tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-55160072024-03-13T13:12:22.236+00:00splatblogThe random musings and happenings of a young-ish professional-ish man who lives in Scotland, thinks in Mandelbrot shapes and frequently feels too muchPatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10798704204346653807noreply@blogger.comBlogger562125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516007.post-88543253309120349102017-03-07T20:02:00.001+00:002019-02-20T17:42:39.301+00:00Blue Pill<p>If I know you I've likely mentioned this, and I post so infrequently I doubt many folk are reading anyway! But in case anyone <em>is</em> reading and didn't already know I started taking <a href="https://www.iwantprepnow.co.uk/what-is-prep" target="_blank">PrEP</a> a little over a month ago. The linked page there explains what it is in more depth but in essence PrEP is the regular use of an anti-retroviral as a prophylactic, and it has proven <em>very</em> effective at preventing HIV infection. It offers 99% effective protection against the virus.</p>
<p>At present it's not available on the NHS here in Scotland (hopefully it'll clear the regulatory hurdles soon) so at present - like a lot of gay men have been recently - I'm buying the medicine myself. My local NHS sexual health clinic (Chalmers) have been quietly encouraging "high risk" individuals to consider this ahead of it becoming available on prescription, and they're supporting me with liver/kidney function tests etc. to ensure the drug isn't causing any harm.</p>
<p>Some of you will need some context here. Some of you will probably have had a chill reading that I'm considered "high risk" for infection. Some of you will be breathing a sigh of relief remembering holding my hand through past scares (thank you!). A handful of you will have had a similar experience of living in a world where sex and the spectre of an incurable (and once fatal) infection have been inextricably intertwined for longer than you've fully understood what sex was. That's at the root of my choice to start taking PrEP so let's start there.</p>
<p>Or rather, here:</p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/TMnb536WuC0/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TMnb536WuC0?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
<p>If you lived in the UK and were old enough to watch TV when that advert aired you'll remember it. If you're also gay it probably coloured your attitudes to sex in a pretty profound way, and probably not positively.</p>
<p>It was clearly well intentioned, and commendably for the time it doesn't equate HIV and homosexuality... it's somewhat coy about it though, and since pretty much everything else at the time <strong>did</strong> equate the two, the impact for me and a lot of guys around my age was tying our formative sense of our own sexuality to an urgent and imminent danger of incurable infection and death.</p>
<p>That formative influence plays out differently in different people. Among guys I've talked about it with it splits roughly down the middle between instilling an almost religious faith in condoms, or resulting in a more empirical awareness that barrier protection is good but not perfect and so we accept a degree of risk whenever we have sex.</p>
<p>I've never been very religious.</p>
<p>That idea that even saf<b>er </b>sex isn't <u>safe</u> is explored in more depth in the opening parts of the excellent <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7FO6pxHR7M" target="_blank">Jeffrey</a> which if you haven't seen already, you must, it's brilliant. For the purposes of this blog I'm going to lazily point to it's opening quarter as an in-depth exploration of the issue and move on.</p>
<p>My point being that I (like a great many gay men) accepted and internalised early on that my sexuality carries an inherent risk, and when you acknowledge that that risk is present to a greater (without condoms) or lesser (with condoms) degree, it colours your thinking. Bluntly it means you generally use the blasted things, but that you are inclined, under certain circumstances, to say to yourself: "there's risk either way so what the hell". (If that sounds like an over simplification it is, and I will come back to it, but it gets the point across for now)</p>
<p>I hadn't fully realised how fatalistic I felt about HIV until I was talking over things with a health advisor at Chalmers a number of years ago. In the course of the conversation she asked me directly (based on a few comments I'd made) if I felt my infection someday was inevitable? The question shocked me, but the realisation - that, yes! on some level I felt <b>exactly</b> that - was more shocking.</p>
<p>Sex and fear of HIV have been inextricably linked for me for as long as I can remember understanding and thinking about sex. As I mentioned growing up the spectre of HIV was always linked with being gay and as I came to accept myself as gay I think on some level I also accepted wrongly or rightly that one day I'd probably wind up positive.</p>
<p>To date I've remained negative.</p>
<p>As I said that chat with the health advisor years back shocked me, and I took up the offer of counselling to explore my own attitudes to my sexual health and my responsibilities to others concerning theirs. That counsellor was excellent, we covered a lot of ground and I'm not recounting it all here, but the upshot was an exorcism of sorts. I shed the ingrained fear that had got tangled up with my sexuality, and I built some good habits, like a properly regular sexual health screening habit, and the habit of being more direct and open in talking about sexual health, the habit of discussing condom use (or not) and trying to make informed shared decisions with different partners about what level of risk was or wasn't appropriate for us.</p>
<p>All of which is of course against a backdrop of HIV becoming eminently treatable and no longer the terrifying death sentence it loomed as in "Tombstone", Jeffrey or in my youth. It's also against a backdrop of various of my friends over the past decade or so testing positive, and my seeing the virus' still significant impact first hand.</p>
<p>Broadly though, fear and that sense of inevitability went away, and were replaced with a sense of ownership of my own sexual health choices, a strong sense of my responsibility to my partners and an ability to talk about those choices, but each choice still boiled down to putting my faith in condoms or not, and that seems a good point to come back to my gross over simplification from earlier.</p>
<p>A great many gay men maintain they always use a condom. If you do and that's true then that's great -good for you. However a great many gay men who maintain they always use a condom, don't, and that's dangerous. Throughout my 20s I maintained I always used condoms. Throughout my 20s I did not always use condoms. In my 30s I began being more honest about that and immediately ran into the main reason most gay men simply lie.</p>
<p>Early on in my attempts to be honest and discuss sexual health choices with prospective partners I was staggered by how vehemently some men responded, and the abuse I got for trying to have a grown up discussion about it. To be clear I'm happy using condoms, but I honestly prefer not to if it's an option, and I don't share some peoples' blind faith in them (they break) but even knowing what a touchy subject it can be, I was staggered by how <strong>even just discussing the issue </strong>was taboo for some guys.</p>
<p>There's tremendous pressure to say we always do, but <strong>saying</strong> when we don't always use a condom is vital because it's the first step in owning our own and our partners' health. Pressurising people, sermonising and judging people who are honest about their own fallibility (or their own informed choices) is dangerous in my opinion.</p>
<p>Now I - like many other gay men - have added a layer to my armoury of preventative measures. As well as having condoms to hand if they're the preferred option, I also take a pill every morning which blocks that one incurable virus from infecting me should I be exposed, as part of the medical care surrounding that pill I also get a full sexual health MOT every three months. By any rational measure I'm being very responsible but just like before I and other men on PrEP find ourselves being vilified as irresponsible by a significant number of our peers and the press - "just use a condom" is trotted out as if that's what everyone else is doing. As if that's always going to work.</p>
<p>So to finish I'm going to share an infographic I made as part of a self promotion project, it's intended to both explain what PrEP is to folk encountering it for the first time, and to drive home why it's such a miraculous thing, and why increasing numbers of gay men are shelling out for it themselves (whether or not they can really afford it).</p>
<br />
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EXBeewRHAIM/WL6ybZlaPLI/AAAAAAAAAP4/1elD2WyZUUEmlIrmSb8EzE7ZrCaE0SnswCLcB/s1600/blue%2Bpill2-web.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EXBeewRHAIM/WL6ybZlaPLI/AAAAAAAAAP4/1elD2WyZUUEmlIrmSb8EzE7ZrCaE0SnswCLcB/s1600/blue%2Bpill2-web.png" /></a><br />
<br />
<p>The numbers come from <a href="http://www.nat.org.uk/press-release/prep-contributes-40-drop-hiv-diagnoses-uk%E2%80%99s-busiest-sexual-health-clinic" target="_blank">here</a> and are among the more modest results. New HIV infection rates in places like San Fransisco (where PrEP has been available longer) <a href="http://www.aidsmap.com/San-Francisco-reports-new-low-in-HIV-infections-and-faster-treatment-but-disparities-remain/page/3082266/" target="_blank">have been dropping steeply since 2012</a>. If "just" using a condom had been the answer to HIV we'd not be seeing these kinds of results.</p>
<p>Personally that one blue pill each morning has eradicated the last scraps of fear and inevitability still tied to my own sexuality. It gives me peace of mind, and a greater sense of control and security about my own and my partners' health. It's something that I strongly feel needs to be talked about more openly and more widely until we can kick this absurd reactive taboo surrounding grown-up conversations about our actual sexual health choices (instead of the "always" lie so many of us tell).</p>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Part of the idea of rebranding business-me as <a href="http://inforocket.scot/">inforock.it</a> last year was to create a church/state kind of separation between personal and work "me" but life's never that clear cut so it tickles me that my first post here in six months represents a slightly muddy mix of the two :D )</span>Patrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10798704204346653807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516007.post-70605316532449533932016-08-19T22:49:00.003+01:002016-08-19T22:55:15.088+01:00Is it me?So just now I was walking home from the office. A big project ran on late.
<br /><br />
I was happy to stay back and work on it. I love my job.
<br /><br />
Walking home I go through the meadows, and (as usual) I avoid the main drag in favour of the less well used path beside Melville Drive. I like it. It's quiet.
<br /><br />
Halfway home I spot a couple ahead. They're moving a little slower than I am but I'm not worried. They're a couple for one thing so I won't spook them, but also they seem solid. Big. Manly...
<br /><br />
I get closer and see that I'm behind two men. Two large manly men. Two large manly men who are holding hands as they walk.
<br /><br />
I love this.
<br /><br />
I want to hug them just for being there.
<br /><br />
I'm going to pass them soon.
<br /><br />
...
<br /><br />
How do I tell them how amazing they are without being weird. I mean, I'm seeing them as me, I'm almost 40. I still relate to the world through that filter... but "large manly men" might be as young as 20, or younger. For them this might be unremarkable.
<br /><br />
My heart skips a beat.
<br /><br />
This might be unremarkable.
<br /><br />
...
<br /><br />
It might not though.
<br /><br />
It's dark, we're on a lightly used path, these men might just as easily be my age. They might be as aware as me of how miraculous and beautiful their simple, quiet, inoffensive act of togetherness is.
<br /><br />
I need to acknowledge it.
<br /><br />
...
<br /><br />
I know. That's idiotic. I still do.
<br /><br />
...
<br /><br />
I pass them. I hold out my arm at right angle to my body and I make an emphatic thumbs up. I hold it for 30 seconds. And I let go.
<br /><br />
I love these men. Whoever they are, whether or not they saw my gesture of solidarity, whether or not the understood it. I love that they exist.Patrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10798704204346653807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516007.post-90527158173299730752016-06-29T18:59:00.000+01:002016-06-29T19:00:16.615+01:00Happy blogday<p>It was this poor neglected little blog's birthday on Monday. 13 years ago I began this infrequent rambling sequence of thoughts and observations.</p>
<p>13. Years.</p>
<p>How'd that happen? It's apropos nothing, I just have it in my calendar and never remember to do anything about it, so in characteristically tardy fashion happy birthday little blog o' mine.</p>
<p>...</p>
<p>Why yes, I am struggling to compose my thoughts on recent events, how'd you guess? I'm working on it...</p> Patrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10798704204346653807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516007.post-41539015117284876542016-04-28T11:57:00.000+01:002016-04-28T12:01:26.941+01:00Snow!<p>Amazing weekend was had with Justin and Ivan.</p>
<p><a href="http://gecko76.livejournal.com/241589.html" target=_blank>Justin's written it up and posted some of the photos here.</a></p>
<p>Not sure how it's happening - since my conscious efforts to improve my fitness always seem to fall on their face - but I think I'm fitter than I was. The steep ascent of Lochnagar with ice axes was definitely challenging (really Patrick, <strong>don't</strong> look down!) but I wasn't wiped out afterward, and I had to use my arms! (if you've seen my arms you'll understand why that's astonishing). Fun to find you can do more than you thought you could, especially when it feels like you've been a lazy slug all winter.</p>
<p>Also fun to find my malfunctioning digestive system <em>doesn't</em> ruin the weekend for me. When I'm careful. And medicated. Not going into grizzly details, but the past few months have had plenty of days/weeks when the idea of being out of the house all day (let alone up a hill!) was unthinkable thanks to what we'll gloss over by calling a grumpy gut. Thanks to the efforts of the NHS on that front I was fine all weekend which also felt like a triumph.</p>
<p>Anyway</p>
<p>Revisiting Aberdeen with Justin was fun, Ivan's patience with our nostalgia trip was admirable, and even though they've <em>changed</em> things [mutters darkly about car parks and the A90] there's a deep fondness for the place which came back in spades from being there. Must visit properly some time.</p>
<p>As I said, Just has put loads of pictures up so you can see more there but my favourite from the weekend is probably this one, taken from the summit after the whiteout cleared and we could see the Cairngorms (and beyond) spread out in all their snowy splendour.</p>
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WNIs31O-FoM/VyHshWwSdqI/AAAAAAAAAOw/hQIb-3KyNjUMMD8JuODBRslL33IFBIqVgCLcB/s1600/IMG_0063.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WNIs31O-FoM/VyHshWwSdqI/AAAAAAAAAOw/hQIb-3KyNjUMMD8JuODBRslL33IFBIqVgCLcB/s400/IMG_0063.jpg" /></a>
<p>More of that.</p>Patrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10798704204346653807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516007.post-67232590284082897172016-02-08T22:36:00.000+00:002016-02-09T01:11:59.190+00:00It's in here somewhere...<p>... a post about a lettuce that someone thought was a cabbage. I think it was quite a good one too (the post. The lettuce was a lettuce) but I'm buggered if I can find it now*. 13ish years worth of waffle and no search function... I'd put one in but a: I don't like search functions on websites and b: it would rob me on evenings like this re-reading assorted random posts. Which is after all what they're for. :)</p>
<p>It helps if I remember to <i>write</i> posts now and then mind you. </p>
<p>So at work (job2) today Clyn found her way here while I was blethering about what I'm doing with work (job1) and Adam said nice things about one of the posts he'd read and it all reminded me I wanted to get back in the habit of posting here (plus ça change - if there was a search function I could tell you how many posts start with ramblings about how long it's been since I posted). That and yoga. I wanted to get back in the habit there too... I'm managing intermittently. I expect this'll be the same.</p>
<p>Anyway. </p>
<p>First bit of news is that I'm in the slow-ish process of untangling my work life from this place. I'm moving it over to <a href="http://inforock.it" target =_blank>this place</a> and refocussing my freelance business (aka "job1") a bit.
The past five years I've muddled along alright as a jobbing designer, but the market for logos and websites is awfu' crowded and the blunt truth is I don't make nearly enough to live doing it (hence there being a job2). Over the festive break, with some incredibly insightful and helpful input from some of my many talented and wonderful friends and relations, a plan crystallised: a rebrand and a refocus, in no small part prompted by some of the rewarding work I'm doing for Alyn just now (more about that later but not in this post - 's under wraps). Mainly though it's about refining what I do into what I do that not any other designer could do. I'm excited about it. </p>
<p>More about that will appear in time over at <a href="http://www.inforock.it" target="_blank">inforock.it</a> and in the spirit of reclaiming splateagle.com for personal stuff I shall now shut up about work.</p>
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dnGO-aPycC8/Vrk39mFmLFI/AAAAAAAAANg/jhA48Jubx-k/s1600/IMG_6735.jpg" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dnGO-aPycC8/Vrk39mFmLFI/AAAAAAAAANg/jhA48Jubx-k/s1600/IMG_6735.jpg" /></a>
<p>There that's not work. I <b>finally</b> got past my block (induced by attempting to recreate a clear blue Japanese sky in my scruffy impressionistic daubings) and I'm pleased with the result. Next up is a bigger 3 canvas bit. That'll either be a leafy waterfall or one of the Sandwood Bay sunset photos I took a while back writ large - leaning toward the latter as I keep picturing the waterfall with sunlight and that gets me back to those tricksy blue skies... The finished one isn't staying on the floor - in fact it's up on the wall now - but there was proper daylight when I finished it and the snap I took just now came out muddy. Which it isn't, so you're getting good light and bad focus instead.</p>
<p>Oh and I sent my sister a photograph of a toothbrush at the weekend (well it wouldn't be my blog if I weren't ocasionally intentionally cryptic for my own future amusement).</p>
*<span style="font-size: x-small;">There is of course a perfectly excellent search function here on the editing end of the blog. The Lettuce <a href="http://www.splateagle.com/blog/blog.php?id=3109429274610217982">happened in November 2011</a></span>Patrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10798704204346653807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516007.post-3130571061854058452015-10-18T14:29:00.002+01:002015-10-18T14:32:26.892+01:00Irrationally sad about celophane<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pTROQl-fk5c/ViOceCipmHI/AAAAAAAAANI/kxUjgzSl7EA/s1600/IMG_6183.jpeg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pTROQl-fk5c/ViOceCipmHI/AAAAAAAAANI/kxUjgzSl7EA/s320/IMG_6183.jpeg" /></a><br />
<br />
For no good reason this makes me sad.<br />
<br />
Not having four new unwatched Who DVDs - that makes me giddyhappy. Having to take the cellophane off them all at once (and not even when I'm watching them because I promised to wait and watch two of them with a friend who keeps being busy at the weekends [glares meaningfully at Keith]).<br />
<br />
It's daft. I know it's daft, but there's something about saving my treats and enjoying them one at a time that I really enjoy. Yes, I am one of those dreadful people who carefully unpicks the wrapping paper instead of ripping into it. I enjoy the deferred gratification thing... hey there had to be at least one character trait that's adult right? ;)<br />
<br />
So against my inclinations I just torn through four DVDs, unleashing their faint free-hydrocarbon new-DVD smell all in one orgiastic rush and for what? Well because the 5th (and the first I watched) had a manufacturing fault making it unwatchable. They're birthday presents and the duff one needs to go back. The broken one (and three of the others) are from my (sensible grown up) sister, who innocently suggested (a week ago) that if I was returning the broken one I should probably check the others are OK.<br />
<br />
She was absolutely right. And yet somehow that's delayed the whole process for a week while I tried to avoid unwrapping them all...<br />
<br />
Yes. I'm laughing at myself too.<br />
<br />
On the bright side they all look fine, so 2Entertain's QC department only cocked up 1/5 of the time.<br />
<br />
<br />Patrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10798704204346653807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516007.post-70362167263880509902015-07-05T19:30:00.000+01:002015-10-18T14:31:08.863+01:00Phew!So, roughly 14 years ago I had my (then) Mac laptop on my glass coffee table, tripped over the power cord and sent it crashing to the floor. It broke.
Roughly 14 minutes ago I went to put my (now) Mac laptop on (the same) glass coffee table and wasn't looking properly...<br />
<br />
Apart from my near coronary as I watched it fall, no harm done.Patrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10798704204346653807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516007.post-11099673232760581352014-12-04T21:46:00.003+00:002014-12-04T21:46:46.320+00:00bathroom themed parcelsSo today's a freelance day. Mid-morning I was interrupted at my desk to buzz the postie into the building. Often happens, and is fair enough since someone has to let him in.
Then taking the opportunity to go to the toilet (after buzzing the door) turned out to be a mistake: At exactly the worst possible moment my doorbell (the one you have to be inside the building to use) went.
argh.
So I, um, hurry things along as much as is possible (thinking that whatever the parcel he has, is almost certainly now bound for the sorting office) and (<i>after</i> washing my hands) open the door to hear the sounds of someone about to leave the building.
rats.
Only (hurrah) postie hears me and (bless him) poddles back up the stairs.
With parcels!
For downstairs.
I hide my disappointment and cheerfully take the parcels to pass on when they get home. I can't remember the last time one of the neighbours did this for me, but I suppose not everyone's in during the day right? Besides I've answered the door now and anyway it's good karma.
Day caries on, designing gets done.
A few minutes ago I finished up for the day and - spotting the parcels in the hall - I thought "rather than settle in for my evening knowing I'm likely to get disturbed, why not pop downstairs with those" (I know, right? Best neighbour ever. Modest too.)
Downstairs don't have a doorbell, but the light's on and I can hear someone singing to himself so I knock.
Nothing happens.
I knock again.
Still nothing, and I'm about to go back upstairs (now feeling a bit peeved) when the door opens and a sheepish, slightly soggy head peers round. Turns out downstairs was in the shower. :D
Parcels handed over, and mildly embarrassed pleasantaries exchanged, I come back upstairs wondering if there's some kind of bathroom-ey theme going on with those parcels.
I wonder what was in them.Patrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10798704204346653807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516007.post-83711656819969872062014-09-19T07:14:00.001+01:002014-09-19T07:14:34.428+01:00:'(Yesterday I cast my vote for hope. <div><br></div><div>It drowned in all the fear. </div>Patrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10798704204346653807noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516007.post-83542345842311821882014-09-17T18:59:00.001+01:002014-09-17T18:59:26.439+01:00Feeling very loved<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Leb3ghrADEo/VBnL-ufPQ4I/AAAAAAAAAL4/CqAYv6MDkgs/s640/blogger-image-1551897879.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Leb3ghrADEo/VBnL-ufPQ4I/AAAAAAAAAL4/CqAYv6MDkgs/s640/blogger-image-1551897879.jpg"></a></div>Patrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10798704204346653807noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516007.post-43423149040193391072014-09-16T22:53:00.001+01:002014-09-16T23:54:05.349+01:00The eve of the eve of... victory?Tomorrow is my birthday.
<br />
<br />
I'll be 37 in an hour and seven minutes (or thereabouts).
<br />
<br />
I'm tired.
<br />
<br />
It's been a long couple of years, and I'd love to say that my tiredness is due to tireless campaigning for a just cause since the referendum was announced. It hasn't been. I'm a fervent and committed Yes and have been since day one. I've even done some volunteering to try and get the right result the day after tomorrow. I'd be lying if I said I'd done masses though, or even enough. I guess I'm not really wired that way.
<br />
<br />
So yes this is a bit of a referendum post.
<br />
<br />
Sorry.
<br />
<br />
It's not my last ditch attempt to make up for lost time though, nor do I really expect to convince anyone at this late stage (or in this narrow, forgotten corner of the internet that is my own). Like pretty much every post here for the past eleven and a bit years this is for myself, put it into the world in case it provokes interest/discussion/laughter in the wider world, but if there's a purpose to these posts they're definitely for myself.
<br />
<br />
I'm not out to make the case for Scottish independence. For one thing it's getting late. For another, <a href="http://wingsoverscotland.com/weebluebook/" target=_blank>so many others</a> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7eUpxtdnbwrpDy3eJKojkzp8clwnEIOs" target=_blank>have done that much better</a> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhVI8LDIpxs" target=_blank>than I ever could</a>.
<br />
<br />
This is for me. If it interests/puzzles/amuses you so much the better.
<br />
<br />
At some point in my dim forgotten past I fell in love. I was taken out of the world I knew for a time. Out of a world of frustrated protest: of miners' strikes and teachers's strikes... a world of loss: friends' parents being laid off (before I even really understood what jobs were), shops that shut and never opened again, mines that were demolished... a world where politics was a byword for being ignored, shunned, forgotten and - above all - trampled on.
<br />
<br />
My childhood was a <strong>very</strong> happy, sheltered, and relatively privileged one, don't get me wrong. It just happened in quite a sad, broken place. A place where my rapidly developing vocabulary never managed to make sense of words like patriotism or nationality. Where I genuinely struggled to comprehend how anyone could feel love for a country. Let alone for England*. It happened in Thatcher's South Yorkshire. I challenge anyone to be objective from that starting point, but is anyone ever objective?
<br />
<br />
As I said, at some point my parents brought me north of the border - I forget the first time - but I do remember that I fell in love.
<br />
<br />
Like any young love affair it was arguably an infatuation, at least at that stage. I certainly didn't see the whole picture holidaying in Sutherland for two weeks! But something about Scotland always felt different. Felt special. Each time I came back - whichever part of this country I came to - it all felt special in a way nowhere else ever has.
<br />
<br />
When I moved here to study for my degree, my instinctive (arguably infantile) infatuation matured into an understanding of Scotland as a place distinct from the rest of the country I thought that I knew. An understanding that "the UK" wasn't in fact one place at all. That and an understanding of why someone would die for a <i>place</i>. I began to understand the concept of national identity.
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Hardly surprising then that I never left.
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Hardly surprising then that almost two decades later, when someone asks where I'm from I confidently, honestly answer that I'm Scottish.
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From the very first time I encountered this country I've felt there was something special and different about it. Over the past few years that feeling has driven me to learn more about my adopted home, and what makes it different. The more I've learned the more convinced I've become that this place could - and should - be so much more than it's able to be as part of the UK. That it could and should be a better home for the people who live here.
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Tomorrow is my birthday.
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Birthdays for me have always been good things. Life has - on the whole - been kind to me, and each year I've lived to date has been better than the one before. Birthdays for me are a time of happy reflection and optimistic hope.
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The day after tomorrow... the day after tomorrow I optimistically hope that this magical wondrous adoptive home of mine will see in itself what I see in it. Will for the first time in three hundred and seven years (or thereabouts) take control of where it's going and how it's going to get there.
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That would be an amazing start to my year.
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* <span style="font-size: x-small;">A word I was shocked to learn later in life I had - as I believe most people south of the border do - unconsciously mistaken as synonymous with "the UK".</span>Patrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10798704204346653807noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516007.post-69647929790516017492014-05-07T18:02:00.000+01:002014-05-07T18:02:57.475+01:00Moves offThis morning I reluctantly deleted <a href="http://www.moves-app.com" target=_blank>Moves</a> from my phone, and deleted my account from their servers.
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I'm sad to lose it. I forget exactly when I started using the app, but - since they very kindly let me download all my info before I wiped it from their servers - I know that the app remembered for me. I started using it in June 2013. Since then I've been thoroughly enjoying having a quiet, beautifully designed little tracker app telling me where I've been when and how much exercise I'd got in the process.
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Then last month <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2014/04/24/facebook-buys-fitness-app-moves/" target=_blank>Facebook bought them</a>.
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My gut reaction was distrust, but Moves promised they'd remain independent and not commingle data with their new <strike>data-farming overlords</strike> owners.
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So I carried on using the app until this morning. This morning it wanted me to install an update and accept revised terms and conditions. One of the main revisions explicitly allowed them to <i>"share information, including personally identifying information, with our Affiliates (companies that are part of our corporate groups of companies, including but not limited to Facebook) to help provide, understand, and improve our Services."</i>
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Um. No thank you.
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Now it's important at this point to mention that I am <strong>not</strong> <a href="http://www.no2id.net" target=_blank>a privacy nut</a>. I accept that living in the modern world means I leave all kinds of metaphorical foot, finger and face prints all over everything. All the time. I'm fine with that. I mean - d'uh - here I am blogging after all.
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Partly I'm happy enough that the sheer volume of data about all of us out there secures the data collected about me by burying it in all the other data about everyone else. Partly I'm confident that I'm not really doing anything that draws attention to me, except where I've intended that (like writing a post here and tweeting it). Mostly though I'm relaxed about data collection because I tend to choose how and to whom I volunteer potentially sensitive information, and <strong>what I get in return</strong>.
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When you boil it right down, I used Moves because they provided a service I really valued and - as an independent app - I was happy with them benefitting by gathering some data about me. Nothing's actually free after all.
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Facebook's core service is of no interest to me whatsoever. I don't value it, so I don't use it. I've stayed in touch with the people I wanted to, and maintain those connections just fine through various other routes. As Facebook's grown more all-pervasive I've, on occasion, looked at their terms to see what the "cost" of joining is and whether the (minor) benefit of having an account on this increasingly widely used platform would benefit me enough to merit giving up whatever it is that Facebook wants in return. I keep coming back to the same conclusion: that Facebook wants to aggressively harvest data about its userbase in order to sell aggressively targeted advertising.
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I have an unusually low tolerance for advertising at the best of times.
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So I deleted Moves. I don't trust that the (moderately sensitive) data I was happy with an independent Moves using, won't in some way be used to harangue me to buy crap I don't want now that it's "shared" with Facebook. I especially don't trust them fudging this whole issue - as <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/may/06/moves-app-privacy-policy-facebook-sharing-data" target=_blank>the Guardian point out</a> - by drawing a distinction between "share" and "commingle" but failing to articulate the nature of that difference.
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Put simply, data "payment" for free services needs to meet a cost benefit analysis like any other transaction, and (for me) the cost of giving my data to Facebook makes the benefit of using Moves too expensive. Patrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10798704204346653807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516007.post-1059508916235364222014-04-18T16:36:00.001+01:002014-04-18T16:36:58.989+01:00Peek-tyuresJust a quick one, as it's a gloriously sunny bank holiday and I want to get to the pub. But I also want to point out <a href="http://t.co/hmA3UBbRzI" target=_blank>this brilliant piece in the Guardian</a> from earlier this week.
<br /><br />
Responding to the (totally understandable) outrage at <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/andrewbrown/2014/apr/16/daily-mirror-weeping-child-lie-food-banks" target=_blank>The Mirror using a stock photo</a> for their front page article on food banks, the Guardian's head of photography writes a gentle thought provoking piece highlighting the importance of truth in photo-journalism... and it strikes me there are plenty of us in the design/web/marketing world who could stand to take this onboard too.
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People are cynical. Give them a chance to poke holes in what you're saying and they will.
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Stock photography <em>can</em> do just this. If we choose it poorly or - <strong>much</strong> worse - try and palm it off as something it isn't, we lose our audience's trust and (in doing so) lose our audience.
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Right. That's quite enough pontificating from me. Pub.Patrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10798704204346653807noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516007.post-87447619088439936512014-04-04T22:31:00.000+01:002014-04-18T16:17:32.896+01:00Truth in advertising.So. This week I found a new (to me) gay dating app called <a href="http://www.misterapp.com/" target="_blank">Mister</a>.
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<br />
I like it.
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It's mostly full of Americans* (of course - there are so damned many of you guys!) but that's not the point. The point is, that it's specifically billed as the gay app for grown ups and - <strong>shock</strong> - the users actually seem to have taken this to heart! It's full of funny, interesting articulate blokes who talk to each other like <em>real human beings</em>. Even though they're on the internet!
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I <em>know</em>. We can do that. Who knew.
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<br />
Anyhoo, as much as <strong>personally</strong> I'm loving the app & enjoying the chat on there, <strong>professionally</strong> I'm <strong>loving </strong>Mister's marketing. It's smart & funny & <strong>honest</strong>.
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I like those things as - I hope - you may have noticed.
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It's fun to see a relatively successful product employing much the same approach I'm trying with my own business: be honest, be yourself, be engaging & the rest will follow.
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I especially love two of their "adverts" YouTube videos: clearly styled as pastiches of Apple's old "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eEG5LVXdKo" target="_blank">Mac & PC</a>" campaign. The two chaps on screen represent themselves & (simultaneously) the tone & content of their online chat with each other. It's really beautifully done & I can't stop watching them - in fact the only reason I'm only raving about <em>two</em> is that I can't find more than those two - if you're reading Mister - either "encore!" (if there <em>are</em> only two) or sort your YouTube channel (if there are more lurking there that I - a former librarian - have been unable to locate).
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I like sharing things and want to share these two vids, but - conscious that much of <em>my</em> audience (unlike Mister's) may never have encountered some of the contextual aspects of these funny, honest little observational gems, I feel a little preamble is in order.
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If this falls under the heading of explaining the joke & killing the funny, forgive me.
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So, follow the links when you've read my guff. OK? Unless you've ever used Grindr in which case you'll get it immediately.<br />
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<strong>Vid 1: </strong>"<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcuwcXfp9gc" target="_blank">Shit guys on Gay Apps Say</a>"
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<u>Context:</u> some of you reading this (who btw can thank your lucky stars!!) will never have encountered either bro'lish or cyberamnesia. Trust me. Both are very, very real. In fact I think I've had almost exactly the same conversation as we see here (though <em>I</em> probably didn't ask about sports).<br />
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ahem.
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Many of the guys in most gay chat apps will use words of one syllable (or worse: lol) in lieu of actual conversation & will still be bewildered (and possibly sad) when this fails to forge any kind of connection with the fella on the other end of the line.<br />
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Most marketers of gay chat apps seem utterly indifferent to this yawning chasm in their "communication" product, and will instead blithely assume that bombarding potential users with (unrealistic) images of who might be waiting on their app will win the day.
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This ad gently, humourously underlines the flaw in how many of us gay men have taken to "chatting" online, and by doing so, beautifully underlines what the product (the Mister app) is, and is not.<br />
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<strong>Vid 2:</strong> "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U--3_QjAvW4" target="_blank">Bear Talk</a>"
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<u>Context:</u> Happily the guys at Mister did some of my work for me here. Well, actually <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUZPRnt0dIg" target="_blank">here</a>.
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Watch that video "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUZPRnt0dIg" target="_blank">why bears woof</a>" & you'll get a sense of what the bear community's tounge in cheek defacto greeting "woof" is about. Assuming you didn't already know [winks at Phil].
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"Woof" <em>is</em> used on bear, and bear-ish sites though & - just as in the ad - it means many things depending on the context. It's a kind of catch all friendly verbal wave of the hand... that any of us who identify as bear or bear adjacent** cringe at ourselves for using, yet still sometimes hide behind. Yes you do. Honesty remember?
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What's lovely about the "Bear Talk" vid, is how it acknowledges that (as we see in "why bears woof") that self-same community recognises the limitations of "woof" and wants to communicate more, better, to engage more fully and more diversely with each other. Sadly all too often the atmosphere or tone of the chat products we're using online makes it easy to fall back on a cliche.
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Mister picks that up and runs with it, again - gently, humourously and (since - in contrast to "bro'lish" - the owners of this daft net -ism are on board with Mister's product ethos) with a sexy sense of play.
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It's beautiful.
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Truth in advertising. And a product that kinda lives up to its own spiel! Hurrah!<br />
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Food for thought for those of us advertising & marketing our own products (or, indeed ourselves!): be genuine, be direct, be engaging & be witty. But above all have a rewarding product waiting when you've caught the audience's attention. The rest falls into place.
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Woof.<br />
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<strong>update:</strong>
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Since Mister so kindly linked to this post in their members email this week I figured I should say "hi" to anyone arriving here by that route, and link back to <a href="http://www.misterapp.com/node/3597645/profile" target=_blank>my profile</a> on there.
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* <span style="font-size: x-small;">I have nothing against 'murcans, in fact evidence suggests I'd enjoy the company of a great many of you, but until we develop teleporters it's frustrating when all the guys I want to chat with are on the "wrong" side of the Atlantic. Huff.</span><br />
** <span style="font-size: x-small;">For the record cub. Kinda. Insofar as I <em>do</em> labels.</span>Patrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10798704204346653807noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516007.post-92192775469854982802014-03-13T15:06:00.001+00:002014-03-13T15:06:12.185+00:00Just a momentOut walking by the canal. Admiring the daffodils. <div><br></div><div>The sun breaks through the day's overcast just as the small boy behind me on his wooden push along bike pauses his excited "bbbbbbrrrrrrrm" noise to make a cheery "beebip" as he passes. Meanwhile up ahead the man walking his dog briefly makes aeroplane arms as he peels off the towpath into Harrison Park. </div><div><br></div><div>I love springtime. </div>Patrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10798704204346653807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516007.post-53809287508677848792013-12-18T10:49:00.000+00:002013-12-18T10:50:11.921+00:00Information is beautifulEveryone knows I love me a good infographic.<br />
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Spotted this one in the government's <a href="http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2013/11/9348/0" target="_blank">white paper</a> and just had to repost it (recoloured so as not to jar with its surroundings, naturally). Click for a larger version.<br />
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<a href="http://www.splateagle.com/img/Indie.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="1660" src="http://www.splateagle.com/img/Indie-big.png" width="700" /></a></div>
<br />Patrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10798704204346653807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516007.post-6828835404509195832013-12-05T16:43:00.000+00:002013-12-05T16:43:00.294+00:00VisibilityOne of my favourite ways of unwinding, or unjamming my brain if I get stuck on a project, is to go for a walk along the tow path on the Union Canal. I find I think through my feet sometimes and the stroll out west under the bridges and past the ducks, with the water always steady beside me and an unrolling familiar-but-each-time-new landscape of the canal sides to occupy my brain... I just love it.<br />
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This time of year though there's a problem, the light. Around mid afternoon the sun goes down so most of the times I might go for a walk it's pitch black, if not when I head out then definitely by the time I'm coing back (my customary walk is 2 miles out and 2 back).<br />
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A few years back Scottish Waterways lined the towpath with neat little solar powered running lights. They make it easy to see where the path runs and are (I think) kind of beautiful in themselves:<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nm5I2TWuBAQ/UpT7-ndulgI/AAAAAAAAAKU/bT3715VFpps/s1600/IMG_4326.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="546" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nm5I2TWuBAQ/UpT7-ndulgI/AAAAAAAAAKU/bT3715VFpps/s640/IMG_4326.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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However the towpath is also a commuter run for cyclists and I was increasingly finding I was dangerously invisible to them. Nobody actually made me have to jump into the water, but on a walk a few weeks back several riders nearly ran straight into me on the return leg, and being apparently invisible (but not permiable) was taking a lot of the fun out of the walk.<br />
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Happily <a href="http://gecko76.livejournal.com/" target="_blank">Justin</a>'s cycling habit came to the rescue and he's loaned me a visibility armband thingy so now when I go stomping I have little red lights on one arm.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RPAZpHVUxrE/UpT8BYvfTCI/AAAAAAAAAKg/OFynG3AItns/s1600/IMG_4324.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RPAZpHVUxrE/UpT8BYvfTCI/AAAAAAAAAKg/OFynG3AItns/s640/IMG_4324.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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Kind of a "I'm here please do not try to cycle through me!" alert. It works too. Winter walking is a peaceful and relaxing experience once more. Hurrah for the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LED" target="_blank">LED</a>!Patrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10798704204346653807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516007.post-69937057447567638952013-12-01T19:21:00.000+00:002013-12-01T19:21:00.235+00:00Covered in awesomeAnita brought these to my attention a while back and I keep meating to share them: <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/donnad/terry-pratchetts-discworld-series-gets-stunning-collectors-e" target="_blank">new cover art</a> for some of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels. They're beautiful and inspiring.<br />
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It's hard picking a favourite but I think mine is probably this:<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-erd19M_CV3I/UpT1Pg8DEEI/AAAAAAAAAJ8/LNo4MGZsOTg/s1600/enhanced-buzz-13589-1382711808-0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Sourcery cover, via Buzzfeed" border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-erd19M_CV3I/UpT1Pg8DEEI/AAAAAAAAAJ8/LNo4MGZsOTg/s1600/enhanced-buzz-13589-1382711808-0.jpg" title="Sourcery cover, via Buzzfeed" /></a></div>
<br />Patrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10798704204346653807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516007.post-48839028933342407602013-11-26T18:17:00.002+00:002013-11-26T19:24:56.577+00:00AffirmativeWell that was fun!<br />
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I'm just back after helping <a href="http://www.yesscotland.net/" target="_blank">Yes Scotland</a> leaflet <a href="http://82.113.138.107/00439013.pdf" target="_blank">information on today's White Paper</a> to commuters at Haymarket (we were handing out an even more condensed summary, the <a href="http://82.113.138.107/00439021.pdf" target="_blank">full thing</a> is here if you're curious) I may not have mentioned this to everyone but after around a decade as a small "n" Scottish nationalist I threw my hat over the fence in October and became a card carrying member of the SNP. Seemed only right: I believe fervently in an idependent Scotland and the the referendum less than a year away, it seemed time to do something about that belief.<br />
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So anyway today was my first bit of political activism since... well pretty much since marching in favour of the (then) new and shiny devolved Scottish Parliament's (then) proposed repeal* of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_2A" target="_blank">Section 28</a> back at University.<br />
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And it was fun.<br />
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22 of us turned up to don Saltire blue Yes Scotland branded hi-viz and hand out postcard sized summaries of the white paper, until we ran out and began handing out Yes newspapers... which also ran out pretty quick.<br />
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I spotted only three "Better Together" volunteers. They seemed to be having a much harder time finding welcome hands to take their papers.<br />
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One especially lovely moment for me was when a woman commuter stopped in front of me and peered intently at my blue vest for a second before taking the proffered paper with a big smile. "Sorry" she said "it's just someone tried to give me one of those Better Together ones earlier."<br />
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There were of course plenty of people passing who didn't want either a paper or a postcard, commuters after all are usually focussed on commuting... a couple even announced their intention to vote no as they passed me, but the responses I had were overwhelmingly either open-minded curiosity or genuine enthusiasm. Heart warming really.<br />
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40min into our hour of volunteering we'd all 22 run out of things to hand people, a shame really as the handful of No folk still seemed to have armfuls of their paper... but then as I said fewer people seemed interested in that.<br />
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I realise it's a completely unscientific sample and all, but nonetheless it felt today like Scotland is very seriously thinking about going it alone next year, and I for one couldn't be happier about that.<br />
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* <span style="font-size: x-small;">which subesequently passed more than three years before Westminster took that shameful bit of hatred-enshrined-in-legislation off the rest of the UK's statutes. Just sayin'.</span>Patrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10798704204346653807noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516007.post-79395474613384171472013-11-23T21:30:00.000+00:002013-11-26T19:21:33.978+00:00Just. Wow.I was hoping to enjoy the Doctor Who 50th special. I wasn't prepared for just how much though.<br />
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<i>Fantastic</i>.Patrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10798704204346653807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516007.post-49394289246179075562013-11-21T16:00:00.000+00:002013-11-26T18:58:52.207+00:00How did I miss this?<a href="http://gecko76.livejournal.com/" target="_blank">Justin</a> pointed <a href="http://what-if.xkcd.com/1/" target="_blank">this</a> out to me a while back and I've yet to get through more than a handful of them but I <b>love</b> it. As I think will anyone with an enquiring mind, a love of infographics, and/or a sense of humour.<br />
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As with most xkcd the alt texts are usually worth hovering for (not in the first handful, but the later ones) my personal favourite so far being from his examination of what (hypothetically) would be the effects of an ever expanding Earth:<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3ta8aIf9jmc/UpTujwbbe6I/AAAAAAAAAJg/lMopfMp_1Z8/s1600/Screen+Shot+2013-10-16+at+15.19.24.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3ta8aIf9jmc/UpTujwbbe6I/AAAAAAAAAJg/lMopfMp_1Z8/s1600/Screen+Shot+2013-10-16+at+15.19.24.png" /></a></div>
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<br />Patrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10798704204346653807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516007.post-63010419989487412862013-11-13T23:30:00.000+00:002013-11-26T18:49:49.522+00:00one year to the daySo OK I'm not really doing cryptic posts for my future self anymore, or rather I'm trying not to...<br />
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...but. I had news today about a friend's engagement which made me look back on <a href="http://www.splateagle.com/blog/blog.php?id=8312150415227478487" target="_blank">this</a> post and smile. Not least since said news coincidentally arrived one year to the day after that post.<br />
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That's all. As you were.Patrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10798704204346653807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516007.post-55765838989580023722013-10-28T18:59:00.000+00:002013-11-26T19:17:38.555+00:00RiversideLast week my brother and his family came to visit Edinburgh for the first time.<br />
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Well, not the first time. My brother's been lots... and he and my sister-in-law have visited together a few times... including once with my nephew when he was very small and I (famously) had nothing but pear cider in the fridge when I left my brother babysitting his son and toom my sister-in-law out for all night festival comedy and coctails.<br />
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Last week my neice visited Edinburgh for the first time, the rest of her family came along too.<br />
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It was an awesome week all round and part of me's tempted to drone on about it here but I'm not going to, partly because I doubt anyone except future me wants to read that (and he gets plenty to read) and partly because my brother's not always that comfortable with me putting details of his and his family's life out on the open interweb. Understandable. Besides all of that I'm rusty at blogging and my fingers would probably wind up sore.<br />
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Instead I'm just going to blog about going with all of them plus <a href="http://gecko76.livejournal.com/" target="_blank">Justin</a> and his two daughters to Glasgow's (relatively) new transport museum, <a href="http://www.glasgowlife.org.uk/museums/riverside/Pages/default.aspx" target="_blank">Riverside Museum</a>. <br />
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If you haven't been (and live in Scotland) you must. Hell if you haven't been and <i>don't</i> live here I'd recommend it should you make the trip. It's a fantastic place, the building itself is worth a visit in my book and that's even before you get to the wonderfully presented exhibits. There are shelves of old cars* rambling displays of mixed vehicles with stories woven through them, an almost hypnotic wartime subway to ride on, and a victorian Glasgow pub (on the recreated victorian Main Street that occupies one corner of the museum where you can explore all the shops...) populated with ghosts by a genius use of video screens as pub mirrors.<br />
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Sadly none of my photos really does the place justice but in amongst all the failed attempts at panoramas and interiors is a rather nice reflection of the tall ship in the river front glass of the building:<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TuPUPOJmhME/UpTzQCZ4pcI/AAAAAAAAAJs/rWUL3oE69f4/s1600/IMG_4307.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img alt="Riverside Museum, Glasgow" border="0" height="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TuPUPOJmhME/UpTzQCZ4pcI/AAAAAAAAAJs/rWUL3oE69f4/s400/IMG_4307.jpg" title="Riverside Museum, Glasgow" width="300" /></a></div>
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Fantastic to see a celebration of transport and transport design so well designed in and of itself. Can't wait to go back.<br />
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* <span style="font-size: x-small;">Some amongst us (OK we four grown-ups) were distressed that "old" includes cars from our childhoods and even in one case one of our first cars. Tempus fugit.</span>Patrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10798704204346653807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516007.post-47260292772659434332013-10-05T23:47:00.001+01:002013-10-05T23:58:55.759+01:00Starry eyedI just finished watching and enjoying this wonderful <a href="http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/the-very-large-array-is-currently-shut-down-but-enjoy-this-documentary" target="_blank">documentary</a> on the <a href="http://offline2.nrao.edu/" target="_blank">NRAO New Mexico Very Large Array</a>.<br />
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It's a scientific and technological icon of my childhood. Quieter and more understated perhaps than <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concorde" target="_blank">Concorde</a> or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle" target="_blank">The Shuttle</a>, and (in spite of its many cinematic cameos) certainly far less ubiquitous than the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_Disc" target="_blank">Compact Disc</a> or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velcro" target="_blank">Velcro</a>. But its completion in 1980 marked the beginning of a new era in space observation and it's such a powerfully evocative structure that it's long since seeped into my subconscious as the image of our planet's eye on the universe.<br />
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Jodie Foster's narration and the stunning cinematography combine to make a hym to this technological, scientific monument of <i>my</i> age. It's deeply moving.<br />
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What's even more moving is learning that (unlike most of my other examples - Velcro notwithstanding) The VLA has had a C21st rebirth, marrying its breathtaking late C20th macro engineering with the best of early C21st micro technology to produce an instrument with all the majesty and grace of the original, but many times the capacity to (further) enrich our understanding of the universe we inhabit.<br />
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I salute you VLA.Patrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10798704204346653807noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5516007.post-47516249914256628772013-09-25T16:57:00.000+01:002013-09-25T16:57:22.455+01:00Four minutes...So I missed voting in the BBC's <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24180438" target="_blank">Stirling Prize poll</a> by that. Four minutes. Frustrating since I'd basically made up my mind on seeing the video of the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24054185" target="_blank">Park Hill</a> rennovation but I wanted to be fair so I watched the others too. <div>
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It doesn't matter of course - RIBA's judges won't be paying a blind bit of notice to the BBC's poll but it's frustrating all the same. </div>
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That said I'm glad I looked around the other entries - some fantastic buildings in there and each of the little mini documentaries was nicely put together. Newhall Be and Astly Castle especially caught my eye... but whether it's regional bias or my deep rooted fondness for brutalist architecture I couldn't say, but Park Hill is the stand out for me. </div>
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Growing up in South Yorkshire, Sheffield was where we went to shop, when real shopping was required. As a kid of course "real shopping" meant toy shopping (invariably only near birthdays and xmas) and toy shopping in my childhood meant <a href="http://www.sheffieldhistory.co.uk/forums/index.php/forum/45-redgates-toy-shop/" target="_blank">Redgates</a>. Perhaps then the stirring I get from views of Park Hill, high on it's bluff overlooking Sheffield has as much to do with seeing it from the car window on such trips? My own personal <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossus_of_Rhodes" target="_blank">Colossus of Rhodes</a> standing sentinel over Sheffield Parkway signalling we'd reached the place where <b>all the toys</b> were...</div>
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Perhaps.</div>
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I'd like to think it has at least something to do with the aesthetics and the purpose of the project as well - seeing that yearning post-war optimisim inherent in the building reinvigorated and made new for a C21st audience is really exciting. The honesty of the design is refreshing too - the bare concrete features in some of the interiors (yes Virginia, concrete can be beautiful!) and the way the simple, large windows and bold colour panels play with the strong lines of the original structure. </div>
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Regardless of it winning the award I really hope the project continues, and the whole estate gets this new lease on life. </div>
Patrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10798704204346653807noreply@blogger.com0