Software of the Week...

Rapido suite comprising RapidoMap (self explanatory), RapidoSerial (an application designed to alert the user when apps are out of date), RapidoStart (dealt with this last week) and RapidoWrite, a program resembling Textexpander - once freeware, now shareware. Each of these programs is freeware and can be found here.

The Queen and the Great Revolution

Little empires crumbled
Miniature kingdoms toppled
As the princess became a queen
And men knelt, grovelling
At the feet of this new matriarch
She loved no one but herself
The peasants that lined the roads
Were but money-making machines
Fairy tale figures - Snow White,
Rose Red and Little Red Riding Hood
So pure, so soft, so good
To be trodden underfoot

They threw flowers at the motorcade
A rainstorm of roses aimed at that princess
Her feelings were suppressed
By vodka, vodka, vodka
'She is an angel,' they said
But that was long before
The Great Revolution
When this new Queen dreamed
Of cutting out the tongues
Of rabid republicans
Now she is still the centre of attention
She is still the star of the show.

But she is not adored anymore
And up in that dock she can smell
Her own blood, her own death
And those who once revelled in her grace
Will dance jubilantly,
Madly, on her grave.

I just couldn't let it lie..

'A case study in madness'?

This 'Dan Hart'...is he a psychiatrist as well as a fine arts graduate? And if Ms. Lowde is indeed a 'case study in madness' then that makes the lynch mob on here about a thousand times worse than she is. A case study in hypocrisy, methinks. There's a bit of Matthew Hopkins in all of you.

These people make you proud to be British, don't they?

It's worth noting that, in the States, attacking someone for being mentally ill is regarded with as much disapproval as attacking someone because of their race. And we have the audacity to mock them for their perceived lack of sophistication.

PS: BellaCat is really fat again :cool:

It's not the band we hate...

It's their fans.

In response to this:

Don't get too complacent. I've seen exactly the same behaviour by your compatriots on Usenet. But yes - these people are slightly deranged. Some of them actually believe that denigrating someone over the internet is more reprehensible than battering an old lady to death with an axe. Strange days indeed.

I recall one particular case in which the 'culprit' was a guy from Madison County, Wisconsin. However, I do not remember anyone criticising his physical appearance or suggesting that part of his rehabilitation should consist of performing sexual favours for the opposite sex.

I can't imagine why that could be.

Can you?

Why?

We know how he died but we don't know why. A few nights ago a neighbour killed himself by jumping from the balcony of his sixth floor flat. He died, they said, of 'horrific' internal injuries. We don't know how long his broken body lay on the grass before he was discovered. His closest neighbours cannot even remember his name. They only remember that he was 'very mentally ill'. He was deemed worthy of a couple of columns in the local paper.

We know how he died but we don't know why.
Perhaps we never will.

Software of the Week:

Rapidostart: an excellent way to manage all those pesky applications that aren't quite important enough to occupy space in your dock.

Against the Tide

She always swam
Against the tide
She never compromised
She was never pulled under
She refused to go down
She did not drown

And now she is standing
On some strange shore
There is nothing left
There is nothing more
She was once the woman
All men adore

She blazed, she amazed, distinguished
Until her flame was extinguished
For old age was a destination
She never believed she would reach.

Ridiculing

Commodity Fetishism. Note to Apple Evangelists: Steve Jobs is not God. I know because Richard Dawkins told me. In fact, that's the title of his next book. And Bill Gates is not Satan. Get it?

A little online temper tantrum in response to some spoilt little brat who said that she would never date a shelf stacker:

I find it shallow. Shallow and thoroughly unpleasant. You are aware, I'm sure, that there are many reason that individuals may end up in the situation you describe. As it happens I have a friend who is, at this moment, stacking shelves. He developed schizophrenia in his mid-twenties. He has a first class degree from a rather prestigious university. Ask (deleted) or one of the other medics just how difficult it is to sustain a successful career and remain on a high dose of neuroleptics. You may well be academically brilliant but you need to work on acquiring an imagination and a capacity for empathy.

Oh, and how's this for the very epitome of the Karpman Drama Triangle: Victim/Perpetrator/Rescuer? Each playing their alloted roles. Balding middle-aged men on white horses, anyone? No, it doesn't appeal to me much either.

The blogger makes a good point about rampant, untamed typography.

Shopaholism Alert

Frivolous and self indulgent I know but I really don't think I'll be able to resist this one.