Observations on the world and its inhabitants
Recently I discovered ‘White Lies’ – the group. Well when I heard ‘To lose my life’ a few days ago, I thought to myself “Hey, Bowie is back!”. So it wasn’t David Bowie, but so what? These guys are just brilliant. I mean I can’t get their songs outta my head! Like I’m having a ...
Recently I was in the company of a colleague who is a psychiatrist (aka shrink). We were walking into a large supermarket. He’s saying hello to the chap who’s greeting customers. The conversation goes as follows: Chappy: So what if you don’t mind I ask do you do? Shrink: I’m a forensic psychiatrist – which ...
This is an amazing story! STOP EVERYTHING: Don’t go to the toilet..don’t walk that dog…don’t go to the grocery…don’t phone that friend! This is a tragic tale of how a judge of international repute ends up in jail – for attempting to tell a little fib. "Marcus Einfeld, the judge in question, was certainly of ...
Well tonight I had an interesting experience. I go into the local supermarket around 20:45. There’s a worker in uniform at the entrance offering me free bread. It comes with a coupon that I use at the cashier to get it for FREE. So I say thank you very much and with some glee take ...
No – this ain’t a recipe for it. This is about the service surrounding it. It’s a long one. I’ve taken several weeks drafting this (working on average a few minutes each week). It is such a difficult story that I could not put it down all at once. I really had to do it ...
This is an exploration of how people interact with rules and regulations. It is largely based on personal observations. Therefore it is subject to all the biases and weaknesses that go with personal observations of the world. What kinds of rules are there? Law (Primary, secondary, delegated legislation, legal regulations). Quasi-legal regulations (i.e. codes of ...
If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you But make allowance for their doubting too, If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies, Or being ...
It has been a bit of a mystery to me, up until a few days ago. I used to wonder why talking about the weather was such an easy icebreaker in England. It suddenly dawned on me – and the answer was pretty simple. Here goes. In England we all share the weather. It is ...
Peace at 23,000 feet: And at ground zero:
This question came up in discussion with someone who believed they knew me 28 years ago, for a period of about two years – and now claims to know me still. The other asserted that in our recent discussions over the last few months in live chat, that ‘Your personality is the same’ as back ...
Yeah..we know this very well don’t we, that ‘money isn’t every thing’? The phrase sickens me. Why pray tell, you must be thinking. Let me try a few substitutions for the word ‘money’ in there: ‘Air’ isn’t everything ‘Sex’ isn’t everything ‘Banana’ isn’t everything ‘Food’ isn’t everything ‘A house’ isn’t everything. Well yes, I hope ...
Amazingly (about 20:00 2008-09-07), I’m contacted by email, by a colleague I had not seen or heard from for 28 years. In the first two emails. I’m told that I’ve abused some child in some forum, by cussing the child. Naturally when you get this kind of thing you think to yourself “What the heck!” ...
There are times of course when I cannot punish idiots. On occasion an idiot may punish himself – and not even know it. It is not as good as actually dishing out the punishment, but sometimes you settle for second best. Case in question? Sure. Person calls a mobile phone from overseas weekly for about ...
It is an amazing phenomenon that makes me wonder how the human race has survived this long – yeah ‘answering off the point’. WTF does that mean? It means like when you ask somebody a simple question you get an answer that does not address your enquiry. Or you ask a question of someone and ...
The unconscious has been explored by Freud and many other psychoanalysts. What this ‘thing’ is, is largely unknown – simply because we cannot hold down the unconscious and look at it. After all it is that which is beyond conscious scrutiny. Yes there are loads of theories on the goings on in the unconscious but ...
Not often am I inspired by goodness in the human condition. Saturday 20th September 2008 was different. I bought the book "The Book of Lies" by Brad Meltzer and came across the site: Book of Lies Soundtrack. Then I came across http://www.ordinarypeoplechangetheworld.com/ which then took be to songs by ‘Five for Fighting’. And then I ...
Friend o’ mine called up yesterday and asked me something about ‘how you manage or deal with grief’. Yeah grief. Well, it is one of those things you have to laugh about – and we did – in retrospect. I had an initial thought, but did not say much as he explained. This is the ...
Man, I just got off the phone to some mega-idiot! Trust me there is such a thing. I really wonder why I go on the phone at all to utility companies. Every bloody time I call one of these call-queuing things, my blood pressure goes up! Yesterday I wasted bloody 52 minutes of my time. ...
It’s a question that’s been on my mind for quite some time. People go “I have many friends…or I only keep a few close friends“. Of course, defining what a friend is, is central to the question. However, friendship is the core issue and someone who maintains a real friendship is by definition a true ...
It was 00:30 2008-09-13 – when I decided to start writing this. Crazy? So what. I’ve been thinking about what changes people’s minds about things. For example what changes your mind about accepting something, believing something or doing something. Why the heck am I interested in that? Because of my statement that “The human mind ...
Will is the ability to direct and control one’s body and mind. Each of those underlined words is important. Will power is the strength with which one focuses the mind or controls the body. Normally we all have control and direction over some parts of our bodies and minds. This however, is not absolute. It ...
I’m amazed by how people rush around madly and actually create more work for themselves and more confusion for others. Here’s a quote from an email I received in response to an enquiry: "XXXX will authorise both tests. I should have made this clear to you in my response. I am rushing to catch up ...
You know many of us hold logical thought as something very prised. If something does not hang together logically, we’re likely to discredit it, have doubts about it and so on. We like to think that we are logical reasonable people. And in general we avoid people who are confused and illogical – simply because ...
In the UK the law is not only made up of Acts but by Regulations, which then drills down to quasi-legislative codes of practice. The DPA Acts deal with data and privacy relevant to individuals in two main ways. I’m not in a mood to give a lecture on this today. Those interested can Google ...
It’s happened so many times before in my life in England, that I provide clear and conspicuous information but people then ask me for clarification. I often wonder what the heck is going on. Here’s the situation. I send out letters to professional colleagues with my postal address, telephone contact details and email, clearly visible ...
I like Skype. I dare say I was one of the first people in the world to try Skype (www.skype.com). Now, you reading this might think ‘everybody knows about skpe!’. Well no – not everybody knows about skype. Half of the people I know are clueless about it and aren’t even inclined to try it. ...
I like Google Calendar. The people who invented this really put a lot of thought behind it. It took me about a year to get using it regularly. I now wish I hadn’t taken that long. Here’s how it benefits me: I can store my agenda securely online. I can have several agendas, some that ...
Yesterday something small occupied my mind. But it was something that repeatedly came to mind over the years. I got into my car and drove off as usual. About a minute down the road, I could see a tiny fly in the upper right corner of my windscreen. It was bumping its head on the ...
