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John

Guma lan a bhios an lamh thorteil! May the genourous hand ever be full!

About Me

"... I hope at least the following will endure: my trust in the people, my faith in men and women, and in the creation of a world in which it is easier to love." - Paulo Freire, "Pedagogy of the Oppressed.I am a 49 year old, Local Government Manager, married with two great kids. I am a Celt, that is I'm Scottish but very conscious of my Irish roots. I am 49 going on twenty (in my head). I have moved around a bit for the work and have not made as many friends as I would like, hence a desire to make friends through Myspace. I love my family and like to be with my kids I love travel but don't get far these days. My work, community development which plays a big part in my life as it’s about building community and it is tied intrinsically to my world view and my politics. I have a deep love and fascination for people and the hidden power they hold. I am never tired of the pleasure of seeing what people can do when they set their mind to change themselves their community or history. I love living in Scotland, I love the West coast, the Cairngorms, I love Uist and Shetland, and part of my soul is wandering like a lost spirit near Maghery in Donegal or wandering through the streets of Dublin. ‘I have become a suit but under my tie is a beating heart. I work in an office but I am forever on the hill. I have become a suit but am not yet dead’

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My Interests

I spend time with my kids. I love the sea and I love the hills. Music is very important to me. Politics (making the planet safe) i.e. anti nuclear, anti racism, ecology, socialism, the environment, alternative energy, cooperation rather than competition and building community. I read a lot and I am spending more and more time on the PC but I love being outdoors cycling(particularly mountain biking, hill walking, Skiing (telemarking), sailing (on old boats), sea fishing. I also enjoy good food and good malt whisky.

I'd like to meet:

People like me and people who are nothing like me

Music:

Most kinds of Rock Music,Reggae,R & B,world music, folk,(I love gaelic singers) Jazz, Trance etc , etc. Specific favourites in my collection include Keith Jarrett, Can, Massive Attack, Blue Nile, Daniel Lanois, Martyn Bennett,(http://www.martynbennett.com), The Residents , Antony & The Johnsons, The Waterboys,Nick Drake, The Clash, Levellers, Blur, Pulp, Radiohead, Ali Farke Toure, Shooglenifty, Dylan, Traffic, Orange Juice, Josef K, Sex Pistols, MC5,Franz Ferdinand, The Grateful Dead, Stone Roses, John Martyn, Tim Buckley, Jeff Buckley, Emmylou Harris, Television, Trashcan Sinatras, Talking Heads, Culture, King Tubby, Lee Scratch Perry,Sly & Robbie, Eno, Miles Davis, Coltrane,Talking Heads, Keith Jarret, System 7, Gong, Hendrix, Zappa, Roy Harper, Beefheart, Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Gong, Buzzcocks,Pere Ubu, James Blood Ulmer, Cocteau Twins, Velvet Underground, Tom Waits,The View(great new bad from Dundee), Jesus and Mary Chain,Robert Wyatt, Phillip Glass,Elvis Costelloe

Movies:

Bladerunner,Casablanca, Amelie, Diva, The Godfather, The Duellists, Goodfellas,Solaris, Delicatessen, 'Ladri di biciclette', Belleville Rendezvous and Eraserhead. I am a great fan of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger (I know where I'm going, A matter of Life or death and Black Narcissus) and I like Fellini movies.

Television:

We all watch too much of the hypno-box so I try to be selective. I have enjoyed: Shameless, West Wing, Monty Python, Jools Hollands show, The Office, Doctor Who, The Simpsons

Books:

I love reading, I read conflake boxes, anything with words I just love books, apart from Kellogs my favourite authors include Kafka, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Alistair Gray, Neil Gunn, Jack Kerouac, William Burroughs, Joyce, Ian McEwan, Robin Jenkins, Sartre, Camus ,Thoreau, Paul Bowles, Lewis Crassic Gibbon,Janice Galloway, A.L. Kennedy, Andrew Greig, James Robertson, Alan Spence, Irvine Welsh, . I like Oscar Wilde, TE Lawrence, Lao-Tze's The list could go on and on.I also read poetry like Heaney, , Burns, Plath, Blake, and Baudelaire. Some of the key writers that have impacted on my life were Marx, Paulo Friere, Hesse, MacDiarmid, Huxley . Fromm and Pirsig,

Heroes:

I do not have heroes in the traditional sense. The real heroes are all the unspoken, unnamed volunteers’ or the doctors and nurses that treat the wounds and care for those victims of war and famine. I admire the small people who stand up and say "no more". The trade unionists, the demonstrators anyone who knows what’s right and does something about it.

My Blog

Bah Humbug This Holiday Hell

 Maybe it's the weather, maybe it's the darkness, (we get a bit more darkness this far North), going to work in the dark coming home in the dark. Whatever it is, I am feeling really down on the w...
Posted by John on Sun, 09 Dec 2007 10:52:00 PST

CRISIS IN BURMA

This is being reposted everywhere , so if you have seen it before sorry but if not I hope you will read this and act: Hi, have you heard about the crisis in Burma? Burma is ruled by one of the worst ...
Posted by John on Sat, 13 Oct 2007 12:51:00 PST

Atheist prayer

I found this  prayer in an article by a guy called Richard Packham. I have been pondering on my own spirituality and my own sense of awe at the universe and life despite my aetheism and found his...
Posted by John on Fri, 12 Oct 2007 01:39:00 PST

Late summer blues

Just back from a fishing trip, caught some mackerel (which have been grilled and eaten already). The purpose of the "going fishin" was not surprisingly to catch fish.  I managed to get out of wor...
Posted by John on Tue, 02 Oct 2007 02:50:00 PST

Maritime mode

I have just returned to work after a two week break and for a number of reasons we stayed at home this year.  Decorating, family visitations, illness and lack of finance caused mainly by decorati...
Posted by John on Mon, 27 Aug 2007 01:58:00 PST

Trepidation

Sitting here extremely nervous, as I am going into hospital tomorrow for a relatively routine test.  It means sticking a tube down my throat.  I hate hospitals and the test sounds horrendous...
Posted by John on Sun, 12 Aug 2007 02:52:00 PST

Language of the Gael

I have just returned from the first Moray Feis. Feis Mhoireibh .Moray's first ever Feis Feis. A two day event for children aged 8-18 years, with workshops in Gaelic singing, Clarsach, (celtic harp) fi...
Posted by John on Sun, 27 May 2007 03:05:00 PST

New Dawn or Sunset on the British Empire

We have just had the result of our devolved Government Election, and there has been a seismic shift politically. The Scottish Nationalist Party has taken the largest number of seats from the Labour pa...
Posted by John on Fri, 04 May 2007 03:10:00 PST

my weekend

I spent Saturday in a barn full of cattle scraping varnish from oars.  Who said life gets dull as you get older?   I volunteered to help get the Moray gig into shape for the coming seas...
Posted by John on Sun, 25 Mar 2007 02:07:00 PST

Where I live

Sometimes it useful to put a friend in context.  I am into geography and the impact that terrain and environment have on a person, so here is a bit about my context, my environment and my current...
Posted by John on Tue, 06 Mar 2007 02:43:00 PST