The Alphatucana Blog

The Century Of The Self

2009-06-07T12:05:00.002Z

I watched this excellent documentary the other day. It is about how the public are conned by big business into believing that ‘democracy’ and ‘freedom’ in the form of free enterprise (business) must go together: that you can't have democracy without free enterprise. Also, it shows how we are manipulated into wanting things we don't need so we'll spend our hard-earned money on the products of the rich people's factories. Episone 1 is here; there are four in all on Google Video, each just under an hour long.

The Great Depression Again

2009-04-13T08:29:00.008Z

Well, it must be pretty clear to everybody now that what I wrote about on my Great Depression page back in 2003 is arriving with a vengeance now, in 2009.

But there's more that I didn't know about then, and it is worth saying. That is, after reading around, and observing the pattern of political pronouncements over some time, I have come to the conclusion that this depression is deliberate. It has been purposefully engineered for a reason.

I used to think that conspiracy theories, whilst amusing, were unrealistic. Surely someone would blow the whistle out of spite, or for money, or some such? But now, I'm not so sure. People who blow whistles can be made to disappear, after all - assuming anyone listens to them, and assuming anyone reports them: and the media do not report them: you have to seek them out.

Firstly: how can a depression be engineered? It is easy, if you are in control of the world's economies (in other words, the banking and political systems). You discard Keynsian economics and adopt that of Friedman and Hayek instead. Market forces are made supreme and deregulation rules. As a result of deregulation, the banks can make dodgy loans. Inevitably, because there is short-term money to be made, they will: history has shown how this works many times in the past - 1929 was only the most recent and it happened in much the same way. Clearly, with the historical record to guide them, people who wanted to engineer this depression could have done so by following the template of history.

OK: perhaps they could have, but did they? And what for anyway?

I think the purpose of it, looking at recent pronouncements after the G20 meeting and otherwise, is to introduce, step by step but nevertheless quite quickly, the "New World Order" described by George Bush Sr in 1991 and others (including Gordon Brown). This appears to involve a single world currency - currently being spoken of as a "supercurrency" or a "new world reserve currency to replace the dollar". So what? Consider the case of the Euro. Europe is in depression now, and Italy is suffering badly - but because its currency is no longer the Lira, they don't have any control over it. They can't devalue it, or take other such measures to boost their economy. Their new currency, the Euro, is in the hands of bankers in Germany. And it doesn't suit them to devalue the Euro. Furthermore, in the new European Constitution, which although voted down by the populace of Europe was implemented anyway as a bunch of separate statutes so that no further consultation with the people was required, it states that these bankers are to determine interest rates and so on without reference to anyone else whatsoever - not to parliament, not to the European Commission (another undemocratic body) - nobody. They will, inevitably, do what suits themselves. And we all know what altruistic people bankers are.

You can be certain that a global currency will be run in the same stupid and undemocratic way. Countries that join such a currency will have lost much of their sovereignty at a stroke. That appears to be part of the purpose of it. Certain people, presumably bankers, want total control of the world. And, not in a democratic way.

Why are our leaders signing over to it - and clearly they've been moving us in this direction for decades? They are bought and paid for. They see themselves as part of this future ruling elite, I think.

Here are a couple of videos to watch. The first is a bit lurid, but it summarises the idea. And as for microchipping the population, well, it could happen. And wouldn't it be interesting if the prophecy in the biblical Book of Revelation about the Mark of the Beast turns out to be correct? How does one survive without being able to buy or sell? Especially in an urban environment. Remember, the prophecy also says that anyone accepting the mark will not be saved. The Beast will rule the world for a short time only, (maybe up to 3.5 years) if that prophecy is correct.

Video: New World Order

The second video is an interview with David Icke. Yes, the madman who thinks the world is ruled by lizards from another dimension. However, lizards or no, the rest of what he says fits the pattern of what is happening today. Trust me - it is worth watching. It is a long video - 2 hours or so.

Video: David Icke Interview

A few more words about the microchipping idea. If every purchase or sale goes through the system - there would be no cash - it can all be taxed. And indeed, the bank could charge, say, a 5% commission on every purchase or sale of even the poorest people. And what if the bankers decide, in their infinite wisdom, to put interest rates up? 10% commission anybody? The only alternative would appear to be (illegal) independent currencies, and barter, and running your own farm (without purchasing fertilizers, tools, seeds, animals, household items, and so on).

I'll think about that and maybe put some more info here if I can come up with any. In the meantime, if you have another two hours to spare (!) this video, Zeitgeist, is also worth watching if you want to see how the conspirators mislead us. If you are not familiar with this information, you may find it shocking and in part, blasphemous - and a bit boring near the beginning, but stick with it, it soon livens up. It covers the 9/11 incident, the banking conspiracy, and more.

Video: Zeitgeist

A Wunch of Bankers

2008-09-24T11:22:00.004Z

...or how the ball got dropped this time around. The government *always* drops the ball in the end, or, as Bob Beckman used to say (paraphrased) "What we learn from History is that nobody learns anything from History."

This author has summarized the development of the banking crisis in straightforward terms:

Economic Disasters and Stupid Evil People

I suppose I should be updating my Great Depression page, written in 2003 (although I've been waiting for this to happen since at least the 1980's). It's about time, really.

Web Design

2008-05-05T16:53:00.002Z

People keep asking me to fix or create their web sites for them. Well, OK. Maybe that will be my new mode of income, apart from the film work at the Studio. So I shall be a web designer. Take a look at http://www.shortletbudapest.co.uk for one I've begun... I've done others recently too, now I think about it. I guess I can be a web designer. And, since people keep asking me, I don't think I'll have to search too hard for business. And as people typically ask extortionate prices, I can be more reasonable, I think. After all, I have a day job to go to too.

Three Quarters of a Kid

2008-04-27T19:42:00.003Z

It seems Spring is making a proper appearance at last, albeit only for a few days perhaps. Anyway, I went out and took some photos in a nearby bluebell woods - you can see the pics via my Image London blog.

If you like animals, you might enjoy The Daily Coyote blog, by a woman who adopted an orphaned coyote. She takes great photos too.

On the other hand, if you are suffering from depression, you might like to try the BROH trick: it stands for Brain Running Old Habits - the article will explain in properly, but basically it is about remembering that you and your habits of thought are two separate entities. Learn to identify but don't identify with those depressing thoughts: don't believe them. They are just a habit.

If you are thinking of getting married... and your maths is up to it, why not try working out what your odds are? Geek Logic might do the trick. According to that I should get married but should only have three quarters of a kid...

Credit Crunch

2008-04-19T21:38:00.002Z

The credit crunch is all very well - indeed, I've been having my very own credit crunch for most of my life it seems - but in some parts of the world things are, of course, much worse than here. According to Macrohistory, a very good history site, the news for April 9th is:

Apr 9 People around the world are rioting because of food prices or availability: in Egypt, Mexico, Haiti, Yemen, Côte d’Ivoire, Morocco, Senegal, Uzbekistan, Guinea, Mauritania. In South Korea there is panic buying. In the Philippines, officials are raiding warehouses looking for unscrupulous traders hoarding rice. The rising price of oil has made food production more expensive. Nations are cutting back on their exports of food in order to have enough for their own people. Egypt's reduction of rice exports is hurting Turkey, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. On April 3, world rice prices rose as much as 30 percent.

So... OK, the official inflation rate here is about 2.5%. In reality, food prices rose by 11% over the last 12 months here. Elsewhere, because of problems with wheat and rice crops this year plus increasing demand from rising populations, prices are rising much faster. And of course there's Zimbabwe with 116,000% inflation. That is, "hyperinflation".

Working Too Much?

2008-04-06T20:51:00.003Z

I've hardly had time to do anything much lately - too much work! Plus watching the Great Depression unfold, if that is what it is doing (see previous post). But here are a few interesting web pages I've managed to dig up even so. You might want to calculate your global "footprint" at the Earthday Footprint Page. They try to calculate how many planet Earths would be needed if everybody lived like you do. My lifestyle adds up to 1.5 Earths; below average for a Westerner. But really I don't buy all this scaremongering. Yes people could take more care of the planet and I wish we would, but in the end, I believe we will sort the problems out and maintain or improve our lifestyles. Technology rules!

On another subject altogether (or is it?), did you know that Jesus had female apostles? Society up to 400AD and indeed much later couldn't really comprehend that, so the women were largely erased from the record - but not completely. I always thought that the idea that a priest had to have a willy just because Jesus (presumably) did was a bit weird anyway.

And now, even further off the limb: video lectures about really weird stuff - like flying saucers and so on. Enjoy it, but perhaps take it with a pinch of salt. Science requires scepticism of hearsay.

1929 Recapitulated?

2008-04-02T13:29:00.004Z

Back in 2003 I wrote an article about the coming Great Depression. Well, the current "sub-prime" banking crisis certainly fits the pattern of a financial bubble finally bursting.

Basically, a wunch of bankers have been lending money to people such as myself who can't afford it, and now they're all surprised as it blows up in their faces. The boss of the Northern Rock bank, Britain's recent casualty, bleated before a parliamentary committee that "nobody could have foreseen this", as if people such as myself haven't been forecasting this outcome for, literally, decades.

I see that UBS in Switzerland has written down billions of dollars against bad debts. How can one choose a bank these days? Well, there can be no guarantees really, but probably it is necessary to do a load of homework first. For example, UBS's share price has fallen 83% over the last year in the lead-up to their crisis. Bear Stearns' share price had been sliding for some time before that crisis broke. It seems somebody had a clue. Probably, if you have any funds that you can't afford to lose, they should be spread between a number of UNRELATED institutions, and a number of currencies. In the UK, guarantees only cover up to around £30,000 on deposits (and the deposits must be in unrelated banks for them all to be protected). Check this article at http://www.moneysavingexpert.co.uk for advice.

Is the dollar a safe currency any more? Nobody knows. US interest rates are down, making it unattractive and raising inflation in countries whose currencies are pegged to the dollar. If too much money leaves the US to find better rates elsewhere, the US will find itself with the unenviable choice between a collapsing currency raising the prices of imports to unaffordable levels, or raising interest rates and crushing the economy that way instead. That is, slump1 or slump2.

Bankers around the world are afraid of inflation - and certainly, hyperinflation such as in Zimbabwe at the moment or Germany between the wars is worth avoiding at all costs - but generally, a great depression is much worse than normal inflation levels. Inflation, after all, allows people to pay off their debts with cheap money: the debt remains much the same but your wages tend to go up each year. Depression makes debts progressively harder and harder to pay off as money becomes more and more expensive (falling prices means your cash is more valuable (e.g., your wages may fall), which means it is harder to pay things off). The golden rule: cash is king. Hold on to it!

Image London

2008-03-22T11:24:00.002Z

I have started a new blog: http://imagelondon.blogspot.com. I have noticed various blogs showing photos of various cities around the world on a daily basis, and getting lots of visitors, so I thought why don't I do the same (although probably not daily, knowing me)? There are London blogs already but each has its own style. There is room for one more: the things I like will be the things some other people like, after all.

It is also a get-rich-quick scheme of sorts, since I am putting Google ads on it - just in case zillions of visitors click on them and pay me a penny each or something. Well, you never know.

Forms

2008-02-26T11:23:00.004Z

Apart from making the occasional entry in this blog, I also make the occasional web site, such as http://www.britishunitedartists.com/ , http://www.cwfstudio.com/ , http://www.actingcourses.net/ (at which I also maintain the blog)... I mention this because web sites require e-mail links or forms of some sort, and this presents a problem: spammers. Spammers fill in the forms, usually automatically, or they harvest the e-mail addresses for later use by a zillion zombies.

I have tried various php solutions but they basically don't work because server administrators change their settings seemingly every week and whatever automated form-to-mail solution I try stops working within days unless I can host the site on my own server, which I cannot. I have better things to do than keep changing the code on numerous web sites.

I have tried obfuscating the e-mail address; this works to some extent, but as spammers' robots get more sophisticated, this solution will not work forever.

Then I found formsmarts.com. They provide a number of simple solutions from a challenge-response web page to a hosted html form which should be compatible with all systems. Fingers crossed, but it seems to be working smoothly enough at the moment!

The Meaning Of Life

2008-02-10T16:11:00.000Z

Well, I suppose one can't talk about the meaning of life without thinking of Douglas Adams, for whom the answer appeared to have been "42" (in The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy"), and indeed, this web site does just that. But he also indirectly makes an important point about the alternative philosophy of nihilism, which states that life, and indeed everything, is meaningless: if everything is meaningless, then so is the idea that everything is meaningless... In other words, the idea that life is worthless is a worthless idea. To me, that means it is false, or might as well be. So nihilism is imploded by its own definition: if true, it must be false.

I expect that is arguable, but it seems close enough for practical purposes. And the purpose of life - its meaning? Altruism. So there.

Here is a recent photo of Douglas Adams, taken at Highgate Cemetry in London.

And here is a quote from him:

"There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened."

On another subject, I rather liked this rather well-travelled photographer's travel photos. And the latest Batman movie trailer.

Democracy and Stuff

2008-02-09T14:51:00.000Z

Here is a nice 90-second overview of the progress of "democracy" (of sorts) down through the ages, assuming that no tribal systems were democratic, I suppose. And assuming that the modern system of "representative democracy" actually counts given that most such governments seem to claim to listen then do what they like anyway (and then claim to wonder why voter turnout is so low).

The above flash movie comes from Maps Of War and there are several others to enjoy there. If history isn't your bucket of cheese, maybe you need 32 Keys to Life instead. Or maybe watch a movie trailer (one of them mentions cheese, by the way)? Finally a great photo of a forest fire.

What About...

2008-01-29T16:54:00.000Z

...the woman whose boyfriend thought she was too drunk to drive, so she called the police. While drunk. And driving. Or the desperado who broke into parking meters, but plugged his drill into the local police station ("Capitol guardhouse" in US English, AIUI).

On the plus side, if you like sculptures and statues, maybe you'll appreciate these unusual ones. Or a fancy planetarium. Next a useful reference guide to which foods are supposed to help with what diseases. Finally... the kind of house I might like to live in when I'm rich.

Christmas and All That

2008-01-13T12:56:00.000Z

After many years of not being rich yet (in Western terms anyway), I have discovered the joys of cheap shopping on the Internet. Now, I have shopped online before, but this Christmas I specifically wanted to buy cheaply... and as I like to give books and movies, I was pleased to explore Amazon's second-hand options. And sure enough, the bulk of books and DVDs that I bought for people second-hand were just fine. In near perfect condition, indeed. One or two were a bit off, but overall, I managed to handle Christmas for about £70 instead of the usual £200. With a DVD movie costing about £2.37 including delivery instead of £10-£30, the savings can be immense. OK, the risk of a problem with the product is slightly higher, but at that kind of price I can just buy another one from another supplier.

Funny news stories... How about the latest pyramid selling scam in China? Over a million people have been persuaded to spend some £1300 on ant farms. Then there's the latest teenage-wild-party-while-the-parents-are-away event. I like the fact that the naughty fellow has his story well thought-out. His video chit-chat is a bit hard to follow but the article spells it out.

Now here is a photo showing the Moon over the 'top' of the Earth's atmosphere, taken from the Space Shuttle Discovery in July 2007. "Image ISS013-E-54329.JPG courtesy of the Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center."

Back Again

2007-09-09T16:16:00.000Z

Well, I know I've been off-air for a bit now, but I'm back today, as I slowly get over the flipping flu. My latest money-making scheme, i.e., the domain names thing, isn't producing any results, so it is suitably abandoned unless something comes of it before they expire. Probably I need to be more persistent with schemes, but they are boring when they don't work. My next plan is to try doing some paintings and selling them (online, ideally). The first one is here:

Those wavy Moire fringes you may see running from right to left in this rendering do not exist on the original. They are an artefact caused by the texture of the canvas mixing with the pixel system that computers use. Possibly I need to upload a lower-resolution photo or something; I'll have to experiment. You can click here to see a larger, relatively fringe-free version. The colours are reasonably accurate in the photo, except I would say that the blue is a noticeably darker shade on the actual painting. Anyway, the painting is acrylic on mounted canvas, 406x305mm (16x12 inches), 38mm deep. Looking around online and in shops, things like this go for around £150 which seems about right to me.

Now for something more serious. These people are letting themselves be beaten at Wii tennis... by their dog (video). The poor animal will never learn to respect them! I don't really 'get' tatoos and piercings. They just seem bizarre to me. So this blog has the top 10 of them. Prepare to be grossed out. Or bizarred out, I suppose. Well, I guess that's enough Western culture for the moment. Now for a bit of culture from the East: the Thousand Hands Goddess Dance. We may not know what it means, but we know quality when we see it, I think. Finally, for those people who are savvy enough to use 'hijack this' to clean the junk programs and spyware from their computers every now and then, a log auto-analyser to suggest to you which of your start-up items may be worth eliminating. Just paste the saved log into the box, press the button and hey presto! No guarantees or warranties, E&OE, yabba dabba doo.

Money-Making Scheme No. 3,612

2007-07-15T12:11:00.000Z

One of these days I really am going to Get Rich Quick (TM). My latest scheme is to dream up three really good-sounding domain names, which I hope to eventually sell. I have added links to them in the side bar:

Now aren't those great names? My plan originally was just to put them straight up for sale, maybe on Ebay or somewhere, but then I thought: perhaps I should monetize them first. That is, a) get some money from them somehow, and b) demonstrate to potential buyers how valuable they might be, before selling them. So I have put some content in them and will add them to various search engines...

Of course, if they make enough money I won't want to sell them, I suppose. But, at least for the last two, I doubt that they will make much for me directly as I have no plans to sell related products. I shall probably just put Google AdSense on them. I can do tarot readings for the first one though.

Arrandene, Mill Hill, London

2007-06-20T19:17:00.000Z

I went for a long walk around the Arrandene nature reserve the other day. Originally I had a little slideshow going on in this blog entry, but I have decided to remove it as it uses up a lot of bandwidth - not a problem for those of us with unmetered broadband or better, but too slow or costly for some viewers. So, instead, if you would like to see the pictures, you can go to my Web Album.

How's the Writing Going?

2007-06-20T16:11:00.000Z

Actually, quite well. The question is, though, how do I figure out how much is still to be done? Today I reached 30,000 words, i.e., 50% of my original estimate of 60,000 words.

However, I am certainly more than halfway through the story. Counting scenes in the script, I am up to scene 86 of 116. That's 74%. That seems more like it! I think I had better count it that way in future. So, I am almost three-quarters of the way through the first draft. Excellent!

Big Brother 8

2007-06-09T14:39:00.000Z

This year's Big Brother 8 (UK) has begun so my annual addiction to this programme has begun too. I even auditioned for it last year! Sadly, I didn't make it through to the programme, but maybe I have been saved for something better. ;-) But... why do I like this detestable programme, you might ask? Isn't it voyeuristic, moronic, and salacious? Well, yes.

In fact, I think the series suffers from one rather strange paradox: the more detested the programme is, the more it is worth showing. My position on it is a bit like Oscar Wilde's when he said, "An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all." Big Brother certainly causes controversy, and flushes out the usual rent-a-quote MP's. But controversy is not a bad thing: it allows society to evolve peacefully, after all. It is one of the bases of our much-neglected democracy. And with the average viewer having between 30 and 400 channels to choose from on the TV, plus much more on the Internet, they really don't have to watch it if they don't want to.

There is another aspect to the series as well. Unlike other programmes, you actually get to know the characters of real people. What happens in the house is not scripted or limited by the imaginations of scriptwriters and producers. You have to use your social skills to get the best out of this programme, unlike any other (except perhaps some of its imitators). This is what is truly novel about it: it requires a different kind of intelligence to watch: social intelligence and emotional intelligence. With ordinary programmes, if you can stay awake long enough to watch them, there is little requirement for intelligence on the part of the viewer: we are spoon-fed the 'entertainment' or 'information' and that is all that is expected of us (other than to watch the spam - sorry, adverts). But if you watch Big Brother passively, you will miss out on exercising your brain. The housemates are constantly jockeying for position, changing tactics, lying, being friendly (genuinely and not so genuinely sometimes), and so on. Are you able, after years of watching passive TV, even capable of keeping track of their relationships? Can you figure out who will win?

Steven Johnson explains these ideas in more detail in his book, Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Popular Culture Is Making Us Smarter. I don't recommend betting if you're prone to addiction, but whether you bet or not, you can get a good idea of what the public thinks of the housemates by looking at their odds of winning at oddschecker.com. Betting odds are likely to be a better guide to what is really going to happen than what the pundits say: after all people are putting their money on it!

No Topic

2007-06-06T19:45:00.000Z

I've called this entry 'No Topic' as I don't have any particular topic to write about: I'm in a non-write-about-it frame of mind lately - hence the lack of entries for the last few days. Nevertheless, some more writing has been accomplished.

And some surfing... Did you know some people are trying to build a time machine? And not using a black hole - that method is old hat:

On a totally different slant, have you ever tried hurling yourself down a 1:1 slope (that's 45 degrees - I don't know what it is in percentage units: 50% of vertical, I suppose)? Well, at Cooper's Hill in Brockworth, Gloucestershire, people do it every year in a stupid old festival that allows grazing rights on common land or some such. It is a race in which the contestants chase after... a piece of cheese. Yes. Cheese. Double Gloucester, to be exact. I was actually present one year. A woman was knocked unconscious by the aforementioned cheese as it bounced into the crowd. This video shows the 2007 event:

Coopers Hill Cheese Rolling - Watch more free videos

After all that excitement, how about a bit of cyberwar? It seems somebody is attacking the government of Estonia - they suspect the Kremlin. Alternatively, how about a bit of art? It takes a few moments to load (it is a flash drawing), but it is worth the wait. Click and drag up or down with your mouse to move in or out.

Katherine of Alexandria

2007-05-29T18:44:00.000Z

Well, I wrote another 1% of the book today... things are moving on quite rapidly really, on those days when I get some writing done! I still rather feel, though, that things are moving rather more rapidly than I thought originally and I may well be finished a long way before the 60,000 word estimate I started with. Well, we will see.

I have of course been surfing the good old Internet the rest of the time. I was very interested in The Case Against Homework: How Homework Is Hurting Our Children and What We Can Do about It, which says what I have thought for many years (since my school days, indeed): homework is of little benefit, and of much harm to people's social lives. OK, yes, that is a link to Amazon, but I thought I'd try once again - we'll see how long it is before Amazon break the link like they usually do. Anyway, I haven't read that book, but it looks like a good idea to me. I see that there are others making the same point too. Meanwhile, have you wondered what those brighter than normal stars are in the sky? Well, at the moment, it could be the planets Mercury, Venus or Saturn, for example. See which one you're seeing at Planetfinder. For a bit of fun, here's how to deal with unwanted telesales calls... (video). Alternatively, see if you can spot the difference between a computer geek and a serial killer. I got 8/10. Ain't no-one going to serialize me! ;-)

Hotmail Problems

2007-05-26T20:29:00.000Z

I have discovered that for the last few days, none of my e-mails are reaching any hotmail.com addresses (and I have tried a few). Something is wrong, but e-mail to elsewhere seems to be OK. I will reply if and when the problem is fixed. Although I can receive e-mail from hotmail addresses, if you want a reply, e-mail me from a non-hotmail address. Thanks.

Meanwhile, how about some links? Does biblical law apply today? If so, why can't I own a Canadian? Next: how annoying is it when someone answers their phone during a meeting? Darth Vader has the solution (video). Now I know you regret not paying attention in physics classes at school, but here's your chance to catch up: flash animations of a large number of physics experiments for your entertainment and edification. I don't need to watch them 'cos I already have a physics degree, but you should. ;-) Finally, something to try when you're locked out of your car (video).

New Look Blog

2007-05-21T15:47:00.000Z

I felt like a change, so, since I like blue, I now have a blue blog. I have also got up to 42% of my projected 60,000 words in the Katherine of Alexandria book, and have added a couple of links to the new 'Links' bar to the right... Specifically, Calorie Connect, which gives you the calories in various food items on request with a simple but nifty form (with a few curious omissions, such as toast), and Diego Goldberg's Arrow of Time page - a look at his family down through the years: what a good idea. I've no idea who these people are, but it almost makes me want to find out...

Links of the day

2007-05-19T12:25:00.000Z

...not that I have links here every day, but I plan to do so fairly often.

Whilst searching for historical info relating to the Katherine of Alexandria book I am busy writing, I found Eye Witness to History - a site that concentrates on reports from people who were actually present at historical events as they happened, so you get a personal view. This is much more engaging than a more dry and scholarly approach.

I take a few photographs myself from time-to-time, so I was interested to see the Young Gallery. Unfortunately, the pictures are mostly rather 'arty-farty' for my taste - you know the kind of thing: if it is in black-and-white and shows some silky-looking skin, or if it shows some abstract colour, somehow that makes it 'art'. I don't buy it: it is too intellectual for me. Surely 'art' is supposed to generate some reaction other than boredom? There doesn't seem to be anything new in that sort of stuff: it has been done over and over again for a good century now. There are some nice time-exposures of cities in one gallery though, and some nice wildlife pictures too. You might also be interested in Richard Gere's (black & white) photos taken in Mongolia.

Over 41%

2007-05-15T21:20:00.000Z

Hmm... getting plenty of writing done. Good! More than 1% of my total done today, anyway - can't be bad!

I had kind of hoped to do more, but I got tired - in fact I got downright sleepy, and a "few minutes" of rest turned into a few hours. Ho hum. Still, if I need the rest, then it is best that I take it.

Later on I did a bit of web surfing. I've not been exercising enough lately - it has been slipping gradually for a long time, so I'm back to working on my motivation and thinking, and this time, ways of integrating the exercise into my normal daily routine: I think a "workout" is just rather dull, basically. I have tried a bit of self-hypnosis for it as well, with a free session from mindmedia.com, - Find Your Inner Athlete. There are also free sessions from the author of that session at mindchanginghypnosis.com. Hypnosis? Yes, and I know people have this impression that it is something weird and dangerous, but, basically, it isn't. It is simply a way of learning something more quickly than you might otherwise. Think of it as the same sort of thing as a guided visualization: it is not much different from using your imagination, basically, while your verbal mind is resting (ideally). Anyway, since trying the session a couple of weeks ago, I have indeed been doing a little more exercise - not full-on major sessions, but nevertheless, there has been some improvement.

I have also looked at a couple of web sites that talk about the thinking you need to get in place - similar to my own diet and exercise page actually! But it is good to see other people's way of putting it too - and I obviously need a bit of extra input from somewhere. The Hussman Fitness site was very interesting and talks about the mindset, and has a good section on what a fitness/weight-loss programme needs to involve (rather a lot of exercise - Hmm...).