Unfortunately, the combination of the two is not quite as pleasant. Please, I implore, Please do not take your babies on a plane - it is simply unnecessary. It is unnecessary and inconsiderate. No, they will not be able to appreciate the wonders of air travel, they’ll barely be able to see the view. In fact, it must be a small kind of torture to the child, who is only getting used to its body, to expose it to horrible noises, strange forces, rapid pressure changes, and turbulence. I don’t enjoy these, an infant is definitely not enjoying it. Their continued screaming throughout the flight is further evidence to this. So if you care little for your baby, please, at least, have a thought for the few hundred other passengers who are travelling around you. Its a minor form of torture to rob them of their few hours of sleep robbed from their confined chair-cells. At the point where sleepiness overcomes the pain of strangely twisted limbs and indigestion, its a pity to take this away with the all-too-loud drones of an uncomfortable infant, or should you be unlucky enough, a symphony of them in competition.

In these societies that we are lead to believe are wonderfully liberal we are often taught the value of tolerance. Do what you please, but no harm to others. In conjunction we are taught tolerance, that we should not act negatively towards those who are different (part of the harm principle). Now, I consider myself to be a liberal, for the most part, but in recent discussions with various people I’ve started to question some of these outcomes.
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I have intermittent conversations with Richard about a vegetable patch of topics such as consciousness, meaning, and travel. Actually travel is normally the answer to all of our discussions - but that’s just incidental. But some recent thoughts of my own about context switching, some of Richard’s thoughts of what travel means to him, got me thinking about why travel - or big context switches - might be good for you. These were sent in e-mail form, and Richard has STOLEN them and stuck them as comments on his site - so I’ll point you to this post where you can read all my brilliant thoughts. Disclaimer: all scientfic ideas therein are purely speculative (i.e., not scientific)!

Incidentally, I was accosted by an Irish prophet last night. She spied on me. She cornered me. She pushed up to me, her bosom squashed against my arm, ensured me her intentions were pure. She leaned in close and whispered words into my ear…

Encounters like this make things worthwhile.

I keep thinking about this blog. Thinking about what is on it, what to put on it, and who could possibly read it (or want to read it). I guess I have a number of problems. The first is that this is quite a public thing, and anybody (not too many, but there are a few), who search for name get this site slap bang on the top of the list. Now, I imagine that the only people reading this are people who already know me. But I become equally self-conscious of those who don’t. I realise my posts are quite abstract, not necessarily accessible to people who don’t have any idea about the context within which they are written. Well, the problem is that jonathanhaenen.com is != jonathanhaenen - the blog cannot (I hope) provide an accurate reflection of myself. So I wonder whether this should be more explicit, or if it would lead to more canned posts.

The second problem, which is related, is that a blog is probably not the right medium for my posts. It is not a diary, not rigorous discourse, not really anything specific. So if what I am writing is inaccessible, then it’s really just my own scratchpad, which friends can read, and some perhaps might know where my babble is coming from. If I have anything to sell, this is probably not the product, the correct medium through which to sell it.

So if you don’t know me, and are reading this blog (and are a potential future employee!), please don’t think that what is here is representative. Blogs are useful only to a point. And if you do know me, and wonder why I don’t update often, or why I generally talk a load of nonsense, well, I like to think that this is just a fraction of a bigger story - a story that I would like to produce properly, but that likely will not fit into the pixels of your firefox.

And that’s my annual meta-blog.

Walking around London can be a hellish experience. Especially if you have somewhere to be. People get in the way, they swarm and and cluster and explode. They’ll either be walking too slowly or too fast. But if you have the time and can slow down - just for a few minutes - the place can develop into a story full of fantastic and chaotic stories. You’re only ever likely to hear snippets of the varied surrounding conversations. Except when a man rushes between two claimed pillars in Trafalgar Square trying to prevent the gusty wind from blowing away his home made posters, while simultaneously blaring out his conspiracy theories about the Freemasons.

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