http://barefootbum.blogspot.com/2009/06/atheists-manifesto.html

Obviously, the bum is quite serious about his philosophy. I find it hard to disagree much with what he says, even as he's deliberately blunt.

Has modern society with its general level of prosperity outgrown religion? I mean, any of the good things that religion has brought, could now be organised and run in a secular way. His thoughts on complicity are pretty harsh. I though 'ouch' while reading, but...

Mm, maybe I should go to another Alpha Course again. I might have even more fun this time.

So I'm back on the usual number. Previous one reverts to backup number.

If you read this and don't know my usual mobile no, but would like to then send me an email!

Tickets go on sale on Monday:

Artists include:
LUCINDA WILLIAMS - THE ZUTONS - LOS LOBOS - THE SAW DOCTORS - BOOKER T. - PAUL BRADY - THE WATERSON FAMILY - BUFFY SAINTE-MARIE - OUMOU SANGARE - EDDI READER - BETH NIELSEN CHAPMAN - BELLOWHEAD - CARA DILLON - MARTIN SIMPSON - SUSAN TEDESCHI - BLAZIN’ FIDDLES - EDWARD II - LAU - JIM MORAY - IMELDA MAY - MÁIRTIN O’CONNOR, CATHAL HAYDEN & SÉAMIE O’DOWD - DIANA JONES - ADRIAN EDMONDSON & THE BAD SHEPHERDS - WATERMELON SLIM & THE WORKERS - HAYES CARLL - JON BODEN & THE REMNANT KINGS - HOT CLUB OF COWTOWN - CROOKED STILL - BRIAN McNEILL - ALELA DIANE - THE DEMON BARBERS - BELLA HARDY - PETE MOLINARI - GENTICORUM - RUPA & THE APRIL FISHES - THE TREACHEROUS ORCHESTRA - NEW ROPE STRING BAND - MUMFORD & SONS - THE SHEE - MEGAN & JOE HENWOOD - STEAMCHICKEN - RUARIDH MACMILLAN - CALAN - SUNDAY DRIVER -

30th July-2nd August.

Me and Lera will be daytripping each day, but we have friends who're camping.

Fun!

No surprises, really... When I'm up, I'm ESTJ, when I'm low I'm ISTJ. ( Myers-Briggs stuff )
( D+D - yeah, neutral good. Like everyone else... )

Yes, exciting news, huh. I went for the FCR2 partly to support my local bike shop, and partly because it's zippy and nice, and I was too lazy to look harder.

Expect imminent woe regarding punctures.

Courtesy of ankaret
( Cambridge, webcomics, MMOs, 4th Edition D&D, politics. )

I'm easily confused.

The FCR3 is about 100 quid cheaper than the FCR2. Weather still precludes test-riding. Main diff is the Carbon fork blades or either Aluminium/or CrMo depending on which spec I read.

Is it worth paying more for 'better spec' of stuff on the same frame?

I'm considering a replacement bike. The Claud Butler Odyssey that I've been riding for a couple of years seems made out of unnaturally dense stuff, and my wussiness complains.

So, I need something light, able to take a rack and panniers and me without crumpling into shards of carbon(or other frame-making material). I only really cycle on roads. Occasional dips onto flat grass, to go around people on a cycle path on commute to work.

Budget is <500 quid.

Questions or opinions?
Disc brakes - pointless frippery and weight, or lovely lovely (please expand on hydraulic/mech disc if you feel inclined)
Tyre size - is 28mm width too wussy?
Tyre/wheel type - road wheels and high psi thin tyres are probably faster, but how much more puncture-likely?

Possible contenders without a test-ride of any as yet:
Giant FCR 2 (shiny, in local bike shop, rim brakes)
Specialized Sirrus (a guy at work has one and it looks okayish)
Ridgeback Velocity
Halfords Boardman urban hybrid (Staff at halfords are scary muppets but maybe you know a good one...)

Yes. You're all entitled to your own opinions.

But, some people may have studied something and done some research, and so one might reasonably argue that their opinion was slightly weightier in the scales than a less informed opinion.

A survey follows, at the link. In which the general public express an opinion at odds with a bunch of folks who may know more about the subject.

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=1184

http://www.gnomestew.com/

collaboratory observational game mastery stuff

Ooh, 6 weeks pass. I survived the redundancy round. Cross fingers that'll be it for a while.

Christmas was good, entertaining at ours. Off to simoneck's tonight for NYE.
Then must whip together some sort of a recap for Eberron, since we haven't played for a couple months and Lots of stuff happened.

Happy Winter.

I installed OpenOffice on the new PC (Vista-64bit). Ran the installer, it gives me a neat little icon on the desktop called 'OpenOffice'.

It doesn't work.

I can see several soffice.exe and soffice.bin processes in task manager taking up memory but no CPU, and I can see no evidence of applications on the desktop at all. Running the individual applications from the start menu seems to have no effect, except to add another mostly invisible process to the list in task manager.

Have I made some obvious beginner mistake? Currently it doesn't win my idiot prize for 'Click Next>Next>Next and you get a working application'

http://epidm.edgesuite.net/CMS/ElectronicArts/SWTOR/2008/382220/Final/swtor.html

Mm, Jedi... That is all...

World Vegan Day is 1st November.
http://www.worldveganday.org/

Why not try it? Yummy and land-use effective in production.

Or, as the vegan zombie says: 'Graaaiiins...'
(thanks to Greg Dean - http://reallifecomics.com/archive/001031.html)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7681914.stm

Fantastic stuff...

So, sure. Maybe we shouldn't wander the world with armies and invade places to help democracy along a little. On the other hand, when the locals take it upon themselves to murder charity workers, I can't help but feel a bit pissed off.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7679212.stm

Now, if they were doing a decent thing, like target off-duty soldiers as any self-respecting freedom force under an oppressive colonial jackboot might, that could -almost- be understandable, albeit wrong. But to shoot some woman avowedly because her organization preaches Christianity in Afghanistan? Ah, it just seems wrong to me.

Worse than that, it doesn't make me think 'Oh well, they're right really, we should pack up and go, they obviously have it all in hand'. It makes me more in favour of indiscriminate military action to really mess them up. Which is bad, and a vicious spiral of death and nastiness. I seem to recall that Russia got no joy out of invading Afghanistan, so I'm really surprised that we're still trying it as a going concern. I think part of our reluctance to exit is based on the fact that we'd be leaving 'bad ' people in charge and getting away with it.

So, how do we exit from these ill-advised global conflicts with a minimum of shame on our side, and a minimal amount of crowing by the indigenous lackwits that may claim a Great Victory of Islam over the Evil West, because I suspect that some folks will represent it as such.

EDIT: It would be nice if the media did portray it as 'cowardly toe-rags execute woman in the street because they felt like it' - Report news in a secular fashion and deny these vicious, opportunistic killers the chance to cloak it in a very subjective, 'righteous', faith-based justification. Oh yes, that would also count for other faiths and non-faiths, too. Murderous little gits.

Scary Go Round is fab - that is all.

And a fine source of Tshirt designs that get favourable comments in the wider world. They recognise you as part of a select crowd, when you wear them. I myself have been the target of suggestive flirtations by off-duty librarians whilst wearing my 'Books Rule!' T-shirt.

http://www.scarygoround.com/index.php

The artist and creator wanted his readership to spread the word, and like a loyal groupie, I do. It isn't hard to get into, it's just the everyday goings on in a little northern town called Tackleford. Kind of like the Archers, only the major protagonists are young, shiftless and cute, rather than old and farmers.

I found the Barefoot Bum by way of an acquaintance's LJ. The Bum writes about politics and economics a little and atheism a fair amount. Of much more interest he's rather well written, and I was sucked in especially by his slightly ranty delivery on why identifying as 'agnostic' was a little bit wet and fence-sitting. Oh yes, he philosophises a bit - and I quite like that in a blog.

http://barefootbum.blogspot.com/2008/10/atheist-or-agnostic.html

Anyway, it was rather eloquent, and made me think to a much greater extent - "Yes, of course!"

Obviously, I reserve the right to change my mind at some point in the future when observable evidence changes.

Plans to introduce an insect from Japan to eat the Japanese Knotweed.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7531221.stm

I hope they've tested it against all the british plants too, in case it finds them even tastier.

Halloween falls on a friday night this year. Do you have any plans?

Should we have plans? The idea of painting Henry orange and carving^Wdrawing a face on his tummy is pretty horrific. The idea of 'helping' him bob for apples isn't much better.

Sure we won't be parading him around the neighborhood, but it may be nice to have a small do, despite newfound atheist fervour.