Saturday, June 16, 2007

[blogfocus marathon] pre-hiatus bumper issue

Vale, Tin Drummer. Sadly missed and exhorted to reappear and grace us again with his frustrations and Dr. Who and cricket musings - maybe he'll post here next week, maybe not.

Blogfocus this evening is a bit different.

As you know and as I've been telling people ad nauseam, from Monday, June 18th to Friday June 29th, the blogger known as Higham has a hiatus but the long-suffering blog itself does not.

The Debonaire Baker's Dozen below have agreed to guest post when they're feeling creative and look what an august body of writers it is!

# The Last Ditch's erudite, if curmudgeonly Tom Paine, who, in his last post, wrote of the coming Blogpower extravaganza:

Ruthie Zaftig was there, practising transcendental meditation, as were Theo Spark, NotSaussure and Delicolor. After a long chat in my office (see pictures of us around my meeting table), Jeremy Jacobs finally arrived - providing a real psychological insight by his choice of avatar, a dark and brooding youth.

# The castigator of all that is rotten in the kingdom, Martin Kelly, who, in his last post, wrote:

And so Oleg Gordievsky, ex-KGB resident in London, one-time false wigs and beards model, all-round live rat and intimate of Boris Berezovsky who, along with the late Alexander Litvinenko, might have been up to good less than two years ago in making uncorroborated (and uncorroboratable) allegations against Romani Prodi, has been made a Companion of the Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George for "services to the security of the United Kingdom".

# The peerless "cross-me-at-your-peril" Trixy, who, in her 2nd last post, wrote:

Trixy is a bit miffed, so she's going to have a rant. Why am I so miffed? I hear you cry? Because of this greasy, orange, contemptible canker who has taken it upon himself to tell our defunct outgoing Prime Minister to 'ignore popular opinion in the UK'.

# The stunning Nobody Important's jmb, who, in her last post, gets into live blogging:

I had a lot of trouble coming up with something for this post ... I actually took my camera to the hairdresser's ... thinking I would take a photo of a wig in for service or the huge array of products for the beautification of hair. Still not inspired. Then this idea came into my mind ...

# One of the best and quirkiest writers going, Bryan Appleyard, who, in his 2nd last post, wrote:

Choosing the right - in every sense - breakfast cereal is a daily crisis for us all. Do we go for virtue - Kellogg's 190 per cent Vindaloo Bran with senna pods and plum concentrate - or vice - Nestle's Frosted Chocolate Bacon Nuggets with butter and beef dripping? I have, finally found the solution. John McCann's Steel Cut Irish Oatmeal is so much more than just food, it is an education.

# The inimitable [thank goodness] Devil's Kitchen, who, in his 2nd last post, wrote:

Look, government agencies are one of the very worst for encouraging the culture of "presenteeism"; if flexible working is such a very good idea then, instead of legislating, how about leading by example? I suggest that if this is such a wonderful idea, the state should introduce flexible working throughout all departments.

# The curmudgeonly and erudite Deogolwulf, who, in his last post, wrote yet another opaque fewtril:

Imagine, for a humble instance, being ideologically committed to the idea that there are in modern Britain millions of people living in poverty, and yet discovering that a third of such people are as fat as country-squires. One’s commitment demands that one still see them as poverty-stricken, whilst reality appears to mock the idea.

# That Lothario, Praguetory, who, in his last post, wrote:

Politics has such potential for humour as evidenced by Spitting Image, Yes Minister, The New Statesman and some of the gags over at Iain Dale's. Although making people laugh can be a huge political asset, being humourous involves taking risks and so it's not surprising that few politicians are known for their humour.

# The incomparably different Flying Rodent, who sometimes deigns to revisit earth with posts like this:

The nation is in shock this evening following the unexpected abdication of the Queens of The Stone Age. "It is with great sadness that I must announce that the Queens of The Stone Age have decided to step down," announced a Royal aide, reading from a prepared statement.

# Liam Murray, our ghost poster, who will return from the dead [but not at night].

# The Greek G-d, Mr Eugenides, who makes every word count, with typical Scottish expansiveness:

The new honours list is out, and to be honest it's a bit vanilla. I wonder whether the next one might not be a little more... lavender?

# The Croydonian, who, in a recent post, wrote, about Russia:

"The new provisions also forbid the use of weapons against visibly pregnant women, disabled people and minors unless they are armed and present a threat". So if one is none of these things and do not present a threat one's life is potentially forfeit? I would recommend that Tom Paine, James Higham and other bloggerati in the Rodina invest in walking sticks for when out and about.

# The always creatively designing Southern resident, Lord Nazh, who, commenting on the Blogpower Awards category where he polled remarkably well, wrote:

Unintentionally Humorous Post: This category should have been scrapped, people voted for who they wanted to win, regardless of humor [intentional or not] of said post).

Lord Nazh, incidentally, has started featuring a blog of the week [just under his banner] and it's live - I commented at Not Saussure through this facility today and will certainly think about this in terms of the Blogfocus in future.

Other blogging luminaries I have invited so far fell into these categories:

Agreed in principle but still thinking what to post

Chris Dillow

Invitations extended but yet to be taken up

Fabian Tassano, Zaftig, Reactionary Snob, L'Ombre, The Select, Imagined Community, Mutleythedogsdayout, Not Saussure and Westminster Wisdom

So, dear reader, if this is not enough to whet the appetite, then maybe the six or seven I'll add tomorrow will finally satisfy. If even half of these worthies post even once, what a bumper read is coming up in the next two weeks. Tom will have his hands full and I'll be missing a treat.

[republicans] an englishman's take

Vox Day makes the case for Ron Paul as the best of a poor lot:

But Thompson is merely a stylistic change. His policy stances are most similar to McCain, he's weak on personal liberty and abortion, and he supports the ongoing occupations. And if most Republicans realize that Thompson is not the next Reagan, most Republican commentators don't seem to have gotten that memo yet.

I made the comment that Ron Paul p--sed the Republican honchos off with that war stance, he's too old and he lacks a base, e.g. governorship, Thompson is ex-CFR which should exclude him immediately, Romney's changed his abortion stance to suit the climate, Giuliani doesn't seem to be grabbing non-New Yorkers and you can forget the others.

Seems to me that Clinton could have grabbed the anti-war vote and the White House but fudged on this and other issues.

[paternity] what we'd all half suspected

If you were to visit The Croydonian, who had just posted on, say, "Flying to Russia any time soon? Be warned", you might be forgiven for missing a small reader contribution by "some guy", who said ... (off subject) "Juicy front cover of die Neue Post [Smith's, North End]":

Prinz Harry - Versoehnung mit seinem Vater James Hewitt. [V* = reconciliation]

[memed again] wade through this lot

From Lady Macleod

What were you doing ten years ago?

24/7 with new girlfriend

What were you doing one year ago?

Arguing with the atheistic Indecent Left on Stephen Pollard's site, leading to me start up a blog

Five snacks you enjoy

I'm an unreformed chocoholic. The rest don't matter.

Five songs to which you know all the lyrics

Zero

Five things you would do if you were a millionaire

Set up something like Grameen, build that trimaran I designed, improve the flat/car to a small extent, invest the rest around the world.

Five bad habits

Push too hard when I can see something needs doing, dislike socializing except for one on one, spend too much time on the blog, can't think of others

Five things you like doing

That's a bit personal, i'n it?

Five things you would never wear again

Drag, Jason King kaftan, wig, pink hotpants, artificial hair on the chest, platform boots [not that I ever have done but a man can dream]

Five favorite toys

That's a bit personal, i'n it?

Tagged: A Young Conservative, Corporate Presenter, Havering On, In Search of High Places, Looking For a Voice .

[british royalty] tony nominates posh and becks

Although still speculation, the thought of a Sir David Beckham, not to mention a Lady Beckham, is too much for some.

I disagree. Sir David and Lady Posh have a nice ring to them, don't you think? And how about Lord Osbourne, the Earl of Doherty, the Earl of Townsend and Sir William Wyman, to make up the new aristocrapy?

We could import our aristocrapy too. If it's good enough for DB to move to the U.S. as a tax exile, shortly before his crowning by Tony Blair, why can't Lady Paris, the Duchess of Spears and the Viscount Brangelina also join us?

Why stop there?

Likewise, there is some bemusement over informal talk of putting Beckham on the £20 note, a spot historically reserved for people such as the British monarch, or the economist Adam Smith.

And why even stop there?

Augustus Caesar became a g-d so I can't see why DB can't also be so crowned. After all, to the vast majority of UK youth, he already plays that role.

Seriously, I think you're misinterpreting Tony. He simply realizes that, having helped reduce Britain to Eu-Serfdom and Third World status, an aristocracy of the peacocks is more than appropriate.

The Churchills, Rhodes, Drakes and Disraelis, the scientists and men and women of actual achievement - they are part of a bygone world, another life we fondly remember.

Friday, June 15, 2007

[corruption] time means money

Ben is not amused.

Where does one start? This story's not new but it sums up the question succinctly:

"According to at least six bloggers, Microsoft has been sending out free top-of-the-line laptops pre-loaded with Vista as a 'no strings attached gifts'. This 'reward' for their hard work on covering tech in general is coincidentally right before the launch of Vista to consumers. To be clear, these weren't loans, they were gifts, and they were top-of-the-line Acer Ferrari laptops. Microsoft blogger Long Zheng broke the silence over the source of the freebies."

The question of corruption at a micro level is an interesting one. Imagine a little country where corruption is rife at all levels and when one sets up a business, one sets aside 10% of the establishment costs to pay both the local mafia and the police, who are interwoven anyway.

Cranking it down to an everyday level, imagine the police stop you for going 20kph over the limit. Today we were discussing that. One of my friends was dead against paying bribes in any shape or form.

"The moment someone pays up, then there is created an expectation of payment for the future and finally a culture of automatic payment on the least pretext."

This may be true but there is another side too, put by my other friend:

A self-employed man, on $30 an hour, finds himself pulled over by the police. His time/cost ratios are as follows:

Scenario 1

1] Writing out of the chit [20 minutes/$10]

2] Driving to the payment centre, waiting in the queue, paying and driving back [2 hours/$60]

3] Cost of fine itself [$30]

TOTAL COST $100 [money goes to the State coffers]

Scenario 2

1] Conversation [10 minutes/$5]

2] $20 slipped in with the licence

TOTAL COST $25 [money goes to the man, his wife and family]

Which is better to do?

[principles] which should prevail here

So, John Howard is to meet the Dalai Lama in Sydney. A report says:

Australia is one of the best placed countries in the world to benefit from China's economic development. Beijing has condemned the meeting, saying the Dalai Lama is a political exile engaged in what it calls splittist activities over Tibet. But Canberra says Australia is one of the world's great liberal democracies.

The issue here is that a country is dealing, at diplomatic level, with a known opponent of a regime that that country is trading with. The other side is that China unilaterally annexed a sovereign nation and the leader of that nation is now visiting another nation, to meet with its leader.

What are the rights and wrongs of this?

Preparations continue for July 1st...

Some of those planning to attend the ceremony have set up their Second Life accounts and stopped by to visit the sky-borne Blogpower Awards Hall. Here is NotSaussure, relaxing by the pool on the roof of my "sky-box"


More details over at Defending the Blog, The Last Ditch and the Blogpower Express...

Tom Paine
(cross-posting from Defending the Blog)

Thursday, June 14, 2007

[ellee seymour] of greece and carving knives

Sometimes I don't know if Ellee is putting us on or if she's for real:
And of course, the Greeks invented many things so important in our lives today, including the wheel, which Shirley Valentine reminds us of so brilliantly.

To show it's no fluke, she goes on to explain the origins of her name:

Did you know there was an Ellee in Greek mythology? I have seen a unique painting of it in a restaurant in Volos. Mythology says that I have a brother called Frixos and our father was a Greek God who remarried ...

This is brilliant stuff. But Ellee's appearance in a certain category of a recent awards competition, inviting us to ban knives, was a piece de resistance, not unlike Lord Nazh's definitive and highly acclaimed climate change post:

With our knife culture increasing, surely we should be banning their sale from shops. They should be as difficult to buy as guns. Those who require them for countryside pursuits or any genuine activity will have to prove it, get a letter of consent from local police.

The mind drifts to this early evenng conversation:

"Tea's not on the table, love."

"Couldn't get a consent form from the rozzas today. You'll have to eat spam instead."

"I don't like spam!"

"Shh, dear, don't cause a fuss. My blog eats spam - 343 eaten today. It loves it."

The thing with Ellee is, she's so genuine. I don't think she has disingenuity in her vocabulary. but it does produce some very heartfelt girlishness and many people like that style. I do.

Often people come to our blogs not for the most apparent reasons and I think this could partly be so with Lady Ellee.

May she blog on forever.

[blog hiatus] june 18th to 29th

The good news is that Tom Paine, of The Last Ditch has graciously agreed to keep an eye on this blog during the two weeks my apartment is being overhauled and all but destroyed and there are some exciting things coming up on this blog.

About a dozen of our fellow bloggers and one or two heavyweights have agreed to put something on the blog - the thing is, we don't know what and we don't know when. You'll have to keep checking [he chuckles].

I've thought long and hard about this, trying to ensure you get some first class reading with a slight edge to it. If you look in the sidebar, you'll see some examples of guest blogging here already.

Problem will be that when I return it might seem so dull by comparison. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

[timex] albanians and world war three

Could this be the incident which sparks [Theo] World War III? Remember Sarajevo! President Bush did NOT, repeat "NOT" have his watch stolen by Albanian fans:

He slipped his Timex Indiglo off his wrist and into his pocket - a truth that has left many Albanians deeply offended.

What follows in the linked article is a view of him doing it [enlargeable], then a photo of :

"George W. Bush's wristwatch on his left arm … seen during a photo event in the Oval Office of the White House June 13, 2007" [plus various photos of George and the watch in various poses and juxtapositions] ..."

The article goes on:

It appeared that the President had taken to heart guide book warnings about the need to guard valuables in the country.
One Albanian noted:

"He didn't want his watch to get stolen by the Albanese "fans", who he clearly deeply trusts!"

Anti-Albanians added:

"Bush took off his watch cause he knew they'd steal it! Bush did his homework on Albania and Albanians. He knew better than to keep that watch on his wrist!"

The article continues for several paragraphs with the Whitehouse spokesandroid adding her bit. What I want to know is:

Are we going to stand for this? Are we just going to sit back while thieves and conjurers hijack the airwaves and hold us all to ransome [Arthur]? I say we act:
NOW!

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

We invite you to our Awards Ceremony on 1st July, 2007

Tom Paine writes [this is also at Blogpower]:

Where in the world, we asked ourselves, could we hold the awards ceremony for the Blogpower Awards 2007?

Our nominees are from all over the world. There is simply no convenient place for them all to meet. So I suggested to James Higham, founder of both the awards and of Blogpower itself, that we hold the ceremony in another world entirely; in Second Life.

For those of you who don't know it, Second Life or "SL" is a virtual world hosted on the servers of Linden Labs in California. Linden Labs provide the landscape. All the buildings and objects to be found there were built by SL "residents." Anyone can get an account, download the free software and wander about for free.

You only have to pay if you want to own "land". For this purpose that's entirely unnecessary as you will be my guests. I invite you to join me for the ceremony in my "sky box", 500 metres above my SL "home", "Last Ditch House".

The award ceremony will be on Sunday 1st July and will begin at 0900 New York time (1400 in Britain, 1500 Central Europe Time, 1700 in Moscow and 2200 in Australia). Please put it in your diary and come along. The drinks are free and you will be most welcome. Please tell all your friends.

If you don't have a Second Life account, please download the software, register and set one up entirely free of charge. You must select a surname from SL's standard list, but you can choose a meaningful first name. My SL name is "LastDitch Writer" and that's my "avatar" you can see in the pictures (click to enlarge). If you can also choose a first name that corresponds to yours, or to that of your blog, it would make things easier in a crowded room at the ceremony.

Between now and the ceremony there is plenty of time for you to set up your account, change the appearance of your avatar to suit your taste and work out how to get around. Don't worry though. On the day, you won't need to navigate to find us. There will be links like this one here and other Blogpower blogs which will launch the software and connect you directly to the venue. You will materialise on the welcome mat you can see in the picture, so step quickly away before the next guest arrives!

Send me a message in SL when you have set up your account. You are more than welcome to visit the venue in the meantime and take a look around. The right hand teleport on the balcony leads to my home on the ground. The left one takes you to my office in another sky box nearby. Make yourself at home, but watch out for the security robots!

The drinks robot will provide whatever you like so ask away. It's free but also virtual and (sadly) tasteless. I look forward to meeting you - at least virtually - at the awards.

[withdrawal from four categories] an explanation of sorts

When I was teaching rugby, I had an Under 14 team in a district tournament and we were organized to a fault. We had our little champ protected by our pack the whole time, then we'd instantly feed him ball and he'd run riot. I never told him one thing about where to go and how to do it. He was a true Campese.

We had guys organized to neutralize anyone who tried to take him out and our forward three [this was sevens] pushed the rules to the limit. They were a wonderful pack and adept at taking out the monster forward from the opposition.

None of the teams could handle our boys in the tournament and we did four X 10 minute games 128-8. It was complete overkill.

The boys came home champions and were heroes for weeks but the response to my tactics was cool. Fair enough too. I don't know any other way but to play it hard.

Trouble is, that's not appropriate for a blog competition we're hosting and as I saw certain people drifting away and ceasing to play and what with the UKN&P business, I realized that my own position was questionable. The further I went, the worse it got.

It was as clear as day I'd have to pull out and in doing that, the competition really has regained its balance. Just look at the placegetters' table - Devil's Kitchen and the like alongside Finding Life Hard and Mary Mary. That's good stuff as far as I can see.

I'm vastly happier having done it although there were many who wasted good votes on me - sorry - but this way, I think people's memories of these two gruelling weeks will be far sweeter and a little bit of drama was thrown in near the end, for no extra cost.

I hope so [and don't forget I did win a really important gong].

[today's caption competition] go to it rightly

[return to assissi] ignoring carlo

One of the very best blogs going and a welcome respite from the steady diet of politics, politics, politics, is JMB's Nobody Important. The title alone attracted me and the content does not disappoint.

In this linked post, JMB recounts the trip to Assissi and it's a place I never got to over there but would like to have. Now I can and you can too. Find out for yourself about this gem of a blog [and something about Assissi whilst you're there].

[the new serfdom] fed by mother pig

The warnings are coming from everywhere:

About 70 per cent of Australians aged 35 to 44 are expected to have inadequate superannuation savings once they reach retirement, with women the worst off, a report has predicted. Despite recent changes to super rules that benefit retirees, most people will still have to rely on the age pension in retirement, according to the report by the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA).

... and the situation in the U.S.?

Published by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI), the 2004 survey points out that a significant number of people are off track with their retirement saving ... Why aren't some Americans saving at all for retirement? Is working during retirement a viable way to make ends meet? In a culture where we are constantly told to "spend, spend, spend," is it realistic to expect that people will save for retirement?

How about Britain?

The Friends Provident survey found most people are likely to have a suffer a shortfall of around £10,000 in their pension income compared to what they needed. On average, Britons reckoned they would need between £20,000 to £24,000 each year to maintain the lifestyle they wantd in retirement. But the amount they realistically anticipated they would get was only £10,000 to £12,000.

Why?

1] The cost spiral ... including housing:

Overdependence on home equity loans and lines of credit have economists concerned that consumers are financially over-extended and ready to cut back on spending. Too many costs are gnawing away at consumers' wallets, and while the job market has improved over the past year, wages have not kept up with the cost of living.

Middle-class America also binged on equity credit [in 2005] … equity cash paid ordinary homeowners' credit card bills, college tuition and vacation expenses, among other things, says Yacik.

The rich, however, are taking borrowed cash "and using it to leverage other investments," says George Walper, president of the Spectrem Group, a Chicago-based firm that researches the affluent.

Let alone spiralling credit debt to help pay for everything.

2] It's not only spiralling costs. It's also simple envy:

"It's not the mega-rich we envy, but the people with the slightly nicer house up the road," says Simon Carr, of the Independent.

... and downunder, Adele Horin, of the Melbourne Age, reported on November 30 2002:

Australians have never been richer, says the study report by the Australia Institute. Yet the majority of middle-income households believe they are doing it tough. The report's author, institute executive director Clive Hamilton, says inflated expectations, not inadequate income, are the problem.

"A large and growing proportion of the population wants to emulate the lifestyles of the rich and famous," he says. "Because they can't afford it they constantly feel deprived of the good life."

3] Children's escalating and more expensive demands:

There's a lot more to kids' marketing today than trying to keep brands relevant, hip and cool. Today's kids want two additional things from marketers: brands that are interactive and brands that are instant.

Make no mistake. The accepted wisdom a generation ago was that one saved for retirement. Now the strategy has been all but abandoned in the grapple for a comfortable upper-middle class life and to combat spiralling costs which are being generated by both consumers and credit institutions.

And in the process, men and women have become, not their own bosses, not the parents of the classic saccharine sitcom but in reality - no more than piglets feeding on the teats of a bloated financial mother pig.

Interest rates are being artificially held down and sometime soon, maybe in 2012 or thereabouts, the financial institutions are going to precipitate the crisis, alongside the new SPP and EU initiatives.

Apply this simple test. If all your debts, mortgage, car, credit, mobile phone and others were to be called in today by the institutions - would you be in the black or would you be one of the new class of serfs?

My advice to you is to get out of any form of debt to a financial institution as soon as you practicably can. Get off the grid and live within your "real" means, even though your dollar or pound is fiat money.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

[american dream] effortless well-being

Open letter to Americans [and others too]

Do you really think this pill is the answer?

Acomplia, the new weight-loss pill from Sanofi-Aventis, has not yet been approved in the United States because of questions about its safety. But some Americans have decided not to wait. Many are traveling to Europe, where the drug has been approved, or buying the medicine through foreign Web sites, while the U.S. Food and Drug Administration continues its evaluations of the treatment.

I say to not only Americans, on the strength of the body of medical literature, that what is needed is not a pill but:

1] Exercise! Nothing more, nothing less. Go out and do it, whether it's mall-hiking or out in the real world;

2] Eat right. Halve the portions and get off the processed;

3] Appreciate. Be satisfied and keep your ambitions within bounds;

4] Love right. Get the head straight and put the other at the centre of your world;

5] Laugh;

6] Reconnect with your Maker.

Monday, June 11, 2007

[la france] intéressant, non

[islam] it's just a click away

My Google ads are deliberately shoved right under your nose when you visit my site but so far I've made $0:00 out of them. That's pretty good going after 10 months. Such a pity you ignore these ads because there's one there right now:

How to Convert to Islam How to convert and become a Muslim with Live Help by chat www.IslamReligion.com

So go on, be a devil. Click on it, convert and let me make extraordinary wads of dough.

[stupid people] revel in their cleverness

When I was in first year university, I'd sit at the back of the room with two mates and pretend to make fun of the lecturer who was one of those very brittle characters who took herself oh so seriously.

One day she'd had enough and one of the other lecturers, whom most students liked, took me aside and asked what I'd done to anger Nina so much that she'd stormed into the staffroom, throwing her bag at a chair and starting to mouth obscenities.

She got her revenge later by demanding that I seek psychological counselling - from her [she taught psychology]. She asked why I always took a contrary position to her and tried to argue with her superior knowledge, why I had such hate in me.

Still I didn't learn.

The following year I fooled around in politics tutorials, feeling I'd pass politics easily [I'd had 90% at school]. The tutor was an entirely different kettle of fish. He never said one word but at the end of the year, asked me where my assignments were.

There weren't any. He gave me till Friday afternoon.

Suddenly I realized the pickle I was in. I begged him to let me do them in "point form" and he never replied. I spent all evening at the uni library four nights running and wrote at breakneck speed, finally finishing the last one on Friday around 3 p.m.

Still time to get them to him. He wasn't there in his room. The bstd had gone home early. Still, I left them on his desk and as there was no exam, just course work, I thought I was home and hosed.

The day of the posting of results came and in two key subjects, failure was out. One of those was politics. He'd failed me and had not even graded them, on the grounds that they didn't fulfil the instructions, as given in the faculty guidebook.

That was the day I learnt that people don't like the p--s being taken out of them. They tend to store it up and it comes out later. Mild-mannered people become quietly vindictive and bide their time.

They get you later, sometimes much later and the quiet ones who don't rant and rave are the most dangerous.

[housekeeping] one or two issues

Couple of little matters.

First, the Pending blogroll in my sidebar. It doesn't imply that I'm cogitating. It's just where a new contact goes before being distributed to one of the other rolls. It does contain some near-dormant blogs though, on their way for review.

Perhaps I should put new contacts under New Contacts and those I'm cogitating over under Pending. Decisions, decisions.

Then the site itself. I'm looking to redo the header and the colouring overall, keeping the green/maroon motif as the base. So if you visit and see something strange going on, it's only temporary.