This week’s self-portrait: 52 Weeks 42/52 (2008 week 50).
This week I’ve been feeling remarkably scaly.
This week’s self-portrait: 52 Weeks 42/52 (2008 week 50).
This week I’ve been feeling remarkably scaly.
An extra Flickr PhotoMeme this week: A New Twelve Days of Christmas …
“The Twelve Days of Christmas” is an English Christmas carol which enumerates a series of increasingly grandiose gifts given on each of the twelve days of Christmas. It has been one of the most popular and most-recorded Christmas songs in America and Europe throughout the past century. [Wikipedia]
Create your own series of 12 gifts you would want …
One true love
£2M
Three ravishing concubines
Four miles of my own private sunny, sandy shoreline with nudist beach
Five stone less weight
Six winning lottery numbers
Seven days a week, every week, of warm summer sunshine
Eight hours good sleep every night
Nine percent interest on our savings
Ten green bottles of wine a week
Eleven acres of natural ancient woodland
Twelve month-long holidays a year
1. Mon Amie la Rose – IMG_1165a,** 2. Red Head, 3. Heart,** 4. Morning Light,** 5. 5-peace-stones, 6. lottery, 7. Too good to eat?, 8. tsukareta nya~,** 9. leon’s nine lives,** 10. wine bottles-10, 11. Buche bei Oberbantenberg,** 12. Wintery Temple**
As always these are not my photos but please follow the links to enjoy the work of the photographers who did take them!
(The starred ** photographs are from my Flickr favourites.)
And it is worth viewing this on black to bring out the colours!
Created with fd’s Flickr Toys.
Here’s a mid-week Flickr mini-meme I did some while back. Why post it now? Because I feel like it! 🙂
1. Painted on Jeans… 17/366, 2. Swimwear, by TBA Clothing-250, 3. i’m crazy, but you already knew that, 4. ruby fishing in the emperor’s new clothes on the dock up at camp, 5. naked feet, 6. Nudity
A mid-week mini-meme!
As usual the questions and answers and my usual tongue in cheek (but still semi-serious) take:
1. What do you wear to work? Jeans; just jeans mostly as I now work from home most days, and that’s really only so I can go quickly to the door; a t-shirt and sox only if I’m very cold, like today
2. Who is your favorite designer? You mean someone designs clothes? Oh dear!
3. Where do you get most of your clothes? From my wardrobe of non-clothing, of course
4. Where do you wish you could buy more often? The Emperor’s new clothes store
5. What is your favorite type of shoe? Naked feet; I’m sure barefoot is actually much better for the feet
6. What is your favorite around the house outfit? Nude when possible; clothed when necessary
As always these are not my photos but please follow the links to enjoy the work of the photographers who did take them!
Created with fd’s Flickr Toys.
Oliver Postgate, creator (with Peter Firmin) of many seminal and brilliant children’s cartoons, has died at the age of 83.
Postgate’s first creation was Ivor the Engine (in 1958), followed many, many others including Noggin the Nog, The Clangers and the universally loved Bagpuss. Although I never saw these as a kid (my enlightened(?) parents refused to have one of these “appalling peddlers of trash” TVs until I was at university) I found both Bagpuss and The Clangers as an adult. I loved them and I still do, to the extent that some of the “catch phrases” have become a part of our ecolect, notably “the mice on the mouse organ”, “Professor Yaffle”, “the Soup Dragon” and “Blue String Pudding”.
Here is not the place to write a full scale obituary, but you can find more about Oliver Postgate and his work at:
I have to admit to agreeing with Sarah Vine in the last of those linked pages, that this should be a national day of mourning. The world needs more Like Oliver Postgate.
This week’s Flickr PhotoMeme
“The Twelve Days of Christmas” is an English Christmas carol which enumerates a series of increasingly grandiose gifts given on each of the twelve days of Christmas. It has been one of the most popular and most-recorded Christmas songs in America and Europe throughout the past century. [Wikipedia]
Let’s celebrate the season with a 12 Days of Christmas Meme!
A partridge in a pear tree
Two turtle doves
Three French hens
Four calling birds
Five golden rings
Six geese a-laying
Seven swans a-swimming
Eight maids a-milking
Nine ladies dancing
Ten lords a-leaping
Eleven pipers piping
Twelve drummers drumming
1. Partridge in a pear, 2. Turtle Doves 01, 3. Three French Hens, 4. 4 calling birds, 5. Five Gold Rings, 6. 6 Geese a swimming…., 7. On the seventh day of Christmas…, 8. Eight maids a-milking, 9. Nine ladies (20), 10. Ten Lords a-Leaping, 11. 11 pipers piping, 12. Twelve Drummers Drumming
As always these are not my photos but please follow the links to enjoy the work of the photographers who did take them!
Created with fd’s Flickr Toys.
There’s a penchant at this time of year for summarising your blogging year by posting the first sentence of the first post of each month. This year I’ve made an effort to write punchier (first) sentences, and in writing generally to tighten up my rather prolix prose style. The following demonstrates that I “could do better”. Here is my contribution …
January. Yes, you read it right!
February. Going to the dogs is what a lot of children in Shropshire might be doing today.
March. I’m still working through the photographs I took on holiday in German a few weeks ago.
April. In the Barber’s Shop. (One in a series of a self-portrait a week.)
May. “Sitting quietly, doing nothing, / Spring comes, and the grass grows by itself.”
June. Albertine. (Photograph of a rose from our garden.)
July. We’ve not done a Friday Five for a long time, so here’s this week’s.
August. The “Feedback” column this week’s New Scientist contains this item.
September. Is it my imagination, or is the wheat harvest about a month late this year?
October. “I moved to London in 1973 to study Chemistry at University College, London.”
November. I’ve no idea now where I found this, but it struck a chord.
December. Anti-Haircut (Another in the series of a self-portrait a week.)
The Verdict? Keep taking the tablets!
Jamie over at Duward Discussion has posted this meme. It’s not unlike the 100 Things to do Before you Die on my Zen Mischief website, so I thought I’d give it a go!
To participate, just copy and paste the list into your own blog, and color all of the things YOU have done (mine are in blue, but use any colour you like). Things you haven’t done will be in black. Add some commentary if you wish. Please add a pointed back to here and/or add a comment pointing from here to your posting. And tag others if you wish.
Enjoy!
I’m not going to tag anyone, join in if you like!
This week’s Flickr PhotoMeme
Make a classic Advent Calendar. Chose 25 pictures that will put you in the Christmas spirit!
1. Christmas Tree Fruit, 2. Christmas Gold Organza Felt Star 1, 3. Christmas Lights in London: South Bank Centre, 4. Christmas Light Box #2, 5. Dartmouth Christmas, 6. Holly, 7. Georgia Orthodox Christmas, 8. Cracker Jack, 9. Christmas Rose, 10. Christmas 2004: Theotokos of the Passion, 11. Mistletoe / Ökseotu, 12. Yule log fire, 13. WHAT? No Santa Claus?, 14. Christmas Candle, 15. Christmas mince pies, 16. Glowing in the Snow, 17. Christmas Market, 18. Christmas wreath, 19. Christmas Bauble, 20. Mulled Wine, 21. Winter colors, 22. three kings, 23. robin, 24. Brest – Chestnuts Roasting on an open fire – December 24th – 25th 2006, 25. Simply Merry Christmas Cards 2
As always these are not my photos but please follow the links to enjoy the work of the photographers who did take them!
Created with fd’s Flickr Toys.
This week’s self-portrait: 52 Weeks 41/52 (2008 week 49).
This week I’m trying to avoid going to the barber.
Here follows the opening paragraph of an article entitled “Quantum Brinkmanship” by George Musser printed in the December 2008 edition of Scientific American. Just to demonstrate what you already knew: science is weirder than you imagined.
A good working definition of quantum mechanics is that things are the exact opposite of what you thought they were. Empty space is full, particles are waves, and cats can be both alive and dead at the same time. Recently a group of physicists studied another quantum head spinner. You might innocently think that when a particle rolls across a tabletop and reaches the edge, it will fall off. Sorry. In fact, a quantum particle under the right conditions stays on the table and rolls back.