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November 11th, 2009
11:13 pm - Thoughts on the time of year.
Caution: those of you who know me well probably have an inkling of what I'm about to say here. And many of you may well disagree; which is your right and your duty.
( verbiage within... )
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October 24th, 2009
11:14 pm - Jan Moir: adding insult to injury
So, much as we expected a week ago, Jan Moir has published a clarification of sorts; how sorry she was to cause distress to those near and dear to Stephen Gately; how shocked, nay horrified she was to have people misinterpret her words; how sinister and unnamed groups were engaged in a campaign to silence any brave journalist who dared to voice a dissenting or contrary view.
Right. And I am, as the saying goes, a monkey's uncle...
( cut for length; full text inside... )
If you are genuinely sorry for causing offence to people (whether family, friends, or the general public); then a simple and unqualified apology will do nicely. It doesn't have to be long, it doesn't have to be ornate; a simple 'Sorry' will do.
The response you have given to date is grudgingly reminiscent of a schoolchild told to apologise for feuding with their peers - whatever may be said, the tone is one of resentment and persecution.
It fails to convince the audience of any contrition.
If you're genuinely sorry, don't quibble over it. Apologise unreservedly, learn from your mistakes and move on.
If you're not, don't bother trying; just learn to live with the fact that people will regard you as a two-faced bigot with a prurient interest in the private lives of others.
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October 19th, 2009
09:40 am - Good news.
I didn't want to mention this before it was made public, but as of Friday evening, our family has a younger generation; my cousin Tom and his wife Marie-Sophie have had a bouncing baby girl named Evangeline.
Much quiet celebration is in progress.
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October 16th, 2009
01:53 pm - Minor rant-ette.
Just a quick one, but it's something that bugs me slightly about the great and good getting publicly outraged en masse by Jan Moir's nasty little drivelling.
Yes, it's nasty. Yes, it's laughably absurd - or would be if people didn't get killed for being GLBT. Yes, she's pretty obviously a bigoted and thoroughly unpleasant little moron.
Last I heard, that wasn't so unusual.
Throw half a brick without aiming and you could probably hit one.
(Throw half a brick without aiming and you quite possibly are one, but that's by-the-by.)
However, her position is not worth dignifying with outrage. She writes for a newspaper that engages in frequent deliberate provocation of what it sees as the wooly liberals.
Generating a massive chorus of outrage going is likely to achieve nothing more than making Moir and her ilk feel courageous and validated, for speaking out against public opinion and challenging the liberal establishment.
There is absolutely no useful comparison to be made between this affair and the Carter-Ruck/Trafigura injunction - which was an attempt to set a dangerous legal precedent and in so doing, threaten the freedom of all speech.
So: laugh at her. Satirise her with venom and mockery.
Make the absurdity of her views absolutely clear to all and sundry.
But don't abrogate her right to make a fool of herself and her employers.
If what she said is so wrong and disgusting (which it is), then she's not likely to win over anyone who doesn't already support her - but if her critics can be portrayed as trying to stifle her, then she and her supporters can invoke the Trafigura comparison as evidence of her critics' hypocrisy; which would be all the victory she wants.
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October 13th, 2009
10:49 am
Courtesy of the Statute Law Database:
'Freedom of Speech.
That the Freedome of Speech and Debates or Proceedings in Parlyament ought not to be impeached or questioned in any Court or Place out of Parlyament.'
(From 'An Act declareing the Rights and Liberties of the Subject and Setleing the Succession of the Crowne.' - a.k.a. The Bill of Rights 1688)
This is not optional. This is a basic necessity for democratic government.
Any court transgressing this needs to be smacked down hard.
Rant over.
Sorry for intruding upon your day.
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October 8th, 2009
11:26 pm
I am quite astonishingly relieved to notice that the brouhaha of the last few days has been resolved to the mutual satisfaction of all parties.
No con needs negative publicity, considering how hard it is to run the dratted things in the first place; and it is truly heartening to see possibly damaging situations resolved well.
Thanks to both parties for being big enough to compromise, and especial thanks to James Bacon for his role in resolving this.
I hope this year's Octocon goes swingingly and builds up well to next year's big one!
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September 19th, 2009
05:45 pm - Avast!
So, in light of the date, I'm going to a friend's club night on the Tattershall Castle tonight; of which the theme is (unsurprisingly) 'pirates'.
I was asked to go as a gothic pirate.
( image )
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August 6th, 2009
10:07 am - Where do I start...?
There are days when you have to suspect the Daily Mail of being an absurdist satire on their perceived target market.
Apparently, teaching boys that hitting girls is wrong is radical feminism. Who knew?
The article contains many juicy quotes such as:
'Feminist agenda: Under controversial plans, schoolboys will be taught not to beat their partners or any other female'
'Pupils as young as five will be taught about the evils of 'wife beating' and the need to form healthy relationships.'
'In a document peppered with the language of Miss Harman's equalities-agenda...'
(and the quote they use as an example:
'Our vision is a society where women and girls feel safe and confident in their homes and communities so that they can develop fully, live freely, contribute to society, and prosper in their daily lives. We want to overcome women's and girls' fear of crime and the gender-based violence that they experience.'
Shocking stuff, I'm sure you'll agree.)
Really, where do you start, when faced with journalism of such calibre...?
Hitting people of any gender is wrong.
Hitting women as a means of control - especially those women who you ought to love - is an especially unpleasant species of wrong.
Why is teaching this even remotely controversial?
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July 22nd, 2009
01:07 am - Life's like mayonnaise soda.
What is there to say that hasn't been said before by others in considerably more loquacious tones?
There are times when the entirety of life seems to be blundering half-arsed from incident to accident; and counting yourself lucky because at least this time you have some idea of what you did wrong or how to avoid the same pitfall in future.
And there are times when, regardless of circumstance, you do your best to rise above it all - even if it still hurts - because of who (and what) you are.
To cling on to the cliff face, because any alternative is far worse.
Is it a victory? - if so, it's a Spartan one; one that you can only really celebrate in the most muted of tones; to survive and to remain yourself regardless of circumstance.
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July 16th, 2009
01:04 am
That was a lot of fun. I'll write more tomorrow about it, but quick highlights include:
The area around the Dome turning into a giant goth'n'alternative convention; thousands of people wearing black of various sorts from the casual to the very ornate.
Meeting ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) clytemenstra and her friend Vicky for coffee beforehand as well as bumping into d_floorlandmine outside Greenwich North tube.
Seeing Jane's Addiction, the original lineup - still amazingly enough alive and capable of rocking hard after two decades of bad behaviour.
Special NIN guest Gary Numan coming on and playing 'Cars' with NIN.
Just going out and listening to evilly loud music with friends, even in a barn like the Millennium Dome; it's been too long.
Walking home on my own from Bethnal Green tube and watching people look at me nervously; I don't often wear makeup, but it's fun to watch people react when I do.
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July 7th, 2009
10:24 am
Have been reading ![[info - personal]](http://s.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png) clanwilliam's copy of Geoffrey Robertson's The Tyrannicide Brief - a book aimed (at least in part) at setting the record straight on John Cooke, the prosecuting counsel in the trial of Charles I, as well as giving a rounded picture of the moral and political background to the trial.
( blurb herewithin )
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June 13th, 2009
10:51 am
*boggle* of the morning:
'Suitable for vegetarians'.
On the side of a jar of freeze dried coffee.
Leaving aside all images of vast herds of coffee beans sweeping across the wide Serengeti, I now have this terrible urge to start producing absurdist consumer notifications.
I think every housebrick would be improved by a little sign saying "warning: may be harmful if inhaled."
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May 30th, 2009
09:20 pm - Such a perfect day.
There are days, long hot sunny summer days and the light is sharp and brilliant, when the best thing you can do is wander around with no set purpose; no goals, no clocks - just letting yourself go walkabout.
I am now feeling quite astoundingly relaxed.
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May 20th, 2009
08:49 am - Bright light! Bright light!
Oh my goodness my head hurts.
Still, it was a very fun evening and it was lovely to see everyone who turned up.
Next time: a slightly bigger room, perhaps.
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May 19th, 2009
10:55 am - Happy Birthday, monstrous!
You are (as always) fiendish, terrifying and horrible.
( proof behind the cut )
I love you very much.
G.
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May 16th, 2009
12:20 am - A good bit of news.
California's Supreme Court bitchslapping the haters.
Now here's hoping that they can make it stick.
To say that love is somehow invalid simply because of your gender is an absurdity and an insult.
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May 11th, 2009
09:51 am
Following the weekend's celebrations, I now have about 600 photos to process.
Of those, I'd say about 200 are actually not bad (a surprisingly high strike rate for me, and something I'm quite chuffed by). The rest of you will probably get to see edited highlights after the bride and groom have been consulted (so not until well after the honeymoon!) and I've had a sit-down with rhythmaning.
However, there is a shot that I hope they will forgive me for airing early ; it is pretty much as it came out of the camera, and is I think one of my favourite shots of the day.
( image behind the cut, to spare the bandwidth )
It was, quite simply, a day I will always remember with pleasure; and a hell of a good party to boot!
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May 10th, 2009
09:42 am
I'd like to report that the wedding of liadnan and pashazade can best be described as a joyful celebration - it didn't just go off without a hitch, it was consistently brilliant throughout.
A substantial part of this is due to frankie_ecap's awesome competence; who was possibly the most level-headed and organisationally gifted best man I have ever seen.
The thing that struck me as the zeitgeist was the sheer level of affection everyone had for the happy couple; everyone wore their delight openly, unmitigatedly and without reserve, regardless of age or social background.
All the best, you two; we'll remember that day as a very special one.
update: ... and some of the photos are pretty good, though I say so myself!
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May 4th, 2009
06:44 pm - Flash!
(Aa-aa...)
So, last week, I decided to buy myself an external flash unit; I'd been half-meaning-to for ages and as it happens I have a wedding to go to next weekend, so I took advantage of the excuse to buy a shiny new toy.
The last few days have involved meeting various people in various pubs; I confess, I have taken the new toy out and waved it at people.
(Specifically including clanwilliam, liadnan, oursin, legionseagle, pashazade, coughingbear, hano, frankie_ecap, rhythmaning, dorcas_gustine, fluffcthulhu, autopope, feorag, major_clanger, rozk and various others. I hope I wasn't irritating anyone too much.)
I now have some quite promising shots of people to work on; I'll clean them up and post them to my gallery at some point this evening (probably!).
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April 30th, 2009
10:52 pm - Right...
It has been announced that dorcas_gustine is going back to Italy.
This is all things considered a ver' bad thing and we are ver' sorry to lose her; even if hopefully only temporarily.
(What's so all-fire-wonderful about Italian coffee, when it comes down to it?!)
Fortunately, the augury for this weekend is good - deo volante - so it seems fitting that we have some sort of shindig to give her a decent send-off.
Which calls for a pub, really.
...the pub in question being the Black Friar (postcode: EC4V 4EG) - it's on the river (if the weather is good) and has an unique interior (if the weather isn't good) and does decent beer (because after several pints, who cares about the weather anyway?).
Timing? Glad you asked.
How does 17:00 on Saturday 2nd of May sound?
Depending on time, inclination and the continued of existence of life as we know it in the shadow of the Aporkalypse, there might be food afterwards (I'm always open to suggestions!), but at the very least, beer and sun would be good.
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