See my new box!!! I just built that, I did, and I'm feeling like a timelord with a new tardis :-)

Running nothing but Ubuntu (actually UbuntuStudio) I finally made the switch to using ubuntu for all productivity. I'll keep a windows PC running as the centre of my home network, since all other family members still use XP and I need to be able quickly see what a site looks like in IE when I'm building websites. It can also sit there and collect all my spam emails off of my server rather than let them build up.

But the boy got a new TOY

(I don't know if I got the latin right... no classical background, see)

I've written elsewhere that I am a mental health nurse who doesn't believe in mental illness, and I've felt prompted to expand on that a little, both in terms of my personal background and in terms of what I mean by not believing in mental illness. Those of you familiar with the work of Thomas Szasz and the anti-psychiatry movement will have some idea of where I am.

First, I see what is commonly labeled as mental illness as a subset of the full range of human experience and behaviour and the relationship between the two. Think of it as a bell curve... in the middle is the vast array of experience and behaviour we regard as "normal"... at the extreme ends (say bottom and top five percent), we have a set of experiences and behaviours that are unusual enough to cause those who witness them some discomfort. Society does not witness these behaviours often enough to integrate and thus normalise them, but just often enough to fear them and need to control them...

I'm not saying that there are not cases where this is not justified... all behaviour requires a response, and as a nurse I am required sometimes to limit the available behaviours of someone who may present a risk to themselves or to others, but shit that is a heavily responsibility that is all too often assumed lightly in my opinion.

But all human experience is valid. And in our experience lies our awareness of our relationship with the very mystery of being, like a breadcrumb trail or Ariadne's thread leading us back to the beginning.

I saw the film Michael Clayton the other day. Cracking film. I thought the portrayal of the manic depressive lawyer quite sensitive. And the idea that in his madness lay the truth quite a turn around. If you've not seen it, I don't believe that will constitute a spoiler... go see it :-)

Most of us are extraordinary people in ordinary circumstances... some of us are extraordinary people in extraordinary circumstances.

A patient on a ward said to me the other day "Thank you... thank you for being so helpful today"... I was somewhat taken aback and said "as far as I can see, it's all about each of us making life just that little bit easier for each other... not just here, in hospital, but in every context"... I was taken a back because she felt the need to thank me for being nice or helpful to her. I thought it was a given... don't get me wrong, it was nice for it be recognised, but it should not have been worthy of comment.

I've barely scraped the beginnings of my thoughts and experiences in this area, and I cannot stress to you enough how important I think it is, and how closely tied up with our understanding of what it means to be human, and our awareness of the spiritual nature of existence. Most of us, most of us, define ourselves by making others "outsiders"... they are not like us, so we know who we are... define ourselves through a process of exclusion... how would it be to look at redefining ourselves through a process of inclusion... by accepting that all human experience falls on a continuum and that joy is joy, suffering is suffering and need is need, whoever we are?

(painting by Louis Wain...www.schizophrenia.org/artist.html)

A ship carrying arms, including 3 million rounds of ammunition, bound for Zimbabwe is currently trying to find a way of delivering its deadly cargo. It is highly likely that these weapons will be used to fuel violence, killings and intimidation in Zimbabwe’s growing political crisis. THE ARMS MUST BE STOPPED.

Read more here
www.iansa.org/stoptheshipment/

Sign the petition here
www.iansa.org/stoptheship...shipment.php

For local commentary I recommend
www.sokwanele.com/thisiszim...chives/882
from Sokwanele - Zvakwana, a peoples' movement embracing supporters of all pro-democratic political parties, civic organizations and institutions in Zimbabwe.

We have days, maybe less, to make an impact... please sign the petition and forward on to as many friends, colleagues and associates who may be interested.

15 years married and it's still cool... take a look at my anniversary present :-) 45 and no longer a tattoo virgin.

You know, it amazes me... the number of people I tell I've been married 15 years and they groan, or look at me in some bizarre attempt at sympathy! I bought a bottle of champagne today and when I told the guy in the shop what it was for he looked as if he felt sorry for me!! This is choice, folks, choice at work every active moment of my day. I'm just lucky enough to have found someone committed to making the companion choice.

And, if you're not with the one that you love, by all means love the one you're with, but don't tie yourself down into something you cannot give meaning to.

I thank my wife for the 15 happiest years of my life to date, and I intend have a damn site more than 15 more.

www.sargant.net/downloads/...ishtale.mp3