A blog. Index. | Photographs, drawings and AI work have their own places now.
I've been through my Peripheral Brain blog and fixed all the links* and formatting errors from the import. There's some stuff in there I'm quite proud of, frankly!
*Well, links that still exist. So much stuff has fallen off the back of the internet...
I'm just going to put this here. I was trying to parse a crossword clue that was tricky and drew myself looking suspiciously at it. But when cropped it looked like a ridiculous attempt to appear sophisticated so I've adopted it as an avatar.
I'm very proud of my lovely wife. Even if she thinks it is a naked ploy to flog magazines.
I mean... I always knew this...!
The contents page of the girls' blog was a bit broken but now it's all fixed.
Read More
This is an easy aide-memoire for staying mentally healthy. Mentally healthy does not mean 'not getting mentally ill'. It means feeling happy, confident, settled, and valued. The famous 5-a-day for fruit and veg is fine for nutrition. Your colon will thank you. But the contents of your head and of your heart require attention to these five-a-day.
If you can do this, you've got it cracked, basically.
Excited to hear the air stewardess asking people if they wanted "English Breakfast."
Disappointed to realise that she meant tea...
A nice infographic from Happify.com about happiness.
This is just great. Jacob do Bandolim no ukulele - Santa Morena (Vinícius Vivas - Francisco Renan - Leandro Donato).
I've tidied up the format and the links on Holly and Rosie's 'scrapbook' blog from birth to 14-ish. It's such a rabbit-hole of small-person-wisdom. I love it. Hours of cuteness.
This is an intelligent and important piece regarding the apparent, and actual, proliferation of 'fake news'. In particular it warns against the ways in which repressive regimes (openly or otherwise) can use our overvaluing of this concept to control media and journalism.
I've been clearing out old webspace and found this lot of 'emotional iconography'. They may as well remain available so I'm putting them here. One man's trash... Here they all are.
I just finished Alan Moore's Jerusalem after probably a year. It is hands down the most extraordinary book I've ever read (although I listened to the Simon Vance audiobook, which ordinarily would be heresy but for this book - which relies so much on the sounds of words - particularly the bloody remarkable Lucia Joyce chapter - I would say it is far and away the best way to approach it.)
Anybody with a passing interest in language and how it does and doesn't work should read the Lucia chapter ("Round The Bend") but not without the context of the preceding twenty-five chapters(!)
I can't, and don't want to, explain what makes it so profoundly unique and affecting because it cannot be described and has to be experienced first hand. And besides, it's a 1200-page four-dimensional microscopic and universally-scaled portrait of Northampton. So not an obviously appealing read...
Nevertheless - if you do make the journey through this huge book, please talk to me about it because more than anything I want to chew it over with somebody.
J Appl Behav Anal. 2007 Winter; 40(4): 773.
Get a printable copy (PDF file) of the complete article.
J Appl Behav Anal. 1974 Fall; 7(3): 497.
Full text is available as a scanned copy of the original print version. Get a printable copy (PDF file) of the complete article (43K)
Let the undernoted hereby be proclaimed as the circumstances under which I will gig:
The interval between sets be no longer than the duration of a set. If sets be of differing lengths, the interval to be no longer than the duration of the shorter set. And:
The cumulative time of each set to be longer than my cumulative journey time to the gig. And:
There be no entry fee for the players. And:
There be a bass player. (The bass player can be me if either a) I have song veto on grounds of competence or b) I have sufficient time before the gig to learn the nightmare songs. In the case of b) one drink or food item - at my discretion - to be bought for me per song.) And:
I maintain the right to add further self-important criteria on a whim.
We went to the aquarium.
We saw some kinda scary ones.
The sharks made us feel wary but
The seahorses were cool.
We went to the aquarium.
The jellyfish were fairies, the
anenomes were hairy and
I may sound quite contrary
But it beat the ass off school.
They fuck you up, your fucking kids,
Quite on purpose, cos it's cool.
They show you what a shit YOU were,
then put the boot in, just for YOU.
But they'll be fucked up in their turn,
By kids in baffling space-age garb,
who will not eat, who disappear,
who love them for their credit card.
You teach them how to toe the line,
to care, to love, create and spell.
But all your faults rub off on them
cos you're a fucking cunt as well.
