What's the difference between Openness, Honesty and Integrity?
Can you have one without the other?
I've been thinking about this today after news of this.
The report clears Prof Phil Jones of any deceit and praises the department of UEA's Climate Change, but says that openness was not shown, while praising prof jones' 'integrity and honesty'...
In the words of a Canadian: Eh?
We#ll see what happens, what do you think?
Wednesday, 7 July 2010
A Week In...
Well, it's official, I've been unemployed for a week. I had my 'jobseekers interview' yesterday and signed my 'agreement', and I sign on the dole for the first time on Friday, then every two weeks after.
It kinda stinks.
I'm still working through a lot of my disappointment at the moment of how events conspired around me, and have reached the conclusion I'm expressing it in irritability at home, which is not really a great thing to do. As soon as I found out the fixed term contract wasn't going to be renewed, (a month before!) I started looking for work, joining all sorts of online job places: monster, reed, jobsite, etc, and started posting CV's and all the other gubbins you do in a time of desperation.
I must have applied through those sites for at least 7 jobs a day for a month, and had rejection after rejection, and no response. Having had my 'interview' yesterday, apparently it's because my CV is (and I quote!) 'very good but waaaay too long'. Oh well, I've got it down to two pages now and re-posted it.
Today will be a mixture of applying for more jobs, ringing the Jobseekers line to see if there are any I missed, visiting the Jobcentre machines too look for more, going to Asda to get kitten milk, and generally tidying. These days, life is just plain boring. I'm considering whether I want to put myself up for a 'work trial' soon if I don't get anything. It basically means an employer gets to try you out for free... It might be worth it, but I've no idea what type of job I could be put with.
On the visa front, Meg's Application for her ILR went in, and we got a letter from the Home Office saying 'don't contact us, it may take a while, only contact us if it's been more than six months'!
Great.
So it looks like it's gonna be a long road for now until we find out whether they're going to give my wife Indefinite Leave to Remain status. Part of the problem could be that the form asked for 6 documents, (6??!) to prove as evidence that you're married and living together over the last 2 years, so i said 'forget that' and sent at least 30 documents, including bank statements, bills with our address and names on, tax stuff, passports etc all over the last two years. I decided I didn't want them coming back to us after 2 months and asking for more documents...
We'll see whether that was a mistake in due course I guess...
Basically life is ok, but a bit dreary at the moment, and I have no idea what I'm going to do career-wise.
Oh well.
It kinda stinks.
I'm still working through a lot of my disappointment at the moment of how events conspired around me, and have reached the conclusion I'm expressing it in irritability at home, which is not really a great thing to do. As soon as I found out the fixed term contract wasn't going to be renewed, (a month before!) I started looking for work, joining all sorts of online job places: monster, reed, jobsite, etc, and started posting CV's and all the other gubbins you do in a time of desperation.
I must have applied through those sites for at least 7 jobs a day for a month, and had rejection after rejection, and no response. Having had my 'interview' yesterday, apparently it's because my CV is (and I quote!) 'very good but waaaay too long'. Oh well, I've got it down to two pages now and re-posted it.
Today will be a mixture of applying for more jobs, ringing the Jobseekers line to see if there are any I missed, visiting the Jobcentre machines too look for more, going to Asda to get kitten milk, and generally tidying. These days, life is just plain boring. I'm considering whether I want to put myself up for a 'work trial' soon if I don't get anything. It basically means an employer gets to try you out for free... It might be worth it, but I've no idea what type of job I could be put with.
On the visa front, Meg's Application for her ILR went in, and we got a letter from the Home Office saying 'don't contact us, it may take a while, only contact us if it's been more than six months'!
Great.
So it looks like it's gonna be a long road for now until we find out whether they're going to give my wife Indefinite Leave to Remain status. Part of the problem could be that the form asked for 6 documents, (6??!) to prove as evidence that you're married and living together over the last 2 years, so i said 'forget that' and sent at least 30 documents, including bank statements, bills with our address and names on, tax stuff, passports etc all over the last two years. I decided I didn't want them coming back to us after 2 months and asking for more documents...
We'll see whether that was a mistake in due course I guess...
Basically life is ok, but a bit dreary at the moment, and I have no idea what I'm going to do career-wise.
Oh well.
Thursday, 27 May 2010
The (nearly) Last Hurrah
Well, life is throwing me a curve ball at the moment, to steal a phrase my wife would be familiar with...
As of 1st July, I will be no longer training as a Baptist Minister, as my 'ministerial formation' (sounds painful doesn't it!! :p) will be put on 'hold' for a year or two.
Before anypone panics, I've not done anything silly, or been involved in any kind of scandal, it's simply down to lack of funding (my placement church) and some personal issues, which I'm not going to go into detail on here. Needless to say, I'm a little bit gutted and fearful and excited about the future, all expressing itself in a horrible nauseous feeling of 'aaarrggghhh what am I doing!!!'
My placement church weren't planning to take me on for another year, and therefore didn't budget for it, so were taken aback a bit when I asked to stay! They very graciously said whilst they couldn't 'employ' me officially, they could give me a small amount each month. I deliberated on this for a while, but through other curcumstances (again that I don't particularly feel the need to mention on here) I decided that this wasn't the best option.
The College/Baptist Union have offered me the option of taking a 'break' from studying/formation/training for up to two years for personal circumstances, as they call it, with no negative reflection on me. I've decided to take this option, and so the frantic search for a job begins...
To further complicate matters, my wife (who is an american citizen) is applying for the final part of her visa, her Indefinite Leave to Remain, which we're putting in the application for on June 10th. It's a bit stressful, but as she's been living here and we've been married for nearly two years now, I'm hoping there's not gonna be a problem. We've already saved up the (gulp!) £840 the government want for it, and it's just a case of producing the right documents to prove we still live together and are still married to each other.
So, the future's a bit uncertain at the moment, but I'm getting used to that lately. If I think back to before I was married, the time since then has been filled with lot's of uncertainty, whether it was marrying the love of my life who was from another country and all the extra complications and stresses that puts on a relationship, or taking redundancy from (the then) Wesley owen whom I'd worked for about 12 years, or whether it was moving flat to New Brighton to start with a church I'd never been to and area I'd never lived in; plenty of things have kept us both on our toes, and I'm sure we'll face these challenges together.
So, I'm in my last month of employment with a church and it feels a bit wierd. Unfortunately the job market is not brilliant at the moment, and doubly unfortunately, the bookshop market is even worse in terms of vacancies. Ah well...
Now that I've thoroughly depressed you if you're reading this, I'm leaving. I'm a bit of a git that way....
As of 1st July, I will be no longer training as a Baptist Minister, as my 'ministerial formation' (sounds painful doesn't it!! :p) will be put on 'hold' for a year or two.
Before anypone panics, I've not done anything silly, or been involved in any kind of scandal, it's simply down to lack of funding (my placement church) and some personal issues, which I'm not going to go into detail on here. Needless to say, I'm a little bit gutted and fearful and excited about the future, all expressing itself in a horrible nauseous feeling of 'aaarrggghhh what am I doing!!!'
My placement church weren't planning to take me on for another year, and therefore didn't budget for it, so were taken aback a bit when I asked to stay! They very graciously said whilst they couldn't 'employ' me officially, they could give me a small amount each month. I deliberated on this for a while, but through other curcumstances (again that I don't particularly feel the need to mention on here) I decided that this wasn't the best option.
The College/Baptist Union have offered me the option of taking a 'break' from studying/formation/training for up to two years for personal circumstances, as they call it, with no negative reflection on me. I've decided to take this option, and so the frantic search for a job begins...
To further complicate matters, my wife (who is an american citizen) is applying for the final part of her visa, her Indefinite Leave to Remain, which we're putting in the application for on June 10th. It's a bit stressful, but as she's been living here and we've been married for nearly two years now, I'm hoping there's not gonna be a problem. We've already saved up the (gulp!) £840 the government want for it, and it's just a case of producing the right documents to prove we still live together and are still married to each other.
So, the future's a bit uncertain at the moment, but I'm getting used to that lately. If I think back to before I was married, the time since then has been filled with lot's of uncertainty, whether it was marrying the love of my life who was from another country and all the extra complications and stresses that puts on a relationship, or taking redundancy from (the then) Wesley owen whom I'd worked for about 12 years, or whether it was moving flat to New Brighton to start with a church I'd never been to and area I'd never lived in; plenty of things have kept us both on our toes, and I'm sure we'll face these challenges together.
So, I'm in my last month of employment with a church and it feels a bit wierd. Unfortunately the job market is not brilliant at the moment, and doubly unfortunately, the bookshop market is even worse in terms of vacancies. Ah well...
Now that I've thoroughly depressed you if you're reading this, I'm leaving. I'm a bit of a git that way....
Sunday, 2 May 2010
Reality & Perception
I don't what it is about me, whether it's because I'm an ex-fundamentalist, ex-conservative, or ex-whatever; more and more lately I've been finding that reality affects my perception. Things I've long believed I've been questioning because reality doesn't seem to quite match up with them, and so I question, and explore and investigate.
I've always held that 'beliefs' matter, but lately I've been discovering that 'trust' matters more. For me it's been a journey of moving from knowledge 'about' things to trust 'in' things. More of a case of conviction trumping certainty...
To be continued... (after food)
I've always held that 'beliefs' matter, but lately I've been discovering that 'trust' matters more. For me it's been a journey of moving from knowledge 'about' things to trust 'in' things. More of a case of conviction trumping certainty...
To be continued... (after food)
Saturday, 16 January 2010
Radio!
If anyone reads this, (!) I'm on BBC Radio Merseyside tommorrow @ 8:30am. It's Wayne Clarke's show 'daybreak'.
If you're not that local, you can listen to it afterwards on BBC Iplayer.
thanks!
If you're not that local, you can listen to it afterwards on BBC Iplayer.
thanks!
Thursday, 14 January 2010
The Responsibility of Democracy
We've all seen the devastation on our screens the last few days, but Haiti has been suffering for a long time before today. In effect, they've been a country struggling because of corruption, dictaorships, and debt.
Pat Robertson made a silly comment that their suffering is because they 'made a deal with the devil'. Well maybe they did...
Please read this. I did, and it opened my eyes to the suffering of Haiti that has been much more long-term than the last few days, weeks or years; and I'm not talking about the disasters nature's thrown at them either.
Why can't those countries that say they're democratic be challenged by this example?
Time will tell.
Pat Robertson made a silly comment that their suffering is because they 'made a deal with the devil'. Well maybe they did...
Please read this. I did, and it opened my eyes to the suffering of Haiti that has been much more long-term than the last few days, weeks or years; and I'm not talking about the disasters nature's thrown at them either.
Why can't those countries that say they're democratic be challenged by this example?
Time will tell.
Tuesday, 5 January 2010
SNOW!!!
Yes folks, it's here, and boy is it here!
I've just spent about 40 minutes on a bus from Liverpool to New Brighton, sliding and slushing and driving very slow...
I have to admit, the little boy inside me was VERY excited, and secretly I was hoping for a small 'bump' into another vehicle, so I could brag about it, though obviously nothing that would injure anyone. Thankfully, we had a very good driver, who accelerated at the points he needed to, to get going again after stopping, and then easing on the brakes slowly so we didn't slide too much.
It was very exciting, but I'm glad I'm home, and am hoping Meg will be able to get home from work (liverpool) on the train, which will no doubt be a lot safer!
Here's to the little child inside all of us, who (for most of us) will be jumping with joy at all the snow today!
'big grin'
I've just spent about 40 minutes on a bus from Liverpool to New Brighton, sliding and slushing and driving very slow...
I have to admit, the little boy inside me was VERY excited, and secretly I was hoping for a small 'bump' into another vehicle, so I could brag about it, though obviously nothing that would injure anyone. Thankfully, we had a very good driver, who accelerated at the points he needed to, to get going again after stopping, and then easing on the brakes slowly so we didn't slide too much.
It was very exciting, but I'm glad I'm home, and am hoping Meg will be able to get home from work (liverpool) on the train, which will no doubt be a lot safer!
Here's to the little child inside all of us, who (for most of us) will be jumping with joy at all the snow today!
'big grin'
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