Toadfish Monastery

Follow up signal to Coach Chatty:

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THANX COACH STOP IS IT ORRITE IFFEN OI ENJOY ME PUNISHERMENT QUERY HAVE TOLE OVVER PLAYERS ABOWT THE SATERDEE DEDLOINE STOP PLEASE ARSK BLACK SPOT TER BRING KEYS OVER FRIDAY NITE STOP LUV BLUENOSE MESSAGE ENDS

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I agree with Ops that this is an interesting discussion.

My slant on this is that I do not believe in anything absolutely.  As I said in another post hereabouts somewhere, with the sole exception of some branches of mathematics, I do not believe that you can truly know anything.  There is always doubt and it worries me when people claim perfect knowledge of something or other.

Consequently I do not try to "convert" others to my way of thinking, although I am happy to discuss my ideas with a willing participant.  Whether or not they change their mind is of course up to them, but I do not like proselytising of any flavour.


With regards to the carbon monoxide example, I am not sure what I would do.  If the person was an adult, of apparently normal mental ability, I would certainly try to convince them to move by giving them the information that I had that they apparently do not.  However, I do not think I would forcibly move them against their wishes.  With a child or a person of diminished mental capability I think I would take matters into my own hands, but I would not be happy about it.

Bluenose

A few years ago, I was fishing in East Gippsland (in the south east corner of Australia).  I was fishing in the lower reaches of a modest stream and the location was very beautiful, the water was crystal clear, the various trees on the banks shaded the stream and made it both beautiful to look at and comfortable by protecting me from the sun.  I was hoping to catch some black bream or leatherjacket to have a fish dinner that night.  Instead what I caught were some quite small toadfish.  BTW, all were returned unharmed to the water, most did not even need to be removed from the water to release.

Most anglers I know despise these fish because of their tendency to be caught in large numbers and to surround the bait in largish schools taking the bait instead of the target species and are considered a pest.  However I quickly found that these small fish were really beautiful, if only I looked at them the right way.  They have a remarkable and intricate pattern over their bodies that are gorgeous to behold and although their form is not traditionally beautiful, again if looked at the right way it has its own genuine charm.  After a while I stopped fishing and simply tossed bits of bait over the side of my boat, and just watched the toadfish.  I must have spent well over an hour doing this - it was simply fascinating.

What I discovered that day was that things often considered to be ugly and valueless can really be beautiful and valuable.

Nowadays I often find myself going against the conventional wisdom, and have discovered that just like the toadfish, many things looked over at first glance are well worth the trouble of a second look.  Often just being quiet in a place can enable you to see things you never even knew were there.  Look closely, you might be surprised what you see.

This is one lesson the toadfish has taught me, I am sure there are many more, if only we bother to look.

Nick

Signal from Bluenose to Sibling Chatty, Coach

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DEAR COACH STOP OI BEEN DELAYED STOP FRANCINE THE FLAGELLATOR SAYS OIVE BEEN A VERY NAUGHTY BOY AND SHE WILL BE FINISHED GIVING ME MY JUST DESSERTS BY SATURDAY STOP DONT WORRY STOP BLUENOSE

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One of the things I particulalry like about this program is that it is not like so many other aid programs which are often a case of the us Westerners going in and telling everyone else what to do or providing "aid" that really is just a big hand out to our own businesses, nor is it providing inappropriate materiel for which the necessary infrastructure is missing - I have visions of rusting tractors in Africa from aid programs of years gone by.  Also, this program seems to me to be much less likely to be subverted by corrupt officials who often syphon off millions from aid programs into their own personal wealth.

Instead, this program works at the root level and provides a hand up for people to make real differences in their own lives in ways that they control.  I firmly believe that successful aid can only occur when the people being helped out have a stake in the progress and when (to use management jargon for a moment) those people "own" the process.  This is not to say that we should not provide disaster relief after natural (or man made) disasters, but the true ongoing programs would be so much more effective if they operaterd like the micro loan program.  It saddens me that so much of what is provided in good faith by donors all over the world is simply wasted or misdirected.

Lets hope that this award will help to redirect some of our aid efforts into more effective programs like this one.  We still need some of the big programs, but I think even these could be better targetted by dropping the paternalistic attitudes that so often go with them.

Better stop now before I go into full rant mode.   

Nick

Aaarrrgggghhhh!!!!!  Sibling Chatty yer given me an idea.  Prehaps Oi kood lace the bit o fruit cake, wot Oi leave out on the nite o' 24th o' December, wiv a bit o' rat poison, and Oi kood put a bit o arsenic in th' sherry,.  Reckon that'd give the red bandit somfin ter fink about!

Cap'n Bluenose

...pair of...

Ahoy there DaveL, d'yer reckon we kood modify wun o me antee-submarine torpedoes to werke as an air to air missile?  Oi figger that ort ter give the red blaggard a bit o' a shake up!

Cap'n "Biggles" Bluenose

Gets my vote.  Well done.

Quote from: DaveLThat's Sibling BlueNose takin' our humbly acquired submarine tracking aircraft for a spin. Awesome!!

Yarr, this anti-submarine flyin be the thing fer me. Ear's a photo wot Oi took a while ago when returning from a bit o' submarine huntin':



Avaarrrssstttt me hearties, a Pirate loife fer me!  (In an umble toadfish way o' course)

Max, named after Maximus from the movie Gladiator.  Name totally inappropriate - a very affectionate cat but totally scared of anything unfamiliar, thinks the door bell is a hideaous monster alert and requires his immediate retirement to the wardrobe in our main bedroom.



Harley.  AKA "Madam Inspector" cat with attitude, when she wanta a cuddle she wants it now.  Has to check out anything that is going on, visitors, repair men, new furnture, you name it.

Yesterday was our (Melbourne's) hottest October day since 1914 - 36.4^oC (pretty close to 100^oF, from memory) - the second hottest October day on record and the ealiest day ever in the season to be declared a day of total fire ban.  It's not even summer yet and we have already had some nasty bushfires.  Usually the fires don't get really bad until the end of summer or early autumn.

Looks like its going to be a very bad year.

So, please North American toadfishes, please send us Aussies some of your precipitation, we need it.  I don't care if its rain, hail or snow even.

Dry and thirsty Nick

I'm using IE6 (set to remember me). I get session verification problems about once or twice a day.  No discernable pattern, sometimes it works (actually most times) then I will get an error.  The error can happen the first time I attempt to paste/applaud/change profile etc in a session or it can (less often) occur during a session when I have previously been posting OK.

When I get an error, I go to http://toadfishmonastery.com/forum/, which I have saved as a favorite, and log off and back on there and that fixes things.  If you get these problems I suggest you might like to follow the link and add it to your favourites.

BTW, after fixing the problem, if I go "Back" to the previous page, rather than navigating to it by typing the URL or clicking on the usual favorite link, the error returns and has to be "fixed" again.  Don't know if all this helps find out what's going on, but I am sure everyone here appreciated the efforst being made to fix the problems.

Nick

Oh, I don't know, I reckon Turkish coffee is just the thing - plus it helps you by bending your spoon to make it easy to pick up the Last Post

I take your point, although I am not going to be as systematic as that, more like the random acts of kindness thing.

I am not trying to "convert" you, just better explaining my idea.

I say applaud away to all and sundry, it's a bit like giving someone your smile - you both feel better for it.

Nick