Free Arash and Mojtaba

In support of free speech, and perhaps more importantly (to me) the right to think for yourself, and form your own opinions on the world, rather than blindly accept what you are told.

**Edit**

I've now removed the image and link from this post, because it screws up the placement of the sidebar in IE. I've replaced it with a perma-link and banner for the Committee to Protect Bloggers website in the sidebar. The image is from SarahAnne.

Unholy Matrimony?

So the newswires yesterday lit up with the news Charles and Camilla are to get married in the not too distant future. Of course, all the talk is “is this right, they’re both divorced?!” and “should he be allowed to be head of the church of England if he does this?” and “what about when he’s King, would it be ok for her to be Queen?”

TV news was full of various “ordinary” people giving their opinions on various things. A number of them were the perfectly reasonable “yeah, well... whatever… he loves her.” But there were a number of “its not right” type comments too.

“What message” one newscaster asked, “does this send to the country about marriage?” IT doesn’t send any messages, simply reflects the reality of the modern world. We no longer need royalty to tell us what is right and wrong, but we shouldn’t expect them to live by rules we’ve no intention of living by ourselves.

To me, they’ve been together a long time. Their relationship has survived despite the efforts of press and populace (which, especially after the death of Diana, positively hated Camilla), so I think it’s great – even right – that they’re now getting married (after all – isn’t being unmarried partners like they currently are a greater sin in the eyes of tradition than marrying a divorcee? Personally I’ve got no problems with either, but some traditionalists do).

So congratulation to the happy couple. And all you complainers be quiet unless you’re prepared to live by the standards you’re setting them.

The Farside of Stupidity

Minor rant coming up. Although it might develop into a major one if I get carried away (as I've got a tendency to).

The big project to move work-stuff up from some of our offices down south to the offices I work at in York isn't going all that smoothly. We appear to be firmly in the panic mode of project management, which pretty much boils down to "throw people and money at it and pray". So I'm one of the lucky souls being thrown in that direction, and as a result will spend the vast majority of the next two months in Norwich.

As the project to unite the data team under one roof and one management structure drags it's feet and panics, another move is happening. Half the York based team will be moving to an out of town site oat some point in the next couple of months (probably while I'm away in Norwich, the odds of me actually being in York at any given point during this period are close to zero). So, even before we've united the team, we've split it up further... which makes me question if anyone upstairs is really thinking any of these things through properly.

Everyone's favourite project named after a Greek goddess seems to have derailed itself after I thought I'd finished doing it. Been taking and increasing number of calls recently that suggest the people left behind now Chip has moved out have failed to understand his design, thought it was doing something it isn't, and now want to fundamentally change the way everything works.

Last but by no means least in the list of decisions being made by people with no understanding of the requirements or the impact of what they're deciding is the toolset replacement. The decision has apparently already been made, but from what I can see, the product (while being very powerful for the task it was designed for) isn't particularly well suited for what we want to do. Maybe this will change when they come to do a presentation on their approach... however, since I'm likely to be in Norwich, I'll probably miss that.

All of the above annoys, frustrates and upsets me to varying degrees, because I see a lot of potential for my team and myself. I believe we can achieve some really great things in our field… however, various external stupid management decisions appear to be doing everything they can to prevent that.

Trench Warfare

Second in a series (with some missing because I'm lazy) of Call of Duty league match reports. This week, we were down to play [GTW]Elite. Veterans (as much as anyone else anyway) of the Premiership, but not doing brilliantly this season (somehow managing to be below us in the table despite our record of loosing every match so far). We expected a though, but probably winnable match.

Except they didn't turn up. Initially the problem seemed to be connectivity to the game server (although our team managed to get on) but then it was decided that they had better things to be doing than trying to play their match, so they gave up. That means we get a default win (3 points for a win, but a zero for score difference) and them a default loss (zero points for a loss, and -20 to their score difference as a penalty for not playing). So, unless they have a strong turn around in fortunes in the rest of the season, we're probably going to finish above them, even if only on score difference.

Despite getting 3 much needed points, I'm disappointed. I'm in this for the thrill of the fight, not for the winning. I'd rather have a well-fought match than a default win, even if that means we loose.

Ever Expanding Circles

Of which there are many. However right now I'm talking of my little blog group. The newest member of which is JaqLand. Home to a little lady with a thing for hats, cats and ... and it'd be cool if something else that rhymed went in here, but I can't think of anything! I

In other news, I'm back from the not really sunny (but at least it wasn't wet) Norwich. Nothing exciting to say really. Sorry.