Monthly Archives: Jan 2015

Blogging 101

A New Look for the New Year

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Following on from re-naming the blog (from johnm55 to A Scotsman in Suburbia) I have decided to give it a new look. After spending all morning trying different themes and finding something that I didn’t like with most of them, I finally settled on the Twenty Fourteen theme.

I have spent the rest of the day designing and creating a new header image and tweaking the layout of the side bars. From my end it has a few advantages functionally over my old theme, and I think that from  the perspective of a reader it has a cleaner look. I’ll probably make a few tweaks to the layout and may slightly alter the header image as I am only 95% happy with it.
I hope that you like it, and if not please leave me a comment below.

Blogging 101

An appeal to my ideal reader

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In trying to work out who my ideal reader could be I first had to work out who I was writing for. It turned out to be myself . My blog is not intended to be a commercial operation. I am not blogging to make money from it. I am not even hoping to make money from it. I know there are bloggers out there who do at least supplement their income from blogging, but I’m not one of them.

As I wrote in my introductory post I started this blog (under the name johnm55) in the hope of influencing a few people to vote yes to electoral reform back in 2010. I still hope that what I write will have some influence on my readers but that is no longer why I blog. I blog because I enjoy it. I blog because the act of writing for someone else to read helps me to clarify my thoughts in a way that putting them down in a journal for my consumption does not. That means that I write about what interests me today. It could be a piece about politics but it could equally be a review of an art exhibition or sharing a recipe that I have made and liked. Other subjects that often feature are cycling, especially road racing, but not exclusively, I like all forms of cycling. I also have an occasional feature called “Songs I Love”, where I take a You Tube video of a song that I really love and explain why. Most of the music featured tends to be either Folk or the music that gets listed under the title “Americana”. I also post the occasional photo essay, mainly if I have been off on my travels.

As I said, I think that I am probably my ideal reader. However I bit of interaction on a blog, or even knowing that someone other than your partner is reading it is nice. So the person I am writing for probably shares at least some of my characteristics. They are probably interested in politics but not obsessed. They will read books, listen to music and have opinions on what they read and listen to. They will enjoy food, both eating and probably cooking it. They will probably enjoy traveling and exploring new places, close to home and further afield. They will appreciate that a bicycle is one of the best ways to travel. They will probably also be interested in the sporting aspects of the bicycle even if, like me they don’t race.

If my reader is ultra-interested in any of those topics my blog probably won’t satisfy completely. It will hopefully point him or her towards people whose knowledge of politics, art, music, food or cycling is more extensive than my own.

One characteristic of my ideal reader that I haven’t mentioned yet is this;

My ideal reader brings something to the blog by adding his or her comments. I welcome constructive criticism, but agreeing with me is even better.

Politics, Thoughts and Opinions

Je Suis Charlie

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This post was prompted, obviously, by yesterday’s murder of the Charlie Hebdo journalists, apparently by Islamist fanatics. Now some people felt that Charlie Hebdo went out of its way to offend Muslims, this is not true. Charlie Hebdo went out of its way to take the Mickey out every one. It didn’t matter whether you are a Catholic, a Jew, a Protestant, a Buddhist or especially a French politician, you will find something in the magazine to offend you. Do a Google Image search for Charlie Hebdo and you will see what I mean.

The attack yesterday was an attack on freedom of speech. It was an attempt by people who believe that their god would approve of wiping out anyone who disagrees with them. It was an attempt to silence all criticism of their fanatical death cult. The sad thing is that it may work after a fashion. Newspaper editors, columnists and cartoonists may think twice before publishing something, though I think that Steve Bell hits exactly the right tone in today’s Guardian:
Steve Bell 08.01.15

We need to keep pointing and laughing at these people. I know that what they do is not particularly funny, but it is ridiculous.

The post was also prompted by a couple of things that Billy Bragg said on Facebook.

Yesterday he just left this quote:

““Fanaticism is a monster that pretends to be the child of religion” Voltaire

 
I can basically agree with that, though I am not so sure about the word pretends, bastard child possibly, but this sort of fanaticism stems from a particular understanding of religion. Whether its out working is the killing of twelve journalists in Paris, flying an aeroplane into the World Trade Centre or murdering abortion providers in Alabama, the problem is religion and actions that can be justified by a selective reading of a holy book.

A woman called Rekha Kodikara posted this in response;

“Je suis Charlie

Just because I believe in religion
Does not mean it is sacred

Just because I believe in God
Does not make me holy

Just because I speak
Does not mean I am right

Just because I am silent
Does not mean I agree

Just because I criticise
Does not mean I hate

Just because you are angry
Does not mean I fear

Just because I think
Does not mean I am free

Just because you pray
Does not mean you are blessed

Just because you kill
Does not mean I will hide

Just because you threaten
Does not mean I will surrender

Just because there is religion
Does not mean we are happy

Just because there is God
Does not mean we live in peace

Hate is ruled by fear
Fear is governed by ignorance
Ignorance can lead to dogma
And Dogma can lead to death

Freedom from Fear
Je suis Charlie

 
I don’t know if she is Christian, Muslim, Bahai or what ever but it does make a poetic case for good religion.

Today Billy said this;

“I was rather disappointed by the number of people who responded to the Voltaire quote I posted yesterday by seeking to blame people of faith for the massacre carried out in Paris. When you say that religion is the problem here, you condemn all believers, just as the fundamentalists condemn all non-believers.

Multiculturalism means having respect for things that you yourself don’t subscribe to. The killers yesterday were intolerant of those who had different views to their own. In times of outrage, intolerance becomes contagious. We must guard against those who wish to punish all Muslims and people of colour for the crimes committed yesterday.

 
I have no wish to target people of colour or Muslims in revenge for yesterday’s attack on Charlie Hebdo. Similarly because I do not feel the need to apologise for every white racist attack, I do not necessarily expect every Muslim in the world to apologise for this.
Having said that, all religions are based on a false premiss, some like wooly Anglicanism, Sufi Islam and Zen Buddhism seem to be fairly benign, others like the Salafist form of Islam seem to be anything but. I see no reason why I should be prepared to tolerate this in the name of multiculturalism any more than I should tolerate the racism of Britain First, rampant homophobia or sexism.

Blogging 101

A Scotsman in Suburbia

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Following an extensive and thoroughgoing review with my image consultant, we decided that “johnm55” as a brand name was very 2014 darling. Actually it was probably more 2010. We made what we hope will be major game-changing paradigm-shifting decision and renamed the blog “A Scotsman in Suburbia” however the tag line remains the same; “Random Thoughts, Ramblings and Rants.” because changing the name doesn’t mean that a suburban Scotsman, will be anymore coherent than johnm55.

We do feel that this could drive the page views up into the low teens (per month). We also hope that this Blogging 101 course might improve the content,

As you can see there is still a bit of work to be done on the YB image, I need a new header image for a start. Still the weather forecast for the weekend is not great, so I will try to remember how to use the GIMP* and see what objects of informative beauty I can come up with.

Edit 17/01/15 as you can see the header and a few other aspects have now been tarted up.

*The GIMP is a very powerful free image editing program, which has only one disadvantage, a fairly steep learning curve.

Blogging 101

So who is johnm55 anyway? (and why is he rambling away on this blog thing?)

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It’s a good question. I sometimes wonder what the answer is. Actually I don’t think that there is one definitive answer. The answer tomorrow will probably be slightly different to the answer today.

Who is johnm55 A Scotsman in Suburbia?

The short and easy answer to the first part of the question (who is johnm55 anyway?) is that johnm55 is my online name. I am actually called John Manderson and surprise, surprise, I was born in 1955. I sometimes think that I should think up a snappier name for the blog that sums up what you should expect when you arrive here, but “Middle-aged Male Angst” isn’t any better, or is it?
edit 07/01 I have renamed the blog “A Scotsman in Suburbia”

A short biography.

I am a native of the Scottish Border country, I grew up on sheep farms, my father was a shepherd, in the Border Hills. I loved the Border countryside, but had no desire to work in it. On leaving school I joined the Merchant Navy as an engineering apprentice and set off to see the world, or at least the parts of it than can be reached by a 40000 tonne container ship.

That phase lasted about fifteen years, until I met my wife. I wanted to find a job that didn’t require me to be away for eight or nine months of the year. I found a job lecturing in Marine Engineering in the Solomon Islands. It was an experience, and I probably should write about it some day, before I get too old and senile to remember it. We were there for about two and a half years, until my contact expired and we came home to London (United Kingdom).

Since then, for the past twenty-five years, I have lived in South London (Wallington if you know the area) and worked for a large multinational insurance company as a Pressure Systems Surveyor, which isn’t as boring as it sounds and pays for groceries. I am planning to retire this year and after that who knows.

Why am I rambling away on this blog thing anyway?

I originally started the blog back in 2010 because I was in favour of changing the way we vote in the United Kingdom to some form of proportional representation. I naïvely thought that my blog posts could be the difference between victory and defeat for the Yes campaign. If you are really interested all the posts are still there in the archives. I discovered that the process of writing and researching was an excellent way to work out what I actually thought about something, rather than just going on a gut feeling, so I carried on with the blog after the referendum was over and lost.

I don’t really have a theme for my main blog I tend to write about what I fancy or what has caught my attention. There are a few subjects that tend to crop up more often than others. Cycling, art and food feature regularly ( I actually have a second blog which only consists of recipes) as do politics and more occasionally theology. . Politically I am a bit left of centre with greenish tendencies. Theologically I am less sure about how to sum myself up, agnostic Christian, is probably the best short description I can think of.

I decided to do this course (Blogging 101) partly to get myself back into the habit of writing this blog and partly to try to improve my writing. Let’s see how it goes

Edit 07/01 for “johnm55” now read “A Scotsman in Suburbia” except when I am commenting I’ll still be johnm55.

Uncategorized

1st January 2015

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I always start the year with good intentions, recycling last years resolutions – it saves time and makes me feel slightly environmentally friendly. No energy was wasted in the making of these resolutions. I think that I resolved to post at least once per week on the blog last year. I kept it up for about a … week. Though to be fair I did hit a purple patch around the time of the Scottish Referendum.

What do I foresee for the coming year? Well I turn 60 this year, on the 29th of August to be precise. That in itself will cause a few changes. I might have a birthday party this year, a proper one with guests and birthday cake.

Because of the way the way the company pension scheme is set up I have to take my pension at 60 so that means that I will either give up work completely or scale back to two or three days per week. That should be good as long as Mrsjohnm55 doesn’t get fed up of me being around a lot more than she is used to.

We have a general election in May so I am looking forward to a change of government. I am fairly certain that there will be a change, but what it will change to I am a wee bit less certain about. You will get my opinions though.

The featured image has nothing to do with the post. It’s just a photo I took at Wisley a couple of days ago that I happen to like.