Category Archives: memes

Friday Five: Attack of Randomosity

What is something you collect? Why?
I don’t really collect anything these days. Although I suppose you could count books. But the book collecting is fairly random apart from a couple of areas of interest, but even these aren’t collected fanatically.

If you could make one ice cream flavor, what would the ingredients be and what would be the name?
1. Avocado. If it could be made green enough then call it “Green Slime”.
2. Grapefruit, Clementine and Lime. “Citrus Burst”

What can’t you go a day without?
Sleep. Lots of sleep.

What position do you sleep in? [back, right side, left side, stomach …]
Difficult one. I prefer to sleep on my stomach and I usually (until recently) used to go to sleep on the right side of my front. But I need to (re)train myself to sleep on my back or side — I have Obstructive Sleep Apnoea which means I need a CPAP machine and mask at night, and sleeping on my front disturbs the seal between mask and face.

What is your typical morning routine before work?
Wake up. Try to ignore the day. Eventually get up. Shave (if going in the office), wash and dress. Breakfast (fresh fruit or muesli with fruit juice). Try to remember to take tablets. Work. All condensed into as little time as possible so I get the maximum time in bed. 🙂

[Brought to you courtesy of Friday Five.]

Friday Five: Racing on the Thunder

1. Do you dance? No. I never have except at the occasional disco as a student. My knees wouldn’t do it now.

2. Would you consider yourself religious? Not in the least. I am anti all religions. I believe they are only devil worship, unnecessary and do more harm than good.

3. Do you talk about politics? Not if I can help it; after all politics is only another religion.

4. When is the last time you asked for forgiveness? Haven’t got a clue. I generally don’t need to be forgiven as I seldom if ever do anything wrong. 🙂

5. Friday fill-in:I’m holding out for a big lottery win and retirement. 🙂

[Brought to you courtesy of Friday Fiver]

What is Your Dangerous Idea?

Steve Mirsky has written an interesting column in the”Antigravity” series in September issue of Scientific American. It talks about a book with the title What is Your Dangerous Idea? edited by John Brockman in which scientists and intellectuals pose what they consider to be dangerous (mostly intellectual) ideas.

Some of the ideas quoted in the article include:

The planet is fine. The people are f*^#ed … the planet’ll shake us off like a bad case of fleas.
The idea that we should all share our most dangerous ideas.
Test the hypothesis first posited as a child that a red towel tied around the neck will indeed confer the ability to fly.

Mirsky ends with

Bertrand Russell’s truly treacherous notion: “I wish to propose … a doctrine which may, I fear, appear wildly paradoxical and subversive. The doctrine in question is this: that it is undesirable to believe in a proposition when there is no ground whatsoever for supposing it true.” The danger of ignoring this doctrine can almost certainly be found in the politics or world events stories on the front page of today’s New York Times. On whatever day you read this.

You can find the full article here.

So what is your dangerous idea? Add a comment to tell us! If nothing else it’s a fun game!

Oh, what, mine? Well let’s start with: Ban the motor car and the aeroplane!

Zen Mischievous Moments #130

Another piece from this week’s New Scientist but this time from a mainline article.

The article is titled The Last Place on Earth … and gives 17 examples of the last place you can find various “things”. I print the whole of number 7 below, it is so off the wall.

The last place on earth where you can still hear the strangest languages
ever spoken

The death of any language is a tragedy, but some are a more distressing loss than others. A handful of endangered languages are the last refuges of odd linguistic features that, once their host language disappears, will be gone forever.

One is Tofa, spoken by a handful of nomads in the Eastern Sayan mountains of southern Siberia. Starting in the 1950s, the Soviet government forced the Tofa people to learn Russian and abandon their traditional ways of life. Now, there are only 25 Tofa speakers left, all elderly. When they die, one utterly unique feature of Tofa will disappear: a suffix, -sig, that means “to smell like”. In Tofa you can add -sig to the word ivi-, (reindeer) to describe someone who smells like a reindeer. No other language in the world is known to have this kind of suffix.

Linguist K David Harrison of Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania has documented similar examples of endangered “information packaging” systems in his book When Languages Die. One of these is the body counting system used in an estimated 40 languages in Papua New Guinea. In languages like Kaluli and Kobon, the words for numbers are the names of body parts. So 1 to 10 in Kobon are “little finger, ring finger, middle finger, forefinger, thumb, wrist, forearm, inside elbow, bicep, shoulder”. To count higher, you count the collarbone and the hollow at the base of the throat – and then right down the other side, all the way to 23. You can count to 46 by counting back the other way and even higher by starting over and doing it all again. So 61 in Kobon is “hand turn around second time go back biceps other side”.

Friday Five: Nudity

I’m amazed that it’s almost two weeks since I posted anything; guess you’ll just have to put it down to too much work. Anyway here’s this week’s Friday Five, which is one I couldn’t resist as it’s an old hobbyhorse of mine. 🙂

Nudity/Body Awareness
(aka “How comfortable are you in your skin, or with others?”)

1. Have you ever gone skinny-dipping?
Sadly no I haven’t. I’d like to but there seem to be no available facilities near here, and anyway most clubs require one to be a member of British Naturism as a bona fide (I don’t like BN; too cliquey and too club-centric, unless it has changed a lot in the last few years). Neither am I anywhere near a naturist beach. And no opportunities in my youth. Very sad.

2. When you’re home alone, do you strip down to get comfortable? Do you ever go out without underwear because it’s more comfortable?
I always wear as little as possible at home. Writing this I’m wearing just a pair of shorts and that only because I’m awaiting a grocery delivery from the supermarket. I just love the freedom of nudity and the air is good for the body — if it was good enough for Benjamin Franklin it is good enough for me. We have a naturally warm house so even in the middle of winter I’m often wearing nothing. And in summer I’ll sit in the garden in nothing, tho’ only close to the house so as not to frighten the neighbours; it doesn’t bother me but it probably would bother “them next door”.

I don’t often go out without underwear, but I certainly do in summer if wearing only shorts.

Basically I wear clothes only because (a) the rest of society demands it and (b) for warmth. Otherwise, why bother?

3. Have you ever/do you use the bathroom with the door open? Are you comfortable using public facilities?
The only time our bathroom door (or bedroom door) gets shut is if there are visitors in the house, and then for their benefit not ours. We’ve always been like this and we both wander in and out even if the other is in possession. It doesn’t bother either of us; it never has. I have no problem with public facilities and would have no problem with mixed sex facilities. I’m actually astonished at the number of men who clearly dislike peeing in public and always use a cubicle rather than a communal urinal; I reckon this affects 30-50% of men — very odd.

4. When getting intimate with your significant other, lights on or off?
Either; it depends on how we feel at the time. Actually it is more a question of glasses on or off! Mind you even if I say “lights off” we never draw our bedroom curtains (come to that, any curtains) and there is a street lamp outside, so the bedroom is never dark. And you’ll not be surprised to know that we both sleep in the nude; I have done since I was a student and managed to get out of living in conventional shared lodgings.

5. How comfortable are you with body exposure/nudity of others? Group shower rooms? Topless/nude beaches? Breastfeeding in public?
Absolutely no problem with any of this. I’m dismayed at the number of men who walk around group shower/changing rooms trying to hide behind their towels or swimming trunks. I’m one of those who walks around totally bare and thinks nothing of it. And the antics of the British on the beach trying to change out of wet swimming costumes behind a towel always amuses me.

Before you ask … Yes, of course one looks at other people in the nude. Why shouldn’t one? We look at each other clothed and admire nice bodies; so why not in the nude? Staring is objectionable whether you’re nude or not. I feel sure fewer girls would complain about having their tits stared at or being visually undressed if blokes were more used to seeing the naked human body. And it works both ways: girls you’d get a good look too!

I see no problem with nudity anywhere, anytime; public or private. What’s the problem? I can’t understand why people have a problem with nudity. Come on, let’s be honest: give or take the odd scar we all know what’s underneath that shirt, skirt, shorts. We would all be better off if we were more used to nudity; if we were brought up with nudity. We’d be much more comfortable with our bodies. That would make it easier for most people to talk to their doctors (and each other); they’d be less embarrassed. So in turn our health would be better because illnesses would get treated sooner, as we’d not be embarrassed/scared of going to the doctor. And we would be much less embarrassed and reticent about talking to each other — about anything, not just things sexual! — which would be good for most people’s relationships. Ultimately we’d all be more civilised. Besides, isn’t nudity a basic human right?

Go for it: Nudity for all!

[Brought to you courtesy of Friday Five.]

Friday Five: My Life Wouldn't be the Same Without …

Apologies to everyone for the long silence: been very busy at work in the last few weeks; just now beginning to surface. So let’s catch up with this week’s Friday Five

My life would not be the same without this…

1. Song/movie/book:
Well as you’ll all expect by now I’m going to be very predictable and nominate a book: Anthony Powell’s A Dance to the Music of Time. Now there’s a surprise! But I could almost as well have chosen one of any number of albums or classical pieces.

2. Person:
Dare I nominate anyone except my wife? Yes I dare, but I won’t! Noreen has to be the nomination, although clearly my parents have to be a very close second.

3. Place:
Now this is really difficult. Much as I moan about it my first inclination is to say London — ‘cos it’s where I was dragged up and the place I know best. But there are other places where “I’ve left a bit of me”: Forde Abbey in Dorset would be one, and Lyme Regis another.

4. Event:
Another difficult one! I’m going to have to think about this for a minute or few. Strangely I don’t remember events well, perhaps because I don’t have a highly visual memory. There aren’t too many events which stand out and probably none for which I can replay the whole video in my head, only odd snapshots. Even things like our wedding and my doctoral graduation are fairly fuzzy memories. Clearly our wedding would have to be high on the list, as would the Anthony Powell Centenary Conference in December 2005; also the funeral for our friend Robbie at which I was the “celebrant” and my father’s funeral. Probably in that order.

5. Self-indulgence:
Don’t think I have too many doubts here. It has to be beer. I always enjoy good beer — by which I mean traditional English real ale, or quality Continental lager and white beer. My second choice would be food. No real wonder I’m the size I am!

[Brought to you courtesy of Friday Five.]

Friday Five: More About Me

1. Who was your first crush?
A girl in my class at school named Sandra Shorer. We were about 10, maybe younger. She was not at all interested. I wonder where she is now, some 45 years later?

2. Are you an introvert or an extrovert?
Introvert, although I can move towards extrovert if I have to I can’t do proper extrovert and I don’t find it comfortable.

3. What is your favorite non-sexual thing you like to do with the love of your life?
Talk. The one thing we vowed to do when we got married was to keep talking to each other. I won’t say we have a permanent on-going conversation, but it comes very close at times. It helps that we are interested in many of the same things and understand the world in similar ways and with similar humour.

4. Name one quirky habit your partner does that either annoys you or makes you grin.
Does everything too slowly; every job seems to take twice the time it would if I did it.

5. Do you believe in monogamous relationships?
No, not unless that is what both of you agree you want after careful thought. Monogamy is not how the human species was designed, it is an artificial invention of god philosophies used in order to keep control (of both men and women). Multiple partners are fine but they should not be hidden, secret affairs — be open about it; which means talking and communication.

[Brought to you courtesy of Friday Five.]