My first experiences of Halloween was courtesy of the Mormon Church. Until we were introduced to the idea of Trick or Treat and the Halloween Party, Halloween had been nothing but some apple bobbing and very little else.
But the Mormon Church, being an almost exclusively American institution, changed all that and, in its own way, helped pave the way for a revival of Halloween activities that, until fairly recent times, been a largely forgotten and moribund festival, with only a few small pockets of places in Britain where the old ways had held sway, still marking Halloween and the older native religious festivities that had taken place before the first Christian missionaries had found their way to the British Isles.
Still, happy Halloween, All Saints Eve, Samhain to everyone, believers or otherwise!
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Heading toward Christmas
It's late October and as we head toward the festival of Christmas it seems strange to look back on the year behind us.
Last Christmas I missed my company Chirstmas party because I fell ill with the flu. Colleagues who had not had the flu shot were much worse off than me and spent the entire Christmas and New Year ill in bed.
The year seemed to go very quickly and in September I found myself in California. Something I'd always wanted to do but never thought I would achieve.
California is a very beautiful country / state and I would like to visit it again. Will I be able to do so? Maybe not, but we shall see.
Last Christmas I missed my company Chirstmas party because I fell ill with the flu. Colleagues who had not had the flu shot were much worse off than me and spent the entire Christmas and New Year ill in bed.
The year seemed to go very quickly and in September I found myself in California. Something I'd always wanted to do but never thought I would achieve.
California is a very beautiful country / state and I would like to visit it again. Will I be able to do so? Maybe not, but we shall see.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Finally got the antibiotics
After a week of coughing and keeping Mrs Matt awake at nights, and having work colleagues complain about his terrible cough, Matt finally went to the doctor where he was diagnosed with a nasty chest infection.
It happens every October, a viral cold leads to a secondary bacterial infection which causes a nasty, productive cough. And I finally have to get the antibiotics. It's so regular you could almost set your clock by it.
My wife works at the hospital in which my doctor rents space in the grounds so I waited for my wife to finish work and we were going to the late duty chemist's shop when we found someone collapsed at the side of the road on the pavement/sidewalk.
He was on his side and snoring. Of course, there was the possibility that he was drunk, but the last time we found someone collapsed like that he had gone into a diabetic coma, so no point in making judgements on people and someone who is drunk could choke to death. We had some problems getting the emergency operator to understand the location but eventually an ambulance, a police car and a police can turned up.
We then left to continue our journey home. Too late to get my prescription filled, so I'll get that done this morning in the chemist that is round the corner from my office.
It happens every October, a viral cold leads to a secondary bacterial infection which causes a nasty, productive cough. And I finally have to get the antibiotics. It's so regular you could almost set your clock by it.
My wife works at the hospital in which my doctor rents space in the grounds so I waited for my wife to finish work and we were going to the late duty chemist's shop when we found someone collapsed at the side of the road on the pavement/sidewalk.
He was on his side and snoring. Of course, there was the possibility that he was drunk, but the last time we found someone collapsed like that he had gone into a diabetic coma, so no point in making judgements on people and someone who is drunk could choke to death. We had some problems getting the emergency operator to understand the location but eventually an ambulance, a police car and a police can turned up.
We then left to continue our journey home. Too late to get my prescription filled, so I'll get that done this morning in the chemist that is round the corner from my office.
Friday, October 21, 2011
Oops! Memory loss of computer at work!
My computer at work has an 8.5Gb hard drive. It suddenly flashed up a "low memory on C Drive" warning. Lucky, really, as the IT engineer happened to be on site.
Apparently being down to only 23Mb of available memory from 8.5Gb is NOT a good thing.
He cleaned 1.5Gg of crap off it (mainly Windows error reports and bits of random Microsoft bloatware, I think) but we are looking at a second drive, internal or external for storing images, etc.
Apparently being down to only 23Mb of available memory from 8.5Gb is NOT a good thing.
He cleaned 1.5Gg of crap off it (mainly Windows error reports and bits of random Microsoft bloatware, I think) but we are looking at a second drive, internal or external for storing images, etc.
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Arm news
My arm was just badly bruised, it seems.
The lump is a haematoma which will, they hope, go down, eventually.
It is a tiny bit smaller, but I fear it will remain as a nasty lump for some time to come, if not for good.
Oh well. We shall just have to wait and see.
The lump is a haematoma which will, they hope, go down, eventually.
It is a tiny bit smaller, but I fear it will remain as a nasty lump for some time to come, if not for good.
Oh well. We shall just have to wait and see.
More guilt, my dears?
Doubtless in the days and weeks after the Mormon Church General Conference the faithful and less-than-faithful members of the Mormon Church are feeling guilty or, probably, even more guilty than they did before.
They will have been convinced that they should have given the Mormon Church more of their time, more of their money, have done more to spread the word of the Gospel according to Joseph Smith to their friends, neighbours and, indeed, the rest of the world.
They will have been convinced, too, that they should "lengthen their stride", "attend the temple more", "put their shoulder to the wheel", "magnify their calling", "strengthen their testimony", "close their cover before striking" or some other such meaningless platitude.
The General Conference of the Mormon Church: A place where elderly executives of what can be described as the world's oldest MLM pyramid selling scheme or, more accurately, the world's oldest and most successful Ponzi scheme gather to shake down their victims one more time.
They will have been convinced that they should have given the Mormon Church more of their time, more of their money, have done more to spread the word of the Gospel according to Joseph Smith to their friends, neighbours and, indeed, the rest of the world.
They will have been convinced, too, that they should "lengthen their stride", "attend the temple more", "put their shoulder to the wheel", "magnify their calling", "strengthen their testimony", "close their cover before striking" or some other such meaningless platitude.
The General Conference of the Mormon Church: A place where elderly executives of what can be described as the world's oldest MLM pyramid selling scheme or, more accurately, the world's oldest and most successful Ponzi scheme gather to shake down their victims one more time.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Trip to the doctor is indicated
Last week I slipped on some mud and badly hurt my arm.
There was a hell of a lump on my arm just above my elbow, so I visited A&E, had an X-Ray and was told it was not broken, but badly bruised. I was given some powerful NSAI tablets and sent on my way.
A week later the lump has not shown any significant decrease in size, so I am going to visit my doctor and have them take a look at it.
There was a hell of a lump on my arm just above my elbow, so I visited A&E, had an X-Ray and was told it was not broken, but badly bruised. I was given some powerful NSAI tablets and sent on my way.
A week later the lump has not shown any significant decrease in size, so I am going to visit my doctor and have them take a look at it.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Global warming?
When I was a young man, some people predicted Global Warming. But they were considered to be totally off the wall by the majority of other scientists who predicted that there would be, instead, a period of Global Cooling. Another Ice Age, if you will.
Then, suddenly, the Global Warming theory was in the ascendancy. Why? Well, the cynical wonder if the reason is that some powerful people realised you could make a lot of money out of pretending that CO2 was a vile, evil pollutant (Carbon Credit Exchanges, which change hands for potentiality Billions of Dollars) whereas the only way to make money out of a new Ice Age was to sell more knitwear...
Then, suddenly, the Global Warming theory was in the ascendancy. Why? Well, the cynical wonder if the reason is that some powerful people realised you could make a lot of money out of pretending that CO2 was a vile, evil pollutant (Carbon Credit Exchanges, which change hands for potentiality Billions of Dollars) whereas the only way to make money out of a new Ice Age was to sell more knitwear...
Monday, October 10, 2011
Exclusive Notamormon goods available!
Yes, you too can enjoy owning some special Notamormon merchandise! Bearing the name Notamormon and the legend: "Mormonism, it's OK to say no" they are only available at this link to the Notamormon online shop:-
Notamormon shop
Notamormon shop
An interesting website
An interesting website -that links to Notamormon, is http://www.monergism.com/online_ministries.php.
It contains links to a wide variety of websites and has Notamormon listed as being a counter cult website. A designation with which, after a second or so of thought, I found I could not disagree with.
It contains links to a wide variety of websites and has Notamormon listed as being a counter cult website. A designation with which, after a second or so of thought, I found I could not disagree with.
Sunday, October 09, 2011
Weather now more like it should be for the time of year
Even though the weather is still fairly mild for October, the weather has taken a change for the worst. The unusually warm Indian Summer weather is now gone.
There's rain, the usual higher winds of October and there are reports that we shall soon be suffering from frosts and snowfall. My wife likes the idea of it snowing. I do too, but not as wildly as she!
There's rain, the usual higher winds of October and there are reports that we shall soon be suffering from frosts and snowfall. My wife likes the idea of it snowing. I do too, but not as wildly as she!
Sunday, October 02, 2011
Mormon General Conference
Yes, the Mormon Church has just had their General Conference.
Members of the Mormon church will have received instructions that they must pay their tithing, be subservient to local Mormon leaders, visit the temple as often as possible and testify to people that the Mormon church is the true church of God.
How do I know this? Because that is all the leaders of the Mormon Church (or the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to give it its full title) every say at their General Conferences.
There will also have been a few rather weak jokes, but that will have been about it.
It is, in reality, a slick presentation by a large MLM corporation, rather than a church in any meaningful sense of the word that would be understandable by an outsider. It's like an MLM convention salted with a few hymns and prayers to make it more palatable to the members.
Members of the Mormon church will have received instructions that they must pay their tithing, be subservient to local Mormon leaders, visit the temple as often as possible and testify to people that the Mormon church is the true church of God.
How do I know this? Because that is all the leaders of the Mormon Church (or the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to give it its full title) every say at their General Conferences.
There will also have been a few rather weak jokes, but that will have been about it.
It is, in reality, a slick presentation by a large MLM corporation, rather than a church in any meaningful sense of the word that would be understandable by an outsider. It's like an MLM convention salted with a few hymns and prayers to make it more palatable to the members.
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