Swimming pool at KTSC. Lady comes in, looks slightly apprehensively at the pool. Her friend in one of the middle lanes greets her: "PUNCH PEOPLE!" A few heads turn, she continues: "ALWAYS PUNCH PEOPLE!".
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First day of term and it is way, way too early. Will have to caffeinate myself muchly.
OTOH, had email from my head of music at the school. Had a handful of kids taking music grade exams in December, including a Grade 7. One of them a Merit, the others all got Distinction. This is a Good Thing.
OTOH, had email from my head of music at the school. Had a handful of kids taking music grade exams in December, including a Grade 7. One of them a Merit, the others all got Distinction. This is a Good Thing.
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Soo.. went to D&B last night at their new experimental venue. Ups: quite near where I live. Lots of lovely people. Downs: venue was way too small and packed, there was a one-out, one-in door policy at some point because of this, so I had to wait some 20 min before actually getting in.
Didn't manage to dance one single time -maybe I didn't try very hard and on the other hand I had danced _all_night_ at Inferno the night before, but the dance space was small and very packed so it seemed fairly pointless to try.
I still had a lot of fun but in spite of it being practically on my doorstep I'm not sure the venue is suitable.
Didn't manage to dance one single time -maybe I didn't try very hard and on the other hand I had danced _all_night_ at Inferno the night before, but the dance space was small and very packed so it seemed fairly pointless to try.
I still had a lot of fun but in spite of it being practically on my doorstep I'm not sure the venue is suitable.
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I have an extra, surplus ticket for VNV at the Purple Turtle this coming Sunday. If you're interested , it's nearest offer to the £20 I paid for it. You know where I am -my phone number is on that poster in my user-info page. Cheers.
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And the sun comes out and the sky is blue.
Not like that this morning.. kept being woken up by the wind howling through the building -it's the first time it happens while I've been living here. When I left the house it was a gale and horizontal rain outside. Got soaked a couple of times. I think I don't have to leave the house for the rest of the day, as the couple of lessons I would have had got cancelled. So, hopefully, should have plenty of time for cooking dinner for friend coming over and also for a number of little errandsI have to do which I hope can all be done online.
It's looking much nicer outside now, though, so might go and do those things in person.
Not like that this morning.. kept being woken up by the wind howling through the building -it's the first time it happens while I've been living here. When I left the house it was a gale and horizontal rain outside. Got soaked a couple of times. I think I don't have to leave the house for the rest of the day, as the couple of lessons I would have had got cancelled. So, hopefully, should have plenty of time for cooking dinner for friend coming over and also for a number of little errandsI have to do which I hope can all be done online.
It's looking much nicer outside now, though, so might go and do those things in person.
It's raining indoors here now. It seems to be the window frame leaking. And this is a new flat...
At least I don't have anything pressing to do outside for a while today,wouldn't like to be out in that. We have had horizontal rain, horizontal hail, screaming wind and, in my flat, indoors rain. Of course it could be worse and, as someone was reminding on Twitter, we're hurtling down into space at scary speeds on top of a spinning wet rock ball and you never think about it.
At least I don't have anything pressing to do outside for a while today,wouldn't like to be out in that. We have had horizontal rain, horizontal hail, screaming wind and, in my flat, indoors rain. Of course it could be worse and, as someone was reminding on Twitter, we're hurtling down into space at scary speeds on top of a spinning wet rock ball and you never think about it.
Getting ready for the NYE at Reptile/Vababonds & later Slimelight. Not a lot to get ready, really -it's not like I'll be dressing up a lot, just the usual black and black, new rock boots and black leather jacket. See whether the free and plentiful public transport promise holds -the TFL website refuses to acknowledge that the Northern Line exists and can't quite use it to see my travelling options for the two return trips.
Looking forward to seeing friends and maybe catching up a bit and celebrating in the company of people I like. Hope the new year is good for you -I know this one wasn't for many of you peeps.
Happy New Year, folks!
Looking forward to seeing friends and maybe catching up a bit and celebrating in the company of people I like. Hope the new year is good for you -I know this one wasn't for many of you peeps.
Happy New Year, folks!
Just finished reading ![[profile]](http://s.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
grrm's 'Dance With Dragons'. We'll see what I think when the next book comes out, but at this point I feel like I might not bother, even though this one is a very good read; I felt the ending of this (already the fifth book in the series) was very unsatisfactory and begins to feel like the series could stretch out into the horizon, book after book after book, without it ever resolving.
It wouldn't be a spoiler, I reckon, to say that at some points (one, in particular) you feel like shouting "Noo! How could you kill that character!" -someone you thought was central and indispensable to the story and without which, etc; we already know things like this are going to happen in a book of his.
grrm's 'Dance With Dragons'. We'll see what I think when the next book comes out, but at this point I feel like I might not bother, even though this one is a very good read; I felt the ending of this (already the fifth book in the series) was very unsatisfactory and begins to feel like the series could stretch out into the horizon, book after book after book, without it ever resolving. It wouldn't be a spoiler, I reckon, to say that at some points (one, in particular) you feel like shouting "Noo! How could you kill that character!" -someone you thought was central and indispensable to the story and without which, etc; we already know things like this are going to happen in a book of his.
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I had a quiet one with Venezuelan friends in Kent; traditional Venezuelan xmas dinner late on the Eve (Venezuelan apart from the Xmas pudding, which is not really that typical, say, in Caracas) and stayed with them in the day yesterday. Forgot to bring the part of the enormous roasted leg of pork that was offered me and the rest of the Pandoro, between which I could have fed myself for the next two months! There was a certain amount of alcohol involved, as although my friend doesn't drink at all, that doesn't apply to the rest of the family.
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I am wondering about this Dreamwidth account. I hardly ever post anything here that I don't also put in my livejournal. There are only two people in my list who are not also on LJ and who don't post there as well as here. It'd be an excellent back up for LJ (and free of Russian hacker disruption) except for a couple of things... like very few of my friends are here. Livejournal is already, in these facebook times, kind of a minority interest -I never managed to persuade my family and friends across the ocean to make it there, let alone here. And, yes, they're al on FB.
Will have to think of some specific use for this DW, I s'pose -I'm not going to close it any time soon, given that, few as they are, there still are a couple of friends here who are not on LJ and I do like to know how they're doing.
Will have to think of some specific use for this DW, I s'pose -I'm not going to close it any time soon, given that, few as they are, there still are a couple of friends here who are not on LJ and I do like to know how they're doing.
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Ok, so I for one never read the comments on internet posts and reviews (as they so often just send me in fits of rage) so had it not been for @iamleeg on Twitter I would have missed this:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/cdp/member-r
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/cdp/member-r
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After finishing lessons, at home.. somebody on Googleplus had posted a video interview with Richard Feynman on the BBC in the '80s (part of a series which seems to be almost all of it on youtube and in the BBC archives. Fascinating. There went the rest of my evening, watching this remarkable man say what he had to say, which (perhaps strangely for a science populariser) was, basically, there are no shortcuts and no simple simple explanations for the very complex things in the universe of which we are part.
Just the thing to cheer up my morning: a periodic table of disasters:
http://www.brainpickings.org/wp-con
found in http://www.brainpickings.org., at this page . .
http://www.brainpickings.org/wp-con
found in http://www.brainpickings.org., at this page . .
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Anathem (Neal Stephenson)
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Anathem-Neal-St
I'm still half-way through this enormous book (about 1100 pages..) in which for the first third or so not a lot happens... and yet I was entranced by the time I got to the second chapter. At the point where I am a lot does indeed happen... I've slept very little on the last couple of nights, immersed in that world full of compelling and believable detail.
The book takes place in a world that is 'similar to Earth, but not Earth'. Up to this point, although there are science-fiction elements, it is not science-fiction as I would see it. The author seems to prefer the term 'speculative fiction'. In that world, there have developed sort of lay monastic orders whose job it is to preserve knowledge and advance it. The protagonist is a young man who belongs to one of this orders and is about to take his vows as an adult member of it. Then his world and the world at large come under a threat that can obliterate them. Told like that it might not sound very original or enticing but, as always, the devil is in the detail and, in this book, the detail is fantastic.
I'm still living in that world (have had dreams set in that world... that never happens) and have half of the book to go. Enjoying it enormously, thus far.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Anathem-Neal-St
I'm still half-way through this enormous book (about 1100 pages..) in which for the first third or so not a lot happens... and yet I was entranced by the time I got to the second chapter. At the point where I am a lot does indeed happen... I've slept very little on the last couple of nights, immersed in that world full of compelling and believable detail.
The book takes place in a world that is 'similar to Earth, but not Earth'. Up to this point, although there are science-fiction elements, it is not science-fiction as I would see it. The author seems to prefer the term 'speculative fiction'. In that world, there have developed sort of lay monastic orders whose job it is to preserve knowledge and advance it. The protagonist is a young man who belongs to one of this orders and is about to take his vows as an adult member of it. Then his world and the world at large come under a threat that can obliterate them. Told like that it might not sound very original or enticing but, as always, the devil is in the detail and, in this book, the detail is fantastic.
I'm still living in that world (have had dreams set in that world... that never happens) and have half of the book to go. Enjoying it enormously, thus far.
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Not saying much as there hasn't been much happening. Staying in due to skintness, helping somebody with a song (making up a guitar accompaniment and recording tracks of it), teaching, reading, playing the guitar (but not practising enough, that's two different things:D) and watching episodes of 'Band of Brothers'. Hope all your Sundays are good.
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Just finished reading that. This is not going to be a review, just a couple of comments....
One thing: Dawkins is a very good writer when he's not ranting against religious people (I happen to agree with him in every point on the latter, but his style sometimes grates). He did get me very interested in what he had to say about the evidence for evolution. And his little side-stories and quips are very often entertaining and amusing.
The figure of 44% of Americans believing that the world was literally created less than 10000 years ago, complete with us and dinosaurs walking side by side, etc. This I find chilling. I could understand that a lot of people would, in a country in the grip of some backward religion... wait..
I suppose there is some deep resistance in many of us to the idea that our great-grandfather so many times over was something similar to an ape, something similar to a fish or a bacteria. It is so much better to believe that God created us to his image (and sent us out to vanquish those who didn't believe in him...)
I enjoyed the book enormously.
One thing: Dawkins is a very good writer when he's not ranting against religious people (I happen to agree with him in every point on the latter, but his style sometimes grates). He did get me very interested in what he had to say about the evidence for evolution. And his little side-stories and quips are very often entertaining and amusing.
The figure of 44% of Americans believing that the world was literally created less than 10000 years ago, complete with us and dinosaurs walking side by side, etc. This I find chilling. I could understand that a lot of people would, in a country in the grip of some backward religion... wait..
I suppose there is some deep resistance in many of us to the idea that our great-grandfather so many times over was something similar to an ape, something similar to a fish or a bacteria. It is so much better to believe that God created us to his image (and sent us out to vanquish those who didn't believe in him...)
I enjoyed the book enormously.
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That was a blast. The goth boat party on the Thames organised by Thunder ravenstoker was lots of fun. I even danced a bit, although for me that was almost a by-the-way. Seeing the lights of London float past in the night, rediscovering how beautiful this city can be (which you hardly ever see at street level, day-to-day when you’re rushing about trying to get things done), catching up with some lovely people. I enjoyed it a lot. Hope there are more to come. There'll be pictures.
ravenstoker was lots of fun. I even danced a bit, although for me that was almost a by-the-way. Seeing the lights of London float past in the night, rediscovering how beautiful this city can be (which you hardly ever see at street level, day-to-day when you’re rushing about trying to get things done), catching up with some lovely people. I enjoyed it a lot. Hope there are more to come. There'll be pictures.Tags:
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