Inception

I've been trying to rationalise my web presence but it's been a bit tricky.  I've stopped looking at FB as mentioned in the previous blog, in fact I went through the quite tearful departure as it begged and used emotional blackmail to get me to stay.  So and so will miss you, this person will not know where you are.  Eventually they reminded me that it all stays where it is.  Oh yes, I've granted them a perpetual licence.  

So now I've started building my own website, I registered my own domain name and I have tried to centralise all my bleating on the web.  Follow the link below, then select off the top menu and you will experience something akin to Inception.... 

http://www.soliloquy.me.uk/Soliloquy/Welcome.html

I haven't decided on a consistent theme and I'm just getting the hang of frames so bare with me.

Finally, I haven't managed to activate a comments section so you'll just have to google+ me, or at the very least twot me (not sure of the official present tense personal for "To Twitter", and I'm damn sure I'm not going to use the past participle that seems to fit!)

Blogging is such sweet sorrow

We watched a "best of live at the Apollo" last night. It was funny in places but I was reminded of a quip on some other show saying ".... that was as thin as Michael McIntyre's material" (http://www.comedy.co.uk/guide/tv/michael_mcintyre_roadshow/press/) still it was light entertainment.
A clip of Ed Byrne was aired where he trotted out some amusing observations about the differences between men and women, still funny to hear them a second time, one such observation, posed as a question from men to women; "you know when you ask us what we are thinking....", well I won't just repeat the joke in writing, since without the lyrical southern Irish tones and the cheeky wink at the camera, it may fall flat. Suffice to say, men tink about nutten ;-)

Do we really think about nothing? I'm afraid to say it's not true in my head. It never stops churning over and over, analysing, questioning, postulating. The noise can be as suffocating as it is intoxicating. I rarely remember my dreams and I think it is probably because my brain is completely exhausted so, when I sleep, it honestly needs a rest. In fact my inner narrative is so profligate it has often deigned to share it's overflow with random expressions to anyone within earshot. I have, over the years, learned to curb this trait. How am I doing? I seem to notice this trait in others and tend to be more tolerant than many as I too hear the noises.

Reading other's blogs, as I do, I still question the purpose of my own. In general some blogs are review digests, some are issue related discussion boards, many others also seem to have a purpose. Not sure what the purpose of mine is. Is it just another valve with which to release the noise from my head? Is it a necessary chore that serves to allow the peace and quiet with which I struggle to surround myself?

Sent from my iPad

Share and share alike

An interesting phrase, so obvious in meaning that you don’t have to think about it. This weekend I have been moved to think about sharing. In a previous blog I touched on “The Tragedy of the Commons” and “Enlightened Self Interest”, so philosophically at least I am familiar with the concept of sharing and sharing often being in one’s own best interest. I like to think of my self as a generous person, I never shy from the bar on entering a pub with a group; I like to make sure all people have their fair share or pay their fair cost. So why then, when I am asked to share a small piece of desert with my wife, am I moved to say “no”?

Logically this makes no sense, I bought a piece of caramel shortbread on Friday larger than I would normally have and when my wife asked if she could share a bit, my instant reaction was, “if I’d known that, I would have bought two pieces”. Clearly working on the premise that I would eat any of hers that she was unable to finish but ignoring the fact that the small 10% of the total piece that she was asking for was probably the same amount as the surplus on my piece over the average size – having indicated to the shop assistant to give me the largest visible piece. Obviously my life partner and mentor took the opportunity to explain my mistake and much later, when I had calmed down, I did feel the incongruity between my response to this request and my belief in Enlightened Self Interest. It is probably an infant behaviour pattern that has not yet evolved a more appropriate response mechanism in adulthood. Yes, I admit it, I was being a child.

An ode to joy

“oo are yuh?”.  I’m not sure really.  May be that answer speaks volumes.  How does one define oneself in the modern world?  Is it by the nation state to whom we pay tax, to whom owe allegiance and in whose borders we reside?  Is it some socio political class probably given a dreadful acronym by the marketeers?  I’m not a DINKY, no really, I’m not.  I’m not “Mondeo man” and last time I looked my pound was neither grey nor pink.  Is it some racial or genetic label that defines us? I’m freckly, my hair has a sort of reddish tint, I enjoy “the beer” and I like swirly patterns, I must be a Celt.  Really, has it ever been so hard to define who you are?  I was listening to the news tonight, confident in the knowledge that I am British.  I believe this to be short hand for a citizen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.  This, I have been led to believe, is my country, and is the source of my nationality.  So why do the BBC insist on presenting Scottish and Welsh stories as if they were a separate country.  Short pause whilst I read the Scotland Act 1998. zzzzzz.  Oh yeah, that's why, it's a separate country.  What!  was I asleep? Next you’ll be telling me Wales isn’t a principality and has it own government.  Short pause whilst I read the Welsh devolution referendum of 1997.  Oh.  

So ok, Wales is its own country, Scotland is its own country, what about England?  for that matter what about Yorkshire (population 2.2 million) considering that Wales has c. 3 million residents, is it that daft?  How far will devolution go?  Minority interests fragmenting the Nation.  So we are devolving power to local government, in many ways this is a good thing.  Local people raising taxes and deploying those funds locally but understanding they are part of a larger collective that must collaborate to survive but this is not how government works for us.  So we are not creating mini nations.  Scottish sailors wear the British army’s uniform and go to see on British aircraft carriers (for now), Welsh shoppers spend British pounds (it’ll buy you 1 Euro 15 cents today) and English or Cornish athletes sing the British national anthem.  God save the Queen.  Yes, I know we enter a whole new realm of confusion here, the Queen is English as she burnt some cakes once or was that Alfred, or is she Scottish since she is descended from James the I  or is she Welsh from Henry Tudor.  Actually she’s German, as evidenced by her clear descendency from George of Hamburg or French from our all time favourite King, Guillaume le Bâtard.  

Sovereignty lies at the heart of it.  Again though this is not as clear to me immediately as you would have hoped.  Who has supreme power of authority in the UK?  The Scotland Act deals with this in relation to devolution, clearly retaining sovereignty in Westminster but in reality will economy not drive this, will the size of the economy not dictate that not only will Scotland remain British but eventually Britain will become European?

So there you go, I’ve rambled for a while and decided I’m a Europhile.  Shocking.

Check out my website!

Just trying out writing my own webspace. Publishing to Blogger is a bit tedious.

Hi everyone,

I just updated my website and thought you might want to check it out. To visit, just click on the links below or paste the URLs into your browser.

Site http://web.me.com/mc_dermotts
Games Blog
Archive

Take a look and let me know what you think!

Made on a Mac

Obiter Dicta

Obiter Dictum

There are several themes or threads running concurrently in my internal narrative at any one time.  Herding them and focussing on the important ones is the eternal battle that I have fought my entire life - in fact if I'm honest it is my life.  My personality has been described as a "Butterfly" and for this rare bit of descriptive parsimony I thank that person.   On occasion I take a quick look at the external narrative, since in the modern era we have an accessible and apparently permanent record, and I gloss through my Facebook history, my Twitter stream and now the building archive of this blog.  What strikes me is that the things I think were important to me don't appear in the records anywhere near as much as I would have imagined before taking a look.  There are some elements that are censored for obvious reasons, very personal relationships, work and related private information has remained, well, private.  Out of the other elements that I thought would feature more, games is at the top of this list.  I play games once per week with a group of friends, I have collected over 100 board games I have introduced many friends and their families to a broad variety of modern board games.  So to celebrate this, and in the spirit of keeping an electronic record, I have added a "widget" on the side bar of the blog to show recent games as recorded on the Board Game Geek website.  I shall try to keep this up-to-date.

more art from Derek here

And another thing, currently I am trying to decide which way to spend my 0.17 of a vote.  I have skim read the manifestos and, more characteristically for me, I have reviewed the manifestos on my iPhone.  So I know what the politicians want us to think.  I have listened to the media so I know what Rupert Murdoch wants us to think.  I have endured the cringe fest of the live debates so I know which contestant I'd phone in for! but actually I have paid little attention to what I actually want.  So I need to sift through the untidy bedroom of my brain and find the key issues on which I should judge each party.  My current thoughts are:

1.  A government and leader with statesmanly integrity and presence - showing the UK as a leader on the international stage.
2.  Equitable, balanced governance steering the country with high levels of integrity displayed throughout.
3.  For major issues like immigration and taxation: clear, fair rules consistent with an evolved, just and benevolent democracy that are policed openly.
4.  Macro economic policies that ensure the wealth of the UK whilst we contribute to the global distribution of wealth.
5. Education and learning, not just vocational training, embedded at the core of our society.
6. Smaller central government, more power at a local level.

I've spent no longer than about 5 minutes drafting this list.  It may seem like nonsense but these were genuinely the first six things to form more clearly out of the morass.  I shall let them stew for a while before I settle on my final list, then I shall see which party measures up.

I, I'm a little divided

Why try to write it yourself when others have already said it and said it so much more effectively than you could ever manage?

I, I'm a one-way motorway 
I'm the road that drives away 
Follows you back home 

I, I'm a streetlight shining 
I'm a white light blinding bright 
Burning off alone 

It's times like these you learn to live again 
It's times like these you give and give again 
It's times like these you learn to love again 
It's times like these time and time again 

I, I'm a new day rising 
I'm a brand new sky to hang 
The stars upon tonight 

I, I'm a little divided 
Should I stay or run away 
Leave it all behind 

It's times like these you learn to live again 
It's times like these you give and give again 
It's times like these you learn to love again 
It's times like these time and time again