Deposit

We just put a deposit on a flat in Surbiton. Now we hold our breathe.

Photo Credits:
Your-Move

My Walk Home from Church

One thing I miss about Providence is the community at Grace Church Well, I found another community that feels a lot like Grace: it's called St Saviours Pimlico. As wonderful as St Saviours is, it seems a shame to waste the opportunity to worship at Westminster Abbey (Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster), which is only a bit further way. So I go there a sometimes.

Today, in anticipation of our upcoming move, I was noticing some interesting things I walk past on the way home. First was St Margaret's, the parish of the House of Commons. Then, I go past Palace of Westminster (where Parliament meets), a statue of suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst, and a replica of Rodin's Burghers of Calais. Then it's past the the Conservative Offices at Millbank, the Tate Britain (an art museCum featuring British artists), and past the former site of a panopticon prison based on Jeremy Bentham's design. Across the street, a memorial bollard marks the top of the steps where prisoners boarded ships to Australia. Then it's over the Thames by the Vauxhall Bridge, to MI6 (Secret Intelligence Service), and home.

All photos are from Wikipedia:

1 St Saviours Pimlico, 2 Westminster Abbey, 3 St Margarets, 4 Emmeline Pannkhurst, 5 Burghers of Calais, 6 Millbank Tower, 7 Tate Britain, 8 Bollard, 9 MI6

Soon we'll be living high and wide

We almost made it two years with one address in London. But this has been a March of inconvenience. First, my beloved's hard drive failed on the day that two important submissions were due. Second, our landlord is selling our flat. Third, we discovered that the backup of one chapter of my honey's PhD was corrupted. March came in like a lion.

A new hard drive is on order but parts for the first generation MacBookAir are getting harder and harder to come by. So she is using my computer in the meantime, which is an inconvenience all the way around. But the quality of our inconveniences shows how far we've come. Remember when the inconveniences were rats, bedbugs, raining light fixtures, lack of heat, & nightly fire alarms? We do.

So moving is on the cards. Without academic loans to help pay for accommodation, our budget has narrowed the selection. There is an inverse relationship between the price of housing and the cost of commuting based on distance from central London. I work in Putney, a relatively expensive area. Although we may luck out and find a place in Southfields, which is walking distance, but pickings are thin on our budget. We're feeling hopeful at the moment about Surbiton. I visited there yesterday morning and it seems quite nice. The prices seem to be in range and it is close enough to Putney to not put the combination of housing and travel beyond the budget. Now we just have to see what the places actually look like.

Looking at flats unfortunately brings a feeling of impending doom. In the past, we were either in a situation where we had to take the first thing that came along or we went in with high hopes only to have them dashed. Our current place was the first time that didn't happen... well, until they sold it out from under us... but even so, it's been a good run.

But all this is just inconvenient. March, so far, has also brought relative good health and good fortune for us and our loved ones. But the thing about inconvenience is that it's just ... inconvenient.

Photo Credit

Pictures of Surbiton from Wikipedia

What Name Calling Actually Says

I recently read that Rush issued an 'apology'. I didn't hear the apology first hand, nor did I witness the original 'offense'. I am not a regular Rush listener, but I do tune in from time to time. Sometimes, I find myself agreeing with the general position of what he happens to be taking. Most of the time, I find myself disagreeing with him. I am what Rush would call a 'liberal'. Rush's use of this term suggests that he considers it a synonym for 'socialist', 'unAmerican', or 'evil'. I do not appreciate these labels. But if I start calling Rush names in response, will that actually convince anyone that my position has merit? No, of course not.

But based on my experience, it is vintage Rush to boil down some of the issues he discusses on his show down to calling a particular person a name. In the recent case where he called someone a slut, the particular issue at hand was the recent birth control debate. There are many ways to discuss opposition to birth control on merits such as the sanctity of life and the moral dilemma for members of religious instituions. These are very appropriate things to be discussing and are contributing to an important debate in our country. And although, as I said, I did not witness Rush discussing this issue when he devolved into calling this one person a name, I expect that that he did mention those more appropriate discussion points based on my past experience of listening to his show.

I believe that the reason he frequently ends up resorting to name calling is that he wants to be able to paint a one-dimensional label on those who have different views from his. At the end of the day, it is easier to get listeners angry at an opponent by quickly slapping an insulting label on him or her. The label allows Rush to throw away any complexities of an issue and boil it down to a single emotional response. Later, he can pull out that one word: whether it is 'liberal', 'socialist', or 'slut', and he can harness all of that anger he has carefully cultivated in the listener. It is simply emotional manipulation.

And yes, of course, all kinds of people resort to name calling. For example, I heard many liberals insult President Bush during his time in office, but that is not the point. The point is this. When people on the street or callers into the shows do it, that is one thing. But when the host does it, that is quite another. And why is it that this phenomena is so prevalent amongst conservative hosts? For all the liberal bias of the general media, I have never once heard the host of a nationally broadcast or nationally syndicated show openly insult a conservative office holder on ABC, CBS, or even NPR, much less an ordinary citizen. (Perhaps I'm watching the wrong shows.) And in this particular case, Rush chose to attack, not an office holder, but a citizen doing her civic duty of testifying at the government's request. Why? Perhaps Rush and his imitators believe that the conservative position is too weak to withstand open discussion of an opposing point of view. I happen to think that there is more than enough merit on logical and moral grounds for the conservative position to sell it without emotional manipulation. But that is just me I guess. Perhaps there is something about being a conservative show host makes you mean spirited.

What ever the true reason is, I believe that the applying of broad and insulting stereotypes to our own citizens by way of name calling, whether the target is a public official or a person engaging in civic duty, is unbecoming of our nation and of conservative ideals. The presence of conservative view points across country via the various media outlets is vital for our nation, but the name calling is not. The regular engaging of this behavior by hosts suggests that there is an inherent belief in a weakness in their viewpoint that requires emotional manipulation to achieve it's aims. I personally think name calling says much more about the moral weakness of the person do it than it does about the person who is being attacked. I just wish that Rush and his imitators believed in the merits of their positions and beliefs enough to not have to resort to emotional manipulation.

Photo Credits:

Apology Form

Pussy Chicken

Living on the Thames

Along with views of random fireworks and the random filming of Skyfall last weekend, living on the Thames brings many features past our windows. One of the them is wind… well, it is usually just a breeze really. But there is a noticeable difference when you are next to the Thames. I can only imagine the stench it must have carried when the Thames was the de facto sewer system before the engineering marvel that is the underground sewer system. Nowadays, the smell is just a hint of sea that comes with tidal brackish water. With the wind comes numerous birds: ducks, swans, geese, gulls and more. And of course all the boat traffic: ferries, barges, cruises, police boats, kayaks, and sculls.

Other interesting features also reveal themselves at low tide as there are numerous remnants of cobblestone that I fantasise as being from the days before the embankment. It seems embankments are common features in big cities. They create permanently dry land in places that nature tagged as a sometimes wet, sometimes dry. Now the entirety of the massive Thames is corralled by giant embankments. My beloved likens high tide to a full bathtub, and that is exactly what it looks like. But in times gone by, there were much less imposing solutions in place. Right out the flat window there is a lovely pattern of paving stones revealed at the lowest tide. These stones are not just an eye catching display of geometric patterns in a place you would not expect them. They also transform the muck of the river bed into a surface that allows the arrival and, what is more important, the departure of shoe and wheel. My imagination can muster a much less developed landscape that includes more naturally sloping features leading to the river’s edge. But when it tries to recapture the work taking place on or because of these more modest engineering solutions, my modern mind can only conjure vague romanticised background images from film sets. These workers are just a background loop running so that when the protagonist comes past it looks like we expect it to look. So they aren't doing much of anything at all.

Creditworthy

Moving to London has been largely a process of starting over. It took me three months to open a current (checking) account, mainly because it took that long to accumulate enough documents to convince the bank that I lived here. But even with a current account and the corresponding debit card with the ubiquitous VISA logo, I still had no credit. I couldn’t even buy an 18-month mobile phone contract for £15 per month. I even tried to pay the entire £270 contract upfront...nope. I had no credit and I could not get it. It’s like I was 17 years old again, except instead of asking my best mate’s older sister to buy me whiskey, I asked my boss (bless her) to buy me a mobile phone.

A few years later, I received one of those letters telling me I'd been ‘pre-approved’ for a credit card from the bank that I have my current account with. Great, I’m finally credit worthy, I thought. Well…not so much. Apparently, ‘pre-approved’ really means ‘different from the standard application in some way but definitely not because you have been approved already’. So when I received another letter a year later, I went into the bank, letter in hand, to ask about what 'pre-approval' meant. The manager assured me that I had already been approved and not only could I get a card for myself, but also one for my wife. So the manager made some phone calls, and one month later: rejection letter. So I got another one just before this past Christmas. Just for giggles, I filled out the pre-approved application again except this time, I put my nationality as Portuguese. I'm not sure if that is why, but when I got home, a shiny new credit card was waiting. You are NOW reading the blog of someone with almost £300 worth of credit! See, I’m 17 years old again!

Photo Credits:
YouthStart

A Major Award

My beloved won a graduate student travel award from the Shakespeare Association of America. Boston here we come! Here is a picture of the Queen congratulating her.