-2C~? Clear
I know language is an organic thing that evolves over the decades. But there is a trend that doesn’t rest easily with me, the prevalence of the passive present continuous voice. It’s everywhere and sounds so weak and excessively wordy. One day, not too far in the future you’ll hear this:
Will you be taking this man, to be having and to be holding…?
Yuk! Sometimes this form is necessary but more often it’s clumsy , wordy and just glaringly ugly.
18°C, drive dammit.
I can’t see the frog’s spawn, I shone a torch tonight into the water. They’re supposed to float, but no sign. I expected them to gather at one corner. I hope I’m wrong.
Introverts: timely articles from The Guardian and BBC. A significant part of my current troubles?
17°C, no clouds. CR:68miles.
I’ve heard this challenge to Same Sex marriage a few times. Most recently from a colleague with some maturity & standing, though he does wear his Christianity as a badge (literally). The argument goes like this: If you allow same sex marriage, then what’s to stop someone marrying a donkey*, where will it end, where’d you draw the line (etc.).
*the animal suggested varies with each time the argument is used. Curiously, they never seem to choose an animal that mates for life. Perhaps they can’t think of one, or maybe that would weaken the strength of their case. Who knows?
It’s a surprisingly persistent argument for one so easy to dismiss.
The line is an easy one to draw- we use the same line that prevents forced marriage or underage marriage. The limit is defined by consent of the parties involved, plus societal norms. Marriage is a consenting union between adults. Neither donkeys nor children can give convincing consent to a marriage so they can’t, therefore, be married. So what problem can there be with a gay couple joining in a marriage with mutual consent?
The next argument that is trotted out sometimes is that it somehow, weakens the institution of marriage. No it doesn’t, traditional marriage remains unaffected. Straight marriage remains untouched and continues to exist as before.
Christianity plays some role in all of this, but don’t they have some idea about all men are created equal in the eyes of God? Clearly they’re not all equal in the eyes of the Church.
My remaining, unanswered question is – why would a gay couple want anything to do with a bigoted, homophobic institution like the Christian church anyway? After the way they have been treated in this debate and many before, I’d want to keep well away if I was in a position like theirs.
12°C, dry & springy
To take a break from blogging and make a return is strangely difficult. Time is swallowed up by work-stress, that much is unsurprising. Coming back to make a post is not as easy as it you’d expect. I may put a few thoughts that have rattled around in my head for a week in retrospective posts here on WordPress.
6°C, dry for now
Is there a word for the opposite of a Pyyhic victory? A defeat that you can live with somehow.
Today was against me, but I came out better than expected. It’s a bearable result.
Finding words remains difficult. We need a method that is as easy as looking up the meaning of a word. A kind of dictionary that is full of meanings that then give you words that apply. I can’t see how that will work.
10°C, getting windy, dry
No new year’s resolutions, new year is not a good time to make them. I have hopes though. I hope to sort my career out, I hope to have fewer sleepless nights but in the meantime, I have hurdles.
My garden is confused. There is broom in flowers along with a solitary rose and the budleah is happily pushing out new leaves.
11°C, calm before a storm.
My local down-market supermarket seems to have stopped selling one of my favourite chocolate bars. That’s the second time we have had to endure such a loss in the past few years. Co-Op stopped one of their finest bars too. I have always enjoyed the treasure within a really dull piece of packaging- none of the mystique of the up-market bars in the promising exotic wrappers. Both bars could claim to be their shop’s best kept secret. Alas, real obscurity has swallowed them.
10~7°C, thin above, the sun shone a bit too.
Gifts come my way, I have foods, drinks, and CDs. The Music I bought myself, it’s been a long time since last. Before, I would impatiently open the CD cases, sometimes struggle with the packaging and use the computer to put them on my iPod hurriedly. Today I looked over every cover, the inserts and bonus postcards. I have read some of the lyrics and tried to imagine the tracks within. I shalln’t hear these for a few days. There is a something inside that wants to make pictures, polish up the hand-eye co-ordination and hold a brush lightly. The best pictures have marks and the odd repair from dropping the brush. It’s best to hold them lightly you know.
November is warm and dry this year, but I want to go away. It’s going to take all of my skill to manage my sanity this coming year.
4°C, FOG, thick too.
Suddenly wake from a dream: I am driving anxiously toward a petrol station, the fuel gauge needle is on “E” hard. Rolling uphill towards the yellow sign of a Shell garage, the road opens into two lanes and I filter left. the car is fully loaded, three passengers and me. then another estate car passes from behind and I see the driver’s face. he doesn’t look pleased so I wave a cheery wave. He looked pretty furious actually. Anyway, I continue to nurse the car along at 40 mph, fearing the fuel will cut out at any moment. Then in front- the furious driver turns his car around in a layby. I think some road rage might be coming my way from him.
This is the point at which I wake. Wide awake actually & raised pulserate.. I doubt that dreams would affect me like this if I didn’t have a stressful job. It’s 02.40 in the morning and the fog is remarkably thick outside. Hope I get a bike ride later.
Anyway, look at what I found on this morning’s dogwalk. Note, I didn’t pick it, it was lying freshly damaged on the ground under trees, probably a dog had run by it.
9°C, Dull dull drizzle
Here I am, lying in bed with a mince pie and a brandy. It’s grey out, no wind and no sign of an end to this claggy drizzle. Hence, I have the brandy and wondering what is the point of this all. I work all day, so that I have the money to enjoy myself? No, it’s so that I am too tired to sense it all. It’s quite different to my other occasional bedtime drink- whisky. after reading all of that, just to cheer you up, here is more fungal fun:
Micycle 