going rouge

rogue –noun 1. a dishonest, knavish person; scoundrel.
2. a playfully mischievous person; scamp
3. a tramp or vagabond.
4. a rogue elephant or other animal of similar disposition.
5. Biology. a usually inferior organism, esp. a plant, varying markedly from the normal.

–verb (used without object) 6. to live or act as a rogue.

–verb (used with object) 7. to cheat.
8. to uproot or destroy (plants, etc., that do not conform to a desired standard).
9. to perform this operation upon: to rogue a field.

–adjective 10. (of an animal) having an abnormally savage or unpredictable disposition, as a rogue elephant.
11. no longer obedient, belonging, or accepted and hence not controllable or answerable; deviating, renegade: a rogue cop; a rogue union local.

Synonyms:
1. villain, trickster, swindler, cheat, mountebank, quack. See knave

(sarah palin has a book out, i thought i'd post these definitions of 'rouge')

community profilling

i'm doin a community profile on an area in swansea that i've only been to once, so i'm trying to explore using my good friend the internet.

so i'm on google earth, checkin out the place and i find the map hovering over a graveyard, so i scroll out like and say to d & owen 'goddam that's a big mutherfkr of a graveyard! jaaaysus! how many dead people live here??'

uh.. none.. i need to get to bed.

cloud

i wandered lonely as a clud..

ensconced

this arvy i asked teh dave to help with lunch, and he told me he was "ensconced" in what he was doing (something on the internets, probably ebaying)

to settle securely or snugly: I found her in the library, ensconced in an armchair.

to cover or shelter; hide securely: He ensconced himself in the closet in order to eavesdrop.
just so you know.

22 years i have been trying to speak english, and he throws me effortlessly out of my smug 'i can speak english' bubble lol whatever.

round

wiki:

• The shape of a circle or sphere
• Rounding (sediment), the smoothness of a sediment particle
• Roundedness, the roundedness of the lips in the pronunciation of a phoneme
• Rounding, the truncation of a number to reduce the number of significant figures it contains
• Round number, a number that ends with one or more zeroes
• Round of drinks, a traditional method of paying in a drinking establishment
• Cartridge (firearms), a single unit of ammunition
• Round (Theosophy), a planetary cycle of reincarnation in Theosophy

Bovine

Mooooo

muslim baby

the beeb the other week was talking about the diana inquest, and said secveral timesthat one of the conspiracy theories was that diana was killed in a plot because she was carrying a 'Muslim baby'. But here is how it works:

Once a child is born and is welcomed into the world by its parents/family

(here is how: The Muslim call to prayer or adhaan ("God is great, there is no God but Allah. Muhammad is the messenger of Allah. Come to prayer.") are the first words a newborn Muslim baby should hear. They are whispered into the right ear of the child by his or her father.

The baby's first taste should be something sweet, so parents may chew a piece of date and rub the juice along the baby's gums. It was a practice carried out by the Prophet Mohammed (pbuh) and is believed to help tiny digestive systems to kick in. Other things happen at 7 days and you can read up here if you like...and if you trust the bbc)

so anyway, this got me on to thinking, at what point in your life are you assigned a religious status? can you be a Muslim, Christian or whatever you want to be in gestation? if so, at which point are you religious? at 24 weeks, when you can feel pain? or perhaps at birth? or maybe many years later when you possess reasoning enough to confirm your faith and happiness being part of an organised religion? perhaps it is the point at which the baby is acknowledged by the religious institution, and a key figure within the following.

to me, a person who follows an organised religion is one who follows the teachings of said religion. not a baby that is still learning to walk, talk and feed! but then, religion is all encompassing like that, and affects the way you are taught to walk talk and feed by your parents if they are religious. if your parents run your life, they pick your religion.

But then, here comes my second wondering, what makes a muslim baby? do they adopt the religion of the father? is this not the desicion of both parents in an equal relationship? am i being really naive here? (it wouldn't be the first time)

Dodi Al Fayed may be a muslim, but i had no idea Diana was. I had no idea she followed any religion (googles - nope, can't find it, though i believe her mother was a catholic..) but why would she give birth to a muslim baby? (she wasn't even pregnant, it's almost really stupid i am discussing this)

the whole thing makes my head spin!!

community disability

so i'll start with a definition: what does 'community' even mean? I do like defining things on this blog, and i can't help thinking this word needs a definition. so off to google it and see what happens, and then i will give you my thoughts.



google tells me: "a group of people living in a particular local area; 'the team is drawn from all parts of the community' " this definition is probably best, for the purposes of this blog. I'm not going to sit and fuss over it's otherwise impossible definitions, as that's waaay to sociology for this blog, and people will fall asleep.

Now when i hear 'community' i hear it as a positive word - it was used all day long by our ex PM, he LOVED it. 'doing things for the community' and all that. but then i started thinking, who's in and who's out? who is in a community, and benefits from the things that are done 'for the community' ?

I'll try and clarify my little irks: the other day at work, we were building a board walk, and i took some YP along to do their community service. in the pre-work talk, it was explained that people would use this, and it was something nice for the local community. one of the kids then asked 'but what about people in wheelchairs?' - well obviously, they can't use it, the walk is only accessible by stairs.

without wanting to undermine the cool work that people do for the community, it struck me at that point that by 'the community' they mean 'the community of able bodied people'

this got me on to thinking, how much other stuff done 'for the community' is done whilst excluding some parts of the community? there was no sign up saying 'no disabled people allowed' but then, there didn't need to be. they are excluded with no apology, no thought, no worries. it's just something that's not for them. i felt ashamed, ashamed that it took a child to raise that question and to care about it, when there were plenty of adults present who should know better? i noticed the problem, and said nothing. i didn't want to offend. maybe i need to start offending? that's not a maybe actually, i do need to start.

i wouldn't want to start telling people what to do and what to think, but i see no harm in calling it what it is, at least just to MAKE PEOPLE CONSIDER how they might be excluding people before they start what they are doing. perhaps we should start calling things that they are: 'community project A, able bodied people only' - or 'community minus able bodied people get-active project'

maybe put up the odd sign 'this walk is not accessible to disabled people, we do not want you here, you are of little importance, please go somewhere else'

this has turned into a disability rant. good. also please see my google image result for community, of a bunch of little people standing.