Really good photos

This comes from a fantastic photo blog: The year 2008 in photographs (part 1 of 3).

I recommend coming back for parts 2 and 3 as well as going through the archives. And then adding it to your feed reader. (See link on the side.)

amiably agnostic :)

Have you heard about the atheist ad campaign in London? The aim is to make some sort of counter to religious advertising and will be the first ever athiest advertising in the UK.

I liked Neil Gaiman's observation that the ad seems more aimiably agnostic than atheist. (If you click on the link note that the post has several sections so and scroll to a bit over half way - the one that I'm pointing you to starts with "I saw a bumper sticker". The line that I liked was the one just before the picture…)

The article says that the campaign "will give atheism a more visible presence in the UK, generate debate, brighten people's day on the way to work, and hopefully encourage more people to come out as atheists." This raises certain questions.

How many people are not enjoying their life because they are worrying about the probable existance of God? What proportion of the population is operating under the burning guilt and pressure of impending doom? (The article says that part of the motivation for the campaign is to counter advertising by Christian groups saying you'll burn in Hell if you don't follow Jesus.) Is it saying that if there is no God then you can do whatever you want and be happy about it? Isn't that how most people act anyway? And, of course, there is also the point that if everyone just did what they felt like it would not be likely that everyone would end up being happy.

Atheism is not a happy philosophy. It's not necessarily a sad one (depending on where you think nihilism will take you) but it is at least a-emotional. I'm not sure how the probable lack of existence of God will make anyone happy. Because then who are we going to blame for all the world's problems? Us?

It also quotes Richard Dawkins as saying that "this campaign to put alternative slogans on London buses will make people think – and thinking is anathema to religion." I suspect that in a lot of cases Dawkins is correct. But I also suspect that thinking is an anathema to most people (including most people who think they are atheists).

Australian Top Gear summed up:

To be as subtle and nuanced as the show: IT'S ALL ABOUT DONUTS!

my first (double) ristretto

We're not pregnant

And I write blog posts more often than Maz :p

∏ Day!

The Americans think that ∏ day is 14 March but that is only because they write it 3.14 whereas any sensible person writes the date in ascending (or descending) order. The American conventions is just as bad as saying twenty past eight and 12 seconds (20:8:12 instead of 8:20:12). You can say "twenty past eight" but that doesn't mean that you have to write it that way.

Anyway, today is 22/7 which is a classic approximation for π. How fun.

OMG Pope!!

I hope you realise that I don't use that kind of language in either full or abbreviated form. But if does seem kind of appropriate for several reasons.

The point of this story is that I got stuck in the only place in the city where the Pope's motorcade created an island. I had left work early to see some of the crowd and to watch the Pope go by if that was convenient. I was due to meet people to see a movie so I didn't have much time to hang around. I walked along the crowds as they lined the barricades enjoying the positive energy with groups singing (although one example of that was "Let it Be" by the Beatles - "when I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comforts me…") or chanting (more like football chants - Beee-ne-dito!). I ended up coming past the State Library and walked across a couple of streets, through barricades, to get into the Domain. There I saw on the big screen that Benedito (Benedict) had just got into the Popemobile and so wouldn't be coming past for a while. OK, I don't need to see him and it was a good time to get going anyway.

But in the few minutes since I had passed through they had decided to close the barricades and no-one was able to pass through. The procession was due to pass around/through the domain and with the highway on the other side I was completely trapped. I had no choice but to wait and watch. Mostly what I saw was people and a few crosses. When it looked like he was about to go past then all I saw was the backs of cameras as everyone raised their hands in… supplication? Voyeurism? (It's easy to get big words like those confused.) Then the Popemobile zooms past. OK, it was moving fairly slowly, for a car, but from my perspective it was only moving slow enough to allow you to see that the pope was actually in it.

It? It is basically a glass display case. It didn't feel like meeting a person. It felt like the viewing of a holy relic, a symbol. Or something interesting, worth preserving, to be kept in a museum (and maybe brought out on special occasions). Or a body in a mausoleum. (I'm not meaning to be morbid or denigrating anything, I'm just commenting on the strangeness of the event.)

In the end I wasn't waiting that long and managed to get up to the movies with plenty of time to meet people and get some food. So I'm glad I got to see the Pope and have some experience of one of the biggest events in the world. And the movie was great too :)


If you got there a little bit late, this is the view that you would have seen (ie the backs of cameras).

And finally we saw him … zoom by. (I like this photo even though it is taked in low light with a dodgy cemera phone.)

Blue Mountains colours

Blue Mts next weekend

It looks like the city's minimum temperature is the same as Katoomba's maximum…

Letter frequency in Pride and Prejudice

Playing with Wordle (where I can make my own word clouds) is fun but I see it as being a short lived fad. In the meantime I'm coming up with other pays to play with it.

So, I decided to take Pride and Prejudice (the text of which I had just downloaded), replace all the letters with the same letter followed by a space (i.e "a" goes to "a ") in order to separate them, then put the result into Wordle…

Yes, I am still studying, why do you ask?

Anyway, this is what it came up with:

Pride and Prejudice (abridged)

Wordled essays

In case you were wondering what I was doing at uni… Here are the two essays that I just wrote (both about Xinjiang in north-west China):

This blog

Psychodougie pointed me towards Wordle. I tested it out by pasting in all the text from this blog. Well, I did cheat a little by getting rid of "comments" and "categories" (and adding "Katrina" since she was sitting next to me as I did it). Fun?

Celebrating our undecimensary

Katrina made lovely eggs benedict and banana smoothies. I tried using the coffee machine for the first time (I need more practice). And it was a lovely sunny morning for sitting outside.

Tea and coffee experiences

What I've been noticing about the tea and coffee I drink…

When we buy tea we tend to get something different each time, within three categories: a plain tea for breakfast (e.g Earl Grey); a flavoured tea for other times (e.g. Stockholm Blend); and, to try to train ourselves in the pure tea experience, a fancy tea with no additives (i.e. ones with lots of letters in their gradings).

Here are some recent teas we have tried:

Earl Grey Special - nice but not as nice as the original (it's a bit too lemongrassy for me).
Tea for Sunday - the vanilla pieces actually make it taste a bit odd; it needs a bit of sugar. Not as nice as:
Vanilla - with vanilla bean pieces.
Ritz Carlton - with Vanilla and a bunch of flavourings. Quite pleasant.
Poobong FTGFOP (Darjeeling first flush) - really lovely, delicate and, if brewed just right, actually sweet.
Makaibari FTGFOP (Darjeeling Autumn) - a good normal tea. Quite nice but I like the Poobong better. I'm still interested in trying other Darjeelings (such as second flush).

When I started drinking tea I didn't mind whether or not I had milk in it. As I got used to the taste of tea (as you should know, tea, like coffee, is an acquired taste) I found that I preferred tea without milk. Now I will only drink tea black. (I know there are schools of thought about whether tea is better with milk or without. I have two tea snob friends who fall into both sides. I understand that there are some teas that are better with milk (English Breakfast) and some that are better without (Poobong) and some that can go either way (Earl Grey). I just don't like milk in my tea so I won't drink teas that require it.)

As a parallel, I have recently started to notice that I am starting to like my coffee with less milk. I started off with lattes, often with caramel flavouring/sweetening. I found that I no longer required it to be sweetened. I started ordering cappuccinos when I went out for coffee because they have a bit less milk in them than lattes or flat whites. Then I discovered the piccolo latte (like a normal latte but with less milk). I had a great one this morning with breakfast. Should have taken a photo…

One of the best sound experiences you could ever have…

One of the best sound experiences you could ever have will be seeing Sigur Ros live in concert. I saw them two years ago at the Enmore where they were utterly amazing and I have been eagerly awaiting their return.

They will be playing at the Horden Pavillion on Sat 2 August. Tickets go on sale Fri 23 May.

I'll be booking tickets as soon as possible. Does anyone want to join me? I guarantee it will be worth whatever they are charging (assuming you can cope with something beyond the Top 30).

(There's also a new album due to be released next month which I'm looking forward to.)

Uninformed and arrogant vs intelligent but unsure…

The context is a bit too nerdy for me, but I liked this thought:

Am I in the "unintelligent or uninformed and arrogantly confident" camp? If so why and how can I get humble? Am I part of the "intelligent and well informed but unsure and apprehensive" group? If so why and what can I do increase my tolerance for risk and decrease my fear of being wrong?

(You can see the source article here if you like.)

We got a new outdoor table…

… just before 13 days in a row of rain. (I think I heard that the record for Sydney was 16 days.)

Budawang colours

Futurama!

I'll be getting the new Futurama DVD for my birthday (in the unlikely event that no one gets it for me, I'll buy it myself). So, I am looking for Futurama fans to share it with. If that's you, let me know and I'll invite you over…

Hopefully the viewing will happen in the weekend after Easter.

For those of you who don't know:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0471711/

Check out photos of out weekend at Gerringong

http://picasaweb.google.com/stateofbeingthus

Blood, sweat and tears

Well, the first day we did the work it was fairly hot. Then Dad kept on cutting himself. And there was almost tears when one of the tiles got cracked after being carefully cut out and put in place.

We still need to paint but the kitchen is now basically ready and open for business.

NYE 2007, Balls Head

An almost unimpeded view of the bridge, with a fireworks bardge close by, looking over the water, with almost no one around…