runner : rider
Runner: I spend a lot of my running time on shared cycle/pedestrian paths. Often you come zooming past from behind and I don’t even know you’re there. It can be quite a shock. Couldn’t you ring your bell or something?
Rider: Dude. A bell would add like 30 grams to my bike. That’s going to seriously slow me down.
Runner: Maybe you could try the new Shimano Ultramicronads. It’s a bell made out of a lightweight titanium alloy, weighs in at 8 grams and costs about $300. I hear Lance Armstong and Schapelle Corby use one.
Rider: I think you mean Cadel Evans. Sounds good but still, 8 extra grams.
Runner: Well you could always lose a few kilos from your gut.
Rider: That’s a bit below the belt.
Runner: Actually your gut is above your belt but now that you mention it you’re carrying a bit of excess baggage on your fat arse too. If you can’t use a bell couldn’t you at least call out to let me know you’re about to pass?
Rider: I suppose I could but it might shatter my mental state. See every time I pass a rider I’m telling myself that I’ve broken away from the bidon for my sprint down the Champ du Ulysses and I’m passing another Belgian drug cheat just before the finishing line.
Runner: OK. Whatever. But if I do hear you coming up behind don’t be surprised if I hog the middle of the path or throw an elbow.
every cloud
Sure it’s a bit scary that an article published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association reports that children prefer food served in McDonald’s packaging, over identical food in plain wrappers. (Preschoolers prefer tucker dished up McDonald’s style, The Age)
But maybe there’s a silver lining
- Parents, particularly those with multiple TVs in the home, will be able to get their kids to eat their vegies just by putting them in an old Maccas chip (sorry, fries) packet.
- Marketing directors all over the world cam now cite academic research conducted by Stanford University and published in the JAMA showing that marketing really works.
family portrait
Bought a book about drawing Manga style cartoons as part of an ongoing effort to improve my face/figure drawing. Here’s an attempt at a family portrait.
the poetry of Donald Rumsfeld
A Confession
Once in a while,
I’m standing here, doing something.
And I think,
“What in the world am I doing here?”
It’s a big surprise.
—May 16, 2001, interview with the New York Times
SIM cards
When I was at uni I shared a flat with a guy from Lebanon. I never gave him a SIM card. We didn’t have SIM cards back then.
I think I might have given him a capuccino-maker that I didn’t want any more.
last chance
On the eve of the introduction of the new anti-smoking laws I find myself strangely tempted to buy a packet of winnie blues and go and sit in a bar and smoke a couple.
But seriously, I am looking forward to drinking a lot more alcohol in pubs and bars without damaging my health.
Howard’s discoveries
For decades John Howard and his government have denied climate change.
Then, belatedly, we get what is at best a half-hearted, crowd-pleasing response.
Now, again after decades of advice, reports and calls for assistance, Howard has ‘discovered’ that there is a crisis in Aboriginal communities.
And once again we get a knee-jerk, back to the ’50s, media attention grabbing response. As critics have noted in the media today
- Some of the measures will weaken communities and families by taking from them the ability to make basic decisions about their lives.
- There are no measures in the Prime Minister’s statement to set up services for children who are abused.
- The problems of child abuse will only be addressed when Aboriginal communities and professional services are empowered, engaged and driving the process.
Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough has said that the focus in the first six months would be on stabilising the communities, before establishing a “comprehensive, ongoing health plan” for indigenous children.
How conveniently that coincides with the electoral cycle.
What’s next?
Maybe he will discover the drug problem and propose that to cope with overcrowding in our prisons we should transport undesirables to distant outposts of the empire. (Oh wait we’re already doing that).
Clean on Green
There has been a bit of a political tinge to some of my past posts and doubtless this will continue in the future.
So I’d better come clean.
Like many of my generation I have not been very politically active beyond the personal/individual level. I have come, belatedly, to the realisation that that is not enough.
For a long time now the policy landscape of the major parties has been little more than a battle for the mediocrity of the middle ground and a ‘just don’t fuck anything up’ mentailty.
So I have joined the Greens.
Here is a list of the Greens’ policies. See what you think. I find it refreshing and inspiring to see a real vision and one where sustainability and social justice are cornerstones of a guiding philosophy not just window dressing.
Orange
Our warm up exercise for the secondary colours is this.
Place a sheet of the colour (say orange) in the middle of a larger piece of white paper. Stare at it for about 30 seconds without focusing directly on it. Try and stare through/past it like looking at one of those 3d illusions. After a while the complementary colour starts to appear like a halo. When the orange sheet is taken away a luminous blue rectangle hangs like a mirage on the white board. It is quite magical.
Please please me
Singing in the shower this morning I found myself wondering if there’s an (oral) sexual subtext to the Beatles song ‘Please please me’. What do you think?
Last night I said these words to my girl,
I know you never even try, girl,
Come on, come on, come on, come on
Come on, come on, come on, come on
Please please me, whoa yeah, like I please you.
You don’t need me to show the way, love.
Why do I always have to say love,
Come on, come on, come on, come on
Come on, come on, come on, come on
Please please me, whoa yeah, like I please you.
I don’t wanna sound complainin’,
But you know there’s always rain in my heart (in my heart).
I do all the pleasin’ with you, it’s so hard to reason
With you, whoah yeah, why do you make me blue.
Last night I said these words to my girl,
I know you never even try, girl,
Come on, come on, come on, come on
Come on, come on, come on, come on
Please please me, whoa yeah, like I please you.