BONFIRE NIGHT, THURSDAY 5th NOVEMBER 2015 07:22 GMT

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Also available - EMOTIONAL MANAGEMENT FOR ORDINARY FOLK
 
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1. ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
5th November 1605
The Gunpowder Plot is foiled
At about midnight on the night of November 4-5, Sir Thomas Knyvet, a justice of the peace, found Guy Fawkes lurking in a cellar under the Parliament building and ordered the premises searched. Some 20 barrels of gunpowder were found, and Fawkes was taken into custody. During a torture session on the rack, Fawkes revealed that he was a participant in an English Catholic conspiracy to annihilate England’s Protestant government and replace it with Catholic leadership.

What became known as the Gunpowder Plot was organized by Robert Catesby, an English Catholic whose father had been persecuted by Queen Elizabeth I for refusing to conform to the Church of England. Guy Fawkes had converted to Catholicism, and his religious zeal led him to fight in the Spanish army in the Netherlands. Catesby and the handful of other plotters rented a cellar that extended under Parliament, and Fawkes planted the gunpowder there, hiding the barrels under coal and wood.

As the November 5 meeting of Parliament approached, Catesby enlisted more English Catholics into the conspiracy, and one of these, Francis Tresham, warned his Catholic brother-in-law Lord Monteagle not to attend Parliament that day. Monteagle alerted the government, and hours before the attack was to have taken place Fawkes and the explosives were found. By torturing Fawkes, King James’ government learned of the identities of his co-conspirators. During the next few weeks, English authorities killed or captured all the plotters and put the survivors on trial, along with a few innocent English Catholics.

Guy Fawkes himself was sentenced, along with the other surviving chief conspirators, to be hanged, drawn, and quartered in London. Moments before the start of his gruesome execution, on January 31, 1606, he jumped from a ladder while climbing to the hanging platform, breaking his neck and dying instantly.

In 1606, Parliament established November 5 as a day of public thanksgiving. 

2. TODAY IN MY LIFE
Blogging
Business Promotional Work
Me Time or Son Time
Meditation
Family/Missus Time

Twitter Followers = 2,028 (up 1)
Non-followed eliminated = 1
@DrKeithKantor
Unfollowers eliminated = 1
@yorhhfn99
New Followers followed back = 1
@sheilanne88, 
Spammers not followed back = 2
@fibezejyvilu, @SimplySpacesUK

3. TODAY'S SELF-OBSERVATION

Though I'm an improvement on my own parents, I still never really "got it" regarding parenting until my own children became adults. My ideal had been to be my children's wiser best mate. I have learned that this isn't really possible. As a parent you have a status and responsibility that makes you fundamentally different from a best friend, whether you like that or not. You cannot put on your children the burden of what you expect of a best friend, and your own behaviour requires a restraint much greater than friendship status.

To some folk, these principles just come naturally. I just wasn't one of those who instinctively "got it" and no one ever taught me. My own father recently could not resist offering some "wisdom" of his own to his grandson via a birthday card. Not being the sharpest tool, he has not grasped that his "wisdom" has absolutely no cred with either me or Son, who have both been on the end of his incompetent parenting.

Unfortunately incompetent parenting and dysfunctional families is a Blonder family tradition that goes back at least four generations. I have not been successful in bringing it to an end. Daughter is estranged from myself and Son. In the case of myself and Daughter, the relationship is irrevocably destroyed. However, my relationship with Son and Missus is a success. In their cases, my more redeeming features have been sufficient for the relationships to be strong.

To keep them strong, I need to keep the the fundamental principles that I have only very recently understood clearly. I have to be more than just a best friend. Everything I do and say around them, and I mean EVERYTHING, must build them up. Flippancy and casual remarks are simply not possible. Everything I do and say is either building up or undermining their confidence. 

Only now am I really grasping the consequences of words and actions and their power. This, along with several other lessons, are things I would have preferred to learn as a younger man. Well, I didn't. I have to go from here. Fortunately there are still plenty of opportunities in the time and people still available to me to make a difference. 

4. TODAY'S QUESTION FOR YOU
Do you understand the power of your words and actions?

5. TODAY'S WEATHER IN BRADFORD
Mostly dry at first and a few bright or sunny intervals developing with a freshening breeze tending to lift most of the mist and fog. Patchy rain arrives late morning, becoming persistent and heavier later in the day. Rain will clear in the late evening as the light south-easterly swings to a south-westerly
Max Temp = 13 degC at 3pm
Min Temp = 9 degC at 7am
Sunrise at 07:14
Sunset at 16:26
Moon: 

Weathertrack: A series of weather fronts will move north-east across Britain
Air Pressure: 1013 millibars and falling

6. TODAY'S ONELINER
Of course I talk to myself sometimes I need expert advice :D

7. NOW THAT'S FUNNY!
QI - why are there fewer female comedians?

8. TRIVIA
When Captain James Cook was killed in Hawaii in 1779, he was no innocent victim - he was attempting to kidnap the Hawaiian king Kalaniʻōpuʻu in order to extort a ransom. Four marines, Corporal James Thomas, Private Theophilus Hinks, Private Thomas Fatchett and Private John Allen, were also killed and two others were wounded in the confrontation.

9. ZEN WISDOM
All considerations of position, wealth and reputation aside, the greatest and most enduring triumph as a human being lies in knowing that one is doing one's best.