Mixed Blessings

It was good, this morning, to find that my friend The Oxcliffe Fox was sufficiently recuperated to have done a posting; by the miracles of technology it’s possible to be concerned for a friend’s “well-being” in situations where previously one would have been oblivious to any ailments that had befallen them. It certainly is a mixed blessing!

Talking of mixed blessings, the last few days have seen an amazingly sluggish performance on msn spaces, so much so that, by the time one gets into the ‘edit’ programme one has had plenty of opportunity to forget the purpose of the visit.

A further blessing is your ability to visit this space and discover that “I compliment you on your good taste and/or curiosity”.

Progressive Politics, Populist Voices Forums-viewtopic-Shouldering a Burden, Building a Bridge, Blogging a Convention

Somehow stumbled upon this posting over a month after it first appeared - an interesting post on "the cost of discipleship".
Progressive Politics, Populist Voices Forums-viewtopic-Shouldering a Burden, Building a Bridge, Blogging a Convention

Truth is harmful to international relations - Bush's proposal to bomb al-Jazeera

“David Keogh, a Cabinet Office employee, is charged with leaking information damaging to international relations to Leo O'Connor, researcher to Tony Clarke, former MP for Northampton South. The two are due to appear in court today for committal hearings.”

And I thought it was already common knowledge that Bush showed signs of being a moronic megalomaniac; so how does further evidence damage international relations?

MediaGuardian.co.uk Media Labour MPs leaked Bush's proposal to bomb al-Jazeera

Sluggishly Alert!

The day is still quite young and, despite a familiar erratic sleep pattern, I feel reasonably alert; what an unusual conjunction of events this is! I was already up, and surfing the blogosphere, at a time when most recent days would have found my location to be in the heart of  Zzzzzz …zzz ..land. It’s the kind of shock to the system that I’m just about able to cope with. Perhaps I may even make so bold as to venture forth for a brief brisk walk, although that thought makes me start to wonder whether I’m really as alert as previously assumed!

I’ve just pinched myself and, I’m definitely not dreaming but, already the thought processes are falling back into their traditional sluggish mode. Who knows, once the caffeine and nicotine hits home, I may even have something to say.

Meantime, I wish you all good day!

Summer Daze

As it has been yet another cold grey day, just thought I'd remind myself of bright summer days beside the garden pond.

The Bulldog Manifesto

Entertaining posting on Hugo Chavez can be found here!

The Bulldog Manifesto

t r u t h o u t - Hugh Thompson, Hero at My Lai, Dead at 62

It's always good to remember Heroes!

t r u t h o u t - Hugh Thompson, Hero at My Lai, Dead at 62

Seven Things sans Tag

Thanks for tagging me Martyn. Here’s my attempt at ‘7 Things’: The 7 books and movies were difficult to narrow down and would maybe read differently another day – the whole thing proved an interesting exercise in categorized spontaneity!

7 Things to do before I die:
Change my underpants
Enjoy myself
Visit Paris
Witness the successful prosecution of Bush and Blair for War Crimes
Learn the art of forgiveness
Retain my integrity
Give thanks for my life

7 Things I cannot do:
Swim
Drive A Car
Drink as much as I used to
Socialize for a prolonged period
Fall out of love with my wife
Understand the cult of celebrity
Understand the attraction of Sport

7 Things that attract me to blogging:
To share my thoughts
To share my diary - mundane as it may be
Allows room for creativity even when I haven’t the stamina to do other writing or painting
Keeps my friends in touch with me
Immediacy
Enables me to vent my frustrations
Provides me with a regular discipline

7 Things I say most often:
What a load of crap
James Blunt’s a real …. (varied expletives)
I adore you
I’ll just go and have another ciggy
Fancy a drop of wine
I feel knackered
This is the day the Lord has made … let us rejoice and be glad in it!

7 Books I love:
The Outsider – Camus
Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge – Rilke
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists – Tressell
The Brothers Karamazov – Dostoevsky
The Crucified God – Moltmann
Hugh Johnson’s Wine Companion
Joseph (aka ‘Friends and Lovers) – Maurice Capitanchik

7 Movies or TV Series I watch or would watch over and over again:
American Beauty
Shawshank Redemption
High Society
Coupling (TV Series)
Spaced (TV Series)
A Thing Called Love (TV serialised drama)
Jazz On A Summers Day

7 Bloggers who I’d like to have a go at this:
Here’s where I break with tradition – I can’t stand imposing even a hint of pressure. I’ll say the next seven bloggers who read this and fancy having a go – I’m much too lazy to delegate!
Let me know (leave a comment) if you’re prepared to have a go!

Adding Some Spice to a Grey Day

A day of idleness, one in which I even allowed my beloved to pop a frozen pizza into the oven, in lieu of a ‘proper’ meal. Heterocon has already recorded my vague entry into the day and, even as the day progressed, little has changed. My one piece of ‘work’, at the beginning of the evening, was to prepare a Mexican tinged minced beef and peppers casserole ready for our Sunday lunch. A preliminary tasting suggests a tongue tingling sharpness to the dish but, that will be tamed a little by the greens it will be served with.

Sudden sharp pains in both knees decided to make their presence felt as I returned from the kitchen but, otherwise, the days keynote has been a general relatively pain-free mind fog and, I have submitted to its demand of idleness.

A Confusion of Relevance

Yesterday evening we submitted the following Customer Service enquiry to ntl via e-mail on their ‘interactive form’:

“We are currently paying £10.50 per month line rental and £17.99 per month for 1Mb Broadband.

Whilst visiting your website we noted a VALUE PACK for Phone & Broadband including:

Unlimited local off-peak calls
1Mb Broadband

for an inclusive price of £24.99 per month.

Could you please switch us onto this tariff, as we don’t like to miss out on getting more services for less money, or would this change deprive us of the unlimited broadband usage promised from this month?”

The automated response assured us that the enquiry would be submitted to “the relevant ntl department”. A quite straightforward Customer Services enquiry I would have thought.

This morning’s reply, (for which I’m not criticizing their promptness), to our customer service enquiry, came from the ‘ntl Technical Support Bureau’ … I suspect this was not the “relevant department” … so, not at all unexpectedly, their message states:

“Unfortunately we are unable to process your request as we only handle internet technical support queries.”

Oh the wondrous joys of automated systems.