Europe

Writing this in the car. The M20 is shut and I'm stuck! I can see Germans, Poles, Swiss, Dutch, Hungarians, Lithuanians, Italians, Spanish, UA? and Luxemburgers - a truly European jam!

In the news

Two news items, side by side, on the BBC site this evening.

Charles Clarke has started to explain the steps he took, as Home Secretary, to deal with the thorny issue of foreign nationals being released after serving time in UK prisons.

"As others have already made clear to the committee, it was only in late March 2006 that ministers, including myself, were made aware of the failure to consider for deportation some foreign national prisoners at the end of their sentence, and when we were aware of this action was then taken."

The next item deals with the jailing of 69 year old Miss Josephine Rooney for not paying her council tax. She has withheld it in protest at the conditions in her neighborhood .

I'll let you join the dots.

That the released prisoners are foreign nationals and eligible for deportation isn't racist - the number of UK nationals released on licence after committing serious crimes who then "disappear" is even more worrying but it's great that our over-crowded jails can find space for yet one more "easy target". If only real criminals, the ones who steal or kill or harm people, would be as high profile as those who draw attention to local problems in this way.

Theory

For many years I've clung to the theory that technology will cure itself if enough swearing and sweat is expended. Today my theory is again borne out. Since buying the new router Outlook and Mailwasher have not been able to get out whenever the dodgy connection, it's a "Connect at whim" service, has decided to play out.

This weekend I looked forward to lots more tinkering with settings and spent some time at work printing off the stuff from forums and MSKB and DLink support and such like.

This AM I brewed a cup of tea and started to prepare for battle. The connection worked first time and Mailwasher downloaded the headers for a few hundred emails (I've been relying on webmail) and zapped the spam. I've got 105 emails to read (most I've already dealt with online) and now I don't know if it'll work again in an hour because I don't know why it's working now :-(

I've run "Shields Up" and that suggests that I'm still in stealth mode so I've not killed the firewall so I'm at a loss but hey ho, I'm here again - at least for now!

Connecting

Connection is still up and down - this from the phone :-( For our friends in the States - Ghana is in Africa.

Connection problems

Sunday night - Gentle thunderstorm somewhere but not overhead.
Monday morning - no Internet connection but had to swap cars so not fussed. During trip through Canterbury notice lots of traffic lights not working, word of powercuts.
Tuesday - Still no connection, spoke to BT Internet. I imagine that being circumcised without any pain relief would be more fun.
Wednesday - Lack of connection is getting in the way, I had assignments to upload!
Thursday and Friday - Working in the office so able to use connection for other stuff.
Today - shelled out for a new wireless router. All sorted!

Beyond belief

Sorry but I'm finding it literally incredible that the Bush administration is suggesting that the suicides in Guantanamo are acts of war or a PR stunt - this is just sick! How can it be an act of war when these people aren't prisoners of war? How can it be PR when none of the detainees has been charged with anything let alone proven to be supporters of any form of extremism.

"Detainees had access to lawyers, received mail and had the ability to write to families, so had other means of making protests, she said, and it was hard to see why the men had not protested about their situation."

Shit! It's like a real home from home so if we ignore the fact that these people have been forcibly detained for four years, without charge, in contravention of international law it's hard to see why they might be getting upset isn't it?

Joy!

Great joy - kill the fatted calf! The spud-faced one will play!

For anyone living outside these fair shores, and for that alone you have my deepest sympathy, this may not mean much or even anything but this sceptered isle has been holding its collective breath worrying about a metatarsel. In fact we've not had any other events over the last few weeks with which to trouble journalists - even the antics of Pressa (the fifth and X-rated Teletubby) or old "what's his name", Bush's friend, you know - the bloke who smiles and sweats no matter how embarrasing his latest faux pas has been, have been pushed off the front pages or down the news agenda while we all studied the delicate bone structure of a millionaire's foot. But now we have the news we've been waiting for and there will probably be talk of a new Bank Holiday so that generations to come can look back on this day and remember our deliverance. So far Kofi Annan's thought on this haven't been sought but everyone else in the world has been interviewed and their views known.

So, brothers and sisters, remember Agincourt, Waterloo and Trafalgar. Remember Rourke's Drift and the Charge of the Light Brigade and but remember today more than anything - if the news is to be believed this really is a day of great portent.

666

Shortly the date will be 6/6/06. Not that fussed about the number of the beast but it's Angie's birthday! Happy birthday Angie.

Blogroll

Looks like blogroll has collapsed which is a bugger because I'd just decided to sort out my list - it's very long and I know a few of the links go to blogs that are moribund. D'oh!

Memory stick

Make sure you read this page rather than just taking it at face value :-)

There is concern over the current driving standards in England, so the Department of Transport have devised a scheme to identify poor and dangerous drivers.

This system will allow all road users to recognise the potentially hazardous and dangerous ones, or those with limited driving skills.

From the middle of May 2006 all those drivers who are found to be a potential hazard to other road users will be issued with a white flag, bearing a red cross.

This flag clearly indicates their inability to drive properly.

These flags must be clipped to a door of the car and be visible to all other drivers and pedestrians.

Those drivers who have shown particularly poor driving skills will have to display two flags, one on each side of the car to indicate an even greater lack of skill and limited driving intelligence.

Thank you for your co-operation.

Department of Transport.

When two ideas clash

Okay I have to admit that I should be working on a late assignment but I fell asleep reading one of the set texts (gosh but it's dull) and woke with a start to think about turning off the PC and heading to bed. Just afore I did that I checked a few links and found the story of the Wandering Scribe on Ollie's blog (lot of pink happening there Ollie!). Wandering scribe's blog is here.

Got me thinking about some students I've worked with in the past including one who lived in a camper van and split their time between the south coast and Scotland. It made studying an online course a tad difficult but they ploughed on - I don't know if they made it (they weren't in my group but I was roped in to offer additional support). From there it's a short hop to thinking about some of the things we let get in the way of our own success and the idea that fear of success is often a big hurdle for many of us to overcome - that's a technical term a friend shared with me, the friend is a v clever psychologist and therefore to be trusted.

So............ don't keep finding reasons not to do something - just do it! Right, off to me bed for a few hours before whizzing round the M25 for another day of fun for which I get paid :-)