JP's Corner of The Blogosphere

Today I'm going to break with my recently developed tradition of referring to articles from the BBC News Page.  I'm not even going to talk about trains.   I had to do a demonstration for a customer first thing this morning, which didn't start quite as well as one would have hoped for.  I felt that the only thing I was demonstrating successfully was Murphy's Law, when one of the Windows computers decided that it was a good time to lock up, and other various minor problems all occurred just as the customer arrived.  You might have said "it was one of Those Days".   Someone evidently has a sense of humour though.  Whilst I was getting the show back on the road I logged in to my email.  Those of you who use Gmail might know that sometimes a 'Quote of the Day' appears at the top of the inbox, and starting me in the face was "If at first you don't succeed then maybe failure is more your style - Quentin Crisp."  Talk about Tak...

It's lunchtime, and from my current base in Amsterdam I like to keep an eye on the world through the lens of the BBC News page.  It's gone one o'clock as I write this, and it's probably not one o'clock as you read this, but I hope you'll forgive me and allow for a bit of Artistic License with the title.   You would have thought that I had far more interesting things to talk about in Amsterdam than what's happening in Swindon, and - fortunately - you'd be right.  I do.  But I haven't yet had time to perfect my writings, so you'll have to wait for JP's take on the Dutch capital.  In the meantime, I can't resist passing comment on this BBC News Article .   Specifically, I want to draw your attention to the quote by Labour councillor Derique Montaut, who apparently opposed the decision.   "I think speed cameras locally, nationally and internationally, have shown that they're one measure - one of many measures - that can b...

Cloudy.         >> This is for Gareth's benefit.  I couldn't resist, but I really must get to work now.

I read this BBC News article with some interest. Obviously I don't agree with what the advertisement says, but I think that anything which prompts people to consider God can only be a good thing. That said, I did smile at Steven Green's comment: "Bendy-buses, like atheism, are a danger to the public at large." In this case I have to say that the advert makes some very misleading claims. To claim that 'God probably doesn't exist' implies that the possible existence of God can be quantified in some meaningful way. Let's face it, although the writer of the advert is entitled to claim that they don't think God exists they cannot prove anything. Secondly, I would like to question the implication that not believing in God will stop you from worrying and ensure that you enjoy life. What rubbish. It will be interesting to see if the usual 'don't preach at me brigade' object to these adverts in the same way as they object to Christian advertisi...

I have taken to using Google Chrome as my preferred web-browser, and I rather like it.  It's got a clean, clear interface and I find it quite intuitive.  Admittedly I felt a tinge of sadness when I decided to uninstall Firefox but I didn't have any use for three browsers.  I don't really like having more than one web browser, actually, but like it or lump it there are still one or two sites which are too archaic to support anything other than Internet Explorer.   Anyway, despite all the things I like about it, I have now inadvertently discovered something which annoys me.  Maybe I've missed something here, but the fact that I'm in Holland does not suddenly mean that ik spreek Nederlands and always wish to search google.nl.   Hello from Amsterdam, by the way.

In recent weeks my Facebook Mini-Feed has been increasingly populated by countdowns for one thing or another. Invariably when I log in I learn that someone is one day closer to their wedding than they were when I logged in yesterday, or that someone else is 9 hours closer to their loved one than they were when I checked on my way in to work, 9 hours earlier. Maybe this sudden trend has been encouraged by the wet summer, or a new feeling of Autumn Blues, but nevertheless some people need to get out more.

If you've been keeping up with my new found blogging pace recently, you will have known that the last three posts on Tuesday centred around my experience with a jobsworth Revenue Inspector and the hour and a half I had in Swindon thanks to his mean mindedness and lack of any reasonable human judgement. Not that I'm bitter, or anything. Anyway, whilst I was on the train home today my quiet reading* was rudely interrupted by a gaggle of yobs** who boarded the train. They were shouting at each other up and down the carriage, swearing, banging on the windows and generally acting as though it was some kind of mobile zoo. Unsurprisingly, when the conductor made his way in to the carriage he discovered that most of them were travelling without a valid ticket. I watched in anticipation hoping that he would throw the book at them and was disappointed when the mild confrontation with the first group only led to them being thrown off the train at the next stop with no further punishmen...