Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in aythan's LiveJournal:

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Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009
9:06 pm	Aythan Lewes MRICS Put this up on Facepalm, and seemed to forget that NOTHING important is ever posted there, so confused a load of people. In an effort to tell the internets my good news in a bit more detail I thought I should post something up here too. So I'm now a Chartered Building Surveyor. It's a professional qualification which I've technically been working towards since my first year of Uni, so seven years of work. To become chartered you need an appropriate degree and a minimum of two years working. During that time I needed to get experience in numerous areas (competencies), then send in a big written record of my experience along with a case study of a project I've been involved in. Last month I sat the interview in which I had to present a 10min piece on my case study after which i was asked questions for 50 mins on anything the panel of three chose. Which obviously meant a good few months revising everything I've been taught since the beginning of Uni. Professionally I can now use MRICS after my name (Member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors), which supposedly means people will now take me a bit more seriously. This is because I've got an awful lot to live up to and can be disciplined by the RICS if any complaints are upheld against me. it's the first step in showing I really know what I'm doing/talking about. In practical terms it means very little and is really just recognition of a certain base level of knowledge. I am both a Chartered Surveyor and a Chartered Building Surveyor. Building Surveyor is a subset of Surveyor. Estate agents can be Surveyors, as can Valuation Surveyors, Quantity Surveyors, Rural Surveyors, Auctioneers and a whole host of other people who, well, survey things. Building Surveyors are technical and deal with the reuse and upkeep of existing buildings, but also have skills in cost control, contract law, design, and legal compliance of existing buildings (think Asbestos in buildings, Disability Discrimination Act etc) The idea of having such an adult qualification and being on a par with many exceptional people has not really sunk in much. Work is still difficult, and I'm still making aneurysm inducing cock-ups. But, for an hour or so on Friday morning I was able to sit back and feel a bit pleased with myself. Which, contrary to popular opinion, I don't let myself do very much. x-posted to Facepalm Current Music: Bucket Full of Teeth - Capital Distracts and Imprisons (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, February 28th, 2009
5:11 pm	For Russ and for Shankly! OK, deep breath in. This is gonna be geeky and weird in equal measures, but here goes... I wrote a note on Facepalm recently where I said that I can see real similarities between Liverpool FC (the team I support) and the Space Wolves Chapter of Space Marines (an army in Warhammer 40k that I used to collect). Bob asked me to explain this bizarre comment. Both orgainisations represent and are defined by qualities very close to my heart, qualities I think are essential parts of myself, and that I admire in others. Don't expect this to be an airtight allegory by the way Both prefer an organic, person centered organisational structure, which does not bend to commercial (in the case of LFC - sort of), or legislative (in the case of the imperial guideline for Adeptus Astartes) pressures. Both are highly individual versions of a 'brand' which is well established among the populations in which they operate. Both are noted for their individulaism, and indeed revel in their difference from similar organisations. They are both full of marauding, headstrong men who prefer glory over success and pride over thought or tactics Both had glory days which are now in the past, but which represent a strong backbone to prop them up when attacked (verbally of fictitiously physically) Both mourn over a lost leader. When I used to go to Anfield, it was always around Christmas time. One visit was on the anniversary of Shankly (legendary LFC manager who dragged them from the foot of the old second division to the top of the old first, and to European dominance) being appointed manager. To mark this there were several events: a 'mosaic' on the Kop, guests on the pitch beforehand etc. Then, just before kick-off, the crowd started to sing the name 'Shankley' to the tune of Amazing Grace. No backing tune or anything. They sang in hushed tones, so it seemed to wash around the stadium, and to emanate from the air itself. No-one shouted, or whistled, or really even moved. 40,000 people all singing the same, in low respectful voices. It was very eerie, and struck a chord with the 14 year-old me, who was really into the legend of the disappearance of Leman Russ, and of the prohesised return of the great Primarch of the Space Wolves, and with him those great glory filled days. Both occupy famous 'fortresses', constructed eons ago, rich in their references to past conquests and successes, both rich in their decay and illogical constructions, both based in a greater, though more barbaric time. So, there you go. I could probably go on, but that just about covers it. Current Music: Crystal Castles - Reckless (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, February 19th, 2009
6:42 pm	Oh dear Seems any ability for irony or proportion Americans may have had before has now gone out of the window. It was badly judged, but obviously unintentional. Can everyone please stop being so jumpy?! *le sigh* Guess our bretheren from across the pond just ain't too bright. At least it's all good fodder for Family Guy/South Park/Simpsons. (26 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, February 14th, 2009
1:31 pm	I can't remember who said it... but be careful what you wish for kids. It might just come true! I don't actually wish death on her. But a year ago, how many of us would have said things along the lines of "god, I wish she would just contract cancer and die". Odd the way things pan out, eh? (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, December 8th, 2008
7:27 pm	talk about devotion to the cause Well, this story pretty much makes me sick.... I mean, how many wrong things can one bloke do at once?! Who says men can't multitask? (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008
9:10 am	Techy question I'm trying to set up a mailing list for my work. I was wondering if there's any sort of management software out there that's a) free b) simple to work Ideally it would just be the management of the email addresses in the list, as I don't need help with the formatting. Though someting with some set templates would be useful My knowledge of the workings of computers is limited to knowing some HTML, which is obviously not much. Any one got any suggestions/guidance? (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, August 28th, 2008
8:30 pm	Cold War? Cold snore more like! Amirite?! From here "Mr Putin added: "The American side in effect armed and trained the Georgian army. "Why... seek a difficult compromise solution in the peacekeeping process? It is easier to arm one of the sides and provoke it into killing another side. And the job is done. "The suspicion arises that someone in the United States especially created this conflict with the aim of making the situation more tense and creating a competitive advantage for one of the candidates fighting for the post of US president." White House spokeswoman Dana Perino rejected the allegation. "To suggest that the United States orchestrated this on behalf of a political candidate - it sounds not rational," she said." What. The Fuck? Even an American 'spokeswoman' can't speak English properly. I couldn't give a flying fuck about her point. But at least she could learn to articulate herself properly Current Music: wEmodern Cadets vs Ghostsmut (11 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, July 17th, 2008
11:52 pm	You am a dickhead This is pretty much how I feel about everything at the moment The End Current Music: A truly terrible song (Comment on this)
Friday, May 23rd, 2008
10:42 pm	Toffling My sweet whore When Labour got into power in 1997 I was 13.  The shift of power though was well felt in my house. With a father like mine, the political landscape was better known than the howgill fells which surrounded us in our Ruskin-inspired upland homeland. The feeling of something new, of something modern, reflecting what people wanted was palpable. In my lefty home environment we thought this was a marriage between real solid values and popularism, a balance where an ethical foreign policy, a realisation of social security and workable state support systems might be joined with electoral ability and popular backing. It was a new generation, a fresh breath. Eleven years on, and how stale it's got. I'm amazed at how out of touch they are. The lag between the Labour Party and the population is massive. They're six months behind, if not more. No hope of keeping up with the fast paced global economic downturn. I suppose with the inertia of government weighing you down, an opposition will always be more agile than the incumbent party. in this time of the death of ideology, where Labour abandon the basis of their trade-union foundation and the Lib Dems abandon hope of sticking to any opinion, even one stated minutes ago, at least the Torys are always Toffs. They are always Eton, they are always chinless. I've long held the opinion that the British have it drilled in to us that we should defer to a toff: we find it so comfortable to slip into that old robe of the class system. We like the puritanical Upper Class whip across our backs, bent over watching them cram their faces with cream pies while knobbing our sisters. Why else would we keep going back to them? Our generation has a chance to change that. All of us between 18 and thirty, we are the immediate future. It's nearly time, you know. We've had years of taking the piss, watching our forebears screw it all up: ruin the planet, claim it all and the fritter it away. We will very soon be the ones making the decisions, choosing how the companies are run, choosing where the resources go. the Torys can get the next election. Labour can become a second rate, media driven mirror of the old aspiration: to merely own a satelite dish and your own ex-council house. All of this future is ours, and we can shape it, if we want. (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, April 28th, 2008
5:24 pm	Cheer up Goth Reading this, I wonder if there's a case to change 'racially aggravated crime' to 'xenophobically aggravated crime', whereby any crime motivated by a someone's difference from the 'norm' of society is heightened in it's severity. It would definitely step up the number of people prosecuted anyway! In the same way as the Eastern European is our Mexican (see Hegemony or Survival by Chomsky), the Emo (in the current, incorrect usage, obv) is the 21st Century Goth. Has a fashion ever been so reviled? Current Music: 65 DoS (9 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008
1:34 pm	Land of gross bigotry All of this St Georges stuff really winds me up. I can't see nationalism, patriotism, or even the idea of nation state as anything other than an expression of humanity's base animalistic group behavior. Celebrating a framework which excludes those unlike us, a way of proclaiming conservative values and parochialism as positive attributes, of celebrating culture which is a mix of accident and institutional racism. I was trying to think of what i categorise myself. What order do I place these geographically based accidents of history in relation to my own character? I'm English, and British, and European. I'm also northern, Cumbrian, and have family with a long term link to Chatham, Kent, and a one-generation link to Exeter Devon. But what do I feel has had an influence? I have to say that my family culture is that of public-school educated middle class service-based rootless lack of connection to anywhere for more than a generation. From the 1700s My paternal line hasn't stayed in one place longer than 20 years. However my maternal line has been in Chatham forever. But I've been there, I've seen those people, and want nothing to do with it. It's definitely my paternal side I get my thoughts, my ideas and my culture from. I never felt a connection to where I grew up. I'm not 'of' any of the places I've ever lived. I think I picked up a definitely socialist bent from Sedbergh and the north west of England. I guess that comes first. Then there is the family background from the four home nations, and my feeling of coming from none of them in particular, which makes me feel British, so that second. Then European - I feel a link there with the values and approach to things that seems to characterise modern western Europe. The history is mine, the art is mine, the literature and painting and sculpture. Finally I am English. I support the football team, I identify with English accents more than Scottish, Welsh or Irish. But that's about it. We can't escape these paridigms, as they rule over us in our young, impressionable early years. And to a lot of people they mean a great deal. They affect the majority like a magnet on iron filings, with only the stubborn, impure ones failing to point the same way as the majority. In which case I guess my mettle is diluted. But the majority control our democratic world (supposedly) and so these forces are ones to watch and be nervous of. (12 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, April 18th, 2008
10:44 am	Headline on BBC news "Controlled blast after man held" Anyone else read that and get the mental image of a fat man being held down by police, then letting out a surprise  'parp' of intestinal gas during the struggle and looking faintly ashamed? ... just me then Current Music: Artic Monkeys - Mardy Bum (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, March 7th, 2008
8:41 pm	Dear Students (it nearly rhymes with 'Prudence') Don't think I haven't noticed you all. Filling my flist with your final year travails. TBH, I find it all very instructive. My final year effort was rushed, panicked and full of leaps. As is most of my life. Calm on the outside, manic on the inside. Anyone who think my life is planned and measured clearly knows me not! So I wish you all well. Really. My route is mine, and I very much acknowledge not for everyone. Anyone who claims they know all the answers, or anyone who claims their route to be folly, are both wrong. Bob's recent vocational sparring match with Don has helped me realise that there are so many options out there. And none of them have any universality in their cortrectness or otherwise. My own view, personal though it is, does chime with some people I've spoken to recently. Again, it's been highlighted at work, with a student (3rd year, doing the vocational BSc (hons) that I did) doing some work experience, then 'quitting' to go to another surveyors. He saw a large company as the answer, rather than the small, though far-reaching organisation I've thrown my hat in with. My view is that a career is not a bad thing, if it has the potential to work in the industry you want to be in. Construction clearly has enough avenues to make a career work. And it's interesting to me. And it affects the world to a degree I'd be happy indulging in. So I'll paddle through these waters a while longer. But my destiny would ideally be in my hands. I've  been in work (and close enough to the business/finance end) long enough to see that I'd like to control my destiny. Fair enough being a high paid drone: no responsibility past 5pm, nothing outside your job description, evenings and weekends to yourself. But I care about my job enough that I don't stop thinking about it when I go home. So I'm working past office hours anyway. Don said: "why be defined by your job". Why not define your job by you? If I became my own boss, my work would be as environmentally friendly as I am, it would be as compassionate as I am. It would work in the industry where I wanted to work in the industry. And all the profit I earn (i.e. money brought in above my costs, including a salary) would be mine. It wouldn't go into the pocket of the owner of the means of production. Downsides to this choice are obvious: I'd become a work/business geek. I'd work long hours and if the industry bent the wrong way I'd have to do work I didn't like just to earn a living. Also, If my company employs people, I'd have to do all the crap admin/HR stuff which no sane individual wants to do. But if you're going to do something, be in a position to change it, surely? Anyway, my message to all of you out there seems to be: a career is not for everyone. Pick and choose, switch around if you need to. Nothing is forever and if you have a degree, it's proof that you can learn, if nothing else. If you go for a career (and really, you don't have to to earn good money and have a good time), make it your own. Aim for a position where you can change things, and never make a secret of your ambition. If people can't take a person with ambition, they have no right to be running a company in a capitalist society. (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, February 19th, 2008
6:46 pm	Wow... ...I didn't know Don worked in a restaurant! In other news, I'm still ruled far more by my heart than my head Current Music: radio 4 (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, February 13th, 2008
12:54 pm	Current events and sweeping generalisations This and this have made me think. I have mixed feelings about the Danish cartoon fiasco. On the one hand, freedom of speech and criticism is so important. But then, surely to have a freedom requires responsibility, and so in this instance was it right to piss some people off on purpose? Especially the type of people with connections to extremists. Indeed, does it work as a recruiting sergeant for extremists? We can only realistically work on the basis of our local environment, which is why democratic states seem to settle at a certain size above which varying degrees of totalitarianism are required to keep the lid on the internal problems. So we can only look at the Danish media looking as far as their own country in the actions in support of free speech. These small media organisations cannot hope to influence, in real terms, the opinions of millions of people of varying cultural backgrounds. Though they can inflame the indignation of those same millions. Interesting. So anyway, the plotters in the latest Danish Cartoon saga were majority Danish. In other words, people who had citizenship, but no loyalty to the majority held concepts in Denmark. indeed, specifically a concept which might be called a 'foundation stone of western civilisation'. This chimes with the state vs culture view of Dr Rowan Williams. My take on that was that the state should evolve to reflect the culture. If the Danish state, or indeed our state does not reflect Islamic culture, then it's because not a high enough percentage of the population holds those values. From recent events I'd say the Muslim population punches above their weight when it comes to their views being heard. I heard an interesting take on the Rowan Willams Sharia Law debate was on Radio 4. Some chap called in suggesting that Dr Willaims, unable to call for more respect for Christian beliefs, is arguing for them using Muslims as a sort of Proxy. If people take them seriously, and take their beliefs into the law, maybe Christian ideas will gain more credence. Linking the two, sharia law and Christian thought, brings with it interesting connotations: most people violently rejected Sharia law in the UK as it is out dated, occasionally homophobic, mysoginistic and racist (depending on which version you follow). All reasons I reject Christianity. Sharia law and established christianity do help retain cultural values, which is important. But when the acceptable values are intwined with  xenophobia and fear of change and progress, should we really be putting any sort of kudos behind either system. Indeed, shouldn't we reject all religion-based belief systems and keep to the ones arrived at by reasoning, consideration, progress and a belief in equality. On that note, I was searching for a 'universal' idea which all  reasonable people should adhere to. Something no-one could refute without being looked down on by all people in this country. Something that our culture is based on. The only one I could come up with is equality: all people are of equal value. Any one got any other suggestions? Current Music: Mylo (10 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, January 11th, 2008
8:17 pm	It's been a while... So, a while since the last entry. So I'll start with something heavy and lumpen. ( I'm a snob (tl:dr) ) Current Music: Radio 3 (66 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, December 9th, 2007
11:05 pm	Hello boys... I'm baaaack! Well, I'm back from London. Had a really good time. Nice to do something different really. And finally finish the book of Orwell essays I've been reading for months. Anyway, my phone seems to have decided to stop picking up texts. So if you've sent me one since Friday I won't have received it. Anything urgent, give me a call or an email. So how was everyone's weekend? (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 27th, 2007
5:57 pm	Master of LOLZ Dave Wrighton... I love you I am totally stealing Dave's thunder. It's all his work. But pictures this beautiful can't be left unseen (16 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, October 25th, 2007
8:24 pm	And she goes like that Well, what am I doing this weekend then? Knew you'd ask... Friday night and I'll be out to see old friends (not that they recognise me with short hair) Taking Chase at Bannermans. They were gonna be playing with the mighty Catchit Kebabs, who, despite my hatred of the Yorkshire punk scene (jealousy - ask Duncan), I was really looking forward to seeing. But they had to wash their balls. But seeing the Chase will be a good enough reason to go out. Saturday I'll be seeing the Zombina and the Skelletones gig. Now, I am interested in these guys, but the main reason I'm going is to baby-sit my amp which is being used as backline. Compared to most people I'm not particularly precious about my kit. I like seeing it used as it's a boss piece of equipment. However I do like to make sure it's used properly. ( music music music ) Current Music: Fall out Boy - honourable mention (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, July 18th, 2007
2:18 pm	As the excitement builds... It's that time of year folks. Grown men become boys, and fevered conversation throughout the land centres on only one thing The new football season So, who is playing the Official Premier league fantasy football? Anyone want me to set up a league for us lot? I'm already in a league for my work, and I'm looking for others to beat! (3 Comments |Comment on this)