Drab as a fool, aloof as a bard

I have actually been hard at work in my so-called spare time, developing some rather interesting pieces of software some of which I hope to share eventually. The end of the month does sneak up on one, though, and I often find myself in a rush to finish the second of my monthly quota of blog posts. Maybe leaving my blogging duties to the last minute is beneficial, though, as it stops me from devoting time to it which would be more profitably spent on programming and socialising. Here then is, I hope, a satisfactory collection of technical hints and tips, or if you are reading this right after I press “Save” but before I get around to finishing the post, an unsatisfactory skeleton of a blog post, starting with information about backing up Serendipity.

I have continued to be in a mood where I ponder Europe a lot, recently, and one of the questions I’ve asked myself is “What is it that makes the EU different from a country?” Ignoring the obvious answers like “A constitution declaring itself such”, “An armed forces that is not directly answerable to its constituent states” and “Ambassadors”, I went for the obscure answer of “State mottos”. Of course, there are countries which don’t have states, and countries with states that don’t have mottos, but I think that if the EU is to be taken seriously, it needs to follow the example of the U.S. and have a motto for each state. On the other hand, perhaps it doesn’t. But in case it does, I have compiled a list of mottos for each state in the EU (including some I have misappropriated and even completely made up), which I present below.