Selkirk Grace
Some hae meat and cannot eat.
Some cannot eat that want it:
But we hae meat and we can eat,
Sae let the Lord be thankit.
Address to a Haggis
Fair fa` your honest, sonsie face,
Great chieftain o the puddin`-race!
Aboon them a` ye tak your place,
Painch, tripe, or thairm:
Weel are ye wordy of a grace
As lang`s my arm.
The groaning trencher there ye fill,
Your hurdies like a distant hill,
Your pin wad help to mend a mill
In time o need,
While thro your pores the dews distil
Like amber bead.
His knife see rustic Labour dight,
An cut you up wi ready slight,
Trenching your gushing entrails bright,
Like onie ditch;
And then, O what a glorious sight,
Warm-reekin, rich!
Then, horn for horn, they stretch an strive:
Deil tak the hindmost, on they drive,
Till a` their weel-swall`d kytes belyve
Are bent like drums;
The auld Guidman, maist like to rive,
`Bethankit` hums.
Is there that owre his French ragout,
Or olio that wad staw a sow,
Or fricassee wad mak her spew
Wi perfect sconner,
Looks down wi sneering, scornfu view
On sic a dinner?
Poor devil! see him owre his trash,
As feckless as a wither`d rash,
His spindle shank a guid whip-lash,
His nieve a nit:
Thro bloody flood or field to dash,
O how unfit!
But mark the Rustic, haggis-fed,
The trembling earth resounds his tread,
Clap in his walie nieve a blade,
He`ll make it whissle;
An legs an arms, an heads will sned,
Like taps o thrissle.
Ye Pow`rs, wha mak mankind your care,
And dish them out their bill o fare,
Auld Scotland wants nae skinking ware
That jaups in luggies:
But, if ye wish her gratefu prayer,
Gie her a Haggis!
AULD LANG SYNE
For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne,
We`ll tak a cup of kindness yet,
For auld lang syne!
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And auld lang syne?
And surely ye`ll be your pint-stowp,
And surely I`ll be mine,
And we`ll tak a cup o kindness yet,
For auld lang syne!
We twa hae run about the braes,
And pou`d the gowans fine,
But we`ve wander`d monie a weary fit,
Sin auld lang syne.
We twa hae paidl`d in the burn
Frae morning sun till dine,
But seas between us braid hae roar`d
Sin auld lang syne.
And there`s a hand my trusty fiere,
And gie`s a hand o thine,
And we`ll tak a right guid-willie waught,
For auld lang syne.
The Clan Tartan:
so we`re doing it a little early and we`re serving lamb leg instead of haggis. it`s the closest night we can get everyone together and no one is willing to even attempt the haggis.
how far is this going to go?
i heard about the Spongebob/Focus on the Family debacle yesterday and hoped if i ignored it, it would go away. but it`s been picked up by the news services and being replayed everywhere.
now i`m no longer a regular churchgoer but i doubt two thousand years of basic tenets of Christianity have changed overnight, feel free to correct me if i`m wrong. my next sentence was going to be; Christianity has always been about tolerance; but that`s completely wrong, Jesus` teachings were about tolerance and turning the other cheek and taking care of your fellow man. i guess somewhere along the line the fundamental message got lost.
these people need to get back to fundamentals.
people`s generosity still surprises me. that`s a good thing, i tend to be cynical about people`s motivations but JS has taught me a lesson or three.
since i`ve been here, the outpouring of support has been phenomenal. i`ve made new friends, in the last three months, a kind and generous soul paid for my new laptop drive and another kind and and generous soul gave me an old ipod. it`s not just JS members either, earlier this week i received a book in the mail from a reader who enjoyed what i`d written. i leafed through the book when i got it, but i`m going to read and review it this weekend.
i just wanted to take the opportunity to say thank you. for generosity, for your support, for simply taking the time to read my ramblings.
i wish i could take credit for that line, but i heard it last night on the Daily Show and it got me thinking. i had promised myself i`d stay away from US politics, primarily because my opinion doesn`t actually matter and secondarily in the climate of “if you`re not for us, you`re against us” that pervades; with my current immigration situation; i really shouldn`t raise any flags or be seen as the `enemy`. but i can`t, i said very early on, that if staying in the US meant giving up my opinions, i couldn`t do it, i would be pandering to the fear-mongering.
a couple months ago i posted a comment in someone`s journal that one of the ways to make the US safer was a better foreign policy. i`ve gone over this before, but if you`re new let me reiterate. in terms of being a colonial power, the US is but a babe at this and it shows in the poor judgement and inconsistent foreign policy.
one of the key problems of US foreign policy has been assistance to serve its own ends and then power vacuum that it creates when they withdraw their support; especially when it becomes troublesome at home. trust me there is a pattern which we will see repeated in Iraq, the tide is already start turning. Americans seem to have no perspective; historical or otherwise; on the havoc that is wreaked in the name of intervention. the four biggest dictators in the Caribbean were as a result of US intervention and abandonment.
if you want to know why people hate Americans so much, wake up and pay attention. when people ask for help they don`t want conditions, either you`re giving aid or you`re not. if you want to be world`s police, you have to take all the responsibility, good and bad; you can`t want to be global policemen and not recognise the jurisdiction of the international criminal court. and the “if you`re not for us, you`re against us” isn`t going to engender goodwill either.
ignorance and `might is right` does not good foreign policy make. it`s been going on close to 100 years when is someone going to learn.
i had the fortune; or misfortune depending on your perspective; to be able to differentiate sex from love very early on. and based on my experiences i think the two can exist independently of each other but real satisfaction doesn`t happen without either of them.
as a young man, i didn`t look like the sort that would require you to lock your daughters away from, but i was. it was just disguised better, i was articulate and polite; which impressed the parents greatly and i was discreet and willing; which impressed the young ladies greatly. consequently i was slightly more successful than my peers when it came carnal activities.
and abiding by my own sexual rules; do unto others and the three stages of experimentation; by the time i was officially an adult, i`d tried just about everything i`d wanted to at that stage and was looking for some more long term. plus the spectre of AIDS had begun to rear it`s head and i scared myself into monogamy.
i became to some extent a serial monogamist, i would go from long term relationship to long term relationship and there was a pattern there too, i would get involved with friends. for one reason or another most of my close friends are female. thinking about it carefully, most of friends; full stop; are female. i have less than ten male friends. and with one exception, i`m still friends with all the exes in my adult life.
what does all of this have to do with sex and love?
sex on its own can get boring and monotonous, no matter how many people you sleep with or possibly because of how many people you sleep with. at the end of the day, the body parts are pretty much the same, it`s just the packaging that differs. love adds a new mental connection, a je ne c`est quoi to the arrangement of body parts and exchange of fluids. sex on its own is good, but without love, the extra spark is missing.
three years ago today, vic and i got married in Barbados and finally this is our first anniversary together.
there are no special plans; today at least; i`m at work and vic is working tonight, but we`ve got reservations for dinner on Friday. i think we`re still sort of in awe of being able to celebrate another milestone.
so many things have changed in the last three years but the fundamentals remain the same. i have so much i want to say about this anniversary but i can`t form the words. the simplest summation is; i`m deliriously happy. i am happier than i have ever been as an adult and i feel truly blessed.
this isn`t a fairy tale, it`s isn`t happily ever after, we have our disagreements, we have our moods, but we have our ups and downs but they are ours together; and after all we`ve been through that`s all right too.
Last Tuesday`s keynote address; at the opening of the MacWorld San Francisco conference; by Apple CEO Steve Jobs held little or no suprises for mac users who had been frequenting rumour sites online or following the spate of recent lawsuits by Apple. However it did not stop faithful attendees from reacting joyfully with each new product announcement.
However these new products were not necessarily aimed at the hardcore faithful, but to lure new users to the Macintosh fold. Leading this charge was the Mac Mini; a computer that may possibly be the future of household digital convergence.
The Mac Mini is Apple`s first foray into a sub-$500 computer and standard features include a 1.25Ghz G4 processor, 40Gb hard disk, 256Mb Ram, upgradable to 1Gb, slot-loading combo drive; CD-RW/DVD-Rom, 2 USB 2.0 ports, 1 Firewire (IEEE-1394) 400 port, ethernet and digital and analog video out support. The computer is not necessarily for first time buyers, as it comes bereft of keyboard, mouse or monitor. Because of its small footprint, the machine is not user upgrade, however optional factory installed upgrades include ram, Apple`s wireless solution; Airport, Bluetooth, SuperDrive; DVD-RW/CD-RW and an 80GB HD. There is also a marginally faster version of the Mini Mac with a 1.42Ghz G4 Processor and an 80Gb hard drive standard that retails for $599.
One of the first things you notice about the Mac Mini is the incredibly small profile; the machine measures two inches high by six and a half inches deep and wide; about the same height as a VCR. Although this machine seems primarily geared towards enticing ipod owning PC users to switch, the machine lends itself; with some tweaking; to become the centre piece of the long touted digital convergence. With WebTV attempting a second coming, this may be the ideal time for a device that connects to the internet, can manage your music, edit and create video and can connect through your television.
The other big hardware announcement at MacWorld was the ipod Shuffle; Apple`s entry into the flash MP3 player market. The Shuffle is incredibly small; and the assertion that it`s smaller than most packs of gum is not an exaggeration; in an average adult hand, it is barely visible and the retail prices of $99 and $149 for the 512MB and 1Gb versions make them readily accessible to almost everyone. On the day of the show, 20,000 were available for sale at the San Francisco Apple store two blocks away and within three and a half hours they were completely sold out. Ideal for users on the go and parents pandering to their children`s desire for an MP3 player, the Shuffle is an ideal size at an ideal price.
Lost in all the hardware hype at MacWorld was Apple`s attempt at not offending software manufactures with the iWork suite. iWork features two applications, Keynote 2; an upgrade to the original presentation application and a brand new piece of software called Pages.
Pages fills a void on the mac platform somewhere between Microsoft Publisher and Adobe Pagemaker; a simple user-friendly publishing application. With Adobe`s discontinuation of Pagemaker, low end users no longer had an option on the mac until now. Pages offers a multitude of templates for letters, newsletters, reports, brochures and resumes, that allow users to drag and drop their existing photos and text into.
Apple`s announcements at this expo catered to new and basic users, leaving high end users some what out in the cold, however there were many other exhibitors at MacWorld expo that filled that void.
the tease begins, he`s talking about the ipods now. 4.5 million ipods sold last christmas. 10 Million total, over 8 million in calendar year 2004.
and here it comes, more car manufacturers adding built-in ipod adaptors; nissan, mercedes, volvo, ferarri, alfa romero and scion.
itunes on motorola phones announced at CES.
and now the show stopper, a flash ipod player; ipod shuffle. no display, smaller than most packs of gum, weighs less than an ounce. smalled LED display. either shuffle or playlist. USB 2.0, 12 hour rechargable battery, autofill feature from iTunes, share songs and data. two models; 512Mb, 120 songs, $99, 1Gb, 240 songs, $149.
available today.
acessories include a battery extender, sports case, arm band and a dock, available in 4 weeks, $29 each.
oh iWork is $79 and is available January 22.
time for the hardware annoucements. and the rumour sites were right; the Mac Mini.
slot loading combo optical drive, FW, USB2, Ehternet, modem DVI and analog video. it`s small and it`s bring your own display, keyboard and mouse. shipping with Panther and iLife `05, priced at $499 and $599; 256MB, 1.25Ghz G4 and 40 and 80Gb HD.
i apologise for the stuccato nature of these posts but i`m trying to post as fast as it happens, there will be a more coherent summation either tonight, depending on my access to an internet connection otherwise, it`s going to happen tomorrow.
we`re back to demoing idvd, with all the new features i`m not really getting into because you can read all about it on the regular channels later today.
next up is GarageBand and a new jam pack that features orchestral instruments plus a whole new host of features that will be demoed again by John Mayer who seems to be having a great deal of fun with it. now they`re recording four tracks live which is kind of cool to observe and experience.
iLife `05 free with all new Macs or retailing for $79 and available a week from Friday.
holy shit, Apple takes on MS to some extent with iWork, which features a new version of Keynote and a new word processor called Pages, which is now being demoed by Phil Schiller
