Thought Picnic: Fix the road and leave the wheel alone

Wheeling and dealing

Caught between the choices for the path forward, one is left looking for analogies to properly encapsulate the situation and hopefully persuade the decision makers of the best course.

I have moved beyond the concept of reinventing the wheel, it cannot be made any rounder than it is, it is a circle, and that is a closed discussion.

Probably there is a case for reviewing the materials used in the manufacture of the wheel, but that also after thousands of years of evolution, testing, change and review leaves us with the best wheels ever made in the history of man.

A little strengthening, probably for resilience and all terrain use that resists wear and tear is not necessarily ground-breaking stuff, rather it would for the inventor just be a differentiating selling point.

Fix the road

The next thing to consider is the road, the path, the way the wheel bearing load would travel and the comfort that it offers.

Much can be done about roads, and I have come to the conclusion that when the road is rough you work on the road and not on the wheel. Working on the road offers a broader advantage to every road user than working on the wheel would.

This is the kind of thinking that should go towards solving technical problems too. Understand what the wheel is and what the road is and act accordingly.

Thought Picnic: Murdering the wheel

A journey to pain

For we found a road so rough that we thought we would reinvent the wheel to make the ride smoother than it had ever been.

So is the wisdom of they with whom we have to deal and yet the pain that results from our shaken bones, neither the ride nor the journey brings any comfort than a terror for a future we must prevent at all costs.

The horse in gallop was given too great a wallop, it died in stride the rider fallen, broke his neck, but lived to tell a tale never looking like he once looked or anyone looks if they were well.

A journey to gain

A lament, a fidget, a curse, yea, bless the man who sees a rope and hangs himself instead, why bring woe to things so simple because ye knowest not what to do when a rope is given thee?

May the sun set on the day when what is easy is made difficult by the atrocious, the wise in their own ways, but hardly in the ways in the really wise – what a battle to fight, a victory to extract, may peace come to his soul, the writer of these words and his anger be quelled by reason appealing to those who can see reason and will be persuaded by the reasonable.

It hurts, it pains, it bleeds, the wheel is strong, the work must be on the road. Be gone, ye workers of iniquitous scripts, be gone. Let us rescue the wheel from vandals of true progress who complicate things to assure their indispensability and their selfish places.

Thought Picnic: Squaring the wheel

Out and about

Earlier than usual, the day started that I only had time for a shower and dressing up before making out to work without breakfast.

As we prepared for our meeting and conference, the idea that we could have breakfast before this fell through as time caught up with us without even a second for a Starbucks latte.

We found a room, and we entered a conference that had the first 15 minutes doing introductions, we were that many and it appears we would be interacting with many of them over the next few weeks and months.

Tinker bells

Meanwhile, I got the rights to look into what had been crafted for the UK, there is a danger that the wheel is being reinvented and in the process a perfectly efficient wheel is being underutilised.

I appreciate that technical people can be insufferable tinkerers with the impression that they can always craft something better than what has taken year-man-hours of amazing minds with untrammelled exposure to environments and scenarios too diverse to fathom, but I say, you must always determine what the tool can do before you retool.

Yet, I am learning, listening, reading, assimilating and appreciating what has been done before, lessons abound.

Reflection on inflection

Starbucks lattes after the conference, after lunch where we indulged in tuck shop cakes which became the desserts to a better prepared Italian pasta meal. The chef should probably stop experimenting with other cuisine.

The verdict from the conference was, too many assumptions abound and we need to challenge all those assumptions until each issue is clearly defined, understood, agreed upon and signed off.

That was the end of another day apart from getting clarifications between our signed contracts and the scheduling – what a relief, to all concerned.

Thought Picnic: To see a bicycle with unequal wheels

Bolts amiss with much damage

I returned to Amsterdam this afternoon to pick up my bicycle. It needed a basic repair job of attaching the back carriage to the body of the bicycle with two nuts and bolts.

I had planned to ride down to the repair shop where I bought it a few years ago with the intention of even doing the repairs myself if they had no time to see to it immediately.

As a walked up to the apartment block where I once lived, I was somewhat emotionless about it, it had become part of my past and it was necessary to be detached and move on swiftly.

When I saw the bicycle, some vandal had bent the back carriage out of shape such that the lower part near the hub of the wheel having lost a nut jutted into the spokes of the wheel – why anyone will find pleasure in doing that escapes me.

A quick work of it

Precarious as it was, I was able to do a temporary fix to ride the bicycle to the repair shop. The man recognised that I bought the bicycle from years before and I later reminded him that the second-hand bike I had before that once belonged to his mother who was quite a careful owner.

For years, I had used second-hand bikes that seemed to be what most people have though more are now getting new bicycles.

I was able to persuade them to do the job today and I was told to return in 30 minutes as I tacked on a few more adjustments like a new front lamp, air in the types, removing the annoying dynamo and just a basic service if time allows it.

Within 25 minutes they called to say it was ready, they had done everything and even sorted out the faulty switch on the rear lighting, the bicycle felt as good as mended as we had a light banter about other things.

Penny-farthing, plenty to point out

The repairman then said there was one bicycle he would really like to see me ride since I looked dressed for it – hat and all, except for the fact that I should have worn a bow-tie and not a day cravat.

As he showed me the bicycle, I realised I had only ever seen a penny-farthing in books and never in real life – that was really funny, if only I had the presence of mind to take a picture of it then.

Besides, I had to sure I could take my bicycle on the trains – apparently, we are not allowed to carry big bicycles on board during the rush hour and on my way into Amsterdam, I found that the trains had spaces allocated for bicycles with priority sticks to boot – so I made allowances for other to walk round my bicycle to use the fold-up seats but I did not have to be inconvenienced as to why my bicycle was on that coach.

I always have many times had the unique opportunity to point to signs on the train in terms of priority, noise, seating and much else – when I lost my way, my phone came to the rescue, I keyed in my destination and got vocal directions to help me get home.

Editorial: The morning after the world ended

A rugged earth

And so the earth is reborn as morning broke very much like the first morning, you wonder what happened to the scientifically predicted end of the world that seems to have passed without event.

The earth itself has seen many destructions and renovations, the earth at the beginning in Genesis did pre-exist, but it was without form and void, the backstory told later on informs that it was the domain of Lucifer’s rule before he rebelled and in one instant all life was wiped off the earth for an indeterminate period of time.

The life-forms of that bygone age are what we see as fossils of dinosaurs and the measure of time is an eternity that stretches from millions into billions of years ago.

Flood for a new beginning

Creationism gives the context to a post-Adamite destruction of all life that breathes air with the floods of Noah who with his ark saved both his family and all species of breathing animals.

Another destruction is pending, the one that was to be preceded by a rapture, yesterday, a tribulation, a destruction and the creation of a new heaven and new earth.

What our dear scientist missed was the fact that he had no clue about that scheduling. The omnipotence, omnipresence and omniscience of God can be explained in natural terms.

Hubs, wheels and spheres of time

The dimension of time in which God dwells is like the hub of a wheel that extends out to the circumference where we find ourselves in a sector of a greater and mightier purpose than we can fathom, but that is the concept of eternity, it has no beginning or end because it is at the centre of all things and we calibrate our three-dimensional sector of this in units of measurable time.

The analogy of the wheel is probably what we can fully understand because we can create movement when it is properly attached, the mind-blowing dimension to this is a wheel in the form of a perfect sphere, multidirectional and self-propelling – in that situation you cannot have a hub as you would for a wheel but astronomers would probably appreciate the contexts of gravity, centrifugal and centripetal forces and much more.

The folly of man

What our scientist tried to do was have a peek into a point on the surface of a hub of hubs of spheres of dimensions of time and pinpoint with accuracy an event that even Jesus Christ said neither He nor the angels knew apart from God the Father.

It is hard enough predicting the weather, the markets ebb and flow with forces that are almost indeterminate, we cannot predict our own demise or even with any certainty the course of our lives and yet somebody wants to predict the end of the world. Amuse me.

Once again, his dimensions were out of sorts, his measurements in earth-bound units of finite time and he expected to offer a perspective of eternal purpose – what folly – for that again, his credibility has been questioned and we should expect another excuse and the world will continue until that expected but unknown date.

Good morning, world.