Octoporgan

This is my old friend Rory playing the Octoporgan.

My Own Challenges

As a resident in Japan, there is a clear challenge for me to overcome with the language.  However, since I work as an English Trainer for a Japanese engineering firm, there is actually very little opportunity to stretch my Japanese abilities.  After three years here, I thought I would be slightly better than I am currently.

So I looked at my work to see what I should be doing.

Hideous

This story is truly horrible.


If you've not heard it before I suggest you look at some of the articles and watch the video below about the seemingly unprovoked attack by PC Simon Harwood on Ian Tomlinson.





The Crown Prosecution Service has recently announced that the officer in question will NOT be charged under Misconduct in Public Office when their own guidelines state that "an assault by a police officer committed while on duty could also arguably be misconduct in public office."


I feel that this kind of statement leads me to trust the police a lot less since it shows their modus operandi is clearly NOT protection of the people.

Challenges

I have been thinking recently about the way people react to daunting challenges.  Normally people would look at something incredibly difficult and shut down before even attempting to understand it.  I would like to encourage more people to try difficult things.

Congratulations Simon Singh

I have been following the downs and ups of the libel case of the British Chiropractic Association versus Simon Singh, the science writer and finally the BCA have withdrawn their case.

Earth Hour

As a Brit in Japan I heard about the WWF Earth Hour event only after it was too late.  I saw pictures from the BBC news website which showed Japan's efforts in contributing to this challenge.

Courtesy

A small moment for the kind and courteous people of the world.  I think they should be praised more.

http://www.lettersofnote.com/

I stumbled upon this blog and felt elated at people's kindness and then quite bad at all the correspondance that I have ignored on email (and by post) and have found a further resolution to always respond to my messages.

My favourite post is the letter from John Kricfalusi to a young Amir Avni.  You can see just how kind John K was in his reply and what it inspired Amir to produce.

Resolutions

I realise that this is a month late.

I've decided to write down a few of my New Year's Resolutions so that whoever reads this may at some point hold me to them.

On Participation(ism)

After reading this piece on engaging with Libel Reform by the excellent legal blogger, Jack of Kent, it has reaffirmed my desire to beat out apathy.

For Karen

Last Wednesday night, our friend Karen suddenly passed away.  It appeared that Karen, who was in her early forties, died from multiple causes due to a benign tumour inside her uterus which had grown to the size a melon.

She was loved by many people all over the world and always had a positive outlook on life.  I worked with her for the past 2 months, developing new teaching ideas and she shared with me a video by Taylor Mali who, along with being a teacher is also a Def Poet.  His words inspired her to continue teaching and making the world a better place.

Her favourite video is below.