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November 29 .That person is a success who has lived well, laughed often and loved much;
who has gained the respect of intelligent people
and the love of children;
who has filled his niche and accomplished his task;
who leaves the world better than he found it,
whether by an improved poppy,
a perfect poem, or a rescued soul;
who never lacked appreciation of earth's beauty
or failed to express it;
who looked for the best in others
Bessie Anderson Stanley/
Ralph Waldo Emerson My friend, I will miss you so very much, __
Phil November 28 Blood BrothersPurple lined velvet capes, a fondness for formal wear and bow ties, Eye-liner, and Super slick hair - And despite all these obvious similarities between gay men and vampires - the National Blood Service in the UK have always given the homosexual community a very wide birth. There's a campaign going on to have the blood donor regulations changed, to remove the discrimination of homosexuals and bisexuals. As it stands, in the UK, any man who's engaged in homosexual relations, or any woman who's had sex with a man who has, can not give blood. The reason being, these people are more likely to be HIV positive, which would infect others with the virus. Italy, South Africa, Sweden, Spain, Portugal, Russia and France all used to have the same law, but in each of those countries, the law has been repealed. But just because other nations think the reasons are invalid, should we believe them and follow suit? As a spokesperson from the NBS (National Blood Service) said:
Is this true? It is the official policy, but that was a policy set a long time ago, when people thought AIDS was a gay disease. Most of us know better now - and because of the intense education in the gay media about HIV & AIDS, the rate of infection in the gay community has been significantly reduced, a trend which has only in recent years followed for heterosexuals as stigma of the disease has dropped too. Let's take a quick look around the world and examine some stats...
[1]
In Korea, where AIDS is a serious problem (if it can ever said to be not one at all):
[2]
And in the UK:
[3]
Surprised about that last one? The disease is indiscriminate. Anyone can and do carry it, there are many ways to contract it, including just about every form of sexual intimacy.
Many cases of HIV go undiagnosed for a long time, as the disease may not present symptoms and heterosexual men are unlikely to have themselves tested for it without very obvious signs they have it. To be honest - I don't care much about blood donor laws. I'm not scared of needles but I'm not there greatest fan and if you say I can't give blood selflessly then well... of all the prejudices, I think I'll be ok with that one if you really have to. But it's not about any of that. It comes down to the same thing for me as for the NBS Spokesperson there. It's about HIV, and this law serves to reinforce the inaccurate and dangerous views that 'homosexuality is the cause of AIDS - if you're not gay, you never need worry; if you are, serves you right'. That kind of opinion encourages the persecution of the suffering, and to be blunt, it kills people.
If the law really was made as a protective measure for this very issue, and gay men have vastly reduced their infections by education and responsibility while heterosexuals have not... the law should now flip shouldn't it? Seriously... why are straight men allowed to give blood? In the US - why allow women to give blood? In Korea, should they allow any men to donate? I think I heard a while ago the rate of heterosexual infections had declined also, but even now, the truth is there isn’t much of a difference in percentage, and while the situation was reversed, the lack of change in the law showed that the law was little based on safety. These days, all blood is screened for any problems, and while no test is 100% accurate, they’re not far off, and we run the risk whoevers' blood it is. My blood, specifically, has a much less chance of having any infections than the vast majority of donors - so where's the sense?
There are more quantifiable differences on HIV infection rates between rich and poor, geographical areas, age, sex, and social interests – none of these factors are worried about when taking blood donations because it will all be screened anyway – but if HIV was the concern despite testing, there’s no excuse for ignoring these issues.
In fact, if we're targeting sexual activity in the screening process... and that's not an unreasonable thing to do, there is only one line of questioning we really need, and it's not sexuality. The questions need to be aimed at asking what kind of sex life this person has – is it careful or not? With whom do they have sex? As for the ban on gay men giving blood? It does a lot more harm than good, if any good at all. We've learnt a lot more about HIV, so let’s bring the laws into the right century, and take effective measures to prevent it's spread. While we're at it, it wouldn't hurt if we all individually learnt a little more about HIV and AIDS, especially at this time as we fast approach World AIDS day. It's time to lift the prejudice of HIV. To sign the petition on the blood ban, go to: http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/bloodban/ To learn more about AIDS and World AIDS day, I'll pass you on to: http://www.worldaidsday.org/ [1] New York Times, 11/98 November 24 The Console WarsJust a few highlights from the battle (in some cases, litterally) so far...
PS3 In the US:
A woman ignored contractions while she queued for a PS3. These things fetched a confirmed $15'000 at their highest on ebay - so she's not all that crazy to be this reluctant to give up her position in the queue. On obtaining her console, she was taken to hospital.
A store was held up by an armed gang who cleaned the place out of it's entire PS3 stock. A group of people were too late to the store when they discovered hundreds of people were already queing on their arrival. So in order to encourage those who'd already begun their wait, the gang took to drive by shootings of the crowd with BB guns. The Mayor of... Detroit I think it was... anyway, a Mayor has announced he is going to bill Sony for the costs of police responses required to subdue the crowds on launch night. 14 cruisers were dispatched to the Sony Store and police remained present in number for hours through the night. If the charges stick, many other cities are expected to follow, leaving Sony with a sizeable bill to pay. A politician who'd made his campaign on challenging Walmart for it's poor employee treatment and tendency to ignore labour rules when 'needs be', was caught out by a reporter who discovered he'd paided poor immigrants to stand in lines for him for over 72 hours at several stores to ensure he got not one, but one PS3 each for his two kids. PS3 In Japan: Long queues, very limited stock, huge media hype... the console sold out quickly, and peacefully. Wii: The launch was popular - big queues, but the stores had a lot more stock than Sony had provided (1000's rather than 10's). Still it was a sell out, but the mobs were appeased knowing many more Wii's would be on the shelves before Christmas.
At the NY launch, the US Nintendo team road around the party on Segways, and before the sales opened, the chief got up on stage and made a speech. He went on to say, 'Someone's told me there are around 3000 people here today. I'm pleased to tell you, there are 4000 units.' The crowd cheered and began chanting his name as he got back on his Segway to ride over and open sales. He was of course, making a dig at Sony in this speech, who had a scarce 100 units at their NY launch. On the Western Front...
Just because the 360 hasn't just been released doesn't mean it's not in this race. The XNA developers suite has started kicking out it's first User Developed games. Some look fairly basic but good fun - classic arcade game remakes - While others... wow... you can do a lot with this XNA thingy it would seem.
A lot of people felt Sony's PS2 severely lacked something to compete with X-Box Live, the system X-Box used to hook you up with other X-Box users online and play multiplayer over the net. PS2 *could* play online, but the service that helped you find your way wasn't as popular. Sony said they've done a lot to tackle that this time round, as online gaming becomes increasingly important. If the online facilities for the PS3 are good, then well done Sony, but really - this is just playing catch-up isn't it? I mean, online gaming isn't a selling point now - it's a basic feature for the two 'uber consoles'. Is this generations new thing going to instead be 'make your own games'? Have Sony underestimated something that will become immensely popular again? And XNA can make games for 360 and PC - shareable over the net... imagine how many more games, many free I expect, will be available on the 360 by next year. Every college programming group, every university final project, every geek group in their mums garage is going to be churning out some fresh and inventive new gaming ideas, every day - including you, or your friends, or your kids.
Or.... it'll flop amasingly... there'll be a handful of games every few months available from it that wont be all that great and not worth the d/l time... and Sony needn't worry about the millions MS have invested into this project.
Time will tell on that one - but I'm putting my hopes on the XNA thing - could revolutionise the whole games industry in a very exciting way. It's all going on!
In other news:
__
Phil
Video of an XNA Community Developed Game: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OHJpeCwOmk
For more - just search for 'XNA' on Youtube.
For more horror stories of PS3 launch - a google search will reveal plenty of examples I'm sure. November 20 Aggressive StupidityThis weekend I spent a lot of money, but I got to see Mark, Alison, and Chris in Sheffield, and my old uni mates in Manchester – both hose things were worth every bit of course. It was a little ragged – lots of travel and not much rest, and I could have used a bit of that, but it wasn’t going to be too bad until the train journey home. Having not slept too much the night before and already having spent over 2 hours on the trains/buses today, I just wanted to get home. Unfortunately, the carriage I sat on was full of rowdy yobs, and an argument between the yobs and the civilised people broke out before we even left the station. The Train Manager gave the lads a warning but they were hardly peaceful as we moved on, and kept telling everyone as loudly as they could that after the stop before theirs, they were going to cause a riot. Yay. Luckily, the train broke down before we go to that point. Yay. We stood on the freezing cold platform for 40 minutes while another train was called in. It was of course, much shorter, and there weren’t enough seats. So the rest of the journey was even more comfortable and while the yobs were split up in the chaos and settled down for the rest of the trip, the whiney screaming annoying piercing little brats a few seats up were more than ready to step into the breach and ensure that no-one on the carriage could maintain a shred of sanity. Rolling into St. Pacras, I walked all the way to the Northern line southbound platform in my zombiefied state before I discovered it was out of action on both routes all the way to Stockwell, and you had to find alternative routes. Walking back up and to the Victoria line, I headed south to Stockwell, waited 20 minutes for a Northern line tube, and stumbled from Clapham Common station to my flat. I got some food, chatted to Jon a bit, then Suz on the phone, and went to sleep. I was woken up at about 4am by a table crashing down in my room, and then again at about 8:00am by Mattius (who I hung up on :P) and then… again by my alarm at 9, and got up about 10. I didn’t think I’d ever get out of the shower while I stood there in the hot water (first shower since Friday incidentally so I was pretty scanky by then), and managed to get ready, take deep breaths, and drag my feet to work, quite a bit late. Yay. The astute amongst you may have noticed my blog hasn’t been much about me lately – just reviews and little things. This isn’t because nothing’s been going on – it’s more the opposite really and I don’t think I’ve either had it in me or felt it right to blog about any one of the things that constitute the big pile of ‘stuff’ that makes up my life right now. It’s fair to say, the last month or two have been a train wreck in pretty much every aspect. Finances, relationships, work, time, health, and all the rest of it – I feel like I haven’t really stopped or achieved very much, if not made things worse where possible. Not too get too gloomy – I figure everyone who reads this, being related to my life in one aspect or more share the exact same crap situations in some number, so you probably understand and know it’s just something we all have to get through. I wish this entry was about coming to the end of this time, but I think the hardest parts are still ahead of us and I sometimes feel I’m already beyond my limits. It’s times like these when it’s good to have places to retreat to emotionally and mentally if in no other way. Some people suggest prayer, and while prayer is important and effective in some ways, I find in times of hardship prayer is far from restful. It’s the ground on which you battle the deepest impact of the difficulties – I tend to get pretty intense to be honest. The church of course is there to give rest and support in times of need, though the church is far from that role in my life these days – I find it quite hard to be around some of the other Christians I’ve been running into, and not feel offended, disrespected and to generally despair within a very short space of time. I’ve even got a little angry at people I should never feel angry towards, and I’m challenging myself to hold those responses and feelings captive, but if they were to take a break from aggressive stupidity for a while that’d help a lot. Anyway… I guess I’m saying it was time to do a blog about me, and to round up – I’m a very busy, unstable, useless, high stressed and exhausted mass of steaming emotion who had a very bad train journey home and not nearly enough sleep, on a very uncomfortable bed. __ Phil November 17 There She Is!I love this catroon (requires flash and sound):
More in the series here (again requires flash and sound):
Animation group at:
And for those of you who want a more meaty blog post with a bit of debate, I once again point you in the direction of Carlos, where we've been beating each other over the head with arguments 'For and Against Free Speech.'
To join in - go to:
__
Phil November 16 Cartoon MusingsI didn't find anything. So instead, I'll just tell you about that comic. For those people who follow all the links on blogs, to see that bloggers friends blogs, and then click through that bloggers links to see their friends blogs too... and you know who you are - you may find this blog entry little more than a reminder of something you've found already. For the rest of you - let me draw your attention to a link on Carl Baker's Blog, to the 'We Blog Cartoons' site. They're worth a look - here's a few I found spoke to me: November 14 Console WarsThere's a million and one console reviews out this week because for those who missed it, the long awaited Sony PS3 arrived in the Japan last weekend, and along with the Nintendo Wii (which is launching globally I think) will be avaiable in the US this weekend. These two additions along side the X-Box 360, complete the next-gen console line up for Christmas. Unfortunately for us Europeans, the PS3 wont be available in our shops until March next year, so all you boys and girls who want one have the choice of having hard cash for Christmas and, adding that to the money you'll get for selling a kidney, and buying a PS3 in a few months.... or just getting a Wii or 360 on the festive day itself. Oh yes - there's quite a price difference, with the Wii at $250 (excuse the dollars - I dunno what the GBP prices are going to be), the 360 at $300 for the budget and $400 for the top model, while the PS3 is nudging in at a bold $500-$600. I remember getting a MegaDrive fro Christmas once as a joint present... how times have changed eh? Seriously though - I can't believe parents will spent $600 on all their Christmas present put together. Sony are hoping the fact their unit doubles as a high quality Blueray player, the stand alone Sony Blueray player being $1000, will sway the grown ups... but I'm thinking this argument wont stick in a lot of households (I'm prolly not the only one who thinks at some point, the kids will want to play while the rents/siblings want to watch a film - major conflict alert!) Price factors aside, I've heard the PS3 is an awesome machine and its' fiercely loyal fan base might pull it through. It better had. If it doesn't, I don't fancy Bluerays chances in the format war, and if that fails, I don't fancy Sony's chances of staying in business for much longer (at least not at the top of it). The Wii, just to give it a mention, is not going for the same market. They're after the other percentage of the population - those not considered as 'gamers': The older men and women of all ages - Nintendo have realised if they can break into that market, they don't have to worry about their rivals battling it out over the high specs and graphics engines. And I think it'll work too - go Nintendo. November 12 Think Germany... Now Think AgainLondoner’s may recognise these posters (sorry the pictures are rubbish – only copies I could get).
It’s the tube advertising campaign for German tourism. I gotta ask… wha? The campaign seems to be saying “Come to Germany cos we’re all modern and stuff! Don’t let the old fashioned image fool you.” Thing is… if I want to travel on a train through green fields… I’ll get on one here. If I want to stay in a nice hotel… for goodness sakes – you’re advertising to people on the Tube… they’re going underneath half a dozen similar hotels as they read your poster. Mp3 players? Wow! We don’t’ have those here.. or anywhere else in the world – thank goodness I can buy and use on in your country. And I just have… no… comment… at all for the last one. On the other hand… classic cars, I guess for some sports... maybe… alright that posters just a total miss, but the clock – sure – little trinkets of German manufacturing – quality and precision with a bit of culture… these are the very things we’d come to Germany for. I’m not travelling from London to Berlin to experience all the things that are exactly the same – if I’m going to go to Germany I want German culture – the things you’re telling us to not think about. Is this not one of the most backward campaigns you’ve ever seen?
__ Phil November 08 I'm very big in IndiaVery exciting! I just found out my blog hit number 2 on google listings when you searched for "firefox 2.0 pluggins" last week. Not the co.uk or the com site... the 'co.in' version of Google - India's access point to the popular search engine. And I got quite a lot of hits through that - perhaps that's why my blog was painfully unreliable last week. I've checked now - I'm not number 2 anymore, but I'm still on the second page. I feel like someone should owe me commission... I think Microsoft as I generally up'ed their IE7, and they make the money for the ads on this space. You listening Bill? Are you?! I am the voice to India! And I want my MONEY! *Ahem*... Sorry - think the power went to my head for a moment there. To any readers from India - Welcome, and sorry for getting in your way when you're clearly looking for FF Plugins. __ Phil Mass Congratulations!I think I missed a few congrats over the last few months - seems just about everyone's getting married - so hard to keep up!
So congratulations all you love birds who've recently tied the knot, and to you kids who've got engaged. This was triggered of course on the most recent announcement of my friend Aaron Gulliver, who proposed to his girl last Wednesday - no-one deserves such happiness more than him, I wish you all the best bro.
Weddings make me all emotional and stuff - it's awesome to see the people that mean a lot to me so happy and lovey dovey, excited and contented about their joining with their beautiful partners. Just lovely.
Ok ok, enough of the mushy moments now. Umm... geeky stuff geeky stuff... let's see...
A while ago I posted on 3D Earth Mapping attempts by Google and MS. Well MS have added a Google like approach to their Live Maps - bits of London are even done already, and it gets pretty detailed. I haven't checked in on PhotoSynth's progress though - if someone's curious enough to look at their site and enlighten us all, by all means go for it.
In other news, Mac's now have Core 2 Duo's. If you're looking to buy a new Mac, any time from say... tail end of this month and onwards is a decent time. But high in the range. The spec will be good for the next OS upgrade and be competitive for a good while. I doubt there'll be another significantly different/'worth buying into' Mac range for a while now, possibly not until Intel rolls out a full range of their 'quad core' or 'core duo extreme' chips in the autumn/winter of next year.
For those people shopping for PC's however - hold you horses a little longer - I'm still saying February of 2007 will be the best buy time.
You're up to date, I've got a meeting.
Be good.
__
Phil November 06 How cool...November 03 Forbidden Love IILook what I found digging through the archives of my old old old website. It's an article about Sex Before Marriage, and it don't read to badly. Wasn't from *that* long ago either. Actually looking at the quotes at the bottom, it looks like it's version 4 or 5 or an article written quite a number of years back, but it was revised no more than 3 years ago.
I wonder if the Phil I am now would get on with the Phil I was then. I think we would you know - I really do. And for an Evangelical - I don't think I was too shabby at it - there's some classic visual aid stuff in play here - just classic. I could have been an elder or something one day. Take a look... ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Apologies if this ramble makes no sense what so ever but I’ve just been up all night working, it’s now 6:45am, and I can’t promise my sentences will follow on from one another. That said this is a good length of free time, and a chance to write a little about sex before marriage, which our good friend Carlos has asked me to talk about. I find this a little difficult, when I talk about Sex before marriage it’s usually in person and with the aid of a flip chart, a cup of coffee, a cup of water, and piece of paper. Armed with such visual aids it’s easy to fully embody the said issue. And they accuse me of over simplifying things. Humf. In any case, I don’t have these things, so I may call upon your imagination from time to time. In this blurb, I want to address (in no particular order): What is a ‘relationship’? What is ‘marriage’? What is ‘sex’? What is ‘before’? Ok, so I just threw that last one in cos I felt sorry for it. It would be mean to leave it out. I might make something up for it later. I want to start by saying the key word is ‘balance’. Any relationship is made up of bonds between people, and I’m going to way over simplify those bonds by putting them into four groups. Emotional, Spiritual, Mental, and Physical. Emotional bonds are fast to grow and don’t take much effort. They’re very strong as well as being difficult and painful to break. They’re about feeling, and you find it hard when you’re apart because of these bonds. Spiritual bonds are perhaps not as easy to develop but I’d dare to say they are as natural to grow as emotional bonds – even if people don’t acknowledge they are there. This is perhaps more about a sense of each other – and can be isolating and disturbing to have broken. This is about a connection that grows between you and the other person, the one that lets you know when they’re feeling distant or down, the one that let’s you see the light and dark that’s in them. Before I get too metaphorical I’ll move on, but I hope you see the distinction I’m making between emotional and spiritual – it’s a fine one, but it’ll help you to think of them separately. Mental is about your thoughts and how you tick. How you speak and come to conclusions. In time, you grow to complement how the other works. It’s not that you start thinking alike – though it would probably be easier if it worked that way. It’s more that you gain a deeper understanding and are able to mix your different ways of looking at the world and interpreting thoughts easier. So much so that in the absence of your partner, you’ll miss the partners help in making sense of your day/week/whatever. Finally the physical bonds – perhaps the easiest to define – I’m talking about physical intimacy on any level. From sight and hugs, to full on tongue wrestling and sexual intercourse. The whole range. I want to come back to my key word now. Balance. You’ll find that a relationship that has those in balance, not one rushing ahead of the others or one lagging behind, tends to be one that grows and matures over time in a healthy and wonderful way. And those which aren’t in balance tends to find it harder to get through the rough times and often get ‘stuck’ in the same state, eventually being abandoned one way or the other. I think I jumped ahead of myself there, I will try and cover the reasoning here, I’m not used to saying all this in text form. So a good relationship is where your spiritual, emotional, physical, and mental bonds are all appropriately level. If your at the holding hands and smiling nervously stage, you needn’t be able to finish each others sentences, sense when the others having trouble in their soul or feel incomplete without them (though hormones can do a pretty good job at making things feel like that). And if your at the point where your deeply in love, and have developed as a couple so much that you are spiritually, emotionally, and mentally one union – where either of you is so much a part of the other that to be apart is literally to be incomplete, then it’s quite appropriate to be having sex. But it’s all a bit subjective – we all know that when your in a relationship, you always feel like your at the truly deeply developed, totally in love and lost without that person stage. Even if a day later, week later, month, even a year later – we realise we aren’t quite in that ‘love forever’ place we thought we were. I’m not going to give you definitive stages of appropriate physical boundaries for every step of the way – I can’t – relationships a slow process, gradually becoming closer, not a 12 step procedure or anything like that. I’ll give you the start and end state, and let you decide what your ready for. The start is easy – no relationship, no physical contact. Don’t go up and randomly embrace people on the high street – it’s not appropriate and they’re likely to either punch your lights out or call the police. The end state is also pretty easy – a fully developed relationship, which is where the 2 people involved are one in a metaphorical sense, then you can have sex. Don’t marry and live with someone for 50 years and never once touch them – that’s just weird and they’re likely to either cheat on you or get a divorce. So what’s the marriage thing about? Your youth leaders and parents at this point are sweating because I’ve just given you permission to go have sex if you think your ready. Alas, I am lulling you into a false sense of security, one which I’m about to smash with a thundering reality chec… you’ve stopped reading haven’t you? Damn. I’m in trouble. Ah well, if you come back, or by some miracle your still reading, here’s where theory meets reality. Marriage. One of the most misunderstood and unnecessarily complicated institutions in the history of our culture. What is it? A ceremony? A contract? A right of passage? A sacrament? Who cares? Taking the bible as a historical reference, in the book of Ruth, we see marriage in it’s simplest form. “Hey everyone – we want to be married.” “Oh, great – good for you.” “Alright. Seeya then.” “Bye. Have a nice marriage.” Ok – so I paraphrase. But basically, a marriage is the public declaration of your life long commitment to one another. No minister, party, speeches, invites, costs, cake, flowers, fancy dresses, or any of that trimming. No contract or registry, no legal proceedings or lawyers to be involved. Don’t get a marriage before God mixed up with a state marriage. The state one’s all good and fine – that’s for tax and record purposes… but when we’re looking at morality, it’s not the state we’re worried about, it’s the Kingdom of God. I’m only going to address marriage, rather than weddings. So when you’ve reached a point in relationship where your inseparable for life, where the bonds run so deep and so intertwined in balance that you wouldn’t be complete without him/her… then your at the point that a more liberal theologist might say is marriage. And looking at marriage as a ‘state’ rather than an event, despite it not fully representing the concept, still has its’ advantages, and forces us to think of marriage as an ongoing process instead of a special day. Here’s the test then – you think your ready for sex? Tell everyone your married and be together for the rest of your life. Have the ceremony too – why not? If your serious and sure then this is a joyous occasion and it’s fitting to celebrate it – that’s what a wedding ceremony is for. No? Not ready to marry? Then I guess your not as ready for sex as you’d like to think. There is still something that niggles me in the back of my mind. I can accept the balance thing being good to develop a relationship. I can accept what it means to be married and how sex seems appropriate to that level. But… sex is pretty good fun. It’s nice, and I want to do it sooner rather than later. Okay, so it’s something I should be doing in marriage, but that’s not to say I can’t do it before then – just for the experience and pleasure I can get from it. You’ve stopped reading again haven’t you? Sorry – I went a bit overboard on selling it to you there. If you’ve come back or stuck around, I’m about to explain to you why it’s not so wise to take sex lightly. Let’s talk about sex. And if you just broke out into song I want you to know that you’re not big, and you’re not clever. Sex is powerful. You may have noticed in previous stages of your relationship that when you move up to a new physical level, your other bonds become somewhat heightened by this new found level of intimacy. It’s probably easiest to note emotionally. Sex is a very powerful way to bond with someone. ‘Two become one’ as both Moses and the Spice Girls tell us (just so you know I’m shaking my head in despair at that song and that ‘pop group’ in general, not citing them as reliable sources). Your bodies literally become one thing. That’s fine, when your souls are joined as one, your hearts, your minds. But when they’re not (when you not in that state of being we call marriage), your just making random deep bonds on all levels that are likely to be disproportionate to where you are and to each other. This will not seal the death of your relationship, so don’t panic, but it will complicate things. And if your relationship does end, either as a result of that unbalance or not, it’s going to hurt a hell of a lot more than it should do – it will damage you. At this point I usually have a visual aid where I mix one thing into another and ask you to separate the two. Like 2 colours of sand, mixed in the middle. Or I use a piece of tissue paper and ask you to rip it into perfect halves. The point of which is to show that when things have been bonded together, it’s not so easy to cleanly break them apart. As relationships grow, you give more and more of yourself to the other person, and if they leave, they take some of that with them. Each relationship you have you can lose a bit of yourself. Sure you can heal, but the scar will remain for a long time, and I’m sure I don’t have to tell you about the pain. The more you were bonded, the more this is going to damage and hurt you. Done repeatedly and this process can lead to all kinds of problems in future relationships. Unable to open your soul or your heart to your partner – unable to let yourself feel or trust openly. You get bruised and battered if you randomly mix and match relationship aspects without that balance. Anyone who’s gone through a stage of their life like that I’m sure can identify with this, and if you ask around you may well find those people who will be able to tell you the same thing. It’s takes a piece of you when a partner you have a sexual relationship with is gone. So it’s best to lose as few as possible where the ultimate success would be to stay with your first lover for your whole life. And you know what that’s called don’t you. That’s right – No sex before marriage. I collected some quotes from my friends and co-workers, some of which are married and so I thought you might like to see their opinions: “Just a thing you do” - Simon (Married) “Expensive” - Jordan (Single) “A bonding of a man and woman under the same last name, who pledge to God that they will have a 3-way relationship” - Martin (Single, and I think he meant God when he said 3-way) “When you marry someone” - Vicky (Single) I’m not sure if I’ve covered everything I can say about this, but I think I’ve said enough to get the understanding I’m trying to give – I’m sure you can build on this from your own experience and thoughts. If you have any more specific thoughts, arguments, questions, comments, additions, or anything, feel free to e-mail me. Other than that I think I’ll let you guys take it from here and I’ll go back to work. ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Well - you heard the man! Comment and email! Oh, and... Be good, ;-P __
Phil November 02 All I need is a tall ship, and a star to sail her by...If you could have a starship... you know - find one (or a way to one) that no-one new about in an underground cavern by some crazy series of events tomorrow afternoon or something... what would you want it to be like? Next up, your small freighters. Serenity (Firefly/Serenity), The Millenium Falcon (SW), Starbug (Red Dwarf), we said we'd put runabouts and raiders (ST) in here. D-12's would go in here too (the really small Klingon Bird of Prey's - ST). These things usually have a bit of character to them. Rickety barges, these ships can be crewed by a handful of people and host many more in emergencies. They're a little more adaptive in their purpose but still not really covering every base. Needing a crew, you're not so independent as such, but the crew as a whole don't need much in the way of supporting infrastructure so you wont exactly be tied down either. Atmospheric flight and longer range/higher speeds - you still wont be beating the larger vessels for raw power but you can boast of your tweaked focused performance areas. Good for freight and long term adventure - you have to know your limits, but these things can be a lot of fun. Oh, and if you're not into slumming it on the Serenity or Falcon - Star Trek brings you the Nova, which brings you a nice clean feel option to this size class. Now we're getting into the big boys. The Defiant (ST) can be staffed with a crew of 50, but there's not much leeway on that number. Tactical Small Cruisers, Large Freighters - the Voyager (ST) is probably at the larger end of this group and in between you have the Klingon K'Vorts (ST), Corellian Corvette's (SW) and... okay I'm not really sure of that many ships in this class. Quite a lot of Trek options but I'll need help to name ships outside that verse.
__ November 01 Firefox 2.0 Verdict Still OutOn the one hand - last night we discovered an error in the way FF renders a bit o' style rules, and yes, this particular one was an actual FF failing, not a warped understanding of agreed standards because IE's decided it'll play a little differently. I'd heard rumours that these things existed, and here they are (specifically for those who want to know, it was about the "Style='inline'"/"'Style='none'" settings.
This took up both time and effort to fix (of both Matt and myself), but I guess it wasn't too long.
On the flipside, I left my PC on last night as I had several browsers with useful resources open and I didn't want to lose them and couldn't be bothered to bookmark them (though FF's bookmark all tabs does make this easy). My PC performed an update in the night, and Windows informed me on my arrival at work that it had required, and so done an auto-restart (even though it's set not to auto-restart after upgrades).
This had closed the browsers and everything - but FF's session restored detected the forced close and saved the status, asking me when I hit the shortcut - 'Do you want to restore the previous session?'
Why 'Yes' I clicked - and all my hard found pages were back :-D
Firefox saves.
Now some people (cough *Josh* cough) have commented how my my pictures tend to favour the male population of our race, and that it's not always things they want to see. On the one hand... it's my blog... what do you expect? But I *am* a giving person, let it never be said I'm not accomodating.
Chicks dig Firefox.
I'm definately feeling it's a mixed bag this new version.
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Phil |
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