To celebrate Samhein (All Hallows Eve or Halloween) we had a set of Russian hackers using a zombie machine in Oslo to attack our poor mail server, used primarily for email for cattle tagging, using a buffer overflow technique to stuff code on it to attack other places (Stanford University alerted us to this when we were trying to work out what was wrong with the machine in question). So it was ‘Hackers Hackers’ rather then the traditional ‘Rabbits Rabbits’ for the start of the month.
And so to November a time of darkness, fireworks and remembrance – on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month there are 2 minutes of silence (inflated from the miserly 1 minute pre 1945 but still not symbolically 11 minutes).
Remember remember the fifth of November
Gunpowder, treason and plot.
I see no reason why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot.
Ironically in a poem beginning with ‘Remember Remember’ the following lines have been forgotten -
A penny loaf to feed the Pope.
A farthing o’ cheese to choke him.
A pint of beer to rinse it down.
A faggot of sticks to burn him.
Burn him in a tub of tar.
Burn him like a blazing star.
Burn his body from his head.
Then we’ll say ol’ Pope is dead.
Hip hip hoorah!
Hip hip hoorah!
November began with an airshow over the jailhouse, 2 Hawks, with Heather’s brother in one Hawk, and a Tornado put on an impromptu air display for us – screaming over the edge of the garden at low height with lights blazing and then straight up to 15,000 feet with barrel rolls. Made us non-aerobatic microlighters feel very jealous and all to the musical accompaniment of ‘In A Summers Place’, once heard never forgotten, on an ipod shuffle.
After another two hours pounding with Geraldine, my djembe instructoress, I have added the djembe to my Xmas wishlist and signed up for the advanced pounding course so I will appear in a Christmas concert if I can remember the rhythms, in which I am sorely tempted to black up – after the Arbroath ‘Black and White Minstrels’ were forced to ‘white up’ and call themselves simply Minstrels. An alternative is to ‘blue up’ (The Blue and White Minstrels would surely only offend Smurfs).
Link of the month is about War Elephants where one can learn how to stop being trampled by them strategies including stepping aside to let them through, incendiary pigs ( setting fire to pigs as their squealing frighten the War Elephants) and using the deadly combination of female elephants on heat with a large hidden trench.
Revenge of the seat belt – strapped in the back of a Nissan Micra, full of Steak and Black Pudding Pie after lunch, I found that the car didn’t want to let me go and after several increasingly desperate attempts to push and prod anything that was likely to release me I eventually climbed inelegantly out of a seat belt to freedom. Escapology might not be for me.
Bought a Stick Of Sprouts from Kelso Sunday Market, its spirals follow the Fibonnacci Series. After devouring the sprouts the stick thrown the the cow who ran around with it like a dog with a stick.
In preparation for the Santa 1.5 click Run in Edinburgh on December 11th, Kim and I started jogging around the track. We started out by counting trees and once we ran out of them we added on telegraph posts – Kim’s training is going well – Mikes came to a grinding halt after running in boots on a concrete track resulted in a knee injury and the inevitable gout attack in the joint.
Remember, remember the 18th Of September for that is the patron saint of pilots – Saint Francis of Cupertino
followed by International Talk Like A Pirate Day – that didn’t go to well this year as it coincided with Mike Visiting the Dentist Day.
