Game on!

Writing about web page http://www.telesport.nl/voetbal/ek_2008/4194109/_Van_Nistelrooy_niet_buitenspel__.html?p=3,1

Hurrah!

I don’t care if we peaked too soon, this was a great match to remember – first win over Italy since before I was born!

And: the first goal wasn’t off-side! Apparently, the defender had enough time to join the game again, and cannot put a striker in an off-side position by staying off the field. Double hurrah!

And: none of the Dutch players seemed too bored or incompetent to join in the game. Triple hurrah!

: 09 Jun 2008 22:02 |  Tags: Football Holland |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

No limits

Writing about web page http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7274259.stm

Freedom of speech is a wonderful thing. I can say almost anything I want on this blog, although with the slight restriction of a personal responsibility to censor myself:

The test here is not whether you, or your peers, find content offensive; it is whether such content could be deemed offensive to others.

Should public figures, government officials in particular, be held to such censorship as well? A country has a certain image to uphold, and the more prominent a representative becomes, the more synonymous he or she will be for the country’s image in the rest of the world.

At the moment, it seems the Netherlands has turned from the country of clogs, tulips, prostitution, and legalised drugs into the country of Wilders: a country where a limited number of muslims are welcome, as long as they agree to be ridiculed.

You would think that an MP or similar official would operate in the country’s best interest, whilst not ignoring his or her own beliefs and ideals. But where is the line?

Is there a line?

: 03 Mar 2008 14:20 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Voor mama

And this is why you should always read the label for washing instructions!

: 02 Feb 2008 22:00 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

I was in Boston

... a few weeks ago. Hence the new banner.

For more photos, go here
or here.

Don’t worry, you don’t have to join facebook to see them!

Edit: P.S. I should probably mention somewhere I created the banner using Autostitch on nine separate photos…

: 29 Jan 2008 16:22 |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Kiefer Sutherland behind bars, in real life

Writing about web page http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7037022.stm

Under a deal with prosecutors, the star will serve the sentence during breaks in filming for his hit TV drama, 24.

Fair enough, but:

Sutherland also received a six-month driving ban, and was ordered to attend alcohol education classes for 18 months and weekly alcohol therapy sessions for six months.

Can you imagine Jack Bauer without the aid of a beast of a car?

: 10 Oct 2007 10:33 |  Tags: BBC Funny News TV |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Sometimes I wonder

Writing about web page http://environment.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn12346&feedId=online-news_rss20

Have these people seriously never played Sim City?

: 25 Jul 2007 15:46 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Boxes

Writing about web page http://money.uk.msn.com/student/fundingandloans/jobs/article.aspx?cp-documentid=5281595

it has to be said, that your typical maths undergraduate doesn’t look the sort to have had quite the same university ‘experience’ as, say, their drama-studying counterparts.

Is this supposed to be a snipe to maths students (being geeky and studying) or to drama students (being lazy and partying)?

: 19 Jun 2007 11:03 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

2 for 1

Aren’t you lucky? I’ve had another week of all fun and little work (although my article is ready to be submitted now) as my friend Arielle from Holland was here, and I’ve decided to tell you all about it!

Well, not all. I’ll cut it down to two cultural “events” in London. I guess you wouldn’t be interested in our marathon Six Feet Under and cups-of-tea sessions.

The National Portrait Gallery

In numerous visits to London, I’ve managed to avoid this place, but trying to do something different every day, its day had come. It turns out the National Portrait Gallery is a gigantic history book – which is a good thing. Whereas most museums just tell you what’s on the painting, and maybe a little bit about the painter, the NPG seems to understand that quite a lot of paintings are actually rubbish, or at least uninteresting. So instead they give us more background on the people depicted, and thus you follow the history of Britain through portraits of monarchs and their relatives, and, more interestingly, politicians and their personalities. Although the collection might not be as magnificent as the National Gallery’s next door, as a museum it is far more enjoyable and educational than its neighbour.

Dave Matthews Band – Wembley Arena

Mixed. Awful support act: Tom Morello (ex-RATM, Audioslave). Too political for a British audience (who here cares about Chavez?), often anachronistic (a song for the men and women of the Union?!), generally out of tune, and actually not even funny. He was better when he played with DMB for two songs, but again not convincing.

Dave and his band then. The set list was good. Quite a few big songs were missing (Crush, Crash Into Me, Lover Lay Down, Everyday) but then they played a few new ones, 3 out of 4 were actually really good, the fourth one a bit repetitive (but as such might be great once you know it). Having just checked out the songs on iTunes (on the album Stand Up), I can tell you that they’re much richer and more interesting live, mainly as melodies are now played by brass and the great violinist Rashawn Ross.

The main problem with the night was Dave’s voice. He already apologized after the introduction that it was a bit squeeky, and although he didn’t miss any important notes, he refrained from even trying some of them, and his voice lacked the power to linger in the arena. As a result, the concert was a bit static – not helped by the audience including me staying in their seats until the encores – and the apparent energy hardly reached the audience until the second half of the set.

Overall, I can’t complain. The high ticket price was practically justified by the long set (nearly three hours); musically it was one of the best concerts I’ve ever witnessed; everyone can have a sore throat – heck I’ve got one after every choir rehearsal!

: 01 Jun 2007 15:19 |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Americans and Galicians

This was originally sent to me from a Spanish friend, hopefully the humour is not lost in translation.

(FYI Galicia is a coastal region of Spain)

An ALLEGED conversation between Americans and Galicians recorded off the coast of Finisterre, Galicia.

<Transmission begins> 

Galician:
"This is A-853, please change your course fifteen degrees South to avoid colliding with us. You are coming straight towards us, distance 25 nautical miles."

American:
"We recommend that you change your course fifteen degrees North to avoid a collision."

Galician:
"Negative. We repeat, change your course fifteen degrees south to avoid a collision."

American:
"You are talking to the captain of a ship of the United States of America. We insist you turn your course fifteen degrees North to avoid a collision."

Galician:
"We do not consider that feasible or advisable, we suggest that you change your course fifteen degrees South to avoid colliding with us."

American (very angry):
"You are talking to Captain Richard James Howard, at the bridge of the aircraft carrier USS Lincoln of the USA Navy, the second biggest warship of the North American fleet. We are escorted by two battleships, three destroyers, five cruisers, four submarines and numerous amphibious support vessels. We are on our way to the Persian Gulf to prepare military manoeuvres before a possible attack on Iraq.
I am not suggesting, I am ordering you to change your course fifteen degrees North! Otherwise we will be forced to take any measures necessary to guarantee both the safety of this ship and the force of this coalition. You belong to an allied country and a member of NATO, so obey immediately and get out of our way!"

Galician:
"You are speaking to Jose Manuel Otero-Rivas. We are two people. We are escorted by our dog, our food, two beers and a canary that is currently asleep.  We have the support of Radio Coruňa FM and Channel 16 for marine emergencies. We are not intending to move anywhere as we are speaking to you from the mainland, from lighthouse A-853 of Finisterre on the coast of Galicia, and we don’t have a f*cking clue what our ranking is of Spanish lighthouses.
You may take whatever measures you consider opportune and bloody well feel like to guarantee the safety of your goddamn ship, which is about to shred itself on the rocks, but what we continue to insist and suggest as the best, most sane and more recommendable course of action, is to turn fifteen degrees South to avoid colliding with us."

American:
"OK. Received. Thank you."

<End of transmission>

I like :D 

Mx 

: 11 May 2007 22:14 |  Comments (19) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Things To Do After You Die

I don't know about everybody else, but some lists of "Things to do before you die" drive me mad. I am never going to make it to the moon ok?! Nor am I any more likely to see the Titanic in person or climb mount everest. And those are the better suggestions. Some are plain insane. Surely anyone with two braincells to rub together can tell that "lighting a match with a rifle" is probably going to be the last thing they do before they die! It just makes me want to poke the authors in the face with a blunt spoon until they get a nasty looking red patch on their cheek and tell me to stop.

It is rather biased. After all, I'm going to be dead for a hell of a lot longer than I'll be alive; infinitely so in fact. A little preparation wouldn't hurt... Oh well, revision insanity last year helped to compile this list and I've only just rediscovered it, so here it is. If you're sure the exams are going to kill you this year then get reading...

Things To Do After You Die 

1. Be buried
2. Be cremated
3. Be made into a glass paperweight
4. Be buried at sea
5. Be fed to wild animals
6. Have a wax deathmask made
7. Get stuffed
8. Be shot into outer space
9. Be mummified
10. Be used to stuff a plush toy
11. Have yourself scattered somewhere
12. Be served as lunch
13. Donate your organs for transplantation
14. Donate your body to science
15. Have yourself pumped full of resin then dissolved in acid so that only your cardiovascular system is preserved
16. Leave everything to a cat
17. Put conditions in your will a la “the Bachelor”
18. Be recreated as a waxwork statue
19. Have a monument built in your memory
20. Poison your wake and bring them all with you
21. Be set on fire
22. Be twung from between two trees in a sling
23. Leave behind a long list of secrets you said you’d take to your grave
24. Haunt someone
25. Possess someone
26. Misplace the family’s TV/VCR remotes
27. Curse someone
28. Come back to life three days later
29. Ask to be carted away like in the middle ages
30. Be entombed beneath a pyramid
31. Get shipped off to somewhere tropical
32. Become a zombie
33. Be cryogenically frozen
34. Have your head put in a jar
35. Be eaten by piranhas
36. Be turned into a firework
37. Have you ashes compressed into a diamond
38. Pre-order a grave statue that gestures obscenely at passers-by
39. Hire professional mourners to out-mourn your family
40. Be stuffed with sweets and strung up like a piňata
41. Be reincarnated
42. Request a circus themed funeral
43. Be buried in drag
44. Undergo saponification
45. Pre-order a novelty cock-shaped wreath for the funeral
46. Imply it was murder on your deathbed
47. Leave a note for someone saying “You’re next”
48. Hire a swedish deathmetal group to perform at the wake
49. Have an entire subsection of your will dedicated to the distribution of your porn collection
50. Invent somebody in your will
51. Line your coffin with money and take it all with you
52. Request to be buried with a packed lunch “for the trip”
53. Have a traditional tibetan burial and be ground up and fed to vultures
54. Be preserved seated in the lotus position and covered in gold
55. Have your bones made into a chandelier
56. Play UNO with Jesus (and win)

: 02 May 2007 08:00 |  Comments (3) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

The Something Random Guide to: Making Vodka Jellies

Follow-up to The Something Random Guide to: Making A Vodka Infusion. from Something Random

I figure it's about time i did a follow-up, especially with post-exam-celebration season looming!

Vodka Jellies

In the interest of thorough scientific practice I’m expanding my collection of alcohol related recipes by adding the immortal creation that is “Something Random’s Perfect Jelly Shot”. This recipe is still largely unknown among my friends, one reason for this being that those who encounter the fabled shots do tend to experience a certain amount of amnesia the following morning. But regardless of the memory-loss everyone agrees that they taste amazing; even if they still can’t understand how they managed to fall asleep on the floor curled up around a small potted plant and with their hand taped to a spatula.

As always read through completely before you start and make sure there is plenty of kitchen roll to hand just in case. It may not be the definitive recipe but it 's fast and simple and hasn't let me down yet.

Ingredients:

8 packets of jelly (where each packet is to make 1 pint)
1 x 70cl bottle of vodka (again cheap wodka is fine, you won’t notice)
2 x 225g bags haribo tangfastics
1 clean empty bottle with lid
Water
About 40 shot glasses (the usual size for jellies is 6.5cl = 2.3 fl.oz.)

Method:

1. Open the tangfastics and separate out the cherries. Put these to one side and feed the others to your minions/housemates/dog. At this stage in the proceedings there are usually a lot of minions loitering around – they sense the haribo.
2. Cut up the cherries, separating the green and red parts. Again, feed the green leftovers to your minions. Further cut up the red bits and put them in a bowl on one side.
3. Now turn to the vodka. Pour about a third of it into the other bottle to be stored temporarily.
4. Transfer the chopped up cherries into the original vodka bottle. This is easiest done slowly and by hand because the pieces are so sticky. Any attempts to use a funnel will just result in a mess as it will get blocked and you’ll have to free it with a chopstick.
5. Run a sink/bucket full of hot water and place this bottle in it. Ensure the lid is on tightly enough to prevent any leakage.
6. At intervals invert the bottle and shake gently to facilitate the dissolving of the cherries. Vodka is a solvent so this shouldn’t take too long. If at this point the cherries are still not dissolving try putting a bit of the excess vodka back in the bottle.
7. Once completely dissolved remove from the water and place to one side to cool
8. Next make the jelly. There are various methods of doing this, using a microwave or a large pan on a low heat. Either are valid but it’s important to use as little water as feasibly possible. This will help to speed up the cooling down when you come to add the rest of the water.
9. When the jelly is all liquid take it off the heat and add cold water (and ice cubes if you have them) to cool it down. By now the mixture should have a volume of no more than 2 pints. If there are more than two pints of jelly at this point there is a risk that the jelly will not set.
10. Add the cherry vodka and the spare stored vodka then top up the volume to a total of 4 pints. The best way of doing this is by measuring the mixture&vodka out a pint at a time with a measuring jug (or pint-sized container eg a glass milk bottle) then topping up at the end with the appropriate amount of water.
11. Set out the glasses in a grid on a baking tray and fill them with about 50 ml each. This should allow for about 35-40 jellies and will also make each of them as strong as a standard 25ml shot of vodka. Let people know this because it’s hard to judge the strength of the shots from taste alone – the sweetness makes it very misleading!
12. Put the trays of jellies on a level surface in the fridge to set, then take them out and enjoy!

Points to remember:

• Most jellies contain pork extract, however there are varieties available that don’t. This is something to bear in mind if you are catering for vegetarians.
• I have also seen sugarfree brands and jelly powders in sachets. These should work fine but unless you’ve done a test run first consider making them a little in advance in case something goes wrong.
• If worst comes to worst and the jellies refuse to set it is possible to cheat by chilling them in the freezer until they solidify some more. Be careful, too much time in the freezer and they are liable to freeze round the edges. This ruins the texture of the jelly.
• If you’ve really messed up and it’s staying liquid, it is possible to stage a last ditch attempt at rescue by pouring the jellies back together again and adding a couple more packets of jelly before returning them to their individual glasses. However this is something that would be better off avoided as not only does it make an awful mess of both the glasses and your kitchen but it also wastes a lot of the mix.

Prices:

Two rounds of this recipe will use:

2x70cl cheap vodka £13.00
4bags haribo £4
16 packets jelly £3.50
80 glasses (100 incP&P) £10.00

Which should come to about £30.50 in total.

Or £0.38 per jelly which, I think you’ll agree, is pretty good going for party fodder - especially considering they're the equivalent of a shot each.

I’ve not yet had the opportunity to work out the calories or weight watchers points per jelly shot but will do so at the next available opportunity.

Mx 

: 01 May 2007 20:49 |  Tags: Experiments |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Back to the fold

Well it's only taken me three months to get my username back. And although it would have been a lot faster if I'd bothered to email when I discovered the problem, It would have been even simpler if the WGA hadn't deleted me. Call me fussy but some kind of notice would have been nice. Maybe a letter or a post-it, or a note with some flowers or even a thorntons egg carefully iced with the message "kiss your blog byebye". At least then I could have eaten the bad news as a festive snack. :/ Ah well. I'm back. Like the unwanted dandylion in the middle of your pristine lawn. Ahahaha... :)

Mx 

: 29 Apr 2007 20:36 |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Schnitzel and Strudel

One thing to remember when in Vienna:
The kezboard is messed up, as the z and y are switched. It also has buttons for üöä and the @ is hidden on Q.

I could probablz write a whole entrz about the kezboard, but that would be wee bit pointless. Also, I shall now try to hit the z and y in the appropriate places.

It’s been 5 days now, and here’s a list of what I’ve done. I could try and write prose, but I like lists better.

I rushed through Frankfurt Airport and just about made it to my connecting flight. This is not interesting, but the flight was filled with people carrying posters for the conference, which makes it a bit more amusing.

I picked up my badge and infoterial from the conference and skived the first two days for sightseeing.

I saw the Albertina, got refused entry to the Kunsthistorisch Museum, saw the Leopold Museum, and the MUMOK.

I was very depressed. I didn’t only miss WiM (friends and music), but Austrian art (Klimt, Schiele, Art Nouveau) is amongst the most gloomy stuff on this planet.

I saw Schönbrunn. The inside only cheered me up mildly, and mainly because they had an allegorical ceiling fresco where the Austro-Hungarian provinces were depicted with metaphors. It was good. The rest of the palace not so much, unless you like Sissi.

The outside of Schönbrunn was much better! Beautiful setting on a hillside with fountains and flowers and a zoo and I saw a white handed gibbon (in the zoo) and emperor penguins and more and I used the macro function in the palm house and it was hotter outside than in the desert house.

And after sweating and getting all schmutzig I even made it to the conference to attend three lectures. One about guinness, one by a Dutchman, and one I fell asleep in.

Wednesday I chatted to people who are studying Sahara sand. It was mightily interesting and vaguely related to my research. I also chatted to a guy from Finland who was very friendly and gave me some references for further research. Met up with my roommate for dinner and bought The Feeling CD to get over depression.

Today I spent the whole day in the conference hall near my poster, hoping someone would ask questions. Some people did. But now I’m exhausted.

Had the best meal: wurstknüdeln mit sauerkraut. Will try and get a recipe. Time’s up!

: 19 Apr 2007 20:41 |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

When do you stop being a child?

I was reminded the other day of a gripe which always annoys me when I notice it…

In this country we have to reach the age of 16 to smoke, get married with permission, have sex et c. We have to wait til 17 to drive and 18 to drink, vote, marry who we like and be perceived to be an ‘adult’. Fair enough. But why is it that we have to pay full adult fare on buses and trains with some companies at the age of 14 and full admission to many attractions and suchlike as early as age 12?!?

: 11 Apr 2007 22:47 |  Comments (6) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

My sister was here, part II

This weekend my older sister, Kirsten, came to visit. We had lots of fun. Legged lots of miles. Did lots of shopping. And saw Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, which was a gay joyeous occasion! Here’s a nice 2/5 family photo for you:

More photos here

: 01 Apr 2007 22:08 |  Tags: Family |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Child obesity: whose fault is it?

Writing about web page http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6402113.stm

Several weeks ago 8-year-old Connor McCreaddie hit the headlines as a result of his excessive weight: he weighs over 14 stone AFTER having recently lost some weight and social services were threatening to remove him from the care of his mother, Nicola McKeown.

In her defence Ms McKeown said, “He refuses to eat fruit, vegetables and salads – he has processed foods. When Connor won’t eat anything else, I’ve got to give him the foods he likes. I can’t starve him.”

Brian Dow, from the School Food Trust, said, “Of course there’s an element of parental responsibility here, but it’s hard for a child to go out of the school gates now without being bombarded by messages about the wrong kinds of food. We also have an awful lot of peer pressure as well. I think what you see there is a child who’s probably addicted to the kinds of food that are making him obese.”

So, whose responsibility is it? Should his mother force him to eat healthily, or should he get to eat what he wants? Does Ms McKeown’s treatment of her son constitute maltreatment in any way? Is it worthy of him being removed from her care? Should we pile the blame on the adverts that ‘bombard’ us so frequently nowadays, or are they just a far-too-easy scapegoat?

: 19 Mar 2007 16:03 |  Comments (4) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

'Hazard' lights?

• When your car breaks down or you’re involved in an accident
• To warn other drivers that there’s an accident ahead that they may not have seen

They are NOT supposed to be used as an excuse for dangerous or illegal parking. It is particularly irritating, I find, when you can’t see that both indicator lights are flashing and thus you assume that the person is indicating to pull out in front of you!

Rant, rant, rant!

: 14 Mar 2007 18:38 |  Comments (4) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Health scares – do they worry you?

Writing about web page http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6418771.stm

So… last week we read on the BBC News website that men who indulge in too many hot baths may be at risk of decreasing their fertility. All a bit scary. But is it just me or is there a new one of these scary stories every week? Do we really listen to these health reports that tell us for years that margarine is good for you but recently turn tail and laud the virtues of butter? Now, I’m all for thorough scientific research, but are these seemingly random snippets of discovery that make it to the headlines actually useful? And does anyone actually listen to them?

: 12 Mar 2007 21:51 |  Comments (5) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

The irony is lost on me

And the irony of PSV hero Alex’s links with Chelsea did not escape the beaten Wenger.

The reporting on the PSV – Arsenal matches of the past two weeks has been truly appalling. From Russian mafia conspiracy theories to negative tactics to the worst football product in recent years. And I don’t even read the Sun.

Simple fact: PSV scored more goals than Arsenal (in fact, they scored all goals). You generally don’t advance without scoring a goal. You cannot blame the other team for having a better understanding of this concept.

Here’s another one: PSV, with Valencia, are the only club left in the Champions League not amongst the 20 richest football clubs in Europe. Why? Because it’s not in the Premier League! It might be hard to believe, but football clubs outside the UK tend not to make so much money (one reason is that admission prices are below an average working day salary), and thus don’t have much to spend on the best of the best. Great local talent is snatched away – to be fair, PSV does the same locally, by attracting youngsters from smaller Dutch clubs, but only for them to be lured away by the money making machines elsewhere. And even if you’re lucky on the transfer market, your star player will not stay for more than two years. It’s only a matter of time until Farfan enters the global spotlight.

With restricted means, you have to be clever. Guus Hiddink managed to take PSV to the second round in the Champions League twice in a row with two rather dissimilar teams. He had a slightly more versatile selection than Ronald Koeman is managing this year, so he could be a bit more adventurous, but the big difference with PSV’s game from the 1990s is its serenity. The defence is solid, and with arguably the best goalkeeper in the world, there isn’t a lot of pressure on the team to make the game. And that one goal will come, as we’ve seen twice now.

A report in the Guardian noted more irony: how Arsenal appears to be the last stronghold of the revelled Dutch total football, whereas one cannot get further away from this system than with Dutch champions PSV’s game. Or even worse: how if PSV are the Dutch champions, the quality of the Dutch league must be rather poor. But who is to blame?

PSV manages to get maximum return out of its input. Perhaps it’s a shame it involves “negative tactics” and a star player on loan from a competitor. Perhaps it’s more of a shame it had to resort to such means, forced by the economic ways of the game.

: 08 Mar 2007 01:02 |  Tags: Arsenal Economics Football Money Politics Psv |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

But nowadays

Writing about web page http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6412083.stm

28. People go to hospital to become ill.
Jan Podsiadly, Cheam

There’s more where that came from!

: 06 Mar 2007 12:34 |  Tags: BBC Funny Time |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

When the world ends

Sometimes you feel you’ve seen all you need to see before you die. [1] Last night, me and my friend Mikey witnessed a guitar master class, not so much by Dave Matthews, but rather his buddy Tim Reynolds. An Acoustic Evening with Dave Matthews thus became An Acoustic Evening with Dave Matthews and Guitar Magician and One Man Band Tim Reynolds. The following clip is from the Belfast show (we were in Manchester last night), and is a bit blurry, and doesn’t show that much, but I hope you can still recognize Mr Reynolds’ awesomeness! (He’s the guy on the left)

The show was sort of an updated version of what you can hear on Live at Luther College , possibly only interesting for music or guitar students. As we were listening to The Feeling on the way there, I got a bit worried, as Dave’s songs often aren’t as catchy single material, and Dave can get carried away letting his voice hover over the chords, but it was all good: Mikey thought it was more than worth the drive along many roadworks, and now wants the magic distortion box that Tim used.

¹ Don’t worry, this is not a suicide note.

: 02 Mar 2007 11:07 |  Tags: American Concert Dave Matthews Guitar Music Video |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

A return to the Blog!!!

I cannot quite believe quite how long it’s been since I last blogged… the evil Facebook monster has been eating up my time.

Thusly, to rectify this situation:

I was listening to Radio 4 in the morning a few days ago, and several eminent persons were having a discussion about religion. One of the speakers came out with the oft-heard line of argument, (to paraphase) ‘well I don’t believe in God, and don’t understand why others do, because I no-one can prove to me that he exists’. Despite not being of a religious bent myself any more this angle of thought always irritates me slightly. Surely the whole point of a ‘faith’ is that it cannot be proven: it is a ‘belief that is not based on proof’, according to Dictionary.com. Your strength of conviction that something is true when it cannot be substantiated is what makes you ‘religious’ or ‘faithful’. If there were proof for any particular religion this belief system would simply be truth and there would be no ‘faith’ required to believe in it.

: 01 Mar 2007 14:58 |  Tags: Religion |  Comments (5) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Rice–tacular

This is just too awesome to remain unblogged. It would seem that my brother is a creative genius with rice, this is his latest masterpiece – Jimi Hendrix, made entirely from uncooked rice placed on his campus bedroom carpet. Teh Win is it not?

This is the inverted image. For the original click here

M xxx

EDIT: Also, why am I almost one third of the hot topics? What is up with everyone? This is unnatural…

: 20 Feb 2007 22:59 |  Tags: Blogged Artwork Mmmm Lovely |  Comments (4) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

As I lay awake

I wonder:

Has the year gone by so swiftly?

But no. A billion people around the world are celebrating new year today. And a few of them are just around the corner from my house to let me know. Thanks. I hope you enjoy it. Goodnight.

: 18 Feb 2007 00:55 |  Tags: Earlsdon New Sleep |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Mmmm Topical Repost

If February 14th is for couples, just remember that February 15th is everyone elses turn to celebrate; so use the opportunity to buy a nice big box of reduced chocolates to treat that special someone in your life - you.

Or just stock up with cards and fluffy crap for next year. Y'know. Whatever.

M xxx

: 14 Feb 2007 15:14 |  Tags: Blogged Artwork |  Comments (13) |  Close comments |  Report a problem