Christmas Decorations at Work

A competition at my previous workplace for the best Christmas decorated desk. Here are some snaps of my team's desk. Amongst other things we Christmaswrappingpapered our desks. That is a word, right? Good.

My PC below. He seemed to develop a personality of his own. Weird chap.

Below is the legendary Christmas Owl Wizard. Feel free to create your own this Xmas.

My phone was a little tricky to use:

My friend's phone was even harder to use:

And last but not least, the kinky Christmas Bondage Badger. He likes to be tied down on phones; typical masochist.

In memory of Christopher Hitchens, a quote from Ann Druyan, Carl Sagan's wife

My mongoose friend put this intelligent and rather moving quote on his fb page. Now it's here.

In memory of Christopher Hitchens, a quote from Ann Druyan, Carl Sagan's wife:

When my husband died, because he was so famous and known for not being a believer, many people would come up to me - it still sometimes happens - and ask me if Carl changed at the end and converted to a belief in an afterlife. They also frequently ask me if I think I will see him again. Carl faced his death with unflagging courage and never sought refuge in illusions. The tragedy was that we knew we would never see each other again. I don't ever expect to be reunited with Carl. But, the great thing is that when we were together, for nearly twenty years, we lived with a vivid appreciation of how brief and precious life is. We never trivialized the meaning of death by pretending it was anything other than a final parting. Every single moment that we were alive and we were together was miraculous - not miraculous in the sense of inexplicable or supernatural. We knew we were beneficiaries of chance... That pure chance could be so generous and so kind... That we could find each other, as Carl wrote so beautifully in Cosmos, you know, in the vastness of space and the immensity of time... That we could be together for twenty years. That is something which sustains me and it's much more meaningful.

The way he treated me and the way I treated him, the way we took care of each other and our family, while he lived. That is so much more important than the idea I will see him someday. I don't think I'll ever see Carl again. But I saw him. We saw each other. We found each other in the cosmos, and that was wonderful.

Quick Reading Test

I received this in an email forwarded by a friend and I rather liked it. It just demonstrates how clever the brain is. See if you can read it... I found the first few words to be hard but then my brain adjusted and the rest was easy.

7H15 M3554G3 53RV35 7O PR0V3 H0W 0UR M1ND5 C4N D0 4M4Z1NG 7H1NG5! 
1MPR3551V3 7H1NG5! 1N 7H3 B3G1NN1NG 17 WA5 H4RD BU7 N0W, 0N 7H15 LIN3 
Y0UR M1ND 1S R34D1NG 17 4U70M471C4LLY W17H 0U7 3V3N 7H1NK1NG 4B0U7 17, 
B3 PROUD! 0NLY C3R741N P30PL3 C4N R3AD 7H15. PL3453 F0RW4RD 1F U C4N 
R34D 7H15.

What did you think? Or should I say:

WH47 D1D Y0U 7H1NK?

The Beatherder Festival 2012 Review (If you can call it a review)

I thoroughly recommend the Beatherder Festival in lovely Lancashire. Great music, great atmosphere and great people.

Beatherder even has a small tunnel, which should excite all you fellow underground gadabouts. They actually call it a teleportation portal but I have my doubts. For one thing, casually having teleportation technology in a music festival is a bit too much to believe. And the teleportation itself is not instant; it seems to take about as long as it would take you to crawl through the teleportation tunnel. And on top of all that, the teleportation process itself feels alot like crawling through a tunnel.

I spoke to the chap manning the exit about my concerns but he assured me that it was a fully functioning teleportation device. He spoke with an air of authority and had one of those high-viz jackets on so I believed him. Since then I've been having my doubts so I think I'll have another go next year before coming to a firm conclusion. Try it for yourself and let me know your findings.

I even met my Top Twin on the last day of the festival which capped off an excellent weekend. I was walking past this chap, and I did a double-take - he had the same jacket as me. Amazing story, eh? But it gets better - we started talking and he even had the same name as me. I don't mean he was called the Big Cheese Badger, that would be ridiculous, there is only one Big Cheese Badger. No, I mean his name was the same as the other name I sometimes go by, the ever-so-slightly less exciting one. Anyway, quality chap.

So who's coming next year then? If the teleportation tunnel and the prospect of meeting your top twin doesn't convince you to come then I don't know what will. Oh yeah, maybe all the other great stuff going on there which I have merely alluded to. But I think I'll leave some other sensible reviewer to talk about all that. I'm far too busy at the moment trying to burp the alphabet. Britain's Got Talent here I come.

After The Apocalypse

I saw this rather moving True Stories documentary on More4 last year but you can still watch it on 4od.

It focuses on the people of "The Polygon" region of Kazakhstan as they struggle with the consequences of nuclear bomb testing from the Soviet era. One in twenty children are now born with defects. Bibigul is one such resident and she fights for her right to have a child.

I have transcribed below a speech by Bibigul's mother, which I found rather moving; almost primitive but so eloquent at the same time.

It is better to lie under the ground than to be laughed at by people. A figure of fun. Everybody makes fun of me. People on the street. People walking by. It doesn’t matter. It is better to leave this world.

I am angry that I am not lying under the black earth. That is the only thing I am angry about. I want the black earth.

For the last ten to fifteen years they have been chasing me. But forget about me. They have started to chase my daughters now, both of them. Pestering her everywhere.

I am a Polygon victim. She is a Polygon victim too. All she wants is to have a baby. So why don’t they just ignore the fact that she is from the Polygon and just let her give birth.

Watching harrowing documentaries such as this puts most of the problems we have in our comfortable lives into perspective.