Ransen's Blog

Like most people I like the smell of mint, and when I saw the lovely purple flowers of mint I thought I'd, yes, look at them under my USB microscope. And they are beautiful, but I did not realise that seeing the pollen at the end of the stamen... ...would expand my informed imagination a day later. Because the next time I saw the mint flowers on the balcony even though I could not see the pollen (my eyesight is not great) the image from the microscope jumped into my mind. I suppose that many enthusiasts and experts in all fields have this experience, but I'd never felt it so much as I did with the mint flowers and their pollen grains.

I know we're going to die and everything but we may as well enjoy life and be creative and try to make beautiful things (devices, artworks, relationships etc.) while we're alive. Which is why the Greek myths have always annoyed me. Take Arachne the Spinner for example. The goddess Athene got annoyed that Arachne the human could make better tapestries than the goddess could. So Athene turned Arachne into a spider. Here they both are, the more talented one hanging by a thread from a tree: So, the message of these wonderful Greek myths is "Aim for mediocrity! Don't try for anything! The gods will get you!" What balls. What boredom.  I prefer Marvel and DC stories.

There's not much food I'm bothered about. I love rucola ( rocket in English) and a few weeks ago I discovered that I also like Gazpacho, a Spanish tomato soup served cold. Amazingly for me I looked up the recipe, and followed the law according to Delia Smith . Quite nice. But it annoyed me that not only did I have to peel the tomatoes but I also had to throw away the tomato seeds. This means wasting time and materials. So I invented Male Gazpacho. (All the other recipes you'll see are woosy wimpy Female Gazpacho versions).  Here are the steps: Make sure you have no amorous meetings, business appointments or job interviews during the two days following the making and consumation of Male Gazpacho. Follow Delia's recipe, except that you don't peel the tomatoes and you don't throw away the seeds. Use 4 (not 2) cloves of garlic. Don't make the garnish. Add in two crushed chili peppers. E' voila! The perfect Male Ga...

I went shopping a few weeks ago. It was a blue sky day, but not too hot, for Italy in August, and on all horizons there were clouds. Above me cloudlessness, so it felt as if I was in the center of a low cylinder of cloud... ...This uplifted me and made me smile.

I dont' care if you think it twee, I like celtic art and celtic art knotwork. So I get dead annoyed when modern graphics designers rip off the original designs and then make a mess of them. The design on this cup is called Iona and was "adapted" by Jane Brookshaw. She has obviously no idea of the discipline involved in knotwork. Lines should go under then over and under then over and so on. In effect she has copied a good design badly. Had she slavishly copied a good design properly the result would have been less irritating!  I have roughly and quickly corrected these errors, and you can see the comparison in the image below: Lines flow under and over as they should do in proper knotwork in the corrected version (not over and over as they do in the top image). Unfortunately I was given, as a present, another cup with a design "adapted badly" by th...

The conversation should have gone like this: Me: So, I'll pop in some time next weekend. Him: Phone first because I may be out. Me: Ok. Bye. The conversation actually went like this: Me: So, I'll pop in some time next weekend. Him: Phone first because I may be out. Me: Ok. Bye. Him: I might have to go to the shops. Me: Ok. Him: Or, you know, have the car serviced. Or pick up some cash from the cash machine. You know. I might be out. Shopping, you know. For food. Or clothes. Or something else. Like washing up liquid. I might go to the supermarket, but the bread is better in the local shops. Me: Ah. Him: If it is raining I'll take the car and go to the supermarket, even though it is further. I might be out for any number of reasons. Pick up the kids. Take Bobby to karate. Or Sophia to dance. You know. Then I have to get my bike checked, something wrong with the gears. I might be out doing that. Or I might go out for ...

It seems to be that most people think that a god exists or it doesn't. For most Christian's (apart from Don Cupitt, it's hard to know what he thinks even after reading his books) God definitely exists and is definitely good. But there are at least 3 possibilities to consider: Most people who believe in a god don't seem to consider the fact that it could exist and could be evil. There is a 25% chance of that from the above diagram. "The above diagram is too crude!" you say. And I agree, there are more possibilities. For example it is possible that it sort of exists but is neither good nor evil, that would be the central square in the diagram below.  At this point the possibility that it exists and is good is reduces to (1/9)*100 = 16.7%. "The above diagram is too crude!" you say. And I agree, there is an infinity of possibilities, as shown below.  God's existence and goodness could be on any ...