25/3/2006
As the build-up continues to what's looking like an ever more inevitable American war of conquest in Iran, with the yanks' faithful poodle following close behind, a piece in private eye really caught my attention. I'd love to provide a link to the full story (unfortunately it isnt one of the columns they reproduce online), but I don't feel I can write it up word for word, much as it deserves to be read, because I'd hate to give the eye a legal case they could actually win ;-)
The article made reference to the comparitevly small numbers who got worked up over the whole Danish cartoon fiasco (around 400 attacked the Danish embassy, out of around 12 million who live in Tehran), and refered to the blog of a member of the student militia called Saleh Meftah, where he recounted how enjoyable attacking the embassy had been (if you, as I, can't speak arabic you'll have to join me in taking the Eye's word on this). While on the streets of Tehran it would be one of the last mistakes one made to confront a militiaman, within a few days as many had commented on his blog, criticising his actions, as had gone after the Danish.
However, the really powerful section of the column was this:
A few days after the attack, there was a very different sort of protest at the embassy. Hossein Nouri, a disabled war veteran who lost both his hands in the Iran-Iraq war, was pushed in a wheelchair to the gates where, paintbush in mouth, he painted an accomplished portrait of the Virgin Mary to "show the Iranian nation's respect for other faiths".
So there's evidence (if any sane person needed it) at both a general, mass view level and an intensely personal one, that ordinary Iranians are not the screaming lunatics who get TV airtime. Yet with the White House determined to create yet another unwinnable occupation, it shouldn't suprise anyone when more and more of these Iranians (currently far more mature and thoughtful than any on the manic march to war both here in the UK and in the states) are turned against their attackers. But then I'm not telling you anything here that you don't know, unless of course Dubya and Tony have taken to reading my site...
Good luck (especially to anyone in Iran - I'm so sorry for what our governments are going to do and already are doing)
P.S. To anyone thinking I'm giving blanket support to the Iranian regime, dont be foolish. I'm fairly convinced that they are on the hunt for nuclear weapons, and that there's a hell of a lot for Iran's leaders to answer for, but today I'm just thinking of the people of Iran and the numerous problems with "our" current approach to them.
22/3/2006
Archbish Rowan Williams interviewed (by Grauniad editor Alan Rusbridger).
The usual issues seem to come up (gays, the meedja, the state of the church, creationism etc etc), and nothing startling or new seems to be revealed, but the interview is notable in that the top bod is becomming almost reclusive, at least as far as mass media are concerned. This is touched on in a couple of ways in the interview, with Rowan specifically mentioning, before speaking, considering the question "will a pronouncement here or a statement there actually move things on, or is it something that makes me feel better and other people feel better, but doesn't necessary contribute very much?".
On reflection, I suspect that my view of him popping up less than I might expect is largely as a result of knowing of him before he became the boss of the CofE - back when he was a Greenbelt regular, I'd hear him speak in depth about real issues, not just whatever happened to be amusing the papers at the time, and he became a far more notable figure to me than George Carey (the then Archbishop of Canterbury). Just because this now isn't happening, I shouldn't really conclude that it's all about Rowan not wanting to raise his head above the media parapet. I suppose then that the only quiblle I'm really raising is that he doesn't come to GB as much as he should ;-)
As far as the actual content of the interview goes, there isn't any great insight I can add (partly because I'm in need of sleep, and partly because, as I say, there's nothing that strikes me as extraordinary in there, so all the points have already been covered ad nauseum). Actually, I really could use some sleep. Night night all.
Good luck.
17/3/2006
Many of you will know (if the same people read this as talk to me) that I often end emails and many conversations with "toodle-oo". I'm beginning to get bored with that, and I'm thinking of using "good luck" instead - not good luck as everyone normally uses it, in relation to a particular event, but just good luck for general life. I guess that there are words around more commonly used which mean the same - goodbye is from God be with you - but if I use something less common it'll be more obvious that there's a particular mesage there, rather than an unthinking generic response.
Good luck
Giles Fleming
13/3/2006
It 's been one of those weekends - everything that could have gone wrong did... The biggest problem I shouldn't really tell you about somewhere as public as this (tho dont worry, it's not serious), but a particular issue took up most of the weekend without my making any progress on it. Add to that England's piss-poor performance in both cricket and rugby, and it was all rather distinctly depressing. On the plus side, I did manage to persuade my worrysome parents that I was justified in using my deodorant as a flamethrower on a CD, after one particularly disheartening failure. That is so much fun it's probably illegal :-D Next time I must remember to video it.
Unfortunately the week hasn't begun in a much better vein - I managed to forget my wallet before school, so couldnt buy any lunch, ran out of time in a maths mock exam, which I therefore did rather worse than I'd hoped in, and (to top it all off) discovered that my nearly-completed computing coursework is all along the wrong lines. Fortunately, at least for my ego, it wasn't just me who misunderstood - even our teacher was rather suprised when we clarified the situation with the exam board - but I'd used a system which relied more than most on the things which now needed changing.
Thinking back to the weekend, there was another good thing. In fact it was more than good. The One Day International between South Africa and Australia was an all-time great - any cricket fans who missed it will regret that for a long time. Just to give an indication of how good it was (one that'll hopefully make sense even to people who don't "get" cricket"), Australia batted first and got the highest score ever in a one day game. South Africa then batted, and had only one ball and only one wicket left (if another ball had been bowled without them scoring or another batsman had got out they would've lost) when they got the last runs needed to win. I've never been as tense and nervous about a game that didn't involve a team I was particularly supporting before - and I probably wont be for quite some time. Absolutely fantastic.
See Giles, life's not that bad. Cheer up old chap ;-)
10/3/2006
Flushed with pride :-). I can't remember if I've mentioned online Thud here before or not. I fear I probably haven't, because at first (when I managed to get a job as a tester) I wasn't sure whether I was allowed to reveal what was going on. I'll just have to rectify the situation now ;-)
Thud is a boardgame, created by Trevor Truran, which is based around Terry Pratchett's exceptional Discworld books. The game itself is very involving, with layers of strategies that'll keep anyone challenged for many a long evening. Then Messrs Morgan and Alley began work on an online version, which gives you the chance to play anyone across the globe. If you're interested, this link will always find the current version of the game itself.
Associated with the game is a set of forums, and this is where my sudden pride springs from - I (in my guise as Mr Scrub) have just been promoted to Moderator :-) I now have super-powers :-D
9/3/2006
Happy Giles today :-D. Got back the results for our January AS modules today (I'd had a chemistry and a maths exam), and managed to get As in both. I would honestly have been very disappointed not to get the A in maths, but I was pleasantly suprised with how safe it was (97 / 100, the mark required for an A was 80). On the other hand I really wasnt sure how I'd done in chemistry, which is becommng more and more clearly the hardest of my ASs, so was very pleased with that - although I think it may be the case that the 72 marks I got was in fact right on the grade boundary, so 1 mark less and I'd be down a grade.
Of course, as it's the mark (rather than the grade) which gets taken forward to make up part of the final grade, whether I'd got the one mark to get into the A bracket or not doesn't really matter that much. Still, psychologically it does make a difference, and can only help confidence going into the terminals (which are already getting worryingly close :-O). Whether or not my being more confident is a good thing I'm not certain - looking back at this post I do worry that I sound rather full of myself. It's of course entirely possible that I am full of myself, and that's why I sound it... I really hope not.
7/3/2006
Great party :-D I love being able to just get a wee bit drunk and stop worrying about anything. The best moment came from the worst, too: on reflection I think I must've knocked someone's drink, because they obviously felt it was worth throwing most of the rest of it over me (because the only way to make up for losing beer is to throw it away...), but then Josh appeared on the scene, as the batman of the party, Defending Justice on the Dancefloor, and I was witness to a superb karate kick, as the glass flew from the hand of my assailant :-D :-D
Another marvellous bit of news is that, now that I've got a bigger hard drive, I've finally got round to putting the 850 songs that I stole from my sister's iRiver onto my desktop. It may not be able to get online, but at least it keeps me singing. I love music so much. Been relistening to some old Blink 182, which I thought would just be some mindless fun, until I stumbled upon Adam's Song. It's a plain, straightforward song about suicide, not hiding this in metaphor or imagery, which might seem a little blunt and tactless, but it really works, and (thankfully) brings you out of depression with a truly triumphant final chorus. Well worth a listen (with your thinking cap on instead if you dont enjoy the style of music).
Then today I got to see my beavers. They were a little on the rowdy side, probably because Oak (the main leader) wasnt there, so they were restless. But then one of them made my week - I've been invited to a beaver's birthday party :-D I really feel very privelidged - I bet I'm the only person outside his year group and those immediately around it who he'll have invited, and that's something pretty damn special for me. I must be doing something right.
4/3/2006
For once I haven't merely been ignoring this, but have been laid low by network card problems. I think I may resort to buying another card, and never again stray from wireless cards based on the Prism chipset (which are natively supported beautifully under Linux, while most others one of a strange array of drivers / wrappers).
Over the last few weeks I did manage to get my server up, until problems with this main box caused a change of focus, so it should now only be a question of tweaking things to provide better security, stability & perhaps speed, before it's ready. You see, it may take me months, but I do eventually make progress on this stuff :-)
Other important things in the last week or so have included the results for my Grade 7 flute exam (passed with a merit, which is a great feeling - even if the examiner was a little sarcastic in his comments), and the start of the England tour in India. The latter has already been hugely nervewracking, even after only the first four days of the first test. For now, it looks entirely possible that we might win this opening match, but then this time yesterday we'd completely thrown away the initiative, so things will probably change again soon.
This morning I woke up to see a Cambridge prospectus on my desk - frankly a terrifying moment. I really dont feel ready for uni application, let alone to the best uni in the country (yes, I do mean that - anyone from Oxford want a fight? ;-). Apart from anything else there's just so much to be organised about, and I still cant decide what course or college to apply to. I'm getting paranoid (at least, I hope it's paranoia) that if i dont make up my mind soon I wont be able to get into either course or any college, but that doesnt seem tp make it any easier to force myself to reach a decision... So, if anyone wants to direct the course of my life, you'll probably get far more influence than you normally would if you can think of any deciding factors between natsci and theol, or between more or less any of the colleges (except churchill ;-).
However, I'm now off to a party to forget all my woes for the night - Happy birthday Fliss & John!