The world is a poorer place…

The man I think of as my Godfather (despite my, my parents, and his athesim) passed away last week. He, and his wife Elizabeth, are those rare people who are naturally kindly and generous, blessed with a keen sense of humour and a finely honed sense of the ridculous.

The Scotsman has a lovely obiturary, which made me smile, as I rememberd Kenny saying cheekily, “Let joy be unconfined” when something went his way.

He one of the world’s genuine treasures, and the world is poorer for losing him.

Congratulations Fuzzy

I’ve always wanted to be a proper published author. Well Fuzzy’s beaten me to it.

But then again - I’d rather file my teeth than write the book he did.

I’m sure it’s an unputdownable rivetting read… really.

Calvin and Hobbes

Or Calvin and Jobs?

My euphemism is less insulting than your euphemism

Fuzzy has quite accurately summarised part of our dinner discussion about the word “chav” and why it might/might not be offensive.

We both thought the recent commentators had missed the point, by claiming that “chav” was a derogatory term for the whole working class - because it really isn’t - it’s a derogatory term for the working class that have enough money to start appropriating the brands and markers of the upper class (Burberry, Louis Vuitton etc) so it’s really a way of making sure we can all identify the upstarts.

(When I was a kid I went to a terribly, terribly posh school populated almost entirely with Embassy brats with double-barreled surnames - they used to refer to people who were NQTD “not quite top drawer” in the same way.)

Getting back to my point - Chav is just a euphemism - in the same way that NQTD was a euphemism, and they come and go - ban one word, because it’s insulting, replace it with a new word and over time, the new word will be used in an insulting manner…

Think about

• “Retarded”
• Special Olympics”
• “Differently abled”
• “xxx Challenged”

At some point all of these were the polite terms - they replaced the offensive, and, over time, became offensive themselves.

As Fuzzy says - it’s all just sound waves, it’s not the word that’s the problem - it’s the way it’s used. So perhaps we should worry less about whether the word “chav” is offensive, and worry more about teaching people manners.

Everyone loves puppies

My mum and dad got a new puppy last night.

(note: not actual puppy - although I’m told she looks just like this…)

Her name is Peggy, and she’s a West Highland Terrier. I don’t know much more because mum and dad were too busy laughing at her various antics to be able to talk clearly.

I’m looking forward to meeting her.

Topless Dwarf redux

and that’s all I’m saying on the matter.

(picture brought to you by The Newspaper Clipping Generator)

just how old is D&D

It’s an ancient Roman Gaming Die - Historians still don’t know what game it was used for…

I’ve got a few ideas…

Hârnmaster anyone?

(The die was on sale at Christie’s)

How do you spin this?

Austrian kills entire family with axe

This was the bit that gave me a WTF moment

The suspect, who gave his profession as a freelance public relations consultant

A Public Relations Consultant?!!

Oh man

Firstly you’d have thought that at some point when he was hacking into his family he might have thought “hmm it’s going to be hard to put a positive spin on this” and secondly, if we thought we had a bad rep before…

Still I guess we’re still better off that postal workers - who after all have to live with the “going postal” tag

Holy Cow!

Chilli - a 6 and half foot (About 2 meter!) tall Friesian…

But mostly I’m wondering about that harness and lead - surely if that cow decides it’s going someplace that woman is not stopping it..

More about him in the Times

Getting older is not *just* a state of mind

About 6 years ago I had laser surgery on my eyes to correct my vision. Prior to the surgery I couldn’t see my own hands clearly, and I definitely needed my glasses to find my glasses.

Post surgery I had perfect vision in my right eye, and only a slight astigmatism in my left eye (as opposed to being dreadfully short-sighted in both and having a severely astigmatic left eye).

Whoo Hoo!

<insert time passing music>

Last week I started to get all to familiar headaches when sitting at the computer for any length of time… So I went to the optometrist

She checks my eyes and confirms what I’d started to suspect, my left eye isn’t focussing properly - it’s very slightly long-sighted, and it’s having more trouble with the residual astigmatism. It’s not bad enough to really *need* glasses, provided I can minimise the amount of time I spend staring at computer screens.

I write for a living, I explained, minimising the time I spend in front of a computer isn’t really conducive to earning a living.

So, now, I have reading glasses, just like nearly all old people have to get.

<sigh>

On the bright side - I do only need them for computer work, and having to get them eventually was always on the plan. And if I hadn’t had the surgery I’d have had to get bifocals (which are even worse!)

So I’m still of the opinion that the laser surgery was the amongst(1) the best things I’ve ever done.

And my glasses do have quite funky blue frames.

1) other things include getting married and the red run at Niseko