Culture \& spirituality blog

I have finished...

Sat, 3 May 2008 21:12:16 +0100

...a sculpture titled Domesticated. Domesticated consists of 864 blocks of cedar wood (from a renewable source) of varying lengths glued together to form a rectangle measuring approximately 60" x 40" x 8".

A picture can be found here.

So, I passed...

Fri, 4 Apr 2008 13:11:31 +0100

...my motorcycle test, with 3 minor faults (15 to fail I think). I stalled the bike at a junction (the clutch was dodgy, I swear!), failed to take an opportunity to pull out at a busy roundabout (cars weren't using their indicators, I swear!), and I missed a final shoulder check at a right turn (fair enough I guess). Anyway, the examiner didn't notice I was going 72-73mph up the dual carriageway or that I beeped my horn when my thumb slipped off the indicator cancel button.

It worked out pretty well actually 'cos the 1-way communication radio the examiner had was well dodgy which meant I went straight across a double mini roundabout instead of left as I couldn't hear his directions (honest!). This meant that I ended up doing my u-turn on a really wide road instead of the much narrower one where they usually go. ;-)

If anyone wants to give me a Suzuki V-Strom 650 or a Honda Transalp 650/700...

I'll also consider BMW's...

Visual/Literary Emissions.

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 16:50:48 +0100

Schmap!!, the online travel guide people have seen fit to stick one of my pics in their guide to Glasgow. Cheers, Schmap!! people (Schmappers!!?).

Should also be some of my writing appearing at Devizes Writing Group before too long.

Humble beginnings...

Alert...Alert

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 13:44:35 +0000

Incoming new Portishead!

As you can see...

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 12:05:00 +0000

...I've been fiddling with my wib-links to reflect my reading and developing interests over the last few weeks/months/years. Despite being a Myers-Briggs INTJ the links are not in alphabetical order.

Actually, while I'm passing by Myers-Briggs territory I came across a handy guide to INTJ's recently, which made me laugh as it's mostly true.

Absolute genius.

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 14:23:07 +0000

Reading.

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 19:07:43 +0000

I've just finished Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand and I must say I'm rather impressed. What it lacks in sublety at times is more than made up for by the breadth of its vision and grasp of its purpose. Of course I suspect that many literary types would find it distateful that a novel which makes no bones about its philosophical presuppositions should be classed as literature.

Out of the 16 books in my "to read" pile I think I'm going to go with Jupiter's Travels by Ted Simon and Plato's Protagoras and Meno next whilst continuing to dip in and out of Motorcycle Roadcraft: The Police Rider's Handbook. Never let it be said I don't have a varied mental diet.

Sharia | General media impatience with intelligence

Sat, 9 Feb 2008 19:16:06 +0000

So, the whole Sharia law rumpus is one I'm so totally bored to death with already. Not at all because I don't think the issues which the ABofC Rowan Williams raised are important, quite the opposite, but simply because the overwhelming majority of reactions to what he said are so ill considered, illogical, irrelevant, uneducated, hasty and have next to no correspondence to what he actually said. Hopefully, in time, his comments and general theological leanings will lead to a more widespread *rational* debate. In the meantime, I think his comments have been very useful, not so much in regard to the subject matter, but in revealing the true colours of the stultifying, corrupting and deadening language the media use to "report" such matters.

So today...

Wed, 6 Feb 2008 20:06:30 +0000

...I had my motorcycle theory test.

50/50 on the multiple choice. Looks like the revision paid off.

Can't remember what I got on the computer video based "anticipate an emergency" test thing.

Anyway, I passed.

Go me.

I've been doing a lot of learning lately / New Year resolution.

Sun, 27 Jan 2008 20:00:19 +0000

For example, yesterday I learned that when actors/actresses go to a voice coach to develop/improve their Geordie accent one of the key phrases that the enlightened contemporary voice coach is likely to use is: "John Paul Getty has broken the photocopier." Instant Jimmy Nail / Hairy Biker.

I also learned yesterday that the Highway Code has a sign in it meaning "No cars carrying explosives past this point!" I am rather concerned as I have never seen such a sign. Does this mean that one is allowed to carry explosives in ones car unless there is a sign informing one not to? And does petrol count as an explosive? Hmmm, tricky.

This morning I learned that if one is feeling particularly bleary (Cockney rhyming slang: Dr. Timothy Leary) early in the morning and attempts to traverse the turning in the hallway at too high a velocity then the rug slips on the polished wood floor and that the action of gravity upon ones person can have a sudden and deleterious effect upon ones posture resulting in Olympic standard bruises. Ouch.

I don't normally make New Year resolutions, if I need / really want to do something then I do it whatever time of year it is. So this isn't really a New Years resolution, it's just a resolution which happened to coincide with the British New Year. Anyway, said resolution is (drum roll): to get a full motorcycle licence. Hence my sudden interest in the Highway Code. I've booked my theory test, I've been revising hard, I've searched www.youtube.com for motorcycle accidents (if I'm going to do it then I want to do it with my eyes open...figuratively and literally!) and I can't find a single crash which isn't caused by either the rider being an idiot or failing to presume that the other drivers on the road are idiots. Mind you, after failing to negotiate the hallway this morning I'm having second thoughts. Now to soak my bruises in a bubblebath...