does anyone know some useful and understandable technical tricks for tidying and cleaning up my laptop/emails etc of some of its contents.i try to keep some kind of order doing a bit everyday but its slow and endless and banal.ive got better things to do,but having learnt the hadr way the dangers of leaving it this way,i take it more seriously these days,having recently lost 18months"work"...
doing each individual item is timeconsuming and boring but"handing it over"to some"arrange an automatic clean up"will undoubtedly be another corporate led disaster for me.i simpky dont trust them at all about anything.i dont doubt they will invade my privacy,destroy my work and delete what they think is unsafe.i know there is lots of unsafe stuff out there,but its mostly not my friends or associates nor is it left wing campaigns.its the criminals,the malicious and the corporates who repeatedly bow to the demands the state(any and all states),and i suspect because those corporates operating on the internet dont care about anything except their profits.im told microsoft is very secure,not because they care about our safety or security but because they are protecting their profits.facebook and others,which seem t make information theft and hacking easy clearly dont care about anything much either.one day they will find themselves made accountable in a very different way-not to nation states or shareholders but the community of"users"and working people!
meantime we have to do the best we can to help ourselves,so does anyone have any clues?
Sunday 26 August 2012
Wednesday 22 August 2012
on hoarding and downsizing
i guess i am one of the hoarders and collectors:ive got it bad although not that bad.
mm.ill read that later-an item in the post-set it aside.later,it finds itself in apile and stored to be revisited,some time,never.
then theres the paper i store more intentionally-stuff ive written,others have written,something ive been involved in,the stuff of memories and some of its is stuff no-one would ever deny is important.then theres photographs.and magazines,journals and books,including duplicates and multiple copies.and recorded music and other material on vinyl,tape,compact discs.
so what do i do or not do?
there is what i suppose a perfectly legitimate,modern but i think ugly,clunky and jargon-ese style word:downsizing.
for me in this context that has to mean getting rid of,making less,making space.
then comes the difficulty.i think those of us who do hoard make many excuses to ourselves and others,and we procrastinate and we are slow to do anything about it.normally i would not make this kind of generalisation and would instead talk only about myself but at the same time,ive spoken to other hoarders recently,who intentionally or otherwise let slip some of the details of their own habits.one of the half legitimate issues that comes up is about not wasting things,recycling and re-use.....
and then there are the people who do not recognise that they too are hoarders or they cannot admit it to themselves.some are"in denial".another feature i recognise from some buddhist thinking,psychology and social work thery-that we tend to see in others and to project onto them what is actually inside ourselves. one of the primary people in this category for me,has not tidy piles of approximately recognisable material like books but smaller accumulations everywhere,which might include-and here is a family joke-the occassional bacon bookmark somewhere.no,its not that bad,though i did once find a piece of very dried shrivelled bacon as a bookmark in a library book.given the current situation in this community i live in-i will say it was from a brent library i dont look in those piles.of others material but when i have occassion to move them,it is highly likely that a table place mat or a torn envelope with a shopping list written on it will fall out.
this person,is the main person"on my case"who is always eager to throw out MY books or things she deems i should not have but the pile with the place mat never even gets sorted.maybe we should trade off"ill sort mine,if you sort yours"which might be helpful,although its childish stuff really.
all said and done-i am trying to downsize,and i will try to pass on and sometimes sell on some of the items.whilst i dont want to add to the clutter inother peoples homes,it does make it marginally easier if some things"go to good home"where they are needed or used.
so i thought i might keep a list somewhere on here of things id like to pass on.let me know if you are interested in anything.....watch this space.
mm.ill read that later-an item in the post-set it aside.later,it finds itself in apile and stored to be revisited,some time,never.
then theres the paper i store more intentionally-stuff ive written,others have written,something ive been involved in,the stuff of memories and some of its is stuff no-one would ever deny is important.then theres photographs.and magazines,journals and books,including duplicates and multiple copies.and recorded music and other material on vinyl,tape,compact discs.
so what do i do or not do?
there is what i suppose a perfectly legitimate,modern but i think ugly,clunky and jargon-ese style word:downsizing.
for me in this context that has to mean getting rid of,making less,making space.
then comes the difficulty.i think those of us who do hoard make many excuses to ourselves and others,and we procrastinate and we are slow to do anything about it.normally i would not make this kind of generalisation and would instead talk only about myself but at the same time,ive spoken to other hoarders recently,who intentionally or otherwise let slip some of the details of their own habits.one of the half legitimate issues that comes up is about not wasting things,recycling and re-use.....
and then there are the people who do not recognise that they too are hoarders or they cannot admit it to themselves.some are"in denial".another feature i recognise from some buddhist thinking,psychology and social work thery-that we tend to see in others and to project onto them what is actually inside ourselves. one of the primary people in this category for me,has not tidy piles of approximately recognisable material like books but smaller accumulations everywhere,which might include-and here is a family joke-the occassional bacon bookmark somewhere.no,its not that bad,though i did once find a piece of very dried shrivelled bacon as a bookmark in a library book.given the current situation in this community i live in-i will say it was from a brent library i dont look in those piles.of others material but when i have occassion to move them,it is highly likely that a table place mat or a torn envelope with a shopping list written on it will fall out.
this person,is the main person"on my case"who is always eager to throw out MY books or things she deems i should not have but the pile with the place mat never even gets sorted.maybe we should trade off"ill sort mine,if you sort yours"which might be helpful,although its childish stuff really.
all said and done-i am trying to downsize,and i will try to pass on and sometimes sell on some of the items.whilst i dont want to add to the clutter inother peoples homes,it does make it marginally easier if some things"go to good home"where they are needed or used.
so i thought i might keep a list somewhere on here of things id like to pass on.let me know if you are interested in anything.....watch this space.
Tuesday 21 August 2012
thinking musically-the collection-1a-this is me
this is essentially a footnote
i said this recording is essentially me-i meant the whole album,so i hpoe it comes up so anyone here can listen to it in full.
im content with the order the tracks are in.
reordering in say favourites would be hard.if you forced me it would go
1.track 2-slightly all the time-or track 4
2.track 4-out bloody rageous-or track 2
3.moon in june-only track with a vocal
4.facelift-this is the main track where i still discover things after 42 years
its impossible.i would still have to have the whole album.i simply cannot do without it.
im sure this wont be my last word about it either
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNgt7U9QrFQ
i said this recording is essentially me-i meant the whole album,so i hpoe it comes up so anyone here can listen to it in full.
im content with the order the tracks are in.
reordering in say favourites would be hard.if you forced me it would go
1.track 2-slightly all the time-or track 4
2.track 4-out bloody rageous-or track 2
3.moon in june-only track with a vocal
4.facelift-this is the main track where i still discover things after 42 years
its impossible.i would still have to have the whole album.i simply cannot do without it.
im sure this wont be my last word about it either
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNgt7U9QrFQ
i dont do science and technology......much
if richard dawkins and others like him had their way science would be at the top of the tree of knowledge or the tip of the pyramid hierarchy of knowledge,and what they could not make subservient they would destroy,obliterate and render as impossible as they could.
at the risk of being unfair to him,after all i dont know him-but frankly would not want to do so because i would find him unaproachable and he would i am certain treat me as his mortal enemy,i think he wants to replace the pope/patriarch/archbishop(head of various christian churches),dalai lama(buddhism)and head of islam-not simply by abolishing theology,religious(and spiritual?)thought and all related institutions not with simple abolition but by putting himself at the head of science,therby to rule us all,much in the way of the 9 and 1 rings in"lord of the rings".i have heard esotericist friends say that he was an inquisitor in a previous existence/life.i dont think i believe in reincarnation-transmigration of sould might be abetter idea but im not sure i understand its greater subtleties or superiority.but the viewpoint i think makes the point.
professor dawkins seems to think the bible/christians/anyone of religious bent is responsible for child abuse.im certain he thinks that religious education is itself child abuse!somehow he does not apply his own stern,unrelenting and dare i say un-humane scientific logic to his own thoughts.
released by this failure from any similar responsibility,i am certainly of the view that neither religion nor spirituality had ANYTHING to do with hiroshima or nagasaki or the ongoing nuclear theat,which may not be as dark or as imminent as at some times in the recent past,since say 1945 when the damned things were inveneted,but the threat as"dirty",terrorist bombings or rogue states is still there.
i dont doubt such scientists would want to apply their peculiar forensic logic again here to evad their responsibility on what im afraid they weould view as"technicalities",which magically exonerate themfrom responsibility.
i would want to aks questions about other evets like bhopal,chernobyl,3 mile island,flixborough,fukuyama...the list could go on.
at the very least it begs questions about the relationship of science to technology-the applications of science to social and machine applications.beyond that it begs questions about the relationship to the state and the wider economic system-the class order/society that is capitalism.
i tend therefore to refer to science as scientism,with its unresolved relations and theories about science and society,state,capitalism.
as i say,i dont do science and technology much
professor dawkins says that a scientific approach to knowledge and the world ens up its wonders,rather than cloaking them in the ignorance of religion.sorry but he is simply not applying a histrians approach to knowledge and epistemology.my main experience of science was at school and my main memory was of being taught technique and method which whilst valuable in themselves reduced scientific knowledge to abstractions and those very methods.the world was reduved to away of writing down experiments-it did not enable me to make an imaginative led alone any other conection between what i was writing down,the various coloured powders and liquids and out there in the world.i found it boring and alienating,although my science teachers were great when they make jokes,explosions,accidents or indeed set an essay about the links between smoking and cigarretes which encouraged me to ask alot of questions about the social context of scientific method and knowledge.
so i did like the soiology of science and the philosophy of science which i formally sudied later.please note professor dawkins,that was philosophy of science,not science of philosophy.if there is such a things it would be inferor in every way to the philosophy.
and as i say,i dont do science and technology much.
as a student i also came across In The Making,Undercurrents and BSSRS/british society for social responsiblity in science,most of which sadly seems to have passed into history.what indeed did becme of bssrs?i had respect for allthose initiatives and found i could talk to and understand them.
at one time professor dawkins held a key lectureship in the"public understanding of science".i was excited by that idea.perhaps it might result in things in the community that might flower and feed my imagination and curiosity for what science claims to study.but then,oops,im sorry i used that word imagination again.im sure that is not allowed in this version of science.what i experienced was a batterring over the head with religion awful(yes its me personally that caused the holocaust and the abuse of all chidren ever)science good-and dont dare to disagree.it led me to trun away from science and to treat it as suspect,at al times.after all it is according to the advertisements science that is behind everything we are supposed to need.
i do wonder why professor dawkins does not see a connection between his activity in science,in its paublic understanding and bssrs/british society for social responsibility in science or any of its international dan often more significant and prestigious variants.i think of steven and hilary rose or steven jay gould for example?
so,i dont do science and technology much.
i have equal difficulties with technology too.
some of it seems to be about age and generation.at 58 some,though not all of my generatin are the subsance and butt of a stereotype in which we cant be dealing with computers and mobile phones,and all kinds of other tech.stuff.
i do mange some of it,some of the time.im not god at it,but then im not as"rubbish"at it as my last boss used to think.gven my own time,and control and choice of it(3 things that the aleination of workers under capitalism do not allow)i fare better.my failure at work of course had NOTHING to do with the fact that capitalist markets and competiton work so badly that they DONT guarantee andy quality,genuine quality of anything at any time.nor do they explain that too many neterprises,including my employer of over 20 years want"rolls royce quality at bicycle prices".at one time they could pay £5,000 and more for a reapair call out but not the money to check let alone replace faulty technology.
the evidence,the facts point in adifferenet direction.remember the gross over anxiety and over engineering of solutions to the great date changeover from 31/12/1999 to 01/01/2000 all because capitalism pushes development towards cheap,quick and short-sighted solutions.recall the waste of multi-milllions if not now billions as the british state tried to by overarchingcomputer systems that did EVERYTHING,especially watching us-but failed on numerous occassions,in immigration,benefits,criminal justice and undoubtedly more.at one point last year 2011,in arranging i think major data migration or yet another system or server,they were reduced to instructing staff that if they worked one side of the thames they could use computers in the morning/AM and n the other side of the thames,in the afternoon/PM.
since i retired ive purchased computers which actually work for me most of the time.hacking has been a major headache but i got through it.i also bought an all singing and dancing mobile and can use it to do what i need to do.and i dont do things that bore me sick and eesmto have no purpose either!i will not have to complete the equivalent of 42 page computerised assessment when ive written this.when i give a friend or comrade an answer or advise similarly i do not have to go through several levels of computer bureaucracy.
im also very lucky in having several good friends and comrades who have helped me out,and sometimes ive paid for help and got it.i want to acknowledge here the staff of the computer manfacturer and advice lines for patience and forbearance that was not always available when i was employed.how for example could i send an email explaining to IT that i had a fault,when i could not understand it,when the comouter had broken dwn and when it was against prtotocols to ask another colleague foruse of their computer(im not even clear whether it was actually ok to ask another to email on my behalf though it was the only pragmatic option.in turn if they are"out to get you"thats the kind of ambguity on which i could get"hung"-fired)
what i continue to find really galling with alot of this technology though is that the information someone like me is NOT in the handbook,not findable easily,if at all,not comprehensible when found,always couched in computer-ese and there is no guarantee that its in the fAQs either.often the illustrated instructions do not match what is on the screen,or the apparently simple step by step instructions leave out a key,alwys simple step but that leave me completely stumped even if a computer whizz knows the answer.
as i say i dont do much science or technology.....
and ive written all that,and repeated the statement a good few times
all in order to get to this.........
that i thought id also use my blog to as those daft/technical questions in search of some answers..
im genuinely interested to see if it is possible to get answers that make sense and are understandable
i do know for example that sometimes.maybe often things are just complex and difficult,but wonder if its still possible to make understanding easier.
i can only comment from my own discipline in socal sciences and marxism.....
i have been genuinely impressed that during the period i regularly read capital and class journal it went in format and writing style from being dense and difficult however well intended to accessible,attractive,usable,readable
likewise historical materialism journal deals with difficut stuff but also makes it readable and usable.
i havve learned much form both.i used to learn from in the making and undercurrents but both have gone and i dont find the same help on the internet.if i have a problem with say emailing to unsubscive=be from some websites i have to wade through pages of very attracive LOOKING material but which actually does not tell me anything nor enabke me to change anything.without the help of friends"in the know"i would be comletely.......well lost
so why do you think i call myself and write as lost
but credit where it is due-thanks to nizam,margaret,steve an sandra for the help they have given to me with these issues,and in gettting me here
unfortunately,i think it will always be the case.....that i dont do science or technology.....much
at the risk of being unfair to him,after all i dont know him-but frankly would not want to do so because i would find him unaproachable and he would i am certain treat me as his mortal enemy,i think he wants to replace the pope/patriarch/archbishop(head of various christian churches),dalai lama(buddhism)and head of islam-not simply by abolishing theology,religious(and spiritual?)thought and all related institutions not with simple abolition but by putting himself at the head of science,therby to rule us all,much in the way of the 9 and 1 rings in"lord of the rings".i have heard esotericist friends say that he was an inquisitor in a previous existence/life.i dont think i believe in reincarnation-transmigration of sould might be abetter idea but im not sure i understand its greater subtleties or superiority.but the viewpoint i think makes the point.
professor dawkins seems to think the bible/christians/anyone of religious bent is responsible for child abuse.im certain he thinks that religious education is itself child abuse!somehow he does not apply his own stern,unrelenting and dare i say un-humane scientific logic to his own thoughts.
released by this failure from any similar responsibility,i am certainly of the view that neither religion nor spirituality had ANYTHING to do with hiroshima or nagasaki or the ongoing nuclear theat,which may not be as dark or as imminent as at some times in the recent past,since say 1945 when the damned things were inveneted,but the threat as"dirty",terrorist bombings or rogue states is still there.
i dont doubt such scientists would want to apply their peculiar forensic logic again here to evad their responsibility on what im afraid they weould view as"technicalities",which magically exonerate themfrom responsibility.
i would want to aks questions about other evets like bhopal,chernobyl,3 mile island,flixborough,fukuyama...the list could go on.
at the very least it begs questions about the relationship of science to technology-the applications of science to social and machine applications.beyond that it begs questions about the relationship to the state and the wider economic system-the class order/society that is capitalism.
i tend therefore to refer to science as scientism,with its unresolved relations and theories about science and society,state,capitalism.
as i say,i dont do science and technology much
professor dawkins says that a scientific approach to knowledge and the world ens up its wonders,rather than cloaking them in the ignorance of religion.sorry but he is simply not applying a histrians approach to knowledge and epistemology.my main experience of science was at school and my main memory was of being taught technique and method which whilst valuable in themselves reduced scientific knowledge to abstractions and those very methods.the world was reduved to away of writing down experiments-it did not enable me to make an imaginative led alone any other conection between what i was writing down,the various coloured powders and liquids and out there in the world.i found it boring and alienating,although my science teachers were great when they make jokes,explosions,accidents or indeed set an essay about the links between smoking and cigarretes which encouraged me to ask alot of questions about the social context of scientific method and knowledge.
so i did like the soiology of science and the philosophy of science which i formally sudied later.please note professor dawkins,that was philosophy of science,not science of philosophy.if there is such a things it would be inferor in every way to the philosophy.
and as i say,i dont do science and technology much.
as a student i also came across In The Making,Undercurrents and BSSRS/british society for social responsiblity in science,most of which sadly seems to have passed into history.what indeed did becme of bssrs?i had respect for allthose initiatives and found i could talk to and understand them.
at one time professor dawkins held a key lectureship in the"public understanding of science".i was excited by that idea.perhaps it might result in things in the community that might flower and feed my imagination and curiosity for what science claims to study.but then,oops,im sorry i used that word imagination again.im sure that is not allowed in this version of science.what i experienced was a batterring over the head with religion awful(yes its me personally that caused the holocaust and the abuse of all chidren ever)science good-and dont dare to disagree.it led me to trun away from science and to treat it as suspect,at al times.after all it is according to the advertisements science that is behind everything we are supposed to need.
i do wonder why professor dawkins does not see a connection between his activity in science,in its paublic understanding and bssrs/british society for social responsibility in science or any of its international dan often more significant and prestigious variants.i think of steven and hilary rose or steven jay gould for example?
so,i dont do science and technology much.
i have equal difficulties with technology too.
some of it seems to be about age and generation.at 58 some,though not all of my generatin are the subsance and butt of a stereotype in which we cant be dealing with computers and mobile phones,and all kinds of other tech.stuff.
i do mange some of it,some of the time.im not god at it,but then im not as"rubbish"at it as my last boss used to think.gven my own time,and control and choice of it(3 things that the aleination of workers under capitalism do not allow)i fare better.my failure at work of course had NOTHING to do with the fact that capitalist markets and competiton work so badly that they DONT guarantee andy quality,genuine quality of anything at any time.nor do they explain that too many neterprises,including my employer of over 20 years want"rolls royce quality at bicycle prices".at one time they could pay £5,000 and more for a reapair call out but not the money to check let alone replace faulty technology.
the evidence,the facts point in adifferenet direction.remember the gross over anxiety and over engineering of solutions to the great date changeover from 31/12/1999 to 01/01/2000 all because capitalism pushes development towards cheap,quick and short-sighted solutions.recall the waste of multi-milllions if not now billions as the british state tried to by overarchingcomputer systems that did EVERYTHING,especially watching us-but failed on numerous occassions,in immigration,benefits,criminal justice and undoubtedly more.at one point last year 2011,in arranging i think major data migration or yet another system or server,they were reduced to instructing staff that if they worked one side of the thames they could use computers in the morning/AM and n the other side of the thames,in the afternoon/PM.
since i retired ive purchased computers which actually work for me most of the time.hacking has been a major headache but i got through it.i also bought an all singing and dancing mobile and can use it to do what i need to do.and i dont do things that bore me sick and eesmto have no purpose either!i will not have to complete the equivalent of 42 page computerised assessment when ive written this.when i give a friend or comrade an answer or advise similarly i do not have to go through several levels of computer bureaucracy.
im also very lucky in having several good friends and comrades who have helped me out,and sometimes ive paid for help and got it.i want to acknowledge here the staff of the computer manfacturer and advice lines for patience and forbearance that was not always available when i was employed.how for example could i send an email explaining to IT that i had a fault,when i could not understand it,when the comouter had broken dwn and when it was against prtotocols to ask another colleague foruse of their computer(im not even clear whether it was actually ok to ask another to email on my behalf though it was the only pragmatic option.in turn if they are"out to get you"thats the kind of ambguity on which i could get"hung"-fired)
what i continue to find really galling with alot of this technology though is that the information someone like me is NOT in the handbook,not findable easily,if at all,not comprehensible when found,always couched in computer-ese and there is no guarantee that its in the fAQs either.often the illustrated instructions do not match what is on the screen,or the apparently simple step by step instructions leave out a key,alwys simple step but that leave me completely stumped even if a computer whizz knows the answer.
as i say i dont do much science or technology.....
and ive written all that,and repeated the statement a good few times
all in order to get to this.........
that i thought id also use my blog to as those daft/technical questions in search of some answers..
im genuinely interested to see if it is possible to get answers that make sense and are understandable
i do know for example that sometimes.maybe often things are just complex and difficult,but wonder if its still possible to make understanding easier.
i can only comment from my own discipline in socal sciences and marxism.....
i have been genuinely impressed that during the period i regularly read capital and class journal it went in format and writing style from being dense and difficult however well intended to accessible,attractive,usable,readable
likewise historical materialism journal deals with difficut stuff but also makes it readable and usable.
i havve learned much form both.i used to learn from in the making and undercurrents but both have gone and i dont find the same help on the internet.if i have a problem with say emailing to unsubscive=be from some websites i have to wade through pages of very attracive LOOKING material but which actually does not tell me anything nor enabke me to change anything.without the help of friends"in the know"i would be comletely.......well lost
so why do you think i call myself and write as lost
but credit where it is due-thanks to nizam,margaret,steve an sandra for the help they have given to me with these issues,and in gettting me here
unfortunately,i think it will always be the case.....that i dont do science or technology.....much
Monday 20 August 2012
thinking musically-the collection-1-this is me
i heard the band"soft machine's""third"played by john peel on his staurday afternoon bbc radio 1 show"top gear"one summer day in 1970.it was always regarded as the graveyard slot in that 2-5pm on a saturday everyone would be doing something else-football,shopping or in my case mostly hanging out with friends in the market square,as another song says"avoiding skinheads and the law"
that day i stayed at home to listen tothe whole of"third",and then for the only time in my life ive ever done this,i charged aroundthe house to find every single penny i could find(pre-decimal)and with 33/-(33 shillings)shot down the market to buy the album.
its now 42 years old.i play it a great deal still.i still find new things in it,and it is my most teasured recording.if i lost all my other music,this is the one i would want to keep,to find,to buy again.
there IS BETTER music,but this holds the key for me.it would be my one treasure on any"desert island".id lie the whole deal-all 4 tunes across a double album,but if i had to choose only on eit would be "out bloody rageous"(this)or "slightly all the time".
why?
the whole album is just so beautiful-to me.it is so rich.beyond that i dont know much,excet that as im not a musician-ony steeped in music-its as if it was not just written for me,but it feels like it is me.i could not explain myself.id just give whoever asked,a copy of third to play.....and walk away as enigmatic as i think this music is.
yes,it is me.....
that day i stayed at home to listen tothe whole of"third",and then for the only time in my life ive ever done this,i charged aroundthe house to find every single penny i could find(pre-decimal)and with 33/-(33 shillings)shot down the market to buy the album.
its now 42 years old.i play it a great deal still.i still find new things in it,and it is my most teasured recording.if i lost all my other music,this is the one i would want to keep,to find,to buy again.
there IS BETTER music,but this holds the key for me.it would be my one treasure on any"desert island".id lie the whole deal-all 4 tunes across a double album,but if i had to choose only on eit would be "out bloody rageous"(this)or "slightly all the time".
why?
the whole album is just so beautiful-to me.it is so rich.beyond that i dont know much,excet that as im not a musician-ony steeped in music-its as if it was not just written for me,but it feels like it is me.i could not explain myself.id just give whoever asked,a copy of third to play.....and walk away as enigmatic as i think this music is.
yes,it is me.....
thinking musically-new discoveries-1-for S.it is S.
i will only know if this has worked ,if it works.i guess we mostly learn by trial and error.
and on that score whilst richard branson does not particularly impress me,he did say"if you dont make mistake,you dont make anything"
i think of myself as aerson who amongst other ways of thinking,thinks musically.i seem to be able to associate most things,peole,memories with pieces of music.music is certainly the sountrack of my life.
so i thought id do two things here,on this bit o my blog-write and make links to my own musical experience,and that includes my own collection,but secondly post up links to pieces i discover that i dont have in my collection or are just entirely new to me.
the day my friend set my blog up for me-it was mostly her effort-when i got home,i found this piece of music.its pablo"do what you gotta do".i think i made the connection,the mental link because i found it on the same day,that the blog started.but then hearing it multiple times since,i think its a good description of my friend.it drives and she is driven,it has energy,fire-thats her too.the speed and rhythms and complexities make me feel ecstatic and i was that day too.its on fire and she has fire in her sole.i think the few words i can hear,and are repeated soundlike"flagship rider"which seems apposite too.the music is very there and present,and so is she.i dont know whether she realises it,but she is all that too-a sophisticated force,thats knows where she wants to get to.i just wanted to celebrate knowing her,and her friendship and comradeship.she will know who she is.
turn the volume up and dont stand back!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8KMvoa1EuI
Sunday 19 August 2012
there is social in socialism
i know that we live in times that are very different to those i grew up in.even in the late 1960s i remember passing bombsites on my way from my home town,into and through london.it felt like that until the arrival of hippie culture and a lot that went with it,london,and probably even more the industrial conurbations of england were damp,grey,boring,banal with nothing to do and very limited prospects.then the new left,from about 1956 ad later the hippies arrived.those were times of prosperity and optimism and with a growingself confidence our class and certainly the youth cultures and new left demanded more and better,articulating that what we were being handed out was not enough,and was not good enough.
i myself began to come to political and social conscience from about 1968 when i was 14.i grew up seeing the evidence of my own eyes earlier,and with strong moral values but it was influenced mostly i admit by tv coverage of events across the world in 1968 which led me to think that if people of 18 or so could challenge,be confident,seek to change the world or to stop its excesses,then maybe soon i could join them........
whilst there were plenty of negatives,these were not neccessarilly by themselves entirely daunting.they did not get in the way of independent thought.they did not stop me before i had started,although i did make plenty of mistakes and several false starts along the way.but then dont we all,and actually it is through our mistakes that we learn.we do not neccessarilly realise what we have learned if we simply get things right,becase there is nothing that makes us reflect on it.
the world was apparently divided into 2 major imperialist blocks.i make no apologies for coming to the view that there were 2 imperialist blocks.one of them may have been different once,but that victory had been largely if not fundamentally lost,certainly in its key features.
the cold war got colder and bleaker,so that at various times and for different people and groups there were certainly times when"we"thought that nuclear war/holocaust was imminent.i guess the worst times were the 1980s,for me and the US/UK bombing of tripoli was a personal low point,to which i might well return on another on occassion.
even in britain,this could result in a not just intense commitment to"organised socialism"but a distorted,somewhat monastic outlook,in which everyone was expected to make a commitmet to making revolution which postponed a whole number of issues,and qualities of life to the other side of the revolution.this,i acknowledge could never be matched in lived reality.
at the same time,it seems to me,alongside the collapse of a large part of "stalinism"with the coming down of"the wall"and the collapse of the soviet union,its satellites and the further transformation of china and subsequent isolatiin of north korea,cuba,and some other "distorted"regimes there remains another kind of residual or ghost or shadow of stalinism.
i think that might be called sectarianism.in the 1960s that was a kind of luxury in the context of optimism about other things,but it was still damaging,to all kinds of "things",campaigns,organisations and people.it led to jokes about certain political currents that,say 2 followers of a particular set of ideas would form a party,3 would lead to a split,and in its more hysterical form that amongst 3 members there would be at least 4 opinions.
whilst it WAS and remains the case that some political differences could lead to life threatening or fatal consequencesi,it was equally possible to overestate this.i admit that at some level i enjoyed the occassional "row"with comrades in other political currents about the precise nature of the soviet union and the"eastern bloc"but it was mostly so esoteric that it could do nothing but put off ourselves and others from organising on the many very real issues that came up day by week by month.personally i felt sometimes that those very debates brought comrades into contact with each other in order to conduct the dispute but that at the same time,it would often place an unneccessarry distance between comrades,or more simply me and her or him.it got plain daft at times.i remember being sent off to comrades in other groups for tortured dscussions before returning with an agreemnt almost like munich 1938 and then agreeing to argue together for a simple practical step in the here and now about for example,the literal next step in say a student occupation.at a personal level,i felt it made for difficulties at the simple level of frendship,to my regret.
i do however also recognise that sometimes having agreed to work together in say a "united front"that its possible to become too comfortable with those we meet within a room to organise something on an ongoing basis.we can get too comfortable.we relate to each other and begin to think as if the circumstances in the room are the same as the conditions in our communities,on the streets,in worplaces.whilst it is possible to overtheorise,it seems to me that we ought to be able to conduct our relations with other people,with comrades in the wider movement in a way where we can both work together,act fraternally or soriorally and yet agree to disagree without falling silent over real differences.it does at one level seem absurd that we can argue to the point of anger,rather than passion over krondstadt 1921 or whether the russian/bolshevik revolution was lost at a particular date,when the reality is we still dont know and we have neither established nor agrred facts.in a time of austerity,crisis,cuts and vicious class attack by their class on ours everywhere and all the time,we really do need "stand together,or fall apart".
we ought to focus on learning and teaching ourselves and each other better ways to be-which will always be works in progress,rather than replicating/accepting the psychology that capitalism silently imposes on us all,or the brand mentality of the capitalist market,in which"our party is better /bigger than yours..
for me,there are a few rules of thumb;that friendship and comradeship are a key to our struggles.that in a time when increasingy everything is contested,then each struggle is important and needs to be linked up.and that our models of organising should not be stuck in some"magical mystical"date from the past but that our class(not just the"professional revolutionaries")continue to learn,innovate and create.
it was not me but a friend,and comrade who pointed out that the word "socalism"has the word"social"in it.and a fundamental point made by marx and and many others is that we are social beings.we cannot live or have meaning without each other,and in fact we cannot grow to our full human potential in any way without a mother,without nurturing,and yes without rubbing along in our friendships.
i myself began to come to political and social conscience from about 1968 when i was 14.i grew up seeing the evidence of my own eyes earlier,and with strong moral values but it was influenced mostly i admit by tv coverage of events across the world in 1968 which led me to think that if people of 18 or so could challenge,be confident,seek to change the world or to stop its excesses,then maybe soon i could join them........
whilst there were plenty of negatives,these were not neccessarilly by themselves entirely daunting.they did not get in the way of independent thought.they did not stop me before i had started,although i did make plenty of mistakes and several false starts along the way.but then dont we all,and actually it is through our mistakes that we learn.we do not neccessarilly realise what we have learned if we simply get things right,becase there is nothing that makes us reflect on it.
the world was apparently divided into 2 major imperialist blocks.i make no apologies for coming to the view that there were 2 imperialist blocks.one of them may have been different once,but that victory had been largely if not fundamentally lost,certainly in its key features.
the cold war got colder and bleaker,so that at various times and for different people and groups there were certainly times when"we"thought that nuclear war/holocaust was imminent.i guess the worst times were the 1980s,for me and the US/UK bombing of tripoli was a personal low point,to which i might well return on another on occassion.
even in britain,this could result in a not just intense commitment to"organised socialism"but a distorted,somewhat monastic outlook,in which everyone was expected to make a commitmet to making revolution which postponed a whole number of issues,and qualities of life to the other side of the revolution.this,i acknowledge could never be matched in lived reality.
at the same time,it seems to me,alongside the collapse of a large part of "stalinism"with the coming down of"the wall"and the collapse of the soviet union,its satellites and the further transformation of china and subsequent isolatiin of north korea,cuba,and some other "distorted"regimes there remains another kind of residual or ghost or shadow of stalinism.
i think that might be called sectarianism.in the 1960s that was a kind of luxury in the context of optimism about other things,but it was still damaging,to all kinds of "things",campaigns,organisations and people.it led to jokes about certain political currents that,say 2 followers of a particular set of ideas would form a party,3 would lead to a split,and in its more hysterical form that amongst 3 members there would be at least 4 opinions.
whilst it WAS and remains the case that some political differences could lead to life threatening or fatal consequencesi,it was equally possible to overestate this.i admit that at some level i enjoyed the occassional "row"with comrades in other political currents about the precise nature of the soviet union and the"eastern bloc"but it was mostly so esoteric that it could do nothing but put off ourselves and others from organising on the many very real issues that came up day by week by month.personally i felt sometimes that those very debates brought comrades into contact with each other in order to conduct the dispute but that at the same time,it would often place an unneccessarry distance between comrades,or more simply me and her or him.it got plain daft at times.i remember being sent off to comrades in other groups for tortured dscussions before returning with an agreemnt almost like munich 1938 and then agreeing to argue together for a simple practical step in the here and now about for example,the literal next step in say a student occupation.at a personal level,i felt it made for difficulties at the simple level of frendship,to my regret.
i do however also recognise that sometimes having agreed to work together in say a "united front"that its possible to become too comfortable with those we meet within a room to organise something on an ongoing basis.we can get too comfortable.we relate to each other and begin to think as if the circumstances in the room are the same as the conditions in our communities,on the streets,in worplaces.whilst it is possible to overtheorise,it seems to me that we ought to be able to conduct our relations with other people,with comrades in the wider movement in a way where we can both work together,act fraternally or soriorally and yet agree to disagree without falling silent over real differences.it does at one level seem absurd that we can argue to the point of anger,rather than passion over krondstadt 1921 or whether the russian/bolshevik revolution was lost at a particular date,when the reality is we still dont know and we have neither established nor agrred facts.in a time of austerity,crisis,cuts and vicious class attack by their class on ours everywhere and all the time,we really do need "stand together,or fall apart".
we ought to focus on learning and teaching ourselves and each other better ways to be-which will always be works in progress,rather than replicating/accepting the psychology that capitalism silently imposes on us all,or the brand mentality of the capitalist market,in which"our party is better /bigger than yours..
for me,there are a few rules of thumb;that friendship and comradeship are a key to our struggles.that in a time when increasingy everything is contested,then each struggle is important and needs to be linked up.and that our models of organising should not be stuck in some"magical mystical"date from the past but that our class(not just the"professional revolutionaries")continue to learn,innovate and create.
it was not me but a friend,and comrade who pointed out that the word "socalism"has the word"social"in it.and a fundamental point made by marx and and many others is that we are social beings.we cannot live or have meaning without each other,and in fact we cannot grow to our full human potential in any way without a mother,without nurturing,and yes without rubbing along in our friendships.
that was then.....this is now
(for S.)
id been fretting about starting a blog for about 2 years having gone from the sort of luddite resistance of some,i guess,in particular of my generation to an enthusiast of the idea,that left me eager to get going but with a level of technical incompetence that left me getting nowhere.
i did make some effort.but what those who are computer literate take for granted has to be spelt out to the letter for someone like me.indeed what drives me absolutely nuts is how very often in my experience,even tutors leave out steps which completey sabotages the efforts of someone like me.it seems children learn fast because they dont follow the rules but play and get there by a speeded up version of trial and error.all i ever got in formal comuter training was a version of"dont worry your pretty little head about that"(i write it in its sexist version to make my point).playing with the computer can result in mistakes for adults like me-and mistakes cost you your job!it also drives me nuts when i folow instructions and what comes u in front of me is NOT whats in the instructions or the manual,nor indeed does i bear any relationship to it.there is NEVER any guidance as to what to do next.what is described as on the bottom of a left hand column is never there.o no you have to do something else thats not in the instructions and where the toolto do it with is compketely obscure or obscured.
that said i did have some help from friend who did everything they could from a distance or in the circumstances we were in.
meantime,i got so frustrated that i started a blog on friends reunited.this did not meet all my hunger but it gave me a start.until that site revamed itself,not to meet the wishes of users who i can only hazard at a guess were using the site to make contact with old and often lost friends,and then to keep in touch with them and organise things like reunions.
i wrote on that nearly every days for many months.lots of the material were reminiscences and memories about music or socialist politics.three things happenned when the site got revamped.
friends were reduced to contacts and the information collected or that could potentially collected was reduced to the minimal and incomprehensible.so if you have a friend caled say ahmed muhammed or john smith there is no possibiility of trackin them down now.a search of paper telephone directories is more likely to produce a result.
when i recently attended a reunion,in which i was intentonally somewhat out of place,the friends who had organised it had abandoned friends reunited as an organising too.
thirdly and most personally-the site now makes great claims about placing,keeping and storing memories safely and permanently.i assume PROMISE is spelt b****x,because i can nether work out how to make it work,nor save antyhing i might cal my own-it all seems to be there and at a price(and frankly it makes me so angry i no longer care whether my perception is accurate,so dont waste your time telling me).they are more interested in whether i/we remember events involving the family of leading parasites,than my own memories.and they were perfectly happy to just dump all my material.
but then i got lucky.i got very lucky.very lucky indeed.
i went to apublic meeting about someting else entirely-i mean NOT anything to do with computers in any way,except in a discussion about using computer technologies there was at least one person in the room who knew what they were talking about.i noticed....across the room,we had an exchange about "self activity".i noticed.
we seemed to be talking the same language-about the campaign.i noticed.as for computers i was lost except in trying to undertand what we were being told,to my surprise i did understand,though looking back i regret that some of the exchange was typically sexist(me)-in hearing a woman speak and then reinterpreting,except is was soe of us men(me certainly)being dense-not our comrade.
when the meeting broke up,we did what"lefties"typicall do and went to the pub.but then"its(always)good to talk"and much of it was networking and organising-the detailed stuff that turns good intent into real concrete activity,without which it is all dreams and easted good intentions.my comrade and myself quickly found ourselves deep in conversation about marxist books and reading.and no-one ticked me off for not making small talk!
when we met asecond time to talk books and theory,we went on to arrange to meet to set up my blog.we did subsequently and i could not believe(I DO,but you know what i mean) that within 20 minutes(not even the 30 minutes she committed to)i had my blog.
the fate of the rest is i guess in my hands.its not very sophisticated yet-but thats about me,and that indeed i want to make learning how to do it properly,part of the process and outcome.but its very much my friends efforts that got me here.she may not think its much,amongst all the material in her intellectual and practical abilities but its important for me.
and i have comradeship and friendship too
what more could i ask for?
so,that was then and this is now.
from here,i want to collect the material ive scatterred over the internet.,i want to bring together most if not al the interests that make up at least part of who i am(or who i think i am).i wont pretend that it will ever be a seamless"garment",nor that interests fit tgether neatly-life is not like that.in addition i hope to recover and reconstruct the material i have already lost to friends reunited or in certain other sorts of"breakdown".
as they say"that was then...this is now!"
(for S)
id been fretting about starting a blog for about 2 years having gone from the sort of luddite resistance of some,i guess,in particular of my generation to an enthusiast of the idea,that left me eager to get going but with a level of technical incompetence that left me getting nowhere.
i did make some effort.but what those who are computer literate take for granted has to be spelt out to the letter for someone like me.indeed what drives me absolutely nuts is how very often in my experience,even tutors leave out steps which completey sabotages the efforts of someone like me.it seems children learn fast because they dont follow the rules but play and get there by a speeded up version of trial and error.all i ever got in formal comuter training was a version of"dont worry your pretty little head about that"(i write it in its sexist version to make my point).playing with the computer can result in mistakes for adults like me-and mistakes cost you your job!it also drives me nuts when i folow instructions and what comes u in front of me is NOT whats in the instructions or the manual,nor indeed does i bear any relationship to it.there is NEVER any guidance as to what to do next.what is described as on the bottom of a left hand column is never there.o no you have to do something else thats not in the instructions and where the toolto do it with is compketely obscure or obscured.
that said i did have some help from friend who did everything they could from a distance or in the circumstances we were in.
meantime,i got so frustrated that i started a blog on friends reunited.this did not meet all my hunger but it gave me a start.until that site revamed itself,not to meet the wishes of users who i can only hazard at a guess were using the site to make contact with old and often lost friends,and then to keep in touch with them and organise things like reunions.
i wrote on that nearly every days for many months.lots of the material were reminiscences and memories about music or socialist politics.three things happenned when the site got revamped.
friends were reduced to contacts and the information collected or that could potentially collected was reduced to the minimal and incomprehensible.so if you have a friend caled say ahmed muhammed or john smith there is no possibiility of trackin them down now.a search of paper telephone directories is more likely to produce a result.
when i recently attended a reunion,in which i was intentonally somewhat out of place,the friends who had organised it had abandoned friends reunited as an organising too.
thirdly and most personally-the site now makes great claims about placing,keeping and storing memories safely and permanently.i assume PROMISE is spelt b****x,because i can nether work out how to make it work,nor save antyhing i might cal my own-it all seems to be there and at a price(and frankly it makes me so angry i no longer care whether my perception is accurate,so dont waste your time telling me).they are more interested in whether i/we remember events involving the family of leading parasites,than my own memories.and they were perfectly happy to just dump all my material.
but then i got lucky.i got very lucky.very lucky indeed.
i went to apublic meeting about someting else entirely-i mean NOT anything to do with computers in any way,except in a discussion about using computer technologies there was at least one person in the room who knew what they were talking about.i noticed....across the room,we had an exchange about "self activity".i noticed.
we seemed to be talking the same language-about the campaign.i noticed.as for computers i was lost except in trying to undertand what we were being told,to my surprise i did understand,though looking back i regret that some of the exchange was typically sexist(me)-in hearing a woman speak and then reinterpreting,except is was soe of us men(me certainly)being dense-not our comrade.
when the meeting broke up,we did what"lefties"typicall do and went to the pub.but then"its(always)good to talk"and much of it was networking and organising-the detailed stuff that turns good intent into real concrete activity,without which it is all dreams and easted good intentions.my comrade and myself quickly found ourselves deep in conversation about marxist books and reading.and no-one ticked me off for not making small talk!
when we met asecond time to talk books and theory,we went on to arrange to meet to set up my blog.we did subsequently and i could not believe(I DO,but you know what i mean) that within 20 minutes(not even the 30 minutes she committed to)i had my blog.
the fate of the rest is i guess in my hands.its not very sophisticated yet-but thats about me,and that indeed i want to make learning how to do it properly,part of the process and outcome.but its very much my friends efforts that got me here.she may not think its much,amongst all the material in her intellectual and practical abilities but its important for me.
and i have comradeship and friendship too
what more could i ask for?
so,that was then and this is now.
from here,i want to collect the material ive scatterred over the internet.,i want to bring together most if not al the interests that make up at least part of who i am(or who i think i am).i wont pretend that it will ever be a seamless"garment",nor that interests fit tgether neatly-life is not like that.in addition i hope to recover and reconstruct the material i have already lost to friends reunited or in certain other sorts of"breakdown".
as they say"that was then...this is now!"
(for S)
some thoughts on the olympics-social theory
there are some ideas in some sections of "the welfare state"and/or"caring professions"about how these"disciplines"think" about themselves and their own histories.these might be"academic",or"intellectual"or"rational"but they are certainly ideaologically informed.
it seems to me for example that some,perhaps much of the radical thinking of the 1960s and 1970s is reduced in such modernised accounts to simply being negative.some of it was undoubtedly negative but i would suggest that much was liberatory and in the process tried to explode some of the previous intellectaul assumptions,and yes sometimes"we"threw out"the baby with the bathwater",or at least we tried to do so.....the new"theory"criticises the someties radical,liberatory theories for conclusions that i believe the new simply assume attach to the old.in this case,that it all concluded"nothing works".a state and its policies could not decide to"leave us alone"on this basis,nor can it accept that nothing works.one of those teories had indeed been"radical non-intervention(ism)".it was indeed very challenging.
then there was the development of what i believe is called meta-theorising in which social theorist and researchers look at all the infomation/research with a particular brief and seek to analyse and drawer conclusions from what might be very diverse,different and even antithetical material.this seems i have to say to be a "dodgy enterprise" at best-forcing material into a shape it may not fit,in order to well-drawer conclusions that may neither fit nor be appropriate.this in turn drives what is suppossed to be a methodology for further research and construction of projects and policies based on "what works?" which is supposed to be evidence based.
however,this is itself a ery ideoalogically informed view.there is extensive criticism of it at a number of levels-to pick a few,that comebviously to my mind:
*.in reality the researchers/theoreticians choose which material they include in their assessment of "what works".those choices are rarely explained or rationaly justified.
*.the only things in practice which does not seem to have an evidence based foundation is that in most/all agencies of social policy is that everything has to be filtered through a"business plan"menatality/focus.
*.mostly pilot projects are no longer testing grounds but are simply the vanguard of programes,poolicies and initiatives that WILL be imposed once politicalky decided.
*.there a wide use of subtle,sophisticated"soca friendly"terms which actually lack content or forensic clarity but make for the kind of language and discussion which makes disagreement increasingly difficult and places any critic in a negative position.any critic can then be characterised as"spoiling the party"
*.i think it was dr.geobbels,the nazi propoganda minister who suggested i think rightly(yes he was a fascist,but just occassionally an insight can still be right)that if you keep it simple and repeat the same lies long,loudly and frequently enough they become accepted and believed.evenetualy it becomes difficult to challenge the climate of lies and illusions.appaearance replaces reality.
*.i would also argue that rather than being analyticaly sound,the very"battering"of informatin into a common shape,reflects how and what social policy is now designed to do-which is to modufy behaviour and attitudes at an active and aggressive level,and to"batter"us with the consequences.i believe this wil apply with both"olympic legacy"and"welfare reform".any distance between the two is reduced by the common attitude of state,caitak and corporations to all of it and to all of us.
i am not claiming by any means that i have the whole picture for a critique here,but id suggest that actually if we applied these ideas-and i know there are other critical tools,to the rhetoric of"olympic legacy"and any other issue relating to the olympics,we might actually get a truer picture of the what is going on.
indeed,i suggest marxist method and critical(social)theory are keys too,i also suggest that the word rhetoric gives us a clue.for me one of its-rhetorics-modern meanings hints at the gap between the way something is spoken of,"the spin"and the actual,material outcome.
vigilance is also a very useful tool.i think if there is to be any substantive"legacy"for society as well as simply those sections that dominate it,including the state itself and the various fractions of capital,then we have to be vigilant.we will have to ask detailed questions and follow through to wherever that leads.and we cannot give them any"benefit of the doubt".we must make sure the standard is according to"the letter of the law"in relation to even the smallest of their promises.we have to go well beyond"reasonable doubt".that very notion can be manipulated,and their class are good at it."reasonabe doubt"is indeed the standard of their class.ours ought to be for"absolute proof"and"absolute truth".yes,its a tall order.i make no apologies for believing they simply cant and wont be able to meet it. those who know me personally that i gave up being"reasonable"a very long time ago.i would reply with"be realistic-demand the impossible".i dont just want the"pound of flesh",i want every detail of every commitment met in full and in detail.my standard will be to demand nothing less.
it seems to me for example that some,perhaps much of the radical thinking of the 1960s and 1970s is reduced in such modernised accounts to simply being negative.some of it was undoubtedly negative but i would suggest that much was liberatory and in the process tried to explode some of the previous intellectaul assumptions,and yes sometimes"we"threw out"the baby with the bathwater",or at least we tried to do so.....the new"theory"criticises the someties radical,liberatory theories for conclusions that i believe the new simply assume attach to the old.in this case,that it all concluded"nothing works".a state and its policies could not decide to"leave us alone"on this basis,nor can it accept that nothing works.one of those teories had indeed been"radical non-intervention(ism)".it was indeed very challenging.
then there was the development of what i believe is called meta-theorising in which social theorist and researchers look at all the infomation/research with a particular brief and seek to analyse and drawer conclusions from what might be very diverse,different and even antithetical material.this seems i have to say to be a "dodgy enterprise" at best-forcing material into a shape it may not fit,in order to well-drawer conclusions that may neither fit nor be appropriate.this in turn drives what is suppossed to be a methodology for further research and construction of projects and policies based on "what works?" which is supposed to be evidence based.
however,this is itself a ery ideoalogically informed view.there is extensive criticism of it at a number of levels-to pick a few,that comebviously to my mind:
*.in reality the researchers/theoreticians choose which material they include in their assessment of "what works".those choices are rarely explained or rationaly justified.
*.the only things in practice which does not seem to have an evidence based foundation is that in most/all agencies of social policy is that everything has to be filtered through a"business plan"menatality/focus.
*.mostly pilot projects are no longer testing grounds but are simply the vanguard of programes,poolicies and initiatives that WILL be imposed once politicalky decided.
*.there a wide use of subtle,sophisticated"soca friendly"terms which actually lack content or forensic clarity but make for the kind of language and discussion which makes disagreement increasingly difficult and places any critic in a negative position.any critic can then be characterised as"spoiling the party"
*.i think it was dr.geobbels,the nazi propoganda minister who suggested i think rightly(yes he was a fascist,but just occassionally an insight can still be right)that if you keep it simple and repeat the same lies long,loudly and frequently enough they become accepted and believed.evenetualy it becomes difficult to challenge the climate of lies and illusions.appaearance replaces reality.
*.i would also argue that rather than being analyticaly sound,the very"battering"of informatin into a common shape,reflects how and what social policy is now designed to do-which is to modufy behaviour and attitudes at an active and aggressive level,and to"batter"us with the consequences.i believe this wil apply with both"olympic legacy"and"welfare reform".any distance between the two is reduced by the common attitude of state,caitak and corporations to all of it and to all of us.
i am not claiming by any means that i have the whole picture for a critique here,but id suggest that actually if we applied these ideas-and i know there are other critical tools,to the rhetoric of"olympic legacy"and any other issue relating to the olympics,we might actually get a truer picture of the what is going on.
indeed,i suggest marxist method and critical(social)theory are keys too,i also suggest that the word rhetoric gives us a clue.for me one of its-rhetorics-modern meanings hints at the gap between the way something is spoken of,"the spin"and the actual,material outcome.
vigilance is also a very useful tool.i think if there is to be any substantive"legacy"for society as well as simply those sections that dominate it,including the state itself and the various fractions of capital,then we have to be vigilant.we will have to ask detailed questions and follow through to wherever that leads.and we cannot give them any"benefit of the doubt".we must make sure the standard is according to"the letter of the law"in relation to even the smallest of their promises.we have to go well beyond"reasonable doubt".that very notion can be manipulated,and their class are good at it."reasonabe doubt"is indeed the standard of their class.ours ought to be for"absolute proof"and"absolute truth".yes,its a tall order.i make no apologies for believing they simply cant and wont be able to meet it. those who know me personally that i gave up being"reasonable"a very long time ago.i would reply with"be realistic-demand the impossible".i dont just want the"pound of flesh",i want every detail of every commitment met in full and in detail.my standard will be to demand nothing less.
some thoughts on the olympics
we appear now,already to be into a period of some sort of public discussion about olympic legacy.of course irecognise that"those who(think)are in charge",have a responsibilty to do alot of thinking about it well before now.i dont doubt they have-but that will have been with a corporate and statist agenda in mind,not a communitarian or social agenda,and certainly not an outlook that takes any of us into consideration.
i always have doubts that what"public debate"actually amounts to is discussion that excludes us,ordinary folk,but mainly engages those in power"discussing"-meaning manipulating-in the kind of places and spaces that we cant see.accountability means nothing.some discussion might occur in parliament.there will be some talk in the media and that might even engage a few of"us"chosen for say a 15second soundbite.i say 15 second soundbite,in the context of thinking about andy wrahols comment from i think the 1960s,when he expected we would live in asociety where we each got 15 minutes of fame.that was not a future i wanted but a 15 second soundbite is a pale shadow of even that.we might get to choose the colour of the paint on the walls of some project to do what?"bring sport to somebody,somewhere,sometime?"
i am not a cynic,nor am i cynical but real experience teaches me that whereas 40 years ago projects may well have emerged in the community,to meet expressed community need,things are very different now.it seems to me then that activists would come together around a theme or purpose and some money,always a shoestring budget would be found to pay for a law centre,a woamans refuge,"release",Bit,many other things.now THEY seem to set up heavily controlled and managed projects to TELL us what to do,for a while-they control access and information,involvement and engagement very much n THEIR terms and then move on,when"flavour of the month"or political. control,at the top changes.
it therefore seems to me that this will be very much the organisational context in which the so called olympics legacy wil take place.
i always have doubts that what"public debate"actually amounts to is discussion that excludes us,ordinary folk,but mainly engages those in power"discussing"-meaning manipulating-in the kind of places and spaces that we cant see.accountability means nothing.some discussion might occur in parliament.there will be some talk in the media and that might even engage a few of"us"chosen for say a 15second soundbite.i say 15 second soundbite,in the context of thinking about andy wrahols comment from i think the 1960s,when he expected we would live in asociety where we each got 15 minutes of fame.that was not a future i wanted but a 15 second soundbite is a pale shadow of even that.we might get to choose the colour of the paint on the walls of some project to do what?"bring sport to somebody,somewhere,sometime?"
i am not a cynic,nor am i cynical but real experience teaches me that whereas 40 years ago projects may well have emerged in the community,to meet expressed community need,things are very different now.it seems to me then that activists would come together around a theme or purpose and some money,always a shoestring budget would be found to pay for a law centre,a woamans refuge,"release",Bit,many other things.now THEY seem to set up heavily controlled and managed projects to TELL us what to do,for a while-they control access and information,involvement and engagement very much n THEIR terms and then move on,when"flavour of the month"or political. control,at the top changes.
it therefore seems to me that this will be very much the organisational context in which the so called olympics legacy wil take place.
Saturday 18 August 2012
prison for what?
so Pussy Riot were found guilty of"hooliganism"yesterday and began 2 years sentences.
russia is not britain nor is it somewhere else but whilst we in britain and elsewhere think we can see the absurdity of that ussian law,it ought amongst other things make us think about some of the absurdities about probably more than some of the laws in our own countries.
that said,lets not turn our attention away from the fate of these courageous women in russia.
amongst the long litany of banalities read out and spoken about in court was that they stirred religious hatred.rather it seems t me,it demonstrates that the church and state have no sense of humour.and if god is so great why does the godhead need the protection of human beings,to come down in such an oppresssive way on these women.i am not a bible quoter-that usually consists of believers"intellectually clobberring others"or trying to prove their superiority to other people-but i cant help but point out that jesus christ preached the idea of "turning the other cheek"when we christians are"attacked".it seems to me that at worst this was a performance attack on ideas,so why does the church bring down the wrath not of god but the state on these women?
i believe that in britain,at worst this would have been a breach of the peace usually dealt with by a ind over to keep the piece,with fine for breach as the"sting in the tale".even if they were to receive 2 years custody for something more serious-for what-it is highly likely that the sentence would be suspended given the responsibilities or"vulnerabilities"of the women(i make no assumptions here)my view is that they are entirely innocent of anything............
even at the level of notinally accepting the actual sentence,i believe that the following might apply.i can imagine wriitng reorts fr sentencing which would spell out both their morally informed choices,but also the consequences of sentencing on others in the ambit of an individual.in english law it is acknowledged that whilst the court has the right to punish,it has to be very circumspect of the impact on others such as children and other deendents.
the"numbers" are relevant.even if the sentence were not suspended or an alternative imposed,having served 5 months,which is almost half,they could be released at the midway point giving them another 7 months to serve.with the application of various early release schemes.thes women could be released in weeks if not days.
but i come back to the same point,that essentially i believe these women are guilty of nothing.at the absolute limit i might conceed that they have offended others.in a "mature liberal democracy offending others is not just NOT a crime(mostly)but it is a positive right.
id rather see an end to autocracy and authoritarian rule.id rather see order without government,certainly without the current arrangements that constitutes the state.we have to be able to do this another way.and these couragoous women are showing,like many others over many issues-that everything can be contested and that there are other ways.
russia is not britain nor is it somewhere else but whilst we in britain and elsewhere think we can see the absurdity of that ussian law,it ought amongst other things make us think about some of the absurdities about probably more than some of the laws in our own countries.
that said,lets not turn our attention away from the fate of these courageous women in russia.
amongst the long litany of banalities read out and spoken about in court was that they stirred religious hatred.rather it seems t me,it demonstrates that the church and state have no sense of humour.and if god is so great why does the godhead need the protection of human beings,to come down in such an oppresssive way on these women.i am not a bible quoter-that usually consists of believers"intellectually clobberring others"or trying to prove their superiority to other people-but i cant help but point out that jesus christ preached the idea of "turning the other cheek"when we christians are"attacked".it seems to me that at worst this was a performance attack on ideas,so why does the church bring down the wrath not of god but the state on these women?
i believe that in britain,at worst this would have been a breach of the peace usually dealt with by a ind over to keep the piece,with fine for breach as the"sting in the tale".even if they were to receive 2 years custody for something more serious-for what-it is highly likely that the sentence would be suspended given the responsibilities or"vulnerabilities"of the women(i make no assumptions here)my view is that they are entirely innocent of anything............
even at the level of notinally accepting the actual sentence,i believe that the following might apply.i can imagine wriitng reorts fr sentencing which would spell out both their morally informed choices,but also the consequences of sentencing on others in the ambit of an individual.in english law it is acknowledged that whilst the court has the right to punish,it has to be very circumspect of the impact on others such as children and other deendents.
the"numbers" are relevant.even if the sentence were not suspended or an alternative imposed,having served 5 months,which is almost half,they could be released at the midway point giving them another 7 months to serve.with the application of various early release schemes.thes women could be released in weeks if not days.
but i come back to the same point,that essentially i believe these women are guilty of nothing.at the absolute limit i might conceed that they have offended others.in a "mature liberal democracy offending others is not just NOT a crime(mostly)but it is a positive right.
id rather see an end to autocracy and authoritarian rule.id rather see order without government,certainly without the current arrangements that constitutes the state.we have to be able to do this another way.and these couragoous women are showing,like many others over many issues-that everything can be contested and that there are other ways.
Tuesday 14 August 2012
combatting misery by grasping the nettle.....part 1
i came home from a meeting of kuwg/kilburn unemployed workers group which was basically about looking for"a way forward"to fight the miserable impact of"austerity"and"crisis"and "savagely ideologically directed"attack on OUR class,and some of the real people whose lives are devastated by it all.
ive failed because the experiences and the analysis and the solutions posited are too complex to just rush at.i want to honour ALL the people who came to the meeting,and some who did not.
so what i will say is this:that there was lots of pain and distress in the room,as we discussed several personal situations of families coming to terms with very real trauma and difficulty.the 50 or so people present at the meeting went on to discuss meeting the very real needs of the families and many others in the community who are victims of cuts,austerity and plain abuse and insensitivity from"authorites"who should be addressing the needs of vulnerable people and people in distress.after all as my friend cj said"if you take people's livelihoods and money,it creates vulnerable people".
there was a lot of anger about and towards brent council,who increasingly are seen to not even raise the posibility of resistance.and this is a council led by labour who are seen to have failed ALL OF US.there was some discussion about putting up indpendent,alternative candidates in elections,conducting militant fight backs across boroughs and the whole of london,of co-ordinating the various struggles against our ills,and not least impacting to support the very real needs of vulnerable people/families,in a sensitive manner and which might actually"roll back a cut"that no-amount of co-ordination and networking by itself,seem able to shift.
i admit,my own feelings oscillated between the usual points of alienation(i dont fit.i dont belong here)rage(the way our rulers treat us so carelessly)and love(distress provoked by empathy with others,and i like to hope a real care for other human beings)
those feelings are powerful and overwhelming.they are shared feelings to.
i need to give this more attention in order to do this situation justice.i will return to this soon.meantime,some of us plane to meet on saturday,at least to leaflet and campaign,and to plan further"actions"that will take the issues"home"and/or to some of the"power points"in our communities.a number of people agreed to form a committee to co-ordinate campaigning that might make it possible to make real change in our lives and the circumstances in which we live them.
it seems to me this has to be to seek to establish communities in which human need and vulnerabilty,and indeed creativity and value come first,last and in the middle,over profit,greed,exploitation-or indeed"political careerism".
and in the meantime,it was a real privelege to be in the room with about 50 other people who clearly have skills,talents and commitment to make those changes with each other.it is not careers that count here but a willingness to fight back and to work together!
ive failed because the experiences and the analysis and the solutions posited are too complex to just rush at.i want to honour ALL the people who came to the meeting,and some who did not.
so what i will say is this:that there was lots of pain and distress in the room,as we discussed several personal situations of families coming to terms with very real trauma and difficulty.the 50 or so people present at the meeting went on to discuss meeting the very real needs of the families and many others in the community who are victims of cuts,austerity and plain abuse and insensitivity from"authorites"who should be addressing the needs of vulnerable people and people in distress.after all as my friend cj said"if you take people's livelihoods and money,it creates vulnerable people".
there was a lot of anger about and towards brent council,who increasingly are seen to not even raise the posibility of resistance.and this is a council led by labour who are seen to have failed ALL OF US.there was some discussion about putting up indpendent,alternative candidates in elections,conducting militant fight backs across boroughs and the whole of london,of co-ordinating the various struggles against our ills,and not least impacting to support the very real needs of vulnerable people/families,in a sensitive manner and which might actually"roll back a cut"that no-amount of co-ordination and networking by itself,seem able to shift.
i admit,my own feelings oscillated between the usual points of alienation(i dont fit.i dont belong here)rage(the way our rulers treat us so carelessly)and love(distress provoked by empathy with others,and i like to hope a real care for other human beings)
those feelings are powerful and overwhelming.they are shared feelings to.
i need to give this more attention in order to do this situation justice.i will return to this soon.meantime,some of us plane to meet on saturday,at least to leaflet and campaign,and to plan further"actions"that will take the issues"home"and/or to some of the"power points"in our communities.a number of people agreed to form a committee to co-ordinate campaigning that might make it possible to make real change in our lives and the circumstances in which we live them.
it seems to me this has to be to seek to establish communities in which human need and vulnerabilty,and indeed creativity and value come first,last and in the middle,over profit,greed,exploitation-or indeed"political careerism".
and in the meantime,it was a real privelege to be in the room with about 50 other people who clearly have skills,talents and commitment to make those changes with each other.it is not careers that count here but a willingness to fight back and to work together!
Monday 13 August 2012
the deleted
in spain,the people at the bottom of the economic pile who suffer most the indignities of austerity policies form state and capital,as the capitalists attempt to resolve the crisis now endemic in their own capitalist system,call themselves"the indignant"(los indignacios-excuse me if this ignorant brit has that in damaged spanish)
perhaps now,in britain in a similar position could call themselves"the deleted".
let me explain.
until the start of 2012,i worked in the london probation trust(lpt),part in turn of the national offender management service(noms)which in turn leads back to the ministry of justice/criminal justice system.as part of the ideologically driven political and economic attack on OUR class(the working class,or the 99%)of the tories,and the equally ideologically driven attack of the con-dem gang(sorry i refuse to acknowledge they have any legitimacy.they are NOT a government,they are a gang)on our class as part of austerity and cuts-these"clowns" are privatising a key element of london probation trust in a sale of community payback(what used to be called community service)to the private sector.
that involves amongst other things the transfer of some probation staff to that private sector employer,with certain limited protection of the terms and conditions of those staff.this process is supposed to involve consultation and disclosure to staff and unions key information inrelation to contracts,terms and conditions etc.despite persistent and very patient efforts by our trades union,our employer is hiding behind business confidentiality to hide everything,and in the process appears to be lying to,misleading and misinforming staff-and surprise,surprise blaming the union.
neither individual not groups of staff are being properly informed about anything.its ok for me im no longer employed by them,but colleagues only know anything because of aleaked letter sent it appears in error to another unrelated staff member in error which refers insultingly and shocking to the 66 members of staff to be made redundant as"deleted".
nothing is clear,and when management fails to provide any information suspicion and distrust and worse are the predictable outcome.the numbers are not reliable.some staff are being refused time out to seek alternative emloyment-against both the law and the specific redundancy agreement.they are being bullied.senior managers are unwilling to vary anything about the 20minute interview to which each redundant worker is entitled.a certain key senior manager is more concerned with filing her nails or talking about sporting events than serious discussion with trades union officers in formal meetings.in a single breath she casually refers to these"deleted"colleagues,and makes another 'phone call.this is crass insensitivity that reveals a profound contempt for human beings.
it is a pity that management in an activity that should be about work with vulnerable and sometimes difficult human beings,seems so incapable of showing even the palest reflection of the standards it expects from staff dealing with such a client group.....
today i attended my branch meeting,where a substantial eriod of time was devoted to what might prove a key,if not the only opportunity for comrades/my broters and sisters to share their pain and their feelings,let alone their opinions and ideas about defending their jobs and livelihoods,and fighting back.many struggle dto comprehend,many gave clear indications of distress and hurt.some were in tears.many were aghast,and there was plenty of controlled,intelligent rage too.
any euphoria about the olympics amongst my brothers and sisters was short lived,as the brutal reality crashes in on their lives.it is perfectly clear,if nothing else is that our employer simply does not care and does treat highly caring and professional people with contempt as if they were ants.
in atime of choosing sides that kind of management indicates very clearly whose side they are on,and is is not alongside working people.they may pose and pretend but they really do not and cannot understand the realities of our lives or what we do.....
solidarity with "the deleted"!it is very clear that we have more in common with"the indignant"and many others struggling elsewhere in both this society and across the world.
i am however confident that we will stand together and fight back,in any and every way we can!
in response totheir indifference-they need to know-we will not forgive or forget-and that we are coming!
living in such a society,poses the stark choice between barbarism and and alternative which values human beings and their creative self activity over profit and greed every time.we might well be living with the barbarism already.what they dont seem to realise is that the more they immiserate us into barbarism,the more likely the barbarism will engulf them too.no matter how much money they accumulate,money will not save them from a barbarism far greater than anything they can visit on us.they cannot kill us all,adn we can choose to fight back!i will be working for that fight back-and we will bury them.
solidarity with"the deleted"!lotta continua!
perhaps now,in britain in a similar position could call themselves"the deleted".
let me explain.
until the start of 2012,i worked in the london probation trust(lpt),part in turn of the national offender management service(noms)which in turn leads back to the ministry of justice/criminal justice system.as part of the ideologically driven political and economic attack on OUR class(the working class,or the 99%)of the tories,and the equally ideologically driven attack of the con-dem gang(sorry i refuse to acknowledge they have any legitimacy.they are NOT a government,they are a gang)on our class as part of austerity and cuts-these"clowns" are privatising a key element of london probation trust in a sale of community payback(what used to be called community service)to the private sector.
that involves amongst other things the transfer of some probation staff to that private sector employer,with certain limited protection of the terms and conditions of those staff.this process is supposed to involve consultation and disclosure to staff and unions key information inrelation to contracts,terms and conditions etc.despite persistent and very patient efforts by our trades union,our employer is hiding behind business confidentiality to hide everything,and in the process appears to be lying to,misleading and misinforming staff-and surprise,surprise blaming the union.
neither individual not groups of staff are being properly informed about anything.its ok for me im no longer employed by them,but colleagues only know anything because of aleaked letter sent it appears in error to another unrelated staff member in error which refers insultingly and shocking to the 66 members of staff to be made redundant as"deleted".
nothing is clear,and when management fails to provide any information suspicion and distrust and worse are the predictable outcome.the numbers are not reliable.some staff are being refused time out to seek alternative emloyment-against both the law and the specific redundancy agreement.they are being bullied.senior managers are unwilling to vary anything about the 20minute interview to which each redundant worker is entitled.a certain key senior manager is more concerned with filing her nails or talking about sporting events than serious discussion with trades union officers in formal meetings.in a single breath she casually refers to these"deleted"colleagues,and makes another 'phone call.this is crass insensitivity that reveals a profound contempt for human beings.
it is a pity that management in an activity that should be about work with vulnerable and sometimes difficult human beings,seems so incapable of showing even the palest reflection of the standards it expects from staff dealing with such a client group.....
today i attended my branch meeting,where a substantial eriod of time was devoted to what might prove a key,if not the only opportunity for comrades/my broters and sisters to share their pain and their feelings,let alone their opinions and ideas about defending their jobs and livelihoods,and fighting back.many struggle dto comprehend,many gave clear indications of distress and hurt.some were in tears.many were aghast,and there was plenty of controlled,intelligent rage too.
any euphoria about the olympics amongst my brothers and sisters was short lived,as the brutal reality crashes in on their lives.it is perfectly clear,if nothing else is that our employer simply does not care and does treat highly caring and professional people with contempt as if they were ants.
in atime of choosing sides that kind of management indicates very clearly whose side they are on,and is is not alongside working people.they may pose and pretend but they really do not and cannot understand the realities of our lives or what we do.....
solidarity with "the deleted"!it is very clear that we have more in common with"the indignant"and many others struggling elsewhere in both this society and across the world.
i am however confident that we will stand together and fight back,in any and every way we can!
in response totheir indifference-they need to know-we will not forgive or forget-and that we are coming!
living in such a society,poses the stark choice between barbarism and and alternative which values human beings and their creative self activity over profit and greed every time.we might well be living with the barbarism already.what they dont seem to realise is that the more they immiserate us into barbarism,the more likely the barbarism will engulf them too.no matter how much money they accumulate,money will not save them from a barbarism far greater than anything they can visit on us.they cannot kill us all,adn we can choose to fight back!i will be working for that fight back-and we will bury them.
solidarity with"the deleted"!lotta continua!
Sunday 12 August 2012
taking risks
like a kid opening a new toy,or apparently,most adults with new products purchased,im eager to get started.yesterday my much more computer"savvy"friend,helped me make the key start by helping me establish this blog.one of the key things i said i wanted to do was to integrate my learning into the process of what im doing.here is another paradox-my life is full of them-in that i know what i want to do,but i dont know what im doing.soon i will read th" how to"instruction book alongside,what im doing,but at this stage im at the introduction,the formalities.ignorance is not bliss,and a little knowledge is dangerous so i suppose this is the time,the long moment of greatest risk.....
not fast enough
not only am i not technologically sophisticated enough yet,maybe ever to deal with twitter or flashmob and probably other things,im not fast or fit enough either........
today is the day the olympic torch/flame gets passed from london to rio de janeiro.there was some talk that the equivalent of con/counter olympics network in rio/brazil would be marking that event in some way,for according to the comrades from rio who i have met and known about over recent weeks,the authorities in rio have already been clearing and removing the favelllas,the poor districts,all too casually referred to as slums on the edge of the city.this is social/ethnic cleansing.i dont suppose there is anything called"choice"or that passes for it for the poor in those places,who i think will simply be expected to dissappear.
in turn there was some hope that we in london would be able to parrallel that event,but sometimes the resources and energies of the left,of any progressive movement will not stretch.there is no lack of commitment,enthusiasm or imagination.i think the nearest to a counter event today then,is a walk from hackney wick goig to key sites in the east end.i realise now my notes were not adequate to promote that event better,let alone attend it.but then i only had this facility(my blog)since last night.
as i write there is a"flashmob" related to solidarity with and support for Pussy Riot on the southbank.i got wind that something was up-but no details until about 1.30pm,with an event planned for 2pm.so ive missed it.and im not fast or fit enough to catch up with them.but i can write about it.....
i will.i will be back then.
today is the day the olympic torch/flame gets passed from london to rio de janeiro.there was some talk that the equivalent of con/counter olympics network in rio/brazil would be marking that event in some way,for according to the comrades from rio who i have met and known about over recent weeks,the authorities in rio have already been clearing and removing the favelllas,the poor districts,all too casually referred to as slums on the edge of the city.this is social/ethnic cleansing.i dont suppose there is anything called"choice"or that passes for it for the poor in those places,who i think will simply be expected to dissappear.
in turn there was some hope that we in london would be able to parrallel that event,but sometimes the resources and energies of the left,of any progressive movement will not stretch.there is no lack of commitment,enthusiasm or imagination.i think the nearest to a counter event today then,is a walk from hackney wick goig to key sites in the east end.i realise now my notes were not adequate to promote that event better,let alone attend it.but then i only had this facility(my blog)since last night.
as i write there is a"flashmob" related to solidarity with and support for Pussy Riot on the southbank.i got wind that something was up-but no details until about 1.30pm,with an event planned for 2pm.so ive missed it.and im not fast or fit enough to catch up with them.but i can write about it.....
i will.i will be back then.
Saturday 11 August 2012
to begin at the beginning...
in a sense the beginning is always unfindable,unless it is in the now,this moment which moves and shifts as i/we live it,and write it.so thats how it will have to be.
i face this moment then with some trepidation.its a technological/cyber equivalent of putting pen to paper on a new block of art or writing paper.
im also not going to pretend that im going to crash into the lives and consciousnesses of any readers,correspondants,friends,comrades,casual browsers ,acquantances or anyone else-that i hope might start as passing traffic but then will stop by regularly.
so where is the start........?
i suppose it might go back to before i could read.a curiosity about the world,and a desire to communicate with it and primarilly at least some of the other people in it.that was curiosity again,and at the risk of rewriting my own history in the way we mght all tend to do,it was a way to come to terms with feeling at odds with the world,awkward in it and eventually like an alienated stranger.
all these years on im still exploring that,so i will continue at least some of that journey here.
method in the madness......?
and in doing so i thought i would integrate learning the technology into the process of communicating and exploring.
if life is the journey,starting a blog is a new stage or development in that journey.
i dont quite know where it will take me,or those who converse and engage with me here.
if its not a bumpy journey,then it will be quirky.
welcome,friends:enter here....
i face this moment then with some trepidation.its a technological/cyber equivalent of putting pen to paper on a new block of art or writing paper.
im also not going to pretend that im going to crash into the lives and consciousnesses of any readers,correspondants,friends,comrades,casual browsers ,acquantances or anyone else-that i hope might start as passing traffic but then will stop by regularly.
so where is the start........?
i suppose it might go back to before i could read.a curiosity about the world,and a desire to communicate with it and primarilly at least some of the other people in it.that was curiosity again,and at the risk of rewriting my own history in the way we mght all tend to do,it was a way to come to terms with feeling at odds with the world,awkward in it and eventually like an alienated stranger.
all these years on im still exploring that,so i will continue at least some of that journey here.
method in the madness......?
and in doing so i thought i would integrate learning the technology into the process of communicating and exploring.
if life is the journey,starting a blog is a new stage or development in that journey.
i dont quite know where it will take me,or those who converse and engage with me here.
if its not a bumpy journey,then it will be quirky.
welcome,friends:enter here....
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