ThePickards
standards, accessibility, and ranting and general stuff by the web chemist

Yesterday I said that my blogging well had run dry and so I asked for some ideas as to what to write about.

In answer to Karl, Dan and Mark Fairlamb’s suggestions then, here we go …

There’s always the weather :pKarl

Indeed there is Karl, indeed there is. Unfortunately, there’s little to be said of it this time of year. It’s cold, it’s wet, it’s windy, and it’s dark seemingly the whole time I’m not at work, but that’s pretty much December for you, I suppose. Although having said that, December does have the advantage that — at least until you’re sick of ‘em — you get to see pretty Christmas decorations twinkling along.

And there’s normally someone decides to light up their house like a cross between Santa’s Grotto and an airport runway too…

We had a multitude of suggestions from Dan:

Food? Dan

I made some sandwiches for work today on tiger bread. I’m not sure what exactly tiger bread is — so far as I can tell it’s like a crusty bloomer type of loaf, but maybe the crust is “zingier” or something. Anyway, I went to all this trouble to make sandwiches for me and the wife, and then we forgot them and left them at home. Bugger.

The Ashes?Dan

What’s to say? At least we’ve proved we can bat, although we’re still struggling to bowl the Aussie bast— sorry, batsmen out. Great knock by Paul Collingwood but there’s part of me hoping he’s dropped in the summer (along with Harmison), because they are Durham players and after avoiding relegation by the skin of our teeth last year, we could really do with a couple of quality players like that available again.

Your setup — are you blogging in the bath, the garden or something more mundane?Dan

Oh, the drab mundanity of it all. Yes, it was Mr Pickard, in the Study with the Desktop PC. Well, I say study. That makes it sound like a great big room with a leather writing desk and a butler called Chives or something, as well as floor-to-ceiling bookshelves. In reality, it’s a a little bit bigger than a box room, it does have floor to ceiling books, with a plain wooden desk and unfortunately no butler.

Non-Denominational Winter Solstice Post Harvest Festival-mas? Music? Movies?Dan

Alright, already! Sheesh! Where do you want me to start? I’ll save the non-denominational whatsit for another time, ‘cos I probably could work up a sufficient head of steam on that one…

Music? Well, I’ve had a song going through my head all day that I’ve been tormenting my colleagues with and forcing them to help me remember the lyrics (no cheating allowed). I can’t mention it though, as that’s for something in a later post…

Films? Ain’t seen any recently. I want to see Bond, and I want to see Flushed Away, but I suspect they’ll be a “catch it on DVD in the New Year” type of a thing.

what about the state of today’s society and general decline in moral standards and the attitude of today’s youngsters?Mark Fairlamb

What about it you old fart? (for the rest of you out there, I’d just like to point out that Mark is several months older than me). I don’t know about this decline in moral standards business anyway, I think it’s just a myth. When I were a single lad all the women I encountered seemed to have much higher moral standards than I would have liked. Or possibly they were just fussier in the choice of men than I would have liked …

or what’s your favourite colour?Mark Fairlamb

Ah. Now you’re really talking. At last, a question I can really sink my teeth into. Indeed, what is my favourite colour? Surely this question was first put in the wider context by the mythical figure of The Bridgekeeper in days of old, when the King Arthur’s knights quested for the Holy Grail? Indeed I remember precisely such a dialogue…

Bridgekeeper

Stop! Who would cross the Bridge of Death must answer me these questions three, ‘ere the other side he see.

Lancelot

Ask me the questions, bridge-keeper. I’m not afraid.

Bridgekeeper

What is your name?

Lancelot

My name is Sir Lancelot of Camelot.

Bridgekeeper

What is your quest?

Lancelot

To seek the Holy Grail

Bridgekeeper

What is your favorite color?

Lancelot

Blue.

Bridgekeeper

Right. Off you go

Monty Python and The Holy Grail

So it’s important to note that the question of “what is your favourite colour” is one that has been around for a long time, and has important roots in the mythology of the British isles. Whether such a metaphysical question can be answered is another story entirely, because of course in order for me to define my favourite colour we would first have to seek to encounter an empirical measure of colour, and whether or not each colour looked the same to everyone else. Least of all, we would need to determine whether or not I actually exist as a mental or physical entity capable of having a personal preference — when as we know, in the materialist universe, there is no such thing as free will! Obviously, Lancelot knew all this, so the answer used in the quotation is a much simplified version of what he actually said, which was more along the lines of a metaphysical discourse.

So, nice try Mark, but you don’t catch me out that easily!

This entry was posted on Monday, December 4th, 2006 at 9:33 pm and is filed under Blogging, Oddities, The Pickards. You can follow responses via my RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your site.