As of tomorrow I'll be on my way on what will hopefully be a fantastic trip across Europe and Russia into Asia. Although this is very exciting it will mean that updates to the website will come to the grinding halt until I return.
Fear not though as new content to the site will come in the form of my travel blog which I'll be updating as I go on my way and hopefully I'll be able to share some photos on there as well.
Find more information in the travel section of the website!
20060426
20060423
Curiosity of time
I was browsing a web forum when I noticed the following:
You last visited on Sat Apr 22, 2006 12:00 pm
The time now is Sat Apr 22, 2006 11:04 pm
and that made me think. Isn't it odd that although (going by the 12-hour clock at least) the time is numerically lower the actually chronological position is later? Why not use a system whereby 1 o'clock represents the start of the new 12 hour period, and so it counts out numerically throughout the period and culminates at 12:59, the highest value, when it then reverts to the next period, be if pm after am for instance.
No doubt there's a particularly good reason why this state of affairs exists which isn't clear to me at this late hour of the evening, and I suppose in any case the delights of the 24-hour clock negates the numerical failings of the 12-hour system, building up throughout the day to reach the pinnacle on 23:59 before returning to 0:00. What could be better?!
You last visited on Sat Apr 22, 2006 12:00 pm
The time now is Sat Apr 22, 2006 11:04 pm
and that made me think. Isn't it odd that although (going by the 12-hour clock at least) the time is numerically lower the actually chronological position is later? Why not use a system whereby 1 o'clock represents the start of the new 12 hour period, and so it counts out numerically throughout the period and culminates at 12:59, the highest value, when it then reverts to the next period, be if pm after am for instance.
No doubt there's a particularly good reason why this state of affairs exists which isn't clear to me at this late hour of the evening, and I suppose in any case the delights of the 24-hour clock negates the numerical failings of the 12-hour system, building up throughout the day to reach the pinnacle on 23:59 before returning to 0:00. What could be better?!
20060422
PDA Blog Test
In advance of my travels I thought I'd better check that I can blog from my PDA should I want to. Well it looks good!
20060419
Living at home
For a couple of weeks I'm enjoying the comforts of my parents' house before I swan off around the world. I get on with them fine, so there's not a problem in that sense but whenever you move from somewhere you're used to into another person's domain it proves to be something of a disorientating experience.
Take this evening for example. Despite having a dishwasher (which my father uses only when forced) I decided to make an effort for once and do the washing up. Simple enough you may think, but when you're placed into a unfamiliar kitchen environment anything can happen. It proved to be a mixed start in that although I had located the required devices involved in the process of washing up there were some unexpected objects jack-knifed in the path towards successful completion. For one thing the sink contained a empty tin of Macaroni cheese which was still a bit too cheesy for my liking, and a jam jar. Unsure just what was intended and why these foreign bodies where cluttering the working area I decided it was time to establish some ground rules. I would do the washing up but I would only wash up items I knew how to wash up and why they needed washing up in the first place. Tin and jar were cast aside to the work surface for a more practical hand to examine at a future point whereas I got stuck in with the proper washing up.
Things were going well, plates and cutlery were cleaning nicely and I was about to put the first plate on the drainer when the next impediment to achieving washing up nirvana became apparent. There was a large plant sat in the cultery rack on the drainer. Not just a large plant but a large plant in a suitably proportioned bowl, rather akin to a casserole dish if anything. The plant had to go before I could get any further in my quest, but why was it there, and what would happen if I were to move it? One thing I'd realised about my parents' house is that things sometimes have their place, but there are many unwritten rules as to why things are where they are. Perhaps I wasn't thinking outside of the box sufficiently, but the plant's purpose in its allocated located was beyond me. There was nothing for it though; I would have to take the plunge, I would have to move the plant and get this washing up done!
And that's what I did. Easy, simple but as whenever you're in someone else's space it's seldom straight-forward. You get to where you're going but you tend to detour via a rural B road rather than taking the motorway straight there. Nevertheless it's a pleasure to be back, and I'll be enjoying it while I can before I get on the road and bargain basement youth hostels become de rigeur.
Take this evening for example. Despite having a dishwasher (which my father uses only when forced) I decided to make an effort for once and do the washing up. Simple enough you may think, but when you're placed into a unfamiliar kitchen environment anything can happen. It proved to be a mixed start in that although I had located the required devices involved in the process of washing up there were some unexpected objects jack-knifed in the path towards successful completion. For one thing the sink contained a empty tin of Macaroni cheese which was still a bit too cheesy for my liking, and a jam jar. Unsure just what was intended and why these foreign bodies where cluttering the working area I decided it was time to establish some ground rules. I would do the washing up but I would only wash up items I knew how to wash up and why they needed washing up in the first place. Tin and jar were cast aside to the work surface for a more practical hand to examine at a future point whereas I got stuck in with the proper washing up.
Things were going well, plates and cutlery were cleaning nicely and I was about to put the first plate on the drainer when the next impediment to achieving washing up nirvana became apparent. There was a large plant sat in the cultery rack on the drainer. Not just a large plant but a large plant in a suitably proportioned bowl, rather akin to a casserole dish if anything. The plant had to go before I could get any further in my quest, but why was it there, and what would happen if I were to move it? One thing I'd realised about my parents' house is that things sometimes have their place, but there are many unwritten rules as to why things are where they are. Perhaps I wasn't thinking outside of the box sufficiently, but the plant's purpose in its allocated located was beyond me. There was nothing for it though; I would have to take the plunge, I would have to move the plant and get this washing up done!
And that's what I did. Easy, simple but as whenever you're in someone else's space it's seldom straight-forward. You get to where you're going but you tend to detour via a rural B road rather than taking the motorway straight there. Nevertheless it's a pleasure to be back, and I'll be enjoying it while I can before I get on the road and bargain basement youth hostels become de rigeur.
20060415
Thought for the day
I’m writing this on Easter Weekend, the time of the year when Christianity is at its most prominent. As many will spend this weekend thinking about the events that are said to have happened two thousand years ago, I thought now would be as good as time as any to pen to paper on the wider subject of religion.
Despite having attended a Church of England Primary School in my youth, today I hold a firmly atheistic position on religion. I can understand why people feel the need to believe in religions and have faith in certain things, but personally speaking I can’t reconcile living life to a set of guidelines with believing in some omnipotent Sky God. As I see it, man began to worships gods in an effort to exact a greater control over his existence, which in ancient times would have teetered on the brink, at the mercy of the weather to provide either a subsistence lifestyle or to be plunged into hunger. In such a situation it is not surprising that people were eager to look to something greater to cling to, that if they worship or give an offering to the sun god their crops will flourish. It sounds like a good deal.
Today we would probably scoff at the thought of worshipping a Sun God, but if we actually spend the time to look at the major religions of our day we can see that, although contemporary monotheistic religions are more advanced than the beliefs held in pagan times, the basis on which people look to religion haven’t altered such a great deal.
Whether we wish to acknowledge the fact or not, the human condition is a precarious one. Although mankind has advanced far it is still the case that everything we have worked toward in our lives could be snuffed out in an instant in an innumerable variety of ways and when we least expect it. When the mortality of either ourselves or those close to us comes into focus it is common to search for answers. It is here organised religions come in, as they offer easy answers to what otherwise would be rather difficult and searching questions. Rather than having to grapple with the concept that our short lives on this Earth are the be all and end all of our existence, it is far more appealing an option to go for one of the answers written for us already, especially if this offers so much more than is apparent in the world around us. In some ways I liken it to going shopping in that choose a product that looks attractive, but we don’t necessarily want to know that our nice new trainers were made in some South Asian sweatshop. Similarly, I feel that many followers of a religion are eager to buy up the product being offered but seldom do they choose to look deeper into their beliefs at risk of tarnishing or undermining the all important product.
To my mind the concepts of an omnipotent yet passive Sky God and that of Heaven and Hell are so obviously the constructs of man that it beggars belief that people really do believe they represent something so much greater then ourselves. Just look into the details here: a God that has created everything, offers everlasting life, and yet doesn’t actively do anything tangible on the world around us meaning that any number of chance occurrences can happily be put down to his work and lapped up without thinking by the faithful. If you were to create a religion, to form a set of rules that you wanted people to follow, what better incentives to create, and what better means could you choose employ in order to encourage belief while avoiding difficult questions. Likewise, let us cast a glance over the blatantly manmade concept of heaven and hell: here we have a wonderful place that all good believers shall go to, whereas all evil non-believers will be plunged into the fires of hell. How terribly convenient, and what more encouragement would you need to stick to the path outlined for you. In fact some religions are actually distancing themsevles from the hell, fire and brimstone approach of the past, but in doing so these very changes reflect the greater history of religions that undermine the notion of their divine status.
It is widely documented by scholars that Christian belief and scriptures have been amended and selectively chosen over the centuries to fit the political demands of the day. It is thought that the whole idea that Jesus was the Son of God as opposed to a man who led a people was only a much later addition or amendment to scriptures. Yet despite this there seems to be a blinkered readiness to believe whatever followers have put before them. This in turn brings us on the topic of ‘faith’. Faith is essentially the teaching that Christians (and indeed the followers of many monotheistic religions) should believe the word as it is written in their holy booka, and by not questioning its legitimacy they are showing great faith. Yet is this not a blatant example of saying to the masses ‘do as we say, don’t ask questions, this is how it is’. Similarly, some religions have established wondrously conceived systems whereby the faithful are permitted only certain food and clothing sanctioned in their scriptures, which will of course only be available from those practicing or organising the religion. Thereby through the use of religion a captive market for certain goods is created; rather the work of astute businesspeople rather than a God I’d say.
At this point we should really turn our attention from the individual followers of a religion to the organisers of the religion itself. Religion wasn’t created simply due to some miraculous events that took place a long time ago, rather it represents a means of keeping the wider body of people in check, on the straight and narrow, and ensuring they’re being productive members of society. Just think, if everyone really thought about human life, that it is just a few short years on this Earth and nothing more, would they really want to toil endlessly for minimal benefit, or would they actually think ‘sod this’ and head off either to have a good time, act selfishly and make the most of the time they have, or opt for a life of rule-less anarchy. Organised religion is in place to keep people in check, as without the carrot of eternal life and the stick of being sent to hell organised society might be at risk of going completely off the rails.
It is argued by some that the demise of family values and society is due to the decline in religious belief. This is probably true to an extent. If you don’t have the fear of God instilled into you at an early age what’s to stop teenagers of today running riot, as they are so often seen to be doing. The problem we face today is that political leaders want to keep society a productive and harmonious place, as indeed they always have done. However while Tony Blair is happy to hold his Christian beliefs the increasing levels of comfort and security that modern life allows is leading to many people feeling that they are not needing to ask those difficult questions and seek the answers and hope that religion provides. Instead they are finding and going their own way, and while sometimes this is just as productive as before, in some cases it is not.
People will continue to come up against difficult questions of life and mortality, and governments will continue to find ways of running and maintaining productive societies, yet both are in need of looking outside of the box of religions and find answers suitable for the age in which we live. From my perspective I can accept that the rule of law in Britain has traditionally been dictated by Christian values, yet I cannot accept that literal interpretations of religious scriptures should be the basis upon which laws should be founded in the future, nor do I see any place for belief in a Sky God in modern politics. The path that needs to be taken may not be an easy one, as it is untested ground, yet the alternatives of a repressive state or maintaining bonds with archaic religions seems both equally unacceptable in the modern progressive society in which we live. I would also like to see a greater acknowledgement of what religion really is; that it is not some miraculous set of answers to all those difficult questions we don’t like to think about but a form of control even manipulation that helps keep the wallets of the organisations well lined. Surely we can be strong enough, intelligent enough and self-aware enough to face the reality of our existence head-on, that the short time we have on the Earth is all that we have, and that we should do all we can to ensure that we make the most of it, not just for ourselves but for those around us and for the generations that will follow. We don’t need religion to tell us this and indeed religions can be prove counter-productive in that it gives some the reasoning that we can let the world go to wrack and ruin as there’s some great afterlife to look forward to. We need to grasp the reality of our situation now more than ever and with it create a sustainable forwarding looking future.
Despite having attended a Church of England Primary School in my youth, today I hold a firmly atheistic position on religion. I can understand why people feel the need to believe in religions and have faith in certain things, but personally speaking I can’t reconcile living life to a set of guidelines with believing in some omnipotent Sky God. As I see it, man began to worships gods in an effort to exact a greater control over his existence, which in ancient times would have teetered on the brink, at the mercy of the weather to provide either a subsistence lifestyle or to be plunged into hunger. In such a situation it is not surprising that people were eager to look to something greater to cling to, that if they worship or give an offering to the sun god their crops will flourish. It sounds like a good deal.
Today we would probably scoff at the thought of worshipping a Sun God, but if we actually spend the time to look at the major religions of our day we can see that, although contemporary monotheistic religions are more advanced than the beliefs held in pagan times, the basis on which people look to religion haven’t altered such a great deal.
Whether we wish to acknowledge the fact or not, the human condition is a precarious one. Although mankind has advanced far it is still the case that everything we have worked toward in our lives could be snuffed out in an instant in an innumerable variety of ways and when we least expect it. When the mortality of either ourselves or those close to us comes into focus it is common to search for answers. It is here organised religions come in, as they offer easy answers to what otherwise would be rather difficult and searching questions. Rather than having to grapple with the concept that our short lives on this Earth are the be all and end all of our existence, it is far more appealing an option to go for one of the answers written for us already, especially if this offers so much more than is apparent in the world around us. In some ways I liken it to going shopping in that choose a product that looks attractive, but we don’t necessarily want to know that our nice new trainers were made in some South Asian sweatshop. Similarly, I feel that many followers of a religion are eager to buy up the product being offered but seldom do they choose to look deeper into their beliefs at risk of tarnishing or undermining the all important product.
To my mind the concepts of an omnipotent yet passive Sky God and that of Heaven and Hell are so obviously the constructs of man that it beggars belief that people really do believe they represent something so much greater then ourselves. Just look into the details here: a God that has created everything, offers everlasting life, and yet doesn’t actively do anything tangible on the world around us meaning that any number of chance occurrences can happily be put down to his work and lapped up without thinking by the faithful. If you were to create a religion, to form a set of rules that you wanted people to follow, what better incentives to create, and what better means could you choose employ in order to encourage belief while avoiding difficult questions. Likewise, let us cast a glance over the blatantly manmade concept of heaven and hell: here we have a wonderful place that all good believers shall go to, whereas all evil non-believers will be plunged into the fires of hell. How terribly convenient, and what more encouragement would you need to stick to the path outlined for you. In fact some religions are actually distancing themsevles from the hell, fire and brimstone approach of the past, but in doing so these very changes reflect the greater history of religions that undermine the notion of their divine status.
It is widely documented by scholars that Christian belief and scriptures have been amended and selectively chosen over the centuries to fit the political demands of the day. It is thought that the whole idea that Jesus was the Son of God as opposed to a man who led a people was only a much later addition or amendment to scriptures. Yet despite this there seems to be a blinkered readiness to believe whatever followers have put before them. This in turn brings us on the topic of ‘faith’. Faith is essentially the teaching that Christians (and indeed the followers of many monotheistic religions) should believe the word as it is written in their holy booka, and by not questioning its legitimacy they are showing great faith. Yet is this not a blatant example of saying to the masses ‘do as we say, don’t ask questions, this is how it is’. Similarly, some religions have established wondrously conceived systems whereby the faithful are permitted only certain food and clothing sanctioned in their scriptures, which will of course only be available from those practicing or organising the religion. Thereby through the use of religion a captive market for certain goods is created; rather the work of astute businesspeople rather than a God I’d say.
At this point we should really turn our attention from the individual followers of a religion to the organisers of the religion itself. Religion wasn’t created simply due to some miraculous events that took place a long time ago, rather it represents a means of keeping the wider body of people in check, on the straight and narrow, and ensuring they’re being productive members of society. Just think, if everyone really thought about human life, that it is just a few short years on this Earth and nothing more, would they really want to toil endlessly for minimal benefit, or would they actually think ‘sod this’ and head off either to have a good time, act selfishly and make the most of the time they have, or opt for a life of rule-less anarchy. Organised religion is in place to keep people in check, as without the carrot of eternal life and the stick of being sent to hell organised society might be at risk of going completely off the rails.
It is argued by some that the demise of family values and society is due to the decline in religious belief. This is probably true to an extent. If you don’t have the fear of God instilled into you at an early age what’s to stop teenagers of today running riot, as they are so often seen to be doing. The problem we face today is that political leaders want to keep society a productive and harmonious place, as indeed they always have done. However while Tony Blair is happy to hold his Christian beliefs the increasing levels of comfort and security that modern life allows is leading to many people feeling that they are not needing to ask those difficult questions and seek the answers and hope that religion provides. Instead they are finding and going their own way, and while sometimes this is just as productive as before, in some cases it is not.
People will continue to come up against difficult questions of life and mortality, and governments will continue to find ways of running and maintaining productive societies, yet both are in need of looking outside of the box of religions and find answers suitable for the age in which we live. From my perspective I can accept that the rule of law in Britain has traditionally been dictated by Christian values, yet I cannot accept that literal interpretations of religious scriptures should be the basis upon which laws should be founded in the future, nor do I see any place for belief in a Sky God in modern politics. The path that needs to be taken may not be an easy one, as it is untested ground, yet the alternatives of a repressive state or maintaining bonds with archaic religions seems both equally unacceptable in the modern progressive society in which we live. I would also like to see a greater acknowledgement of what religion really is; that it is not some miraculous set of answers to all those difficult questions we don’t like to think about but a form of control even manipulation that helps keep the wallets of the organisations well lined. Surely we can be strong enough, intelligent enough and self-aware enough to face the reality of our existence head-on, that the short time we have on the Earth is all that we have, and that we should do all we can to ensure that we make the most of it, not just for ourselves but for those around us and for the generations that will follow. We don’t need religion to tell us this and indeed religions can be prove counter-productive in that it gives some the reasoning that we can let the world go to wrack and ruin as there’s some great afterlife to look forward to. We need to grasp the reality of our situation now more than ever and with it create a sustainable forwarding looking future.
20060405
Farewell the big smoke
Twice I have lived in London, twice I have departed. I wonder if I'll live their a third time? It has to be said on this second occasion London has worked out pretty well for me. Not fantastically, but well enough, and I feel that life has been going pretty favourably. As a result I'm not leaving the city on bad terms this time, yet I do wonder whether I would live there in the future, as although opportunities are great and pay is high, I never feel quite at home there. Whether this will be any different elsewhere I really have no idea, but I suspect I will always be more at home with the culture and pace of life in the North of the country as opposed to that in the South. Somewhere that's bit smaller too, within easier reach of proper countryside might help satisfying my rural hankering after a bit of countryside.
For now however travel is afoot and with it cities and countryside the like of which I've never seen before.
For now however travel is afoot and with it cities and countryside the like of which I've never seen before.
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