On April the 18th, 2004, Bren and I rolled up outside a church in Moreton in a smoky old Ford Escort that cost us fifty quid, and were joined in holy matrimony by a priest that smelled of alcohol.
A year later, wondering what to buy her for our first anniversary, I turned to tradition, and took her to a craft centre to buy some paper. En route, we went up Helsby Hill and carved our initials into the sandstone. And so a tradition was born. It's our thing. Today the number "10" will be added to the scratchings, and we will reinscribe our previous years graffito's because they do fade over a year.
This year, we're going on to the Peak District for a meal and possibly an overnight stay in some hotel or guest house or youth hostel.
6 years! Blimey!
Sunday, 18 April 2010
Saturday, 17 April 2010
Which philosopher am I?
I have to admit, I don't really understand a lot of philosophy. When I was an adolescent, I liked the idea of being one, but when I tried to understand it in detail, I found it too complex for my poor brain.
It continues to interest me though, and about a year ago, I read a book called Sophie's World. This explained things in a style I could get my head around, although I've forgotten most of the details since. What sticks in my mind is that Marxism is a philosophical system as much as it is an economic one.
Another book I've read that deals with philosophy is The Dice Man, by Luke Rhinehart. This proposes that the dice-liver has free will over what options he offers to the dice, but must follow what commands the dice select without quibble. I sort of tried it for a while. I found that I wasn't brave enough to offer the dice any really challenging options.
Luke Rhinehart wondered if we really could change, if we folllowed the commands of the die. Could he turn heterosexuals into homosexuals, Epicureans into Hedonists, etc.
I wondered what an Epicurean was. Wikipedia has this to say:
"Although Epicureanism is a form of hedonism, insofar as it declares pleasure as the sole intrinsic good, its conception of absence of pain as the greatest pleasure and its advocacy of a simple life make it different from "hedonism" as it is commonly understood. In the Epicurean view, the highest pleasure (tranquility and freedom from fear) was obtained by knowledge, friendship and living a virtuous and temperate life. He lauded the enjoyment of simple pleasures, by which he meant abstaining from bodily desires, such as sex and appetites, verging on asceticism."
I must admit, I kind of like that. It fits in with an urge towards simplicity.
But all these 'ism's! If I'm a bit of an epicurean, could I further pigeonhole myself?
So I googled "What philosopher am I?"
and came up with the following result.
It's a bit limited in it's scope, since it only takes into account about 8 major philosophies, when there are surely many more. Still, I wouldn't argue too much with the result.
It continues to interest me though, and about a year ago, I read a book called Sophie's World. This explained things in a style I could get my head around, although I've forgotten most of the details since. What sticks in my mind is that Marxism is a philosophical system as much as it is an economic one.
Another book I've read that deals with philosophy is The Dice Man, by Luke Rhinehart. This proposes that the dice-liver has free will over what options he offers to the dice, but must follow what commands the dice select without quibble. I sort of tried it for a while. I found that I wasn't brave enough to offer the dice any really challenging options.
Luke Rhinehart wondered if we really could change, if we folllowed the commands of the die. Could he turn heterosexuals into homosexuals, Epicureans into Hedonists, etc.
I wondered what an Epicurean was. Wikipedia has this to say:
"Although Epicureanism is a form of hedonism, insofar as it declares pleasure as the sole intrinsic good, its conception of absence of pain as the greatest pleasure and its advocacy of a simple life make it different from "hedonism" as it is commonly understood. In the Epicurean view, the highest pleasure (tranquility and freedom from fear) was obtained by knowledge, friendship and living a virtuous and temperate life. He lauded the enjoyment of simple pleasures, by which he meant abstaining from bodily desires, such as sex and appetites, verging on asceticism."
I must admit, I kind of like that. It fits in with an urge towards simplicity.
But all these 'ism's! If I'm a bit of an epicurean, could I further pigeonhole myself?
So I googled "What philosopher am I?"
and came up with the following result.
| Which philosopher are you? Your Result: Sartre/Camus (late existentialists) The world is absurd. No facts govern it. We live well once we truly accept the world's absurdity. YOU give our life's meaning, and YOU control your world. | |
| W.v.O. Quine / Late Wittgenstein | |
| Aristotle | |
| Nietzsche | |
| Early Wittgenstein / Positivists | |
| Plato (strict rationalists) | |
| Immanuel Kant | |
| Which philosopher are you? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz | |
It's a bit limited in it's scope, since it only takes into account about 8 major philosophies, when there are surely many more. Still, I wouldn't argue too much with the result.
Thursday, 15 April 2010
Hooray for volcanoes!
One Icelandic volcano has today done what Plane Stupid can only dream of achieving.
What a pity it had to emit so much CO2 during the process.
Actually, I did wonder how volcanic activity compared with human activity. The U.S. Geological survey reckons:
Comparison of CO2 emissions from volcanoes vs. human activities.
Scientists have calculated that volcanoes emit between about 130-230 million tonnes (145-255 million tons) of CO2 into the atmosphere every year (Gerlach, 1991). This estimate includes both subaerial and submarine volcanoes, about in equal amounts. Emissions of CO2 by human activities, including fossil fuel burning, cement production, and gas flaring, amount to about 27 billion tonnes per year (30 billion tons) [ ( Marland, et al., 2006) - The reference gives the amount of released carbon (C), rather than CO2, through 2003.]. Human activities release more than 130 times the amount of CO2 emitted by volcanoes--the equivalent of more than 8,000 additional volcanoes like Kilauea (Kilauea emits about 3.3 million tonnes/year)! (Gerlach et. al., 2002)
A couple of firsts...
The last few weeks has seen a few things happen for the first time, jobwise.
First of all, I had a pupil fail because of an accumulation of minor faults. Usually, people fail because they mess something up and get a serious fault. I've even had people get more than the maximum 15 faults, but they've also made some serious errors and would have failed even if they'd not got all the minors. But this particular guy did nothing seriously wrong. He just did too many little things wrong. First time in the 5 years I've been doing this!
The other first happened today. I had a test terminated. - What we call a "walkback"
A test can be terminated for several reasons. If the driver is an obvious danger to the public, the examiner can terminate the test. Or the test candidate themselves can terminate it if they, for example, are just having a totally torrid time of things, and it's obvious that they've failed.
In this case, my pupil was extremely nervous, as she has been throughout her training, and when she failed to deal with a roundabout properly, she just couldn't continue, and the exminer terminated the test. The examiners will not drive the car (they claim for insurance reasons) so both my pupil and the examiner turned up back at the test centre, on foot, and I had to go and find the car.
First of all, I had a pupil fail because of an accumulation of minor faults. Usually, people fail because they mess something up and get a serious fault. I've even had people get more than the maximum 15 faults, but they've also made some serious errors and would have failed even if they'd not got all the minors. But this particular guy did nothing seriously wrong. He just did too many little things wrong. First time in the 5 years I've been doing this!
The other first happened today. I had a test terminated. - What we call a "walkback"
A test can be terminated for several reasons. If the driver is an obvious danger to the public, the examiner can terminate the test. Or the test candidate themselves can terminate it if they, for example, are just having a totally torrid time of things, and it's obvious that they've failed.
In this case, my pupil was extremely nervous, as she has been throughout her training, and when she failed to deal with a roundabout properly, she just couldn't continue, and the exminer terminated the test. The examiners will not drive the car (they claim for insurance reasons) so both my pupil and the examiner turned up back at the test centre, on foot, and I had to go and find the car.
Monday, 5 April 2010
Cardingmill valley and the long mynd
Out gallivanting today... Church Stretton. After spending time with someone there a week or so ago, I thought it would be a good place to take my wife for a walk. Some lovely roads to drive on. (some terrifying roads from Bren's point of view. one in four descent made to a soundtrack of whimpers! white knuckles against the door grab handle...)
And some gorgeous scenery to see.
We got there early afternoon, and headed up onto the moors. One thing we didn't count on was the wind, which was almost strong enough to blow the sheep over. Went to what appears to be called Cardingmill peak. The wind was incredible. You could lean right back into it and really feel the air supporting you! If I'd unzipped my coat and spread it out, I reckon I might just have taken off.
Pissing in the wind.
When you do piss in the wind, it's best to have the wind behind you and your legs well apart. In a gale, be aware that as soon as it leaves the lee of your body, and gets caught by the airstream, your piss will stop being a steady stream. It will instantly become an atomised spray that can be carried for hundreds of yards. Therefore pissing in the wind is best done with nobody, absolutely nobody, and especially not a big bloke with tatooes on his knuckles, standing downwind of you.
We scrambled down the side of the hills to the valley below. The valley below is a big national trust thing, with a pay and display car park, and a café and shop. A cup of tea, a bit of flan, a bowl of soup, 2 slices of cinnamon flapjack, and a yoghurt bar set us back £17. For a good cause I suppose, but pretty bloody steep, just the same.
Talking of steep, the way back up the road to the car was indeed, steep. It was much less scary on foot than it was driving. But more strenuous.
We saw a bloody enormous bird of prey, that I reckon might have been a Red Kite, and when we got back to the car, it started pouring with rain, if you can call something horizontal, "pouring", so perfect timing there! Hurrah!
And some gorgeous scenery to see.
We got there early afternoon, and headed up onto the moors. One thing we didn't count on was the wind, which was almost strong enough to blow the sheep over. Went to what appears to be called Cardingmill peak. The wind was incredible. You could lean right back into it and really feel the air supporting you! If I'd unzipped my coat and spread it out, I reckon I might just have taken off.
Pissing in the wind.
When you do piss in the wind, it's best to have the wind behind you and your legs well apart. In a gale, be aware that as soon as it leaves the lee of your body, and gets caught by the airstream, your piss will stop being a steady stream. It will instantly become an atomised spray that can be carried for hundreds of yards. Therefore pissing in the wind is best done with nobody, absolutely nobody, and especially not a big bloke with tatooes on his knuckles, standing downwind of you.
We scrambled down the side of the hills to the valley below. The valley below is a big national trust thing, with a pay and display car park, and a café and shop. A cup of tea, a bit of flan, a bowl of soup, 2 slices of cinnamon flapjack, and a yoghurt bar set us back £17. For a good cause I suppose, but pretty bloody steep, just the same.
Talking of steep, the way back up the road to the car was indeed, steep. It was much less scary on foot than it was driving. But more strenuous.
We saw a bloody enormous bird of prey, that I reckon might have been a Red Kite, and when we got back to the car, it started pouring with rain, if you can call something horizontal, "pouring", so perfect timing there! Hurrah!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)