Teaser Tuesday - June 30

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

I slept in bosomy clefts overlooking the ocean with my back turned to the mountains. From my sleeping bag I watched day melt into night and the waking eyes of ships' lights being brushed by the sleeping strobes of lighthouses.

From Nicholas Crane 'Clear Waters Rising' (A Mountain Walk across Europe)- a story of the writer's walk across the mountains of Europe from Cape Finisterre to Istanbul. Here's the good reads entry and another review. That teaser is a bit flowery, the next sentence has 'the milky light of dawn' but there's good story telling in this book and good historical snippets on the regions he passes through. I've just reached the Pyrenees with him so there's a little way to go yet and lots of walking to do, the goodreads reviews suggests it gets better. It sounds a wonderful experience to have but the practicalities for most folk would rule it out but here's the experience shared!

Mutterings - June 29

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Peanuts :: Snoopy (or Beethoven!)
2. Fresh :: Figs
3. Don’t care :: Indeterminate (boolean logic attack here!)
4. Staple :: Rice (as in food)
5. Starred :: Answer
6. Aspirin :: One degree under (the old slogans - my dad worked for Aspro Nicholas back in the 1960's - look here's a souvenir!
7. Root :: Square
8. Calculate :: Compute
9. Shave :: Close
10. Bent :: Handlebars

Truth will out!

Maybe this is a good place to put some very public questions to Nigel Tate, Rob Munro and others in the leadership of St Mary's Cheadle about decisions, actions and discussions that were behind my deeply flawed 'redundancy' in 2009?

• What discussions did you have with others (including but not limited to Rob Munro and Sheila Grieve) at St Mary's Cheadle about me before 23rd Nov 2009?
• Were the reasons for the fabrication of a redundancy case - my age and also my holding views that you would regard as liberal on LGBT issues? (though liberal compared with the leadership of St Mary's Cheadle isn't saying a lot!)
• Were you aware (before Nov 2009) that I was on the Chester diocese organising committee for Changing Attitude?
• Did you (Nigel) write the alleged minutes for the redundancy scoring meeting. Were those minutes a lie from start to finish as the meeting never took place on that day - and therefore it never took place in the period stipulated by employment law?
• After the final meeting, my witness and I were left alone for a private conversation. Was our discussion eavesdropped, bugged or did someone 'accidentally' leave the conference call phone on record?
• Was Gary Higham - who was made 'redundant' along with me - employed on the basis that his employment would only be for 12 months? - so that you could feign hurt innocence if accused of age discrimination. (Of course Gary wouldn't have been aware of this!)
• Did Jo Smith's sudden departure in 2008 have anything to do with a desire not to be implicated in the redundancy process?
• Were Siemens offered any inducements (financial or otherwise) to take me on as a contract worker for a very nominal time to make it less likely I'd go to industrial tribunal?
• And most smallminded - was a staff meeting hastily arranged on my afternoon of my last day in the office designed to make it impossible for me to say farewell to my colleagues - at least on company premises?
• And I've not even mentioned the non-existence of the software group which was allegedly used to determine who was at risk of redundancy - oops!
  

The Beast

Last month our book group read W H Davies The Autobiography of a Supertramp. I was reminder of the dangerous train rides and the risks taken by travellers on reading these stories of modern emigrants to the US, powerful photography.

Mutterings - June 23

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Purpose :: Walk (no doubt following a route)
2. Service :: Medal
3. Dill :: Comfrey
4. Pompous :: Buffoon (let a very small number of readers understand)
5. Currently :: Seeking (employment)
6. Water :: Heavy
7. Origins :: Dinosaurs
8. Cycle :: Current
9. License :: Software
10. Believe :: Monkees!

Teaser Tuesday - June 16

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

Though it was a warm night and the room was stuffy his hands and feet were icy. What a nuisance it was, he reflected irritably, to have an imagination that conjured up pictures of things that you didn't in the least want to see!

From W Somerset Maugham's The Ashenden Stories (this is from the Hairless Mexican). Our book group book of the month - chosen by me - I had to choose a book with a blue cover - mine published in the 1960's - I bought it new for 3s6d - has that as does at least one edition in print. I've not read the Maugham short stories for years and am thinking of following this up with the rest! These Ashenden stories were the forerunner of Ian Fleming's James Bond the head of MI6 is called 'R' and Maugham puts down some lovely interactions, he's not so much concerned with the spying as the personalities - though the situation is what develops the stories.

Mutterings - June 14

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Windy :: Show Boat (the musical has a character called Windy)
2. Left out :: in the cold
3. Hot dog :: Stand
4. Pop :: Culture
5. Hunger :: Games
6. Square :: Peg
7. Unhinge :: Bracket
8. *!#$ :: Shift (key)
9. Toenail :: Clip
10. Irritation :: Niggle

Mutterings - June 7

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Shack :: Wood
2. Cute :: Kitten
3. Factor :: Max
4. Beach :: Shingle
5. Toddler :: Bucket (a carry over from the last word!)
6. Cups :: Tea
7. Leaning :: Tower (of Pisa)
8. Thailand :: Temple
9. Beanie :: Baby
10. Schools :: Out!

Microsoft and ssh

Richard Smedley tweeted about this msdn page about the coming Microsoft implemented ssh. Those of us using other operating systems have been using ssh for many years and there's putty an implementation of it (not by Microsoft) for windows - ssh enables remote logins with secure authentication, public private keys etc, wonderful for managing systems you're not sitting at! Some quotes from that article (rememeber this is a page on msdn written by the team going to implement ssh):

As Microsoft has shifted towards a more customer-oriented culture.

as opposed to what they have been doing??!!

A follow up question the reader might have is When and How will the SSH support be available? The team is in the early planning phase, and there’re not exact days yet. However the PowerShell team will provide details in the near future on availability dates.
Finally, I'd like to share some background on today’s announcement, because this is the 3rd time the PowerShell team has attempted to support SSH.

If at first you don't succeed?

Christmas Trees

Just to be unseasonal for a moment. I've just completed a read of Geoffrey Hill's Selected poems and wanted to quote this one.“Christmas Trees”

Bonhoeffer in his skylit cell
bleached by the flares’ candescent fall,
pacing out his own citadel,

restores the broken themes of praise,
encourages our borrowed days,
by logic of his sacrifice.

Against wild reasons of the state
his words are quiet but not too quiet.
We hear too late or not too late.

Reminiscent of Bonhoeffer's Night Voices from Tegel, questioning the state...

Teaser Tuesday - June 2

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

On another occasion, Sunday morning, and grandfather being in bed, a detective disguised as a poor working man that was almost dying for a drink, wheedled the old man's daughter to sell him liquor over the back wall - the result being a summons for supplying drink during closed hours, followed by a heavy fine, which was at once paid. The third time was at my trial with five other desperadoes, as described in the preceding chapter.

A final teaser from W H Davies 'The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp' - our BATS (book group) of last month. I generally enjoyed this it had some longeurs and some points where you felt you were reading a tale about a totally different person. I hadn't read this before but I remember a school friend praising it.

Mutterings - June 2

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Summer colds :: Hayfever
2. One direction :: Boy band
3. Hormones :: Age
4. Noteworthy :: Highlight
5. Ice cube :: Clink!
6. Shaved :: Foam
7. Spray :: Ocean
8. Portable :: Computer (I don't think they're called that any more!)
9. County :: Boundary
10. Meeting :: Agenda (structure, structure, structure...