Last weekends experience of the LAM / Skin Two Expo and the Rubber ball were pretty good with both events showing a real professionalism in their staging. I had heard many complaints about the Rubber Ball before going and with my own personal stance on Fetish vs players events, the likelihood of me stumping up real money for that would be slim to non-existent. However there were two reasons that I decided to do this, first I was asked to be a Dungeon Monitor for the dungeon space and secondly and vastly more importantly, cass had been given a photographers pass for the event.

Cass already had been promised a photographers slot for the LAM / Skin Two event but the addition of the Rubber Ball was something else entirely and allowed her access to a wider variety of subjects for her photographic skills. The problem was that the whole idea of doing such a widely publicised event filled her with trepidation, especially the idea of competing with other photographers. I reassured her that there would not be a problem. So much for my prescience!

On the whole, photographers are a competitive lot and will often sidle up to someone, even if they may never have met them before, and attempt to disparage their equipment in subtle and unsubtle methods. Wielding camera bags bristling with tripods, lenses and assorted paraphernalia they stride purposefully around events "looking for the shot". The more advanced of these blusters will have two or more cameras slung about their person. The result is that when they see a shot they push their way past anyone that is below them (which to their mind is everyone and even moreso other photographers) hitting them with their bags and poles of varying weight and sharpness.

Now let's add more of the same to the mix. Now add the magic ingredient - the photographers pass. All of a sudden photography becomes a contact sport. During the LAM Skin Two fashion show I was astonished to see the array of cameras lined up at the front with lenses ranging from the obscenely phallic to the pathetic. cass was horrified as male photographers jostled her (pretty much intentionally) for every shot. I make this distinction because as far as I could see, cass was the only female in this community and the only one to behave in anything like a civilised manner. Every shot taken at that time must have been identical to every other shot bar a few degrees because the various photographers fell over themselves to make sure they were not gazumped on any shot. It was a sad uncivilised scrum.

This didn't change when the fashion show had ended. A few photographers went off to compare battle scars and trophies but others waited hungrily around for opportunities. cass had already been asked by a few of the designers and models to take some photos so she hung around. Then she stopped one of the show organisers about using the stage as a backdrop for the photos and was told it was no problem. Taking one of the models on stage she started to pose her for photographs. All of a sudden there was a realisation amongst the shark photographer population on the floor level that someone had used (shock horror) initiative to take the photographs they wanted. While cass was posing the model one of the breed clambered over his fellows to mount the stairs behind cass and start to snap using the long lens, desperate to have the shots that cass had! Not only this but as cass and the model descended the stairs, chatting to each other the desperate shark thrust the camera back in the models face to show that he was a good boy and took shots too. You could almost see his tail wag at thinking he had outsmarted someone else.

What a fuckwit!

These imbeciles have no clue how to put a shot together, so they wait until someone with real talent stages the event and then jump on the bandwagon. They climb over each other spitting fury to get the shot created by others. These are just pond life. No talent no hopers.

This proved itself at the Rubber Ball where two photographers followed cass around, deliberately taking the same bloody shots as cass did when she had finished.

I mean what is this? Is this an admission that cass has the talent and they are bottom feeders?

I would say that is categorically so! So now my estimation of the male fetish photographer has now descended below pond life. Of course this does not include the studio photographers whose skill and talent means that people flock to them to be snapped nor those whose photographic works mean that people seek them out but the desperate hopeless wannabes that crowd the bulletin boards 'looking for models' and 'offering fetish photography' with no credible portfolio.

So if you are a photographer at one of these events and you bump into me on your way to get a shot (particularly if it is someone else's shot) then I shall take great pleasure in tripping you or otherwise impede your way so that you can go and compare and disparage your DIY camera pieces (no glue included) with others who have affected me similarly

The news is full of doom and gloom about recessions, oil prices, housing slump, immigration and a whole host of other problems laid squarely at government policies. The real issue is that nobody can talk about what the real problem is. Nobody can talk about it because it brings up so many uncomfortable conversations and emotive and (in many peoples opinion) unethical practices. Sadly NOT talking about it blurs the real issues.

But before I get to the nub of it all and please feel free to disagree with me, I am going to make a statement that will be the essence of all truths I present:

"Saving the planet will be very important to everyone provided it doesn't get in the way of making a profit"

Greed is what makes the world go round. That's as simple as it gets. Without greed you and I would not have the luxury of the things we take for granted. Getting rich is where it's at and hang who we hurt in the process. You see the problem with getting rich is that someone has to become poor.

So what is the problem? Population. It's simple really. There are just way too many humans on the planet. We have increased the world population in the last 40 years by over 50% from 4 billion to 6.2 billion and thanks to our own cleverness we are not dying away as fast as we did before. Add to that our medicine is so good that our survival rate of diseases and disabilities has also increased the population where normal attrition would have taken place. At the same time the attrition rate of our environment has increased exponentially with more species of plant and animal becoming extinct or endangered and many biospheres damaged beyond repair. The population growth is expected to add another 2 billion people in the next 20 years which will ensure we cover a vast swathe of the planet, pushing the biosphere even harder. Our consumption of resources will increase tenfold as we bring previously technologically backward nations forward and as their economies develop so will their demand for goods that need resources to create. We are like a virus on the planet, destructive to everything including our own existence where previously we enjoyed a symbiotic relationship with the world. Don't get the impression that I am on some tree-hugger hippy trip, all I want is for my son and his children to get the chance to enjoy the world before it's a lifeless desert so I am saying this for a purely selfish reason. I am just as guilty of conspicuous consumption and looking to increase my earnings as I go. The difference is I am now able to make informed choices

Think of this. We are all being asked to reduce our carbon footprint, to reduce emissions by 40% and recycle. So if we increase the population by 40% over the same period, how does that help? Also think about how the governments are starting to tax us on the rubbish we produce when the same government won't tackle manufacturers who over-pack the same goods we are responsible for disposing of. You may find other examples of consumers paying the taxes that should be levelled at the originators if you look carefully.

So this brings it back to economics and greed. Why do we allow this to happen? Think about why governments incentivise creation of children, regardless of circumstance? Simple. Corporations need new consumers and governments need more taxpayers. Manufacturing can only reduce costs to a certain level and past that you need to increase quantity in order to maintain profit. In order to sell quantity you have to do one of two things, increase your market or market share or make your product one that needs to be renewed frequently. So we have 'emerging markets' and 'built-in obsolescence'.

Do you remember when your car would last between 10 to 15 years and a washing machine about the same? Nowadays the projected life for each of them is effectively between 5 and 7 years. Manufacturers reply that this is due to the complexity of the product and the number of moving parts. Have you seen how fast new models of products are now released? Most televisions are redundant a year after they are released. So where does all the raw material come from to produce these new models? And how come a TV that costs £1000 on release can cost £500 within a year? Fabrication plants have been running at roughly the same costs for some years in terms of raw materials. Yet foodstuffs have been steadily increasing in costs over the same period.

Now the problem you have with cost reduction is that you increasingly rely on automation which removes humans from employment. More unemployed people still want to buy products and corporations can hardly afford to lose markets so governments have to fill the gaps in order to provide the wherewithall to fund the consumption. This is done by raising taxes and sadly if you have an increasing population then the demand for money increases accordingly. Add to that inflation (an arbitrary increase in costs of goods - usually to do with speculation [read greed]). So in order to ensure you have money you must have more people adding money to the government coffers.

Maybe this is a little simplistic and I am sure the economists among you will disagree with me. Distribution of wealth is always an emotive subjective as well as the idea of population reduction. Whenever I espouse the subject of population control I am harangued by those that point out the rights of people to procreate. I am not a fan of Eugenics either but that is something also levelled at me when I suggest we need a way of reducing population. The usual argument is "who is to decide to lives or dies?" and yes it's an emotive subject but I can guarantee you this. If it ever comes to a decision by someone, you can be sure it will be someone with enough money!

It is sad to say but what the world needs is an enema to flush the virus away. A global pandemic to kill 60% of the population is what some scientists reckon would restore the world to some kind of balance. It probably won't reverse the damage already done. As it is we're consuming the world away and will continue to incentivise the destruction of even more of our essential natural resources simply because nobody can control the companies.

So what can be done about it? Pretty little really. There is no way that you can stop capitalism as it forms the basis for every transaction in the world. We can change the way we shop and hope that consumer choice will change the way that corporations view the world. The damage is done and there is NO sign that any global company wants to reverse it, just slowly reduce it while they work out another way of recouping their profits. By then it will probably be too late

Work has kept me very busy for quite a while now, even more-so now I am expected to travel to the US frequently. With trips to Denver, Atlanta and Orange County under my belt I am pretty much a seasoned traveller there.

So let's make a few observations. Some comparisons with the UK if you will.

The obvious one is that the US is significantly cheaper in most areas due to the strong pound to dollar exchange rate. But the exchange rate doesn't quite explain it all. Wouldn't you expect that European made items would be as much if not more expensive in the US due to import duty, shipping, and taxes? Given that this is the excuse US manufacturers always give us about the reason US products are almost pound for dollar in the UK you would have thought so wouldn't you? It wouldn't appear so. Let's get rid of the assertion that any of these products are either European or American. Nineteen times out of twenty they are built in China/Taiwan/Malaysia etc. So a Kenwood product in the US is the same as in the UK and shipped from exactly the same place. So why is the same product twice as expensive in the UK? What about clothes? Hugo Boss is not an American make is it? So why is a Hugo Boss shirt the dollar equivalent of £30 over there and the same shirt £75 over here?

Even with the ridiculously cheap prices there's something else that differentiates the US from the UK, and that's service. I can remember booking my Hotel (the Marriott Residence Inn Park Meadows in Denver) and receiving an email enthusiastically stating they were "excited about me staying there" which afforded me no end of chuckles imagining them all going round telling each other breathlessly that I was going to be staying with them. However (and I will bring up price again) the $169 a night I was being asked was not for a hotel room (remember this is £86 per night) but a small studio flat that had maid service every day! Not only that but the staff could not do more to help me. From the moment I arrived they were helpful and enthusiastic. Even though I had arrived late, the Monday night was the "managers get together" where the hotel bought all of its residents drinks and food and had a get together in the main dining room. My luggage was whisked off to my room and I was given a beer and a hearty handshake by the manager and the last 5 people assembled all chatted with me. And because there were no prices on the goods I selected from the lobby, the receptionist just charged me $5 for about 4 items. The next morning was complimentary breakfast even though my room was fitted with a pretty well appointed kitchen!

All this is a far cry from the traditional hotel service I expect in the UK for that price or even more expensive. Service with a sneer and staff who, once 5pm has rolled around, have no interest in running things properly. This is not a condemnation of all UK hotels as I am sure there are some with exceptional service, just not any I have frequented in the last 5 years for work. Travelodge now operate a service that they define as "no frills" and proudly explain they have cut away everything that actually makes a hotel stay reasonable to save me money .... and I still pay over £70 for the privilege of a cheerless room with no amenities!

It's not only hotels though. The shops in the US, although they can be a little OVER enthusiastic, show a genuine desire to service the customer rather than engage in conversation with their colleagues and look upon you with disgust when you dare interrupt their conversations with an actual sales query. However there is a downside that we Brits would find irking in that they take their time serving you at the tills .. because they actually make conversation with the customer. Because we have been given this idea that we need to have everything we want NOW. It's more a testament to our own speed branded lifestyle sold to us where time is a differentiator and we don't need to notice that our sales people are both rude AND incompetent as long as we get the product NOW! Frankly I have had enough of this rushing lifestyle and if someone wants to engage me for a sentence or two of polite conversation that makes me feel as if I am dealing human to human with someone then I am happy to wait for the two or three people in front of me to have that same experience!

It's not all cherries and apple pie over there though. The fact that the country is so big means that every man woman and child has lost the use of their legs and grown wheels as a mandatory evolutionary cycle (although many will actually argue that god provides the wheels as they don't believe in evil(sic)ution). Or that's the way it appears given that there is virtually nowhere you can go on foot! While in Atlanta for a couple of weeks I heard a news story that stated that there was a revolutionary way to stay fit and lose a few pounds which was to walk! If it hadn't been for the few Americans nodding sagely on a table next to mine I would have blown coffee out of my nose. There I was in a hotel and right next door there was a breakfast bakery ... and no pavement ... and a chain-link fence between the hotel and the bakery car parks! My hotel was less than a mile away from the nearest mall and there was absolutely no way of reaching it on foot. If it hadn't been for the one stretch of pavement outside the hotel I would probably have had to get a taxi from the hotel to the office 300 yards away! Even where pavements exist you can see that they are rarely used. Most US drivers looked utterly bemused to see a bunch of Brits walking to the nearby drive-in pharmacy and even concerned when we used the crossing to get over the 6 lane highway!

More to come :D

Forgive me LJ for I have sinned....

It has been .... ooooh ... bloody ages since my last blog. Has it been because I haven't had anything to say? No. Has it been because I haven't wanted to expose my person? No. Has it been because the things I have to say may offend some? No.

It has been because I can't be bothered to compose and stop to think about how I will convey my message. It has also been because there has been so much that I could comment on that it would have been "I've started .. but I will never finish"

So I will be selective. I am going to pick my rants, battles, soap boxes etc. I am going to spit the vitriol appropriately and solicit opinion where I wish. If I make people think, make them feel, make them annoyed even ... then I have done what I intended. I don't need to apologise for my opinion nor to be an apologist for others. I welcome those who freely hold views opposed to mine. I will listen and learn and correct if and when necessary. After all, what is an opinion worth if it can't be defended and/or modified when new data is made available?

Ready?

I read with a disbelief the headlines of the Evening Standard the other day declaring that the increase in street crime was due to iPods and mobile phones. Really?

You know it may be me but I hardly see the increase in home decoration causing an increase in burglary, nor an increase in Sloggis causing an increase in rape (or a decrease which is more likely).

Let's be realistic here. The increase in any crime is usually because we have more filthy scumbags out there doing the crime!!!

Germaine Greer has recently condemned the feminist movement she was so instrumental in setting up. Not because she feels the cause is wrong, it isn't as the movement has done a lot to close the disparity in treatment and wages between men and women. What she has condemned is the radical militant feminists ... for emasculating men. With the sexual harrassment laws and the politically correct movement it is hard for men to know what they can and cannot do. The most innocent of behaviours can be misconstrued (sometimes deliberately) and punished such that men tread such a fine line. This is not to say that sexual harassment is acceptable as it is not.

But this is no excuse for certain women to become ballbreakers, simply because they know that any retaliation on behalf of the man in question can be loudly decried as a mysoginistic attack on their position as women. More often than not this happens in the fantasy realm we call 'online' where these women 'hold court' in a chat room or an email discussion. Their conversations will normally revolve around defaming the actions or personality of someone that has recently upset them and cackling about it with the cadre of sycophants that form their gang or tribe.

One particular evening in question I happened to witness a rather sordid set of exchanges in a chatroom in a well known BDSM site. The chat had been mostly harmless about clubs, friends etc. then one Dom came in and began pleasantly chatting with people in channel. One particular sub struck up a friendship and they began pleasantly bantering with others joining in. Sadly this detracted from the conversations that the incumbent 'chatroom queens' were having which, because the conversation was fun, was ignored largely. So the conversation ended when the sub left the chatroom and almost instantly one of the chatroom 'queens' turned on the Dom. The attack was personal and uncalled for as nothing that had been said could have been misconstrued as an attack on these harpies. Not only that but it was clear that the harpies did not know this Dom personally but sought to attack him anyway. So, emboldened by their supporting band of numpties they engaged in an ever more vicious name-calling session.

It is often the advice given to people that you should just ignore such an attack, and by and large this man did that. However the personal insults were a little too rich and he did reply. Not once did he attack them in a personal fashion, only pointing out that their actions were wrong. It was clear that he was annoyed but did not attack on a personal level, which was to his credit. Now under those circumstances if you back away from the foray then the 'queens' can claim a victory over the cowardice of the Dom. If he fights them then he is being mysognistic and 'having no sense of humour' which was one accusation levelled at him. Accusing him of being an online Dom, a fantasy Dom, etc. Saying that he was not a Dom at all and couldn't Dom anyone. This was despite a few people rising to his defence saying they knew him personally and had seen him playing at a club to which the 'queens' ridiculed him further with 'well if he played in a club then he MUST be a Dom then - ROFL'.

This is the kind of ballbreaking that gives women a bad name, let alone subs. It isn't so much as it is bad protocol, more that it is plain bloody rudeness. It costs nothing to have manners and even if you don't like the person as a presence online then call attention to their actions rather than insult them personally. Also be aware that if you are insulting people online and you don't know who they are then you must be fairly confident that you will never meet them, which calls into question the validity of your attacks as well. Being the queen of a chatroom isn't as grandiose as you may make it appear and those who sycophantically fall in behind you are already noted as fools.

For those of you that find travelling around on public transport and under your own steam a little too confusing I would like to offer you some help and advice that will ensure that you and those around you have a harmonious experience while travelling

1 Escalators afford everyone the opportunity for everyone to see what is around them on their lengthy journey downward. This is so that people do not step off and then stop and discuss which direction you go while crowds of other people pile into them. Step away from the escalator to do this before you become a crush victim. The same goes for ticket barriers and other narrow exits.

2 Similarly when you disembark from a train or a bus this is not the opportunity to stop and read texts or start texting as people try to fight pass your annoyingly distracted self.

3 Pushing onto a bus/train/tram when there are people trying to get off is not just rude but plain ignorant and stupid. Didn't your feeble intellect work out that the more people get off then the greater your chance of getting a seat when you get on? Plus the fact is that the greater weight of people are getting off and you will be crushed, sometimes I will make sure of it.

4 Texting while walking along the street is also guaranteed to ensure that you become the target of abuse as you slow down or walk into people because you can't pay due attention to people around you.

5 You and your friends are not the most important thing on the street. Knowing this will help you understand that walking three abreast chatting on a pavement where the only opportunity for people to pass you is either to hurl themselves into the street in front of oncoming traffic or to break up you conversation. The fact that they choose being rude to your party rather than death does not mean you can abuse them. If this is your chosen response be prepared to find yourself in front of the oncoming traffic

6 Pushing your pushchair/trolley/case into the back of my legs once is excusable and I will try my best to ensure that I move to assist you on your way should I be obstructing you. However I consider it happening a fourth time to be assault and I will respond accordingly.

7 Just because the majority of people are travelling in one direction does not mean that the pavement becomes a one-way system. There are other destinations and if I happen to be travelling in the opposite direction to you that doesn't make me wrong.

Hopefully these imple rules will help you understand that we all have to get along and share the streets and pavements. We are all human beings and all treated with the same respect. So as long as you understand that then I will not have to stoop to your ignorant arrogant stupid level and beat the shit out of you

Thank you for listening

After no little persuasion and a bit of hectoring I have finally persuaded cassandra to start to create her LJ blog which you can see at artbycassandra. Please welcome her and pop by from time to time

Sometimes there are days when you just shouldn't get up. Staying in bed is the most sensible option for the day. Well actually that WAS the option for the day as I was supposed to be on holiday from work.

I was recently castigated by my line manager for not having taken all my leave from the last leave year so I arranged to take some time off in April to reduce the number I would carry over. So I decided that I would take this Wednesday to Friday.

So Tuesday night I am just setting my email 'out of office' message and changing my voicemail when I get a call about the launch of something that we had only agreed to put out as a beta trial. Seems that someone took an arbitrary decision to launch it to the whole company. Now this wouldn't be that bad had it not been the extent of the change. The original trial was for 100 people and he was launching it to 120,000 people. Please excuse the tech stuff but the stupid thing was that this was not being hosted in a data centre so the impact could have been disastrous. So of course I have to step in with lots of calls to the right people to make sure they comply with the terms of the trial. That takes until 7pm.

Add to this that at the same time there is a directive that comes from my manager that says that we have to have our appraisals in by the end of Wednesday. This email comes in at 17:46, the day before I go on leave. The upshot is that if I don't complete it then I get penalised for my years marking. So I try to get the form sorted out but of course my line manager has now gone home so I can't work on the response. So what happens? I end up logging on this morning to sort it out.

Of course the debacle about the launch is still going on so as of 08:50 this morning I am embroiled in the arguments about that. When the manager finally comes in he informs me that the form has been filled incorrectly, so I have to do it again. I complain bitterly because the turnround time of the system is slow and I am supposed to be on leave! He then says that it is my fault as this was supposed to have been done 3 weeks ago. Dig around in my inbox and recover the email I sent to him asking what it was that I needed to complete this form and his reply telling me it was probably a mistake as he didn't send the form out and not to worry about it. Duly posted to him via the online system. By this time it's lunch time.

Of course there are other pressing issues that I have to deal with while waiting for the system to return the form for me to complete so I deal with those. Later there's a heated debate (which almost leads me to hand in my resignation) about the content of the form which nobody knows how to fill in. The gist of which is that all our line manager is doing is being a corporate mouthpiece and waving a stick at us for something that he should have sorted out 3 weeks ago. By the time the form is back for me to complete it's 3pm so I have effectively been at work on my day off. Another conversation although this one more apologetic on his side as he knows he has messed up and fast-tracks my form through. I receive it and work on it. Final version sent off at 4pm. Wait until 4:20pm until he confirms it's all OK and in the system and then helpfully says that I can have a day of in lieu of the days work. I let him know, as calmly as possible that the reason I hadn't taken last years full annual quota was precisely because of events like this! So if I couldn't take what I was owed off then what chance did I have of taking time off in lieu?

So ... 4:30pm, at home. Time wasted because I couldn't do what I was planning to do which was change my bedroom around. This entails moving my computer desk so obviously couldn't be done. But I start it now that I have finished work and I think it will help calm me down.

How wrong can I be?

The reason for the change is that I have very noisy neighbours. To say that they are ignorant and inconsiderate is like saying that the sea is moist. They are known as 'the howlers' and often are screaming in the early hours of the morning. Well my bed head is against the wall adjoining their property and often their shrieks have woken both me and my partner up (when she is here) so I promised to move the bed and the computer desk. The bed is a hand made wrought iron beast so not exactly something I can just throw around the room. The mattress weighs a ton!

Two hours later, the desk has been moved and the bed repositioned against an inner wall. So here is the first problem. The chair will no longer fit at the desk. Aaaarrrrgghhhh!

Now I could move the desk into the back bedroom and that is where it will go, but not until it is carpeted ... so no point in moving it until then. I need to be able to work so the only thing I can do is sit on the edge of the bed to work ... which will kill my back

Well this will only be a temporary situation so it can't be that bad. OK ... tiem to reassemble the PC. 1 hour later and it's all back where it was. Switch it on and .... nothing ... dead.

Downstairs, food, beer, rage. Back up stairs and screwdriver and pliers. Loose cable fixed after searching around for 25 mins. Machine purrs into life! So now it's 10:30pm but about the last thing I want to do is go on the computer ... I have clean up the fallout from the room.

11:30 .. finally online and decide to write this. 12:12 finally finish, back twingeing from sitting at the edge of the bed.

Let's face it ... the day could have been better

Maybe I am wired in a different way to most. Maybe it is something that I have adopted as an ethos. It's just that I cannot conflate the ideas of money and success or, more to the point, I will not.

Increasingly we are being told that our lifestyles are things we should aspire to. Each lifestyle has brands and ownership of these brands, through the instrument of marketing, are supposed to indicate our aspirations to those lifestyles. In short we are being sold our lifestyles. So now we covet objects that indicate higher standings in a lifestyle, be it houses, clothes, shoes, cars, kitchen utensils, even toilet paper. The age of conspicuous consumption that marked the 80s is present once again in the late 90's and onwards to the present. So in order to mark your success in whichever lifestyle you choose, you must own the object that indicates that higher standing. Not only must you own it but you must be seen to own it.

This leads to a curious skewing of priorities. People will put themselves into the heaviest of debt and leave themselves hung out to dry in order to have these objects. They will put aside all thoughts of having a comfortable life just to own something that they have been told will say something about them. Many of these people I know personally. They look at me as some kind of freak because I don't and won't drive a car. They can swap stories with friends and colleagues about the make, model, power, accessories of their various pollutants when the most that any of them drive is a couple of miles in any direction from their homes! I cannot compete in this testosterone-rich automotive pissing contest and I won't.

Don't get me wrong, I too am sold to and I purchase on a regular basis based on what I perceive to be lifestyle aspirations. I kid myself that my penchant for organic and fairtrade are conscience driven choices but I am probably doing it to be part of the 'holier than thou' brigade. That makes me feel better. But the major point is that it is making me spend money. True, that money is being distributed in a fairer way but nonetheless my conscience is driven by my wallet. Not only that but I expect, and rightly so, that my efforts to drive success are rewarded and that usually means financially.

So maybe I need to define some new criteria for success. What can I consider as success that neither requires me to spend or be rewarded financially? Something where I don't have to have an object to define that success.

Maybe I may just try to help people

Radical eh?

You know I was asked if I had an LJ account today. "An LJ account?", I asked, perplexed. "LiveJournal" I was informed. Well I thought I did. And here I am ....

It's amazing how many things I forget seeing as my attention is divided across the wide world of the web. In amidst the training sites the Web 2.0 analysis work the collaboration tool vendor evaluations and the general chaos of the social networking I barely have enough time to commit my words to the screen!

I originally got this account as part of Librarything and was intending to commit brain to words to screen on a regular basis. Did I? Did I hell! Now all I need to do is set up an online reminder to remind me I actually have this 'LJ'

I often wonder about the mentality of people. The vast majority of time people can work in fairly sane and predictable ways but on the odd occasion there pops up someone for whom irrational would be a positive achievement. Whilst I do not pretend to understand the ins and outs of the human psyche there are at least common threads that pervade interactions with people. But when someone completely changes a known and understood situation which effectively is lying to themselves and expects that this sequence of events to be the one adopted as the truth, again despite many witnesses and evidence to the contrary. This is symptomatic of psychopathy. They hide their true motives behind a fabricated background without any qualms about distorting the truth and then believe the fabrication as it obviates any guilt on their behalf.

"People are strange" Jim Morrison