent quite a bit of time with. But I knew it would get better.
Lisa’s funeral was in the village. There was quite a large contingent from cadets there and the church was packed. People were sitting in the aisles. After the service her coffin was lowered into the ground outside the church. I didn’t go and look. For some reason I had a “Home And Away” quote in my head: remember them as they were, not as they are. I have no idea where it really came from but I did watch Aussie soaps at that time. That evening our group went out in Sawbridgeworth and celebrated the life of Lisa in the traditional fashion.
I have occasionally been to speak to Lisa. Once I went after the tenth anniversary meal of the cadet squadron. Rich and I left our dates at my parents house and ran down to the graveyard to speak to Lisa. I was quite drunk. I haven’t been to the grave for a long time. Life has been busy and got in the way really. I intend to visit over the Xmas period while I’m in the village. Hence this the other day:
Just had an incredible urge to go and talk to Lisa. Let her know everything that has happened since I last spoke to her.
— Ian Parish (@iparish) December 16, 2014
I can’t encapsulate years of friendship in this communication. But I can at least write a little. I still think of her. All of my readers needn’t worry. I don’t go to speak to her or her “soul”. Once you are dead, that’s it. The end. Nothing more. It’s a nice idea that we live on but one that reduces our real life to a time of fear. Embrace life and accept the truth. I go to speak to Lisa (I do very little actual speaking), to remember and keep her alive in my heart.
Lisa sent me the coolest Christmas card I ever got. She used to work in the printers workshop in the village. On the front was a snowman I think with a red scarf. Inside the card read:
Wishing you a piss poor Christmas and a fucking horrible new year.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1
Just got back from seeing this film. Let’s call it Mockingjay because the full title is too long. As ever I tweeted about this here:
I rated The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 (2014) 6/10 #IMDb http://t.co/jmpa2DOq7M
— Ian Parish (@iparish) December 18, 2014
It was ok. In all honesty I got bored pretty much from the beginning. I haven’t read the books and am quite unlikely to. There seems to be a lot of quite successful YAL out there. It doesn’t need my help. Anyway, dystopian futures were done better in the old days. Logan’s Run anyone?
The film livened up towards the end and actually almost became exciting at one point. This series of films have really left me cold.