word of the weak

Well, the last week has been interesting as I managed to fit in a short trip to Basrah. However, I did spend most of it stuck on planes and being held hostage by the unique way in which the Army moves its people about. Still, it did present an ideal opportunity to get some reading for the forthcoming unit on Liberalism in the bag. Fortunately, amongst the four PCs that I have on my desk at work (don’t ask), one of them has a broadband internet connect and a colour printer so I was able to take some liberties with the stationary budget and do some serious downloading to hard copy (incidentally, and in case anyone is interested, I printed off all of the main text and most of the linked documents (or at least those I could find before I got bored and gave up) and on A4 paper, it came in a about 1” (pretty handy as it fitted nicely into a foolscap folder)).
Funnily enough I did manage to find time to read pretty much all of the hard copy text (thanks to David Betz for his tips on reading). I even found myself engaging in serious analytical debate with some of my colleagues (I’m sure they were only kidding with their barely-stifled yawns and hurried excuses to ‘pop to the EFI for bottle of water’ (s’funny that, the bottled water plentiful and free). Anyway, how is it then, that despite all that effort, here we are on the eve of the unit in question and I’m having a complete CRAFT* moment? Perhaps I need to review my study methods.
Another thing that made my week interesting was that my house was struck by lightening for the second time on 5 years (different house though). Both times my TVs were cooked and this time my laptop was also fried. Hoorah for kit insurance, that’s all I can say. I don’t know how unlikely it is to get struck by lightening but I don’t think Theo believed me when I told him (perhaps I should have saved that one for the eve of a long essay deadline).
The blogs have been pretty active so far (indeed, more so, I would say, that last year). Both Theo and David are being very keen and are very much leading by example. There are some pretty diverse topics being discussed but I am not sure about Theo’s taste in music though. Interesting to watch how people respond to the various topics. I know that the tutors are obvious fishing but did anyone else notice how, with this particular audience, the response count has not simply reflected a sliding scale of how ‘interesting’ a topic might be; they have also reflected the degree of risk associated with being drawn on a particular topic. Note in Theo’s blog how the interesting but benign topic of ‘Turn up, Tune Out’ (30 Sep) has drawn 12 comments to date but the relevant and relatively exciting topic of ‘Of Babes and Blokes’ has attracted only 2.
I’ve got to sort out my own blogging skills. In particular I need to work out how to upload my own audio files. Any tips would be gratefuly received.
When not working or studying this week I have been mostly restoring my iTunes collection from my big box of CDs in the attic and I have been reading Pte Beharry VC’s book ‘Barefoot Soldier’. The Daily Telegraph review of the book and tells the story of Beharry VC’s troubled domestic circumstances.


*Can’t Remember a F**king Thing.