Monthly Archives: March 2011

110318 New glasses

Journal

Day 6 each week in Moving Towards Balance is always relaxation and restorative poses, with one day of complete rest. After getting up around 7 we had some breakfast then went back to bed. At around 10, went into Winchester to pick up my new glasses:

Bought a used copy of Little Big Planet, playing on and off during the day. I haven’t played platformers since Super Mario World and this is basically the same thing, with heaps of imagination and some Mighty Boosh . Ultimately though it’s die, try again, die try again and all the frustration that comes with it. What I’m really waiting for is Gran Turismo 5, ordered a week a go but not arrived. I’m going to limit playing to one hour a day.

On Comic Relief they said that the majority of people who watch do not donate. That’s harsh.

Steps: 3129

Justin Bieber: Your Obsessive Love Or Hatred Of Me Means Nothing In The Grand Scheme Of Geological Time

Music

In many ways, grasping the infinitesimal speck humanity constitutes is a source of great comfort. Even while I am in the midst of recording vocals in the studio or appearing on a daytime television program, it is admittedly seductive to stop for a moment and stare unblinking into the void and consider that, in terms of the ever-widening parabola made by the imperceptible slowing of Earth’s axis, soon everything—this planet, the moon, myself, the Milky Way galaxy, Usher, and all of your pointless mooning and disdain—will be forever silenced by the unstoppable spiral into total entropy.

Even the faintest memory of my dear, sweet friend Ellen DeGeneres will be swallowed by the cataclysmic crush of all matter collapsing in on itself.

I suppose we’ve come to the point where we should just plainly state the ugly truth of all this: If you expend any energy at all either obsessively doting on me or hating me with the very fiber of your being, then I’m sad to say you are squandering your brief window as a cognizant being in this universe. Unfortunately, I cannot tell you how better to use your comically tiny duration of sentience. Perhaps tell your family you love them; ponder the intricate beauty of a dew-flecked spiderweb; listen to Nicki Minaj’s very good studio debut Pink Friday. In the end, however, none of these things will matter all that much either, not in the great and widening chasm of geological time—let alone when one considers the age of the cosmos from which it has sprung. But maybe in these ways you can draw a brief moment of respite from the existential dread. Ultimately, I believe that this is all one can reasonably hope for.

There is no God.

via Your Obsessive Love Or Hatred Of Me Means Nothing In The Grand Scheme Of Geological Time | The Onion – America’s Finest News Source.

110317 Meltdown. Sounds nice, Is nasty

Current Affairs

I like my power cheap and reliable, as we all do, but please could we find some way other than nuclear fission? It just seems so… vulnerable. Especially in areas where the surface of the planet is unstable. In Japan, it seems there has already been at least a partial meltdown of some sort, although information is sketchy. What is a meltdown? From PopSci:

What people mean when they say “meltdown” can refer to several different things, all likely coming after a hydrogen explosion. A “full meltdown” has a more generally accepted definition than, say, a “partial meltdown.” A full meltdown is a worst-case scenario: The zirconium alloy fuel rods and the fuel itself, along with whatever machinery is left in the nuclear core, will melt into a lava-like material known as corium. Corium is deeply nasty stuff, capable of burning right through the concrete containment vessel thanks to its prodigious heat and chemical force, and when all that supercharged nuclear matter gets together, it can actually restart the fission process, except at a totally uncontrollable rate. A breach of the containment vessel could lead to the release of all the awful radioactive junk the containment vessel was built to contain in the first place, which could lead to your basic Chernobyl-style destruction.

The problem with a full meltdown is that it’s usually the end result of a whole boatload of other chaos–explosions, fires, general destruction. Even at Chernobyl, which (unbelievably, in retrospect) had no containment building at all, the damage was caused mostly by the destruction of the plant by explosion and a graphite fire which allowed the corium to escape to the outside world, not the physical melting of the nuclear core.

Over the weekend, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano somewhat hesitatingly confirmed a “partial” meltdown. What does that mean? Nobody knows! The New York Times notes that a “partial” meltdown doesn’t actually need to have any melting involved to qualify it as such–it could simply mean the fuel rods have been un-cooled long enough to corrode and crack, which given the hydrogen explosion, we know has already happened. But we’d advise against putting too much stock in any term relating to “meltdown”–it’ll be much more informative to find out what’s actually going on, rather than relying on a vague blanket term.

As TEPCO grapples with the damage the earthquake and tsunami did to the nuclear system, there’s going to be lots of news–there could be more explosions, mass evacuations, and more “meltdowns” of one kind or another. All we can do is learn about what’s going on, think calmly about the situation, and hope that TEPCO can eventually regain control of the plants.

Adam said that the guys who had to go into Chernobyl to literally clear up the mess were dead within a week. The man on the BBC said this cannot become as bad as Chernobyl, which is a slight relief. Corium… nasty… hope it doesn’t come to that.

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Yoga at 0500
1 km swim this eve
Steps: 4921

110316

Journal

The day was all about getting back on top of things at work after the week off. Adam & I worked on the tender for the audio production work. I set up a replacement franking machine. Charles arrived, he’ll be working at the foundation as a mature student. Lunch in the springish air of a hazy sun, wondering about the situation in Japan with the fires and explosions at the nuclear plants. I decided earthquake prone zones and nuclear power do not mix. At all. The evening was all about setting up my new TV, a Sony Bravia, together with a PS3. I really like the remote, looking like the classic Sony remotes of the 80s, with a concave shape.

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Steps: 3376

Scrap Book: Dell Cottages

Brockwood, Scrap Book

Here’s a picture of Dell Cottages, back in 2005. We lived in the right hand of these two, on the upper floor. The view was expansive, over a long meadow flanked by two lanes and a wood. In the wood are ancient burial mounds. This was the second of four homes at Brockwood. First Dean, down by the A272, then Dell, then a flat in the centre above the laundry and kitchen, and now a flat above the reception area. By far this current one is my favourite, yet Dell had its charms, not least a garden surrounding the whole building, reaching into the woods, the woods reaching into the garden.

110315 Kripalu Yoga Teacher Training; Seven Stars Yoga

Yoga, ,

Three times yoga: a session this morning running through this evening’s class; teaching this evening; then to Petersfield for a new evening class. The evening class was a new style of yoga to me, called Seven Stars Yoga. They are influenced by Chinese qi gong as well as Indian yoga, and we practised two routines, an hour in total. It was a good way to use and circulate much of the energy I get after teaching. And to be taught is always a treat. I’ll be going again. Unfortunately good venues are hard to find and the Petersfield Community Centre was a bit grubby, with icky bits on the floor. The music from the dance class next door didn’t bother me and the class itself was fun.

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A friend asked why I chose Kripalu to train at. I said:

I looked around extensively over many months when I was looking for a course. I knew I wanted a month-long rather than over a couple of years on weekends. I wanted the immersive experience. So this narrowed it down. In my researching Kripalu kept coming up and so I asked around my yoga friends and while none had direct experience, they had all heard good things. The only thing putting me off Kripalu at that stage was the hugeness (and ugliness) of the building, and it was quite pricey. I was impressed at the website and curriculum and attracted by them saying it is not so much an intellectual course, and that there aren’t too many exams. So a kind of negative attraction in that sense, but I don’t like memorizing and theorizing. Then I saw they did scholarships and applied, and was granted 40% off, so that kind of sealed the deal. But mainly it was the feeling it out and the good vibes from the site. Their apparent professionalism, the fact that they were once an ashram and that they had a long history of YTT courses also counted.

I was not disappointed. There was a strong sense that while they were routed in traditions (particularly chanting) they were progressive. The course was beyond anything I expected. Way beyond yoga-yoga into experiential sessions, dance, and what they call meditation in motion. I would definitely recommend it. The days are long, but not as long as some YTTs. Importantly it felt like a really safe training ground, and they structure the weeks very well, lengthening each practice teach each week. And you only have to teach those to five people. The food is very good. And there’s a sauna and hot bath, which I used every evening. You get two yoga classes a day plus a whole bunch of posture workshops. Damn, I need to say something negative, but I can’t… Of course, you have to take in a lot of the ‘real self’ ‘true self’ yoga talk, but I kind of accepted where they were coming from. I went for the cheapest option, the dorm. The girls had sometimes twenty in a room, but we were only five. Sound.

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I’d really love to do it all over again, a course like that.

Something is changing for me in yoga after all these years. I am no longer subtly afraid of it, nor am I as afraid of teaching. Which is a very big deal.

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Steps stepped: 4705

110313 Sap

Brockwood, Journal

Tidied up the place after my week of bachelorhood, with C coming back from Damascus this afternoon. On getting up I practised from the book Moving Towards Balance, by Rodney Yee, with the intention to follow the whole eight week course and learn some of the subtleties of the major poses, for myself and the class.

This afternoon I attended a nature tour of Brockwood with Phil, a visiting biologist. I videoed some of it and will post it when edited. Perhaps it can go on the Brockwood blog. We walked around the north and south lawns, the field to the south, and the plantation, with Phil pointing out natural features I just wouldn’t have noticed. We ate hawthorn leaf buds and drank a little birch sap, both highly nutritious. (Incidentally, I’d like to have a juicer again to create some super health potions. Maybe I can put these ingredients in.)

After blogging the drum & bass entry, I read the next part of the journal from 97, writing during listening to Megatripolis. I downloaded most of it and will have a session when I go to bed. See later post.

This was the last day of my holiday. Will take some more next month as I have 4 weeks left to use before August meaning a week a month if I don’t carry any over… wow!

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Steps stepped: 4567

Meanwhile in 1997, listening to drum & bass

Music

DJ Hype on the mix with some mental drum & bass. The candles are going crazy to the music but if I turned the music off they’d still be going crazy. Not too impressed, averagely hectic, great bass lines. I like the bass lines – lovely, jokey – although the beats are bog standard.

What the hell does it mean
Mr Bigwig
Give me two sycamore seeds
I’ll plant one by the ocean and one by the lake
Charlie and Bill
And lick their leaves I will
Salty and not salty

Bing bing bing bing
dum dum
eerrgh eergh
ooh ooh ooh
dur dur dur dur

Drum & Bass. This is mad music and probably IMPOSSIBLE to relax to. But that’s not what it’s for I don’t expect

110312

Film, Hampshire, Hike, Journal, Video, Walking

Went to Petersfield, got on the bus to Selborne, walked to Petersfield. That’s my idea of fun.

On the bus there was a little boy with his dad and granddad, going to Alton to ride the steam train. Are you having a nice time? Are you having a nice time? The father kept asking. Are you having a nice time? Because daddy wants you to have a nice time. I’m having a nice time, the boy reluctantly replied. Sat just in front, I wasn’t convinced. Then a sudden retch and sploosh, the boy was sick over the window and seat then promptly burst into tears and wailing. This lasted many minutes as granddad got the wet wipes out and tried to mop it up. Once he’d stopped crying, again the boy repeated, I’m having a nice time. By then I’d moved further back in the bus because it smelt of sick up there.

The walk was very good for me. Four hours out in the open, following the chain of hangers south from Selborne to Hawkley, then over the meaty Shoulder of Mutton hill to Steep and Petersfield, through an area called Little Switzerland. The waterfall is always a delight, so near to home.

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This evening watched The Social Network for the second time. Geeks! Harvard! Jocks! Coding! Not listening! Pilfering! Partying! Blogging! Suing!

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Steps stepped: 21,340 (A new record)

110311 Japan Quake and Tsunami

Current Affairs, Earth

As I write, it’s a new dawn in Japan. Millions waking up to count the cost of their biggest ever quake, and devastating tsunami that followed. Official figures say 1000 dead but it’s bound to be several times that, with trains and passenger boats missing. The waves swept in at 500mph, the speed of an aircraft, sweeping boats, homes, lorries, before it. I have never seen video like it before, and I don’t think it has ever been captured on video from the air. See my earlier post for two videos. The ring of fire is a fragile place, and north Japan especially so, with many plates joining in this area. One plate pushing under the other caused the huge wall of water. Here are some REUTERS images from earlier today:

Terrible indeed. Not to mention the nuclear question.

Yet at times like these I always think of the hundreds of ongoing disasters that don’t get attention because it isn’t news, the millions dying from war, disease, hunger, and how little those in power seem to care or act; plus the millions living in ignorance of health, diet, wellbeing. Nor do I welcome the kind of talk that says natural disasters are humankind getting its comeuppance from God or the earth itself. It’s always easier to give things a reason or put a story behind it, way less scary than contemplating just how fragile life is.

Update: by the end of March, 28,000 people dead or missing.

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An altogether quieter day here. Steps stepped: 5288

110210

Journal, Reading

Reading ‘The Runaways’, a book I read either at school, or during that time, about a boy run away from reform school and a cheetah escaped from Longleat Wildlife Park. About freedom. Maybe we did read it at school because it is set close by to where we grew up, on Salisbury plain. It’s very very 1960s England. Having unknowingly spent the night together in the same barn, the boy sees the cat trying to get out of the barn door below his hay loft bed:

For a moment or two he watched, his mouth open in amazement. Then – with a swift, panic reaction – he slammed the trap door and shot across the holding bolt. He dropped back to a sitting position on the hay, clapped a hand to his forehead, and said out loud, ‘Blimey O’Reilly!’

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Watched ‘The Fighter’. Liked it a lot. Crazy family! Too many sisters! Crack! Punching! Amy Adams! London! Prison! Training! Marky Mark! Christian Bale being all thin and weird!

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Good news on the YouTube account front. Regular readers will know my account was cancelled due to three strikes of copyright infringement, for posting short clips from films and TV. YouTube say you must file a counter notification to the copyright holder, meaning they have to take you to court to remove the footage. Yet each notification I filed was returned because of some error on the form submission, same with email submission. Then I read somewhere that if the copyright holder notifies YouTube directly, the video will be restored and the strike revoked. So I wrote to Mon Onlce Films and MPI Media Group (the third, Lionsgate, I couldn’t find a contact email for), explaining my situation. The next day, someone from MPI said he would reinstate the video for me. Yes! Not sure how long that will take. As soon as I get the account back, I’ll remove everything apart from the walking videos. And download those I don’t have locally. Phew! I have also switched to Vimeo, who I may stick with. Mainly my concern was losing my first 15 walking videos for ever.

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Steps stepped: Oh, around 100 maybe.

Houseboaters being ‘socially cleansed’ from Olympics area

Current Affairs

More clampdowns on alternative ways of living. You must live in a house or flat. You must have a mortgage, or at least be aiming for one. Alternatives will not be accepted unless you are very rich indeed.

 

British Waterways, which manages 2,200 miles of canals and rivers, has put forward changes to the mooring rules on the river Lea, in east London, that could increase the cost of living on the waterway from about £600 to £7,000 a year. Residents see the move as a deliberate attempt to drive them away.

A draft note from British Waterways on 6 December 2010, seen by the Guardian, says: “The urgency … relates to the objective of reducing unauthorised mooring on the Lea navigation and adjacent waterways in time for the Olympics.”

The canal boat residents fear they will be forced from the river if the proposals go ahead as drafted. Alice Wellbeloved, a freelance fashion designer, who has lived on the Lea for almost five years with her partner and baby, said the plan meant it was no longer feasible to live the family life they had built together. “For us it would be disastrous,” she said. “We have a 10-month-old baby, and these proposals mean we could not work or get the childcare we need. We cannot afford to buy a new house. We feel we are being uprooted from our community.”

British Waterways says between 160 and 200 boats in the area are used as permanent residences. These boats can exploit a lack of clarity in the waterways legislation to use a “continuous cruising” licence, costing about £600 a year, which lets owners move just short distances every fortnight.

Under the new proposals, people using a continuous cruising licence would not be allowed to spend more than 61 days in a year in each of six designated neighbourhoods across 40 miles of canal network, and they would be forced to move to a different neighbourhood every 14 days.

British Waterways says the changes are in line with a national policy on moorings. But residents on the Lea say they are being singled out to allow a “cleaning up” of the waterways before the Olympics next year. For British Waterways the Lea is a high priority because of “high demand for visitor moorings during the 2012 Olympics”.

via Houseboaters being ‘socially cleansed’ from Olympics area | Sport | The Guardian.

110309 Adjustment Bureau

Film

Saw The Adjustment Bureau. A rather boring title for a slightly less boring film.

*Spoiler alert, next paragraph*

A bunch of bumbling angles in suits and hats do God’s work according to his master plan. There is a plan to follow, laid out in magic books, because we are not to be trusted with free will as that led to two world wars and the potential destruction of the whole kaboom with the Cuban Missile Crisis. But because the two main characters love each other so much and fight for it, God makes an exception for them.

It’s all very watchable thanks to the two main actors and production values, but it could have been more exciting or more thoughtful, one or the other, please. Instead it’s a curious mix of romance, action and sci-fi. I suspect the writer didn’t have the ability to extend Philip K. Dick’s short story properly.

I liked Emily Blunt’s dancing very much but couldn’t find a clip of it.

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Found out there are two archery Centres nearby, one in Petersfield, the other Four Marks/Alton. The Alton group has beginner introduction mornings next month, so I am going to attend. Also attending a new yoga class in Petersfield next week.

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Steps stepped: three thousand and something

110208 Alton to Selborne

Hike, Journal, Life, Video, Walking, , , , , ,

Yoga when I woke up, then breakfast before driving to Selborne. From there I caught the bus to Alton so I could walk the first part of the Hangers Way back to Selborne. The path is 21 miles long and heads south and east from Alton to Queen Elizabeth Country Park south of Petersfield, so today’s walk was a third of the total. I expected the bus to be a mostly empty Tuesday morning rural bus, but no, it was full of teenagers headed to the college. That feeling of being watched as I looked for an empty seat, only one spare because the kids were sprawled over a couple of seats each. The first part of the walk was fairly boring, through the industrial part of town and over large fields. As it got hillier, it was more fun. It took about two and a half hours walking, with a couple of short breaks, sitting in the late winter sun. New growth pushing up in the woodland, the leaves of the bluebells. Keep it rural! Here’s the walk video I made:

Weekend Walk 24 – Alton to Selborne – Hangers Way from Duncan Toms on Vimeo.

This afternoon, resting, editing the video which takes an hour or so, plus export and upload time. Otherwise continuing looking at TVs and buying a Playstation 3. But this morning during yoga I saw through all this entertainment and constant occupation, to something simpler, purer, more in touch, real, whole. It’s a question of right action and what to do with my time on this earth, what to do with each day. At the end of it: ‘Oh, I saw some fine movies and played some games, rode some waves, made some good friends, loved and was loved, worked a lot.’ Well, maybe that’s what there is, but something else is touched upon when deep in a stretch or in relaxation. I can’t force it, but I can allow it to come. It’s not something more, but unrelated to all that I know.

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Steps stepped: 14,706

110307

Journal

Nothing much to report. Mostly just lounging about, researching TVs as I’d like a 32 or 37 inch, 100hz. Went down to Richer Sounds in Southampton and Best Buy at Hedge End.

Enjoying the photos coming onto facebook from the weekend. Feeling lazy, may not go to the Downs this week; perhaps some of the Hangers Way instead.

110305 & 6

Journal, Travel

The weekend of my brother Martin’s stag do. I drove down to Southsea early on Saturday morning, dressed in the manner of a country gent. Sort of. Arriving at Tristan’s at 0650, everyone ready, Martin in his military fancy dress, chosen by the best men. We left for the new forest, all in cords, tweeds, wax, arriving early at the New Forest Outdoor Centre for the weekend’s activities. While the staff got ready, we hung out in the centre’s main building, trying to warm up as the log stove got going.

The first activity was archery. Probably my favourite of the day. We learnt the basic techniques and took it in turns in rounds of five arrows. While waiting we could try out the crossbow. Very powerful. I feel I could happily take up archery, with something about the precision, the steadyness of aim really appealing to me. We had a competition, with Martin and I both getting exactly 100. Out of – what? – 150 disregarding the tin can bonuses. After a tea break, shooting guns – first pistols and then air rifles. It was like being in the Bailey’s back garden, shooting down the cans. Quite weedy power but again great fun. Then came the axe throwing and ninja stars. This was harder but very satisfying as the axes or stars thunked into the tree stumps. We had to wear flack jackets and metal helmets for this so we couldn’t thunk the axes into our heads instead.

After a break for lunch, time for the climbing. First a climbing wall wrapped round a tower, then a high and fast zip wire. The assistant seemed to take some time to learn to stop us correctly, with Martin reaching the end at high speed and his hemetted head hitting the wire, then Tristan and Gavin being stopped suddenly by their harnesses. I was glad he had sussed it by my turn. Then the high ropes section, the highest we climbed, balancing across beams and wires way way up.

Martin on the zip wire:

Me on the high ropes course:

I really enjoyed doing all these activities, all things I wouldn’t normally do and haven’t tried for years. The high ropes were comparable to Go Ape, but the sense of trying all these things together was much stronger here. It was a great choice for a stag weekend.

Things got more traditionally staggy by evening; with the sun going down and the fire lit, the drinking started. And continued 12 hours until 5am, for some. We got the heat of the fire well up with an ample supply of logs. I was meeting Martin’s old friends for the first time in over twenty years, as well as meeting newer friends for the first or second time. I went to bed at around midnight, after such an enjoyable, varied day and an evening around the camp fire. There were no pranks on the groom; why do that?

Today, Sunday, of course everyone hung over, or me just tired from the intense day before, and the odd night in a shepherd’s hut, we walked to Emery Down for lunch and sunshine in the pub garden, before the minbus took us back to Southsea for late afternoon, all of us, I think feeling it was a good weekend, and a great send-off for Martin.