Tweets on 2008-11-03

  • Reading up on the Aleutian Islands. Coming round to thinking prob worth visiting more British islands before schlepping out to Kanaga #
  • Eek, massive Google Chrome crash after writing hundreds of words on a blog post about CA’s Prop 8 #
  • Downloading a sample San Francisco ballot paper. There are 8 different elections and a massive 34 referendums all on one voting paper! #
  • Definitely shouldn’t have stayed up all night writing US election blogs for LDV – they don’t look all that good in cold light of day. #
  • Need to get body clock to accomodate staying up all night Tues, getting up at 9am Weds and staying up for Bonfire Night on. #
  • Bah. You’d have thought two cats, two catbeds would have worked just fine, but in fact they both prefer the same one, and fight over it. #
  • To the Printcave, Risoman! #
  • @jamesgraham stay well clear if it starts talking about radishes #
  • Checking the EDM database using the browser on my phone. #

Powered by Twitter Tools.

Tweets on 2008-11-01

  • Looking into fridge for midnight snack and seeing celery, apples, grapes, walnuts… Manuelgate has got to me more than I thought! #
  • Loving Will Howell’s video round up of the US elections: http://tinyurl.com/5c78tw #
  • Joining a ginormous queue for Bond at 2250, since 2130 and 2215 were both sold out. #
  • Looks like most of the people in the queue are 15 years younger than me. #
  • Feeling really old. Has anyone else in here ever actually seen a Bond movie before? #

Powered by Twitter Tools.

The needs of the offenders

Jonathan Calder’s House Points this week reminds me of something that angered me earlier in the week.

[Jack Straw] invented something called the ‘criminal justice lobby’ and announced that it has been running Britain’s prisons for the past decade. This of nonsense, of course, and not just because it is ministers who runs our prisons. Anyone who works with public sector professionals will know how quickly they come to endorse every new twist of government thinking. They know which side their bread is buttered.

But try telling that to Straw. According to him, the members of this lobby are obsessed with the needs of offenders when they should be worrying about the victims of crime – though he was notably short of practical proposals for helping those victims.

That particular sound bite was irksome because the needs of offenders ARE the needs of victims.

Assume there will always be criminals, and that the vast majority of them will commit crimes that mean their stay in prison will only be short-lived. It is in EVERYONE’S interest to make sure that time behind bars equips them to live a legal life on their release. Shoving them in the worst possible unpleasant stinkhole for a government-specified period then unleashing them unprepared on an unready public is not in anyone’s interest.

Tweets on 2008-10-31

  • Chuffed at the knowledge I have brought at least 10 mug cakes into the world, and off to make another one for myself. #
  • Listening to snorts of laughter and derision from down the hallway as P discovers “spEak You’re bRanes” http://is.gd/FqM #
  • Bugger – it’s hard to pretend you’re not in to trick-or-treaters if you leave your radio up loud whilst you cook http://is.gd/5mRR #
  • @hughmcguire – I just tweeted mine! http://is.gd/5mRR Cat of Stripes food diary has loads of nice vegan recipes. #
  • Eek, overdid the chilli a bit. #
  • Hearing myself say “mockons la semaine, chat-i-kins” #

Powered by Twitter Tools.

Tweets on 2008-10-30

  • Per-lease! Manuelgate?! Are you kidding me? This is not sodding news, it has no place on *my* radio. Stop, stop stop! #
  • Sequestering UTI Kitty in the sitting room with a special litter tray and a bowl of water up until he produces a sample. #
  • @willhowells were you thronging the gate? #
  • @markpack and twittered about #hashtags too, for good measure. #

Powered by Twitter Tools.

Exclusive: What Obama said to John McCain

Sometimes towards the end of a hard-fought campaign a blog post emerges that changes you how you think about the whole election. A posting so inspiring, or with such a new perspective that you cannot fail to sit up and take notice, and maybe – just maybe – change your view about the whole shebang. Such a posting emerged tonight. I was just minding my own business, cooking chilli and rice-pudding, sitting down to watch Dead Set on E4, then idly checking my twitter and blog feeds on my phone, when BAM – the following dropped onto my consciousness. Suddenly, life will never be the same again.

Read the top 10 redonk things said in the election – as retold by kittens. Awww! How cute.

A slightly more substantial video has also dropped through my feedreader via JoeMyGod about how the candidates have re-used the same words and phrases in each of the debates. And not just the same words and phrases, but exactly the same intonation each time.

It’s not that surprising. A radio programme I was half listening to last week pointed out almost the same – one secret to fluency in public speaking is to have a whole series of words and phrases that you can build your argument around. A sort of verbal thinking space. In the time it takes you say, “Good evening, my fellow Americans,” your brain can be a long way down the synaptic paths it needs to be in order to string together the words and phrases of the new stuff you wanted to say. And it’s partly why ministers and clergy men can speak fluently. After years of reading the liturgy, there are whole groups of words that will just flow off the tongue. Slot a few into a sermon, add a few more words, and with all the angels and archangels and all the company of heaven, you’re halfway there already.

(Something a little screwy happens if I try and embed the video, so you will have to make do with a link to it instead.)

Tweets on 2008-10-29

  • I’ve just discovered where the Goose Fair giant goose lives for the rest of the year. #
  • It’s been so long since I last went leafleting, I almost forgot to have cake. #
  • Irritated that mobile internet seems to work in coffee shop queue but not at table 2m away. #
  • Well, I’m enjoying xkcd even if others aren’t. #
  • Writing a #postcrossing card in German. And even I’m wincing at the mistakes I’m making. #

Powered by Twitter Tools.

Tweets on 2008-10-28

  • Watching outdoor temperature plummet (now 0.4 deg C) and feeling hugely grateful boiler man got here today! #
  • @alanfleming wrist straps? #
  • Temperature at the bottom of the garden has been as low as 0.2 but has now risen again to 0.5. No FREEZING KLAXON tonight 😦 #
  • -0.2 deg c! Awooga, Awooga! #
  • Eek, 13 messages waiting on my answerphone! #
  • Hehe – Lab council leader wants to be my friend on Facebook. He has 5 friends so far! #
  • Colder still tonight – is already -0.8 deg c #
  • ooh, ooh, -2.7 now. Checking out of window for snow on cars, but it turns out it’s just one of those Minis with a white roof. #

Powered by Twitter Tools.