Archive for June, 2008
I just joined a gym
Posted by: | CommentsI’ve been battling with my weight for a little while now, and the worst thing is I know exactly what I am doing which is causing me to be overweight. I now have the opportunity to use a gym through work which costs me nothing and is barely a few steps from my office. So all my excuses about exercise just evaporated.
The best thing of all is that there is a really nice gym instructor who will kick my ass and hold me to account when I go off the rails. I showed her a food diary that I kept during may, and she immediately pointed out almost everything I ate was carbs and hardly any veggies. Which when you’re vegetarian is a pretty damning statement to be sure.
It’s not like I don’t know this stuff, I’ve just been kidding myself about it. I am quite simply making the wrong choices, it isn’t complicated. Eat crap, get crap results.
So I have been taking advantage of this new facility at my disposal and I just jumped on a couple of machines doing about 30-40 minutes exercise in the morning. That is the easy part out of the way though, as I now need to get my food under control.
I decided to take a multivitamin, which I am hoping will help boost a few of those key nutrients my body currently craves. That way I can ditch the peanut butter sandwiches, and late night sessions of toast and Marmite.
So I am really going for it this time, I cannot afford to be this unhealthy or unfit any more. I will write more about my progress.
My blog has adopted a Charity
Posted by: | CommentsOnce or twice a month I like to adopt a charitable cause, usually by sponsoring a friend in some sort of event or challenge. This month I decided to sponsor the Sangkheum Center for Children.
Sangkheum Center for Children provides education, training, scholastic support and care to children between the ages of 4 and 17. In Khmer, Sangkheum means ‘Hope’. Since 2001, the Sangkheum Center for Children has given hope to over 260 orphaned, abused or neglected children and provided education and vocational training to many more that otherwise would not have the opportunity to go to school. In addition we run a Young Adult program with a focus on preparing and re-integrating young adults into the community. If you are interested in finding out more about our activities or would like to contact us directly you are welcome to visit our website at www.sangkheum.org.
I remember a friend of my kept saying “Think of the blind children!” when he was collecting sponsorship for running the London marathon. Needless to say I gave a few quid to support the effort.
I have never actually met Nathan Nelson, but I’ve had contact with his mother Margaret through my membership of the BHA. Nathan has done more than just run a race, or do a one time thing, he’s committed himself to helping children in another country.
I wonder how many of us would make such a sacrifice to help children like these? Without people like Nathan and the others who help run the Sangkheum Centre for Children I wonder what their life would be like? I can only hope someone would show the same compassion to my children if the situation were reversed.
My only desire is that my donation helps improve the future for these kids, I hope your donation will do the same?
Proposal for Buddhist school
Posted by: | CommentsThe Buddhist community in Birmingham is now looking to get into the faith school business, like many other religions. The BBC report that:
A Buddhist charitable trust is to draw up a proposal for the first Buddhist state primary school in the UK to be built in the Midlands.
The argument against this is no different to the argument against faith schools of Christianity, Islam, or Hinduism. They all claim to be open minded, loving people of all religion however we cannot escape the truth that this is simply sectarianism. The intent behind these schools is clearly to promote their own faith, why else would you create a faith school?
What is most interesting is that you would not be allowed to set up a humanist or secular school, because the law currently requires a daily act of worship. Therefore the playing field when it comes to schools is not remotely level.
The BBC report quite rightly asks the question:
Integration or segregation?
This only shows the increasing need to disestablish the church and separate religion and the state completely. All the time the C of E has it’s special place in British education and the House of Lords, other religions will want a slice of the pie too.
Ministers ‘ignoring Church role’
Posted by: | CommentsAccording to the BBC, the government only pays ‘lip service’ to the Church of England. So let us look at the evidence behind this. Umm…. 26 Bishops who sit in the House of Lords, bishops on the news every other week, thought for the day, songs of praise, faith slots here there and everywhere on the BBC. Oh and lets not forget the church indoctrination that goes on in all those faith schools (and community schools).
Forgive me if I don’t feel a great swell of sympathy for the state religion being ignored by ministers.
Quite honestly it is about time religion stopped sticking its nose into politics. Hazel Blears talks of listening to the “Christian majority” but even the last census (as well as church statistics) show this to be utter nonsense.
“God is dead”, to quote Nietzsche, so let him rest in peace, and once and for all disestablish the church. The state should be secular, it’s only because the religions keep saying secular like it’s a dirty word that people think secularisation of the state is a bad thing. Look at France! hundreds of years of culture and progress, and all in the remit of a secular state.. Secular means a free and fair society for all despite their religious or non-religious philosophical views.
So I say shut your yap, bishop Lowe, because it is utterly false to claim you don’t want to influence political decisions, yet want ministers to listen to you. Why else would you want ministers to pay more attention to you? A nice chat and cup of tea perhaps?
We all know the church has its own political agenda, and given half a chance would seek to reassert itself as it did in bygone days, that are best left bygone. The recent controversy on stem cell research only serves to illustrate this point.
As for churches being contracted to provide social services, well we only have to see how that turned for employees of the Christian charity prospects.
So Bishop Lowe, I say this. I don’t want ministers listening to you, I want them governing for the benefit of all British people NOT your church!
BBC News Online | Politics | Ministers ‘ignoring Church role’
Ministers ‘ignoring Church role’
Posted by: | CommentsAccording to the BBC, the government only pays ‘lip service’ to the Church of England. So let us look at the evidence behind this. Umm…. 26 Bishops who sit in the House of Lords, bishops on the news every other week, thought for the day, songs of praise, faith slots here there and everywhere on the BBC. Oh and lets not forget the church indoctrination that goes on in all those faith schools (and community schools).
Forgive me if I don’t feel a great swell of sympathy for the state religion being ignored by ministers. Quite honestly it is about time religion stopped sticking its nose into politics. Hazel Blears talks of listening to the “Christian majority” but even the last census (as well as church statistics) show this to be utter nonsense.
“God is dead”, to quote Nietzsche, so let him rest in peace, and once and for all disestablish the church. The state should be secular, it’s only because the religions keep saying secular like it’s a dirty word that people think secularisation of the state is a bad thing. Look at France! hundreds of years of culture and progress, and all in the remit of a secular state.. Secular means a free and fair society for all despite their religious or non-religious philosophical views.
So I say shut your yap, bishop Lowe, because it is utterly false to claim you don’t want to influence political decisions, yet want ministers to listen to you. Why else would you want ministers to pay more attention to you? A nice chat and cup of tea perhaps?
We all know the church has its own political agenda, and given half a chance would seek to reassert itself as it did in bygone days, that are best left bygone. The recent controversy on stem cell research only serves to illustrate this point.
As for churches being contracted to provide social services, well we only have to see how that turned for employees of the Christian charity prospects.
So Bishop Lowe, I say this. I don’t want ministers listening to you, I want them governing for the benefit of all British people NOT your church!
BBC News Online | Politics | Ministers ‘ignoring Church role’
The Day at Down
Posted by: | CommentsToday we went to Down House the historical home of Charles Darwin and the place where he wrote his famous “The Origin of the Species”.
The weather was wonderful and we had nothing but clear skies and sunshine all day long. We made it in good time for opening at 11am, avoiding the traffic for the nearby Biggin Hill air show.
The audio tour of the ground floor was fascinating and we got to hear all about Charles Darwin and his family life. We saw the actual study where he wrote the famous theory of evolution by means of natural selection. Clearly he believed what he was saying because he produced ten children to carry on his own genetic lineage, although only seven survived to maturity.
It was interesting to know how well he treated his servants, and how he was a great family man, who was jolly and loved to play games with his children in the garden.
The children had quite a bit to keep them amused. There was a quiz of the ground floor rooms which resulted in the prize of some sweets at the end. There were also things on the second floor which described our evolutionary history, Darwin’s voyage on the Beagle, and even some features on DNA and continental drift.
There was also a great deal to see in the grounds (aside from the free air show), in particular the kids found the fly eating plants, and bees in the laboratory to be very interesting and exciting.
The facilities at Down House were also very good, and they made some quite lovely sandwiches and cream teas. Unfortunately many of the catering staff were delayed by the traffic jams caused by the air show, however the shop staff were pitching in to help out serving drinks and cake.
There were many gifts and souvenirs to choose from in the gift shop all relating to Darwin’s life and work.
Despite the unfortunate timing of our trip, the day was very enjoyable.
The HTC S710
Posted by: | CommentsI have just purchased a new mobile phone and it is very very cool indeed. I have had a Windows Mobile phone for so long now I can’t imagine how I would be without it.
Windows Mobile 6 does what it says on the tin, although the critical reports about it on the HTC device are correct in so much as it is a tad sluggish. However I still love the phone.
You can’t see from the image but it has a slide out keyboard as well as a dial pad. No clunky old touch screen like my Orange M3100 phone (another HTC device rebranded).
Anyway…. I really like my new HTC S710 so far, particularly as it worked out from my SIM card which network I was on and automatically doing all the configuration for WAP/GPRS/Voicemail etc.
I have now downloaded the free Halo ring tone from the Windows Mobile web site, and all my contacts, calendar and email is correctly synchronised from my hosted Exchange server mailbox.
I am gooey with excitement!
