Seasons Greetings one and all

Another year draws to a close and it's strange how many of the lessons you have to learn are done in a bunch at the end of the year. I was talking to a colleague last week who is an evangelical christian. I was concerned about two things. Firstly, how little knowledge they had about religion in general. The terms Agnostic, Atheist, Deist, Pantheist, Theist where all new terms to them. I thought that the church would be educating their parishners in these terms, if only to argue against them. The person I was discussing this with is an intelligent, witty and extremely nice person. They have a job that requires a high level of technical expertise as far as I understand what they do. But they hadn't thought to ask these questions. After talking for a little while about these terms, and generally about evolution as opposed to the creation philosophy, they stated their belief that the "Man did not decend from apes". To Evangelicals, the bible is the last word on the topic. Man was literally created by God and the Earth is only 6000 years old and probably that it's at the centre of the Universe. I wish I had more time to ask how they feel about science and it's findings. The fossil record. Carbon dating etc. Maybe I will take the conversation further next year.

This led into a conversation last night with a colleague in the pub (Well, it is Christmas :-) ). Who was arguing for the fact that it is acceptable to have that sort of belief. I don't think he really thought that but was playing devils advocate. Isn't quoting a theory, no matter how much evidence is in favour of it, just a belief system too? that was the argument proposed. I think all that calls into question is our use of the word "belief". If your only evidence is a book, written by someone several hundred years after the events it purports to describe, with no actually proveable elements, then you are on a sticky wicket as far as I'm concerned.

My second lesson was about the kindness of strangers. Standing at Holborn tube station last night, A blind guy was trying to find the door of the tube train. I only became aware of this after seeing someone trying to gently guide him towards the open door. A very small act of kindness that quite overwhelmed me. This is not something I see everyday.

Happy Holidays

The week that was!

Another busy busy week comes to an end but the Fun doesn't stop there. Working the way I do, the boundarys between the "working" week and the weekend seem to blur. I think this is something more and more people are going to find as the drive for a greener community pushes forward. No longer will most of us be bound to a desk in a building. The days of managers needing "bums-on-seats-luvvy" will soon be gone. Instead, your 9 to 5 existance will be replaced with target led performance contract. And this is how it sortof works for me now. I agree my targets with my manager. They are realistic with some time factored in for those unexpected occurances that inevitably happen. It works well and allows me the flexibility to do the other things I need to do and work the hours that suit me. One proviso is that I'm available when an urgent issue comes up. This is a small price to pay.

So, work work has been very busy this week. Isn't it funny how everyone seems to see Christmas as a deadline. Non-work things done include the usual level of study and some more updates to the OUSA-NHL website (www.ousa-nhl.org). We are getting a reasonable number of hits considering it has only been in existance for about 6 days. I'm doing what I can to make sure we have relevant information for local OU students. It's a lot harder and much more time consuming then I anticipated but I'm quite emjoying. There has been a little feedback but generally, I'm working on what I would like to see a local and mature student.

I've taken a couple of calls this week from local people about issues they are passionate about. Although all I can do is pass on thier details, I would love to try and make sure these issues are really looked at. I know how it feels to be on the end of a telephone and feel that you are getting nowhere. Anyone in that position can rest assured that if you keep at it for long enough and stamp your feet as much as possible, someone will eventually listen.