Neither a planner nor predictor be.

I planned yesterday what to write in my blog today. It never occurred to me, even this morning, I would make three postings.

But fate took control; I had to write a blog to register my hope that Welsh Gardner had not been excluded from the Jezza’s Exiles message board.

Yesterday there was an exchange of views, in the comments section, on whether to start a new message board. I installed a guestbook which visitors could use as a forum. It worked OK yesterday, but today its decided to bar all entry. To be excluded from a message board is regrettable, to be barred from your own guestbook is positively perverse!

Do you ever get the feeling you aren’t wanted? Is it me or what?

A message has now been left in the comment section of the “Cause for concern” blog, informing readers that a new message board has been set up.

Exiles Exiles

http://exilesexiles.eamped.com/

Now the question is, can I chance applying for membership and risk my application being blackballed - barred from three boards in a week, would be some record - or would it be better to wait till next week, in the hope my luck will change?

Exiles Exiles, are you going to have a Sports Forum on your Board?

Reality check.

Getting back to the blog I intended posting today.

We all think we are important, and the things that happen to us are important. But in reality we inhabit a 7inch diameter World. Its located just above your shoulders, and it goes with you wherever you go.

Lets distinguish between absolute reality and relative reality.

Absolute reality, you I exist, people can see, touch, hear, and smell(!) you.

Relative reality is the world you think you inhabit. Its how you perceive yourself, family, friends, the people you interact with, your home, belongings and everything else.

Someone says “leave me alone”; you interpret the words, give them meaning (positive, negative, neutral), you react not to the words but to the meaning you have placed on them.

This week I have blogged about being excluded from a message board. A spectrum of feelings, reactions was open to me - I could feel offended, hard done by, indignant, hatred, vengefulness, amusement, indifference, apathy. I could fill the page with a list of possible emotions. My feelings and subsequent actions depended on what I had perceived had happened in my relative world.

Its always advisable to periodically take a reality check. Yesterday I asked you to identify the person in the photograph. I would guess that a very small minority of the people who read the blog would know the position he holds, and an even smaller minority will know his name. He looks oriental, looks healthy, well dressed - perhaps he’s the chief executive of a motor manufacture or electronic company. In fact he is Hu Jintao president of the People’s Republic of China and chairman of the CPC Central Military Commission. The leader of the fastest growing economy in the world, and ruler of approximately one thousand three hundred and fourteen million citizens - that’s a lot of people!

If ever I think events become daunting I think about the 1,314,000,000 Chinese and ask - how important do they think the events are? It’s an effective reality check, when you realise more than 99.999999999% of the worlds population don’t even know that you exist. In fact, unless you live in a small village, more than 99.9% of the residence of your home town don’t know you exist. It’s even more sobering to realise how many people you come in daily contact with would react with derision at your over reaction to a trivial event.

I’ve already noted how futile it is to plan. But we still deceive ourselves that we are the centre of the Universe - time to take another reality check!

By the way this is a photograph of the leader of a country with a population of over 1,000,000,000. - and they’ve never heard of me as well!

Cause for concern

I started the month with the blog “Not to plan” - the reason why it is foolish to plan.

Yesterday, I again fell into the trap of planning what I would write about today - foolish me. Yet again I have had to change my plan.

I thought I had finished with writing about Jezza’s Exiles message board; but this morning I wondered across to have a “quick look see”. To my surprise and consternation I saw a thread posted by Rabid saying Welsh Gardener is unable to log on to the board. Why?

I hope there isn’t a witch hunt under way, with indiscriminate exclusion of members from the board.

I now feel guilty that I did not warn Welsh Gardener, that in the email to me from the Site Administrator she was referred to as “my friend”.

You in your small corner, and I in mine.

The “Westminster Village” doesn’t appear on any map. It’s not a place but a state of mind. It’s inhabited by those who walk the Palace of Westminster‘s corridors - the: politicians, journalists, researchers, lobbyists and politicos. They have in common the belief the Palace of Westminster is the epicentre of the Universe, and if someone sneezes in the Palace all of humanity must take notice.

The above is natural behaviour, we all think we are important, and if you’re a politician then very important! We make our mark on the World by our actions. If those actions are trivial then by inference we are trivial. That thought is unacceptable to the ego. I am important, therefore my activities are important, therefore everybody else must accept my activities are important. We become involved in activities, work, family or hobbies and believe they are worthwhile activities.

The need to attribute a degree of importance to activities has consequences. Sometimes common sense and judgement can be distorted by our commitment to activities. The Chairperson of a flower arranging group can become very upset if the group’s activities do not go to plan. A suggestion by a member to make a minor change to group activities can be perceived as a threat to human existence!

Within every group or organisation, there are power structures. The combination of self-importance and power can make a volatile mixture. I am a member of a Residence Association, some years ago the committee started to do their own thing - not consulting members or even informing them of decisions take. A group of members decided to form a group to oust the committee and replace them. They ran a campaign, the central plank being Consultation and Communication. They called an emergency general meeting and they were successful in replacing the committee. Within three months, there was widespread dissatisfaction with the new committee - they didn’t consult. They said they were too busy running the Association.

Lord Acton in a letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton in 1887 wrote:

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

How very true, when one of the residents questioned the attitude of the new committee, she was told in no uncertain terms, if she criticised the committee she would be sued for slander.

Today I leave you with a question. Who is the person in the picture? What is his name, and what position does he hold?

The answer will be given tomorrow, together with its relevance to today’s blog.

A Fond Farewell & Thanks

My premature and precipitated exclusion from Jazz’s Exciles message board prevented me from saying my goodbyes.

I take the opportunity to send a message out to cyberspace in the hope it will reach those who have been my friends and acquaintances on the board.

To Welsh Gardener. It was always a joy to read your posts on the BBC and the present board; and a pleasure to exchange messages and banter. The flowers are for you. I hope the sun will shine on you in West Wales, so that your garden and life will flourish.

To the posters on the Technical/Computer board. Skull & Ian Mac, thanks for all of your advice. Reading your postings was both educational and entertaining. You increased my knowledge of computers tenfold. There were the odd disagreements on the forum, but this made the board even more gripping to read. I will never forget the Sunday morning when Windows XP decided to self-destruct, your advice and guidance brought me back from panic. To all the posters, may your life be free of: spam, viruses and spy ware.

Underdome, thanks for your PM, hope your music career flourishes. Every cloud has a silver lining, being excluded from the board will give me more time to meditate.

To the posters on the Sports board, especially those who posted on the 2007 RBS Six Nations Rugby Championship thread, your postings and humour made the life of this Wale’s supporter just about tolerable. I was looking forward to a World Cup Thread but now that is not to be.

Ponty Cyclops, Ant, I’m sorry I was prevented from responding to your Wale’s Rugby shirt joke, it cheered me up no end. I’m now going to devote my time to advising GJ so that Wales will get back on track.

Finally best wishes to all the past present and future members of Jezza’s Exiles message board. My only advice don’t criticise the Allotment/Gardening board it’s sacrosanct.

If a member of Jezza’s Exiles Message Board happens upon this blog, I would appreciate it if you would send a PM to those mentioned above, conveying my best wishes.

Jezza’s Exiles part company with YesBut

I post, or rather up to this afternoon, used to post on the Jezza’s Exiles message board. Used to, because today, without notification my board membership was suspended.

Subsequently I received this email message from a member of the message board’s administration team:


“I was suspicious from the start I have to say. Do you want to plea bargain?
You a funny and amusing poster no doubt about that so a shame to loose you.”

In response to my request for further information I received a reply that I had concocted and put in place a devious (my word) plan to “attempt to disrupt the forum” (their words).

Now what, you might ask, was this devilishly disruptive action?

I had proposed for discussion the suspention of an undersubscribed section of the message board dedicated to Allotments & Gardening and replace it for a trial period with one devoted to seeking and providing advice on subjects such as: health, sexuality, personal problems, etc.

Let it be a warning to you, don’t mess with gardeners, or else.

The sad thing about the whole affair, apart from me being excluded from the board, is Jezza’s Exiles message board was set up after the BBC, without consultation and with little notification, closed a number of its message boards.

So having, in the company of a number of posters, been put out into the cold by the BBC, I now find myself once again homeless.

I would appreciate any suggestions of a message board I could join which has a lively discussion on: sport, technology/computers and general discussion.

Cold porridge, smoking and your chance to be famous.

I didn’t have time yesterday to write a blog. Only time to write two pieces for submission to NewsBiscuit:

Police investigate links between the Cash for Peerages scandal and Norfolk turkey cull.

&

Virgin Media NewsBiscuit Deal

If you want to read them, the link is given below. But first, let’s get back to yesterday, I went out early, dressed for a nice spring day. Unfortunately it soon became a cold wet winter’s day. I got home late afternoon freezing cold, fingers numb and teeth chattering.

To warm up I drank a steaming cup of Lemmon & Ginger tea, while soaking my feet in a bowl of hot porridge - a practice not to be undertaken by the uninitiated. The secret is keep your feet moving; stay still for 4.67 seconds and the porridge solidifies; then there is no alternative but to seek the assistance of the Fire Service to free you, using thermal lances. Would you believe it, some people actually eat porridge - that would stop anyone from farting.

Traditionally the Scots would make enough porridge to last the winter, pouring it into a draw for storage. They would then slice out a daily ration. No wonder they always look constipated.

Talking about looking miserable, last week I passed these two specimens of humanity. Each locked into their private world, taking a nicotine fix. I’m so glad I gave up smoking twenty years ago. But if I was a smoker, I don’t think I would join in the practice of huddling outside the office door dragging on a fag, (for American readers, no not that - fag is the English colloquial name for cigarette). I would either go to work in an office where smoking is permitted - though from April the law requires all work areas to be designated non smoking. Or I would envelope my body in nicotine patches. It’s obscene and undignified to huddle in corners taking a quick drag. A cigarette should be smoked, (if at all), while drinking a cup of coffee, talking to friends after a good meal.

I have an excuse, for starting smoking fifty years ago, the relationship between smoking and cancer was unknown, (or if known kept quiet by the cigarette manufactures). Why do, particularly, young girls smoke? Are they that stupid that they think it looks “cool”? Perhaps we are witnessing evolution in practice, the stupid are culling themselves, leaving the intelligent to inherit the Earth.

People say, YesBut you’re a Grumpy Old Fart, who are you to accuse others of being miserable?

Bookmark this blog and NewsBiscuit Click her to read, remember to give high ratings only to pieces written by YesBut.

After you have given them a high rating, come back here and enter your name on the list on the left; and I promise I will mention you in my next submission to NewsBiscuit. Just imagine the resulting fame: requests for personal appearances, rubbing shoulders with ‘B’ list celebrities, asked to appear on Celebrity Big Brother. Fame and fortune is within your grasp.