What I half-said in the previous post (the one about Reverend Billy), about how I think many shopaholics could be lacking in self-esteem, applies in other areas too. Take for example, this blog post about how a homeless former drug addict is healing himself through running. In truth, I think we as a society greatly underestimate the importance of self-esteem, or its lack. Frankly, I think a very sizeable portion of the population could do with more… it’s one of those 80-20 things, I think. Defensive ego? Lack of self-esteem.

These cartoons can help put this self-esteem thing into perspective. The other cartoons on that site are good too.

And… if you’re concerned about those new airport scanners letting staff ogle your privates, perhaps you need these special hand-clasp radiation-resistant panties to protect your privacy.

Finally, here is what to believe.

Why do we put off doing things we know we have to do? Why not just do them and make life easier for ourselves? Well, I’ve puzzled over my own ‘laziness’ for years… but this video may have the answer: we are not nice enough to ourselves! Yes, it’s that naughty old voice in the head again, as discussed on my enlightenment page. I’ve used the method he speaks of to some extent to ameliorate my own resistance to doing things, but it appears a more concentrated approach would work better…

It seems Spring is making a proper appearance at last, albeit only for a few days perhaps. Anyway, I went out and took some photos in a nearby bluebell woods - you can see the pics via my Image London blog.

The credit crunch is all very well - indeed, I’ve been having my very own credit crunch for most of my life it seems - but in some parts of the world things are, of course, much worse than here. According to Macrohistory, a very good history site, the news for April 9th is:

I have started a new blog: http://imagelondon.blogspot.com. I have noticed various blogs showing photos of various cities around the world on a daily basis, and getting lots of visitors, so I thought why don’t I do the same (although probably not daily, knowing me)? There are London blogs already but each has its own style. There is room for one more: the things I like will be the things some other people like, after all.

Apart from making the occasional entry in this blog, I also make the occasional web site, such as http://www.britishunitedartists.com/ , http://www.cwfstudio.com/ , http://www.actingcourses.net/ (at which I also maintain the blog)… I mention this because web sites require e-mail links or forms of some sort, and this presents a problem: spammers. Spammers fill in the forms, usually automatically, or they harvest the e-mail addresses for later use by a zillion zombies.

Well, I suppose one can’t talk about the meaning of life without thinking of Douglas Adams, for whom the answer appeared to have been “42″ (in The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy“), and indeed, this web site does just that. But he also indirectly makes an important point about the alternative philosophy of nihilism, which states that life, and indeed everything, is meaningless: if everything is meaningless, then so is the idea that everything is meaningless… In other words, the idea that life is worthless is a worthless idea. To me, that means it is false, or might as well be. So nihilism is imploded by its own definition: if true, it must be false.

I expect that is arguable, but it seems close enough for practical purposes. And the purpose of life - its meaning? Altruism. So there.

Here is a recent photo of Douglas Adams, taken at Highgate Cemetery in London.

And here is a quote from him:

“There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened.”

Douglas Adams has written quite a few books, many of which I have read and enjoyed.

On another subject, I rather liked this rather well-travelled photographer’s travel photos. And the latest Batman movie trailer.

…the woman whose boyfriend thought she was too drunk to drive, so she called the police. While drunk. And driving. Or the desperado who broke into parking meters, but plugged his drill into the local police station ("Capitol guardhouse” in US English, AIUI).

After many years of not being rich yet (in Western terms anyway), I have discovered the joys of cheap shopping on the Internet. Now, I have shopped online before, but this Christmas I specifically wanted to buy cheaply… and as I like to give books and movies, I was pleased to explore Amazon’s second-hand options. And sure enough, the bulk of books and DVDs that I bought for people second-hand were just fine. In near perfect condition, indeed. One or two were a bit off, but overall, I managed to handle Christmas for about £70 instead of the usual £200. With a DVD movie costing about £2.37 including delivery instead of £10-£30, the savings can be immense. OK, the risk of a problem with the product is slightly higher, but at that kind of price I can just buy another one from another supplier.

Funny news stories… How about the latest pyramid selling scam in China? Over a million people have been persuaded to spend some £1300 on ant farms. Then there’s the latest teenage-wild-party-while-the-parents-are-away event [link now defunct, it seems]. I like the fact that the naughty fellow has his story well thought-out. His video chit-chat is a bit hard to follow but the article spells it out.

Now here is a photo showing the Moon over the ‘top’ of the Earth’s atmosphere, taken from the Space Shuttle Discovery in July 2007. “Image ISS013-E-54329.JPG courtesy of the Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center.”

Well, I know I’ve been off-air for a bit now, but I’m back today, as I slowly get over the flipping flu. My latest money-making scheme, i.e., the domain names thing, isn’t producing any results, so it is suitably abandoned unless something comes of it before they expire. Probably I need to be more persistent with schemes, but they are boring when they don’t work. My next plan is to try doing some paintings and selling them (online, ideally). The first one is here:

Those wavy Moire fringes you may see running from right to left in this rendering do not exist on the original. They are an artefact caused by the texture of the canvas mixing with the pixel system that computers use. Possibly I need to upload a lower-resolution photo or something; I’ll have to experiment. You can click here to see a larger, relatively fringe-free version. The colours are reasonably accurate in the photo, except I would say that the blue is a noticeably darker shade on the actual painting. Anyway, the painting is acrylic on mounted canvas, 406x305mm (16x12 inches), 38mm deep. Looking around online and in shops, things like this go for around £150 which seems about right to me.

Now for something more serious. These people are letting themselves be beaten at Wii tennis… by their dog (video). The poor animal will never learn to respect them! I don’t really ‘get’ tattoos and piercings. They just seem bizarre to me. So this blog has the top 10 of them. Prepare to be grossed out. Or bizarred out, I suppose. Well, I guess that’s enough Western culture for the moment. Now for a bit of culture from the East: the Thousand Hands Goddess Dance. We may not know what it means, but we know quality when we see it, I think. Finally, for those people who are savvy enough to use ‘hijack this‘ to clean the junk programs and spyware from their computers every now and then, a log auto-analyser to suggest to you which of your start-up items may be worth eliminating. Just paste the saved log into the box, press the button and hey presto! No guarantees or warranties, E&OE, yabba dabba doo.

Well, I wrote another 1% of the book today… things are moving on quite rapidly really, on those days when I get some writing done! I still rather feel, though, that things are moving rather more rapidly than I thought originally and I may well be finished a long way before the 60,000 word estimate I started with. Well, we will see.

I have of course been surfing the good old Internet the rest of the time. I was very interested in The Case Against Homework: How Homework Is Hurting Our Children and What We Can Do about It, which says what I have thought for many years (since my school days, indeed): homework is of little benefit, and of much harm to people’s social lives. OK, yes, that is a link to Amazon, but I thought I’d try once again - we’ll see how long it is before Amazon break the link like they usually do. Anyway, I haven’t read that book, but it looks like a good idea to me. I see that there are others making the same point too. Meanwhile, have you wondered what those brighter than normal stars are in the sky? Well, at the moment, it could be the planets Mercury, Venus or Saturn, for example. See which one you’re seeing at Planetfinder [Update - it’s a bit old so you may get Java security warnings, but it used to work harmlessly for me]. For a bit of fun, here’s how to deal with unwanted telesales calls… (video). Alternatively, see if you can spot the difference between a computer geek and a serial killer. I got 8/10. Ain’t no-one going to serialize me! ;-)

I have discovered that for the last few days, none of my e-mails are reaching any hotmail.com addresses (and I have tried a few). Something is wrong, but e-mail to elsewhere seems to be OK. I will reply if and when the problem is fixed. Although I can receive e-mail from hotmail addresses, if you want a reply, e-mail me from a non-hotmail address. Thanks. [Update - hotmail thinks I’m a spammer and wants me to implement some arcane ID system. No thanks. Some other domains think the same, such as yandex.ru, so I guess I can reply from a googlemail address or something. I’m not a spammer, by the way.]

Meanwhile, how about some links? Does biblical law apply today? If so, why can’t I own a Canadian? Next: how annoying is it when someone answers their phone during a meeting? Darth Vader has the solution (video). Now I know you regret not paying attention in physics classes at school, but here’s your chance to catch up: flash animations of a large number of physics experiments for your entertainment and edification. I don’t need to watch them ‘cos I already have a physics degree, but you should. ;-) Finally, something to try when you’re locked out of your car (video).

I felt like a change, so, since I like blue, I now have a blue blog. I have also got up to 42% of my projected 60,000 words in the Katherine of Alexandria book, and have added a couple of links to the new ‘Links’ bar to the right… Specifically, Calorie Connect, which gives you the calories in various food items on request with a simple but nifty form (with a few curious omissions, such as toast), and Diego Goldberg’s Arrow of Time page - a look at his family down through the years: what a good idea. I’ve no idea who these people are, but it almost makes me want to find out…

…not that I have links here every day, but I plan to do so fairly often.

Whilst searching for historical info relating to the Katherine of Alexandria book I am busy writing, I found Eye Witness to History - a site that concentrates on reports from people who were actually present at historical events as they happened, so you get a personal view. This is much more engaging than a more dry and scholarly approach.

I take a few photographs myself from time-to-time, so I was interested to see the Young Gallery. Unfortunately, the pictures are mostly rather ‘arty-farty’ for my taste - you know the kind of thing: if it is in black-and-white and shows some silky-looking skin, or if it shows some abstract colour, somehow that makes it ‘art’. I don’t buy it: it is too intellectual for me. Surely ‘art’ is supposed to generate some reaction other than boredom? There doesn’t seem to be anything new in that sort of stuff: it has been done over and over again for a good century now. There are some nice time-exposures of cities in one gallery though, and some nice wildlife pictures too. You might also be interested in Richard Gere’s (black & white) photos taken in Mongolia.

Hmm… getting plenty of writing done. Good! More than 1% of my total done today, anyway - can’t be bad!

I had kind of hoped to do more, but I got tired - in fact I got downright sleepy, and a “few minutes” of rest turned into a few hours. Ho hum. Still, if I need the rest, then it is best that I take it.

Later on I did a bit of web surfing. I’ve not been exercising enough lately - it has been slipping gradually for a long time, so I’m back to working on my motivation and thinking, and this time, ways of integrating the exercise into my normal daily routine: I think a “workout” is just rather dull, basically. I have tried a bit of self-hypnosis for it as well, with a free session from mindmedia.com, - Find Your Inner Athlete [Update: well it used to be there, anyway - there’s lots of new stuff there now]. There are also free sessions from the author of that session at mindchanginghypnosis.com. [Update: domain seems to be parked. Sigh.] Hypnosis? Yes, and I know people have this impression that it is something weird and dangerous, but, basically, it isn’t. It is simply a way of learning something more quickly than you might otherwise. Think of it as the same sort of thing as a guided visualization: it is not much different from using your imagination, basically, while your verbal mind is resting (ideally). Anyway, since trying the session a couple of weeks ago, I have indeed been doing a little more exercise - not full-on major sessions, but nevertheless, there has been some improvement.

I have also looked at a couple of web sites that talk about the thinking you need to get in place - similar to my own diet and exercise page actually! But it is good to see other people’s way of putting it too - and I obviously need a bit of extra input from somewhere. The Hussman Fitness site was very interesting and talks about the mindset, and has a good section on what a fitness/weight-loss programme needs to involve (rather a lot of exercise - Hmm…).

Well, I haven’t done any writing today… it is the weekend and I feel like a bit of a rest. For today, anyway. However, that doesn’t mean I have been doing nothing. I have been thinking that maybe I might add more links to my blog… links to things of interest to me, and maybe to you too… After all, I surf the Internet a lot, and I read a lot, so why not do something with all that ‘activity’ (for want of a better word)?

So… First up… how observant are you? Try watching the colour-changing card trick… (video) - tip: watch it to the end!

Next, I have been thinking about economics and all that lately. Currently I am reading Hernando De Soto’s “The Mystery of Capital” in which he reckons he may have hit upon the reason why capitalism works so well in the West and so badly for the other 80% of the world. His answer, in a nutshell, is property rights - people who can’t obtain proper legal title to their home can’t get loans or investment to start businesses. Plus, of course, bureaucracy in much of the world is ridiculously cumbersome, slow and expensive. He has set up the Institute of Liberty and Democracy to assist governments in implementing the political and legal reforms necessary to get things moving.

Finally for today - I have been thinking about how I might make my fitness regime a little more interesting. But I don’t think I’m going to try this: free running or parkour (video).

I am nearly up to 40% of the projected word total in my Katherine of Alexandria book now! It has crept up on me without my noticing. I have noticed, however, a slight change in my method of writing. On those days when my brain is a little less inclined to create new stuff, I instead revise the last section or so that I wrote. Revision is always necessary anyway, so the project moves forwards either way.

Maybe if I went to http://www.smart-kit.com/ more often, my enhanced brain would go even faster! The site has puzzles and potted summaries of interesting research such as that learning to play a musical instrument makes you more intelligent, and being obese makes you less intelligent - according to some studies anyway. It is always worth pointing out, though, I think, that ’studies’ are never totally fool-proof. It is necessary always to use common-sense when evaluating the results quoted. Often, the quotes are simply wrong, or the study itself was misconceived or badly executed, or, commonly, involves far too few subjects for the results to be considered reliable. Still, the ideas cannot be simply dismissed either…

Well, nothing in particular to write about today, really… except whatever I’ve been thinking about over the last couple of days I suppose. Firstly, I saw some photos of fantastic snow and ice sculptures in china at the Harbin Snow & Ice Festival, taken by R Todd King (the link is to his web site).

Secondly - blogging… I suppose if anybody was actually reading this blog, I might be tempted to think about it more! Darned if I can find it anywhere on the Internet and I know it’s here! But anyway, I have been looking at The Cluetrain Manifesto
which you can read online for free or purchase in book form from Amazon or elsewhere:

It is about how companies should stop trying to huckster their customers and prospects and start having real life conversations with them - using blogs. It explains why it will work, too, of course. Basically, human beings expect to be spoken with as human beings - not with sterile corporate-speak. Well, it sounds sensible to me. Companies who feel that their staff are too stupid to speak freely for them, I suppose, must think those same staff are too stupid to hold a normal conversation in their non-working lives too… And I imagine they think that their customers are too stupid to notice the plastic tone of authorized statements (which are also one-way communications and which are therefore largely ignored). Think about it. The solution is to allow the staff to blog freely…

I have done some 16,000 words or so now - in other words, about a quarter of my projected (guessed at) 60,000 word total. However, when I look at the script, it looks more like I’m nearer halfway through the story… or at least a third of the way through. Maybe it will be a novella rather than a novel. Anyway, there could be more room than I thought available for the non-fiction parts (movie trivia, historical notes and so on).

On another subject (slightly), I often listen to music when I am writing, unless I feel that it is distracting me or messing up the mood. According to this article, some scientists think music makes you smarter! (Original link changed but same article.)

Well, that explains a lot… ;-)