Lucas 3:16

Moved to WordPress!

2009-05-18T22:28:00.003+01:00

You may have noticed if you frequent the dotcom address (www.LucasWeatherby.com)

that blogs are now moved to my WordPress account and blogs have been integrated into that there.

There are many reasons for this move; mainly practical

Thank you for reading this blogger - and keep on reading at the new address if you do not use the dotcom.

You can update your RSS feedreaders with RSS links at that new site.

... oh! The Address: http://lucasweatherby.wordpress.com/

:)

Something of a pre-emptive strike.

2009-05-12T05:39:00.001+01:00

Today's the big day.

Well, the first of two.

First, (today), I go to Oxford for my pre-operative assessment, for a planned operation on my left wrist/hand. Second, of course, is the actual thing.

What was originally planned was to straight it out to give it a natural look and give it more function.

But also, I'm going to ask about my weird joint in my thumb, which seems to stick out a fair bit. When I was 11 I tried a botox injection, which needless to say, went terribly wrong.

So I'm not all that optimistic about my chances for this once.

Let's hope they at least get the anaesthetic levels right so I don't feel a thing!

Will take lots of pictures of beautiful Oxford rather than my strange hand!
More later. Stay Tuned.

Southgate in Stupidgate scandal

2009-05-11T07:23:00.003+01:00

Big game tonight, at the rear end of the Premier League.

Newcastle face Middlesborough in what looks like to be a relegation decider with just 3 games to go.

The funniest of thing of all, comes from a comment from Gareth Southgate, in what I call "Southgate in Stupidgate scandal"...

- "We are probably closer to survival than we were eight weeks ago because the tally needed to stay up seems to reduce every week." -

Hilarious. If his management is as good as his pre-match comments, you can be sure to witness a Shearer inspired 3 points today and Middlesborough in the Championship next season.

Mild May!

2009-05-04T21:58:00.000+01:00

It's the month of May so it's Mild all the way!

Heaven

****/5

-- Post From My iPhone

Port Vale manager Glover sacked - Next: Leroy Rosenoir?

2009-05-01T15:53:00.001+01:00

Port Vale and manager Dean Glover have agreed to part ways, it has been announced today.

Talks of a new manager have already banged around the names of current assistant Kevin Downing and John Ward (former Cheltenham manager) according to the Guardian, a replacement will be found by the end of May.

Of managers currently in a job... here's my wish list:

Martin Allen
Danny Wilson
Mark Newell

Out of a job:
Leroy Rosenoir
Tony Adams
Paul Ince
Steve Cotterill
Ian Holloway
Micky Adams
Gary McAllister
John Sheridan
Andy Ritchie
Gary Hill

Some of these names, I admit are pie-in-the-sky, but there are a host of names Port Vale could be attracting really and should be targeting.

Any one of these names other than former Cheltenham boss John Ward are the ones to go for, and would be a real coup.

Anything but a former player is needed (though I'd accept Gareth Ainsworth currently at QPR).

The other important thing is TIME.

Money is something Port Vale really don't have much of, but first and foremost a team needs a manager so that is the number one priority. No point spending on a team if the framework isn't there.
Second, considering the money situation at Vale, it makes sense to guarantee the manager time to at least bring in his own staff once the current backroom's contracts expire.

It's time for a fresh start for Vale and a fresh new era. It's the only way, and the only way Port Vale will go up the ladder and not down into non-League obscurity.

Over my games watching at Port Vale I have witnessed fickle fans never really giving Glover the chance because 'Porter' was the one everyone wanted - but even now I don't think he is the man either.

Port Vale require time and support of fans and maybe we can do a Swansea or MK Dons to rise up those divisions on limited funds.

It can be done, but Port Vale at Boardroom level to team management to the fans need to stick behind to get this to work.

My personal choice as manager from my list? Leroy Rosenoir, though if I had a pie in the sky option... Paul Ince, Mike Newell* or Mickey Adams would do just nicely.

*Mike Newell was my choice before Glover was appointed, if Vale had got him instead this season could have been a whole lot different.

Photography Venture...

2009-04-29T23:34:00.001+01:00

After being at the Gig recently, as well as the Eddie Izzard gig, I have noticed that I am out a fair bit and with the weather starting to get good it's clicky clicky time.

Decided to plump for a Samsung L313 from Argos. I'm not big on photography - not much of an eye for it but I am an appreciator of it and the art of it all.

13.6MP, so considering I'm using it just for a hobby but at least so the pictures aren't God awful like the ones in recent blogs and such (iPhone only really good for photos up front --> I've decided too that even an iPhone upgrade won't give me much more, it's a phone, not a camera...)

Pretty.

E is for Eddie, L is for Loser (Eddie Izzard Talking Politics, Bloomsbury Theatre, 27th April 2009)

2009-04-27T22:12:00.001+01:00

Long winded title so apologies.

E is for Eddie -

Went to see Eddie Izzard Tonight at the Bloomsbury Theatre in Euston, London. Stopped over at the Bree Louise for a pint and half.

Eddie was joined by Ed Balls MP (Minister for Education) and Tessa Jowell MP (Minister for Sport, Arts and Culture). It was a political question time with Eddie playing the host role.

Only difference being there wasn't anything negative, except your normal Tory/Cameron political bashing.

Nothing really of note - Europe and the Olympics were the big talking points. Eddie is very passionate about Labour politics and Europeanisation that he had said he intends to stand for public office - I'd like to see him run against Boris.

Twitter was also mentioned - Ed Balls didn't quite get it, and one Tweeter has commented that Eddie should run against Boris Johnson for Mayor of London - and see the clown get beat by a real comedian.

Audio of Eddie Talking Politics here (my AudioBoo) - you can hear me laugh at one point!

Picture Gallery:

Picture 1
Picture 2
Picture 3
Picture 4

L is for Loser

Other than that, at some point between Bloomsbury and Euston I noticed I had lost my wallet - rediscovered it back at the Theatre!

On top of that, I lost my keys, too.

E is for Eddie; L is for Lucas - L is for Loser...

Senses Fail Club Academy Gig Review 25th April 2009

2009-04-26T19:01:00.001+01:00

Went train hopping to Manchester for last night's Senses Fail gig at Club Academy, supported by Deaf Havana and My Emergency (click links for their MySpaces!)

Before the Gig

We had the time to get a pint in at the Lass O'Gowrie after briefly revisiting the memories of Weston Hall - Titanic Stout for myself. All was looking up as Manchester United were losing 2-0 too.

Ended up at the gig early enough to sit outside Jabez Clegg for a sit down and discovering United had reversed the score to 5-2 by the end of the match! - I had the fortunate honour of being hit on - twice for lighter and where to get cigarettes. The girl was going to some Chav gig in another one of the Academy rooms, and looked a right tit since the way she said she came she had to pass a shop. More for my ego, I suppose.

Despite the epic queue stretching as far back as Coupland Street - 2 gigs on, so no joke here - I used my university connections to get in via the side entrance at the Union pub. I'm sneaky, but get away with what you can.

The Gig

It was all broadcasted on my Twitter, but I thought I'd put a blog here too.

My Emergency - typical scene band, but listenable.

Deaf Havana - the better of the three - a bit more like Senses Fail of old, with sscreamer lead vocal and singer/guitarist, nice 4 set.

Senses Fail - the band practically everyone came to see. As I was warned, they were your typical studio band. Having stood in front of the stage by the amp, could barely hear the voices in the songs. Some classics like "You're Cute when you Scream", "Bloody Romance", "Martini Kiss" were all played, and well as their newer, more whiner stuff.

The singer was incredibly dense. He told us that he was an American Cub Scout and there was some documentary of him or something on some channel in America, something about something called "Oxygen" (the channel I think), and to watch at 2AM GREENWICH STANDARD TIME. Tit. Anyway, we are on British Summer Time.

Also, he tried telling us stories of swimming pool parties - thinking we would all understand and that we all have swimming pools. We don't.

And for comical measure, despite admitting he was not a comedian he still saw something humourous in that Mayo squeezing out of a bottle had a striking resemblance to semen. I suppose it was fitting as I and Renate were probably the oldest there - too many 13 year old scene kids drinking WKD by the looks of things.

There was something good though - some guy at the front got kicked out for throwing people over the safety barrier - and plenty of crowd surfers tried to get to the stage but failed. The singer almost got pulled in too. Fun times.

In in all, gig was not too shabby and it was a nice leveller to have someone in Manchester with me who loves it as much as I hate it.

After the Gig

After the gig it was time for Relentless and the treacherous walk through Canal Street. Much to my dismay there wasn't any men in leather, but many uniformed army gays and dykes you could easily mistake for men, and men you could mistake for flat chested ladies. I managed to make up for the experience after though, and a 4 hour wait called at the National Express cardboard box awaited.

We managed to witness a coach driver getting near assaulted by drunken passengers, police coming in and some racially incited banter between some passengers or something trying to go home to London. It's amazing how absolutely leathered people get on a night out!

I had a rude awakening and encounter with the security guard when I went for a cigarette who was probably expecting me to be rude back - but he had a hard night. A short stop at Keele services for photo processing and a walk home ended the night.

I give the night a ***/5 - * for getting away with so much and the entertainment of people getting in trouble with the policia, * for the gig being bareable, * for the shits and giggles.

Ren & I (at Jabez Clegg)
See full Facebook photo album of the night here

Fun with my friend, but I'm tempting to just let my beard grow all Karl Marx like - I never get served like this and its embarassing! I'm 20 for crying out loud!

Tomorrow - essay hand-ins and Eddie Izzard in London. Roll on.

Fin.

'Hung' Parliament and Dead-lines

2009-04-24T00:03:00.001+01:00

I have been busy with essays recently - written 3 in the past 10 days hence the lack of blogging because I just haven't found much time for it.

Over the past 4 weeks actually there have been 4 essays I have written this semester:
Philosophy of Mind - "Are Sensations Brain Processes?" (25 March)
Philosophy of Logic- "Do Possible Worlds Exist?" (22 April)
Politics: Germany - "Why has Germany’s second attempt at democracy been successful while its first failed?" (22 April)
Politics: UK - "The Attlee governments of 1945-51 have been described as the most successful application of the Labour Party's version of democratic socialism. What does their record tell us about Labour's version of democratic socialism?" (22 April)

So this Tuesday I hammered out the Logic essay in 8 hours, despite not really having much clue or understanding what the point in these Logic arguments are all about. Not got much interest in it, personally.

The Mind essay is still yet to come back -- but I'm looking forward to it.

Monday, I'm due to hand in the two Politics Essays and an Extended Essay of 5,000 (which now has a deadline extension for many reasons):

"In the event of a hung parliament, could this be seen as consensual democracy or otherwise? Discuss with reference to the United Kingdom."

The essay was chosen by me, much for all my Republican-interests politically and I have until 8th of May for that.

12th May is my Pre-Operative Assessment, so I'm planning a nice few blogs in the CP-section then, and the actual Operation is on the 28th May.

My Exams start 22nd May, with 4 exams - 22nd and 27th May, 5th and 8th June (Mind, German Politics, Logic and then UK Politics).

Its nice thinking everything could be over soon and I could get back to something that I love - decent blogging.

Saturday though - I get to see Senses Fail at Club Academy in Manchester --> Not that I care much for Manchester but I used to like the band when I was a bit younger. *might* be good, but from what I hear I can't expect too much.

Oh, and Eddie Izzard in London on Monday after I hand in my essays, with my dad.

Fun times!

Essays and Referencing

2009-04-17T15:00:00.001+01:00

It's madness in my poor, little, insignificant life right now. Well, insignificant to the point I am only one person and there's much worse out there.

But, as I finish typing a political essay on the Attlee Governments and Democratic Socialism, I've realized a real bugbear when it comes to essays - necessary though annoying.

As you probably guessed from the title - it's referencing and bibliography.

As boring as it is, it is also tedious as those academics among you will realize. To help with the speed of my essays, I have merely referenced in the text shorthand (I use Harvard), and now I need to shift through and write them out, long hand and get my bibliography set up.

With this being one of 4 essays due in in the next 10 days, I have also made a similar (mistake) approach to one of my essays due in a week on Monday.

This coming Wednesday - Philosophy of Logic essay - I'm intrigued how this essay is going to turn out...

then a week on Monday:

Extended Essay [Politics] (which requires BINDING) I've not even started researching, never mind writing.
Germany Politics Essay (needs referencing properly)
UK Essay (just conclusion and referencing required)

So just 3,000 words for the Logic essay now, and a further 5,000 in me for the Extended Essay.

I am on a tight schedule to get all this done, so apologies for lack of interesting blogging in the meantime.

I do miss it. But I'm sure you understand.

Rant over.

Football Manager - Male seeking Female?

2009-04-16T13:24:00.011+01:00

I'm quite the social networker and I sometimes visit the SIGames Community Forums for Football Manager discussion.

Anyway, I found a Football Manager singles thread (link here, you may need to be a member to see it) and found the below hilarious:

The thread continues with men talking about their frustrations of their significant other's lack of understanding with their love for the game (Football Manager, not football itself!) - and it all just reminds me of something I've had to deal with before, which became the following rant:

It 'ruins lives' apparently and is a silly little dot game. All in good humour of course.

Now though, the game is a little less sexist - You can be a "female manager" now and there are, apparently, girl players of the game. It is too, a little bit more real - still dots but now a 3D view too, so all the more exciting.

Of course, I would say that having played the game in its many versions since I was 8. It is true that it ruins lives, relationships and has been cited as a reason for a divorce (apparently)

Looking for a female player of this game must be very rare, and I must say I don't think it'll ever happen for those looking for it.

Otherwise, it's probably best to lead a 'double life'...

Football on Sundays. Heaven forbid. Or should that be Sunday trading laws?

2009-04-13T03:17:00.001+01:00

The question or issue I'm talking about here is 'Football-free Sundays'.

Over the recent row over Easter Sunday football, the Archbishop Vincent Nichols weighed in opposition to live football on Easter Sunday.

Now, the ever famous Desmond Tutu lookalike (John Semantu, Archbishp of York) has weighed in, too.

Using Sunday trading laws or not to prevent games on a Easter Sunday, for a footballing neutral, I would have to say more has to be done to stop games being played on a Sunday as it is.

Historically, games are played on a Saturday at 3PM. With the advent of Sky and tv football, games are moved from 3PM to earlier on a Saturday or on a Sunday/Monday (or any day, take your pick) so that the ones played at other grounds, for the smaller clubs, don't lose out. That is the idea - on the one hand small clubs don't lose out, but also more people watch the tv games too.

If the first argument for tv football is the case, and should we accept Sunday trading laws; should it not be at all possible to prevent games being played on a Sunday at all? Sky have a choice of channels to choose from and are no strangers to interactive "match-choice" via the red button when it comes to the UEFA Champions League. This could be easily acheived by 7-8PM kickoffs on a Saturday and 11AM kickoffs on a Saturday respectively, so no matter what the case is TV football and the traditionalists will win in the end.

Super Sundays (as Sky love to call them) will become Super Saturdays. What is there to lose?
1) Tradition will be somewhat restored - for football and religion
2) Clubs can rest in the knowledge that fixture schedules are in sync with the rest of their league so they cannot gain an unfair advantage or be at a disadvantage.
3) More fans will be able to travel to the games with public transport BETTER on Saturdays than Sundays.

I can't see where the great advantage is for Sundays - other than filling in blanks in the tv listings. Sky could easily throw on repeats of 'Hold the Back Page', WWE, 'Boots 'n' All', etc. Nobody will miss out.

The argument to agree with what Semantu and Nichols are saying, is not a religious argument as the media paint out. It's more one of tradition, heritage to the British nation.

Like the campaign to 'Save the Coachmakers', I'd feel only one party in the political system would be in favour - the BNP.

Heaven forbid!

Sociology and Religion: Belief in the Supernatural

2009-04-13T02:55:00.001+01:00

A Theos survey found:
27% believe in reincarnation
39% believe in ghosts
55% believe in Heaven
53% believe in life after death
70% believe in human soul.

Comparing with 1950s:
22% believe in astrology or horoscopes & 15% believe in fortune telling
1950s: 10% believe in ghosts (2% seen one), 7% in fortune telling, 6% in satrology.

Comparing with 1998:
18% believe in fortune telling
38% believe in astrology
40% believe in ghosts, 15% seen one.

"The results indicate that people have a very diverse and unorthodox set of beliefs. Our research may point to a slight increase in scepticism about aspects of the supernatural over the last 10 years." (Wooley)

Source: BBC

So what does this tell us?

True that results indicate a diverse and 'unorthodox set of beliefs', and I would like to refer back to my last blog in a mention of a 'Civil Religion' - and that for some, even a sports game can be followed somewhat religiously. So perhaps given this, the results are not all that suprising.

But, what is really meant by a belief in... heaven, or life after death, or reincarnation, or astrology, or fortune telling? We can't by any stretch of the imagination draw anything conclusive other than the very obvious: There is a degree of an increase in such diversity of beliefs. Yet also, we cannot ignore there are degrees within these beliefs. For example, just what IS heaven? Also, what kind of life after death are we talking about? Something along the lines of John Hick's philosophy of a physical existence in the next world, or Christian resurrection, or that we move on to a higher mental plane after our physical death?

I would also like to make the suggestion that some beliefs could well be interlinked: consider the soul, life after death, and ghosts. One person may believe that when we die, our soul continues after death and is reconstituted in the form of a ghost. Another may feel the soul dies with the body, or that it carries on after death and there are no such thing as ghosts.

So there are many different (and interesting things) we can draw from the sociological survey, and importantly that while people may seem to be less religious (consider church attendences), that does not mean that people are any less spiritual and searching for this fulfillment in other ways.

Religion, Faith, Spirituality, Belief... all this smacks of a DIY ethic on the one hand, and a more critical, open-minded and considerate ethic on the other.

Happy Good Friday?

2009-04-10T17:59:00.001+01:00

Found this on my Feedly newsreader via Firefox which I found rather strange:

Happy Good Friday. It seems a bit strange, but I asked my dad, Fr Peter and he says its not a day of celebration as such but rather one of remembering. Quite right, too.

This Easter has seen a religious holiday getting all political over the football being shown on Easter Sunday - only ever happened 8 times, ever, in the past. For a country that is historically Christian, I do think that there is a point.

We should remember the Passion of Christ and Easter for specifically those reasons but also I think, for an atheist, who might not have any holidays, a compromise should be found: a religion of one is no less relevant than a religion shared by 6, 6 million or 6 billion.

Robert Bellah puts forward his argument of a 'Civil Religion in America' ; which we if accept this premise, can translate for many football fanatics that football is religion too, and the stadium is the church and the game is the service.

Should there be any clash of religions, (as ridiculous as football being a religion may seem to Catholics, Christians and vice-versa), what I propose is the art of compromise:

Whereby there is a clash, there are those that are religious, and watch their football too, and so both should be allowed in the spirit of things - but the football should be screened at a time that does not disrupt the Easter festivities. Where Setanta are showing the game at 1PM (kickoff at 2PM) - this does not allow most Evertonians travelling from Merseyside to get to the game on time where Christian services are likely to take place around 10:30AM. So I would argue the game should be kicked off at 4PM instead, to allow for Easter to go somewhat less disrupted, ample time to arrive for the game.

All this bleating might seem a bit crazy for some - it's impossible to please everybody. Still, this reminds me of an email my dad sent me on religious days for the atheist:

In Florida , an atheist created a case against the upcoming Easter and Passover holy days. He hired an attorney to bring a discrimination case against Christians, Jews and observances of their holy days.

The argument was that it was unfair that atheists had no such recognized days.

The case was brought before a judge. After listening to the passionate presentation by the lawyer, the judge banged his gavel declaring,"Case dismissed!"

The lawyer immediately stood objecting to the ruling saying, "Your honor, how can you possibly dismiss this case? The Christians have Christmas, Easter and others. The Jews have Passover, Yom Kippur and Hanukkah, yet my client and all other atheists have no such holidays."

The judge leaned forward in his chair saying, "But you do. Your client, counsel, is woefully ignorant."

The lawyer said, "Your Honor, we are unaware of any special observance or holiday for atheists."

The judge said, "The calendar says April 1st is April Fools Day. Psalm 14:1 states, 'The fool says in his heart, there is no God.' Thus, it is the opinion of this court, that if your client says there is no God, then he is a fool. Therefore, April 1st is his day. Court is adjourned."

You got to love a Judge that knows his scripture!

Day/Night in Leeds

2009-04-08T14:39:00.000+01:00

Leeds, if I could describe it, is Manchester but cleaner. A bigger city too, on first impressions and a nice night last night with friends - Charlie Chan Chinese food, Grolsch Beers and a bit of 360 gameage. Good times. And isn't this just a pretty sight?

Had a bit of a walk round Leeds centre in the morning thanks to Google walking directions & map. It is excellent!

-- Post From My iPhone

Monsters v. Aliens

2009-04-06T21:51:00.005+01:00

Watched Monsters v. Aliens tonight, and what a good film it was (as always with a Dreamworks epic).

Well worth the entrance fee, but in typical film fashion, the sadness in the film is vindicated by a happy one.

One for the family, indeed. :)

Come to think of it, haven't I see the gooey dude in Monsters Inc.?

****/5, for a rating, though I am no critic!

News, Twitter v. Facebook and a new kid on the block - AudioBoo

2009-04-05T21:05:00.004+01:00

As previously mentioned in my Analytics for this month, there are exciting new developments for LucasWeatherby.com and the Social Networking community.

First, I would like to mention and recall the blog on Facebook v. Twitter I posted just a couple of weeks ago. I did intend on keeping a 'trial period' going with the idea of keeping status updates separate on both for some time, but with the advent of AudioBoo, I have decided to forego the experiment.

AudioBoo is new on the scene, the new kid on the block. Like Twitter, it is a micro-blog, but with a difference. Like podcasts, AudioBoo allows you to record your voice - up to 3 minutes to say what you want. Short, snappy, and you get to share your thoughts, jokes, news with the world. It's already seen it's importance in the latest G20 developments, just like it's Twitter cousin.

The power of aggregation, I think, is a very powerful tool that I think trumps any traditionalist, purist argument of different uses for Twitter/Facebook statuses. Now, with AudioBoo, you might want to share things that just come across better in voice. I've also come to the conclusion that 'yes', while it can be annoying on Facebook to see someone post lots of statuses, when you play a game, do a quiz, comment on a friend's page - just quite anything comes up in your "News Feed" like it would on your Twitter wall. That being said, I can't see why things I might choose to speak of in the AudioBoo scene or share in the Twitter community, Facebook people might not want to see that as well. It is the choice of the supposed friends, afterall. And yes, I have friends blocked from seeing my statuses who I might not want to see my 'status updates', which I see as a more networking use; whether this be recalling song lyrics or general wonderments or amazings on my status without going into 'touchy-feely' emotion types. There is a place for that, I feel.

Your closest friends are the ones on your phone, who you can SMS, email, and call, or send private messages via Facebook - so why broadcast something that's intimately personal as some do? That is my justification for bringing the aggregation back.

You can find my AudioBoo here, but you will soon, I hope find links on LucasWeatherby.com to playback my 'Boo's' on the webpage.

Finally some exciting news. I have considered with fellow bloggers the use of a 'branded' blog name, to give it a bit of zest, but personality as well. So from this day forth, the blog will be known as Lucas 3:16, an idea and a biblical reference of course, given my roots - but also reminds me when I used to watch WWE (WWF), and `Stone Cold' Steve Austin and his famous 'Austin 3:16' catchphrase.

To complement this, I have changed my authorship name again from 'Lord John Marbury' to 'Lucas 3:16', to encourage readership to my blog rather than something so random.

This is all a bit boring, of course, but I find a sense of fun in these things.

The future's bright.

The future's AudioBoo.

Analytics for March 2009

2009-04-01T20:41:00.000+01:00

December 2008
January 2009
February 2009

Just first, a quick notice on this belated Analytic post, usually customary for my blog - Been somewhat busy over the past week or so and you can refer to a more recent post for exciting news for the blog, things I'm considering, and website/general social networking news. But onto the Analytics!

March 2009

5 quick points I found interesting:

1) A 25% increase on amount of visitors, 11% for overall visits. (This is a rounded figure).
2) Going Global - now getting more hits from the Americas and Europe.
3) Many hits still coming through Facebook, despite the change in status aggregation - providing for 20% of my hits, but Google search engine a close second.
4) Labels proving a popular hit, but my topical post on abortion generated 47 pageviews, and a few comments. Read here if you haven't!
5) Manchester is still the highesat hit in the city stakes, probably due to my University connections I figure, but possibly also because ISPs locally can be 'seen' by Google as Manchester rather than Stoke-on-Trent. Manchester is 1st, followed by a growing London in second place and Stoke in 3rd.

Goals:

Growth is always good, and see the more recent post for an exciting new development in social networking and LucasWeatherby.com!

Stoke-on-Trent is now Snog-on-Sofa

2009-04-01T09:16:00.000+01:00

Just left Stoke-on-Trent station for London Euston, and look what I found at the station. There appeared to be some filming going on, too.

Weird, but it made me laugh!

-- Post From My iPhone

Save the Coachmakers

2009-03-31T06:11:00.003+01:00

Unfortunately I wasn't aware until it was on to be there, but I pledge my full support to the Save the Coachmakers campaign, getting local news coverage! See video below, my father set up the petition.

Please sign the petition at http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/coachmakers/

See the Coachmakers website at http://www.thecoachmakers.co.uk/

Think heritage. Think real ale. Think a friendly, community, thriving pub. Think, it actually is a pub in the truest sense of the word.

It should never go!

The funniest thing you will see all year....

2009-03-30T02:06:00.003+01:00

It's just so so wrong, but hilarious too....

Britain is not 'broken', the media is.

2009-03-28T19:04:00.003Z

Thanks to a reader, I have been alerted to the news that Alfie Patton is not the father, as was once suggested - see my blog here

It seems that there is barely any news anywhere on the subject, perhaps because its not so sexy now that the 'youngest father' in Britain is not really the father. It took a feedly search to find any news on the subject, and all I got was a blog. (and, by the way, my feedly RSS gets all the major UK news sources, shocking, really.)

So is this a surprise?

Not really. Perhaps the media don't like to admit they are wrong - the Sun will do anything to sell their newspapers, but not to damage their own credibility at publishing false stories. The Hillsborough disaster is a case in point - the author has never retracted his story.

Britain is not broken - the media is.

Dashboard Confessional - Even Now (Video, Lyrics, Download)

2009-03-28T01:24:00.003Z

Dashboard Confessional - Even Now
download for free here!

Even now I can smell the clothes
Freshly from the wash
Still hot from the dryer

Even now I can smell your skin
To wrap you in a towel
Lay you on the bed
And try to love you

Even now I can feel your arms
I can feel your breast
I can hear your songs
And I always can find you again

Even now I can feel your hand
Gently over mine
With almost no weight at all

Even now I can feel your eyes
Watch me as I strum
Much too late at night

Even now I can see you smile
I can hear you hum
I can hear you sing
And I always can find you again

Even in the dark of night
Even in the lowest light
Even as the world outside
Is spinning, and spinning

Even now I can feel your hair
Blow across my cheek
As we sit in one of two chairs

Even now I can feel your face
Resting on my chest
Wrestling for sleep
And failing at it

Even now I can see you sleep
I can see the dream
I can see you fly
And I always can find you again
And I always can find you again
And I always can find you again

Note: A song, from my favourite band/artist, Dashboard Confessional (Christopher Ender Carrabba) - see here - for a live video of the performance I saw last year. It was special, in so many ways. I won't forget. ♥

Sexual Ethics: Abortion and Condom Advertisments before the Watershed?

2009-03-26T19:34:00.005Z

As I type, my mother is drawing up a petition against the news that the advertising agency are planning to air TV advertisements giving pregnancy advice before the 2100 watershed.

You can read the planned news here
You can read news on anti-abortion agency being against this proposal here.
And a heartwarming mother’s perspective on the blogosophere on the nature of abortion, here.

There are various positions we can argue from; for and against. The debate rages and comes to light in this blog in light of my own Catholic beliefs and my philosophical background. They are, it seems to be at odds and it is a very emotional issue. So, what’s the fuss about?

Against

The sanctity of life is a moral imperative for Catholics. It would be quiet controversial to suppose that murder is acceptable. Abortion and the morning-after pill equals murder. Condoms and the pill for contraceptive use prevents the possibility of life, the natural order of things. Abstinence is the answer - STIs are avoided and babies can be raised in a traditional, nuclear family.

For

The reality is different: STIs are on the increase, media sensationalization of sex and the acceptance of sexual promiscuity is clearly the problem and we must respect the rights of the mother and the social circumstances that lead to use of contraception and abortion methods. A last resort, is needed to prevent the breakdown of society and we must provide for the circumstances in abortion and condom use is sensible and necessary.

Conclusion

Speaking with my philosopher’s hat on, it is not disputed that abortion is abhorrent, the destruction of life. I would have to agree with BBC Mark Easton’s blog:

“What stops teen pregnancies: condoms or family meals? I suspect that the problem is more down to lifestyle than to lack of information.” [Read blog here]

This hits the nail on the head and fits into both arguments - the conservative, religious view and the liberal, pro-choice view. So what’s the answer?

The reality must be accepted - that we exist in a society where sex is apparent, and yet it seems that discussion of sex and sexual ethics is a ‘taboo subject’. It is not the place of government is legislate what is right and wrong on this personal issue, but some guidance and acceptance in the difference of opinions should allow people to make a rational choice. Perhaps this is too philosophical to contemplate, maybe no society can become one-dimensional in its moral directives. Yet if the education is there, condoms and abortions can be used for the more rational and acceptable means: Preventing spread of STIs, Family planning, abortion to protect the life and welfare of the mother and child. To resolve this dilemma of ‘what is right’ here is an age-old question that I cannot answer. Something to consider…

PS: You can read my personal opinion in the comments section here.

Toilet Scandal

2009-03-22T21:21:00.003Z

Thought this was funny:

"A US firm is offering $5,000 (£3,450) for clues leading to the arrest of an arsonist who has been setting portable toilets on fire across San Francisco."

Read Full Article HERE

Reminds me of the investigation in my school years of the mysterious 'poo' toilet vandal. Some kid was apparently putting their poo and hanging on the toilet pegs as presents for people coming in to do their business.

Never did quite find out who that was...

Stoke to Stay Up!

2009-03-21T17:31:00.004Z

Stoke City won a must-win game against Middlesboro today, winning 1-0 and taking them 3 points clear. Here's a list of their remaining fixtures: (in brackets I have put their league position as of writing. Newcastle play Arsenal tonight:

Saturday, 04 April 2009

Barclays Premier League

West Brom (20th) v Stoke, 15:00

Saturday, 11 April 2009

Barclays Premier League

Stoke v Newcastle (18th), 15:00

Saturday, 18 April 2009

Barclays Premier League

Stoke v Blackburn (17th), 15:00

Saturday, 25 April 2009

Barclays Premier League

Fulham (8th) v Stoke, 15:00

Saturday, 02 May 2009

Barclays Premier League

Stoke v West Ham (7th), 15:00

Saturday, 09 May 2009

Barclays Premier League

Hull (13th) v Stoke, 15:00

Saturday, 16 May 2009

Barclays Premier League

Stoke v Wigan (9th), 15:00

Sunday, 24 May 2009

Barclays Premier League

Arsenal (4th) v Stoke, 16:00

Barclays Premier League : Table 21 Mar 17:01

			\| Home					\| Away
	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	W	D	L	F	A	GD	PTS
1	Man Utd	29	12	1	1	31	9	8	4	3	18	9	31	65
2	Chelsea	29	8	5	2	24	8	10	2	2	25	8	33	61
3	Liverpool	29	8	6	0	22	8	9	4	2	27	13	28	61
4	Arsenal	29	8	5	2	22	11	6	5	3	23	15	19	52

5	Aston Villa	29	5	7	3	21	17	10	0	4	22	14	12	52
6	Everton	30	6	5	4	23	17	7	4	4	17	14	9	48

7	West Ham	30	7	2	6	19	17	4	6	5	16	18	0	41
8	Fulham	30	9	3	3	24	12	1	7	7	6	14	4	40
9	Wigan	29	6	4	4	13	12	4	4	7	16	16	1	38
10	Man City	29	9	0	5	30	12	1	5	9	15	25	8	35
11	Tottenham	29	5	5	4	15	9	4	3	8	20	25	1	35
12	Bolton	30	6	2	7	15	18	4	2	9	17	26	-12	34
13	Hull	29	3	4	8	16	30	5	5	4	19	21	-16	33
14	Sunderland	29	5	3	7	17	18	3	5	6	12	20	-9	32
15	Portsmouth	29	6	2	7	20	23	2	6	6	12	23	-14	32
16	Stoke	30	8	4	3	18	13	0	4	11	11	34	-18	32
17	Blackburn	30	3	6	6	16	22	4	4	7	17	27	-16	31

18	Newcastle	29	4	6	4	20	22	2	5	8	15	24	-11	29
19	Middlesbrough	30	4	7	4	13	16	2	2	11	8	26	-21	27
20	West Brom	30	5	3	7	20	28	1	3	11	6	27	-29	24

Of the remaining 8 or 9 games left in the season, it appears that any team below 35 points could get suckered in and be facing relegation.

Stoke are soon to face West Brom, Newcastle and then Blackburn - win all 3 and they should stay up. You wouldn't bet against it. West Brom drew today 1-1 with Bolton and you could just see on the looks of the players at the final whistle that they have consigned themselves to relegation.

Middlesbrough, having lost at Stoke are on a downward spiral as of late and their remaining games include Villa, Manchester United and Arsenal - so they look certain for relegation now too.

All leaves that magical 3rd spot. Who is it going to be? Too close to call perhaps but I'm going to put my neck on the line and nominate 3 teams - Newcastle, Hull and Blackburn to be fighting on the last day. And the one to go down? Hull.

At the other end, United lost a shocking 2-0 to Fulham (away) today with Rooney and Scholes both sent off - now along with Nemandja Vidic facing suspension. They more than have the squad to cope you would feel but they seem to be cracking under pressure. A big big game next against Villa which could turn the title on it's head.

Villa could, as I predicted have a real say in the title race this season

Twitter, Facebook, Status Updates & Blog Traffic

2009-03-18T02:25:00.000Z

There hasn’t been a lot of blog activity this past month - and much has contributed to it, mainly illness and other commitments (What other commitments? - Those close to me may ask) but the past few days, with the latest iPhone OS 3 being announced and me becoming more immersed into the actual workings and potential of Twitter (Installed TweetDeck today and found out via Twitter that actor Ron Silver has died, rest his soul) - I have come to wonder about the purposes of Twitter v. Facebook status updates, particularly since the new Facebook layout was announced (‘What is on your mind’ seems a bit more Twitterrific). What’s more, I too, have wondered given the success of my blog in recent times whether this would impact on my Blog Traffic.

I am not going to get into a debate about the delicate nature of what status updates are meant for on Twitter, or on Facebook - but be a part of either and you will soon get the idea. That is not the point of my little ‘wonder-ment’ here. Instead, I am going to take these little thoughts in my mind and as of today, my Twitter-syncs with Facebook will be suspended until ‘come what May’. (I get the feeling that isn’t the right idiom/description to use here but whatever!). Indeed, come May, I will write back, maybe, just maybe get into a little talk about what my feelings are on both (status updates-wise) and whether there is indeed a place for Twitter and Facebook statuses being together, in one place, rather than apart. It will be interesting to see in the meantime, whether this will impact on my blog traffic.

If you don’t have Twitter but ‘fear’ for my Facebook statuses probably never really, if ever, changing; you can see my ‘Tweets’, or Twitter updates at the LucasWeatherby.com homepage - www.lucasweatherby.com - or on my Twitter - www.twitter.com/lucasweatherby

This bit of contemplation is all striking me as a little bit weird now - its strange what your mind can do to you sometimes when you really, really should be doing something else - Like University essays and research. That, is something you can be rest assured I will be doing if you see little blog action at www.lucasweatherby.com, but at least, still you will be kept entertained by my Twitter updates…

iPhone 3.0 Conference, Summary and Thoughts

2009-03-17T20:17:00.002Z

Features:

1. Applications : Subscriptions, sell new levels within app, new content

2.P2P Gaming/Applications (Peer to Peer) - Automatic Discovery, Bluetooth, Devices are not paired, use of the Bonjour technology, used for applications too.

3. Custom Apps will now be able to interact with 3rd party hardware. EG. FM transmitter.- Dock Connector, Bluetooth functionality.

4. Google Maps can now be used within applications (Not just the Maps app!) = Now with TURN BY TURN DIRECTIONS!

5. Push Notification - but NO background processing. :(

6. The Sims, Meebo to come to the iPhone... Also fitness apps and hardware accessories for the diabetics! Also TouchPets (a bit like the Sims...) and LiveFire, a FPS (with wifi, global play). Dr Wang of Smule unveil 'Leaf Trombone', a multiplayer music app.

7. Cut, Copy and Paste. (finally...) With Undo support, and works across apps!

8. Landscape mode in Notes, Mail and SMS...

9. SMS has forwarding and deleting texts! (yay!)

10. MMS support.

11. Contacts with photos/audio alerts per contact (pretty cool...)

12. Voice Memos.

13. Overhaul of that crap Stocks app - now with news stories and details...

14. Search/Spotlight capability in all applications.

15. Notes Sync too!

----

Details:

16. OS 3.0 will be free, backwards compatible to 1st Gen iPhone, and at a cost of $9.95 for iPod Touch....

17. Q&A - Copy and Paste took long because of security issues, Flash not yet announced (but HDTV streams now possible).
Peer to Peer is Bonjour only.
Tethering support is being built in, but not yet in as a function.
Can't move files over Bluetooth, but the Q&A guys were a bit stumped!

----

My thoughts?

Nothing on possible skinning the phone screen, background and such.
No news on editing the sounds for texts/alert sounds.
Can't manage screens on the iPhone via iTunes?
Tethering and Flash not there yet.....
Can't record video (only with a 3rd party app)
People are still going to jailbreak for reasons I've just mentioned (and probably more, but I'm not the best informed)....

Looking forward to the next iPhone model to be announced!

See the conference in all its glory - here. - No Steve Jobs though....

A great way to boosting attendences?

2009-03-16T21:20:00.002Z

In Rugby Union, they have resorted to inflatable fans to make the crowd look more full. See article here.

With Port Vale attendances below the 5,000 season ticket holder sales for this season, maybe it's a way to increase support?

Coachmakers Arms - Venus

2009-03-14T17:24:00.000Z

5% ABV

At 5% it actually tastes fair light, creamy too. Good Stuff. ***/5

-- Post From My iPhone

New Facebook just reads my mind!

2009-03-14T10:51:00.003Z

After the media frenzy over Facebook lately over privacy and their terms and conditions, Facebook has tried to gloss it over with a trendy new look. Time reports that Facebook wants more contemplation in their status updates, and more power over who you get news from - because let's face it, you don't want to see love birds comparing themselves to Scooby and Shaggy sharing love notes over a status update and a random, jealous person getting all hot under the collar.

It also creates the intention too, that it's okay for people to cry, and moan about stuff going on. To each their own, I guess.

The great thing though, is you can use your friend groupings to only get news about people you want - I do this already to help with my privacy settings, but now I will only get news from people I actually want to bother hearing about. (30 out of 277, for me!)... so it cuts out all the clutter for me.

And the layout? Much, much better I think. I don't know what all the fuss is about!

Go on, have a flutter

2009-03-14T10:48:00.003Z

Manchester United are odds-on favourites to win today against Liverpool.

The odds on Liverpool though, obviously not so favourable but a fancible flutter nonetheless. So I've gone for it.

Liverpool to win 2-1, for me. Could I be right...?

Let's hope so.

Chimp pre-meditates stoning zoo visitors

2009-03-09T21:40:00.004Z

Peter Singer would agree with me, (read copied article below), that this is evidence that we need to give Chimps rights, and maybe, also, we need to start making chimp prisons?:

Zoo chimp 'planned' stone attacks

Chimpanzees have long been suspected of planning ahead

A male chimpanzee in a Swedish zoo planned hundreds of stone-throwing attacks on zoo visitors, according to researchers.

Keepers at Furuvik Zoo found that the chimp collected and stored stones that he would later use as missiles.

Further, the chimp learned to recognise how and when parts of his concrete enclosure could be pulled apart to fashion further projectiles.

The findings are reported in the journal Current Biology.

There has been scant evidence in previous research that animals can plan for future events.

Crucial to the current study is the fact that Santino, a chimpanzee at the zoo in the city north of Stockholm, collected the stones in a calm state, prior to the zoo opening in the morning.

The launching of the stones occurred hours later - during dominance displays to zoo visitors - with Santino in an "agitated" state.

This suggests that Santino was anticipating a future mental state - an ability that has been difficult to definitively prove in animals, according to Mathias Osvath, a cognitive scientist from Lund University in Sweden and author of the new research.

"We've done experimental studies, and the chimps in my mind show very clearly that they do plan for future needs, but it has been argued that perhaps this was an experimental artefact," Dr Osvath told BBC News.

"Now we have this spontaneous behaviour, which is always in some sense better evidence."

Cracking show

Dr Osvath embarked on the study after zoo staff discovered caches of stones in the section of the enclosure facing the public viewing area.

Since the initial discovery in 1997, hundreds of the caches have been removed to protect visitors, to whom the caching and the aggressive displays seem strictly related; in the off season, Santino neither hoards the projectiles nor hurls them.

The chimp stashed hundreds of stones in anticipation of throwing them

Most interestingly, Santino seems to have learned how to spot weak parts of the concrete "boulders" in the centre of the enclosure.

When water seeps into cracks in the concrete and freezes, portions become detached that make a hollow sound when tapped.

Santino was observed gently knocking on the "boulders", hitting harder to detach bits that were loosened and adding those to his stashes of ammunition.

There are a number of examples of complex behaviour in apes that suggest forms of consciousness.

Planning behaviour like that of the current work is connected to so-called autonoetic consciousness, where information due to memory can be distinguished from that from the senses.

"I'm personally convinced that at least chimps do plan for future needs, that they do have this autonoetic consciousness," Dr Osvath said.

"I hope that other zoos or those in the wild will look more closely at what is happening," he added.

"I bet there must be a lot of these kinds of behaviours out there, and I wouldn't be surprised if we find them in dolphins or other species."

Source - BBC

Jabez Clegg - Big Tree Bitter

2009-03-09T14:35:00.000Z

3.4%

It barks! Ruff!

**/5

-- Post From My iPhone

Jabez Clegg - Mr Tod

2009-03-09T14:02:00.000Z

4.2%

Creamy!!!

***/5

-- Post From My iPhone

Birthday Boy and Girl

2009-03-08T23:38:00.000Z

Buffet Island in Newcastle-under-Lyme. Nice meal, though I was ill after!

Happy bdays Jim and Kate!

They got a nice cake all to themselves!... And they are heading off to the US, Chicago soon! I am jealous....

-- Post From My iPhone

Before and After - Cerebral Palsy Leg Surgery Photos

2009-03-07T23:56:00.003Z

This blog has been one of my intentions since setting up these series of blogs. With my DVD footage of my Gait Lab assessments on my walking pre- and post- operation on my leg 6-7 years ago I can finally share.

A quick background just to understand why I had the leg operation 6 years ago in 2003. I was born with Cerebral Palsy. The type that I had involved one leg (indeed one side of my body) being shorter than the other, meaning lesser growth, mobility in that side, etc. In my case it was my left side.

I've often wondered whether people can tell with my walking being any "different". Anyway, part of the operation meant having tests at the Gait Lab. I'm a bit uncomfortable watching it to be fair but I have saved a couple of pictures just to remind myself (before and after). Just something to share:

Taken 22nd August, 2002.
I naturally stood like that, so you can just imagine what the walking was like!

Taken 11th February, 2004.
Medical Science can be pretty impressive!

So you can notice the difference, standing. But I still am very conscious of my walking and my old habit hasn't completely died - sometimes I do have to remind myself, to walk heel first. Still, things are a lot more comfortable now. You will also notice the bobbles stuck to me - these were so they could create computer generated images of me walking. Sadly I couldn't get hold of THAT data!

I remember before the operation looking forward to being able to wear "normal" shoes - rather than ones made specially with a heel build to compensate for the leg length discrepancy. Now I'm sick of having to buy shoes as often as I do!... even if they are so much better.

Moral of the story?: There's always something to moan about...

Dissertations, Relationships and Moral Dilemmas

2009-03-05T12:27:00.003Z

At Keele University, working and a girl comes over, asking me to complete a dissertation questionnaire for her friend on the impact of family relationships on your own personal, romantic relationships. And if you weren’t currently in a relationship, you had to relate to your most significant relationship. Not going to say anything too personal, but it was so entertaining for me I wanted to share. Yes, I know it’s a bit weird.

This proved to be quite the moral dilemma for me! But it was fun, I like filling in forms. I came to the conclusion that no matter how bad things may get, or end with a romantic relationship, they shouldn’t influence what you think in context of the relationship itself. Of course things are different after the relationship, but it’s what happened during that’s more important. If said relationship ends, learn lessons from it and get over it.

The questionnaire was stimulating, though asking some questions that can cause a bit of bias post-relationship. Still, looking back, I can’t say anything bad, proud of what was butI’m all over it now. Some of the questions even made me laugh.

As always, dissertation questionnaires are anonymous and confidential. It made my day though, that’s the important thing.

Now back to work…

Why I won't vote Labour at Student Union Elections

2009-03-05T09:56:00.005Z

The University of Manchester Student Union elections are on Tuesday 10th March until Thursday 12th March. You might ask, even the politically active among you - what the point is in voting at a Student Union election. There is a fundamental point. Without the student representatives at your student union, many things that happen during your time at University would not come to fruition - including the landmark (and extremely helpful from a personal standpoint), 24 hour opening library times at the University Library during examination periods. The hard work of these students working on your behalf benefits your own university education in more ways than one.

There is however, another point to make. Yes, it is an election, so you could be forgiven for getting all political at a time to exercise a democratic right to vote in such an election. But the work of the student union is about education, not politics. It is about pragmatics, about doing what is right and what is going to benefit your education the most. It is not a place for party politics and to choose a candidate on the basis of what political party society they have their endorsement. In the West Wing, Season 6 at the Democratic National Convention, candidate Matthew Santos argues: “Choose someone who shares your ideals, your hopes, your dreams” - much like Barack Obama in his campaign for ‘Change’ in 2008. That is what voting should really be about, in general elections and student union elections.

More importantly, we should reward the campaigns of those candidates that fight for the student cause: better tutor-student contact, better libraries, ‘friendlier’ student unions. Those that work hard to win your vote are the ones that deserve to win, not the ones that will get ‘block voters’ from those of political party societies.

Every vote counts in these kind of elections with such a small electorate, and even more so with the introduction of online voting. Like in a general election, the main political parties that appeal to their base and yet conquer the middle ground are usually the victors. In student elections, it is easy to vote for somebody because they are a ‘Labour candidate’, without knowing what they are actually going to do for you. Party affiliations in such elections are therefore merely cosmetic, and they are not important in the grand scheme of things.

This is why you should look at the greater picture - not by examining manifestos but knowing that who you vote for will do their hardest for you because they worked hard for your vote, and you know from a glance, what they are for. This is why I will be voting for Cat Taylor (pictured, above) for Humanities General Council Member (University of Manchester), among others. Not out of friendship but because she personally took the time to win my vote. Party ties are insignificant at such a personal and intimate election where change can happen. Your vote at your union, at your university, counts.

Coachmakers Arms - Copper Cascade

2009-03-04T22:05:00.000Z

A nice Scottish drink. Brewed by Stewart Brenning, Copper Casade : 4.2% ABV

*****/5 | But only because I earnt it!

-- Post From My iPhone

'Seize the Moment'

2009-03-04T19:29:00.004Z

'Flash' Gordon Brown gave a speech to the US Congress calling for the US to seize the moment on the economy woes of our time.

Nick Robinson claims that this is not Brown's colgate moment with Obama, yet the Guardian calls it the crowning moment of Brown's political career.

Still with Brown's economic credentials, if the US actually listen to Brown, and do not vote for more protectionism and a 'buy American/made in America' clause, then maybe this influence of 'Brown knows' could hit home back here in the UK and thus the prophecy of Mandelson can be realized:

Labour can win a 4th term.

Accrington Stanley v Port Vale: Postponed!

2009-03-03T19:19:00.000Z

Stuck in a chippy in Accrington after getting here and learning the game has been called off due to a waterlogged pitch!

I am soaking wet.

Epic fail, anyone?

-- Post From My iPhone

Cerebral Palsy: Arbitrary like eye colour?

2009-03-02T17:04:00.002Z

Francesca Martinez, comedian (pictured)

A fellow cerebral palsean has remarked that Cerebral Palsy is no different or more important than something such as eye colour. She refuses to be limited by her mild form of CP, and has remarked on something that I cannot agree more with here:

"No wonder people are still so nervous about disability, and I can only conclude that names for them are hand-picked from a tombola of words most likely to induce fear and panic. Just stick your hand in and pull one out. Syndrome. Disorder. Cerebral. Palsy. Disease. Spina. Bifida. The rest is easy. Take two words, mix them together, apply to one human being and, hey presto, you've got a ready-made freak. Labels are powerful tools that shape attitudes and tell us much about how the things they are describing are viewed. I have spent my life trying to extricate myself from the label that was plastered all over me at birth. "

This is probably very true: from my own experience, I have been rejected for interviews at jobs where they have been looking for applicants - which I have put down to CP (Asda being the main example here). It's demoralizing to the point where you just don't really want to bother, really. Perhaps a "normal" manual job like that is out of my reach.

Josh Blue, who also has CP, jokes in the video below that the reason he is a stand-up because he didn't have much choice to be anything else. "What was I was gonna do, be a traffic cop?" *flaps arms around*

You can read the Francesca Martinez article here - it also addresses the politicisation of Cerebral Palsy by David Cameron and his son Ivan, who recently passed away. Plus a good personal account.

Sleepless Nights

2009-03-01T20:03:00.001Z

According to the Times, CHILDREN who are allowed consistently to stay up past their bedtime watching television or playing on a computer are at risk of late-night sleeplessness for the rest of their lives.

Read the full article here.

All I can say is: story of my life. If this is true, Championship Manager 2 ruined my life.

I still feel the pinch now at times!...

New Deals....

2009-03-01T08:57:00.004Z

FDR's New Deal....

and now talk of a Brown/Obama New Deal....

so does that make it a B.O. New Deal?

I wonder....

National Health Service for America? (US Health Care)

2009-03-01T04:16:00.007Z

The title, though far fatched, is a step in the right direction with Obama's intended reform of the American Health Care System.

In Michael Moore's filmn Sicko, almost fifty million Americans are uninsured and those who are covered are often victims of insurance companies. See Wikipedia entry if you have not seen the film, here.

As Justin Webb points out, it's been promised by Carter, Clinton, even Teddy Roosevelt.

The natural person for health secretary who I would have liked, though perhaps too radical for some Americans to contemplate after the scandal in the Clinton years would have been dear Hilary, now US Secretary of State.

Instead, Obama has plumped for Kathleen Sibelius, as his first choice Tom Daschle has been investigated over his tax activity.

Whatever, whoever is the face of healthcare reform in America's change administration, it is only natural to agree with Webb that paying $629 for"a day of education about diabetes" is indeed, madness.

This, I think beats any privatized-only medicine system argument in the United States considering the rings that the insurance companies will have you run around before they pay your hospital bills. Look at the UK system - you can have your choice of doctors here, where you can go for treatment: I myself am a good example - I travel 100+ miles for my orthopeadic surgery. And at the end of it all, is there really any difference between paying for medical insurance and paying a national health insurance tax?

It's still money spent. And the lesson to learn, is that you spend a lot less to get the treatment you want as well - even breast enlargement and sexual reassignment surgery are offered on the NHS, plus prescriptions. In America, you will pay a hell of a lot more to receive something that is a human right: access to medical care. There should never be a conflict over paying your doctor for treatment and their duty to the hippocratic oath, should there?

So what's next on my to do list?: Watch Sicko again...

Analytics for February 2009

2009-03-01T03:18:00.003Z

December 2008
January 2009

February 2009

For those number crunchers about you...

5 points to make about this month:

1) Visitors up 43% according to Google Analytics
2) Top blog this month is the personal history of mine on Cerebral Palsy - read here , in second place is the blog on Buddhism
3) Blog themes have been a success - many of you seem to be using and clicking them. The Real Ale blogs aren't quite as popular, but it's a silly little hobby of mine!
4) Manchester is winning in the visitors from cities stakes - but most readers come from the UK - with plenty of 'bounces' from places abroad including Thailand, United States, Saudi Arabia and the Phillippines!
5) It would appear search engine hits are down by 34%, but interestingly the only search engine used is Google by people who reached the blogs through search engine.

Goals: Better, more search-engine friendly blog titles to generate hits, and hopefully somehow get these 'bounces' into... 'not-bounces'.

Thank you all for reading and coming back and viewing the website - I hope you keep reading and giving feedback.

Match Report - Port Vale v Luton Town, 28/02/09

2009-02-28T18:32:00.000Z

Picture (Free Kick Leading to John McCombe goal, 1-0)

Port Vale 1 - 3 Luton Town

Bad defending and concentration just before half time drew the scores level and Luton had the impetus and momentum before romping to a 3-1 victory.

The game was marred by Vale fans demonstrations to get "Glover Out", and a defeat seemed inevitable after the first half hour once Luton's technical superiority shone through.

It was a deserved victory but symbolic of a sad state of affairs over both clubs: Vale - a club in shambles, lack of on-the-field competence who will only survive this season thanks to points deductions given to Bournemouth and Luton (a whopping 30 points for Luton). Luton deserve to stay up but this requires a miracle having just +5 points and seemingly resigned to non-league football. For Vale, this reality seems all too inevitable if Glover survives the season and through Christmas, come May 2010 Vale could be staring into the abyss.

---

In other results, Liverpool have seemingly lost the title race with a shocking 2-0 defeat to Middlesborough, and in local football, Crewe romper to a 4th succesive win with a 4-0 win away to Brighton.

Tomorrow, Stoke face Aston Villa, who they beat early on in the season at the Britannia. In the reverse fixture it promises to be close but with Villa's form they should scrape through. Manchester United face Tottenham Hotspur in the Carling Cup final. A win for United and a quintuple on the cards? One wonders....

-- Post From My iPhone

Northumberland - McCrory's Irish Stout

2009-02-28T17:28:00.000Z

4.8% ABV

Creamy and delicious. ***/5

-- Post From My iPhone

Archbishop Vincent Nichols Pastoral Letter on Disability

2009-02-28T13:06:00.007Z

In a letter to be published on the weekend of March 21/22, Archbishop Nichols has addressed on Disability.

In it, he importantly points out that only 8% of disabled people actually are required to use a wheelchair: we need to recognise that disabilities come in many forms, not the stereotypes we might typically subscribe to a disabled person.

He writes... "Remember that those with disabilities tell us that the barrier which most often makes them feel unwelcome or excluded is that of peoples’ attitude. This is something we can change."

This is especially true, think of bullying, discrimination, perhaps people's general attitude to one another: people may say things in jest about just about anyone (talking negatively for example behind someone's back), but is this the example to set I wonder? Not for the disabled, not for children, not for anyone.

There is an important quote he uses to illustrate that those disabled are anything but unequal, lesser than other humans but the same as everyone else:

‘Let us keep those with disabilities at the centre of our life. Let us treasure them and recognise with gratitude the debt we owe them. We begin by imagining that we are giving to them; we end by realising that they have enriched us.’ (Pope John Paul II)

----

I would invite all those in the Archdiocese of Birmingham and beyond to read this letter when published but think about the deeper meaning, the underlying tone, the message Vincent Nichols is expressing to us, Catholics and non-Catholics alike: We are all human beings, all created equal, and we must strive to give to any and everyone, equal chances of opportunity for spiritual, moral and personal development. If we didn't afford these opportunities to those less well off, it would be us that are disabled.

Bookmarks and Subdomains - Errors now fixed.

2009-02-27T18:24:00.002Z

Apologies to all those attempting to use the Subdomains associated with lucasweatherby.com

This should now be fixed.

Please see here for a complete list of alternative web addresses for the mini-blog themes that you may wish to use and for information on how to bookmark various parts of the LucasWeatherby.com network.

Thank you for reading

Carling Cup 2009

2009-02-27T17:06:00.002Z

Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur square then this weekend in the Carling Cup final.

Mark Lawrenson seems to think United will win 1-0

And while I think he is right, I don't think Harry has quite what it takes to beat Fergie this time round. In the last Cup final between two sides that these two managed, United came out on top.

And I'd expect them to again... but could this be the start of a quintuple season for the Red Devils?

Questions of Truth

2009-02-27T17:02:00.001Z

I found this blog a bit interesting: http://blog.talkingphilosophy.com/?p=708

It is about a review of a book, Questions of Truth.

"Questions of Truth vividly illustrates how, if you are sufficiently committed to a belief, it is always possible to interpret other facts to fit in with it. It all depends on which of your beliefs you take to be non-negotiable. “The materialist takes as basic fact the existence of matter,” they say, somewhat caricaturing the atheist position. “The theist takes as basic fact the existence of a divine creator,” they add, accurately describing their own. From this starting point, it is clear there is nothing which could persuade the theist otherwise."

The only thing that I have to ask if: If you are willing to see some parts of your faith as negotiable, then should or can you really subscribe to that faith at all?...

Blog News - Bookmark themes!

2009-02-26T18:14:00.004Z

A bit of website/blog news....

Since I have noticed some seem to take use of the 'blog themes', I have decided to make it easier for you to remember the website addresses so you can visit them whereever you are. I have set up subdomains for each of the blog themes.

beer.lucasweatherby.com - REAL ALE BLOGS

blog.lucasweatherby.com - ALL BLOGS

cerebralpalsy.lucasweatherby.com - ALL C-P BLOGS

football.lucasweatherby.com - ALL FOOTBALL/SOCCER BLOGS

general.lucasweatherby.com - ALL BLOGS THAT ARE IN THE GENERAL SECTION

philosophy.lucasweatherby.com - ALL BLOGS PHILOSOPHY RELATED

politics.lucasweatherby.com - ALL BLOGS POLITICS RELATED

Though currently you can subscribe to my blogs with your RSS reader it will give you all the blogs, not ones in individual categories. This is unlikely to change as it means maintaining separate bloggers, easier to just use the label function for now.

To filter blogs by labels - I'm going to do this monthly from now on, just visit:

index.lucasweatherby.com - FILTER BLOGS BY LABELS

To get around the RSS reader problem - I know some of you use this feature, just bookmark the relevant blogs that you like to your web browser by pressing CONTROL + D on your Windows PC or Laptop (or COMMAND + D if you are like me and use a Mac). Unfortunately you won't get notified if there is a new blog in your area, but I thought you might find this helpful and you can always check and leave.

Finally, if you visit www.lucasweatherby.com you will come across a snazzy little splash page that features a preview of the latest blog, my twitter feed, and a bit of information and some pictures. Feel free to check it out.

If you have any ideas for the website, even if its not blog related, feel free to make suggestions and email me at:

mail@lucasweatherby.com

That's all, folks!

Cerebral Palsy: A response, an experience

2009-02-26T15:05:00.004Z

At the request (and consent of) of the Author of the comment, I have been given permission to publish the following comment in it’s own right, with making formatting adjustments to make it easier to read (the original comment was written in long prose!) and correcting spelling mistakes. The Author, I’m proud to say is my mother, I’m glad she could give some input. Though do note, if you read the original post - it says Fr Peter - bit of a mistake on the comments page there!

The response to the original blog in question and feedback has been fantastic - I have noticed many of you have been reading and it’s been a record breaking blog in the life of LucasWeatherby.com - so thank you all for reading and giving positive feedback.

Feel free to read the comment below - it is somewhat of a short essay in fairness, some 1,700 words, or skip below the formatted text to read my response: I will quote and respond to bits in part.

Lucas, you have written very well, though I can't help but feel there is a sense of anger with you -v-cp! What you have to remember is this, and you have been told this a million times in your life. "You are here! You made it! Your sisters didn't. Unlike you, born very prem, but even earlier than yourself, they too at 26-wks gestation had a fight on their little bodies, and it was obviously God's plan for better things. You have to remember how very very special you are to us, and I don't mind telling the world I once told the late Dr Peter Hope and his team at John Radcliffe Hospital Oxford, I didn't care if you grew another head on your shoulders, as long as you lived! Me and your dad had already lost Frances and Clare the same year as you were born in March, and just before I had conceived them had lost a baby too, only to be told at an emergency scan at 3 months. So when we found out we were expecting you, nothing mattered, as long as you were ok. I certainly couldn't stand losing a 4th baby within just over eighteen months!

Life in 1988 was horrendous for us, and for the first few years following, as we wondered how life would pan out with your health. Not many baby's have gone through having 2 bleeds on the brain,and needing a shunt, (as your photos show). Because this operation was classified as less urgent than your 'nectrolizing entrocolitis' disease on your bowel, as you had poisoning in your blood system, a full blood transfusion and a flush of your small stomach was urgent with them fitting at the same time, an ileostomy bag. We let you go to theatre not knowing if we would ever get to hold you alive again! It was as dire as that! We knew the odds, but it was a life threatening operation, and you would have definitely have died had we not let them do it!

Mr Green told us later he managed to salvage a short strut of ilium small bowel, and as you were a baby you would grow, and so would your bowels! You ended up with an ileostomy bag, fortunately only for 6 months, (I was the happiest mother in the world when they reversed the operation and you filled your first nappy and the nurse saved it for me to look at!!!!) Absolutely true! To me I was elated, it meant the reversal worked! once hunch we had got over for you, and with you. But we were warned that operation may have turned out to be a permanent removal of all your bowels...just depended how bad your necrotic bowel was when they opened you up!...apparently it was like sewing cling film the bowel surgeon, Mr Green at John Radcliffe told us.

Dad & I spent the morning in the chapel at John Radcliffe praying all would go well!...who had the other 4 kids at home at the time, I can't remember!!!! I think it is no secret to your elder sisters and brothers that they took 2nd place in those early days, as we had no parents or grandparents we could turn to or family close by to help out....we relied solely on parishioners! Life was cruel...for you and us! You got over that but within a fortnight of that operation, the hydrocephalus, water on the brain, caused by the bleed on your brain) was swelling considerably, you were dosed up on diamorphine, as we were told off the neurologist that you would be having probably severe headaches. Lumbar punctures on your tiny spine to tap off spinal fluid was done twice, each time you were severely sick...Anyone (Adult) who has ever experienced a lumbar spinal puncture they are very sickly and painful operations. For a premature baby to cope with it, you were just a miracle! The idea was to relieve the pressure as you were too sick to operate on, but desperately needed a shunt fitting. Eventually they did it at the Radcliffe Infirmary Oxford.

Mr Carr the Neurologist who conducted the operation came out to our home in Temple Rd at 10pm the night before the operation to explain the dangers to us. He went into graphic detail, (because I wanted to know how he'd do it), this is not a horror story, and dad will read this and will correct anything that isn't right, but this is very accurate Lucas, it is etched in my brain and heart what you went through! Mr Carr told us he would use a drill to make a hole through your skull and fit the shunt to relieve the water on the brain. It was to drain in your chest cavity as the normal procedure, (apparently), is to fix in the stomach walls, but as you had only just had surgery 2 wks earlier, a risk of infection and it flowing back up the tube into your brain, so it was decided to put it in your chest cavity. That's what the approx. 3" scar is above your right breast bone. You can see clearly the tube to this day running down your neck. I asked when would it be reversed? He told us that there is many a soldier walking about with bits of shrapnel in their head, and it is safer to leave it once it has done its job, than to risk further infection removing it!... That nearly happened when you were 11 wks old as you had an abscess form in your neck and your neck disfigured with swelling, strong antibiotics once again saved your life!

You had your appendix removed at the same time as your bowel op too! and ended up with no belly button and a huge scar right across your stomach and a small scar where your ileostomy was and where your long line was too in your stomach...( a long line is a permanently sewn in tube whilst you were in hospital to administer your drugs, so they didn't have to keep stabbing you with sharp needles! you have one on your right inner ankle too). In between this, I had been expressing my milk on an Egnell Breast Machine for 11 solid weeks and taking it up to the hospital for them to drip feed you 1 mil, 2 mils, 3 mils etc, but eventually you took sick again, and was diagnosed as suffering with Lactose Intolerance.

You had to have some awful, (I can smell it now, it was pungent)! It was called Progestamil Formula, only available on prescription, and chemist had to order it in for you. All that effort of keeping my milk going was to no avail. That had been hard going, I was stressed, I had no baby to stimulate the milk, and I'd be at home expressing it on the machine which took 10-20 minutes, then the same length to drive to the hospital too, all to no avail!....James your middle brother was a fan of breast milk being breast fed for 18 months! I was a NCT (National Childbirth Trust) keen breast feeding mum....but Disappointment you had to have this awful stuff, at least it nourished you and kept you alive...That's all that mattered.

I got my first cuddle on Christmas day, holding you complete with wires sprouting out of you from every direction....2 weeks is a long time for a mother to hold her baby for the first time.

When Dr Hope told me and your Dad, "He's turned the corner (10-wks), he's going to make it, but I am afraid, he's never likely to play football for England" That's what he said, and bombarded us too that it could be 2 yrs. before we'd know for sure just how much your disability has effected you, and couldn't predict if you had been affected mentally....obviously not!

You stood in a flexi stand strapped up till you were 14 months old. You had many many hospital trips and physio, and hydrotherapy treatment, conductive education at the Omerod, and assessments at HEPAC, (Hugh Ellis Pediatric Centre). You were 20 months old when HEPAC told me and your dad after spending Monday to Friday 5 days of intensive specialists looking at you, we stayed at the centre 9-5pm each day and had interviews with the specialists, bowels, brains, cp. specialist,Psychiatrist as you had behaviour problems, speech specialists, hearing specialists, everyone who had ever worked with you were there on different days. It was a centre that families went to for diagnosis and help. It was then that we asked them had you got cerebral palsy, we had waited nearly 2 yrs. for a diagnosis!

My aim and still is today was not to treat you any different, and that meant choosing (and fighting) for you to go to a mainstream school. Some experts in the field of education and your welfare thought you may be best going to a special needs school, but we were adamant we would get you walking, we would make you hard, and not wrap you up in cotton wool...you see Lucas, you had already proved to us time and time again, you were not as delicate and fragile as we all thought...you were a tough nut! You definitely are a walking miracle, and so if you have got to go through life one handed as you put it...its a very, extremely small price to pay for what you have been through. You do have dignity, brains, sense of humour, a heart of gold...please Lucas for your mum, don't dwell on what you haven't got, be thankful for what you do have! You have defeated many many consultants and specialists and amazed them, but we your mum and dad had faith in God that he would pull you through...and he has! We are so proud of you, and that's why i have posted this blog to tell the world you rant and rave, but you have been through hell and back in your life time, and come out on top! Well done!

Love you, Mum xxxx

Response:

First I think it is only natural to respond to my original post in say that:

“I can't help but feel there is a sense of anger with you -v-cp! What you have to remember is this, and you have been told this a million times in your life. "You are here! You made it! Your sisters didn't. Unlike you, born very prem, but even earlier than yourself, they too at 26-wks gestation had a fight on their little bodies, and it was obviously God's plan for better things.”

It is an emotional response to some of the things I have said, which can be perceived as being negative. However in the spirit of awareness and equality, I feel it is only fair of me to point out at the same time that while I am lucky, surpassed expectations and have a lot to be grateful for - which I am - that I wrote in similar vein, pointing out that appearances can be deceiving and that I (and indeed others with CP and disabilities) have just as many, if not more problems than your average Joe Bloggs.

The comment also goes on to explain many of the things I cannot remember or articulate myself because I wasn’t there to understand and record all that happened to me in quite the way my family did. It is easy for me to say “Yeah, well, I’m here now”, but I have to admit, if it were somebody else’s baby, then I’d be impressed at the miracle of science and strength and resiliency of the baby in question. It is sad to report - I feel that this is the right place - that while I survived those crucial first couple of years, David Cameron’s child Ivan, born with Cerebral Palsy and Epilepsy has recently passed away. It only serves as a stark reminder that we are all lucky to be here, not just myself.

“When Dr Hope told me and your Dad, "He's turned the corner (10-wks), he's going to make it, but I am afraid, he's never likely to play football for England"

This is true, but I’d like to share an anecdote here. Years ago, at St. Margaret Ward, I was approached by Stoke City’s Disability Football Club for trials thanks to my PE teacher trying to get me more involved. I was very interested and nearly went through with it. However an upcoming operation changed my mind (the multi-level surgery one), which left me with a metal plate in my left leg. This for the past 6 years left me being able to feel the plate in my leg like a spring and caused pain while walking, climbing the stairs. In September I had the plate removed, you can view my fancy collage of the wound below:

Anyway, obviously since the first operation I was not keen on risking any injury though now this particular risk is gone so in theory I could try and pick it up again. Its been a few years though since I kicked a football so I’m not so sure I’d be anything as half as good now!

“...it could be 2 yrs. before we'd know for sure just how much your disability has effected you, and couldn't predict if you had been affected mentally....obviously not!”

To finish replying to the quotations before my final thought, I’d just like to say that it’s perhaps not so obvious. In the way you are speaking surely. But I’m sure there are some people, friends, with many stories to tell (which do usually involve when I am drunk!) It’s like the Josh Blue joke, the Comedian with CP: “I’m not drunk I have cerebral palsy!” I know it doesn’t fool you Mother, but it certainly has fooled people on more than one occasion - including a chip shop man who tried to refuse me entry before apologizing when learning the fact I have CP, and on the same day avoiding trouble with the police because I was so obviously drunk in public and could barely walk!

Final Thoughts

I don’t wish to overshadow the great effort that many people have grown through for me to keep me going, keeping me actually alive physically and getting me where I am today. But it is important that while I do have Cerebral Palsy, to not treat my grievances in this context as an unfortunate cause of the problems in my life. What I believe to be true rather, is that I am just like any other person - with grievances. Having something life CP only exacerbates these difficulties, just like it does for somebody in poverty or unemployment, or somebody with a family or without food, something with other serious health problems or perhaps even (minor) consequences of human nature in dealing with being left handed in a right handed-centric world. That is what is important and that is what awareness and equality is about: treating me as is, (equal human beings) and yet understand the uniqueness of our own individuality. I don’t think there is any two people with problems that affect them in identically the same way in every form so we must try to emphasize with each person and what they are conveying. So if what I have said appears to be defeatist and negative, then I apologize. There is both good and bad in all our lives and only looking at the good will only achievement a sense of being content or perhaps even apathy within our lives and what life brings. I wish to understand the bad things and bad times as well in order to gain a sense of moral and personal development to become a better, more stronger person - moving beyond contentment/apathy to a stage of self-fulfillment, happiness and enlightenment. In other words, spend more time worrying about being good than looking good, and being a better person, a good person, not just an average person or worse, feeling sub-human, an untermensch.

Thank you for reading,

Lucas.

PS. You will notice now that there is a separate blog theme for cerebral palsy posts. I originally intended to make a series of posts related to the upcoming operation. Given the success of my first blog and through suggestions from readers and looking at my analytical data with Google on this blog, it seems only natural now to take this further. I have also renamed the blog as well so it will be found better by search engines as well.

If you wish to read the original post and comment, you can find it here.

Dean Glover. Port Vale: Clueless?

2009-02-24T17:59:00.004Z

(Kevin Gall, pictured)

Sporting Life have announced Kevin Gall, a striker has signed from Carlisle on loan for Port Vale.

Dean Glover, manager of Port Vale is quoted as saying "After our defeat against Lincoln on Friday night I felt we had to make phone calls...."

I'll stop right there.

At Lincoln, he subbed a striker for a defender on the 60th minute when Vale were 1-0 down, only to bring a striker on later in the game with ten minutes left. Port Vale already have:
Lawrie,
Dodds,
Richards,
Thompson,
Perry,
Glover.

on the books.

So why is he bringing in another striker when our clear problem appears to be ball retention and defence? And why bring in this striker for a month, with a goal ratio of 1 in 6 games? He probably isn't going to score while he's here for a month. Not to mention there is only a limited amount of loans Port Vale can bring in during the season - so if Glover wants to bring in strikers and play 3-2-5 formation, then this is perfect. With the long, high ball strategy too, this lad is no Peter Crouch who can head the ball - he's 5 foot 9!

The Vale fans were only too right when they chanted: "You Don't Know What You're Doing!" - He clearly doesn't. And he seemingly insists on playing his son all the time when there are better options in the squad.

Glover won't last long, but will Vale get rid of him before its too late? With Glover at the helm, I really fear for Port Vale's football league status. He already seemed to have accepted defeat. Time to end this 'old boys-legends' appointments of managerial positions at Vale and get someone in who can get the job done.

Cerebral Palsy - I; A Personal History

2009-02-23T05:47:00.008Z

I got news this week that I am due for, quite possibly my last ever treatment at the Nuffield Orthopedic Centre. I figured this merited a blog, least so I can express my views and give insight on what it is to have Cerebral Palsy, originally known as Little's Disease. For why it used to be called Little's Disease, please refer to the Wikipedia entry here.

A history lesson

For those of you that don't know, I was born 11 weeks early, on December 10th, 1988. I guess as a baby I didn't like my mother too much and just desperately wanted to get out, eager to experience the world! (joke) Cerebral Palsy can occur shortly before, during birth, or shortly after birth. Being born so early I was whisked away by doctors from my mother and put into ICU (Intensive Care Unit), where I remained for some time. My mother has told me stories that she noticed a difference in my leg length difference. Some two days after I was born, I had a 'bleed on the brain', causing a stroke at just two days old.

(Years later, my mother would join the stroke crew and from observing my disability-inspired adaptation techniques, would cope during her rehabilitation period taking a leaf out of my book!).

This stroke affected my left side, mostly my left arm and leg, causing mobility difficulties in walking, and impaired use of my left hand - much like Jeremy Beadle in a sense. I would through my baby days, go through many operations including a Shunt operation leaving a visible scar. This being something I would not see myself for 20 years, after my Britney inspired episode:

I also went through many operations, and the future for me was unclear - whether I would be mentally intelligent was not certain, whether I would eventually walk, permanently require a colostomy bag, and the question eventually rose in a battle whether to send me to a Mainstream school. I feel as if I have confounded expectations, but according to one Philosophy student, this is questionable. The Question for him, however, is can we ever be sure of anything? There were also times the late Dr. Hope had broke the news to my parents that I had gone to live with the angels. It would also appear, that I am immortal, or for those Metal Gear Solid enthusiasts amongst you, have increasing, incredible healing powers on a par with the character Vamp.

Obviously I survived, and I have surpassed any expectations anyone ever had of me - including being nominated for the Global Young Leaders Conference in 6th Form, a University Interview at the University of Oxford: Keble College - 3As at A-Levels despite having the worst attendance of all time, receiving awards for my excellence at College for my work in History and Religious Education, being elected for a student at a high school where I was quiet obviously an outcast - at Painsley Catholic College. So you think everything looks rosy for me, no?

Despite my achievements in life, things seem as an 'epic fail' at times. Things have gone downhill as of late with my choice of University, attempting to live at University and not perserving, but that is the story of my life, really. My disability impacts most aspects of my life whether it is visible to others or not. The knock on effect of Cerebral Palsy from birth has meant I have gone through extensive, frustrating physiotherapy in my childhood, a loss of physical prowess with my peers since adolescence, and ongoing, admitting continuing problems with personally accepting the disability as a part of me. Usually with a disability there are additives that are undesireable, disabilities rarely come on their own. I am actually required to wear hearing aids but for cosmetic reasons and paranoia, I don't. They just don't look good and well, I don't want to be seen as an invalid. I feel like one at times, but in my mind, I know I'm more than that. There are some people who like to acknowledge my difference to others, maybe they are old-fashioned and comparing me to somebody else, or just ignorance and see me as an easy target.

I have been the target of bullying in my school years because of my disability, particularly at Painsley Catholic College and my primary school, St. George & St. Martin's. In the first case, in a typical South Park-esque "cripple fight" fashion, the bullies befriended another disabled lad seemingly to use him to be spiteful and pick on me. I would later learn, years later, that they turned on him after I left. I left because of the trauma I suffered from the bullying and missing my true friends from Primary School - who I later rejoined at St Margaret Ward. Much can be said for the difference between the two high schools, Painsley being academically better and it has been supposed I would have a better education had I gone there. But at Margaret Ward, I made friends - ironically enough discarding most of the original friends I had gone to rejoin. I also become vindicated in my efforts in 3As after following on into their college, so the education question of Painsley became irrelevant at that point.

Since University, things went rather sour and my disability to me became really apparent, with having to adjust to living alone without assistance. Like most students, it's quiet the transition period but for me, more so. I had to cope with shopping on my own - lugging back a weeks worth of shopping (including my week's cola addiction!) was quiet the feat but things were tough. My body is not quiet geared up on the level my mind is, and it is something that is natural and a part of having a disability. Going to lectures, coming back, not sleeping brilliantly in my 3/4 length of a single bed and having to do the work, plus the regular household tasks - being clean, cooking, washing was all a bit too much. Like most students in halls I have to cope with cohabiting with many people. In my case at the University of Manchester it was with 8 people in my flat, I have heard reports at other Universities it can be as many as 30 to a kitchen, and at my university some 500 residents at Weston Hall (where I stayed) would have to share just 8 washers and dryers (ample, maybe but there always seemed to be quiet the queue). Stress, tiredness, frustration became the norm because I couldn't keep up and could rarely find energy to go out. It has meant, by proxy, my disability is the reason I have not made many friends at University - and my social choices and co-dependence on the few people I had at that time (not any more, sadly) - meant my involvement in the Philosophy Society has grinded to a halt as I had moved home in December 2007 and it became an inconvience to take part because I required time to study.

I have not, as a consequence, had your average Student life. Though it does give me some comfort that there appears to be many people who do commute and keep their network of friends from school when they go to University rather than seek out new frontiers. All these difficulties that I have had are many reasons why I find it hard to socialize, make new friends - not to mention some people's strange reactions that a stranger is trying to talk to them when I say hello (It's all a bit weird, I think).

Though I think that my experiences with my disability and all the extra dimensions it takes on could merit an book, this is it in a nutshell. It is not insignificant therefore, these important operations, including the next and possibly the last one to come up, because it gives me a sense of increased self-esteem and sense of renewed identity - see my defence of my name change here on 'philosophical grounds'. What I have offered here in this blog, is some empirical reasons, some factors that have led to this.

So what about the operation?

What I mentioned above some of the operations as a direct consequence of cerebral palsy. However, since then there have been a few procedures to help me retain my independence and standard of living. I remember when I was younger of going through an operation on my voicebox - I spoke like Rod Stewart because I shouted a lot - with a Bart Simpson doll in tow. (I wonder whatever happened to THAT!)

Also there have been other procedures, including botox on my thumb joint that was unsuccessful when I was 11 years old, and at the age of 14, major-level surgery to address the leg length difference to bring my leg lengths to a parity with one another. All this, and many appointments on the side with Brain scans, leg x-rays, have all been under the care of the doctors at the Nuffield and the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford where I was born. This operation to come will address the unsuccessful botox operation and address the "spasticity" of my left hand/wrist. Cruel to use that word perhaps, but this is the medical term.

A bit of useless knowledge for you - SCOPE was originally known as the Spastics Society until Spastic became somewhat a derogatory term. SCOPE is an organisation for those with Cerebral Palsy mainly, but also a charity to help those with other disabilities as well. So the term spastic actually applies directly to Cerebral Palsy, which is why I won't take that word lightly or any derivative of it, even if used in haste.

Back to the matter - with those operations, I am now at my final stage of physical self-realisation as I can possibly acheive - with an operation on the hand. I have overcome having to wear special shoes with a built-up heel on my left foot from pre-leg operation years, and now with this operation, I will be able to walk and hopefully not hide my left hand in public out of a sense of shame.

What's next?

So the Operation is pencilled in May 28th, provisional of course as it slots right into my summer exam period so there are things still yet to consider but things will become clearer as the results for the Spring Exams are released this coming Friday and then later in April with the publication of Exam Timetables. Still all things considering, I feel as if the operation will take precedence and I will take any possible affecting exams as a first sit in the resit period in August.

What will happen, I am told, is that my wrist will be set into place, and hopefully the thumb joint forced into place, all to be discussed at a Pre-Operative Assessment appointment in early May, complete with blood tests, urine samples and then afterwards, sampling the Real Ale of Oxford! So all looks promising.

Unfortunately, the recovery-hospital period is set for 3 days but I hoping since it is just my hand that I can be out sooner (I live one handed anyway!) so I can resume studies for any pending exams and celebrate with ridiculous amounts of alcohol in my Real Ale Haven, the Coachmakers Arms. As for the full effects to be shown and realised, I am not sure, probably a matter of weeks.

So this is all a moment, a day and a time for me to look forward to, I have been waiting 20 years for this, but as for the wider scheme of things, life in general, there is still the matter of University, and I'm setting a personal goal to pass my driving test in the summer so I can have a car ready for the September kick off of my final year at University of Manchester. The operation, though promising and something to look forward to and be finally at peace with, is just the beginning of a new chapter and a long journey.

Stay Tuned.

10 Reasons why I love the Mac over Windows

2009-02-22T00:41:00.001Z

Before I give my top ten reasons why, I just want to share a bit of why I'm posting this blog.

For two days now, I've been fidgeting and enjoying my new MacBook whilst watching Friends on DVD - amazing I am already onto Season 2... And I have to say with something like a Mac, it certainly makes you forget everything for a while...!

If some readers are wondering where there isn't a post every day now, I urge you to SUBSCRIBE to this blog by RSS to your reader (see links to the right), or BOOKMARK this website and just check periodically.

Thank You.

10 Reasons [no particular order of importance :-)]

1. Those inbuilt Mac applications - Disk Utility, Stickies, Spotlight etc.
2. How much easier it works with those Mac gadgets of yours like iPods and iPhones.
3. The fact that you can have Windows XP/Vista on your system AS WELL - surely a sticking point.
4. The coolness of the webcameras with the Mac and the coolness of the effects!
5. The smoothness of OSX (Mac Operating System) over Windows' dire, dire Vista incomparison.
6. Applications for the Mac are just better - think Pages, GarageBand, Last.fm.
7. Games look cooler on the Mac - Football Manager is my personal choice.
8. The superiorness of the trackpadon a MacBook to a conventional Windows laptop - you can do cool things on it with all 4 fingers on the pad at once.
9. The 'cool factor' of being on the Mac in a dark room with the Apple glowing into the darkness.
10. That after two days, I'm also posting how I've become a convert, and I've barely yet scratched the surface. Already though I want to erase everything Bill Gates and Windows from my mind and replace it with Steve Jobs and Mac!

History in the making - Female Manager in a man's game

2009-02-17T15:33:00.007Z

It would appear, yet again that Football Manager has predicted the future.

The 2009 edition of the long running Sports Interactive series includes the ability to play from the start as a female manager, albeit female managers do not "get jobs" in the game, if I remember correctly.

Still, nevertheless, Donna Powell (pictured) has become the first female manager in the English Conference - taking charge of Fisher Athletic for their game tomorrow. (see article)

It is a great advert for football. Notably some of the games best managers arguably have next to none in terms of real football, top level playing experience. Consider Sven-Goran Eriksson, Sir Alex Ferguson, Jose Mourinho, Arsene Wenger to name a few.

While foreign imports have seemed to 'take' over the English game - it is quite an achievement, ground-breaking for a woman to be given the man's job. Still there is an aura that you have to have played in order to manage - look at Roy Keane and Gareth Southgate as two notable examples of ex-international players given the jobs on reputation, that as if playing makes them somehow more qualified.

I would like to point out to the games most successful managers that I have already mentioned - playing the game at a high level is not a pre-requisite. It was only recent this season as well that the first "black English" manager was appointed to the Premier League (Paul Ince of Blackburn). Perhaps most journalists out there have forgotten Jean Tigana of Fulham a few years back?

Race and sex should not be used as discrimination factors when it comes to the Beautiful Game that we so love. Gradually the boundaries are being broken down, but there is still an racism and homophobia prevalent in today's game aimed at players by fans. It is just 11 years ago that Justin Fashanu, the game's first openly gay player, committed suicide because his sexual orientation plagued his career, and a sexual allegation in the US led him to beleive he was presumed guilty, not innocent. I believe it was an ex-manager of his (Brian Clough) who said "I'm not having any poofters in my team" - shocking, considering.

Though it is a great advert for football, let's not be fooled. The game of association football has many fallacies and is far from the "gentlemen's game" which is used to be known as. The RESPECT Campaign, the 'Kick Racism out of Football' Campaign are indicative of this.

Let's hope the press covering Donna's adventure as Fisher Athletic manager treat her for her merits, not any differently because of her gender. Something tells me though, it might not be all that straightforward if results do not go her way.

Father at 13, Britain: "Anything goes"?

2009-02-16T10:13:00.005Z

The Sun, with their super-duper exclusive, have belittled little Alfie Patton who is apparently, though this is not yet proven the father of a year. He is just 13 years old.

The Sun likes picking on people - I threw away one copy of the Sun away a few months away in disgust because their letters page included one reader who suggested we send all disabled people to "Poland". I took it as a Holocaust insult myself and if I could find said letter, I would. Unfortunately I would reduce that the average Sun reader are not all that enlightened. That particular sender of the letter and the author of this article, are a case in point.

Fairly they highlight the dangerous realities of teenage pregnancies - that the lad doesn't know the price of nappies (£10 should cover it, apparently...) - but then the author goes into insulting the lad that he looks 8 years old, and that his voice has yet to break.

The AP, much more neutral, do highlight the fact that there are many other potential fathers, not just Alfie.

The point isn't to prove by DNA who is the father or not, its the fact that the baby is cared for. Teenage pregancy or not, this is paramount. The biological father, the age of the alleged father and mother is not first priority.

The Anti-abortion agency LIFE have applauded that Abortion didn't take place, which I think takes a lot of courage, and admiration must go to the parents.

But it is time that the media stepped away from dramatizing and politicising the news - It is not ideal but to score cheap political points Mr. Iain Duncan Smith, calling it a case of a broken society where "anything goes", hardly helps matters and frankly is below the belt.

It should be left squarely between the respective family's shoulders and the relevant social services over the care of the baby. It's news, but its hardly front page.

If this is such a problem - perhaps we should be doing more to educate kids in school, give the GPs more of an educational role when it comes to teenage pregnancies and if at the end of the day, if the baby is kept at the consideration of all parties - it is something to admire and applaud, not to be scorned and scowled at because it doesn't fit in with conventional, conservate, nuclear-family ideals.

"Hey Teacher! Leave them kids alone..."

iPhone = iVibrator?

2009-02-12T18:48:00.000Z

After jokingly texting my friend and telling him that while my iPhone might not have brilliant signal, at least it doubles up as a vibrator, I decided being to see if it actually can.

It appears the iPhone can do just that, and there is an application called Vibrating Massager on the App store available to download. Much to my amusement, one "Simon Smartie" commented it is great as a sexual tool, and there was another person bitterly dissapointed. Being so strange and funny I thought this was all worth sharing.

I of course found this hilarious. It's available for just 59p too:

If it's true what Simon says, it must be the cheapest sex toy known to man. There's definitely the question of whether it works in quite the same way though!

Still, just makes me wonder whether if there's a lot of claims on people's iPhone insurance for breakage from sexual misuse? I can't imagine the phone working after a while!

-- Post From My iPhone

Northern Trains

2009-02-11T07:28:00.001Z

Without Northern Trains I probably would not be able to make my 9am lecture on Wednesdays for German politics. Maybe a good thing. But to get there on time I need to get the 7:17 from Stoke-on-Trent.

Northern Trains, by comparison to XCountry and Virgin, are god awful to boot. The trains are like Arriva's, it's a cardboard box with tiny toilets, no desks or power sockets. And it takes a full hour to get to Manchester because Northern like to stop at all the little stations like Kidsgrove, Congelton, etc. What's the point when the pull of trains is that it's faster than a car? If I had a car I'd probably get there quicker than a Northern Train!

And that's a sad thing to contemplate. Not to mention the ridiculous times I have to wake up just to get there for 9am.

Most people are still asleep at this time. So for me, it calls for a blog, some relentless and reading the news on my iPhone.

I guess, putting it that way it's not all bad....

-- Post From My iPhone

Self-Consciousness

2009-02-10T12:19:00.004Z

Yesterday I had a Philosophy of Mind tutorial, on Cartesian Dualism. This blog has a slight personal touch to it, as you will soon see. Most of us hadn't done the reading but the conversation nevertheless kicked off philosophically on whether we can have self-consciousness.

First we argued on the basis of animals, and I brought up a story of my own showing that animals do not have self-consciousness because their natural instincts are supreme - those of you who might know think of my first dog mickie and the car accident, where he went to die but when he was rescued to be treated, he bit the person that picked him up. This as I see it, as proof.

One person in the class, whether he disagrees personally or not is up to debate, but he used the analogy of disabled people to question, ponder the possibility whether disabled people (he didn't specify so naturally I take this in most general terms) like animals, whether they are capable of self-consciousness. In his defence, I understood what he really meant but there is an element of ignorance on his part where he failed to specify what he means. People will, mainly take things as given and this is an implication that is ludicrous and evidence to show that clarity of expression is paramount. Never mind the fact that philosophically speaking he was arguing for the sake of arguing. There is a fine line between thought and intent. Had I not known any better I'd have cried fowl. But this is not a minority crying wolf, even though I think it such a thing said in print SCOPE would have a field day. Look no further than Jeremy Clarkson's recent comments to see what I mean here.

For arguments sake it should always be said that when making a point there is no intent to offend. Otherwise people simply will, whether offence was intended or not.

On the topic, I would suggest that even the very definition of what a self-consciousness is. It would appear from the philosophical quagmire of yesterday this is unclear among students.

I know full well what I am and I know, also believe that the very notion of CP on a piece of paper or mind can illicit the most stereotypical of responses. I am not your average, conventional, stereotypical Cereal Palsean. But the very notion that any persons being any different is an affront to any idea of equality of persons in the basic sense, any idea of fairness among persons. It smacks of pure ignorance.

For anyone who doubts my position, I would invite you to read the US Declaration of Independence, the Social Contract ethic that is the foundation of social morality today :

"All men [peoples] are created equal"* (Thomas Jefferson)

*NB: The use of language is understandably gendered, cultured to the time. It is now universally understood that 'men' in this context is to extend to all humankind. Think of the iconic Star Trek opening credit declaration as an example - From 'no man' (TOS) to 'no one' (TNG).

This is unequivocally a truism. Black, White, Gay, Straight, Transexual, Hermaphrodites, Disabled and non-disabled, everyone, we are all equal. And not just in the eyes of God, but in the depths of our soul and understanding of humanity. Any advocate of inequality of this scale is contradicting themselves - it would always be possible then for them to be the supressed, the weak, and not the opressors and the strong.

A final note to finish on with the general bracketing of disabilities. The response I've given, I argue to quote Brian Barry, is the only intellectually honest one. Second, PVS or not (which I believe is what he really meant to refer to), using disability in a general context equates not just Cerebral Palay to Persistant Vegetative State, but obesity and even left-handedness which can be considered amongst those as disabilities. It is also debated whether those with PVS are without a self-conscious if this is the argument to make and it is known I am assured that people can come out of PVS.

There are degrees to disabilities, stereotypes and brackets are undeserved and ignorant.

And to say that people with disabilities, or anyone with anything beyond average, as not having a self-conscious - which is centre to self-realisation and being? Heaven forbid.

-- Post From My iPhone

By Gosling!: Transfer roundup and FA Cup

2009-02-04T22:53:00.003Z

My namesake, Lucas saw himself sent off in tonight's derby game between Liverpool and Everton tonight as Liverpool lost 1-0 deep into extra time thanks to a Dan Gosling goal in the 118th minute. It wasn't the red card, I feel that changed the course of the match, as it was a scrappy, typical tackles go flying game. Rather, the substitution of Steven Gerrard 10 minutes into the first half due to a hamstring problem drew a standing ovation of the Evertonians and undoubtedly a lift to Everton to hold their own against an impotent Liverpool team. This was what characterized the game and ultimately befell Liverpool's exit. Not an indication of Liverpool as a one or two-trick pony (counting Torres), but rather an awesome display of Everton's teamwork ethic that consistently draws results - a kind of Moyesian punching above their weight.

In the end, neither side really deserved to win or lose and it was some great skill from ex Plymouth Argyle youngster (defender-cum-midfielder) Dan Gosling that danced around two Liverpool players with the ball at his feet at the 6 yard box to slot it past Pepe Reina. Brilliant goal and the lad is English. Are you watching Fabio Capello?

Liverpool failed to win because they failed to open up avenues too early enough - the introduction of Babel - so effective as a substitute as against Arsenal (one example) - did not come until late in extra-time - and in place of Torres. Surely oh surely Torres should have stayed on, Babel could have done most of the legwork for him? That is where I feel Liverpool fell short tonight.

But at the end of the day it is a great advertisement for the FA Cup and English football - one of the big four out - and who would bet against the winners of the 5th Round tie Everton vs. Aston Villa winning the cup? That is who my money is on, and that is the game of the round to watch for sure.

And perhaps now, Liverpool have one less competition to worry about, they can now give the League full focus and go for the title at full-pelt.

A short transfer roundup, after the window closed on Monday. The biggest ones on deadline day included Robbie Keane back to Tottenham after 6 months. Have the Premier League decided to ignore the one-year transfer rule on players? I wonder...

And Andrei Arshavin, the comrade who destroyed the Dutch at Euro 2008 signed for Arsenal.

The interesting thing, I've noted is something I've touched on in pub conservations about Stoke City. A Typical Stoke criticism goes to the throw-ins, but also the large quantity of tall, strong, mainly, black players. A criticism on the basis that it is not representative of Stoke City at all.

In fact, with the signing of Henri Camara (Wolves Wanderers flop, signed from Wigan), is now the 6th Senegalese player playing for Stoke City:

Amdy Faye,
Abdoulaye Faye,
Mamade Sidibe,
Ibrahim Sonko,
Salif Diao,
Henri Camara.

Add that to two Jamaican players in the squad (Fuller & Demar Phillips in midfield) and two Nigerians - Seyi Olofinjana and Olufemi Oluyi (midfield).

In Stoke's defence, most of their players are either English or Irish rather than an African/black contingent that seems to be levelled at them. But with just a few more Senegalese players they could in theory be fielding the Senegalese national XI in the Premier League. They nearly added another Senegalese striker from RC Lens over Christmas, and I'm sure if Diouf wasn't such a prima-donna he'd have come to the Britannia.

Nothing really to say, not criticising it, it just amazes me that most of their players, though on first glance you might say were African - are actually more or less from the same country.

Other than that, it's been reported that Stephen Kelly from Birmingham City (right back) has been signed on loan until the end of the season.

A lot of Stoke fans seem to think that Andy Griffin is too slow - could this be the end of Griff's Premier League career? It seems a far cry from the days when I used to know him personally in his days as a Stoke youth - alongside Dean Crowe and Iain Nicolson, back in the days of "League One" Stoke!

How times change...

Baby, You Wouldnt Last a Minute on the Creek

2009-02-03T21:57:00.000Z

Chiodos at the Sugarmill. Good performance, loud and crazy stage dives. The guy does Triple H-esque water spits. Fun.

Bought a teeshirt too!

Best shirt there!

-- Post From My iPhone

Hacked

2009-02-03T21:33:00.000Z

It would appear a friend posted a blog for a joke attempting to be funny.

Let this be a lesson to keep things private!

-- Post From My iPhone

Shoes defend Human Rights!

2009-02-02T23:18:00.006Z

Watch the video above. A protester threw a shoe at the Chinese PM at a lecture at Cambridge University, over China's Human Rights record and occupation of Tibet.

One poster on my Buddhism blog argues for saves Tibet....

Rightly there is a lot of people who are angry over China over their record, protests taking place during the Olympics, freedom of speech being notoriously restricted for native Chinese. For foreigners, it is increasingly difficult to go to visit China - it is not so straightforward, visas have to be applied for before travel.

The argument protesters will give is that giving these kind of people the space to speak freely, air their views justifies their actions and condones them.

The other is, of course is that without letting people like these speak out or treat them as individuals, equal to everyone else, we cannot see the error of our ways.

Personally I'd like to see a bit of both - I'd have seen the humor in the shoe hitting him in the face, but I also think diplomacy, discussion and debate will eventually help China turn the tide and establish a democracy one day. It will happen. Force tends to never really achieve anything - look at Iraq, Ireland, - the Second World War may have ended Fascism but it created the Cold War of Capitalism v Communism. Real change comes peacefully. We are no better than the people we criticize for their actions if we wish to restrict their views, rather than persuade them.

Analytics for January 2009

2009-02-01T19:56:00.003Z

January 2009

9 Countries have visited the blog - despite a substantial bounce rate from many of these countries but I'm still rather proud! UK/USA/Greece the main ones that figure here!

82 Unique Visitors as well - the main blogs that got hits were

Unholy Urine - a critique of a Liberal Conspiracy blog
Bring Home the Revolution - relating the Obama win to UK Republicanism (referred to Republic's website)
Buddhism: A Spiritual Philosophy? - a controversial blog among some, now posted on Liberal Conspiracy. Even they think I want you to convert to Buddhism - It's not what I am saying at all!...

Goals I stated at the end of December was to campaign and expand my readership - this seems to be having an effect with returning visitors according to the statistics, and also the biggest blog hits were ones that get a plug on external websites.

It's become apparent, and suggested by some of my readers that my blog requires a kind of direction, a focus - certainly something to entice readers to come back: Recurring themes that I base my blog on. I'm sure at some point I may well decide whether I plan to have certain blogs written on certain days to give it a sense of regularity for recurring readers of a certain theme. Football, Ethical/Moral/Religious issues and Politics seem to be areas where I focus most - Other than the beer blogs, of course. With that, I have updated my blogs and all will fit into any of the following themes - subject to change of course:

*General* - For anything nonsensical, or related to the website, perhaps general, weird stories I might tell about my life, University, Technology or anything else will be posted here too. .
*Politics* - Anything that falls within the realms of politics - be it domestic, foreign affairs, etc.
*Philosophy* - Anything philosophical - civil liberties, privacy, freedom, equality, etc. Religion as well will also fall under this topic for the religious ones amongst you.
*Soccer* - Anything to do with soccer (or football as it's called here), whether I go to matches or post my views, they will appear here. I'm calling this section "Soccer" because its universally understood to be Association Football, not Aussie Rules, or American Football or Rugby Football.
*Real Ale* - Any Beers I rate on my trips! It could well be just posted in General but I think it merits its own section for the real ale enthusiasts among us!

The tagging system of keywords I use may well take on a new dimension to show which blog theme I base them in, so I can still keep everything on the one page. I'm hoping this way of sectioning my blogs while keeping the indexing of keywords and labels will help people find all they could need - a section of blogs on a topic, or they may wish to go by individual labels through the labels page.

With that, I would like to thank you all for reading over the past two months. LucasWeatherby.com is growing, and it wouldn't be possible without the feedback it generates.

Blast from the past - Visual Voicemail on iPhone gone crazy!

2009-01-31T23:55:00.000Z

Can somebody tell me how this is at all possible? My visual voicemail is exploding with the following:

To make it even more strange, these voicemail are dated 1st January, 1970!:

How on earth is this possible?

Is it Dr Who?

Someone messaging me through time? Across the space-time continuum?
From an alternate reality?

The funny thing is these messages don't play either.

I wonder what it is?!

-- Post From My iPhone

Examination Period January 2009 Overview

2009-01-30T04:06:00.006Z

Examination period for January is over today. For me, it was over yesterday, a tough week and tough times revising, and the usual exam stress, sickness and delusion that usually comes with it!

Unlike most though, I only had 2 exams this period, compared to my 4 I will have in the summer.

Semester 1 : France under the 5th Republic (Tuesday) & Freed and Equality: Contemporary Debates (Thursday)

Semester 2: Philosophy of Mind, Philosophical Logic, Britain: From Blitz to Brown & The National Politics of Germany

There is also an exteded essay to do, 5,000 word research project for which I am centering on Republicism. The topic and the question it takes I am not sure yet, hopefully I have get my tutor to sign off on the following:

Is an Elected Head of a State a Human Right? Discuss with reference to the United Kingdom

This brings in for me, the Republicanism aspect of which I am interested in terms of my own domestic politics and personal convictions, and researching political human rights as I have so greatly enjoyed reading the works of Rawls.

But back to the topic at hand that I am discussing in this blog: The examination period is over. Stressful times, but a huge sigh of relief. Not much revision done for the second exam but by comparison,I found it easier in exam conditions (Freedom and Equality), thean in my other exam. French politics. On Tuesday morning it wasn't a case of not knowing enough, it was knowing too much. That and the exam being just an hour - the shortest exam I've ever had of any real significance - it was harder to get into the groove and there was a feeling that I felt a bit rusty, despite not being away from writing as I have been writing academic-esque, journalistic blogs over the past two months.

As regular readers may recall and other fellow students, I cocked up on the Freedom and Equality essay earlier in the year. I have considered, and shall attempt to take action take what I feel is an injustice. Ironic, considering the course module, it largely concerns Justice to a degree! What is unclear is whether I will have my marks substantially reversed, though I do feel that I was harsh;y penalised over my bibliography, which was no different from previous essays. Indeed, the feedback I got from such essays were comments that my bibliography was "good".

My other essay for French politics went really well by comparison and I was pleased in comparison with the mark. Having said that, the exams in question were a reverse really (though hopefully not as bad!); I felt I did better on Freedom and Equality (1700+words per question compared to 1300 for French politics). It's not the words but the content, but the word amount to an extent explains for me that I struggled with my frame of writing and articulating my ideas.

Still, I am more than confident to have passed, and with regards to French politics be very suprised to have got a 2:1, where I more than likely expect a 2:2.

Freedom and Equality on the other hand is a different issue. By the exam I hope to have safely passed the 2:1 mark, that I will be pleased with and regardless to the situation with the essay I will have passed the course, and ended up with a respectable 2:2 in that as well. Unless, by some miracle, the second marker sees my essay in a radically different light, a 2:1 is out of my reach (unless of course I have mastered the exam). A course colleague has also informed me that an good showing on my exam will mean that my essay mark will be bumped up on account of better reflecting ability to write. I am not so sure if this is true, but perhaps if it is then perhaps a borderline 2:1 is not impossible (I would hope).

But then, I never know with university exams. I was unable to get a 1st in any of my essay-style exams though in Introduction to Logic I got above 80, and came close in Comparative politics with a good 67. So there is no reason to beleive I do not have the ability, but results and time, will tell. I hope that I have passed and done well to help cure my disillusionment with the University of Manchester and my course as of late. Unfortunately I think I will have to wait some 6 weeks before I find out the provisional scores. Until then, I need to pull my socks up and get something going with the extended essay which is due in April, not to mention the extra workload of 4 course modules this semester as well.

For now though, this weekend at least and for the introductory week of the semester starting on Monday, I am going to relax, enjoy myself, and ease my way back into the scheme of things. The number one thing to look forward to is Chiodos on Tuesday night at the Sugarmill.

With that. I'm going to listen to my favourite song of theirs - Baby, You Wouldn't Last a Minute on the Creek (lyrics here):

Buddhism: A Spiritual Philosophy?

2009-01-29T23:30:00.001Z

After reading parts of a book over the Christmas period, "Destroying Emotions: A Dialogue with the Dalai Lama", and my initial knowledge of Buddhism, I have become increasingly curious about Buddhism.

I decide to do some research. Knowing that some call it a religion, others a "spiritual philosophy, I was interested into looking into the basic teachings and I can see where, arguably there is Buddhism as a spiritual philosophy, and Buddhism as a religion.

SoYouWanna's convert to Buddhism article deals with the basics and the crux of the Buddist ideal - I will refer it to as an ideal for now and return to the question of spiritual philosophy/religion later.

There are, it argues, and this corresponds to Wikipedia's various articles on Buddhism - I will discuss a few Buddhist concepts later - many different factions of Buddhism, just like in Christianity or Judaism or Islam, and the same for the "Eastern Religions" of Hinduism, Sikhism, etc. There is no central thesis, no bible, but there are guidelines. Also Buddhism does not, it asserts, deal with the question of a God of Classical Theism. So by right, it is possible to be a Buddhist and believe in a God. From this perspective I would call it "religious Buddhism".

Buddhism as a 'spiritual philosophy' is based on 5 precepts, and a 8-fold path, in order to eliminate bad thoughts, and promote the good. Here we find the classic thing when we think of as Buddhism - meditation. As a bit of education, I quote from SYW the 8-fold path and 5 precepts below. The 5 precepts should be thought of as guidelines, they are rules but given that Buddhism has no strict doctrine, despite many religious texts, they are guidlines in the aim of being mindful at all times in order to acheive enlightment. The 8-fold path, is the path we should follow.

5 Precepts:

Don't kill - man or beast
Don't steal
Don't lie
Don't cheat on your loved one
Don't take drugs or drink booze

I would personally agree with all on the basis of acheiving mindfulness at all times, and at first glance it might appear that being a strict vegetarian or vegan is the way of a Buddhist. However, given the main aim of Buddhist ideals is to acheive enlightenment, I would not say that the killing of animals for food violates this objective.

Second, I would have to reexamine the 5th precept. As a guide of course, it is always a good idea not to drink excessively or take drugs. The 'Don't drink and drive' policy is the obvious one we can think of here. However some Buddhist of the spiritual kind might argue that some drugs and alcohol, taking recreationally is fine and can be used to acheive mindfulness. My father even calls real ale "brainfood", for one. The importance of the 5th precept must not be ignored, it is common sense not to drink too much that we lose control of our way of thinking, but in moderate amounts, recreational drugs and drinking can acheive happiness inone sense. It only becomes a violation when the 5th precept, I would argue, violates any of the other 4. I'm not a Buddhist scholar, but for me this is acceptable from a philosophical point of view.

The 8-fold path:

The whole reason for becoming Buddhist is to achieve happiness and become "enlightened." In order to do this, you must follow the Eightfold Path. Once you have accomplished all eight steps, you are officially enlightened:

Right Knowledge: Strive to comprehend the first three Noble Truths. This might seem a bit circular, but language is a tricky thing, and the Great Seer wanted to make sure you had all your bases covered. The Noble Truths perhaps aren't as straightforward as they may seem at first. So you must strive to fully comprehend them.
Right Thinking: Consciously dedicate yourself to a life in harmony with the Noble Truths elucidated by the Buddha.
Right Speech: No gossiping, lying, backbiting, and harsh language. If you don't have anything valuable to say, keep your big yapper shut. Always good advice.
Right Conduct: For lay Buddhists (meaning Buddhists who aren't monks), Right Conduct means following the Five Precepts (see below). If you're a monk, there are some more rules for conduct, but don't worry about them until you're ready to become a monk.
Right Livelihood: Go peacefully into the world and do no harm. So choose a profession that's harmless to living things, and refrain from killing people.
Right Effort: Conquer the flow of negative thoughts, replacing them with good thoughts.
Right Mindfulness: Achieve an intense awareness of your body, emotions, and mental states. Quiet the noises in your head and dwell in the present.
Right Concentration: Learn about (and practice) various kinds of meditation, an important booster rocket on the launch pad to enlightenment.

None of these, I think are unreasonable and I think everyone could learn something from these from a philosophical point of view.

Taking the 8-fold path and the 5 precepts into account and following them would lead us to become enlightened and therefore we would becoming a Buddhist in its spiritual philosophical form.

As various Wikipedia articles will show and as SYW points out, there are various strains, concepts and beleifs that fall within Buddhism that one might not strictly call philosophical, but rather religious. This includes (among others), the ideas of rebirth, and as I have already pointed out, the neutral stance on the idea of a creator. It could be taken either way from a philosophical point of view.

Though the philosophy of Buddhism from its spiritual perspective is something I largely agree with, the argument has to be made that Christianity or Judaism could be seen as a philosophical, spiritual teaching rather than a religion. Religions attest to a certain way of living, a doctrine tyhat we ascribe to in order to acheive some utlimate goal or good. Buddhism becomes this when Buddhist texts and teachings regarding the issues of rebirth are taken. It is a rather religious beleif, the more philosophical (and perhaps, realistic) may want to stand more rather neutral on the issue: In the end, the basic philosophy and teachings given here are to live a good life, something all religions do.

I can therefore only see that simple subscription to one religion, philosophical or given doctrine's moral values are spiritual, not religious. Religion is about worship, the Spiritual about fulfilment. Of course, these two can intersect and perhaps to be religious you cannot have a spiritual dimension. However you can merely ascribe to spiritual ideals and not be religious, if religion is thought to deal with primarily worship, before all other doctrine on how to live. The 10 Commandments is a classic example here to demonstrate this point - the first being: 'I am the Lord your God and no other God may be worshipped before me'

It is possible therefore, to be a spiritual Judeo-Christian, or a Muslim, or a Buddhist, or Jew or Christian, taking in the basic philosophical teachings as a guidline rather than a law of life that we live or die by. This is what chiefly characterises the religious - if we do not follow the teachings of Jesus, God in the bible as explained to us by the Pope in the Roman Catholic religion (if we cannot think, understand or have any direct view in the Bible we can read from - such as the use of IVF, use of contraceptives regarding AIDs, etc) - we are either destined for Heaven or Hell. From the spiritual side, accepting morals given by a doctrine as guidlines as a way of life and being open to the question of a supreme deity is not religion. This is where the two differ and it is entirely possibly to be a spiritual Buddhist and exercising restrain with regards to the 5th precept to acheive Enlightenment; or a religious Buddhist through accepting given teachings such as the samsara (rebirth).

So then, for those of us that may not subscribe to any religion I propose the following: Not Agnosticism, but Spiritual Philosophy. If we ascribe to any agree to more than one code of conduct (say the 10 Commandments in Christianity and others from other religions, or indeed perhaps even philosophical views, political-philosophical views or that of a "civil religion" (if we choose to accept this - think Robert Bellah's argument that America is a civil religion, or the idea of fanatics and supporters of a sports team that that sport is a religion and the stadium is the 'place of worship'), then we are spiritual philosophers. If we strictly adhere to a religion and that religious teaching, then we are of that religion - be it Christianity, Judaism, etc. Finally, no strong convictions on religion or philosophical views, if we do not concern ourselves with either because we feel it is not important; is Agnosticism.

From my own personal viewpoint I cannot argue and agree more with what I have said about my take on Buddhist philosophy. It would of course be a bit weird if I didn't agree with myself! From the 5 precepts and the 8-fold way of life, they are good guidelines for a way of life. Furthermore, the fundamentals of the religious teachings of which I was brought up in (Christianity), I do not reject, nor take too seriously. The aim is to live a good life, or in philosophical terms, Kantian summum bonum; living life for a higher good. For that, I beleive, whether there is a God or not I cannot say, and I would not argue that any religion is inherently wrong though I find some views suspect as I did with the 5th precept. In my view, if there is a supreme being, a creator, then if I have lived a good life (of which many philosophical texts are influential and good, including justice as fairness, Kantianism, Buddhist philosophy, Judeo-Christian 10 Commandments), I will be judged on the value and the basis of that. If God were to make worship to him is paramount to access to heaven, it seems reasonable to suggest that we would all be born with this knowledge of Him. God-worship is not the most important, though it can be a good tool for some in order to live a good life. For me, the synthesis of theological teachings, philosophy and life experience I feel will lead me to live a good life and be judged on the basis of that conviction. For that I call myself not a religious person, a Catholic, or any more an agnostic (of which I have labelled myself), but a spiritual philosopher.

Aston Vanilla: Title chasers?

2009-01-28T08:24:00.006Z

A football blog, for once. Thanks to Aston Villa beating Portsmouth 1-0 in their Premier League yesterday, (of which, I predicted & expected) - they now move up into 3rd in the Premier League table:

Barclays Premier League Table 27 January 2009

		P	GD	PTS
1	Man Utd	22	29	50
2	Liverpool	22	22	47
3	Aston Villa	23	14	47
4	Chelsea	22	29	45

5	Arsenal	22	13	41

6	Everton	22	4	36
7	Wigan	22	2	31
8	West Ham	22	-2	29
9	Hull	22	-13	27
10	Fulham	21	1	26
11	Sunderland	23	-8	26
12	Man City	21	9	25
13	Tottenham	23	-4	24
14	Portsmouth	22	-13	24
15	Bolton	22	-8	23
16	Newcastle	22	-9	23
17	Blackburn	21	-11	21

18	Middlesbrough	22	-15	21
19	Stoke	23	-18	21
20	West Brom	23	-22	21

Arsenal are due to play Everton midweek, so its fairly possible that with a draw Aston Villa could be looking for a lucrative UEFA Champions League spot. Coming up in February are some winnable games for 'Vanilla', until they meet Chelsea on the back end of the month.

Unthinkable, maybe, but if Arsenal fail to beat Everton and Aston Villa begin to keep winning, could a win over Chelsea transform the title race into an unexpected 3-legged horse race between Manchester United, Villa and Liverpool?

It is perhaps no suprise for some that Manchester United lead the Premier League table but Liverpool are in touching distance despite a recent slip in form. Villa could yet gatecrash the party and they face a dauting task that will ultimately decide their Premier League fate this season with Liverpool and United back-to-back away games in March/April. It's a little too early to specuilate maybe which is why no journalists seem to be giving any ideas that Villa could make a surge for the title.

I would not be too suprised if they did - I personally felt they would finish 5th this season ahead of Everton, despite Manchester City's riches (and look where they are!...). What is more probable though is that Villa could ultimately twist the title race or decide it - Especially as their game comes straight after the supposed "title decider" at Old Trafford between United and Liverpool. I don't think that will indeed be the title decider - United have Manchester City, Arsenal, Villa, and Everton to get through who could all trouble United.

I would hope that people start to sit up and take notice at the great work Martin O'Neill has done at Villa Park - even when my local side Stoke managed to beat them early on in the season. Football is indeed a funny game.

As for Stoke, there are just 4 games of the remaining 15 games that arguably they can expect to lose: the games against Villa, Manchester City (given their talent), Arsenal and Everton. Every other game Stoke could conceivably nick a point, and if they are lucky maybe 2 points out of these 4 as well. A point per game would leave Stoke with a finish of 38 points - below the 40-point benchmark of recent seasons to stay up. Given 8 of these are home games, and Stoke have won over half of their home games this season, Stoke could win 4 of these games but it still leaves them short. Even winning all of their remaining home games would probably only just see Stoke stay up. Out of 12 away games, Stoke are the only team other than Fulham yet to win away, and Stoke have a poorer record: just 3 points out of a possible 36 in away games so far.

Given Stoke's record over the season, we can expect them to get close to the 40 point mark but they are going to need to pick up points away. I, along with many saw Stoke as whipping boys this season but they've outshone the god-awful Billy Davies/Paul Jewell's Derby side and the Sunderland sides (twice!) of recent times.

Whatever Stoke's outcome, they can be proud of themselves.Like with Villa it is too early to really know what their outcome will be. Crucially, if Stoke can win a couple of away games then they are right in the thick of it and it's game on.

It's the best football season I can remember.

Tru. that...

2009-01-27T20:15:00.001Z

Why is Truphone better than Fring?

I've been using Fring for quite some time on my mobile because it lets me connect to MSN. Yahoo and Skype all at once. It's good for that, but all too often lately I've been getting crashes.

So I looked for alternatives - obviously still w anting to use Skype - but then I found a better alternative: Truphone. It's cheaper than Skype and you don't need to be in a Wifi zone to make a call through it, as they trick the phone networks into routing it through a local number.

Altogether as well, the interface looks much nicer and Truphone is even adding Skype capabaility and other instant messaging networks soon as well.

Fring has now been relegated to the last home screen on my phone, my "useless apps" page. I could just 'delete it' but it might come in handy. So far I've not had a single problem with Truphone, and the voice connection is much, much better than Skype as well.

All nighters

2009-01-26T18:36:00.000Z

Exam in the morning. Luckily I have this for the night:

Here's hoping it helps for tomoro French exam, keep all things fresh in mind...
-- Post From My iPhone

Coachmakers Arms - Dragon Smoke

2009-01-25T22:11:00.000Z

Beowulf - Dragon Smoke - 4.7%ABV

I needed it. ****/5
-- Post From My iPhone

Handjobs!

2009-01-24T17:02:00.001Z

Look close enough, it says the BEST HAND JOB IN TOWN

... Just one of the many wonders of Stoke-on-Trent.

Need to get a picture of the Cock Inn in Leek next!...

-- Post From My iPhone

The next Terminator!

2009-01-23T19:42:00.000Z

Arnie, now Governer of California!

Doug. If Terminator drinks, that is...

-- Post From My iPhone

I'm a Sven Lookalike

2009-01-23T19:37:00.000Z

Sven-Goran Eriksson, former England Football manager, now Mexico Football Manager

Me. I look like Sven with a hat of course...

-- Post From My iPhone

Coachmakers Arms - Old Raby Ale

2009-01-23T17:21:00.001Z

Village Brewer - Old Raby Ale - 4.8%ABV

***/5. creamy!

-- Post From My iPhone

Illegitimate Presidency

2009-01-22T22:43:00.002Z

The talking points surrounding the Inauguration meant that Barack Obama was NOT officially POTUS after taking the oath, as the wording was wrong. Now rectified, the agenda to close Guantanamo Bay has been ordered and the top US official post of Secretary of State has been confirmed : Hilary Rodham Clinton

Guantanamo Bay has been the main talking point, where Obama has ordered the closure of Guantanamo Bay, the "gulag of our times".

It seems pretty clear that there were some forces behind the Bush Administration's inability to close Guantanamo - the stubborness of one Dick Cheny (suprise, suprise), and the fact that the Bush administration started the operation in the first place. John Bellinger, an advisor to Condeleezza Rice, shares his regret and frustrations over Guantanamo.

It would appear, I would expect, that Obama has retook the oath before signing the executive decision to close the detention centre. Though the era of change has begun, I fear that this is all a little more than symbolism by the Obama Administration.

If a 'perfectly logical' plan to set up the centre in the first place descended into such controversy where torture was used and accepted, if Bellinger's words are to be beleived, then we cannot ignore this possibility again. I can't fathom personally how the religious neo-conservatives can resort to such violence and inhumane nature - surely God judges at the end of the day.

The infamous legacy that this leaves behind will remain with Bush administration though I do not feel that the anti-Americans out there will see it that way. There is a history of US interventionism and dare I say 'imperalism' over the course of the twentieth century.

Having argued for a new era of openness from his administration and the closure of Guantanamo Bay, this is a good start by the Obama administration. Torture is indefensible - there are moral imperatives and all humans have rights - not simply those kept to and enshrined by national constitutions, bills of rights. The BBC is even asking readers, "Do you agree that Guantanamo prison should be closed?"

The bottom line is, people would say anything under torture to make someone stop. Its an involuntary human reflex, like jerking your hand away from something that's too hot. How anyone can ever justify something like this is beyond me.

Coachmakers Arms - Lionheart

2009-01-21T23:23:00.000Z

Milestone - Lionheart - 4.4%ABV

***/5. I enjoyed this beer so much I had it twice over!

-- Post From My iPhone

Bring Home the Revolution: Obama, Hope, Progress, Change

2009-01-20T23:55:00.001Z

5,000 tickets sold in less than a minute for the Obama Inauguration. Barack Hussein Obama, legally president at noon on January 20th before he took the Presidential Oath of Office, has now ushered in a new era of 'remaking America', an era of change.

Gone is George W. Bush and the neo-cons - now...

"On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.

On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics."

There is an international appeal to the Obama presidency and the powerful role of the United States plays in our world. It is, a notion that we here can share at home in the United Kingdom of failed politics.

As a member of Republic, I received an email from Republic: Campaign for an Elected Head of State, an organisation that I have been a member of for the past year and attended their annual conference back in October. Graham Smith, campaign manager of Republic is calling for increased membership and the launch of 55 in 5 campaign - a drive to establish a elected British head of State within the next 5 years. This is all very optimistic, and the state of the Monarchy in Britain is pretty low after the recent revelations of Harry making racist remarks on a video and Prince Charles (heir apparent) stating he wants to play a more hands-on role.

It reminds me of the old joke about the optimist and the pessimist:

Pessimist says: "It can't get any worse."

But the optimist says:

"Oh yes it can!"

American politics, British politics, democracy in general is as I can see it: Broken. There is discontent in UK political circles over the question of Scottish Independence (for one), and the political apathy as of late puts the major parties in a dead heat. In the latest opinion polls, (9th January in the Sun/YouGov), Conservaties are 41% to Labour's 34% and Liberal Democrats at 15%. The 7 point gap is not too massive, and I would argue that the polls taken in the Sun has arguably a right wing bias anyway. There is a reality, I feel that there could well be a 'hung parliament' at election time. What does this mean for UK Politics?

It means that no party can command a majority and so it is to the Monarch's discretion who to ask to form a government. The Monarch, currently Queen Elizabeth II, an unelected official could decide the legislative destiny and direction of the UK Parliament in the 21st century. Though the monarchy, some might argue has little importance (all she ever does is wave, see video below...) This threat is very real and very damaging to the notion of democracy.

Barack Obama spoke in his inaugral address of "remaking America". America is a country founded on the back of a bill of rights, on democracy, freedom from religious and political tyranny with liberty and justice for all. With the inaugration of a African-American as president, it is a sign that the social attitudes of even a country like America are shifting. They have elected a liberal as a President. With a Muslim middle name. Who is also mixed race. If America can see the error of their ways after the Bush years then I would argue there is hope for humanity yet. The notion of 'remaking America' has a personal touch to the Americans but it has a wider and global appeal. It is not Americentric. Instead. it is about the ideals for which the United States stands for, and exporting that to the world. Freedom for all people, the French have done it (5 times), the Germans, the Italians... and it is about being able for the people to govern themselves - either by proxy in a centralist government with representatives or small communities of direct democracy.

Of all the systems of government, as Winston Churchill once remarked "Democracy is the best of the worst" (or something to that effect). The system we have in the United Kingdom is not, if there is a hung parliament, a democracy at all. If no majority is found in a general election and the Queen chooses of her own accord who to form a government, then this is clearly going against democratic principle that the people have freedom. Freedom means choice.

We do not have that, here at home, with the realities of the British Constitution.

In 'remaking America' - 'America' being a system of ideals rather than a singular identity (see Jonathon Freedland - "Bring Home the Revolution") - we can take the inspiring message of hope, of change, of progress, of Obama, to the United Kingdom, and the rest of the world.

Coachmakers Arms - Black Pearl

2009-01-19T23:03:00.000Z

Milestone - Black Pearl - 4.3% ABV

Epic Stout ***/5

-- Post From My iPhone

Cast Lead

2009-01-18T23:25:00.002Z

The Arab-Israeli conflict has been well documented, most recently in a 22-day conflict on what the Israeli's called "Operation Cast Lead", in order to give more security to the south.

The conflict in the Gaza and the dispute over the Holy Land (Israel) has been one of the big pressing issues since the Second World War.

The solution, as I see it, is something similar to the UN Partition Plan drawn up and approved in 1947 (see wiki entry here)

The UN Resolution is mentioned in the Israeli declaration of independence. I would argue though, if the Israeli's could do that, then why can't the Palestinians do the same? It is not a straightforward matter I admit, and something that hopefully will be addressed by Barack Obama. There are still fundamental problems in the region, and as one blogger argues, I'm sure come 21st January the phones in the White House will be ringin g and an 'era of change' can begin.

The US, if it wishes to see itself as a higher moral authority and a beacon to the world, should look no further than their own constitution as a guide for their foreign policy. The continued supply of weapons and goods to Israel in a volatile region, does not agree with what the country was founded upon: freedom from tyranny, religious persecution and equality among men, including others. The failure to provide the Palestinians with a safe haven to live in only serves to cause further violence if they are not allowed to govern themselves as they wish to do so. Who is to say that the State of Israel will do a better job? The state is only state in the world that is Jewish, but there is no reason why religious tolerance, secularism and people from all other walks of life cannot live in harmony with one another.

It is time, I feel, to give the Palestinian people what they wish: a safe haven. I do not beleive that they are a terrorist group, though some of their actions are certainlly questionable and morally suspect. Perhaps history has taught us that the best form of revolution is passive resistance - the civil rights movement, Ghandi, among others - the sectarian violence in Ireland is still a big problem.

I am not arguing here that religion is a cause for violence, just an excuse. There is no reason why religious tolerance and freedom to worship whatever religion we wish (or not) cannot be practised. Permanent revolutions on this scale are never realised without some degree of bloodshed.

If as Josh Lyman in the West Wing argues:

"Islamic extremist is to Islam as the KKK is to Christianity"....

then the State of Israel is the equivalent to Judaism.

Controversial, maybe? But fighting never solved anything. The UN too, needs to get its act together as well because failure to follow through such resolutions as I mentioned makes the point of a global diplomatic institution meaningless. A state for a religious people is a noble idea, but there are examples around the world - the UK, US, among others - why religions cannot be tolerated in a secular state. And I would like to pose the following question:

If the Israeli declaration of independence justifies itself on the UN resolution in 1947, the failure to realise the terms of the resolution makes the state of Israel illegal, surely?

In an ideal world, there would be one country, one state, governing the whole of Israel and Palestine and accepting Jews, Muslims, Christians as equals and there would be no violence. Something that the Tony Blair Fath Foundation hopes to acheive. It seems an impossibility considering the history. but I think it is change that we can beleive in.

Port Vale v Shrewsbury

2009-01-17T17:22:00.000Z

Piling on the pressure in the first 15 minutes!

1-0 to Vale, Steve Thompson!

1-1! They already one fan escorted from the ground!

Second half, two players sent off, one per side. Kyle Perry for Vale and subsitute Marc Pugh for Shrewsbury.

Exciting game, but Vale stopped playing the good football after 20 minutes and Shrewsbury looked deadly on the counter and on the right wing. Still Vale never looked like losing. Steve Thompson was MOM for a cracking 20 yard goal into top right hand corner. A deserved point.

-- Post From My iPhone

Bush: Smart, Articulate, Successful

2009-01-16T23:03:00.000Z

So said Bob Tuttle, US Ambassador to the United Kingdom in the Telegraph.

What successes, I wonder? The Iraq debacle will always be his 'legacy', in my mind, and the global crisis that has soured the end of his second term.

Not to mention he is the most unpopular outgoing President (ever). The sooner Obama is sworn in, just a few more days come Jan 20th, the better.

Can't say I blame Connecticut, to be honest.

One thing, if anything I agree with Tuttle on, is that we should keep close ties with our American cousins. It is important for them, and important for us. I wouldn't have thought Sarkozy and France, Merkel and Germany would be too comfortable with us having a major role in European Politics, particularly as we weren't one of the founders of the Rome Treaty in 1957.

That is not to say I am a Euro-skeptic, far from it. Recent events in the financial crisis have shown that we do have an important role to play in International Affairs. Even though it was a big gaffe for Brown saying he 'saved the world' regarding the financial crisis... Even though he seems to be leading the way.

The only thing is... I'm not so sure if Obama and Brown will be best of friends, even if Obama thinks Cameron is a 'lightweight'.

It will be interesting to see how relations and UK impact on the foreign stage will play out in the next decade.

-- Post From My iPhone

Blogs versus Essays

2009-01-15T23:30:00.000Z

I got an essay back today for French Politics and I passed this time doing much much better than what I did in my failed essay I reported on a few weeks ago.

It would appear my style in essay writing lacks a certain, clarity of expression.

My essay, though received a far better mark, still to this criticism.

And it came to my mind that my form in blog writing is much better according to some observers so its something to learn from.

Perhaps then I can do better when it comes to my next essay and also my project on Republicanism, a research project of 5,000 words that I need done. Need a question though. Hopefully I can go full steam with this soon, get something going. I mighht well write some features as items in the news comes up.

Also thinking of some ideas and perspectives to give this blog a bit of direction and readership. Stayed tuned on that one...

Little's Disease goes Dancing on Ice!

2009-01-14T07:33:00.001Z

A True Story:

Anyway. This morning I need to get to Manchester to get books. I got outside and it felt like I was on ice. I thought about turning around and forgetting the whole ordeal, but instead I called for a taxi.

I have Cerebral Palsy, which affects my mobility. To my extent, I have zero balance so it can get quite entertaining.

The taxi came but even though it was just a few steps away, I knew I'd have a job on my hands getting in. This proved to be the.case, as I skated my way to the car but fell, nearly ripping off the guys mirror in the process. Fun!

He was convinced I was drunk, which reminds me of a certain Josh Blue joke about the drunk tank.

"Nobody is on the road. They all gone home! Black ice!" He says in his Asian accent.

"Yeah it's like dancing on ice out there. I gotta get to Manchester. Hope I don't fall over again." I replied.

"Well I don't know you nearly broke my mirror. It's loose!"

"Im sorry" I said, nearly pissing myself laughing.

"I always tell people not to drink, I don't know." says the driver.

I nearly burst out in more laughter, but I didn't bother explaining I have Little's Disease (CP).... It seems my Stevie Wonder 'blind man' shades didn't serve as a warning either... Shame.

To make matters worse, it feels like I've wet myself. Turns out my can of relentless exploded on impact when I fell over! So I smell of energy.

I'm glad there was no one around to see it. Though it certain was worth paying to see!

EDIT: Also, after getting to University Library, I discover that my glasses are broken (again), presumably by the fall from getting into the taxi.

FUN!

-- Post From My iPhone

Privacy: The biggest, most fundamental issue of our time

2009-01-13T19:34:00.002Z

Privacy, or the need for it, has come to light to me lately. My brother gave me some very good advice a few weeks ago:

"Don't worry about what you can't control"

This is very true, of course and very good advice.

Not long ago I posted a blog focusing mainly on Facebook: Social Networking or Spy Networking?

One of the main things Facebook does unbeknown to you if you are a computer novice is it will send out information to your friends - things like what you post to other people in the public domains (or their, "walls").

Targeted advertising is another one - if you are a university student you will get adverts offering student discounts and the like. Its a scary thought what information you can give out on the internet.

Targeted advertising is something that we cannot control at our own will. But I would not be surprise if one day this issue comes up in the media one way or another.

So back to the first point: Don't worry about what you can't control. We have the rights to report photos if we do not give our prior consent to publication, or report people posting or discussing our lives as a form of gossip that may be damaging to our reputation.

Facebook does indeed provide this facility, and people can be excluded from even the most minute of details - whether you are single, in a relationship, whether when you break up with your girlfriend it becomes public knowledge or not. It is not at all uncommon for people, even if it is friends out of curiosity, to "comment" on an issue, but then everybody else on the host;'s friend list can see this. With Facebook privacy settings you can do this. You can limit your friends to being able to do nothing but message you if you so wish.

It is, I believe, within our rights to know whats going on in our surroundings and to know what people may know about us which we might wish to withhold from them for whatever reason (be it job, personal privacy, dislike of nosiness, etc).

It is therefore, reasonable to expect to know what we might encounter at any given time. Living in a somewhat public residence (private bedrooms/communal ground floor), it has becoming increasingly familiar to me and important to me to understand and know that people could be in close proximity at any given time and I may not expect this to be the case if I were living in a private home elsewhere where I could expect privacy.

When in the public domain - whether Facebook or in the real world - we deserve to know what to expect and be respected with a certain level of privacy. Facebook, though it provides the possibility for this, is not so outgoing with its privacy policies and I think that they could do more to educate current and new users on privacy control. In the real world, reality, it is unfortunately, sadly a different matter. The most scariest of things is that even living in the most public of places, people are in such close quarters that they could, unwittingly, unknowingly, or God forbid intentionally invade privacy or violate their privileges of use of such a communal area.

Anybody could be walking around. Anybody could turn their back. It's not paranoia. We live in the 21st century and the information age, people just don't leave their doors unlocked anymore out of a sense of naievety. It is about protection, being safe. Knowledge is power.

I'm just glad I have a lock on my door.

Unholy Urine?

2009-01-13T01:36:00.007Z

Having downloaded a great app on my iPhone - ukPolitics - I have gained access to as handy set of political news items by party and blogs on the bologsphere.

One such blog, from Liberal Conspiracy attacks the Vatican statement that women's urine is unholy and contributes to male infertility.

"The contraceptive pill was polluting the environment and was in part responsible for male infertility, a report in the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano said on Saturday.

The president of the International Federation of Catholic Medical Associations, Pedro Jose Maria Simon Castellvi, said the pill ''has for some years had devastating effects on the environment by releasing tonnes of hormones into nature'' through female urine.

''We have sufficient evidence to state that a non-negligible cause of male infertility in the West is the environmental pollution caused by the pill,'' he said, without elaborating further."

Laurie Penny, a feminist liberal blogger at LiberalConspiracy.org, attacks the Vatican on grounds of being sexist, and being incorrect in their assertions:

"I don’t see the Pope asking us to stop eating so much junk in order to protect some sacred ideation of male potency. I don’t see that increasingly unfunny former Hitler Youth member and his friends asking blokes everywhere to wear looser trousers and stop smoking. Why would they, when they’ve already decided that by daring to decide for ourselves whether we want to have kids, we’ve symbolically castrated men?The contraceptive pill is one of the most important inventions of the last three centuries, and doesn’t damage the environment so much as the status quo. I’m not a Christian, but if I were I’d get down on my knees every night to thank Ratzinger’s God for the miracle of contraception."

"Oestrogens are present in drinking water from a host of sources, most notably from the by-products of plastics production, and studies have shown that most oestrogens in drinking water are natural – not the synthetic oestrogens present in oral contraception."

You can read Laurie's blog here.

My personal opinion is not something I am going to argue here (just yet)... but I would argue that Laurie is missing crucial points of the Vatican's statement. Short of reading the actual statement (I can't read Italian, I will assume she can't either), I would like to suggest that she took the Australian article at face value and believed every word of it.

What is more likely, is that the Vatican are not disputing the science that there are natural oestrogens in various water sources, but are merely making the logical point that the substances contained in the contraceptive pill may constitute, in part, of women's urine.

It is not a sexist attack, and I'm sure the Pope would also argue that it is best that men do not smoke either - though I am sure he is not so conservative as to outlaw smoking and drinking.

Smoking may damage the sperm given consistent usage and abuse, but it does not interfere with the direct act of sexual intercourse with marriage, as does a contraceptive pill or a condom.

This here is the crucial difference I see. It is not sexist of the Pope, the media spin has twisted it that way and Laurie has obviously been unduly offended. She says she is not Catholic, so I'm wondering why she bothers to take note of supposed Vatican directives if they have no bearing on her life. People will consider the facts for themselves, I believe that we can reach through reason the right decisions on whether to use contraceptives or not, irrespective of religious doctrine or scientific evidence that increased usage of the morning after pill or the use of Thalidomide can be harmful (certainly in the case of Thalidomide, anyway).

The Pope is merely making the point as part of traditional Catholic doctrine that it is wrong to use any artificial means to interfere with the natural act of procreation. Always the Catholic church has been against contraceptives and this has caused controversy in AIDs-stricken countries. Thus I do not believe the statement is saying that women's urine is unholy (or at least the ones that take contraceptives, anyhow), but is merely adding the Catholic church's medical findings (correct or otherwise) into the scientific sphere.

That is how I see the other side of the coin anyway and I value the arguments on both sides over the issue of contraception. Sex is a loving act, and should, where possible be open to the possibility of pregnancy. But there are so many variables, unforseen circumstances where contraception is necessary (in cases to prevent STIs), or where the entire Catholic doctrine, I feel should be called into question when it opposes procedures such as IVF which allow women to fulfill their natural biological instinct to procreate. That, however is another story. But women's wee as unholy? I doubt that is the Catholic position. And even if it were, I would like to ask what Laurie is supposing by highlighting the Pope's Hitler Youth past. What does this have to do with the price of bacon?

Football Manager Live

2009-01-12T15:09:00.003Z

My gameworld (Blisset) for Football Manager Live, has opened.

Created a team, Valiants, playing in Vale's colours!

Joined the WCA (Weekend Casual Association)... games played over weekends and I can decide not to play most games if I don't want to (or if I'm just plain busy as I do have a life....!)

They call me Luke! That's not my name!

2009-01-12T00:00:00.000Z

Like the song... Shame it doesn't rhyme....

Some people, well most I know call me Luke.

But, since 2007 in June I legally changed my name to Lucas by deed poll, as I didn't quite like Luke and it just reminded me of bad things. Out of respect, I kept my middle name, Peter, because I did realise some people might be upset. For the same reason, I changed it to Lucas as it is essentially the same name but in it's Latin form.

Some people have never really quite accepted this but a few things come to mind when I think about justifying why those of you should refer to me as Lucas rather than Luke. One family member, upon learning of the name change, asked me in a phone conversation whether I would eventually go back to it or not.

Considering the hassle in changing my name - including a problem with registering at my university because of it - I won't. Changing my my name may only be cosmetic, but it certainly makes me feel better about myself. Changing it via deed poll carries the same legal status of changing your name due to a sex change, or more commonly through marraige. I wouldn't think of calling a male-to-female transexual by their male given name because that is not how they identify themselves. By the same token, I wouldn't call my sisters or my mother by their maiden names, because that is not who they are.

Direct examples of people changing their names for cosmetic purposes include Paul Gascoigne - to G8 before changing it back if I remember rightly - and also one of the people I admire, Alistair Cooke. Now Paul Gascoigne, or Gazza, aside you wouldn't think of calling Alistair Cooke by his birthname.

So I wonder why do the same with me?

I'm no different. I'm Lucas now, so get used to it.

There's a picture of me from 1st September, 2005 in Ruby Tuesdays.

I miss the hair.

And I love the red.

One of the things I've realized lately.

And above all, I'm Lucas, not Luke.

-- Post From My iPhone

Coachmakers Arms - Hound Dog

2009-01-11T22:30:00.001Z

Cottage Whippet Series - Hound Dog - 4.6% ABV

Ain't nothing but a Hound Dog!... ****/5
-- Post From My iPhone

Coachmakers Arms - Stokers Stout

2009-01-11T22:28:00.001Z

Oakfield - Stokers Stout - 5.0%ABV

Bit Bitter, but nice. Shame it's not local!

***/5

-- Post From My iPhone

Era of Change

2009-01-10T20:54:00.002Z

There are just 10 days until President-elect Barack Obama takes office.

Tickets have been sold for a parade too. 5,000 of them.

Obama tickets 'sell in a minute'

Obama already faces an economic crisis and foreign policy challenges

Reserved seats for the US presidential inauguration parade have sold out within one minute of being put on sale, the ticket company has said.

More than 90% of the 5,000 seats available along the parade route in Washington were sold online.

The tickets cost $25 (£16) each - but some went on to reappear on internet sites at much higher prices.

Two million people are expected to crowd the National Mall as Barack Obama takes the oath of office on 20 January.

Most of the seats for the swearing-in ceremony are set aside for lawmakers, VIPs and diplomats.

The tickets that went on sale on Friday were for stands that line the route Mr Obama and his vice-president, Joe Biden, will take between the US Capitol and the White House.

Sales began at 1300 (1800 GMT) and went "blazingly fast", Albert Lopez, a spokesman for sales company Ticketmaster, said.

Linda Douglass, the chief spokeswoman for the inaugural committee, said the selling time was startling.

Work is already well underway for the event, set to draw huge crowds

"You just have to assume there must have been people sitting there at their computers ready to go when the clock struck one," she said.

Inauguration officials strongly disapproved of anyone seeking to profit from the sale of the ticket, she said - as tickets appeared at 10 times their original price on auction site eBay.

The committee says it wants to make Barack Obama's inauguration one of the most accessible in US history.

All I can say is.... Gone in Sixty Seconds. I'm sure the inaugural address is live on television, I'll post more when I find it. :)

Coachmakers Arms - Old Rosie

2009-01-09T21:14:00.000Z

Weston's Old Rosie - 7.4%ABV

Hardcore Cider!

****/5

-- Post From My iPhone

Moral Absolutes

2009-01-08T21:08:00.002Z

Afghan foetus 'aborted by razor'

By Martin Vennard
BBC News

The family of a 14-year-old Afghan rape victim face prosecution after her foetus was removed without anaesthetic.

The mother and brother of the girl are accused of cutting her open with a razor blade to perform an abortion.

Doctors say the girl is in a critical condition. A man accused of raping her is under arrest, officials say.

Rape victims and their families in Afghanistan often feel ashamed to report what has happened because people may think the victim consented to sex.

Sex outside marriage is illegal in Afghanistan.

'Dog bite'

The governor of Bamiyan Province, Habiba Sarabi, says that action is being taken.

When the girl was five months pregnant it is alleged her mother and brother took her to a stables and cut her open with a razor blade.

They removed the foetus, which they buried, before stitching up her wound, Governor Sarabi said.

The father eventually took the girl to get medical treatment.

Dr Ghulam Mohammad Nader, head of Bamiyan hospital, said the girl is in a critical condition, but that she had been able to explain what had happened to her.

"The girl stayed at home for three or four days in her condition until her father took her to hospital," Dr Nader said.

"He said a dog had bitten her so that people in the area wouldn't know what had really happened."

The girl has now been transferred to Kabul for treatment.

The provincial governor says the man accused of raping the girl has been arrested and that police are trying to arrest her mother and brother.

The victims of rape and their families in Afghanistan are often afraid to admit what has happened to them because of the stigma and shame attached to the issue.

Sometimes the victims are murdered by their own families.

Critics accuse the authorities of not taking accusations of rape seriously, especially those made by children.

But President Karzai recently called for rapists to be brought to justice and the Afghan Supreme Court suspended three judges who acquitted people accused of rape.

(Source: BBC)

How people can resort to such a thing I don't know. It is a difficult situation, where a woman has been raped and left pregnant as a result. It's hard to imagine what they must have gone through, and this is even without considering the culture of Afghanistan and the fact that sex outside marraige there is illegal and the stigma attached to rape, particularly more so in her case.

It makes me think of whether there are moral absolutes - human life, I beleive does begin at conception and I can understand why women might want to consider their options when they have been left pregnant as a result of a rape.

But the methods, the extremes gone to in this case, I don't think is just. Its inhumane (for lack of a better word), and cruel and unusual. Whether the girl consent to the procedure is another matter, but I think the lengths gone to acheive abortion in this case is shameful.

It is difficult to say whether abortion should ever really be accepted, but in this case, I think the situation was not treated with the delicacy and respect it deserves.

Meme

2009-01-07T23:36:00.000Z

Bought and downloaded the Metal Gear Solid 4 Online MEME EXPANSION today.
The best PS3 Game just got better. New Maps, tournament mode, improved gaming experience online.

Fell in love with it all over again. And what makes it great, PS3 Online is completely free, unlike Xbox Live.
-- Post From My iPhone

Bermuda Triangle and Strange Discoveries....

2009-01-06T20:53:00.000Z

My glasses I thought I lost turned up in the Bermuda triangle that is my bedroom.

So I wonder: why do things always turn up when you're not looking for them?

I feel such a fool for buying that pair now...

But at least the new pair are better than the old pair!

-- Post From My iPhone

Guns don't kill people...

2009-01-05T19:17:00.004Z

A 12 year old boy from Arizona in the US shot and killed his mother this week.

I remember watching Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine, where the NRA (National Rifle Association) said that Guns don't kill people, the people do.

I'm not so sure that is the case, especially in cases like these and more so in the one explored in the film of Michael Moore's - if I remember rightly a 6 year old killed a classmate with a gun. Crazy.

Still, the boy (if you read the article link above), has been deemed mentally capable to have the MO for the murder.

Ridiculous. At least Arizona is one the 49 US States that don't allow for the death penalty for minors (Georgia do - see "Why do people hate America" by Sardar and Davies)... so he will just be given a juvenile prison sentence.

Which is fair enough, hopefully though, he is rehabilitated rather than have his life destroyed by the courts.