Journals break

I continue to be on journals break. I am only making entries to help everybody in amongst the carnage, caused by the announced shut-down of AOL Journals. You'll find those on Magic Smoke. I am pissed off beyond belief.

Sunset

Apart from AOL Journals, AOL Hometown will also be sunset (quoting the euphemism from AOL bigwig Kevin Conroy on July 25. AOL Hometown, a rather outmoded piece of FTP (storage) space is used / can be used for putting your pics, rev-counter etc. You will lose that on November 1st, if you don't save everything first.

AOL Pictures will meet a similar fate, and please be warned that NOTHING is being done for your pictures. The AOL pictures blog has not been updated since summer 2007, and there is no word on their website. You may well find all your pictures gone by November 1st as well - that's not official, but my personal assessment

In all fairness, at least our journalseditor is trying to make the best of a bad situation. It's still crap though.

Closing down

Right, so we're supposed to save our journals to disk. Does not work.
Manual transfer - I've got nearly 4,800 entries. Forget it.
I'm waiting to hear more from our intermediary, Vish, about a possible transfer to the Blogger platform. I'm not terribly impressed with Blogger, but better something than nothing.

I don't think AOL quite realises what they are destroying here. Is there such a thing as genocide on line?

Closing down

Dear AOL Journals user [UK],

We regret to inform you that AOL Journals is shutting down on 31 October 2008. After this date your content will no longer be available and will be deleted.

In order to save your valuable data we suggest you save your AOL Journals content as soon as possible and we have provided a webpage with detailed instructions on how to do this. Please click here or go to this URL http://www.aol.co.uk/product-notification to receive more information on how to save your content.

Sincerely,

The AOL Team

I'm supposed to be on a journals break, but it looks like it will be a permanent break by the end of October.

Taking a break

I have decided to take a break from blogging until October 8th. I have therefore declined an invitation to be guest editor this weekend. Anyone wanting to keep an eye on my pictures is welcome to check them out on Flickr.com. See you all next month.

Gress

Visited the graveyard in this small village, 9 miles north of Stornoway, this afternoon. The location is actually quite pretty, so I'll share some of the landscapes of the area.


View from the cemetery


Along the main road, looking north


Gress Beach


Gress River and Back [village] on the hill behind

aoljurlAdd, aoljurlAdd_4

Alerts

I am not following "alerts" (through Google Reader) at present, and may not do so for a while. At the moment, I do not feel up to reading and or commenting, and I would not do people's writing any justice. Back soon on that front.

Tuesday 23 September

Fairly bright today, even if with a good cover of cloud. No complaints about the weather so far. More than can be said of Puerto Rico, which has had 24 inches of rain in 24 hours, causing mudslides and flash-floods. The tropical weather system responsible is not a formal depression, but its impact is still quite severe.

Finland has seen another college shooting, the second in two years. Twenty are feared dead, but the condition of the gunman is unknown - he shot himself after going on his rampage. Finland has a high rate of private gun ownership. This story echoed of the tragedy at Virginia Tech in 2007.

Monday 22 September

Bright morning, with variable amounts of clouds. Here in Lewis, we have the ridiculous situation that there is no ferry on a Sunday, but you can fly out on a plane. So if you're in the money, you can travel, but the penurious cannot. Also, Lewis is part of the Western Isles, and the island of North Uist does have a ferry service to Skye, which is linked to the Scottish mainland by bridge. So one part of the Western Isles can travel to the mainland on a Sunday by ferry, whilst another cannot. If anyone can make sense of that, please let me know. I can't.

Hurricane update - 21 September

Tropical disturbance 93L is moving north towards Puerto Rico, and the NHC is expecting it to develop into a tropical depression within the next day or so. Further updates as they come; at the moment, the Lesser Antilles, US/UK Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and Hispaniola should keep a sharp look-out for this system.

Sunday 21 September

Quite a decent day in the islands, with increasing amounts of sunshine as the afternoon progresses. Temperatures have gone down on recent values, just 12 degrees right now.

South Africa's president, Mr Mbeki, is to announce he will stand down. Can't say I'm sorry to see him go, actually. I'm not a avid follower of SA politics, but a head of state that denies there is an AIDS problem, whereas about one-third of his people have the virus and/or the disease, should really consider his position. Also his tacit approval of Robert Mugabe's regime didn't do him any favours, although Mugabe has sawn the legs from under his own chairs through a disastrous economic policy. The formal reason for Mr Mbeki to step down lies under allegations of interference with a political rival.

Saturday 20 September

Very windy today, with white riders on the water of the basin across the road. Autumn is here, and here to stay. The equinox is nigh, and the weather is there to match it.

If you're in the Caribbean, keep an eye on disturbance 93L, which is currently across the Lesser Antilles. It could turn into something unpleasant.

It is reported that using paracetamol in babies could expose them to an increased risk of asthma. Whether it's the paracetamol (acetaminophen) that's to blame, or another factor, allied to the use of the drug (in high temperatures) is being investigated. The BBC have published an extensive article on the subject.

Alerts

Please forgive me for being lax about alerts these days - got a lot on my mind. I'll get round when I do.

Friday 19 September

Bright day with good sunny intervals, making it feel quite warm. Went back to the Eye cemetery this afternoon to complete my trawl of said graveyard for wargraves. Got another dozen or so pictures there.

The Caribbean island state of Haiti was pommeled by four tropical cyclones in recent weeks. Fay, Gustav, Hanna and Ike all dumped vast quantities of rain, nearly destroying the city of Gonaives in the process. Normal aid procedures are deemed to be insufficient, so a call for further help has gone out.

Over the past week, I have received several indications that the commemoration of 9/11 has been seized upon to highlight Muslim extremism. Photographs and video footage was shown of mobs in England, calling for the murder of infidels and deranged clerics in the Middle East wanting the destruction of everything the Western world stands for - in their eyes. I have to stress most forcefully that this information is out of date, as the world has changed a lot since 2005/6. It is unhelpful in the extreme that this footage has been dug out of the archives, particularly around 9/11 - or perhaps precisely because of it. Should this sort of material come your way, please consign it to the circular archive, otherwise known as the dustbin or garbage can.

Olympic size gaffes

Here are the top nine comments made by sports commentators during the Summer Olympics that they would like to take back:

1.        Weightlifting commentator: 'This is Gregorieva from Bulgaria. I saw her snatch this morning during her warm up and it was amazing.'
2.        Dressage commentator: 'This is really a lovely horse and I speak from personal experience since I once mounted her mother.'
3.        Paul Hamm, Gymnast: 'I owe a lot to my parents, especially my mother and father.'
4.        Boxing Analyst: 'Sure there have been injuries, and even some deaths in boxing, but none of them really that serious.'
5.        Softball announcer: 'If history repeats itself, I should think we can expect the same thing again.'
6.        Basketball analyst: 'He dribbles a lot and the opposition doesn't like it. In fact you can see it all over their faces.'
7.        At the rowing medal ceremony: 'Ah, isn't that nice, the wife of the IOC president is hugging the cox of the British crew.'
8.        Soccer commentator: 'Julian Dicks is everywhere. It's like they've got eleven Dicks on the field.'
9.        Tennis commentator: 'One of the reasons Andy is playing so well is that, before the final round, his wife takes out his balls and kisses them... Oh my God, what have I just said?'

Relayed

Barbara [bhbner2him] has let us know that she should be back to work on Friday, and back on-line as soon as the power returns. They are all fine and have what they need. She misses us all, and is grateful for our prayers. Please pass the word round (with thanks to Carolyn / lifesabench6). 

SS Empire Light

SS Empire Light was sunk in 1941 in the Indian Ocean by the armed German raider Pinguin. Survivors of the encounter were picked up by the German vessel, which itself was then attacked by HMS Cornwall. The Pinguin was sunk, taking the survivors from the Empire Light to the bottom with her. Twenty-six of the Empire Light's crew perished on 8 May 1941, six of whom came from Lewis.

Their names are:
Norman MacIver, 37 Vatisker
Murdo MacDonald, 32 Gress
Donald Graham, Garrabost
Murdo Campbell, 5 Sheshader (also quoted at 42 Inaclete Road, Stornoway)
Norman Malcolm Montgomery, 17 Sheshader
George Campbell, 5 Portnaguran

A visit to the Eye cemetery reveals that this was not just an island tragedy, it was a family tragedy as well. Norman Malcolm Montgomery of 17 Sheshader was related to Murdo Campbell of 5 Sheshader. Norman's mother, Isabella Montgomery née Macleod, died 6 months after the sinking of the Empire Light. Her husband Norman was lost in the sinking of HMY Iolaire on 1 January 1919, one of the 205 drowned in that disaster.

Thursday 18 September

Wet and windy in Stornoway today. Hurricane Ike (or what's left of it) is passing through the Denmark Strait, and its trailing fronts give us some much-needed rain. Summer has been rather dry in the islands.

As the Halifax / Bank of Scotland is about to merge with Lloyds TSB Bank, the Scottish First Minister is crying blue murder over the loss of "Scotland's bank". Thought this was the United Kingdom. Mr Salmond even aborted a trip to the USA to deal with this emergency. Methinks if the take-over had NOT taken place, there really would have been a serious situation.

Another man in power with a warped sense of reality is Robert Mugabe, down in Zimbabwe. He reckons his deal with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change is a humiliation for him. In the proposed cabinet, Mugabe's ZANU-PF will have 15 ministers, and the MDC 16.
Mugabe will want to remember that his country's inflation is running at 11,000,000% (could be as high as 100,000,000%), unemployment is 80% and food-aid will be required for half the population by the end of this year. Some achievement, Bob.

What your name says about you

with thanks to Lori (Dusty Pages)


What Your Name Says About YouYour name says that you are mostly:

Brilliant but obsessive

Your name also says you are:

Glamorous but snobby
Artistic but extreme
Shrewd but overbearing

What Does Your Name Say About You?

Worth a read

Stumbled across the blog Vagabond Journeys by DB (screenname dbdacoba). Absolutely worth having a look at, with an unusual slant on language.