30/08/2009 by Steve Tierney.

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28/08/2009 by Steve Tierney.

Opinions Please

I’ve been messing about with new designs for my blog.  Presently it uses an old version of wordpress which is a little limited in the things it can do and the cool functions I can include.

Also, I feel the current design is a little hard to read. 

So I’m working on some ideas for a new design.  Maybe you could suggest what you think of my current ‘mess about’?  If you like it … great.  If you don’t, I’ll try something else.
  
http://www.stevetierney.org/blog        is where you’ll find my current attempt.

Any comments appreciated.
This Blog

5th In the United Kingdom 

This Blog

54th In the United Kingdom

This Blog

27th In the United Kingdom

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13/08/2009 by Steve Tierney.

Holiday Time For Me

I’m off to the New Forest for 10 days.  Back on 23rd August. 

So no new blog posts until then unless it rains and I’m stuck in an Internet Cafe somewhere which, I grant, isn’t entirely unlikely in our lovely country.

Until then I leave you with these thoughts on politics.   They are espoused tongue-in-cheek and do not necessarily represent my views.

“I offer my opponents a bargain:  if they will stop telling lies about us, I will stop telling the truth about them.”
Adlai Stevenson

“If God had been a Liberal there wouldn’t have been Ten Commandments, there would have been Ten Suggestions.” Malcolm Bradbury

“It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”
Upton Sinclair, “The Jungle”

“Politicians are people who, when they see light at the end of the tunnel, go out and buy some more tunnel.”
John Quinton

The New Forest.

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08/08/2009 by Steve Tierney.

A Sparrow
Please note: This post is nothing to do with politics. I just wanted to share it. This is an absolutely true story and I am telling it very much word for word as it has always been told to me.

A long time ago my cousin’s fiance died rather suddenly and tragically. It was a big shock to the whole family, but a particularly awful shock to my cousin. As you might imagine she was inconsolable.

The day after his death she was sitting in her bedroom in about as dark a mood as it is possible for somebody to reach, when a baby sparrow flew in through the open window and landed beside her on the bed.

Surprised, she tried to pick the bird up, expecting it to fly away. It didn’t. She was able to cup it in her palm.

She phoned the RSPCA and asked their advice. They said that if it become separated from its mother it would likely die. She confirmed she had looked around and couldn’t see any sign of a nest or other birds. The RSPCA guy gave her some info on caring for a baby sparrow, while advising her that the bird would probably not survive.

My cousin looked after the baby sparrow. I suspect it gave her something to do, something to take care of, somewhere to pour the grief that was threatening to overwhelm her. She hand fed it every day. It found a place on top of her wardrobe it liked to sit, chirping merrily. It would fly down and land on the bed by her when she was in the room. It would still sit in her hand.

With the bird getting bigger it was soon able to fly right around the room and was leaving a healthy series of “specimens” on top of its wardrobe home.  My cousin had become rather attached to the bird and for reasons I am sure I do not need to spell out here - part of that attachment was a kind of wistful wonder. But she determined that the bird really needed to be set free.

The next day she opened the window and waited. The bird flew over to the sill, looking at the outside world. Then it beat its wings and flew away.

A couple of minutes later it was back. It fluttered into the room and found its comfy place on her wardrobe again. And that was the last time the bird ever chose to leave.

My dad spoke to my cousin yesterday. The sparrow still lives there, ignoring the open window although it is regularly available. It has a plush cage (with the door removed so it can fly free) on top of the wardrobe. It’s now been with her for fourteen years and counting. (That’s a very long lifespan for a sparrow.)

Different people respond to this series of events on different levels.  Some are scornful.  Some sad.  Some of them take a quasi-mystical view.  Some get very into the psychology of it.  For myself, I have always just been charmed by the story..  I hope you were too.
  
  

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04/08/2009 by Steve Tierney.

Interlude:

Hmmm.  I think I might take a short time away from my blog. 
  
Somebody once said that Discretion is the better part of valour.
  
I’ll be back soon.  If you need me - I’ll be in the little red house (below.)

Shakespeare, in Henry IV, Part One, 1596:
Falstaff: ‘The better part of valour is discretion; in the which better part I have saved my life.’

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02/08/2009 by Steve Tierney.

Dead Tired
That’s what I am.  As far as my personal business goes this is probably the most important weekend of the year.  I entertain some of my key clients (players of the games my company makes) and strengthen the game’s backbone of participants.  The weekend includes two meal events (one of which is costumed and themed), a huge outside marquee and some tomfoolery with an adult bouncy-castle (you think I’m kidding?  I’m not!)  Tonight I’ll be taking the whole contingent to the Phoenix Chinese Restaurant in Wisbech and that’s where the convention ends.

It’s been a lot of fun and has generated some great business.  Everybody seems to have had a wonderful time.  But now i’m struggling to stay awake, having worked 20-hour days since Friday.

Just going to drink a load of Red Bull to get the energy for tonight and then I think I’ll sleep for about a year.

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28/07/2009 by Steve Tierney.

I just found a neat bit of software which makes cartoon and sketch versions of you.  It’s kinda fun.  (I know, I know, photoshop can do it too.  Nevertheless, it was an enjoyable distraction.)

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