Journal

31 Jan 2011

Posted on by Duncan Toms

Yoga this morning was a run through of tomorrow’s class. It left me feeling good for the day ahead, even though I haven’t quite had enough sleep the last few nights. My new chair arrived at work, a Humanscale Freedom Task. I really like it, even compared to the kneeling Varier (Stokke) I have been using. Got a second-hand bargain on eBay thanks to the recession I guess. The bathroom is coming on. The tiles are all set and the toilet is back in place but we can’t use it yet. The weeing a bottle will end soon. Today is the end of the daily photos project, where I undertook to take and post one photo each day for one year. My favourite of all has to be the Hawkshead view from Black Crag:

I am also fond of the macro nature shots, such as:

I learnt to look around me at the details and the broad sweeps. I haven’t learnt a thing about photography itself – every image is taken in automatic mode – but I suppose I have more of a feel for composition. I understand the importance of good light, and why the expensive camera’s take better photos – faster lenses and bigger sensors allow more light in. Here is a ‘best of’ of the year.

Steps stepped: 6265. Another supermarket trip this evening so that’s a good 1000. We bought paint ready for painting C’s new room on Saturday, when she moves to Alresford.

30 Jan 2011

Posted on by Duncan Toms

More driving practice for C with a run over to Harting Down. How delicious is it up there, especially with the sun out, blue skies, and the crisp morning air. We walked for a couple of hours over to Beacon Hill then down into the valleys to the south.

View of South Harting and beyond:

The climb ahead to Beacon Hill:

Views east along the downs:

Catkins in the sunshine:

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If you used to watch LOST and are feeling a little incomplete, all you have to do is answer these questions to tidy it all up:

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Polar Bears Status. Sad news of declines:

Don’t think global warming is real? Think the data is wrong? Think it’s a conspiracy to keep us in fear? Think it’s not man-made but a natural cycle? Regardless what you think, here are Met Office Observations Consistent with a Warming World:

And sea temperature anomalies data from eight different sources:

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Favourite track at the moment is The Roots Feat. Joanna Newsom – Right On. Great merging of styles, bass line on the chorus and that live drumming ticking along. Newsom’s voice is really growing on me.

“Right On” by The Roots (feat. Joanna Newsom & STS) from Bigger Than Blogging on Vimeo.

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Steps stepped: 8877

29 Jan 2011

Posted on by Duncan Toms

My head hurts and my body’s tired. I bed most of the day. Watched the first half of Zeitgeist 3, making the argument that behaviour is learnt rather than genetic; need and want; and then going into the mess the financial system is causing. Its in cinemas and you can also see it online:

The richest 1% own 40% of the world’s wealth and it’s increasing by the minute as trading software scoops wealth from the stock market system.

No doubt the second half will go into how we can change this dire situation.

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A visualisation of Egypt’s recent internet traffic shows the extent of the blackout:

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I really enjoyed this history of hip-hop in beatbox. I recognise most of them. He’s got mad skills!

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I’ve seen a few 3D movies now and I am not impressed. I come away with the feeling of an enclosed rather than expansive screen and a tired head, like it was really hard work. Moreover, I just don’t see the point of it – a screen already shows a 3D scenario, with actors moving towards or away from the camera. I don’t need images to seem even closer. The critic Roger Ebert is also not a fan, and he has posted a letter from Walter Murch on his blog, explaining why it doesn’t ‘work’ and never will:

Hello Roger,

I read your review of “Green Hornet” and though I haven’t seen the film, I agree with your comments about 3D.

The 3D image is dark, as you mentioned (about a camera stop darker) and small. Somehow the glasses “gather in” the image — even on a huge Imax screen — and make it seem half the scope of the same image when looked at without the glasses. …

The biggest problem with 3D, though, is the “convergence/focus” issue. A couple of the other issues — darkness and “smallness” — are at least theoretically solvable. But the deeper problem is that the audience must focus their eyes at the plane of the screen — say it is 80 feet away. This is constant no matter what.

But their eyes must converge at perhaps 10 feet away, then 60 feet, then 120 feet, and so on, depending on what the illusion is. So 3D films require us to focus at one distance and converge at another. And 600 million years of evolution has never presented this problem before. All living things with eyes have always focussed and converged at the same point. …

But it is like tapping your head and rubbing your stomach at the same time, difficult. So the “CPU” of our perceptual brain has to work extra hard, which is why after 20 minutes or so many people get headaches. They are doing something that 600 million years of evolution never prepared them for. This is a deep problem, which no amount of technical tweaking can fix. Nothing will fix it short of producing true “holographic” images.

Consequently, the editing of 3D films cannot be as rapid as for 2D films, because of this shifting of convergence: it takes a number of milliseconds for the brain/eye to “get” what the space of each shot is and adjust.

And lastly, the question of immersion. 3D films remind the audience that they are in a certain “perspective” relationship to the image. It is almost a Brechtian trick. Whereas if the film story has really gripped an audience they are “in” the picture in a kind of dreamlike “spaceless” space. So a good story will give you more dimensionality than you can ever cope with.

So: dark, small, stroby, headache inducing, alienating. And expensive. The question is: how long will it take people to realize and get fed up?

All best wishes,

Walter Murch

I always watch the 2D version and can’t see that I’d ever want a 3D TV. Good story > gimmicky presentation please.

28 Jan 2011

Posted on by Duncan Toms

Walked the loop past Black House Farm over towards Hinton, fast moving clouds allowing the morning sun through once or twice. Good to walk locally sometimes, each time getting more and more of a feel for Brockwood’s relationship with the landscape. After six years, the feeling still deepens of just where we live. I am so grateful to be able to live in the countryside, with open parkland, woods, fields and winding lanes. Views to the downs are just a shot walk away.

At midday I was in Alresford for a dental checkup, the first with Alresford Dental Care. What a difference to the St Cross Winchester practice where I was rushed in and out again in a few minutes. The new dentist obviously likes her job and is very professional. She was even enthusiastic in relaying how my teeth meet, what causes the sharpness I feel at the front, the fractures in one tooth that may need attention. Nothing needing doing.

This afternoon, C and I went to Gunwharf for a birthday meal and to see a film. C drove all the way in. Good on her! It went very well, and in the busiest and biggest city she’s ever driven in. We saw Barney’s Version. Hmmm, well, it’s one of those adult films – no, not that kind of adult film, but you know, adult issues, adult neurosis, adult fuck-ups. I suppose I was supposed to like the main character, or at least feel for his plight but I didn’t much. Most of the scenes worked well and the acting was good. It’s just that I didn’t care much. And it starts with a grumpy man and flashes back from there, so you know not much is going to change.

Back home, a present sent from Sweden, a Haglöfs ‘Tight’ medium daypack. It fits snugly to the back and is designed to move with your back. I still have a MacPac I bought over 15 years ago which I am fond of, but I will use the Haglöfs on longer walks.

First day of no yoga or sitting in four weeks. Tomorrow I may try some Dru yoga again.

27 Jan 2011

Posted on by Duncan Toms

Today I turned 40. It feels like quite a milestone, and at the same time nothing special at all. I feel pretty much like when I was in my early 20s. My body is stronger and definitely healthier. I would say I am less fearful and more grounded. These are the things that count for me. So now I am middle aged! That’s pretty cool. I can relax a bit, be more eccentric, and more myself. A couple of changes I’d like to make: to walk every day, to relax about ‘how I should be’, to accept things as they are, and some of the struggling of youth can retire gracefully. No wars. I surrender. I reckon I’m a third of the way in – I’m going to be around until 110 or 120 years old. Why not? 40 years… a long time, and yet over in a week or two.

All the birthday wishes and facebook birthday messages is really fun and heart warming – thank you to my diverse and widespread friends.

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300 years of fossil fuels in a 300 seconds animation:

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Steps stepped 3780

26 Jan 2011

Posted on by Duncan Toms

This is the last day of my 30s, or until 1530 tomorrow afternoon so I am not quite middle aged yet. What is middle aged is the amount of steps stepped today: 2961. One of my 40-something resolutions is to take a walk every day.

Yesterday I posted a quick facebook survey about toilet roll direction. The results:

Duncan Toms
Survey: Loo roll dispensing towards wall or away from wall?

Patricia H
away. definitely. I’ll even change it round if necessary. not that I’m OCD or anything…

Celeste C
Clearly explained: http://currentconfig.com/2005/02/22/essential-life-lesson-1-over-is-right-under-is-wrong/

Lucy H
Away, i too have to change it around…even if im in someone elses house!!!

Duncan Toms
I’ve changed two this week to away :) Celeste, I like the poster version:
http://currentconfig.com/images/overisright_hanger.pdf

Martin T
Away. Always.

Duncan Toms
Oops I’ve prejudiced my own survey!

Nicola B
Even your inevitably superior wisdom would not affect my response – AWAY!!

Sam B
towards.

Duncan Toms
Freak!

Sorry, I mean to say thank you for filling out the survey today.

Sam B
I prefer unique, if you don’t mind. And I’ll be the person behind Trish putting it back the other way!

Seppo V
This is clearly one of those things that divides humanity into two distinct schools of thought. Having done filling loo roll dispensers over 9 years as a professional cleaner (next fall I’ll be entitled to a gold watch after 10 years of toilet cleaning service) I’ve always belonged to the “away” school. However, I have once changed the content of a dispenser facing the wall, after customer request. I can see the esthetic sense of it, too, as it minimizes unsightly flapping of the free end of the roll and naturally aligns it with the wall.

My experience is that “away” school predominates. Nevertheless, lets us remember that adherents of “towards” style of thinking, while being in minority, are human beings, too, and don’t deserve discrimination on the basis of their esthetic leaning. “Away” with prejudices! “Towards, or let it flap away, let everyone have their say” could be our motto here.

Duncan Toms
I am humbled

Douglas H
Away if a choice allows, but sometimes you have to put it on coming off towards the wall, because if you put it away from the wall it will trap itself.

An interesting one that for some reason attracted me to speak up. Yeah and there have been occaisions when I see the toilet paper coming off towards the wall and It can obviously roll off coming away from the wall, then I have been known to turn it arround to come off away from the wall. Thanks for this one Dun.

Douglas H
I’ve just noticed all these comments after posting mine, this is supprising. I would have thought it would have been a more balanced out come, because the choices arn’t so diversly different as the results of the survey are.

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Coming up to middle aged but for me I am only a third of the way through. Things are pretty sorry for a lot of old folk who need care. In the Indie today are 10 ways we can turn that around:

Act One Support elderly people to stay in their own homes wherever possible

Everyone would rather stay in their own home than be institutionalised. There is a whole range of services that make this possible – from Meals on Wheels to home helps who are there to help an old man to shower in the morning and get into bed at night. We should be stepping them up, to keep anybody who possibly can free and independent. Instead, we are ruthlessly stripping them away. The local councils who provide these services are facing the largest cuts of any part of this cut-hungry government. As a direct result, Which? magazine reports that councils are “tightening their eligibility criteria, cutting services and putting up prices” on help for the elderly. All the charities for the elderly are warning frantically that many won’t be able to cope, and will end up falling over trying to shower themselves, or wasting away because they can’t cook for themselves. The result? Huge numbers of people who could have stayed at home with a little help are about to get knocked into the care system.

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An article on Tara Stiles, a yoga teacher in NYC and self-confessed nerd, who doesn’t go the traditional yoga route. I like her, erm, style and damn she’s gorgeous:

“I feel like I’m standing up for yoga,” Ms. Stiles said. “People need yoga, not another religious leader. Quite often in New York, they want to be religious leaders, and it’s not useful.

“Here, people want to sit and talk about yoga; it’s very heady. It’s very stuck, very serious,” she continued. “I was never invited to the party anyway — so I started my own party.”

Besides running the studio — which draws about 150 people to 40 classes a week that are called simply Strong, Relax and Stralax, a combination — Ms. Stiles posts a short video most weeks to YouTube. There, she has a channel with nearly 200 videos that have drawn about four million views. She stars in the yoga DVD that was part of the fitness set that Ms. Fonda issued in December (it sold out in Target, where it was first introduced). And “Slim Calm Sexy,” published last summer, was the No. 1 yoga book on Amazon.com until recently, she said.

None of this has made Ms. Stiles rich, but it has led to a certain celebrity. Last summer, Ms. Stiles released an iPhone app, Authentic Yoga, with Mr. Chopra, and the two recently completed a video in Joshua Tree National Park that will be released this year.

“We are both nonconformists who have incurred the wrath of traditional yogis,” Mr. Chopra said of Ms. Stiles, whom he now considers his personal instructor. “A lot of the criticism is resentment of her rapid success. I have been doing yoga for 30 years. I have had teachers of all kinds. Taking lessons from her has been more useful to me than taking yoga from anyone else.

“She is not a showoff,” he added. “She is ambitious, but there is a lack of ego.”

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Bought a cover for my Kindle. Now it feels right. The Kindle itself is very slim and so a little awkward to hold after a while. I bought the aluminium shielded Proporta case:

25 Jan 2011

Posted on by Duncan Toms

Steps I stepped: 4864. A walk around the supermarket this evening was 1300 steps. Step step step.

I’m so very tired now. If I write little bits of the blog during the day, that’s going to be easier.

Our new Outwell tent, porch, carpet and footprint arrived today. We haven’t opened up the bags but it’s looking like it’s very good quality. Little Danish flags on each bit of kit. I don’t like flags but on kit they say ‘good quality’, don’t they? Especially Scandinavian ones.

Nearly finished the yoga course. Today you are finally allowed to headstand after three weeks of preparation. Fair enough if you are new to it. The common mistake is headstand before one’s arms are strong enough, so too much weight comes through the head and neck. So this course builds up the muscles needed ahead of the short hold.

The foundations for the Pavilions project are proceeding. It’s really happening after some years of planning and permissions. Today there was a very long drill on site:

Who is the biggest polluter on the planet? The US Military. Not including all the contractors they contract, they are using up nearly a third of a million barrels of oil every single day. That’s preposterous.

Environmental journalist Johanna Peace reports that military activities will continue to be exempt based on an executive order signed by President Barack Obama that calls for other federal agencies to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. Peace states, “The military accounts for a full 80 percent of the federal government’s energy demand.”

As it stands, the Department of Defense is the largest polluter in the world, producing more hazardous waste than the five largest US chemical companies combined. Depleted uranium, petroleum, oil, pesticides, defoliant agents such as Agent Orange, and lead, along with vast amounts of radiation from weaponry produced, tested, and used, are just some of the pollutants with which the US military is contaminating the environment. Flounders identifies key examples:

– Depleted uranium: Tens of thousands of pounds of microparticles of radioactive and highly toxic waste contaminate the Middle East, Central Asia, and the Balkans.

– US-made land mines and cluster bombs spread over wide areas of Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East continue to spread death and destruction even after wars have ceased.

– Thirty-five years after the Vietnam War, dioxin contamination is three hundred to four hundred times higher than “safe” levels, resulting in severe birth defects and cancers into the third generation of those affected.

– US military policies and wars in Iraq have created severe desertification of 90 percent of the land, changing Iraq from a food exporter into a country that imports 80 percent of its food.

– In the US, military bases top the Superfund list of the most polluted places, as perchlorate and trichloroethylene seep into the drinking water, aquifers, and soil.

– Nuclear weapons testing in the American Southwest and the South Pacific Islands has contaminated millions of acres of land and water with radiation, while uranium tailings defile Navajo reservations.

– Rusting barrels of chemicals and solvents and millions of rounds of ammunition are criminally abandoned by the Pentagon in bases around the world.

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So Wikileaks are due to release the tax records of 2,000 fat cats, potentially exposing large scale illegal tax evasion and money laundering. The guy who handed Assange the data has been charged with breaking Swiss secrecy laws. No one is safe.

In a carefully choreographed handover in central London, Rudolf Elmer, formerly a senior executive at the Swiss bank Julius Baer, based in the Cayman islands, said he was handing the data to WikiLeaks as part of an attempt “to educate society” about the amount of potential tax revenues lost thanks to offshore schemes and money-laundering.

“As banker, I have the right to stand up if something is wrong,” he said. “I am against the system. I know how the system works and I know the day-to-day business. I want to let society know how this system works because it’s damaging our society,” he said.

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Today’s Watsky video. He kind of reminds me of Mike D.

24 Jan 2011

Posted on by Duncan Toms

I walked 4063 steps today.

I need to rest.

The two sentences above are not related.

25 Tons of Bombs Wipe Afghan Town Off Map

An American-led military unit pulverized an Afghan village in Kandahar’s Arghandab River Valley in October, after it became overrun with Taliban insurgents. It’s hard to understand how turning an entire village into dust fits into America’s counterinsurgency strategy — which supposedly prizes the local people’s loyalty above all else.

But it’s the latest indication that Gen. David Petraeus, the counterinsurgency icon, is prosecuting a frustrating war with surprising levels of violence. Some observers already fear a backlash brewing in the area.

…because obviously every single person in the town was a baddie.

Night night.

23 Jan 2011

Posted on by Duncan Toms

What’s going on? Two days without going out. Well, one trip out to the bathroom, down to Room 7 while the new tiles set in ours. Just four days left of the yoga course, day 23’s practice, focussing on leg poses, on getting up around 10. So quite a bit of reading, watching, listening and browsing today, along with sleeps whenever I’ve needed to.

24 years later, a video continuation of Fight for Your Right to Party starring Frodo and Seth Rogan. For real. Coming soon.

Got a spare hour and twelve minutes? Of course you haven’t. But if you have, this is a good watch, if just for the guided meditation at 20:00. He’s even talking about choiceless awareness at one stage. So many good lines in this speech by Jon Kabat-Zinn, talking at Google HQ no less. I have a lot of respect for the Mindfulness bunch. They always have the assumption of a witness, an entity beyond or above all this ‘small self’ stuff, but as far as it goes, this is excellent.

Came across George Watsky’s work. Rapper, poet, actor as far as I can tell. The rap stuff is kind of Geek Rap but not quite, and it’s very listenable. For sure not your average kind of rapper. “The ghost of Gandhi loves me”

He sure can rap fast (while stroking a cat):

Cities going bust:

$2tn debt crisis threatens to bring down 100 US cities

Overdrawn American cities could face financial collapse in 2011, defaulting on hundreds of billions of dollars of borrowings and derailing the US economic recovery. Nor are European cities safe – Florence, Barcelona, Madrid, Venice: all are in trouble

And a little old Frenchman writing about resisting the system that’s causing this mess, is breaking publishing records with his little red book:

Take a book of just 13 pages, written by a relatively obscure 93-year-old man, which contains no sex, no jokes, no fine writing and no startlingly original message. A publishing disaster? No, a publishing phenomenon.

Indignez vous! (Cry out!), a slim pamphlet by a wartime French resistance hero, Stéphane Hessel, is smashing all publishing records in France. The book urges the French, and everyone else, to recapture the wartime spirit of resistance to the Nazis by rejecting the “insolent, selfish” power of money and markets and by defending the social “values of modern democracy”.

The book, which costs €3, has sold 600,000 copies in three months and another 200,000 have just been printed. Its original print run was 8,000. In the run-up to Christmas, Mr Hessel’s call for a “peaceful insurrection” not only topped the French bestsellers list, it sold eight times more copies than the second most popular book, a Goncourt prize-winning novel by Michel Houellebecq.

If you like presidents and hams, look no further. This is indeed proof that Obama is NOT a muslim.

http://presidentialham.com/

How about this? 33 Classic album covers redesigned by artists:

http://cargocollective.com/thirtythreepointthree

And these are just the credits… imagine what the film is like… Enter the Void (at your own risk)

And finally did you know salads make you happy? They sure do. No joke.

22 Jan 2011

Posted on by Duncan Toms

An indoors day. Watching several episodes of Everest: Beyond The Limits. Why is it the only thing climbers think to say is: “There’s no one higher than me in the world!” “Top of the world, baby!” Such long queues going up and down, with gridlock at the Hilary Step, the last technical climb before the summit. People are leaving earlier and earlier to get ahead of the crowds. In Into Thin Air, they were leaving around midnight, and now some climbers leave around 21:00, meaning its still dark when they summit. Ummmm, a bit daft really.

The afternoon, researching tents with Caroline. I have a The North Face tadpole, a little green 1-2 man which isn’t so comfortable for two-man car-camping. On other trips we’ve borrowed one of the school’s, but we wanted one of our own. After looking around, fixing a price and checking reviews, we went for an Outwell Nevada M. This is a family tent, so loads of space. We got a deal that included a footprint groundsheet, floor blanket and front extension. As soon as it gets a bit warmer we’ll try it out, maybe on the Isle of Wight. It’s kind of both our birthday presents.

Otherwise, apart from the daily yoga, some browsing of the horror and the humour…

How not to streak:

The possible use of synthetic biology to clean up the Gulf oil disaster:

SYNTHETIC GENOME BIOREMEDIATION

Toxic crude oil and gas can be changed, altered, or eliminated by microbes. Natural microorganisms in all the oceans, such as bacteria, have been known to do this over time, usually lasting decades and beyond. It’s a slow natural process. Yes, natural biology can do the job, but under continual flow conditions there is no possible way all the hydrocarbon-hungry microbes in the entire world can eliminate that much oil and gas fast enough. Time is the critical factor.

For the past decade, synthetic biology has been the new science realm. We now have engineered genetic biology that synthetically creates RNA and DNA sequences for both viruses and bacteria.

In the 1980’s, the fad was designer jeans. Now, we have designer genes.

Soon after the Deepwater Horizon inferno, U.S. government scientists – with grant funds supplied by British Petroleum – started giving us solid clues as to what they were doing with all that crude oil and gas. In May 2010, National Geographic quoted Dr. Terry Hazen from the U.S. government’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory who said,

“…we could introduce a genetic material into indigenous bugs via a bacteriophage – a virus that infects bacteria – to give local microbes DNA that would allow them to break down oil. Either that, he said, or a lab could create a completely new organism that thrives in the ocean, eats oil, and needs a certain stimulant to live…”

The robots to replace you:

Between the global economic downturn and stubborn unemployment, the last few years have not been kind to the workforce. Now a new menace looms. At just five feet tall and 86 pounds, the HRP-4 may be the office grunt of tomorrow. The humanoid robot, developed by Tokyo-based Kawada Industries and Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Sciences and Technology, is programmed to deliver mail, pour coffee, and recognize its co-workers’ faces. On Jan. 28, Kawada will begin selling it to research institutions and universities around the world for about $350,000. While that price may seem steep, consider that the HRP-4 doesn’t goof around on Facebook, spend hours tweaking its fantasy football roster, or require a lunch break. Noriyuki Kanehira, the robotic systems manager at Kawada, believes the HRP-4 could easily take on a “secretarial role…in the near future.” Sooner or later, he says, “humanoid robots can move [into] the office field.”

Incredible night time LED-lit surfing:

Mark Visser Rides JAWS at Night! from Fortrus Sports on Vimeo.

Chase No Face the mutant kitteh.

And, the funniest expression as this Weimaraner sniffs a fart:

21 Jan 2011

Posted on by Duncan Toms

The plan was to drive to Selborne, bus to Alton and walk part of the Hangers Way back to Selborne for 10 miles or so. It was so cold, grey, misty when we were waiting for the bus that we quickly decided not to do a long walk, instead scooting up the 250 year old Zig Zag Path to Selborne Common. It’s always a little spooky up there with the old trees, mosses, twisting parasite plants and enclosed feeling, and the mist only heightened that. Still, it was pleasant to walk for an hour, remembering our very first walk together in Rishikesh, nearly twelve years ago. That time and this, C got a thorn in her foot.

Scenes on Selbourne Common:

Two Tone Tree

Fallen Tree

View from the Zig Zag Path

Misty Selborne Common

Then we piled down the A3 to good old Pompey for some shopping and cinema. The big sports shop is closing down. We picked up a couple of camping mattresses for £7, a foot pump for £3. A solar pedometer for £5 and some camping cutlery for a quid.

Saw a film: The Kings Speech. It’s a good one, especially for anyone who, like me, is afraid of public speaking. Poor guy, muddling along as a mere Lord and next minute he’s the bloody King thanks to his love-stricken brother (who due to odd casting is way to young to be his older brother). The speech therapist comes across well, a healthy dose of irreverence to position and tradition within a kind heart, with real ability to help. The overall feeling is that despite privilege and power, these people are just like the rest of us. I also enjoyed seeing Helena in a non-weirded-out rol.

This was a great scene, where Lionel the therapist has been found out not to be an actual doctor, and due to appearances the King is dismissing him:

King George VI: [Logue is sitting on the coronation throne] Get up! Y-you can’t sit there! GET UP!
Lionel Logue: Why not? It’s a chair.
King George VI: T-that… that is Saint Edward’s chair.
Lionel Logue: People have carved their names on it.
King George VI: L-listen to me… listen to me!
Lionel Logue: Why should I waste my time listening to you?
King George VI: Because I have a voice!
Lionel Logue: …yes, you do.

and this:

Lionel Logue: [as George “Bertie” is lighting up a cigarette] Please don’t do that.
King George VI: I’m sorry?
Lionel Logue: I believe sucking smoke into your lungs will kill you.
King George VI: My physicians say it relaxes the throat.
Lionel Logue: They’re idiots.
King George VI: They’ve all been knighted.
Lionel Logue: Makes it official then.

(See clip below)

But my favourite thing dear old Lionel said was:

“You don’t need to be afraid of the things you were afraid of when you were five years old.” How very true, yet here we are, children in adult’s bodies.

We left Portsmouth at sunset:

20 Jan 2011

Posted on by Duncan Toms

Pulled from dreams
Pull my limbs gently
Limber up
Up and at ’em
Computers and web stores
Indian and UK weddings
The main difference?
Bride and groom have never met
Lasagne and rota lunchtime
The best mopper she’s ever seen
No lunchtime walk
No lunchtime snooz
While the bathroom is being done
Thursday is my Friday
And bed before ten

18 Jan 2011

Posted on by Duncan Toms

The wind in the night woke me by opening and clunking the bathroom door. Awake at 0230 after a first and only cycle of sleep. Had a little browsing session. How about this for ultimate rock & roll? Perhaps the least rock performance one can imagine. One robot even smiles at one point:

How about this for a temple? I’ve never seen anything like it.

I’ve been reading on the new Kindle 3 for a few hours in total. Generally I am liking it a lot, comfortable to hold, adjustable font sizes. What I am missing right now is to be able to look at the book cover, something I do when taking a little break from the reading. I also like to be able to check ahead to see how far it is to the end of a chapter, to see if I want to pause now or later, or when deciding whether to start a new chapter. I also don’t like the fact that Kindle files are DRM, so I am going to check out this script to see if I can’t remove the rights. I also want to look into converting them to a non-hardware-specific format. I read that the iPad 2 will have four times the resolution of the current iPad. This makes it more tempting as an ebook reader. But how is it for long reads? I know my laptop screen makes my eyes a little sore after a while.

At work: collecting texts for Ray to edit a new book. In the afternoon as usual working on a transcript, discussions with Brockwood staff in 1976: “Intelligence is perception and action, no ideation.”

Baked potatoes in the over; the room smells delicious. And just as I write ‘delicious’ the timer buzzed, so… spud break!

We received the invite to J & M’s wedding in May. I’m going to be an usher, with J’s brother. The wedding itself is on HMS Warrior at Portsmouth Harbour. This means no confetti, balloons or other corny crap. They used one of C’s images for the invites:

Later, watched more episodes of Everest ER

17 Jan 2010

Posted on by Duncan Toms

Awoke from deep within a dream of a yoga course within a music festival, a warped Kripalu within an even warpier Glastonbury. Feeling sleepy all day, trying to wake up by taking the outdoors cleaning job for our weekly clean at work this morning, breaking boxes for recycling. Heavy rain this morning and tonight. C drove CC and I to the supermarket this eve. CC reminded me of this company http://www.laptoprepairslondon.co.uk/ in London who repaired C’s laptop and a friend’s. So when a student’s Mac notebook failed, we both recommended letting them repair it. But instead of repairing it they switched out some of the components for lesser parts – hard drive, RAM, not sure what else. And then gave it back saying it couldn’t be repaired. So this is a review of Laptop Repairs Fulham: don’t trust them.

Yoga day 17, postures specifically for back strength and flexibility. Work ordering the priority for the audio production project, plus pulling a few transcripts on morning meeting for a school staff member. In the afternoon, researching DVD/TV combis for the Centre, to replace the current VHS combis in the viewing booths. While verifying the transcripts, I often tweet bite size Krishnamurti quotes here.

This evening watched a little of the most stressful show on earth: Grand Designs, and a little Everest ER from 2007. I also saw the trailer to the third Zeitgeist movie, Moving Forward, seemingly focussing on the capitalist system gone too far:

16 Jan 2011

Posted on by Duncan Toms

Regular viewers will notice a design of the site. I’ve updated the template after a few years of K2, to the WordPress default Twenty Ten. I recoloured the header blue and the cloud is now… black. This template gives a lot more options such as custom headers. There may be a few more changes I’ll make but this is pretty much how my blog will look this year.

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I’ve been up Everest several times now. Once with the IMAX crew, once with Jon Krakauer, last night, twice, with Anatoli Boukreev. And today with Nick Heil in Dark Summit. I suppose my fascination will naturally cease at some point, but I’ve been really enjoying the exhilaration. The sheer craziness of ambition and the decision-making, even by expert guides and leaders continues to amaze the more I learn. Factor in the cost of each expedition and the pressure is really on to get as many people to the top as possible. Add the unpredictable weather into the mix and you’ve got high risk of death.

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A big driving day, one session in the morning and another after lunch. C has her test in three days. She’s improving all the time and handling the unpredictable more competently. I cannot remember much about learning to drive. I remember it being one of the few times my mum and I argued. I remember driving with my older brother and hesitating at a narrow bridge so that someone drove into the back of me. I failed first time with the classic fault of ‘undue hesitancy’. I passed second time. Soon after, ignoring the advice to take it easy, I took mum’s Nova up to Kingsdown Hill and floored it down the long straight Roman road, hitting 100. I got an erection. My driving back then wasn’t safe, getting to town as fast as possible, even with passengers, flying over humpback bridges. And a crash in Bath, overtaking at a junction. Someone turned right into me when I thought he would go left. Nothing serious, a big dent in the rear quarter. I don’t think C will suffer from speed thrill and she is for the most part ultra safe. It’s hard sitting in the passenger seat sometimes, with little or no control over anything.

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As C is moving to Alresford in early Feb, the town has naturally been on my mind. I enjoyed looking at these old images Here’s one example, of Broad Street:

15 Jan 2011

Posted on by Duncan Toms

BP in the Arctic: There goes the neighbourhood:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12195576

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Locals borrow every book in a Buckinghamshire library as a campaign against its closure:

The library at Stony Stratford, on the outskirts of Milton Keynes, looks like the aftermath of a crime, its shell-shocked staff presiding over an expanse of emptied shelves. Only a few days ago they held 16,000 volumes.

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A very good summary of the 2010 wikileaks, grouped by region. Examples:

– A storage facility housing Yemen’s radioactive material was unsecured for up to a week after its lone guard was removed and its surveillance camera was broken, a secret U.S. State Department cable released by WikiLeaks revealed Monday. “Very little now stands between the bad guys and Yemen’s nuclear material,” a Yemeni official said on January 9 in the cable.

– Pope Benedict impeded an investigation into alleged child sex abuse within the Catholic Church, according to a leaked diplomatic cable. Not only did Pope Benedict refuse to allow Vatican officials to testify in an investigation by an Irish commission into alleged child sex abuse by priests, he was also reportedly furious when Vatican officials were called upon in Rome.

– Anglo-Dutch oil giant Royal Dutch Shell PLC has infiltrated the highest levels of government in Nigeria.

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Went to Alresford to check out a house share C is interested in. She thinks she’ll take it, come early February. Then a short driving session before lunch. In the afternoon, reading, conversation, yoga.

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Today’s question is: If you had a time machine that only let you spend one hour in a different time, what date would you go to?

I don’t want to go to any time. To go to now would be the real miracle.

14 Jan 2011

Posted on by Duncan Toms

If I torque my arm far enough, I can break my forearm bones.

Like bending a two-by-four held in a table vise, I can just bow my entire goddamn arm until it snaps in two!

Holy Christ, Aron, that’s it, that’s it. THAT’S FUCKING IT!

There is no hesitation. I barely realize what I’m about to do. I unclip from the anchor webbing, crouching until my buttocks are almost touching the stones on the canyon floor. I put my left hand under the boulder and push hard, harder, HARDER! to put a maximum downward force on my radius bone. As I slowly bend my arm down to the left, a POW! reverberates like a muted cap-gun shot.

The above is from an extract of Aron Ralston’s book Between a Rock and a Hard Place, the story on which 127 Hours is based. It’s such a great story, and so simple, so real. It captivates me, both the film and reading about it. I’m also reading my second book on the 1996 Everest ‘disaster’, the first by Jon Krakauer called Into Thin Air, and The Climb by Anatoli Boukreev, a Russian guide with the ill-fated Mountain Madness team. What is it about these on-edge stories that I like? The simplicity, the stripping away of the trappings of modern life and post-modern concerns to the basics of survival. The fact that they have all chosen to be there takes away the tiresome necessity for sympathy even. Man and nature.

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Cleared up a lot at work, in the two days before the weekend. A two-day work week – I can live with that. This evening, watched the Relocation guy doing a programme in Australia. I’ve always thought New Zealand would be preferable if I were to move anywhere. Australia seems a little… bland.

OK, back to Everest.

BTW, has facebook been down today? The couple of times I have tried it has frozen on loading…

13 January 2011

Posted on by Duncan Toms

“I desire therefore I am” would be more accurate than “I think therefore I am.”

David Bohm
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Read an article with highlighted quotes from a Pilger-Assange interview:

And despite the pressure the website has been under, reports of trouble at WikiLeaks are greatly exaggerated, he claims.

“There is no ‘fall’. We have never published as much as we are now. WikiLeaks is now mirrored on more than 2,000 websites. I can’t keep track of the spin-off sites – those who are doing their own WikiLeaks . . . If something happens to me or to WikiLeaks, ‘insurance’ files will be released.”

The contents of these files are unknown, but, according to Assange, “They speak more of the same truth to power.” It is not just government that should be worried about the content of these files, however. “There are 504 US embassy cables on one broadcasting organisation and there are cables on Murdoch and News Corp,” he says.

The attempts by Washington to indict him should worry the mainstream press, he adds.

“I think what’s emerging in the mainstream media is the awareness that if I can be indicted, other journalists can, too,” Assange says. “Even the New York Times is worried. This used not to be the case. If a whistleblower was prosecuted, publishers and reporters were protected by the First Amendment, which journalists took for granted. That’s being lost.”

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Read an article about the late surfer Andy Irons’ hectic life:

Whatever treatment Andy received, John Irons says it helped. “Did it change his life? Yes. He was amped to get back on the tour. He was refocused and ready to go.”

Kelly Slater recalls a conversation with Irons from around 2007. “A couple of years ago, he had an awakening in his life about things,” says Slater. “We had one real deep talk. He said how excited he was to be feeling everything—to be feeling his emotions and understanding them. For him, that was a new lease on his life.”

BUT IF IRONS WAS ON an uptick in 2007, it didn’t last. His erratic behavior returned in September 2008, when he went missing during a World Tour contest in France. He surfed badly in one heat and then failed to show up for the next. He finished the year 13th overall but decided not to compete in 2009. “We encouraged Andy to take a year off,” says Billa­bong’s Naude, “because he had lost the desire to be on the tour.”

Irons told friends that he’d almost been dropped by Billabong. According to Mike Reola, a friend and co-founder of the clothing company Lost, Irons said that “everyone at Billabong wanted me gone when I was off tour” and that “Paul Naude was the only one who fought for me.” Irons also told friends that he took a substantial pay cut.

His wife has blocked the release of the toxicology report for six months.

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Back to work after a week in the Lake District. Wading through a thick inbox this morning, and this afternoon finishing off the last of the K/Bohm dialogues from 1975. This final conversation is about desire being the root of the self, and how we desire to be free of desire once we see the relentless problems it causes.

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The introduction of the shoulder stand on day 13 of the 28-day yoga course. Put a shoulder stand in a yoga sequence and it will change everything. A very subtle yet powerful effect. I look forward to practising more. I’m coming back to full health now.

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C found a place to live in Alresford, looks like. It’s sharing, but with someone who is working in London weekdays. We enjoyed a snooping session on Google Maps, looking for the house numbers on dustbins, ahead of a real visit on Saturday.

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The WordPress postaday2011 topic for today is: What are you looking forward to this year?

– a bit of surfing
– a lot of yoga
– some long walks
– space
– skiing?
– reorganising the flat
– a new bathroom
– healthy health
– My brother’s wedding

12 Jan 2011

Posted on by Duncan Toms

Took the day off and spent the morning in bed, after an hour’s yoga session. I felt quite run down, and again itchy feeling in my face and weak eyesight. There is no doubt this is the effect of a week of wheat and a little sugar. In the afternoon we did a food shop, with C driving both ways, through the dark and rain. She did well and it’s looking good for the test in a week’s time. This evening after home made pizza we watched 127 Hours, the second time for me. It’s such a watchable film, despite knowing the plot, and is one of my all time favourites. I don’t want to get trapped in a canyon, but wouldn’t it do us all good to be forced to stop for five days and face what we are?

11 Jan 2011

Posted on by Duncan Toms

Woo: 11.1.11 – according, only, to those Gregorian dudes, so don’t read too much into it.

A day of packing and travel. The drive took a long time. A lorry had hit the M40 central reservation and off the carriageway into a ditch. After an hour’s crawl we saw it getting craned out, soil and hedge in its caved in radiator. Later on the A34 a van had skidded to face the other direction. The driver and passenger were still sitting in the car looking embarrassed, a police car having closed one lane.

Still got the morning yoga session in, and a half hour sit together by the fire, and leisurely breakfast before realising we are leaving in half an hour. A rushed packing session only to find we weren’t ready to leave until nearly 1030. What did I say about groups leaving on time? Jennifer took some group photos which I’m looking forward to seeing.

Good to be home, hanging out with C again. What a lovely being she is!

My tongue has swollen up during this week. I think it might be a reaction to the wheat bread I’ve been eating – what else I couldn’t guess. It’s painful because I’ve bitten the edge of it a few times. And I can’t quite talk right. I sound like the bloke on QI. C is treating me for it now; I have two needles inside of my shins as I type. Within a few seconds I can feel the tongue is less big and fits between my lower teeth again.

This photo looking east from Yewfield while waiting to leave:

It was a damn fine week.