Oh, I didn’t mention yesterday that Zaragoza was fabulous. It’s a lovely place. I was going to write about it for you but, let’s face it, Wikipedia does it better and Ryanair will get you there for next to nothing so go see for yourself or go see my photos (they’re mainly of bars and beer which pretty much sums up a large amount of the time spent abroad. Off to eat now.
2005: Where’s The Hotspot?
I am back from my weekend in Spain. My body’s capacity to survive on three or four hours of sleep a night never fails to astound me. My body’s capacity to flake out at that point and render me incapable of anything for another seven days also amazes me. So I should start sleeping now …
2004: Olympic Dreams
While I am way I’ve been thinking about all the fuss surrounding Holmes/Cruise engagement and Katie’s supposed missing days. From a distance it has always appeared to me that so-called real-life Hollywood isn’t that different from the movies; I suspect many over there can’t tell the difference anyway and walk around on a daily basis like it is a film. So, I hope they find the happiness they looking for. As for the rest of us, I think we should stop reading the rumours and stories. Frankly, what cares anyway?
I am off, right now at this early hour, on a long weekend to Zaragoza in Spain with some friends and ex-colleagues. I have no doubt that it will be a very friendly and social event indeed and I plan to enjoy the break (and hopefully the weather) as much as I can. I will be trying to post pictures from my travels to the mobile Flickr feed so look out for them. Hopefully I will remain sober enough to point the camera in the right direction while I am there. Now, I have to brush up on my Spanish while on the way to the airport.
Yesterday, Andy at Towleroad posted a picture of David Beckham on the beach looking great in his Abercrombie swim shorts. Why’s he never on a beach when I am? Sadly Andy, when you said, ‘David’s no Speedo man’ you were wrong. The front page of yesterday’s Mirror newspaper (pictured) clearly has something different to say about it all.
OK, so Andy got the update anyway. Still, it was only an excuse to post the picture.
2003: Archbishop Has No Objection To Gay Bishop
2003: US to extradite whoever they want, for any reason.
2005: You Make Me Sweat
2004: Online Customer Service Ratings
2002: Shopping Madness
So, after I berated you to get on with it – and provide some of the encouragement that I know you are good at – I managed to get to the gym this evening. And for that, I should thank you. For the buckets of perspiration that positively flowed from every pore, I should say much less of a thanks. So, thanks for sending me to exercise several hours of my life away on one of the hottest evenings of the year. If I need a doctor to deal with any dehydration side-effects I’ll know where to send the bill.
For the lack of ‘laundry bags’ in the changing rooms in which to deposit the soaked gym kit I will blame the cleaning staff and you are spared the additional cost of having to clean out the inside of my gym bag.
2005: links for 2005-06-22
2004: Online Customer Service Ratings
2002: Shopping Madness
I’m with The Tin Man:Â ‘I am, by nature, a conciliator. I donÂ’t like conflict.‘ which may be because I am, in some way, frightened by conflict. It’s my nature although I wonder if I could change it. Would, somehow, confronting my fears work for me? Would I be able to fight my demons and then stand up for what I believe in?
Surely, if ever, this is the time to start standing up and saying what I believe. In Spain this week, Fr. Jose Ramon Velasco compared the proposed bill to legalise gay marriage to the beginnings of Nazi Germany:
“Back then the majority of people also backed Hitler just like the majority back this law,” he said. “I’m serious, give it time and it will destroy the moral fiber of Spain and the West.” [source]
I sit back and wonder how we got here. How can love be turned into hate so easily? When a man of the church says, “I would rather you commit suicide than have you leave Love In Action wanting to return to the gay lifestyle” [see Zach’s story] it makes you wonder about people. Not about religion or about the church just about people and how that can be inhumane to each other.
I guess Rev. John Smid (who said the above words) and The Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, will never be friends. The Archbishop wants people to stop using “ghastly” language that implied people were “not human beings” because of their sexual orientation:
‘And when you use language which implies they were not human beings who are you to do that because you did not create them?’ [source]
I wonder if I am being too hopeful that his words will have any impact at all.
2003: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
2003: My First PHP
2002: Joy and pain
2002: Not Great
I wonder if yesterday was the first time that the ‘on this day’ entry has provided me with three links at the same time?
2002 was full of links – Glastonbury and World Cup fever. The kind of thing I leave to del.icio.us now as tagging data is fun!
2003 had me developing my downloadable Formula One calendar. I haven’t done that this year – although I planned to. Formula One is still a big part of my summer.
And last year I was moaning about Yahoo offering me extra mail storage and then not handing it over. Well, that was all resolved and something to do with the fact my Yahoo account pre-dates Yahoo UK and thus is – technically – a .com account but is all uk-ised by my location preferences. Understanding a user’s location but offering them the same quality of services (rather than service) is something they still haven’t got. My Firefox Yahoo tool bar, for example, is a lot more useful if I pretend I am in the US that if I am in the UK. Still, I live in hope.
No other posts on this day.
photo originally uploaded by Blaise KÂ (https://www.flickr.com/photos/blaisek/12517037/) no longer available.
Sitting in the sun this afternoon looking at some of my pictures on flickr I decided to do some random searches of the images stored over there. This one – a busy NYC bar at night – seems so far away from where I am right now and yet strangely uplifting.