Scattering of Errors

One lump or two?

My last blog seemed to be full of horrible little errors and miscalculations. My HTML went horribly awry and one rather critical sentence seemed to get missed out altogether. It is at times like this that I wish I could blame the falling over water – but in this instance I can’t. (Note 1) I hadn’t even attempted a temporary reality re-adjustment by means of Dried Frog pills or any of the Nightswerve range of fine ales. If my rather inept update yesterday has caused you any inconvenience, then I am truly sorry.

All of my expectant yeomen will be pleased to know that I have now corrected all the errors and inserted the missing sentence which will hopefully mean that the Twelve Days of Christmas shenanigans will make some sort of sense! (Note 2).

The particular synaptic tangent in question was an attempt to assist you in your quest for the present for the men in your life who have everything. This was my attempt to bring a look of pure joy to the face of a male in public (and hence prove Charlie wrong in his belief that males refrain from outpourings of glee in public). The present in question was this tasteful addition to your ablutions. However, according to the product reviews at least, they are likely to prove fun for all the family – even Great Aunt Maud.

I’ve had a grin on my face myself over the last couple of days (No, I have yet to receive any communications satisfying my inner voyeur during this particular spell of interestingness – although there was an offer, it never materialised *sigh*). By now you should all be aware of my fondness of the works of Terry Pratchett. Whoops, silly me! Another incorrect link slipped in. (Note 3) Here, try this one.

The grin has come about because I have had the absolute pleasure of watching the adaptation of his book, Hogfather on TV. I enjoyed this so much that it doesn’t stick in my throat to congratulate Sky (part of the evil Murdoch Empire)!

The adaptation stayed true to the book, was well acted and above all retained all of the satire and philosophical elements of the book that makes it such a favourite of mine. In fact I enjoyed it so much, I’m even prepared to give out the link to the Hogfather website on Sky.

The really good news is that there will be DVD release of the movie around Easter of 2007 for those of you who don’t have access to Sky or have more principles than I and refuse to subscribe. (Note 4)

This photograph was posted in my last blog. On the surface it appears to be a rather glorious sunrise, but there is something a little more to it than that. Something that Sean felt needed a little more explanation. It was taken on one of my occasional business trips to Ipswich - a town in the news for all the wrong reasons (and a parallel to Sean's blog entry about Oregon only getting into the news for the wrong reasons).

The town of Ipswich has fallen under the dark cloud of fear brought about by the discovery that a Serial Killer is loose in the town. Since 15th November, five women have been found murdered. This is unusual because such a high rate of murders is usually something you only see in TV drama and detective fiction as in real life there is often gaps of months or even years between the killings. I suppose it is because it is so unusual that there is such an incredibly high level of media interest - which only serves to increase the level of fear.

My photograph was taken near the Portman Road and Sir Alf Ramsey way. The flood light gantry in the photograph is from the Portman Road ground of Ipswich FC. The significance of the location becomes apparent when you look at the key locations relating to the murders.

I have some deep reservations about the way that the media have chosen to cover this story. My concerns are not new, my disquiet over the way that the news media operates have been voiced before. However, with this story, I have a specific complaint that the media is treating the victims as some kind of lesser beings because of their circumstances. Whatever the rights and wrongs of their lifestyle - they are the victims with the right to respect. They should therefore be described as young women first with their profession being treated as background rather than a rather degrading label to somehow imply that they share blame for their fate.

Given the season, we should remember that all of the women have families who will be grieving. I pass on my sympathies to those families and hope that they are remembered not as another example of how drugs destroy lives but for the positive contribution they made by living.

Well, my fine yeomen, that rather destroyed the 'joy' theme of the blog.

In a (possibly vain) attempt to rectify the situation I shall draw your attention to an article on the work of Susie Rea entitled "intimate strangers". When I came across this article, I was enthralled. It seemed such a simple thing to record the faces of the people you see every day and to scratch the surface to find out a little more about them (if you haven't already it is well worth opening the series of pictures linked to in article). It serves to highlight that life isn't as bad as the newspapers and television would have us believe and that there is good news that can be reported.

It also got me thinking about how blogging is probably this in reverse. We all put a little bit of ourselves and our lives into our blogs and we put them out there for anybody to read. Some of us even put photographs of ourselves so that our loyal yeomen readers can identify the person responsible. (Note 5) Yet with all of these blogs I get the feeling that there are many who have seen my image and have been party to the sparse secrets I share who have never made themselves known to me.

So, if you are reading these words, please spare a minute to leave a comment saying 'Hi'. If you are ever unfortunate enough to see me out and about, please feel free to say it in person. It might just make the whole experience that little bit more intimate and joyous.

From 14th June, the industry standard Crozzy Standard has been applied to footnotes.

NOTE 1: As my regular yeomen will know, hardly a drop of the falling down water touches my lips. I haven’t exactly signed the pledge, but I find that by drinking in such a way as to avoid the lips drastically reduces the danger of spillage. Besides, when drinking Nightswerve’s Velvet Cudgel if it touches the lips there is the risk of blistering. Click to return

NOTE 2: Although I have to admit to severe disappointment with the Yahoo 360 upgrade here. I had hoped that it would now support the opening of links in new windows – but sadly it doesn’t. I have had to fall back on the old faithful of asking my resourceful yeomen to hold down the Ctrl key as they click and just hope that their browsers support such an underhand move! Click to return

NOTE 3: I blame Mattress Madge for that one. Just as I was seeking out the link, she decided to start her new fitness regime by doing star jumps. Very distracting and very ill advised. Now the poor girl is going to spend Christmas with two black eyes. Click to return

NOTE 4: Which does seem to be the strangest timing for the thing. Mind you if it is also being released in the US, then it would seem to be part revenge for having to endure the Christmas Specials of US imports in the heat of summer. Although perhaps the marketing Men will rename it “Soul Cake Duck” to make the timing more appropriate. Click to return

NOTE 5: Although I have yet to have anyone come up to me and ask why an agoraphobic journeyman would be out or even admit to reading this stuff. Click to return

TECHNORATI TAGS : Trivia ; Life ; News; Comedy ; red1hols.