Category: Social

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I am writing

Two minor things that annoy me are symptoms of my inflexible understanding of language. I will talk about negative questioning, which troubles me, another time but for now here are two main methods of starting a letter:

Dear Sir,
I am writing to inform you that the programme you showed . . .

Dear Sir,
I wish to inform you that the programme you showed . . .

Both of these annoy me. In the first case it is obvious you are writing so there’s no need to state that. Just start by saying

“I found the programme you showed the other night rather sexless”.

The second method of starting a letter would have me reply

“you can wish all you like but you won’t get it”.

I do understand that language is fluid and evolves but we could always force a correction in usage if we insist on decent use of the English language.

I must be on the spectrum somewhere but I don’t interpret language literally it just annoys me when people are inaccurate.

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Whose next top model?

My wife and I have finally given up on %%%%% Next Top Model, where %%%%% is a variable string representing one of the following:
America’s, Britain’s, Canada’s, Australia’s

I estimate I have seen fourteen series of America’s Next Top Model, three seasons of Australia’s Next Top Model, two of Canada’s and four of Britain’s Next Top Model. Now I will watch no more. Finally I have become bored with the format. It was fun watching young women argue and shout at each other while living in the same apartment. It was fun learning about the industry of fashion, which is still one that I think is mostly a crock of shit. I don’t see that fashion does anything useful. It was fun watching girls cry when their hair is cut short on the advice of the experts, but finally I am bored and moving on to other things.

It always struck me as interesting that the girls who shout the loudest are usually the ones who fail. See also X Factor and other such shows. Those who have humility are usually the ones who succeed.

No MORE. Thanks Tyra Banks for the show but it is time to move on.

An aside: whenever I have spoken to pupils at work, it is a boys’ school, they like to claim I am “gay” for watching a modelling programme. This is interesting, as I explain, because what I am watching is half naked women and commenting on how they look and NOT getting hit by my wife. They don’t get it.

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Fiction

Picture of part of my bookshelf. Note the fiction title surrounded by reference books!

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Ambition

Think I’d like to break into the top 10000. Doing ok at the moment on Angry Birds. Have spent far too much time playing it though.

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What happened next!

It wasn’t weather, it was aliens landing. Wow, who’d thought Hollywood could get it so right?
Aliens have landed in Kent. This is the view of the Burham Nature Reserve where Romans defeated the Kent tribes and crossed the river.

Oh dear, what went wrong

 

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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.

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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).

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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?

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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

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