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>Im Back

Well I am back from Sydney.

Had a awesome time. I arrived early Thursday morning and had to wait the day out before the BF could come pick me up so I headed out to Manly on the ferry. The day was amazing… sunny, warm. It was a welcome diversion from the cold Melbourne spring we are having. I had the camera with me and there were sooooo many awesome things to shoot. I gave my new lens a good workout.
I have never taken the ferry to Manly before and I would recommend it to anyone who is in Sydney.

Manly is easily my favorite part of Sydney. The beach is beautiful. A lot of people go for Bondi but Bondi is merely a talented amateur when compared with Manly.
I spent the day sunning myself and checking out the talent while I wandered around with the camera and just generally had a relaxing day on the beach. I even managed to get a bit of a tan.

Friday was beautiful again and I headed down to Bronte for a relaxing breakfast and another lie on the beach. Bronte is small and a lot quieter than Manly. I wish Melbourne had beaches like Sydney. Id never leave then.

Saturday was a party day. My whole reason for heading to Sydney was to spend the weekend with my boy for his birthday. Dinner and much drink was enjoyed and we stumbled back home in the early hours of the morning.

The rest of the weekend was spent in recovery and I arrived home last night to find that my blog has finally tipped over 10,000 hits. Awesome. It still blows me away to look at the live feed and see where people are looking in from.


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Monday, January 11, 2016

The great modernists did not share postmodernists’ suspicion of science. Leopold Bloom, for example, the protagonist of James Joyce’s Ulysses, has physics concepts banging around in his head that reflect Joyce’s genuine curiosity about new discoveries in astronomy and other fields. In the Ithaca chapter of Ulysses, Bloom points out constellations in the night sky, a “heaventree of stars hung with humid nightblue fruit,” and reflects on the startling revelation, new at the time, that all stars are in motion. He speaks of “the parallax or parallactic drift of socalled fixed stars, in reality evermoving wanderers from immeasurably remote eons to infinitely remote futures in comparison with which the years, threescore and ten, of allotted human life formed a parenthesis of infinitesimal brevity.” (Ulysses, p. 573) Parallax is a word that appears repeatedly in Bloom’s thoughts throughout the day of June 16, 1904 as he himself wanders like a star around Dublin, and in Joyce’s hands parallax becomes a poetical trope—perhaps theorganizing trope in that novel.

Parallax means a perceived difference in the location or direction of an object depending on your particular vantage point. You can see an example of parallax just by holding up your finger and closing one eye and then the other—the finger appears to move relative to a more distant background. If you hold the finger really close to your face, you actually see different sides of the finger with each eye. Joyce employs a sort of literary parallax when he attempts to see a single event, place, or person through the eyes of one character and then through another; we see Stephen Dedalus’s introspective view of himself and Leopold Bloom’s view of him from without. The effect is a multidimensional kind of seeing, a simultaneous apprehension of multiple facets of one thing that reveals reality in more detail, just as the integration of the different viewpoints of our two eyes allows us to see reality more clearly, in three dimensions.
Since William Faulkner considered James Joyce “the father of modern literature” (Inge ed., p. 79), it seems likely Faulkner was following Joyce’s example in his poetical uses of parallax. But Faulkner goes even farther with it than Joyce. The Sound and the Furyretells the same events from three different perspectives and then from an omniscient authorial perspective. In As I Lay Dying, there are 15 different narrators who reflect on the same principal events and characters from their differing points of view. Furthermore, Faulkner sometimes likes to flip his lenses as quick as an optometrist. For example, Dewey Dell Bundren sees Vernon Tull as she rides by in a wagon:
We turn into Tull’s lane. We pass the barn and go on, the wheels whispering in the mud, passing the green rows of cotton in the wild earth, and Vernon little across the field behind the plow. He lifts his hand as we pass and stands there looking after us for a long while. As I Lay Dying, p. 122
And the next moment, in a literal parallax that comes just three sentences on, we see the wagon in which Dewey Dell sits from inside Vernon: “After they passed I taken the mule out and looped up the trace chains and followed. They was setting in the wagon at the end of the levee.” (As I Lay Dying, p. 123) A quick-fire parallax also occurs on pps. 248-250. In a chapter written from a druggist’s perspective, the druggist asks the young boy Vardaman, “You want something?” Then comes a chapter from Vardaman’s perspective; in it, the boy hears the exact same words: “You want something?” Notice that the effect of the literary parallax is not to call into question what was actually said, but to see different sides of one objective fact.
Vernon Tull never mentions parallax by name, nor ponders the latest astronomy, but like Leopold Bloom he takes a direct interest in the concept of parallax, thinking on it with a seriousness that’s partly obscured by his country speech. When he crosses the river with the Bundrens, leaving his mule on the other side, he imagines his former viewpoint, holding the two parallactic positions in mind together:
I looked back and saw the other bank and saw my mule standing there where I used to be…. When I looked back at my mule it was like he was one of these here spy-glasses and I could look at him standing there and see all the broad land and my house sweated outen it…. p. 138
It’s Darl Bundren, however, who’s the master of imagining other perspectives. He gets more chapters than any other character in As I Lay Dying; like an author, he describes vividly certain scenes at which he wasn’t present; and his interior monologue hews closely to that “labyrinthine-poetic” mode which is the hallmark of Faulkner’s style across all his books. Vernon Tull says that Darl looks at you “like he had got into the inside of you, someway. Like somehow you was looking at yourself and your doings outen his eyes.” (p. 125)
Darl and William Faulkner, masters of parallax.

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How To Get The Right Auto Insurance

Posted on

With all these organizations to select from, buying auto insurance may usually experience overwhelming. You want to have the very best bargain possible, with all the policy amount that’s ideal for you and your requirements, but where does one begin looking? And how will you be certain that you are making the proper choice?

Once you’re managing motor insurance you need to always work to discover ways to cut back your premium so that it is possible to always receive the very best price. A whole lot of insurance companies will decrease your speed if you’re some one that pushes less the 7500 miles annually. If you are able to consider taking public transport to work and sometimes maybe car-pooling.

In the event that it’s possible to take the train or bus or ride your bike into work every single day rather than driving, then your insurance carrier might give you some low-mileage reduction. This, and also how you’ll be spending a lot less on petrol, could help save you a great deal of money annually.

To help save dollars on auto insurance, focus on a car that’s cheaper to cover. Purchasing a sporty car using a massive V-8 engine may push your yearly insurance premium to double that which it’d be for a bigger, less flashy car with a 4 cylinder engine which conserves gas at exactly the exact same moment.

Browse around on the net for the very best price in automobile insurance. Most businesses today provide a quotation system on the web so that you never need to expend valuable time on your device or at a workplace, simply to discover the amount of cash it’s going to definitely cost you. Obtain yourself a couple new quotes annually to be certain you’re receiving the best possible price.

If you should be now included in means of a automobile insurance policy and have been find exactly the exact same policy at a superior price, usually do not jump at the deal straight away. A whole lot of drivers will immediately switch sides whenever they start to see the dollar signs, however they don’t bother to see the fineprint. Businesses lure you in with the assurance of low premiums, but make you lacking in policy, therefore always be tired with the actuality.

As a way to maintain high costs down, don’t swap vehicles between different members of their family. In case just a single motorist is recorded to your vehicle, you’re going to be given an insurance plan at a diminished speed.

A fantastic solution to find a reasonable price for auto insurance will be always to find quotes on unique models before buying new vehicle. In that way, you’re going to have the ability to factor the expense of insurance in your vehicle selection, and also be sure you’ll have the ability to pay for the whole expense of owning any vehicle you opt to get hold of.

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New 2017 FORD MUSTANG for sale $28,290

  • For Sale by Hixson Ford Lincoln of Alexandria in Alexandria, LA

Print Vehicle Information Vehicle Highlights

  • Price $28,290
  • Mileage 16
  • Drivetrain RWD
  • Engine 4 Cyl
  • Transmission Automatic
  • Fuel Gasoline
  • MPG Avg: 24 | City: 21 | Hwy: 30
  • VIN 1FA6P8THXH5357891
  • Stock No. 357891
  • Location Alexandria, LA

  • EcoBoost

Seller Comments

Contact Hixson Autoplex of Alexandria today for information on dozens of vehicles like this 2017 Ford Mustang EcoBoost. Save money at the pump with this fuel-sipping Ford Mustang. Look no further, you have found exactly what you've been looking for. This vehicle won't last long, take it home today. More information about the 2017 Ford Mustang: The 2017 Mustang may still have one of the most recognizable names in the automotive world, but with its current design, it's far more than just a pretty face and a familiar name. It represents one of the best value propositions for buyers who just want the fastest car for their money. There is no longer a slow Mustang and a fast Mustang, there are just fast and even faster versions. The Mustang starts at just over $24,000, a price that undercuts most of its less powerful rivals, such as the Subaru BRZ. Even when optioned out beyond the $40,000 mark, the Mustang still represents a tremendous value. This model sets itself apart with available as a convertible, powerful engines, Mustang mystique, modernized styling, improved fuel economy, and sporty handling


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Sunday, 22 March 2009

Church yard Images ,

A few images from a local church yard, free for you to use in your art work, I love the arched door way, am going to Norfolk later this week so hope to get a lot more pictures.

1 comment:

Jen said...

Thank you Suze for the Church yard images.


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Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Ava tells All!

Hello Ava fans. Had to show you all this. She is getting so much better at talking. I could barely keep her attention for the short time the video lasted! She's always busy with something!

And she tells MORE...

I also wanted to let you know that Isaiah the little guy that has cdh like Ava was repaired last Friday and was extubated today. He is sailing through all of this at a very rapid pace. He is the first cdh baby I've known to do SO well. Here is some pictures I took of him on Friday. To read more about Isaiah you can visit, .

 Hope you all are happy and healthy. I am lovin' all this Spring weather. Here are a few pictures of my Mother's garden this last Sunday. I just love spring flowers!

And the girls loved seeing the Horses. They can't get enough of them. We were all out of carrots so they tried to fed them celery. Huh the horses didn't care for celery.

Thanks for stopping by and for the continued prayers. God is GOOD!

DevonLeah said...

wonderful! and too cute...I loved how she said, "Terri" and "marker stuff" LOL

Jamie Carin and Claudio Romano said...

I just wanted to say hello. I came across your blog while searching for something about Dr. Adzick at CHOP. He performed surgery on my daughter in October for an Annular Pancreas. I read through some of your blog and your little girl is truly an amazing survivor!!! It astounds me how resilient and strong these little ones can be!!
Does Ava still receive tube feedings?
God Bless


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My Sugar Free Baby and Me

Sarah Schenker

$29.99 Hardback
In Stock

Many new parents find weaning daunting and confusing and are keen to make sure their baby eats healthily. But they often forget to look after themselves, and can end up grabbing unhealthy calories on the go. But by sharing ingredients like avocado or butternut squash, it means both you and your baby can eat well, there is less waste and it takes less time. The recipes in this book are very simple, quick to prepare and above all, nutritious and delicious. Find out everything you need to know to create healthy, sugar free meals - it's much easier than you think.

ISBN: 9781472939005
Publication Date: 24-May-2017
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc


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Multimedia Cart on Wheels | Model# MMC28

This Multimedia Cart on wheels meets the demands and requirements of any situation, whether it is being utilized in an education or corporate setting. Protect your technology in a movable durable cart that will outlast the demands of your environment. These units can be customized to your requirements and have a wide variety of finishes to match your environment..

Multimedia Cart on WheelsMobile media cart

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Cubs first baseman will play through the All-Star break.

Derrek Lee has a few more weeks to relax. He will be playing through the All-Star break.

The Cubs star first baseman, who was suspended five games by Major League Baseball for throwing punches at San Diego pitcher Chris Young during the June 16 game at Wrigley Field, will not have his appeal heard until after the All-Star break, according to manager Lou Piniella.

“It’s been postponed,” Piniella said Friday. “It will happen sometime after the break.’’

“It was originally set for Monday,” Lee said. “Then they changed it. I have no idea when it will take place.”

The postponement means Lee will be available for the Cubs’ four-game series at Washington that starts Monday and their three-game set beginning July 6 at Pittsburgh. That series leads into the All-Star break.

The Cubs are hoping Lee’s penalty will be reduced to three games.

During the incident, Young hit Lee in the arm with a pitch and the two jawed while Lee was on his way to first base. Between the mound and first base, the two got closer before Lee threw a punch, setting off a benches-clearing melee.

Shortly after the punishment was handed down, Lee said, “If you charge a mound, you get three games. I don’t see how what I did was different.”

Lee entered Friday’s action against Milwaukee second in the National League in hitting with a .346 average. He has six homers and 40 RBI.
Wood increases workload

Kerry Wood, recovering from a shoulder injury, had his second bullpen session of the week on Friday morning. He worked off the mound for 12 minutes.

The right-hander took eight warmup tosses before firing 33 pitches. Three days earlier, he reportedly threw 18 pitches off the hill. This is the first mound work for Wood since late March.

Messing with the rotation

If pitcher Carlos Zambrano is named to the National League All-Star team on Sunday, Piniella said he would consider using Thursday’s off day to juggle the Cubs’ rotation.

As it stands, Zambrano is slated to pitch Tuesday in Washington and July 8 in Pittsburgh, meaning he wouldn’t be available for the Midsummer Classic on July 10 in San Francisco. Piniella said it’s possible Zambrano could pitch Monday and July 7 without altering his routine.

“The All-Star Game is important, but we’re trying to win games here,” Piniella said.

Murton for certain

Matt Murton, who was the Cubs’ Opening Day left fielder, had three hits in Triple-A Iowa’s 10-5 loss to Oklahoma on Thursday.

Since he was sent down on June 13, Murton has hit .304 in 12 games at Iowa, with a homer and five RBI.

Short hops

Catcher Henry Blanco, sidelined with a herniated disc in his neck, took part in throwing drills Friday. ... Piniella said Bob Howry would be the closer while Ryan Dempster (left oblique) is on the disabled list. Howry, Will Ohman and Carlos Marmol all earned saves in the past week. ... Right-hander Juan Mateo (shoulder) threw four scoreless innings Thursday for Class A Peoria. He’s 0-1 with a 7.15 ERA in four starts.

More Cubs coverage can be found online at


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Laura (veiled) wrote in awalim,

Majda and Ziah's Student Spring Recital at Nicola's

A note from Majida-

Fellow dancers,

Sunday April 5th Ziah and I will be hosting our annual student recital at Nicola’s. This year, in addition to offering a fabulous show, we will be donating our proceeds to Shimmy-a-thon, a fund raising event for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. I would love to see the dance community come out to our event and help us support this cause. Tickets and more information are available online at

In addition to our students performing, Awalim Dance Company will also give a performance. We hope to have a great crowd and in true Nicola’s style, get the hafla goin’ after the show! Come to enjoy Atlanta’s best Lebanese cuisine, watch a unique and varied dance show, and support a great cause.

Thank you for your support and we look forward to seeing you on April 5th!

Yours in dance,

Majida Anwar

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Avoiding Weight Gain from Fall Comfort Food

Nutritionist Kansas CityFall is the time of year when many people begin to crave warm and cozy comfort foods. As it gets cold in many parts of the country, it is too easy to sidle up to a large plate of mac and cheese or warm bread and butter. Luckily, there are ways to stay fit and healthy while still enjoying some fall comfort foods. Some people may still find it difficult to maintain a healthy lifestyle during this season; for those who are struggling, we have some tips to enjoy the fall comfort food without letting it affect your health.

Make Healthier Comfort Foods

It is not necessary to sacrifice delicious comfort foods altogether in order to maintain a healthy weight and lifestyle. It is completely possible to make meals that are healthy, taste amazing, and still have that homey feeling associated with comfort food. This can be accomplished in a variety of ways. In most recipes, you can make substitutions and tweaks that will result in a more nutritious meal.

Altering a recipe is not a complicated matter. Some simple changes are often all that is needed to significantly change a meal’s nutritional value for the better. For instance, a dish that contains a lot of meat, such as a stew or casserole, can be made more beneficial by simply reducing the amount of meat and replacing it with more vegetables. Pasta dishes are known to be full of carbs and potentially fattening, but it is possible to make one that is less so. Simply replacing typical, enriched pasta with whole-wheat pasta will boost the nutrition of the dish by increasing the amount of fiber, and it will also reduce the caloric value of the dish as well.

Reducing salt, sugar, and fat in dishes is vital to reaching or maintaining a healthy weight during comfort food season. This can be done in a plethora of ways. Tons of dishes contain salt, and for many of these, it is possible to use half the salt, or even eliminate it all together. Limiting sodium intake is crucial to a good diet. In baked goods, it is possible to reduce how much sugar goes in by up to one half. If more sweetness is desired, spices, nutmeg, or some almond extract can be added as a substitute. For reducing fat in baked goods, half the amount of butter. If necessary it can be replaced with mashed banana, prune puree, or applesauce.

Keep Active

Cold weather tends to make people become more sedentary. When it gets chilly out and the sun hides behind the clouds more often, it becomes tempting to just stay inside wrapped up in some blankets with a good book. However, it is vital to fight the lethargy and keep the body moving in order to fend off weight gain.

Knowing you have a set time to be at the gym or that your fitness friends always do the 5:30pm class will keep you motivated to get out of the house and continue your workout routine.

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The clearest symptom by which one can recognize [the amoralist] is his total inability to judge himself, his actions, or his work by any sort of standard. The normal pattern of self-appraisal requires a reference to some abstract value or virtue—e.g., “I am good because I am rational,” “I am good because I am honest,” even the second-hander’s notion of “I am good because people like me.” Regardless of whether the value-standards involved are true or false, these examples imply the recognition of an essential moral principle: that one’s own value has to be earned.

The amoralist’s implicit pattern of self-appraisal (which he seldom identifies or admits) is: “I am good because it’s me.”

Beyond the age of about three to five (i.e., beyond the perceptual level of mental development), this is not an expression of pride or self-esteem, but of the opposite: of a vacuum—of a stagnant, arrested mentality confessing its impotence to achieve any personal value or virtue.

Do not confuse this pattern with psychological subjectivism. A psychological subjectivist is unable fully to identify his values or to prove their objective validity, but he may be profoundly consistent and loyal to them in practice (though with terrible psycho-epistemological difficulty). The amoralist does not hold subjective values; he does not hold any values. The implicit pattern of all his estimates is: “It’s good because I like it”—“It’s right because I did it”—“It’s true because I want it to be true.” What is the “I” in these statements? A physical hulk driven by chronic anxiety.

[The amoralist] will walk over piles of corpses—in order to assert himself? no—in order to hide (or fill) the nagging inner vacuum left by his aborted self.

The grim joke on mankind is the fact that he is held up as a symbol of selfishness.

Copyright © 1986 by Harry Binswanger. Introduction copyright © 1986 by Leonard Peikoff. All rights reserved. For information address New American Library.

Excerpts from The Ominous Parallels, by Leonard Peikoff. Copyright © 1982 by Leonard Peikoff. Reprinted with permission of Stein and Day Publishers. Excerpts from The Romantic Manifesto, by Ayn Rand. Copyright © 1971, by The Objectivist. Reprinted with permission of Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc. Excerpts from Atlas Shrugged, copyright © 1957 by Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead, copyright © 1943 by Ayn Rand, and For the New Intellectual, copyright © 1961 by Ayn Rand. Reprinted by permission of the Estate of Ayn Rand. Excerpts from Philosophy: Who Needs It, by Ayn Rand. Copyright © 1982 by Leonard Peikoff, Executor, Estate of Ayn Rand. Reprinted by permission of the Estate of Ayn Rand. Excerpts from “The Philosophy of Objectivism” lecture series. Copyright © 1976 by Leonard Peikoff. Reprinted by permission. Excerpts from Alvin Toffler’s interview with Ayn Rand, which first appeared in Playboy magazine. Copyright © 1964. Reprinted by permission of Alvin Toffler. All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. Used by arrangement with Plume, a member of Penguin Group (USA), Inc.


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Skinner v. Ryan

United States District Court, D. Arizona

June 22, 2015

James Skinner, Plaintiff,
Charles L. Ryan, et al., Defendants.

STEPHEN M. McNAMEE, Senior District Judge.

Plaintiff James Skinner brought this civil rights action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against multiple Arizona Department of Corrections (ADC) employees (Doc. 8). Before the Court is Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment (Doc. 176).

The Court will grant the motion.

I. Background

Skinner's claims arose during his confinement in two different housing units: the Arizona State Prison Complex (ASPC)-Florence, Central Unit and the ASPC-Eyman, Browning Unit (Doc. 8). Skinner alleged that while housed in these two units, he was subjected to unconstitutional conditions of confinement in violation of the Eighth Amendment ( id. ). He named the following Defendants: (1) Director Charles L. Ryan; (2) Warden Lance Hetmer; Deputy Wardens (3) Craig Fizer and (4) Antonio Barrios, Jr.; Assistant Deputy Wardens (5) Thomas Kane and (6) Jack Heet; (7) Captain James Long; Sergeants (8) Jacqueline Silves and (9) Frank Alvarez; Correctional Officer (CO) IVs (10) Susan Zaborsky and (11) Diane Bohuszewicz; (12) CO III Rita Duarte;[1] and CO IIs (13) Tillman and (14) Trianna ( id. ).

Defendants move for summary judgment on the grounds that (1) Skinner failed to exhaust administrative remedies for his claim related to his confinement in the Central Unit; (2) no Defendant acted with deliberate indifference; and (3) Defendants cannot be liable due to inadequate funding (Doc. 176).[2]

II. Summary Judgment Legal Standard

A court must grant summary judgment "if the movant shows that there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(a); see also Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 322-23 (1986). The movant bears the initial responsibility of presenting the basis for its motion and identifying those portions of the record, together with affidavits, if any, that it believes demonstrate the absence of a genuine issue of material fact. Celotex, 477 U.S. at 323.

If the movant fails to carry its initial burden of production, the nonmovant need not produce anything. Nissan Fire & Marine Ins. Co., Ltd. v. Fritz Co., Inc., 210 F.3d burden shifts to the nonmovant to demonstrate the existence of a factual dispute and that the fact in contention is material, i.e., a fact that might affect the outcome of the suit under the governing law, and that the dispute is genuine, i.e., the evidence is such that a reasonable jury could return a verdict for the nonmovant. Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 248, 250 (1986); see Triton Energy Corp. v. Square D. Co., 68 F.3d 1216, 1221 (9th Cir. 1995). The nonmovant need not establish a material issue of fact conclusively in its favor, First Nat'l Bank of Ariz. v. Cities Serv. Co., 391 U.S. 253, 288-89 (1968); however, it must "come forward with specific facts showing that there is a genuine issue for trial." Matsushita Elec. Indus. Co., Ltd. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574, 587 (1986) (internal citation omitted); see Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c)(1).

At summary judgment, the judge's function is not to weigh the evidence and determine the truth but to determine whether there is a genuine issue for trial. Anderson, 477 U.S. at 249. In its analysis, the court must believe the nonmovant's evidence and draw all inferences in the nonmovant's favor. Id. at 255. The court need consider only the cited materials, but it may consider any other materials in the record. Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c)(3).

III. Relevant Facts

On January 16, 2011, Skinner was moved to Central Unit Cell Block 3 (CB-3) and housed in Charlie run, cell 16, referred to as C-16 (Doc. 177, Defs.' Statement of Facts (DSOF)[3] ¶¶ 2-3; Doc. 185, Pl.'s Controverting Statement of Facts (PCSF) ¶¶ 2-3). Upon his placement in C-16, Skinner complained to unidentified staff that the toilet leaked and the cell was dirty (DSOF ¶ 4; PCSF ¶ 4). Skinner avers that the toilet was visibly cracked and a foul odor came from the toilet (Doc. 185, Ex. A, Skinner Decl. ¶¶ 16, 18).[4] Skinner states that when the toilet was flushed, it would leak dirty wastewater from the base onto the floor, and he noted the toilet problem on the cell inspection sheet, which he signed and handed to the escort staff ( id. ¶¶ 20, 22; Doc. 185, Pl.'s Separate Statement of Facts (PSOF) ¶¶ 14-15). Skinner avers that he asked for a mop but the escort staff refused his request and did not give him cleaning supplies and, thereafter, the toilet leaked incessantly and he had to keep the lid down to help manage the constant stench (Doc. 185, Ex. A, Skinner Decl. ¶¶ 9, 11, 24-26). He further averred that when the toilet in the cell above him was flushed, water would drip into his cell, adding to the flooding problem ( id. ¶ 29). Skinner states that escort staff told him a work order existed for the toilet plumbing issue ( id. ¶ 10).

Skinner states that about a week after moving into C-16, he asked CO II McBroom about the status of the work orders; McBroom informed him that a work order was placed on the toilet already and that the problem existed long before Skinner moved into the cell ( id. ¶¶ 35-36). Skinner states that a few weeks later, an ADC maintenance worker stopped by his cell and told Skinner he was aware of the toilet's problem, the seal was broken, and repair was not possible short of a complete replacement but the administration refused to pay to replace toilets due to the cost ( id. ¶ 38).[5]

On July 28, 2011, Skinner was moved to CB-2, cell G-24 (DSOF ¶ 29 (in part)[6]; Doc. 185, Ex. A, Skinner Decl. ¶¶ 62-63). Skinner avers that he was moved pursuant to his approval for the Central Unit Phase Program (Doc. 185, Ex. A, Pl. Decl. ¶¶ 62-63). He states that G-24 had structural defects including a large wall crack and a hot water button that would not disengage without staff intervention ( id. ¶ 64). Skinner states that the CB-2 staff informed him that a work order would be placed on the sink ( id. ¶ 65). According to Skinner, during the next shift, he was brought to the yard office where Qunitero informed him that he was being removed from the Phase Program and returned to C-16 in CB-3 ( id. ¶¶ 67-68). Upon his return to C-16, the cell was just as he had left it and there had been no repair work on the toilet ( id. ¶ 71).

Skinner states that between January 16 and October 19, 2011, he made many requests for status on the toilet work orders and repeatedly asked for adequate cleaning supplies to address the sanitation problems ( id. ¶¶ 72-73). During this time, CO III Duarte was Skinner's assigned counselor and was the initial contact point for non-security issues (DSOF ¶¶ 34-35).

Defendants state that around May or June 2011, Skinner informed Duarte of the toilet problems ( id. ¶ 40). Defendants state that Durate told Skinner she would attempt to get him moved to another cell but Skinner responded that it was not that bad and he did not want to take a chance on moving to a cell that might be worse ( id. ¶ 41). Defendants state that despite Skinner's response, Duarte requested that Skinner be moved out of C-16 ( id. ¶ 42).

Skinner disputes these facts; he avers that shortly after he first arrived at C-16- well before May or June 2011-he met Duarte and showed her the toilet problems (Doc. 185, Ex. A, Pl. Decl. ¶¶ 74-75). Skinner states that Duarte never asked him if he wanted to be moved to another cell nor did Durate tell him that she would attempt to have him moved ( id. ¶¶ 76-77). He further states that he never told Duarte that the problem was not that bad or that he did not want to take a chance moving to another cell that might be worse ( id. ¶ 78). Skinner states that Duarte told him this was a maintenance issue that was common and he needed to have patience ( id. ¶¶ 85-86).

According to Skinner, in mid-to-late March 2011, CO IV Zaborsky toured Skinner's run in CB-3 along with Duarte, and Skinner stopped them to show how the toilet was leaking ( id. ¶¶ 88-89). Skinner states he told them that he needed adequate sanitation supplies and that he was missing the hot water plumbing apparatus ( id. ¶¶ 90-91). Skinner states that 1-2 weeks later, the sink was fixed but no repair work was done on the toilet ( id. ¶ 94).

Skinner states that he also showed the toilet problems to Sergeant Silves, CO IV Bohuszewicz, and Deputy Warden Kane, and asked them for appropriate cleaning supplies, which they never provided ( id. ¶¶ 95-96, 101). Skinner states that Silves told him she knew about the problems but she had other work; Bohuszewicz told him that ADC was aware of the plumbing issues but was broke; and Kane told him that he and Wardens Fizer and Hetmer knew about the irreparable toilet problems and Skinner should be patient ( id. ¶¶ 97, 99-100).

On August 2, 2011, Skinner submitted an Inmate Letter to Duarte describing the leaky toilet, flooding problems, and lack of cleaning supplies and proposing as a resolution that the toilet be fixed or repaired and cleaning supplies be provided ( id. ¶ 102; DSOF ¶ 47; Doc. 177, Ex. J, Attach. 1 (Doc. 177-9 at 10)). In response to Skinner's Inmate Letter, Duarte informed Skinner that maintenance has a list of toilets they are working on; that she submitted another work order for Skinner's toilet; and that she would follow up with maintenance the next week and let him know the status of the toilet repair ( id ¶¶ 48-50, 53 (in part); PCSF ¶ 50).

On August 21, 2011, Skinner submitted an inmate grievance complaining about the conditions in his cell and lack of cleaning supplies (DSOF ¶ 77). Bohuszewicz received the grievance and checked with maintenance to make sure that department was aware of the complaint ( id. ¶ 78). Defendants state that Bohuszewicz did not personally go to Skinner's cell to verify his allegations (DSOF ¶ 79); however, Skinner avers that he showed the toilet problems to Bohuszewicz and asked her for cleaning supplies (Doc. 185, Ex. A, Pl. Decl. ¶¶ 95-96). After Bohuszewicz's investigation and input from Deputy Warden Fizer, it was determined that the toilet could not be repaired or replaced at that time (DSOF ¶ 80).

On October 19, 2011, Skinner was moved from C-16 to Baker Run, cell 17 (DSOF ¶¶ 86, 181-182).

B. Browning Unit

On December 6, 2011, Skinner was moved to the Browning Unit, cell 1-B-3 (Doc. 185, Pl. Decl. ¶ 108). Skinner avers that upon his arrival to 1-B-3, the cell was filthy and smelled awful and on the walls there were smears of what appeared to be blood and feces ( id. ¶¶ 110-113). He states that there was dried phlegm and other grime on the cell front, the floor was grimy, a section of the plumbing wall was rusted off, and the toilet was filthy ( id. ¶¶ 114-116). Skinner was offered a toilet brush by CO II Trianna but Skinner's requests for a broom, mop, mop bucket, scrub brush, rag, and disinfectant were denied ( id. ¶¶ 119-121). Skinner states that Trianna told him he had to take care of the other cell issues himself ( id. ¶ 122).

Skinner states that later that day, CO III Monahan provided him a short-handled broom and mop; however, the mop was ineffective on the cell walls ( id. ¶¶ 126, 129-130). Skinner states that thereafter, he was offered only a toilet brush, and Trianna informed him that the only cleaning supply ever passed out was a toilet brush, although there were other cleaning supplies available in the cluster supply closet ( id. ¶¶ 132-133).

In January 2012, Skinner filed a grievance to complain about the conditions in 1-B-3 and lack of cleaning supplies ( id. ¶ 136). On January 24, 2012, CO III Fewel entered the pod and passed out all of the necessary cleaning supplies ( id. ¶ 147). Skinner states that he nonetheless proceeded with his grievance and, on February 22, 2012, Sergeant Alvarez came to Skinner's cell ( id. ¶¶ 156-157). According to Skinner, Alvarez said he was notified that staff was not passing out all of the cleaning supplies and that he would return later in the week to supervise distribution of cleaning supplies ( id. ¶ 158). Alvarez avers that he does not recall talking to Skinner on this date (DSOF ¶ 238). Skinner states that Alvarez did not return and no cleaning supplies were issued (Doc. 185, Pl. Decl. ¶ 160).

Skinner avers that on March 19, 2012, after he had filed his grievance appeal, Associate Deputy Warden Heet and CO IV Ibarra came to his cell ( id. ¶¶ 159, 161). According to Skinner, Heet admitted he was aware that cleaning supplies were not being properly handed out and he promised to have all cleaning supplies delivered on each scheduled cleaning day ( id. ¶¶ 164, 168). Skinner states that this promise was not kept ( id. ¶ 169). Heet states that he became aware of Skinner's complaint in April, not March 2012, and that he spoke to Skinner on April 19, 2012 and informed him there was a plan in place to ensure his sanitation needs were met (DSOF ¶¶ 266-267).

Skinner avers that on April 18, 2012, CO II Tillman refused to pass out all of the cleaning supplies, even though he told her about the conversations with Heet and Fewel; Tillman told him she only passes out toilet brushes ( id. ¶¶ 172-173). Skinner states that Alvarez then arrived at his cell, confirmed that he was Tillman's supervisor, but refused to provide or authorize the delivery of cleaning supplies ( id. ¶¶ 179, 182-184, 187-188).

On May 31, 2012, Skinner was moved to Able 55, an area that houses severely mentally ill (SMI) inmates; however, Skinner has no history of mental illness ( id. ¶¶ 191-193). On June 9, 2012, an SMI inmate flooded the entire run, and feces and sewage water flooded Skinner's cell ( id. ¶¶ 194-195, 199). Skinner states that he asked Sergeant Soliz for a mop and disinfectant, but Soliz denied his requests and no cleaning supplies were provided, and other staff members told the affected inmates to use their blankets to dry up the flooding ( id. ¶¶ 200-201, 204). Skinner notified Deputy Warden Barrios of the problems in a June 12, 2012 Inmate Letter ( id. ¶ 205).

The next month, Skinner was moved to cell 2-F-51, and he continued to deal with the staff's refusal to pass out anything other ...

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Good Things About Being Sick

I started this list on August 25, 2005, just a few days before we evacuated in advance of Katrina. I’ve added to it slowly over the years and finally I have seven items, enough for a respectable list. The reason it took me so long is because, as we all know, being sick sucks. But I always like to look on the bright side. So, here are my “Good Things About Being Sick.”

  1. Staying home from work.
  2. Catching up on some reading.
  3. Not having to get dressed.
  4. Sleeping.
  5. Cold medicine.
  6. Fever dreams.
  7. Enjoying your great job benefits.

Of course, your mileage may vary. Those first and last items in particular give me pause to consider how harsh sickness can be depending on your employment situation. A friend who was over at our house the other day had a cough. I noticed it and asked about it. turns out he’s got bronchitis just like me. Only instead of taking time off and resting, he’s working six days a week. “Doesn’t that make it hard to rest up and get healthy?” It sure does. In fact, it seems pretty certain the atmosphere machine shop is what’s making him sick. He comes down with the same symptoms every year. Now Xy seems to be coming down with it, and when I suggested she take some sick leave she scoffed.

Persephone seems to have picked up the cough again. Pretty sure I got it from her in the first place. As for me I’m almost better. Hope I can seal the deal and get all the way well. It would really suck for all three of to be sick at the same time.

One Reply to “Good Things About Being Sick”

  1. My nose is still a bit stuffy, and the cough will be the last thing to go, but I feel 99% back to normal. My joints don’t ache, my eyes have regained their youthful sparkle, and I’m hungry. I subsisted almost entirely on on rice and miso soup last week, so this evening I decided to eat something bad.

    Went to the only Greek diner on the Upper West Side that serves bread pudding. Bread pudding is my favorite dessert-slash-comfort food, but there’s rarely any reason to order it in NYC, because it’s one of two dishes that Yankees can’t get right (the other being gumbo).

    Was one bite into my stodgy pudding when I noticed that the diner served booze. Ordered a shot of Bourbon, poured it over my pudding, and enjoyed the closest I’ve come to New Orleans bread pudding with whiskey sauce since moving here 41 years ago. Why didn’t I think of this sooner?

    Glad you’re feeling better. Know what I rediscovered last week? NyQuil. Good stuff, good stuff.

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Wednesday, October 25, 2017

Monday, April 17, 2017

Promotion 2017

As I write this I have to admit to having partaken in alcohol. Not that excessively, ‘tis true. I have to be up at stupid o’clock tomorrow so had to cut the evening short.

“Why might that be?” you may well ask.

Today Argyle sealed a promotion by way of a 6-1 thumping of Newport County and to honest we might have scored 10. I suppose a last minute winner might be better but this is pretty good.
Glory days don’t often come along to Argyle but today was definitely one of them. I’ve been going week in week out ever since I was a kid which is over 40 years now and I was there when we went up v Colchester in ’75, at Wembley in ’96, versus QPR in 2004 and today. In all that time only 4 promotions (there was a couple of others in 1986 and 2002 but I couldn’t make it to those games).
That is only the start of it though. As a club we’ve gone as close to disappearing as any and hung on. We’ve endured 6 years in the basement division  and only hung in there by the skin of our teeth on two occasions. Two years ago we failed in the play-offs. Last year we failed at Wembley. There’s been nothing to celebrate in any of those years other than our mere continuance and the disappointment has been crushing with last year’s Wembley capitulation a particularly gutless low despite the various calamities that had befallen us previously.

And now this…

The tsunami of joy, of celebration, of relief was like a force of nature at Home Park today: tangible; irrepressible. There was a vibrancy, an energy that simply must not be allowed to dissipate. We must build on this. It cannot be seen as an end to itself because, magnificent though it was, it is only a step on the journey.

But I don’t want to speculate about the future; I want to look back. Today’s team, management and owners will bask in the glory but that glory was only possible due to a level of dedication and sacrifice from a whole host of people: those who set up the Argyle Fans’ Trust with the very real intention of starting again from scratch somehow; the staff who went for months upaid; players (even if they were crap – and most of them were) who signed for us despite not knowing if they’d be paid or not – players who signed for us when nobody else would; Peter Reid for paying a heating bill; Carl Fletcher for keeping us up when all seemed lost; John Sheridan likewise; Vivien Pengelly (leader of Plymouth City Council at the time) for financing James Brent’s rescue package that allowed us to escape administration; everybody who put money into the club by chucking coins in buckets, buying season tickets when the next season wasn’t even likely to happen or buying merchandise they just didn’t need… Without them there would have been no Derek Adams; no glorious 6-1 promotion game; arguably no anything.

Argyle should never have been in this division and it should never have taken us 6 years to get out of it. Let us never forget how we ended up in “Division 4”; let us never take our eye off the ball and let us never allow it to happen again.

Today has been all kinds of wonderful and we’ve quite rightly celebrated the living daylights out of it but we must never, ever stoop so low again. The club, the fans, the city all deserve better than this and we should loudly, incessantly demand better.

No ifs, no buts, no excuses… this is not as good as it gets. All this is is a necessary stage that has to be gone through. We are nowhere near our glass ceiling, if such a thing exists at all; we must press on.

Greater glory awaits.

Sunday, April 09, 2017

How Far Do We Want To Go?

On the face of it it’s a silly question. Only one answer. “All the way to the very top.” And that has to be the way. If a football club isn’t striving to be the very best that it can be, and that means better than anybody else, then it isn’t doing its job. Equally it is fair to say that Argyle are absolutely light years away from that: currently we’re not even the best team in League 2. So that destination, if we can park the obvious fact that it is more or less completely unattainable for a moment or two, seems so distant that it may as well not exist.

That’s no excuse though. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Rome wasn’t built in a day. Continuous improvement. Marginal gains. That’s the very least we can expect and in wilder flights of fancy we could see a whole paradigm shift such as that currently enjoyed by Bournemouth and, to a lesser extent Swansea and Burnley, as they ply their trade in what we are now supposed to call the English Premier League (EPL). After all if a club isn’t trying to win every game, every week and every trophy it enters then it should be. Whoever it is. That’s what it is for. What point is there being in a competition if you do not compete to win?

So let us assume, oh joy of all joys!, that that happens and a resurgent Argyle resurgams its way to hitherto unanticipated glory and that elusive EPL goal is scored and that the pipe dream of Argyle competing and winning at the very top becomes as common place as the old primula vulgaris is in our gardens, hedgerows and verges right now.

Consider the steps already taken, consider Rome rapidly built, consider further improvement unnecessary and consider gains no longer marginal but seismic; consider the paradigm to have permanently shifted.

Week after week Manchesters United and City, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Spurs arrive in town fearing for their once great reputations. Week after week we spank ‘em all and their worst fears are proven to be well-founded. Imagine that! (If you can.)

It’d be great, wouldn’t it! It’s exactly what I have hoped for for most of my life. The whole world would marvel and there’d be articles in Le Monde, the NYT, La Republicca and El Pais asking how we had done it and could it happen there. There’d be endless segues on Sky Sports News. We’d be first up on Match Of The Day every week. Hell! We’d be on MotD every week!! Think on that for a moment.

The question I am asking is: do we really want that? To which you might respond “why wouldn’t we?”

Well there’s a few reasons…

Difficult though it is to travel all over the country from Plymouth to wherever at least we can be fairly sure the game will take place at 3pm on a Saturday or 1945 on a Tuesday. That’d be gone if we were in the EPL with their massively variable kick-off times. Travelling to away games is difficult enough now but it would be worse once the paradigm has shifted.

Programmes. There’s another thing. £3 each they are now. Well not in the EPL they aren’t. More like £5 is common. That said we don’t have to buy them. Beer? £5/pint. Again we don’t have to buy it. Likewise the more expensive food on offer.

Entry costs. This is where it starts to get really worrying. £20 to get in could become £50. Can I afford that? No. My season ticket currently around £300 might be nearly £1000. Can I afford that? No. Putting it quite simply following Argyle would be too expensive for me. I wouldn’t be able to go. I wouldn’t be able to share in the moments I have spent almost 50 years yearning hopefully for and my seat would be sold to somebody else. Somebody who could afford it. Probably somebody with rather less time and emotion invested into the club’s fortunes than me. I’d be an Armchair Supporter no more likely to see my team play in the flesh than the Plymouth Reds/Blues/Gooners/Spurs/’Gers/Celts etc are. It’d be the Saturday lunchtime/Sunday afternoon trip to a pub with Sky/BT Sports for me. That’d be as good as it got.

And let’s be vaguely realistic here. Argyle wouldn’t be sweeping away all opposition before them in the EPL (Argyle in the EPL realistic? Just play along, please, if you can.) They’d be scrapping like dogs to avoid relegation. The title would still be impossibly distant. All we’d have to celebrate is getting the 40 or so points needed to stay up and having half an eye on the European qualification places. That’d be it and where’s the glory, where’s the excitement and where’s the fun in that? We’d be a  West Ham United, Stoke City or WBA – and, let’s face it, who aspires to being one of them?
So maybe, just maybe, striving for success for its own sake, striving for goal-driven success is a foolish aspiration. Maybe, just maybe, the true joy comes not from the destination but from the journey itself. We should be offering 100% balls-out commitment to get there in every aspect of everything that we do.

We should never be accepting of stasis and mediocrity because that way we will inevitably fall back, in comparison to others, and eventually know more dark days than sunny ones. We should celebrate the Good Days like billy-o when they come and demand rather more of them because we’ve been starved of them for far too long now.

So back to the original question “how far do we want to go?” the answer is “we’re going to try our damnedest to go all the way, baby!” and there is no need to add the caveats. Just let them rest undefined and unconsidered like the proverbial elephant in the sitting room.

Saturday, March 04, 2017

"If it wasn't for the 10 point deduction we wouldn't have got relegated."

This is always the mantra for fans of teams relegated as a result of administration. And it is true as far as it goes; it was seemingly true for argyle back along. Sadly it is a myth. It is self-delusion. The penalty is set so that it pretty much guarantees relegation for anybody “unlucky” enough to go into admin so admin leading to relegation is hardly a matter of chance more one of design.

And the finger of blame implicit in the statement is pointing in entirely the wrong direction. Clubs, from the boardroom all the way to the terraces, should man up and accept that the reasons they went into admin were avoidable and that it was a potent cocktail of bungling incompetence, Mikawberish hope, willful negligence and/or deliberate strategy that was responsible and “luck” had nothing to do with it.

The exact methodology involved will vary from case to case but essentially they all boil down to the same thing: expenditure has grossly exceded income leading to a build-up of debt which eventually can no longer be supported.

In Argyle’s case as a CCC club we recruited players on contracts that we could ill-afford. That led to a debt-level that in turn led to the sale of a host of important players who were replaced by players of lower quality also on contracts we could ill afford either in cash terms or duration. That relatively weakened squad was decimated by injury, results nose-dived, confidence collapsed, the manager was changed, he introduced more expensive players on contracts that proved to be unsustainable, relegation followed, TV income dropped, crowds dropped, admin followed, another relegation resulted.

The root cause of all of this was over-stretching financially while being successful on the pitch – and who doesn’t want their club to be successful on the pitch? Essentially it was the story of Icarus flying so high that he got too close to the sun that his wax melted and his feathers fell off recast as the fate of a football club for our modern times. I’m by no means a classicist but even I know the story. It is hardly a secret.

So the real problem was getting into debt to start with even though that debt actually built the best XI Argyle has had in decades. It was a problem that by virtue of some huge, for us, transfer income we could have avoided but the same core mistake (players earning wages that were too high on contracts that were guaranteed for too long) were repeated and eventually the wheels came off and we’re right back to admin, the points deduction and relegation again.

We might have avoided the worst excesses of our meltdown had we paid lower salaries. But we didn’t. We might have avoided the worst excesses of our meltdown had we stipulated shorter contracts. But we didn’t. We might have avoided the worst excesses of our meltdown had we exit clauses on the contracts. But we didn’t.

So through a mixture of panic, misguided ambition, reckless spending, soft negotiation all coated with either negligence or incompetence we recruited players we never should have signed and probably would not have signed had the offers been shorter, cheaper and less secure. And it was those players who won the points that “would have been enough apart from the points deduction” and those players should never have been donning our famous green shirts in the first place as those points were won.

“Cheating” is a strong word to use but what else is signing players knowing the wherewithal is not there to support them? The fact that we went into admin and were relegated was our own damned fault and not the fault of the Football League rulebook or some sort of freak vendetta. We broke the rules. We cheated. We were punished. And rightly so.

The fact that the dominoes toppled one after the other that did not need to topple and that our club was nearly extinguished forever as a result should never be forgotten and nor should the lunacy that prevailed in our boardroom at the time. A repeat must never be allowed and it is beholden to us as fans to place the blame fairly and squarely where it lies and that is most certainly not with the Football League for applying a sanction that everybody had known was coming for months before it did.

Never again should we afford our owners, whoever they are, the luxury of unquestioning, blind faith in their decision making because failure to question, scrutinise, complain and, if necessary, sound an alarm represents the same bungling incompetence, Mikawberish hope, wilful negligence and/or deliberate strategy in the fanbase as it did all those years ago in the boardroom.

Being vigilant about our club’s management is our duty as supporters not a treasonable activity perpetrated by Quislings.

Wednesday, March 01, 2017

Here's an idea...

I was reading about Leyton Orient’s current financial difficulties earlier. In case you don’t know it’s yet another variant of the uncaring/incompetent/asset-stripping owner running up an unpaid tax bill (the case is yet to go to court but I am assuming it is income tax related) and HMRC issuing a winding-up order. Usually the winding-up order gets dodged in some way often with the club then being forced into administration during which somebody will put up a token sum of cash in lieu of none at all for the unsecured creditors (of which HMRC is one) at which stage there is a vote the result of which, usually, is to accept the offer because nobody, HMRC apart, wants to see a club fold and vanish.

I don’t really want to focus too much on Leyton Orient; I realise their plight is more complicated than I have suggested above and I’ll leave the detailed ins and outs of it all to their fans to describe but when my club, Plymouth Argyle, went through this process £100,000 was on the table. The unsecured creditors accepted this in place of the approximate £9m they were owed in total, some fees were deducted from the £100,000 and they ended getting paid 0.022% (yes – far less than one quarter of a of one tenth of one percent!) of the sum owed on a pro rata basis. So basically if your debt is unsecured then you’ve more or less had it.

There is something about this that really sticks in my craw. Everything about it sucks. At a stroke the club gets away with running up huge debts that it had long since known was unpayable. Effectively for a while before push comes to shove the club has been trading when insolvent, which is illegal, but nobody is ever brought to account and it is always the creditors that get stiffed. HMRC has been on the wrong end of this lots of times and over the years I’d hate to know how much due tax has been written off – it must be hundreds of mi££ions. HMRC knows though and HMRC hates it and HMRC wants to nail a football club to the mast as a warning to others but has so far not managed to get their trophy (although they went hellishly close to getting Argyle). Maybe they’ll end up with a Leyton Orient-shaped trophy this time. I hope not because I don’t want to see any team fold but I don’t blame them for trying.

The thing here is that HMRC is acting entirely properly. Everybody should pay their tax. I pay mine. Chances are the readers of this will pay theirs. Why should “Football” be any different and not cough up – there’s more than enough money in football after all? And this is not a victimless crime; schools get closed, hospitals are short-staffed, roads are less maintained and God knows what else is affected as a result. This is a very real and very big problem not least because it means either I, along with everybody else, pay more tax than I need to or get services worse than those I have paid for.
In League 2, where both Leyton Orient and Plymouth Argyle currently ply their trade, the clubs all have to meet the atrociously named Salary Cap Management Protocol (SCMP). In short the money available for team wages must be no more than 55% of income. The Football League monitors this and, so far as I know, nobody has ever been caught flaunting the rule.

This means that clubs have to project income and budget, on paper at least, accordingly meaning that the actual figures involved are known well in advance by both clubs, although it may vary wildly for each, and Football League.

So here’s my idea… At the beginning of each season clubs should pay in advance a sum of money, call it a “bond”, in order to be granted their Golden Share which in turn allows access to League and cup competitions. No Bond = No Golden Share = Nobody to play.
I’m going to make up some numbers now for a fictitious club to illustrate how this might work. If their 55% amounts to £1m then the income tax on that would be about 40% so they would need to put £400,000 into their Bond which the FL would then hold in Trust. No matter what happens to the club over the course of a season it’s tax bill would already effectively be paid. There would never be a mid-season HMRC winding-up order again and Football would not be able to dodge paying its taxes.

Obviously the clubs won’t like this. “Where the hell do we get £400,000 to pay for this?” they’ll say. So bring it in in increments over the next 10 years. Make that club pay £40,000 this time, £80,000 the next and so on. To put that in perspective the initial payment of £40,000 would be covered by the sale of the first 150 or so season tickets at most clubs which would be easily affordable if known well in advance.

This would mean the Football League would be holding a rather substantial sum of money on behalf of the clubs/HMRC (depending on how you look at it) which could be invested to generate an income which could go towards the next year’s Bond or be ploughed back into the game in some way.

And instead of Football being a venal, self-obsessed tax-dodging bastard of an industry it could hold its head high and proclaim proudly that it pays its taxes, that its league structure is financially sound, that the chaos caused by the mid-season liquidation of a club would be avoided and proud old clubs like Leyton Orient and Plymouth Argyle would be confident that their future was assured.

Tuesday, November 01, 2016

“The word 'apolitical' has to be the worst in the English language. EVERYTHING is political.” – Sam Down (aka @GreenSamPAFC)

What Sam has said is so obvious it hardly needs saying but his saying it has struck a chord with me. In an Argyle context one of the, rather weak it has to be said, oft repeated statements used to justify any number of topics is “nobody is interested in the politics; they just want to have a couple of pints, go to a match and watch their team play football”. Well I want to sink a pint or two and then watch my team play football but it hardly stops there, does it? Not if you are intellectually adult, for want of a better phrase, anyway.

How might you have travelled to the game? Train, bus, car, coach, aeroplane, Shanks’s pony? Those things are fuelled by diesel or electric or petrol or pasties (other foodstuffs are available – so I am told). So there’s road tax, duty and/or VAT to be paid for them and that money comes out of your wages (also taxed of course). So if you think the price you pay is too high you need to pay less tax which in turn means that we can afford lower pensions for our elderly or fewer soldiers, hospitals or teachers. Don’t grumble about any of them being cut or under-resourced if you want a cheaper tank of petrol. Like it or not that’s politics.Or maybe it takes too long to travel. Maybe there is a poor bus or train service or maybe the roads are chockers with traffic. Politics again: it is our government at local and national level that sets transport infra-structure and that is paid for by taxes.

Once at a game political decisions have been taken to ensure that standing to watch a game is now all but prohibited everywhere. You aren’t allowed to stand should you wish to because politicians somewhere passed the law making it illegal to do so. We can’t drink a beer on the terraces at a football match (unlike at a cricket or rugby match – despite rugby, of course, often being played in exactly the same stadia with fans sitting in exactly the same seats) because politicians say we can’t.

The philosophy behind the way a club is run is political and you can see the differing models at different clubs of various sizes up and down the country. So the ownership model of your club is political. The profits and/or losses that your club makes impacts on the tax it pays and that affects roads, hospitals, schools, police, the military and everything else. All political once again.

Taking the politics out of football is impossible just as taking politics out of everything else is. I can’t help but wonder why anybody would espouse the “just watch the football” line unless their motivation lies elsewhere and they are saying one thing to achieve another all of which is very Machiavellian (and Machiavelli was, of course, a politician).

It is very, very clear that the Apolitical Thing is completely nonsensical on many practical levels but the real killer is the paradox that any decision to attempt to be apolitical is in itself a definably political one meaning that whatever the grounds for saying it and whatever the desired objective might be the cause is immediately lost as soon as it is mentioned.

Or it does in the post-child world anyway.

Thursday, June 02, 2016

Tony Capaldi

I’m using Tony Capaldi here as an example here to make a wider point.

Tony Capaldi was once our left back. He didn’t ever really set the world alight but at our level he was steady and that was about as much praise as you could put his way. He wasn’t especially quick and he wasn’t great in the tackle. When it came to heading the ball he was basically weak. He was accursed by his natural body language too: his round shouldered loping up and down the pitch didn’t ever look like he was 100% going for it even though he probably was. His right foot was, let’s be honest, as weak as his heading.

So they are the negatives. There were positives too. He was pretty cool under pressure. His left foot was very good. His first touch was good. He played shape exceptionally well and could offer himself as a long-thrower at throw-ins.

After leaving us he played most of his football at a decent level with Cardiff and Leeds while we simply headed south.

He was never much of a crowd favourite despite winning over 20 caps for N Ireland while he was with us to make him our most-capped ever player.

So what do we want from a left back? Speed! Obviously. Tackles like a man possessed. Yep – that too. Got to be able to defend back post crosses and cover out-of-position centre backs so needs to be good in the air. He’s got to be able to offer width going forward and get a cross in. Maybe take corners? Will need a good engine to get back after foraging forward. Ideally have an eye for goal, a shot like Hotshot Hamish and maybe take free licks. Good first touch essential just because it is and a cool head too – we don’t want him getting sent off every week, do we?

So why doesn’t such a player play for Argyle? That’s because, if he exists at all, he’s far, far too good to play at our level! A player that ticks those boxes will be a PL player. Maybe even get recruited into Barcelona or Real Madrid or Bayern Munich.

All of the players we have are the best we can field with what we have. They are all limited in some way. They’ll all make mistakes. Quite simply we have to live with this because the perfect left back doesn’t exist and if he did he wouldn’t be playing for us.

As long as he is trying his best that is all we can ask. After that it is the manager’s fault for picking him or for squandering his budget or the chairman’s fault for setting a budget too tight to enable the signing of a decent player in that position.

So let’s not pick on Tony Capaldi, eh?


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Tuesday, June 14, 2016

That time we got locked in the zoo

A few weeks ago, Hendrick Hospital sponsored a 'Zoo Night' for all of its employees. The hospital paid for all employees and their families to visit the Abilene Zoo after hours. Being the zoo-lovers that we are, of course I knew that we had to go.

We loaded up the boys and arrived just as it started. Skipping the train ride (the lines were just too long), we went directly to the nocturnal animal exhibit. As we passed through the doors I noticed a politely worded sign asking visitors not to use flash photography or bright lights in this particular building since all the nocturnal animals are very sensitive to light. Three feet away from this sign, I saw a grown man using his iPhone to see (and incidentally, blind) the ringtail raccoon. I shook my head and have a disapproving look, which neither the man nor the now-blinded raccoon saw, and went on my way.

At the giraffe exhibit, the sweet zookeeper spent a minute going over instructions with Carter on how to feed the giraffe. He gave Carter the same spiel he gave everyone else: 'Hold the lettuce leaf out and the giraffe will take it from you. He might lick your hand even, and that's ok, but we ask that you please not pet the giraffes.'

Carter walked over and followed the instructions to the letter, as did most of the other children. However, suddenly I heard the zookeeper say sternly, 'Ma'am, please don't pet the giraffes.' I looked over to see a grown woman, nearing headlock closeness with one of the biggest giraffes, one arm around its neck and the other stroking its elongated face from top to nose. The zookeeper literally had to walk over to her and gently remove her from the giraffe to get her to quit.

After those two instances of adult misbehavior, I wasn't terribly surprised at what happened next...

Jeffrey was holding Harrison and I was walking with Carter as we moved toward the exit to leave. Jeffrey and Harrison were a short distance ahead of us, as I was being forced to walk at 3-year-old speed, subject to the distraction of butterflies, gusts of wind, and random thoughts. I saw them exit ahead of us, but then as we arrived at the exit gate, a zoo employee hastily closed it in front of us. Confused, I went over to the zoo store, where I assumed we were now supposed to exit. An employee blocked my way into the store.

I said, 'Can we get out through here?'

'No,' she responded, 'The zoo is on lockdown until further notice. We believe a bird has been stolen.'

The visitors had now been put into a situation uncomfortably similar to that of the zoo animals...literally caged in. The human animals, of course, did not take this forced incarceration well. I watched as patron after patron walked up to the gate and then were refused exit. Some paced angrily, like the leopards. Some looked despondent and tired, like the lion. Some chattered nervously, like the twittering birds. And adding insult to injury, we all watched as storm clouds began to roll in toward our makeshift, open-air cage.

Carter, for his part, handled the delay quite well. As was the theme for the night, the children behaved much better than the adults. And after about 25 minutes of waiting, the lockdown was lifted and we made it to the car just as the first raindrops fell on the wild plains of Abilene.

I never heard of the missing bird was found, if it was actually stolen or simply missing in action, or if they simply gave up looking. All I knew was that when they opened that gate, I had to get out of there before someone tried to stuff a rhino in their SUV.


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Her Bad Mother

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

At BlogHer, someone said to me - referring to the fellow who is guest-posting here - oh, your husband is so sweet, taking such good care of your baby. I was all, him? He's just my internet husband. My real husband is taller. Which is to say that I think very highly of Mr. Backpacking Dad, and, also, that my real husband is really very tall.

Catherine is a philosopher. I hope to be one someday. She has also been quite heroic in her defense of mommy-blogging recently, and I want my heroes to like me. So when she asked me to write a guest post for her I immediately agreed. And I thought "I'll be all philosophical on her blog so I don't have to do it on mine."

So, Catherine, this is what you get when you ask another philosopher to guest post for you. You get all of my crazy. You're welcome.

There is a fantastic expression tossed around in philosophy of science: Carving the world at its joints. Imagine a roasted turkey, awaiting the blade. There are places on the turkey, edges, joints, where a minimum effort with a knife will result in the separation of a largely homogeneous piece from the bird; carving anywhere else results in tearing, or smaller pieces. There are natural edges, lying there, waiting to be found.

I used to have a t-shirt, one of those No Fear t-shirts, that read: "If you're not living on the edge you're taking up too much space."

Put my daughter down in the middle of a huge, green, playing field, and she will make a bee-line for the nearest gate. It doesn't matter where the gate leads, or how far away from her starting point it is, she wants to find out what exists over there, beyond the edge of the green. Every room she wanders into her first game is one of opening and closing the door, walking through it over and over again.

She lives there in the edge spaces, at the joints of the world.

I live over here, taking up space, keeping her safe. "No, Erin, stay in the middle of the field, where it is homogeneous, known, predictable, same, safe." She lives to find the edge, to find the door, because there is always a door, always a gate leading somewhere else, somewhere new.

She is a fearless Lewis or Clark; no, she is more than an explorer, she is the guide. She is Sacagawea. I am a reluctant Lewis, my wife a hesitant Clark. She leads us to the edges and we discover anew this world, this gift, this unappreciated territory that has always been there.

We are there to make sure that nothing other puts out that fiery inquisitiveness; she is there to fan the embers of our smothered curiosity. Smothered by years of predictions proven right, of safety sought and found, of contemptuous familiarity.

This thing we do, we parent-bloggers this writing about our children, this parental punditry: What is it? It is finding the edges, inspired by our great teachers to have frank and open conversations about whether or not that gate should be passed through. Discussing with each other where the edge is, where we will and will not permit them to go.

Do you know why mommy-blogging is a radical act? Because it says, as a movement, that more important in our daily life than the technology we use, the businesses that support us, or the politics that influence our society, is parenting, and the family. It says put away your childish things and let us discuss, now, how we are to live our lives every day, and teach our daughters and sons to find the edges, the gates in the fence, and understand which ones they ought and ought not pass through. Marginalizing mommy-blogging is marginalizing the most important conversation that there is. There is no point in discussing the leadership of the nation if there are no members of society worth serving. There is no point in talking about the cell phones our children will use to call their Senators to discuss nuclear proliferation if those children are wolves or sheep instead of people. The wolf finds the edge because the sheep has fled toward it; the sheep finds the edge if chased. A person finds the edge out of fearless curiosity, and then teaches others where it is out of generosity of self.

Hey, look at that. I turned a nice piece about grass and turkey into a rant.

Again, Catherine, you're welcome.

Anonymous whensheworeponytails said...

Absolutely beautifully put. I'm speechless.

11:26 PM
Blogger Heather said...

"A person finds the edge out of fearless curiosity, and then teaches others where it is out of generosity of self."

12:43 AM
Anonymous attiton said...

As always BPD, I hear you.

But aren't most daddy blogs actually about your collective, you know, genitalia?? I could refer you to recent posts all around, but I think you know the ones I mean.

12:59 AM
Blogger Heather said...

You are right you know. It is the act. The decision to act that separates the sheep and the wolves from the people.

Nice job. I love a rant.

1:00 AM
Anonymous FearandParentinginLasVegas said...

Nicely done. Unfortunately we spend too much time tearing each other down. We need to find a common enemy and rally. You herd the sheep, I'll get the gate. Let's blow this popsicle stand.

1:02 AM
Blogger Mommy Cracked said...

Dude, that was deep. And awesome. Big bloggy props to you.

1:52 AM
Blogger kittenpie said...

Loverly, BPD. And close to HBMs heart. I know she'll love it. After all, Wonderbaby is an inveterate gate-seeker. And climber.

1:56 AM
Blogger Amelia Sprout said...

Most wonderful BPD. It explains why M is so facinated with doors recently.

8:44 AM
Anonymous vicki said...

I just had to say that.

You kick butt. Nicely done.

9:20 AM
Blogger motherbumper said...

"There is no point in discussing the leadership of the nation if there are no members of society worth serving." Why is this such a hard concept for certain folks to wrap their head around? Mommy-blogging will be a radical act as long as we keep it that way and don't let others tell us it is over. Because I hear that rumble and fear that some have started believing what "da man" keeps trying to tell us (not men but you know what I mean - I hope).

9:43 AM
Blogger Don Mills Diva said...

Stunning post, just stunning.

You may be Catherine's internet husband but you are MY internet boyfriend.

10:45 AM
Anonymous Amanda said...

Nothing like being torn between thumping my chest and weeping. Beautiful!

10:45 AM
Anonymous lavandula said...

nicely done BPD lets hope our children find and go through the gates at the edges. no matter how hard or fearful or difficult some of them may be...

10:48 AM
Blogger Kyla said...

Beautiful, BPD.

11:35 AM
Blogger ScientistMother said...

thats telling them BPD. Very very well put.

11:44 AM
Blogger for a different kind of girl said...

Dude, I come over here and you've got Internet wives and Internet girlfriends?! What's up with that?!

This is awesome. I wonder sometimes if my own trepidation rushes in front of my kids and locks the door and then body blocks it before they can sneak around me. I have got to stop doing that. They're just going to divert my attention and get out, anyway.

Again. Awesome.

11:58 AM
Blogger Aunt Becky said...

Yeah, where do I factor in on Internet lover-boyfriend-husband scale?

12:12 PM
Blogger 'That Girl' said...

Hey, that was great.

12:34 PM
OpenID browerfamilyof5 said...

That was brilliant, and you've reminded me why I need to stop constantly telling my kids to "be careful".
Thanks for that.

12:47 PM
Anonymous Jeremy (Discovering Dad) said...

Love the Lewis and Clark analogy. I feel the same way, especially when my son busts the baby gates down and bursts through them like a savage. Chasing him around is the most fun I have every day.

12:50 PM
Blogger scott said...

See, even though I'm a father of three (boy 16, girl 14, girl 12), I could never be a Daddy blogger? Why? For one simple reason:

As much as I love my children, I just don't find them very interesting.

If I feel that way about my own children, you can probably imagine how I feel about everyone else's children.

Interesting post about caution and the edges and stuff. My children are old enough that they pretty much do what they want. I just offer a little advice and then try to look the other way while all the ugly stuff happens.

Hello, Backpacking Dad (and Her Bad Mother).

1:45 PM
Blogger AMR said...

Letting them wander, letting them fall, letting them bleed, allowing it all . . . to a point. That's what I try to do. I get tired of hearing people tell me that they could never do that (like stay seated while watching your daughter get up from a fall and inspecting herself for blood).

Independence isn't just a good thing. It's the best thing. Fostering it in a young child is a great place to start.

Super post, BPD.

2:08 PM
Blogger Ali said...

do we get to go back to hearing about you making pancakes??? because my brain doesn't handle this much philosophy all that well...

(my brain can, however, figure out that pretty much every woman on the internet wants to be tight pants shawn's internet girlfriend or wife)

2:13 PM
Blogger Mr Lady said...

And I have it on pretty good authority that he doesn't exactly hurt to look at, either.

Nicely done, BPD.

3:22 PM
Blogger Backpacking Dad said...

@ali Shush, you. Over here I'm not TPS. I'm just BPD.

4:12 PM
Blogger caramama said...

That was fantastic! What a great way to think about both my child (who fearlessly looks for edges to climb and go beyond) and blogging about family. Beautifully said. And oh so philosphical.

Thanks, BPD, for sharing your wonderful insight.

4:55 PM
Blogger Dr. Cason said...

BPD- Now I think I'm taking up too much space and wishing my three kids took up more!

Nice post. I knew I was right in subscribing to your reader!

6:29 PM
Blogger Swirl Girl said...

WOW BPD...just wow.

I like to think of myself more like bread that surrounds the turkey. Adds a little flavor (like cranberry sauce) and fills it with comfort (like the stuffing)on those days the day(s) after the knife finds those edges.

7:43 PM

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Tuesday, November 28, 2006

More old style Industry. This comic strip recalls the humiliating pranks that first-day factory workers would have inflicted on them by their experienced elders. Other joke tasks included being sent to the Parts Department and instructed to ask for "a long stand". This, of course, resulted in the innocent apprentice being left to wait for at least half an hour. Once these "rites of passage" had been endured (as the smug sociologist character in the last panel comments) the new worker was accepted as another one of the lads/lasses.

Monday, November 27, 2006

Comics as documentation?

About two years ago I drew this Industrial Estate page after discovering some unusually old fashioned buildings tucked behind some more modern local manufacturing units. These half empty brick structures really did deserve the title Industrial Estate, definitely not a Business Park or an Enterprise Zone. I could almost see ghosts of cig-smoking men in boiler suits and noisy machinery in use through the dusty windows. Sensing their inevitable demolition I took some digital photos of the buildings and then drew the silent comic strip. The above photo is how the site looks now. Even the modern factory units have gone. Next year there will be retail outlets built here and the promise of several fast food restaurants.

Sunday, November 26, 2006

Want to see my holiday snaps?

The activity of blogging seems to appeal to the self-indulgent so I may as well go the whole hog and post some of my Prague holiday photos. Prague is certainly a beautiful city and there are hardly any buildings (in the old town) which could be described as ordinary. The display of devils and Santa figurines is from the city's excellent Toy Museum and the religious graphic above comes from a carrier bag bought in the Museum shop of the church of Our Lady Victorious. The famous Holy Infant effigy is housed in this interesting Carmelite church - no photographs were permitted but I'll treasure the memory of seeing the little tyke in all his baroque finery.


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Saturday, January 23, 2010

The 16th annual Nokia Star Screen Awards

The 16th annual Nokia Star Screen Awards was held with usual glamour and glitter. Amitabh Bachchan won the award for best actor for his latest film “Paa”, and Vidya Balan won the best actress award for ‘Paa’ again. Best director award was won by Rajkumar Hirani and the best screenplay award was won by Abhijit Joshi each for the film “3 Idiots” which won the best film award.

The best female singer award was won by Kavita Sethi for her song “Ek tara” from “Wake Up Sid”, and the best male singer award was won by Rahat Fateh Ali Khan for “Aaj din chadeya” from movie “Love Aaj Kal”. Imitiaz Ali bagged the best story award for “Love Aaj Kal”. A.R. Rahman won the best music award for “Delhi 6?.

The award for the best performance in a comic role went to Omi Vaidya for “3 Idiots”, while the award for the best actor in a negative role went to Boman Irani for “3 idiots”.

‘3 Idiots’ was undoubtedly the star of the ceremony as it bagged the awards in most of the categories. Check out the stars as they dazzle in the Star Screen Awards 2010.

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Kenya: opposition granted access to review IEBC tech

8 September 2017

Kenya's opposition coalition has been granted access to servers and other IT infrastructure used by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) in the country's August general election. This follows the Coalition's petition to the Supreme Court against the announcement of Uhuru Kenyatta as the winner.

In its ruling this morning, Justice Isaac Lenaola said that the petitioners, the National Super Alliance (NASA), would be given a read-only access to IEBC infrastructure.

The opposition's case to gain access was based on their belief that the tallied votes on physical forms differed to what was relayed electronically. The coalition also claimed the IEBC failed to relay the electronic count with the scanned copies of the forms simultaneously and its systems were compromised.

"We also note the petitioner's (NASA) apprehension that the physical forms 34A and 34B produced in court by the first respondent (IEBC) may not necessarily contain the results that were electronically transmitted and therefore their request to access IEBC's system in order to confirm the validity of information contained therein is a matter to be taken into account," stated Justice Lenaola.

"We also take into account the fact that our system of elections is partly electronic in nature and therefore the role played by technology in this regard cannot be ignored," he continued.

The IEBC had argued that unrestricted access to their servers would compromise the technology and expose them to security issues and the Court subsequently ordered that access should be limited.

"We note that some of the action that access is sought has the potential of compromising the integrity and security of the first respondent (IEBC) technology system and of individual persons which if granted is likely to compromise the future use of the system," Justice Lenaola read.

"Therefore in giving the orders we have to be aware of the need to protect confidentiality of passwords and usernames, identity of password holders, IP addresses, software running applications and so on."

The opposition will have access to the number of servers IEBC was operating, the certified penetration testing report for the servers, review business continuity plans including backup servers and also to the 40,000 Kenya Integrated Election Management System (KIEMS) kits and their GPRS location before and after the voting day.

The Court also ordered that two independent ICT experts and one from the Court will supervise the audit of the system.

A final ruling on the ongoing presidential petition is scheduled for 1 September.

Source: ITWeb