I don't know how, but I managed to miss all the fuss surrounding Cerrie Burnell when she joined CBeebies. The problem? Cerrie is that she only has one hand, the other missing from the elbow down. This is how she was born, it's not through an accident (something which I had wondered).

The 'fuss' was from parents whose children were frightened when she appeared on their screens, and the parents, rather than calming them down and explaining that people are different, sadly chose instead to complain to the BBC.

Sorry, but I can't believe this level of ignorance. Well that's not strictly true, I'm more accurately saddened that they can be that ignorant, and suspect the children were responding to the parents reactions.

Obviously Adam is far too young to notice anything different about Cerrie, but if he had been I would have explained to him, and I dare say at some point he's going to ask, and I look forward to reassuring him if necessary, but hopefully he'll be smart enough to work this all out on his own, which children usually are.

You can see the piece on Disability Cerrie did for the One Show here.

But to be honest it’s sometimes a chore to get writing long and at least semi-cohesive entries, add to that that I’ve got other more important things that I’m also not doing and it’s no surprise this blogh gets neglected.

So where can you find me now?

Well the facebook pages gets updated once in a while: http://www.facebook.com/imorital

The twitter page gets a similar level of service: http://twitter.com/imorital

And that’s largely it. My local web site has been sorely neglected, but there’s a couple of things I’ll be posting there soon.

In the real world: I’ve been at the new job for a couple of months now. It’s going OK at the moment but is hard work (another reason why I’m too tired to keep this page up to date, but we covered that already).

Adam is walking around confidently now. He still has the occasional tumble, but it’s a joy to watch him getting around, and he also loves to dance:

Other than that everything is much the same. Yeah, I know.

Here’s an interesting thought, Google have taken down music videos from YouTube in the U.K. (and some other countries) as they say the artists are asking for too big a rate increase to play there works.

Conversely in this article on CNET Pete Waterman says he’s only earned $16 for the 150 million times “Never Gonna Give You UP” by Rick Astley has been played.

If that’s the whole story then this is a disgrace. But it does raise lots of questions, including:

• Pete only got $16, but what did everyone else in the food chain get?
• What did Google earn from the associated advertising (by which I mean profit after costs)
• How much is a fair rate?
• Should YouTube charge to view ‘Premium’ content.

From my point of view I think a lot of this is down to interpretation, and essentially it should be the artists who decide on the rate, and then Google can decide if this is acceptable or not and act accordingly on an individual basis, more or less what I understand has happened (with the exception that it appears to be a blanket ban).

At the end of the day I usually have little sympathy for the Music Industry, they often appear to be acting against their artists best interests or wishes, but they are a business and everyone deserves to be fairly paid.

At the same time Google as owners of you tube are under no obligation to show these or any other videos, they too are a business and deserve to make a fair profit.

It will be interesting to see how this one plays out. At the moment, from a promotional point of view, I think the music industry has more to loose. Until then I guess I have to BitTorrent my music videos (just joking, I can gladly live without them, but the old skool rave videos were a nice diversion on an occasional Saturday night).

I’ve been meaning to write a blog article similar to this for some time, but have been spurred on by replying to this posting made by an old friend of mine.Take a deep breath, and prepare to flame me if you will:

I'm not sure if I've posted a similar comment to this in the past, but I thoroughly recommend reading 'Tricks Of The Mind' by Derren Brown, he of Channel 4 illusionary. Apart from being entertaining in the same way as (I at least) find his shows, he also goes into detail about how his own personal beliefs have changed over the years, and does this with much humility.

In one section penned by the good Mr. Brown, he mentions the impact caused by 'The Silent Spring' published by Rachel Carson in 1962, at least as he (and I after a very little additional background reading) see it. At the risk of breaking copyright, I'll quote the relevant section (taken out of context of the argument for/against GM crops):

"Rachel Carson famously wrote The Silent Spring in 1962, and in it 'exposed' the environmental dangers of the pesticide DDT. She claimed it caused cancer of the liver, and offered anecdotal evidence of other damage to health. For many years in Bristol I was informally lectured by an organic-obsessed neighbour on the evils of pesticides. Clearly DDT was the great, moustachioed, cat-stroking, chair-swivelling Evil One of them all, compared to which all other bad pesticides were mere shabby-coated, fingerless-gloved villains sat on upturned whiskey crates playing gin-rummy in an episode of The Red Hand Gang. I was amazed to read in Taverne's book that no tests have ever been replicated to show that DDT damages the health of human beings. However, DDT is a fantastically effective way of preventing the spread of malaria. Between the 1940s and 1970, DDT prevented around fifty million human deaths from the fever. In 1963 there were 17 cases of malaria in Sri Lanka, and in 1968, after DDT was banned, there were over a million."

Now I know that is only one side of the story, and I did go on to read Taverne's book which he quotes (The March Of Unreason), along with a couple of others recommended by Brown, which again would inevitably show some bias such is the want of the hidden human psyche, but at least backed up by some(?) science, and I was left with pretty much the same conclusion.

To me, with my little knowledge (a dangerous thing?), Carson is worse than Hitler, or at the very least responsible for more deaths. As I write this, last Friday was Comic Relief 2009, and one of the main focuses was the heartbreaking effects of malaria. The situations shown had me close to tears on several occasions, but also made me angry that this is an necessary situation in the first place.

Science does indeed get things wrong, but peer review is a great thing and eventually the wrongs are righted with the net result that our life gets better, however the mass hysteria perpetuated by the press is shameful, and the MMR debacle is just another example of this. My son turned one last week, and as soon as he is offered it he will be having the MMR vaccine to protect not only himself, but those around him (I think we all know how the spread of the insidious disease measles has rocked since this shambolic MMR episode began). As has been repeatedly proven, MMR is safer than the individual injections!

In the meantime I will also be keeping my Low energy light-bulbs with their mercury poison, the plastic bottles with their various other nasty chemicals (where does the list stop on this one?), and if it's all right with you I'll also leave my mobile phone charger plugged in, but turn my central heating and hot water on 30 minutes later. Of course, that means I'll save more energy on the heating in one day than turning the charger off for many, many years would achieve, but it's hardly worthy of press attention is it?

Well, last time it was through choice, but this time the current economic climate is being used as an excuse to add me to the statistics, yes, I’ve been crunched as I expected I would be in my previous posting, so I’m officially on notice now.

It’s certainly an interesting state of affairs we’re going through globally at the moment. As to when the current economic turmoil is going to be over, this time around the guess of the man on the street (or out of work and almost on the street) is probably as good as the experts. I’m sure it won’t last for ever, but I genuinely do hope things change and we come out stronger. Unfortunately I think that opportunity may already have been missed.

I don’t blame the banks for bringing on the crunch, well not the banks alone anyway. The way I see it, they only did what they could get away with and it became a self fulfilling prophecy, which turned into a house of cards. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Blame the traders for their massive bonuses if you want, but really are they any worse than any of us? Honestly, I can’t see many people when presented with the opportunity of making massive amounts of money (in this case for effectively gambling) turning it down. At the end of the day I believe they just did what anyone else would do, the only difference is that they had the opportunity, others didn’t so it’s easy to feel cheated. The fact they still often seem to reward themselves so highly is a bit rottern though.

So whose fault is it?

I don’t know, probably all of us. The government is a popular answer for most, but they were benefiting from the excess, and as oblivious to the consequences as anyone else at the time. There were warning signs, but I can grudgingly understand why these were ignored.

What about the shareholders of the banks, shouldn’t they have been protecting their investments? Well, think who the major shareholders in the banks are…

So my take on it is that no one person or sector is to blame. We all enjoyed the cheap credit, the rising house prices (actually I’m not so sure about that), and the general trappings of living in a prosperous economy at the time, we just didn’t realise quite how badly it was being supported.

What does upset me is how the money is being squandered trying to get out of this situation. Sure some money needed to go into the banks, but it looks like it’s being done in such a way that no lessons will be learnt. It is a bail-out isn’t it?

I would have liked to see greater regulation in the banks, and more importantly some of this money going to making the country a better place, for example some of those billions could go towards improving our infrastructure, building road and rail links, investing in new power, funding new science, more efficient hospitals and the like. Then we may have a stronger country when we come out of the other side.

Should banks have been allowed to go under – probably not, it hurts too many innocent people. But it looks like some were bailed out a little too readily.

I don’t know how I’d fix things, I just wish I believed the lessons would be learnt.

And when’s it all going to be over? That depends if you’re talking about my individual troubles or that of the globe.

Either way, if I had a dollar…

...as the fish said in the desert.

Anyways, it's been a while since my last blog posting, or indeed any serious presence on the Internets. Just over 8 months apparently.

Well, nothing has happened during this time, so there's not been anything to write about.

Oh, apart from the fact my son, Adam Jack was born on 6th March at 00:05.

So that will make him a little over 10 weeks old now.

He's still not saying a lot, and when I asked him what 1+1 equalled he just looked blankly at me. But he's an absolute joy to have, and at the risk of speaking too soon he's a very easy baby, rarely causing a fuss.

I know it's been said by others, but it's fascinating watching him as each day he does something else a little different. At the moment he's obviously not really self aware, but the little things like when he started to find his "voice" or the way he will appear to deliberately give the toys hanging from his activity center a whack.

Naturally, it's not so good that he knows when we start eating and invariably then starts crying for his bottle, but then he's got a lot of growing to do. And my god, he's trying his best to do it!

Still, it's all a pleasure, and whatever you put in he gives twice as much back.

So here's to the calm before the storm, when the baby turns into a toddler. Then the really hard work starts!

You know, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, and that's exactly what I know about politics, very little, but some things just stand out as inconceivable or just plain disgusting. Such is the report I've just watched on Zimbabwe.

I remember a few years ago noticing a pack of Baby Corn I'd bought from the supermarket had come from Zimbabwe, and I was at once both horrified and confused. This was about the time things were just starting to take a turn for the worse over there (at least this was when the negative reporting was just kicking in) so I was both disgusted that the store was stocking food from the area (and with my lack of noticing before I bought it) and wondered if my buying them would actually help somebody keep their job.

Now we see a Zimbabwe, once known as the bread basket of Africa, slowly and painfully dying from within, while a corrupt government, backed by other African leaders, destroys their own people.

Being from the first world I find this shocking. I think Zimbabwe was once first world too (or at least second), now it's definitely third world for the majority of the people, i.e. not the elite few.

We're told that we can't meddle in the affairs of Africa, they have their own ways of dealing with things that we shouldn't enforce our lifestyles and ideologies upon, but is this really any comfort for the victims and the country as they die a painful death?

And now, unbelievably, I'm watching a report on England playing Zimbabwe at cricket. Have I missed something, or is this just sick.

I'm ashamed. Ashamed we're involved in a badly thought out war in the Middle East while innocents die under a corrupt regime elsewhere. Zimbabwe deserve our help, after all they used to fly our flag if nothing else.

But then again, their neighbors are turning a blind eye, or even worse supporting what's going on.

I really don't understand, would somebody please explain to me what the hell is going on?

Imagine my surprise when I received a letter from Anglian Water telling me my payments had been reviewed and they had decided to start charging me £62 a month for my water usage!

Apparently I'm using way more water than a household of two should be, I suspect (by looking at the figures they are using) that I'm using more that a family of 4 would.

I don't understand. I have no visible leaks. the dishwasher (which incidentally is more environmentally friendly than washing up in the sink) is probably only on twice a week (three times occasionally), we tend to shower rather than bath, and I even turn the water off when brushing my teeth (don't worry, it goes back on whenever I spit in the bowl).

It just doesn't make sense.

One thing I have learnt though - a power shower can use a third more water than taking a bath! But having said that I make little use of the 'boost' button, so I doubt it's that.

Those bricks that go in the toilet cisterns aren't really a goer either as the damn things hardly chuck out any water these days as it is.

I really don't know what to do.

Ideas on a postcard to the usual address...

Roll on July 1st when the smoking ban begins in public places in England and I no longer have to leave a pub stinking like an ashtray.

I absolutely hate smoking, it has too many connections to bad events in my life. As a result I'm acutely aware of a few junctions in my life where the decision I made was either directly because of, or heavily influenced by smoking (relationships I've avoided or finished, friends I've seen less of and lost contact with, etc.)

Sure I tolerate it most of the time, but as a non smoker I do find it offensive even having to follow somebody down the street breathing in their smoke (I wish it was also banned from public places outdoors too, but I doubt it is).

You may be thinking "It's up to the individual if they want to smoke" and I couldn't agree more. The last thing I want to do is enforce my view on everyone else, but by being close to me smoking you are not only forcing your "habit" on me, but also damaging my health at the same time.

Equally I could turn down a relationship with the most perfect girl in the world all because she's a smoker. The obvious point to this is that she wasn't really that perfect was she?

Which brings me onto another point: being with a smoker is nasty. You stink. Don't think we can't tell when you're secretly smoking either. It may take a while for us to be sure and make certain we're reading you right (rather than, for example, finding out you're drinking far too much cheap coffee at work), but eventually when the time is right the relationship is doomed. Is that too harsh? No. It's a hundred times easier than watching somebody you care about die slowly and in agony.

Naturally the new laws will be ignored by the retarded few, but hopefully public pressure will win out fairly quickly.

Now if only I had a gun to shoot people driving on mobile phones...

I spent this weekend on Keith's stag do (Emma's Twin's Fiance) in Romford.

I've not been to Romford since I was probably about 4 or so, therefore I don't remember a thing about the place. But we had a nice couple of pints, a decent curry, and a laugh at the Romford Dog Track.

All in all it's made a good weekend away, but I'm feeling absolutely rubbish at the moment.

I'd love to show you a couple of photos, but this being a stag do such things are against the law.

Needless to say we didn't tie him naked to a lamppost, or send him to Scotland asleep on a train.

Actually, I'm happy to say I've never actually known anybody have that done to them.

A strip club would have been nice though ;-)

I don't know if it's the effect of being back at work and finding myself with precious little more than a couple of hours to relax every night, the fact I'm getting older, or the fact that I've come to realise a few things that I really should have faced up to sooner, but something's got to give over the next couple of months...

Jesus, that sounds almost like a bad horoscope doesn't it.

Well I'm not going to comment on the job at the moment, suffice to say it's not what I expected it to be (or indeed what I believed I was supposed to be doing), but we'll have to see how things turn out. One thing I have noticed that I was very aware of in UBS is the way an established team almost expect you to learn things via osmosis, like "Why didn't you run a into b environment so c could be done? Er... probably because I thought I'd done a, wasn't aware there was a b and also never knew c existed, let alone was a requirement!

WTF?! At least tell me so I stand a bit of a chance.

And don't tell my you've covered other stuff when that's not the case!

Oh well, I guess it's just a manifestation of the existing team being so at home with the set-up that they can't consider a newbie isn't also up to speed. That I can understand.

Just don't complain when I do need to be taken through stuff a second time. If you're going to (inevitably) skim over stuff or go through it rapidly, then of course I'm going to need clarification.

*Sigh*

And it's been nothing if not interesting. I'm finding the journey a bit of a drag, it's about 25 minutes longer than the journey to UBS used to be, and while that's not much (ok, almost an hour a day so not insignificant I guess) it's more about the hassel of the additional part.

I started off by going to the interview and on the first day by walking, which from Liverpool Street to the office takes about 25 minutes. This first month however I decided to take some of the pressure off by getting my rail ticket with Zone 1 included, that way I get the choice of taking the bus or tube without worrying about it. I've also experimented with a couple of alternative walking routes. So far the walking wins (at least while the weather is good anyway).

The Number 100 bus took about 35 minutes (although most of this was being stuck in traffic at the back of St. Pauls Cathedral (So if I actually got off before then it would probably cut down my walking time a little) while the tube took about as long as walking does this morning, so at least that's an option in the cold & wet. There's other bus routes I can try (like the number 23 or 11 that got me back to the station in about 15 minutes tonight) but these routes tend to be super busy in the morning. So it looks like for the most part I'm going to be walking to and from work, but I'll get an Oyster card for those cold a rainy days, just for some flexibility.

As far as the job goes I'm still settling in at the moment. It's learning time and I've got at least three systems (one of which is written in C#) to get to grips with, so it's not going to be easy. I'll have to get back at a later date to report how I'm coping.

That's if the journey hasn't killed me first.

Well I've now done my first two days in the new job, and to be honest I wasn't impressed yesterday.

Having arrived at the induction at 8:30 the HR department themselves didn't arrive on time as the girl due to do the presentation was stuck on the train from Brighton. That's fair enough, but we were greeted by three other people from HR (who other than taking the documentation were doing precious little else) so why one of these couldn't have stood in is anyones guess...

So we started off with a decent enough presentation from security, an unfortunate necessity considering the current climate, followed by the expected dross from compliance (too basic for those of us that have already encountered such things, and probably too abstract for those in the audience who are new to such things, such is the necessity of the situation I guess).

Finally HR did their stint. Only they didn't really. HR didn't actually tell us anything of use, they just basically told the foreign workers to fill in the appropriate form, and then took us down to get our security passes and sent us on our way. There was no mention about what or when we were to complete out registrations online, how to credit cash to our security cards for meals, etc. in the canteen, how or what benefit and pension forms were required to be completed. All in all it was a total waste of time from them.

Rubbish.

So I got my pass (the photo on which makes me look like some kind of a mekon) and walked over to my new office. Things actually started off quite well, my new PC had arrived shorly before I did and after a few calls to the technical support line I was beginning to be set up. Inevitably not everything went according to plan, I have a UNIX login but no password, which despite my follow up emails is still conspicuous by its absence. Oh wel, there's always a problem, and it's certainly more organised than UBS were.

As for the job, it's really a little too early to comment. So far I'm trying to read throgh the documentation and make sense of the system, but that should hopefully improve as time goes on. Certainly some of it seems familiar from previous experience. But it's a whole new framework that I need to pick up, and that's where the difficulty will be.

Still, I did manage to meet up with Matt for a beer as he's only working down the road. So that's good.

Well, it's Sunday 29th April, meaning tomorrow I start my new position working for JP Morgan after 13 months off.

As I've said before, it feels like I've only been out for two weeks. At the moment I'm not especially nervous (just a little), but I'm also a little excited at the chance of being given a new start.

I originally intended to stay at my previous company for a considerable time, but due to the fact I became disillusioned with them quite early on, I never really made the progress I should have. Generally I think the team there was great, certainly a bunch of very smart people who it was a pleasure to work alongside. Obviously there were ups and downs with the company, but I think my line manager Tony and project manager Paul were excellent people to work for, (even if they didn't think I was interested in promotion!!), and others on the team were almost universally good too.

I guess the real problem with UBS were the next level of managers. The trouble is the more you become abstracted from the ground troops (as is necessary when moving through the ranks, that's what the next level of managers working for you are there for), the more isolated you become. It's hard (if not impossible) to get around this and is rarely achieved. Of course, it doesn't help when the feeling in the department is one of self interest and general disdain from the higher ranks (and quotes such as "if he doesn't like it f*ck him, we'll get somebody else" don't really improve morale).

The problem is really one of perception. The bigger picture in the company was one of trying to look out for the lower ranking members of staff, after all if the foot soldiers are unhappy then the very foundations of the company are in trouble. However this only has to hit one loose link in the chain before the message is lost. Looking back I don't really think it's a company problem (although I don't know much about the culture at higher levels), but more down to a couple of individuals with an over inflated self importance, as is usually the case.

Either way I'm glad to be out and hoping upon all hopes that JP Morgan is run in a more friendly manner. Certainly (as you'd expect) the things I've been told in the interviews seem to imply this, so I guess only time will tell, but I'm hoping for great things.

And the thing I'm most worried about this very moment?

Trying to remember everyone's name.

One of the things I have especially missed this last year, has been not being able to ask my dad for advice in the garden (amongst other things). Looking back I've gone from thinking to myself "I must just call and ask him about this" to now realising straight away that this is no longer possible and just guessing what to do and getting on with it, but not without first giving him a thought each time.

Anyone who knew my father (especially since his retirement) would have know how he was a keen gardener. I especially remember how, when we lived in a little village called Hook, just outside Swindon and Wootton Bassett, he would enter the local flower competitions and regularly come home with a haul of rosettes, especially, as I remember, for his Dahlia and Sweet Peas.

I try my best, but I really don't know what I'm doing and in some cases end up buying the plants I've tried to grow from seed at some garden center or other at some extortionate price. He's probably turning in his grave as I do this, but it's his fault since I can't ask anymore ;-)

I guess I'm writing about this now as a couple of really small and insignificant events have happened over the last couple of days.

Firstly, I visited him in the cemetery yesterday, what with it being my last day of freedom before starting work on Monday. Whilst there I removed a dead pot plat somebody had left at the grave (since a similar plant was also on the grave of my grandparents & uncle I assume it was left by one of my other uncles), but kept the pot thinking to myself "That'll come in useful". When relaying the days events to my mum she casually commented how Dad would do the same thing, which I laughed about at the time.

Earlier today I was also sorting out some stuff in the shed and garage when I came across a box I had obviously taken when sorting out his stuff with my brothers. The box was full of  packets of seeds, some of which were unlabelled (typical of my father - he may recognise the seeds but to me it's going to be a surprise). I'd forgotten I had this, and since I was in the middle of doing some stuff in the garden it just felt a little poignant.

Time will tell if I ever manage to grow anything from this collection, but I intend to try with at least some things, if not this year then next. Taking into consideration my ability and the age of the seeds, I'm not expecting much to germinate, but I'm hoping at least a few things will. It just seems to make the process a little more special if it does.

If I'm honest, what little I try to do in the garden is probably driven by a desire to honor his memory in a small way, so I guess I should put more effort in and appreciate any success I have.

As a colleague of mine once said: "You can get over what has happened, but it never leaves you".

I'll be starting work for J P Morgan on 30th April 2007.

It's going to be a bittersweet day, I've enjoyed the past year off during which I have not achieved only a little of what I intended. There's just so much to do out there when you look at it, I could have filled my time twenty times over. Still, it's been a nice break, and I probably need to get back into the real world.

I'm a little nervous about starting the new job, not because I don't think I'm up to it, I'm sure after an introductory period I'll be back in the swing, but more because I'm terrible at remembering names, and they'll be a lot to remember.

Oh well, I've survived before.

I'm actually quite looking forward to it, although I'll miss being able to hop on the bike and ride down to the river for a nice pint in the sun.

Oh well, I may be able to afford to retire at 70, so I'll be able to do it then.

Assuming I can still get on a bike that is.

And I'm still alive... ;-)

Well, I've been out of work for almost a year now, so it's probably about time I returned to the rat race.

Handy that, since it seems I've just managed to get a new job. I've been made an offer, but I'm waiting for the conformation and paperwork to come through, so I'll not be going into many more details.

It's not paying as much as I hoped for (although still a little better than UBS), but hopefully the prospects will be better and it will be somewhere that actually look at what their staff do rather than how kissy they are when deciding company progression.

Time will tell.

Stay tuned for more news (almost) as it happens!

Apparently 55% of people can manage this....

if yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid too. Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can.

i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rgh it pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!

Nice.