What a clever headline on this picture... the text that they'd inserted below it was
"I love Jesus, an amazing person with a very important message. It's too bad so many "Christians" ignore what he preaches.
You know, the stuff about turning the other cheek, loving one another, and camels going through the eyes of needles. "
And who knew that Jesus was American?
And blue eyed?
And kinda blonde?
That's the kind of retouching Cybil Shepherd prays for.
The kind of makeover the Oprah Audience would scarifice a larynx for
Taking a 2000 year old Jewish Arab and somehow turning him into a cross between Farrah Fawcett and the bass player of the Beach Boys circa 1965 seems to me to be just a little close to Blasphemy.
How did the blog get here? Because I'm wearing a "What Would Batman Do?" T-shirt to work today in a bid to cancel out one of the "What would Jesus Do?" bangles that proliferate - strained around the bloated wrists of women who seem to think that Jesus would try to pillage the buffet table, sipping on high fructose corn syrup filled buckets whilst bemoaning the cost of gas and mourning the fact that you have to move in order to find food.
Feisty day today - bring 'em on.
Friday, August 01, 2008
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Walking the tightrope
So today I'm walking the tightrope between brilliantly simple and blatantly simple minded.
You see I'm all for purity of thought. But I am kinda opposed to the idea of nuance being something that should be avoided.
I've written before around the idea that while the French are taught in school to argue both sides of an argument and the British to make the case for one side over the other the Americans are taught that one of the four answers suggested is absolutely correct.
It's a very 'black or white' system that leads to election of people who are absolute in their beliefs ('you're either with us or against us' being a famous Bush version) and who see the world without shades of gray (Axis of Evil, Evildoers etc.) spring to mind. IT also leads to vilification of people who admit that the world is complicated, that their are shades of gray and that perhaps positions should change as circumstances change.
The idea of Antinomy really doesn't fly in American politics... even the word would have you branded an 'intellectual elitist'
And that's kind of what's killing me on a presentation today. I want to be single minded. I want to be straightforward and I want to know that what I'm saying is easily understood and executable... but not at the cost of nuance, depth and richness.
It's tough this 'writing your thoughts for the consumption of others' business, isn't it?
You see I'm all for purity of thought. But I am kinda opposed to the idea of nuance being something that should be avoided.
I've written before around the idea that while the French are taught in school to argue both sides of an argument and the British to make the case for one side over the other the Americans are taught that one of the four answers suggested is absolutely correct.
It's a very 'black or white' system that leads to election of people who are absolute in their beliefs ('you're either with us or against us' being a famous Bush version) and who see the world without shades of gray (Axis of Evil, Evildoers etc.) spring to mind. IT also leads to vilification of people who admit that the world is complicated, that their are shades of gray and that perhaps positions should change as circumstances change.
The idea of Antinomy really doesn't fly in American politics... even the word would have you branded an 'intellectual elitist'
And that's kind of what's killing me on a presentation today. I want to be single minded. I want to be straightforward and I want to know that what I'm saying is easily understood and executable... but not at the cost of nuance, depth and richness.
It's tough this 'writing your thoughts for the consumption of others' business, isn't it?
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Hmmmmm IceCream
I'm not sure why I find sticking to a diet as hard as I do. I think that it's an aversion to deprivation coupled with a natural gluttony overlaid with a mechanism that fills in moments between things happening with cookies.
For the last part I blame the UK. It's a place where people used to fill in the awkward social moments with tea. Which then became with Tea and KitKats. After all a KitKat says all that we're too repressed to say.
People arriving the the US are astounded by the size of the muffins, cookies and cakes here but whenever I'm in the London office the thing that astonishes me is the number of times the 'refreshment trolley' comes trundling into view buckling under the weight of something small but moresome. Our office there runs on KitKats, pots of tea and tiny sandwiches filled with minced wotnots scooped from a tin.
I am sticking to the diet though - and feeling good about doing it. Even though taking my rest day from the gym (and filling in the time with Pilates) does have me feeling a little guilty. One to watch I think.
For the last part I blame the UK. It's a place where people used to fill in the awkward social moments with tea. Which then became with Tea and KitKats. After all a KitKat says all that we're too repressed to say.
People arriving the the US are astounded by the size of the muffins, cookies and cakes here but whenever I'm in the London office the thing that astonishes me is the number of times the 'refreshment trolley' comes trundling into view buckling under the weight of something small but moresome. Our office there runs on KitKats, pots of tea and tiny sandwiches filled with minced wotnots scooped from a tin.
I am sticking to the diet though - and feeling good about doing it. Even though taking my rest day from the gym (and filling in the time with Pilates) does have me feeling a little guilty. One to watch I think.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Thinking Time
I'm always amazed by the way the brain works. Last night for instance I made myself a mental (and a physical) note to make a call by 10am this morning. As a result I woke up every 2 hours thinking about the fact that I had a call to make.
Then after looking at a brief for the 134th time today it suddenly became very clear what the underlying thought was. Just a single word actually that summed everything up. And it came while I was thinking about something else.
So maybe overtiredness and distraction really are the best way to work. I used to live on a diet of not enough sleep, too long a commute and constant new ideas. Sure it almost killed me (I wholeheartedly buy into the 'lack of sleep and gum disease' theories of cancer causes) but man was I lateral.
Anyway have to talk cars to a bunch of men over a pig's stomach burrito now... should be interesting
Monday, July 28, 2008
Don't let this happen to you
.... in a bid to save myself from the 'droopy camel toe of beelzebub' I've been keeping a food diary recently. And it showed what I knew to be true... my diet was fantastic up to around the time of the first glass of white wine after which I turned into Betty Bulima without the moderating gag reflex.
Luckily this morning I got the advice that I needed to stop the bingeing, Yup, cut back on the drink. Switch wine out for gin - or at least for red. Up the grain content. Increase the protein and eat as little processed food as possible.
Coupled with the diet this should see me raring to go for the Naked Uganda Project rather than looking for the shadows and begging for over exposure.
Exercise is going well - though the 5.30am starts soon become a drag... thinking of 7am starts this week; see what a difference that makes.
Okay - cats and dog working together to open pet food cupboard and bags contained therein - must dash.
Luckily this morning I got the advice that I needed to stop the bingeing, Yup, cut back on the drink. Switch wine out for gin - or at least for red. Up the grain content. Increase the protein and eat as little processed food as possible.
Coupled with the diet this should see me raring to go for the Naked Uganda Project rather than looking for the shadows and begging for over exposure.
Exercise is going well - though the 5.30am starts soon become a drag... thinking of 7am starts this week; see what a difference that makes.
Okay - cats and dog working together to open pet food cupboard and bags contained therein - must dash.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Greenfield Village
So today was spent at Greenfield Village.. .well at least the part of the day where we weren't stuck in terrible traffic was spent there. It's a testimony to the vast wealth accumulated by Henry Ford and to the awareness that he had.
See Henry realized that his Industrial World would wipe out the rural world and so set about buying as much of the past as he could - in order to preserve it. The result is an extraordinary village and a series of "how rich was he?" oddities that defy logic (the chair that Lincoln was shot in, the car that JFK was shot in, the car that Reagan was shot in, a piece of the Kitty Hawk, Edison's last breathe, Henry Ford's place of birth, slace houses, a Cotswold tearoom and a series of engineering marvels)
It's a good excuse to spend time outside in the sun - and as the horses and the model T Fords whiz by it's easy to forget that you're yards away from the factory that today churns out Trucks by the 100,000.
Worth a visit
See Henry realized that his Industrial World would wipe out the rural world and so set about buying as much of the past as he could - in order to preserve it. The result is an extraordinary village and a series of "how rich was he?" oddities that defy logic (the chair that Lincoln was shot in, the car that JFK was shot in, the car that Reagan was shot in, a piece of the Kitty Hawk, Edison's last breathe, Henry Ford's place of birth, slace houses, a Cotswold tearoom and a series of engineering marvels)
It's a good excuse to spend time outside in the sun - and as the horses and the model T Fords whiz by it's easy to forget that you're yards away from the factory that today churns out Trucks by the 100,000.
Worth a visit
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