No news. Got you here under false pretenses. Just changed my photo. Want to look my 'best' for you after all...
Adjusted for age, slang and cuteness differences, this is the story of my life... sob. (xkcd.com)
Well, as expected all went well at uni. No deaths occurred... no asteroids were sghted approaching our atmosphere... continents didn't collide, (well any more than usually anyway), so all's well that ends well. Panic officially over. Just thought you'd like to know...
For the last two days I've been feeling a low level anxiety. Butterflies have been roaming with impunity in and out of my internal organs. Niggling little headaches have been washing back and forth across my forehead. It has just occurred to me the reason why. I am nervous and a little frightened.
The reason for this 'trauma' is that I am back at university tomorrow. My reaction to this is absolutely ridiculous. I like university. I like the subjects that I'm doing. This is my SECOND year! I'm a 44 year old man with years of work experience behind him - I have been responsible for budgets of over 130 million pounds and managed multi-disciplinary teams based all over the world.
Now I'm gibbering mildly about 'going back to school.' Weird... I suppose I'll be all right by tomorrow night...
Not perhaps the most important piece of legislation for most of us, but a wonderful illustration of how one small slip can make our public servants look foolish...
"Maritime lobster fishermen in need of financial help got a lift of another kind Tuesday when they were directed to a toll-free number that was supposed to detail an aid package but connected them to a lusty sex line instead.
One of the several toll-free information numbers released by Fisheries Minister Gail Shea hooks callers up to a sex line that offers fishermen nary a detail on the lobster stimulus package." Listen
To be honest, I'm not sure whether I should be appalled at the sadness of this, or just accept that the human condition is complex and unfathomable...
"Best man Ryuichi Ichinokawa took his place before the assembled wedding guests, cleared his throat and for the next few minutes spoke movingly about the bride and groom. But his speech omitted one crucial fact: that he knew the beaming couple only marginally better than the waiters and waitresses serving their wedding breakfast.
From the moment the guests sat down until they belted out the final karaoke song of the evening, Ichinokawa was part of a grand, though well-intentioned, deception.
He is a professional stand-in, part of a growing service sector that rents out fake spouses, best men, relatives, friends, colleagues, boyfriends and girlfriends to spare their clients' blushes at social functions such as weddings and funerals.
This weekend he adopted yet another guise, as the uncle
of a 12-year-old boy and his younger sister at a school sports day. He
dutifully cheered them on, recorded their efforts on his handheld video
camera and joined in the adult-and-child races." More
In complete contrast to my last post. I read the following a couple of days ago.
"Speaking in a soft, sometimes labored voice, the only U.S. Army officer convicted in the 1968 slayings of Vietnamese civilians at My Lai made an extraordinary public apology while speaking to a small group near the military base where he was court-martialed." Read
My reading of the article was apposite as it coincided with my reading books on the holocaust and the mass bombing of city-dwelling civilians during World War II. (As you can see, I'm feeling cheery at the moment). I was struck by the fact that in all these cases the most appalling actions were carried out by, in essence, you and I... normal people acting in the most 'abnormal' of ways.
Obviously, the notion that cruelty, minor or severe / casual or premeditated, occurs in the world is not new to me - a glance at the news each evening is usually instructive. I apologise if this smacks of naivety, but after reading each of the above, I want to understand a little more of why the average can do the intolerable. I will post in the future.
