Or so it feels at the moment – I’m off to Devon tomorrow with the rest of the Selfs Selves Selfs Selves family for a week, which will be another week spent being grateful that I haven’t agreed try and squeeze a dissertation into my summer. This evening I got back from seeing Lucy on a trip which included me playing Scrabble (I came third but not last, which is what I will hold on to), many baby photos and a trip to Drayton Manor theme park. I really do hope that I never stop enjoying rollercoasters, because it really would open up a bit of a void in my schedule of experiences which justify being alive but don’t make me fatter. Really, what’s not to love?
(However – and I know I already tweeted this, but this is my blog, and I always drive to deliver true cross-platform synergy in my core online activities to enable inspirational user experiences – there is something infuriatingly niggling about a sign with physics mistakes in. At least with spelling and grammar you can console yourself that language evolves blah blah blah, but the units of acceleration are never going to evolve into those of velocity, and if you try and apply one instead of another there is a very real chance that the rollercoaster will break and kill us all. ‘G-force’ is a measure of acceleration measured in metres per second per second. Also, converting to imperial units will not magically divide this by time. That is all.)
Here’s a very quick example of one gigantic leap in logic:
It is amazingly unpredictable how some old patients survive when everyone has given up hope and some young patients succumb to disease. Makes me believe in God.
This was posted in the comments of a blog post about US healthcare reform, and not in a theological discussion, and so I intend to use it merely as an example of a strange kind of thinking. Broken down into parts:
“It is amazingly unpredictable how some old patients survive…” – is it? You can suggest that a patient only has a 10% chance of survival based on overall survival rates, and thus predict that they will die with fairly good odds behind you. Still, they might not. Is that amazing, or simply how percentages work? If I flip a fair coin I have absolutely no way of predicting whether it will come up heads or tails at all… isn’t that more ‘amazingly unpredictable’?
“…when everyone has given up hope…” – and in the cases where everybody hasn’t given up hope, is a patient’s survival consquently less amazing? I suppose you could justifably say it was less amazing to the people doing the hoping themseles, but why so for you?
“…and some young patients succumb to disease.” – yes. Does amazingness really extend to the fact that young people can die?
“Makes me believe in God.” – woah. You can now invoke God to explain the concept of ‘surprises’? Although perhaps it has to be a good surprise. Consider this:
It is amazingly unpredictable how some young patients succumb to disease when everyone expects them to pull through and some old patients survive. Makes me believe in God.
It is truly extraordinary when people invoke the idea that a wonderous event should make one believe in God whilst in the very same sentence highlighting a tragic event as a counterexample that then isn’t counted against the idea of a God.
Pre-emptive theist response
“Young people dying unexpectedly is all part of God’s plan which fulfils an ultimately good end.”
This invalidates the entire argument we began with. If you presume that everything belongs to an ultimately good ‘plan’ then an elderly patient unexpectedly surviving is no different from, say, an elderly patient dying as expected. We only got to God in the first place by deciding the the former event was in some way ‘especially good’ and contrasting it with other, less good things.
I Can Make You FAT’
Finally! A career choice which utilises my particular talents and skills…
(Dominic Self is available for interview.)
‘National Rail Tickets …made simple!’ and ‘Fine’
The rains cometh! Yes, as a most-welcome shower finally relieves us of a prolonged bout of horrid humidity, I feel a happy boost which prompts me to get on with blogging about our trip to Liverpool. Some photos:
See, I told you the train works out as more expensive than the flying carpet
Don’t shout about it, but is photo-autism on the retreat?
A room with a view
If I only wait a little longer I’ll soon be back in fashion!
Put your hands up for De… erm… Liverpool
Going through the album and choosing which photos to display actually brought up the curious thing about Liverpool: try as I might, I couldn’t find anything which really screamed where it was taken. I actually asked someone there what they would put on a postcard to identify the city – akin to Parliament or the London Eye, or the Bullring for Birmingham – and he couldn’t really think of anything aside from the docks. Don’t get me wrong, there were plenty of impressive buildings, so maybe it’s just my fault for not recognising them as quintessentially Liverpudlian. The giant outdoorsy and slightly creepy shopping centre Liverpool One certainly didn’t qualify. Anyway, we did have a great time and packed in art galleries, museums, a bus tour and the cinema alongside (of course) plenty of eating and drinking – thanks to mum for organising it all! 
Last night I ended up staring at the beautiful night sky above Queen’s Park (no lighting – hooray!) with Joshua, Niamh and Matthew. Matthew seems to bring out the theatrics in me – we’d already ended up encircling each other in the pub shouting things like “but what is a fact?” far louder than the management of The Corrib would have ideally wished for. A lovely evening!
I hope no-one is now disappointed that there was no further mention of the promised dhododendrons…
I stand rightfully accused of leaving far too long between posts, and then trying to shove a week and a half’s worth of stuff in one go, so here is a little snatched bit of blogging before an early night! A couple of things to rave about: first, Psychoville, which was introduced to me whilst visiting Oliver and Abi’s – is really good – and I am now working my way through. Catch it on the iPlayer before it disappears! Also, today at the aquarium with Lucy, Abbi and Sanna was great (I have a real urge to go into primary school mode now, and say that we say lots of fishes and sharks and even a turtle!) Alix was round for dinner this evening, who always makes for great company, and tomorrow I am off for a short break to Liverpool with mum, Katie and Lucy.
So, yeah. All’s very well! Goodnight and sweet dreams* 
*i.e. Don’t have a series of nightmares, like I managed to, including one in which I was a cameraman going around the homes of various targeted people in Zimbabwe as shots were going off around us. I have a very vivid dream memory of turning around and thinking – ‘how come I don’t have a bullet proof vest on but the fancy BBC reporter behind me does?’
Linda Moffitt on Colombia: “Such a sweet memory of the four of you meeting up in Colombia!” Dec 2, 07:42
