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I’m abseiling down the Falkirk Wheel, in aid of Friend of Chernobyl’s Children Edinburgh West. My colleague Caroline managed to rope us in (*cough*) and in a moment of “I’m still young!”-ness, I said yes to throwing my clumsy-ass self off a rather large wheel for boats, attached only to a wee rope. If I die from being an idiot it will have been worth it (assuming y’all donate).
This weekend was the first time in months I went out for a jog around the park. I had that twisted ankle all through November and part of December after the Urbathon and I got lazy and it got far too cold (remember, I’m tropical).
It was a leisurely jog. I kept things at a warm-up pace to avoid the horrible, takes-days-to-go-away ache in my quads. Neil came with and brought the camera so he’s got some nice shots of the loch along Queen’s Drive.
(Really, I only felt ‘motivated’, i.e. guilt-tripped into doing it because someone I know is doing a marathon in May and if he can run 42km I can surely manage five.)
So I’m back on the case. I still have every intention of going out early every morning for a jog, but laziness is still winning out over determination for the moment. Plus spring has crawled back into its cave and it’s snowing again.
Here’s a free Inspector Rebus story: The Very Last Drop.
Not quite as good as the novels, but a lovely way to keep Rebus alive for the fans. I, for one, am grateful.
Please save the orangutan. As you know, Singaporeans like me feel real affection for these animals — the Lion City was fronted by an old ‘man’ of the forest in much of its tourism campaigns for many years. We miss you, Ah Meng.
Ahem. Anyway. To save the orangutan, industry must stop buying from companies that are deforesting the orangutan’s natural habitat in Indonesia in a cruel manner. But what real, cost-effective alternatives are on offer if the majority of the population continues to demand cheap chocolate and other food products? Greenpeace holds Kraft up as an example of a company who is trying to make a difference by cutting unscrupulous palm oil suppliers out of their supply chain, but they are a subsidiary of Altria (aka Philip Morris). Tobacco farming also contributes greatly to deforestation.
This is only one issue in a huge global problem we have with industrial food production and price competition. We have knocked this planet off-balance. It’s going to take much more than a few brands buying palm oil elsewhere to really save the orangutan.
Let’s try to work together to make sure we have the conditions to continue producing the ingredients for good quality chocolate and maintaining diversity in nature. ‘Kthxbai!
Cool.
(There was an embedded BigThink video here, but it’s gone… I think they changed how their videos are embedded, and I can’t remember what this was about.)
I’m not sure why people spend so much time worrying about death and the afterlife when there’s so much to experience in the here and now. Science and nature are fascinating.
This is Richard Yates novel #4 for me. While Revolutionary Road, A Special Providence and Cold Spring Harbour were magnificent reads that really made me depressed, Young Hearts Crying definitely takes a more comedic turn.
Once again, we follow the lives of a young couple, Michael and Lucy Davenport. Michael is a writer and Lucy is rich. Michael doesn’t want her money to affect his struggle to become a ‘real’ writer, so he point-blank refuses to have anything to do with her wealth.
While the things that happen to them aren’t exactly funny, there’s something distinctly more lighthearted about Young Hearts Crying. The sense of tragedy that settled on the other Yates novels I’ve read definitely isn’t present here. In the end, you do feel for Michael and Lucy, but at least the feelings are relatively optimistic.
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The way to save magazine publishing is to publish them to the iPad, making magazines more expensive to produce? I’m betting people won’t be paying any more for a new or renewal subscription once these are widely available. It’ll be interesting to see if this actually happens and turns a significant and worthwhile profit.
Went to the Diane Arbus exhibition at the Dean Gallery on the weekend. I managed to actually go to something on opening day, an impressive performance by my standards. The price was right (read: free) — amazing photos, nicely displayed. The Dean Cemetery is also right next door to the gallery, so we took a walk round that, too (Me: Can we go into the cemetery after we’re done with the gallery? Neil: Only if we get to leave it.)
I wish I was better at taking photos. I’ve been lusting after a couple of things: the Diana Mini (I’m in love with the shutter lever) and one of those Lumix point-and-shoot dealies with the larger lens.
Having a membership at Blockbuster means you can ‘try’ all sorts of films. We’ve seen loads of good things. And then I managed to talk Neil into renting Twilight.
Haha. Wow, is it bad. All those gagging noises came from me, as Bella and Edward’s lines got cornier and cornier as the film progressed. Could they be any lamer?
Carlyle Cullen’s quite hot, though. But I don’t think I’ll watch anything Twilight-related ever again.
That Lady Gaga sure knows how to do pop music. If only everyone made such an effort.
My sister’s pal Jean sent this link through: Cheating director called Singapore’s Tiger Woods. All the most popular stories on Singapore’s Straits Times are to do with this chipmunk-looking middle-aged man’s extra-curricular activities.
His first few, supposedly really good films were pretty average. His less-successful films since then have been unremittingly stupid. Given he’s just released another film, all this is really quite good publicity, isn’t it?
(Plus, how over-dramatic was his wife’s performance*? I bet she has a future in local film.)
Which person (male or female) dealing with middle age badly isn’t lusting after much younger specimens of humanity? Is the Singapore media so keen to be part of the tacky topic du jour that they’ll over-sensationalise anything?
I’m not sure if he actually needs to scream, “Look at me! Looooooook!!!! I’m still relevant!!” in order for the media to get this thing called a clue.
* I’m not doubting he’s been a bad boy. I reckon they’re just going well overboard and playing the media to get as much coverage out of it as possible. Also, who the fuck names themselves Foyce?
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When I first saw The Lost Boys back in the 80s, I stayed up all night afterwards thinking about it and being all excited / scared. That kicked off my obsession with vampiric lore. RIP Corey Haim.
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Honestly, I did not think it would come to this. But here’s photographic proof that I do indeed carry around two mobiles (as of this week) — my rather-new Nokia E72, which I love, and a brand spanking new (I assume it’s not a refurb) iPhone 3G.
Thoughts so far:
(Shot with a Nokia E51 in night mode.)
Well-spotted: Neil drew my attention to this cute wee character sprayed on a wall along George Street.
(Shot with my Nokia E72!)
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Y’know, the photo of Tony Blair on the jacket of his memoir (no I won’t be buying it, political memoirs aren’t usually very interesting) looks like the solo effort of someone who used to be in a pop group. I’m not sure that was the effect he was going for.
If a psychopath’s brain is wired up to respond differently to stimulus, are they still fully responsible for their crimes? They can’t be rehabilitated if that’s the case.