Thoughts on washing clothes

I have been using the Laundrette while I have been living in Germany. For the last few years I lived in the UK, I owned both a washing machine and a dryer. This was convenient, but I was sick of the expense of moving them from flat to flat. Frankly it was too much commitment. I need my freedom.

The laundrette in Wuppertal is modern, bright and clean. Crucially it is not too full of people. And most people seem relatively sane. I leave my clothes, go to shop for pens at the Euro shop, and then buy beer and fruit at the Netto supermarket. After that my clothes just need to be dried and I read my book. Sometimes I help people use the machines.

There is an interesting article on the BBC about laundrettes. For a while I used a laundrette in Liverpool. I really hated it because some of the people washing their clothes were crazy. Also lots of weird people seemed to wash large dusty curtains. Of course I would have been happy to use any of the laundrettes mentioned in the BBC article. I like the idea of checking my email, while my clothes dry. The BBc seem to have forgotten about the great film from the 80s: "my beautiful Laundrette.

In kentucky there was a Laundrette in a bar. I never went in. I didn't like getting carded to just wash my clothes. .

The French Revolution

I had so much to do this weekend. All I managed to do in the end was book a trip to Graz and read "The French Revolution" by Christopher Hibbert. In my defense every true revolutionary need to know something about the French Revolutions, so the same mistakes are not made again.

Before I read this book, all I really knew about the French Revolution was that it started when Marie Antoinette said "let them eat cake." This is not mentioned in the book. In fact, I found out that Marie was actually Austrian, and that the guillotine was actually made by a German company (even that those pesky German exports went around the world). Also Robespierre was a fairly hard core Christain, but maybe not such a good Catholic. Before reading the book, I was also unsure what the connection was between "The Paris Commune" and the French revolution. Marx tried to learn the lesson of the "The Paris Comune", so I would like to do the same, now that I know what it was.

Ok, apart from these facts that maybe will be useful for a pub quiz one day, it was interesting to watch the various factions come and go from power. Also, it was important to watch popular opinion, particularly, when mass displeasure turns into the mob.

Me and My Shadow

While I worked in Liverpool I saw a flyer for a book set in Liverpool. The book was "Me and My Shadow" by Stephen Morris. In a misguide sense of loyalty to the Northwest of England, I added the book to my unread pile of knowledge.

The plot was based on some students taking over politics after being brain washed by an evil genius. There is sometimes a tension between students and "workers". This is sometimes known as "town versus gown". The author of the book clearly thinks that all the students do is get drunk and get depressed about failed relationships, because that is all that his characters do. Rather depressingly, no one got a bad hangover. Lucky young people.

At one point in the book, a student complains about people with Joke Degrees. A bit rich, I thought, given that none of the students in this novel, did any studying, or even talked about lectures, or worked part time jobs. In fact it looked as though the novel was set during freshers week.

The book is self published by authorhouse. Anyway I hope that Morris gets his money back.

Cancer and Hitchens

I was so sad hear that Christopher Hitchens has a bad throat cancer. According to the myth, he learned about his illness a few days, before going on the Daily Show program.

Christopher is a great essayist, but I expect he is a bit of a shit to know. I wsa impressed to see that some Christains were praying for him - but not for his recovery.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Christopher Hitchens
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

Wuppertal Botantical Gardens

So last week I failed to go to the Botanical gardens in Wuppertal. After walking up nearly a million steps, I couldn't face walking up the next billion steps that seemed to stretch out into heaven. This Friday I decided that I would make it to the Gardens. Here are the steps, that stopped my journey last weekend.

So up the steps I trudged, into the clouds, and frankly almost to the edge of space. After getting to top level, it took a while to find the entrance. But then I was in and what a mythical place it was: a tower, some green shit (trees and grass), and some green houses. Also there was a fountain called "kein Wasser trinken". It made the destruction of my legs worthwhile.

After this test of endurance and mental strength it was time to celebrate by going to the pub. I decided on a traditional German pub as you can see.

Friday night quest ruined by the love of beer

Well Wuppertal has broken me.

I have felt that I have spent too much time in my flat drinking beer and watching TV. So I thought I needed a lifestyle change, perhaps drinking beer in a bar. Also I have been shopping at the same fairly small supermarket, so I should go to the shops down in the center of Wuppertal. So for the last two Fridays, after work, I have gone to the downtown of Wuppertal to shop and chug a couple of beers.

Yesterday I thought I would visit the Botanical Gardens that is allegedly close to the centre of Wuppertal. I have made two previous attempts to find these Gardens, but this time I thought I would take a map. Everything started well. I started from the main railway station and followed the map though some back streets. I then saw a sign for the Gardens. Then I saw the steps, and even worse these were named steps. Walking around Wuppertal always involves walking up and down hills. I had already walked down from the University on a big hill. The fact that the steps were named suggested that they went up a long long way. But I though in the spirit of adventure, I would go up.

So up the steps I huffed and puffed and hit another road. I walked along the road looking for these blasted gardens. I saw a sign for the Botanical gardens, and then I saw more fucking steps. No I thought. No! No more steps. I can remember happy boozy early evenings, after work, on a Friday in Liverpool or Glasgow. None of which involved spending all evening walking up steps. There seemed to be steps everywhere I looked. There were steps on the outside of all the high buildings, that seemed to mock me. I was just the uncertainity. Even if I struggled up the next level of steps, perhaps there would more steps. Was I that interested in these mythical gardens. There will just be some grass and a tree or so. I had found a nice bar on route. So I turned back.

A bit later I was the only customer in a bar close to the City Arcadia. I was thinking that this quest is really a metaphor for my life. I had failed. I am so unfit that a few steps defeated me. But next week I will try again. When I get to the top of those steps, I will be like Rocky, and jump around and shadow box. So next week I could be strolling in the Botanical gardens, and looking at the grass, trees and other outdoor shit. Unless of course it is raining.

Why not Socialism?

I was talking to someone about the 25 to 40% cuts in the budgets of UK goverment departments. They were pointing out how this was going to hard on people on welfare, while I personally was selfishly thinking about the effect on the science budget.

On reflection I thought I should spent some time reeducating myself. So I ordred the short book: why not socialism? by G A Cohen. The book starts with a parable about a camping trip with friends and family. What would happen if people behaved like members of a capitalist society. Then your friend would think you were a selfish twat. He then trys to extend the insight gained from this model to the running of society.

Of course because Cohen was an Oxford don, he only thought about camping rather actually going camping. The last time I was in a tent was at the Green man festival. Al the tents looked like a big sprawl of suburbia. Somebody did help me put up my tent, because I looked like a festival virgin.

Christie Marly's Own Double entry

For reasons not clear to me Amazon recommended to me"Christie Marly's own double entry" by B. S. Johnson. I felt in the need of reading more experimental (but short) work.

The book had a fair amount of author talking to characters. Normally this annoys me, but some how it was done in a fresh way. There was a strong plot in the book, that reminded me of "Fight club". (Well he wants to blow up the houses of Parliament, at the end of the story).

Today the Guardian has an article about the resurgence of new experimental writing. . There is even a picture of B. S. Johnson. What are the odds?? Maybe pretty good, if I am living in a novel, and the author wants to mess with my head.

Storage

I was deeply depressed by Stewart Lee's piece on collecting books and CDs. Like him I have aquired books and CDs. Unlike him I don't have to get rid of anything because a child needs to play where bookshelves rightly stand.

I have had to sell or give away books and CDs when I have to change countries. This pains me. One day, if I make an old man, I will be seen in a second hand book shop. As I open a book, I will start to cry. I will have seen my name written on the flap of the book. An old book of mine will have come back to its owner.

I have had to sell or give away books and CDs when I have to change countries. This pains me. One day, if I make an old man, I will be seen in a second hand book shop. As I open a book, I will start to cry. I will have seen my name written on the flap of the book. An old book of mine will have ome back.

If I dream at all, I would want a study and maybe a library. The library would be dusty, and perhaps would contain a small well stocked bar. Given that my reading has dropped off.

a tale of vodka

I was going shopping to the small Kaufman supermarket close to the University. I noticed that for a mere 5 Euros I could get a bottle of Boris Yeltsin Vodka. I was excited by this, partly because it seemed like a completely bizarre thing to see. Yeah Yeltsin liked Vodka, but not in a good way. Anyway I didn't buy any, but I am regretting the decision already, because it would make a good story. But I needed a rest from my dissolute life style.

I once tried to order vodka made in Liverpool in a Russian restaurant in Liverpool, because someone told me it existed. The waiter looked at me with a little contempt. Later I found that there is indeed a brand of Vodka that comes from Liverpool, but it is a cheap and nasty brand.

The wikipedia article on Yeltsin claims that he had medical or prescription drug problems that caused him to have problems (just trying to be fair).

At Swim-Two-Birds

I have just finished reading At Swim-Two-Birds by Flann O'Brien. The book is a book with in a book, that is hidden inside a story. Normally this kind of complicated book annoys me, but in this case, somehow there was a streak of fun in the stories. After reading the wikipedia entry on the book, I realized I had not followed all of the threads of the novel.

Call me cynical, but I would guess that this book is set in some English (or Irish) literature exams. So some students may not read the book, but just use the wikipedia article to write essay questions. Perhaps, I should write myself into the wikepedia article on the book. Then students would write about me in their exam. This would be in the spirit of the book and the students could claim they just spent all day in bed, and never opened a book, just like one of the possible authors in the novel. The studenst would also learn the difference between reality and stories, because the student in the book passes his exams, but they would fail. This would cure them of any postmodern shit.

Looking at the back of the book, I think I actually payed 20 DM for it. I dimly remember buying it when I was living in Bielefeld. There were not that many books in English in the book store (I think I also picked up a book by Anne Rice that I read in a graveyard.

inverting the pyramid

As part of the football world cup, I thought I should learn more about football. Most of my football knowledge comes from when I used to occasionally play at school. And that was over 25 years ago.

So I have read "inverting the pyramid" by Jonathan Wilson. The book was about the history of football tactics. The most important thing about tactics is how to partition 10 into integers: 10 = 4:1:3:2 This describes the distribution of players over the pitch. The book showed with examples of how the players were arranged over pitch, changed with time, as football got more sophisticated. I decided that I knew even less about football than I thought I did.

Perhaps the most depressing part of the book was a style of football play sometimes used by the English football team called "kick and rush" was developed by scientific methods. People looked at a sample of football games and counted the number of passes before a goal was scored. The claim seemed to be that only 3 passes were normal before a goal was scored, although there seemed to be some issues about the games included in the sample. So this is why the England football team tend to not favour a lot before attempting to score. of passing "Kick and rush" is widely viewed as a shitty English thing in Europe, but there you go.

I have decided that even though I am not really interested in football, I should be the next manager of the English football team. I would use new tactics based on partioning 10 using real and imaginary numbers. Watch out Germany!

Elberfelder Cocktail

I feel the need to party. So I was happy to see posters for "Elberfelder Cocktail" for this weekend. (Elberfeld is one of the towns that became Wuppertal).

I had visions of me sitting in some open air cocktail bar drinking Martinis. I wasn't thinking about me being sophisticated, but more drinking in the vein of Hunter S. Thompson, except I might need to bang my fists on the table, shout at people, foam at the a mouth, and just let go. The stagger back home to drink beer and fall asleep.

In reality what happened was: I went down to this "little festival". Essentially there were a number of stalls close to the streets near the railway station. In a square there was a stage and more stalls. For 6.50 Euros cocktails were available. It was a crowd of family and Saturday afternoon shoppers. So no crazy wild people at all (or lose women), just people enjoying the cool dry weather. I decided against trying a cocktail. I have too much to do.

Kick-Ass

I have been under time pressure for the last 3 weeks. One Sunday I thought I will have a quick read of something to relax. What caught my eye on my bookshelves was the graphic novel: Kick -Ass by Millar and Romita.

Anyway, my idea to read for 15 minutes and then get back to work, failed because I ended up reading it all in one go. Although the book is another take on normal people wanting to be superheros, it is done in a fresh way. I liked the surprise in the story, when it got way more violent, when the little girl was introduced.

Blood and guts in high school

A long time ago when I was living in Liverpool, I tried to read some books by radical authors, in a vain attempt to improve my creative writing skills. One book I started was "Blood and guts in high school" by Kathy Acker. I started to read the book, but after 20 pages, I stopped becasue frankly it was shit.

Anyway after unpacking in Germany I decided that I should finish it. The blurb on the back of the books says: There is a young women writing on the West coast who has received no attention at all. Her name is Kathy Acker. She is literally the wildest writer going. Her prose is direct, fast, sexy, hot, horny, furiously honest..

Below is my attempt to write like Kathy Acker. I have a cock. My cock likes cunts. You have a cunt. I will die, if you don't love me. I am too tired to continue, but you can see that I didn't find the book very erotic, or even that interesting.

Also mixed in the book was the occasional discussion about literature, such as Madame Bovary. This looked as though it was copied from a homework from some literature class.

I liked the quote from Wikipedia

even Acker’s most recognized novels, Blood and Guts in High School, Great Expectations and Don Quixote receive mixed critical attention. Most critics acknowledge Acker’s skilled manipulation of plagiarized texts from writers as varied as Charles Dickens, Marcel Proust, and Marquis de Sade.

On reading

I like to think of myself as a little bit well read. However when I read the Guardian's suggestion for summer reading I realise that not only have I not read any of the books they suggest, but that I have never heard of them either.

On the other hand, a lot of the reviews start with the phrase "this sounds like a rather boring subject for a novel, but ...." Me thinks that I will not bother to try any of their suggestions. A well written book on a tedious subject is still no fun to read.

I too would like to declare that the American novel is dead But I like the idea of Bizarro fiction.

Global warming

I have not read about philosophy for a long time. I remember reading about ethics. The question was posed as to whether an act is good, if the act was not done for a good reason. I thought I would read about "global warming", partly because of the future of the planet, but mostly because I was worried about the future of science after climategate.

I have read "Global warming -- a very short introduction" by Mark Maslin. This gave a good overview of the issues. I now know a little bit more about "hockey sticks" and things.

Dear old blighty

So last week I spent a couple of days in the UK for some R and R. I flew into the Leeds-Bradford airport from Dusseldorf airport. The duty free shop at Dusseldorf airport was giving out 2 Euro vouchers. They were also selling small bottles of nasty Vodka like booze for 3.50 that is regularly sold near the checkouts of German supermarkets. My head said no, but my greedy heart thought I would deserve a couple of shots after so much travelling.

Because the flight didn't get into until 21:30, I had to stay in a hotel in Bradford. On the flight I worried that I wouldn't make closing time at 23:00 (this is still an English disease even with relaxed opening times). My hotel was actually a room in a pub, so I managed a couple of pints before bed. As I sat at the bar I heard a two men and a woman talk pub talk about various boozers in Birmingham and their life in general. Their conversation was slow, slurred and boring, and I thought I remember why I don't spend much time in pubs.

So what has changed in the UK, while I have been away. I noticed that people crossed the road even if the red man was showing on the on the pedestrian sign. "Fucking Auslanders", I thought. In Germany I always wait for the greenman to show, partly so that I don't stick out, but mostly because I am usually out of breath.

Another new custom I noticed was that if you stay at someones house it is considered rude to say "there are 10 episodes" of the new Dr Who series on the Iplayer. I am now going to watch them all. Then we can decide what to do after that". Who makes these rules?

Friday night

I am bored! Sometimes people ask me what I do on Friday night in Germany. I start to look shifty and mutter "nothing much", and they look at me knowingly and probably assume that I get dead drunk in some Wuppertal dive bar.

What I actually used to do on a Friday night was to watch kungfu movies dubbed into German on one of the cable channels. But now no more. On Tuesday I came home to find that I had lost 20 of my cable channels. So no more kungfu for me. There is some notice on the wall of the apartment, the only bit I understand is that there are now only 10 analogue channels. Perhaps this is a punishment for England getting knocked out of the World cup.

I could read more books, but I have now worked out how to rent movies with Itunes, so I have a Ninja movie waiting for me on my hard drive. Friday night is back baby.

Sunday afternoon in Germany

If you were to play a word association game with me, and you asked "what does Sunday in Germany" suggest to you, my first thought would be "boring". (Here I am talking about a typical Sunday rather than one with an England German football game.) Most of the shops are shut on a Sunday, so the place feels a bit dead.

If pressed to come up with something other than "boring", I would say "the A-team". They used to show the A-team on Sunday afternoons, and I would watch it as I ate my lunch. I would never have guessed that the A-team show would be shown in Germany. Last week I saw part of the episode of the A-team, where Boy George starred. Why was Boy George in the A-team. Well many people think that it was because he was taking a lot of hard drugs and that clouded his judgment.

This is how I get through a Sunday afternoon in Germany.

On football

As I get older I seem to be more interested in football. Eight years ago I rang up the passport office in Liverpool to get an interview for the renewal of my passport. The voice on the phone sounded very suspicious of me. This was particularly annoying because he had a Northern Island accent. Midway through the conversation he said "your country has just scored a goal in the world cup". I suddenly thought, "oh my God. I can see why he was suspicious. I just hope on one ever finds out."

I thought I should know more about football, particularly as a number of people have asked me to predict the score of today's England Germany game Instead of getting a book that explains what the fu*k a 4-2-2-1 system is, I ended up with Why England Lose by Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski. This book uses statistical and economics techniques to analyze international football games. This was a popular book, so was not full of equations, but had stories in it as well. They claimed that a model of England's success at winning games was a constant probability of something like 0.67. I don't think there is enough data on games to build a more complicated model, so that it could predict the number of goals in a game. If could I would create an Android application and perhaps earn 10 pounds.

The Guardian were not impressed with the book.

On questions

Although we tell the students that "no question is too stupid", that is not entirely true. Occasionally I have seen someone ask question that has taken my breath away, because it has shown the person has no idea what they are doing.

So sometimes, to my shame, I will not ask a basic question, because I worry what other people might think of me.

In today's German class we were told (again, because I had forgotten) family status:

verwitwet -- widowed
geschieden -- divorced
getrennt -- seperate
I almost put up my hand to ask, that for completeness we should know the word for bigamy. But I though this was one of those questions that would ruin my relationship with the teacher, because she would think I was being cheeky. But you just never know when a word will be needed.

On sweat

I don't want to sound as tough I am complaining about the weather in Wupopertal. It has been warm, but there always is the threat of rain in the air. As a result I usually wear a coat, and this means I sweat a lot.

As the saying goes: "horses sweat, men perspire, and women only glow". In my case even the mildest activity causes a river to flow out of my pores. I was embarrassed last week when after walking to work, I went into the little cafe near my office. My T-shirt was drenched in sweat. I certainly thought of all the adverts I had seen on TV, where a man loses his girlfriend because he sweats, or a man looks cool, because he doesn't sweat after rushing around an airport.

I feel slightly resentful that I am not allowed to sweat in public. I don't go around hugging people, so what does it matter? When I see my sweat I think of all the toxins that are leaving my body. I could of course go to a sauna to sweat in private, but I hear such tales about such places, and I am more of a massage parlor kind of guy.

After watching many TV adverts I know that all I need to do is to use more deodorant. I have been experimenting with spraying my back as well. On Wednesday I huffed and puffed my way up the hill to the front door of my flat. There was a beautiful women at the door ringing a bell of one of the flats. She was wearing an elegant black dress, and looked as though she was going out for a stylish and expensive. I let her into the building. She got into the lift with me to go up the door of her friend. She wasn't visibly repulsed, by so the use of the additional deodorant is beginning to work its magic. How could I doubt the advertising.

football

I have been trying to read the English language version of Spiegel to get a German perspective on the news. I was amused by the article about England's draw with the USA at the football world cup. I particularly like their idea of what to paint on the football to help the English goal keepers.

In the article they mention that every German knows that the third goal in the game where England won the world cup was not a real goal. What? I am trying to repress this knowledge. What if I get asked the question, "so what did you learn in Germany," and I say "you know that third goal ...". I would be on the ground getting a good kicking in microsecond, and that is the best case that I am talking to a family member or friends. Best to forget about getting a German perspective.

dreaming work

I have been having a lot of work related dreams recently.

Many years ago I stopped lying in bed worrying about how much work I have to do, because I can't function without enough sleep. If I don't sleep because I was worried about work, then I get less work done the next day because I am sleepy, I would lie awake and worry more. This is known as negative feedback. Anyway, these days if I start dreaming stressful work dreams, I religiously change the dream into a more sexual theme. I need need my rest and I have appetites like everyone else.

I did sleep badly on Sunday, because as soon as I closed my eyes, I saw vivid blue colours. I then spent a lot of time thinking "I must remember this for my blog." So sleep didn't come fast.In one of my work related dreams, I found myself criticizing a local colleague. This was received very badly by the people I was talking to, and I ended up backing down in a humiliated matter. Trouble, with all the dreams I have been having, I started to worry that this incident happened in the real world, and the dream was just an echo of that.

Love Cast Out All Evil

Friends can you remember the time before the internet, when the only way to find new music was to walk around a record shop. I used to buy CDs or tapes that looked cool, but then I wouldn't know much about the artist. In some sense this was a better time, it does effect my judgement when I find out about an artist, rather than just listening to their sounds.

When I used to live in Kentucky I found a CD by Roky Erickson, and it was loud explosive and awesome. After that I would look out for CDs, and buy then whenever I found them. He was never that prolific though.

With the Internet I now know of Roky's rocky history with mental illness. I did try to listen to the "13th floor elevators" the famous band he was in during the 60s, but I didn't get too much into it. However, I really like the electric jug playing that you can see them play on Youtube.

Anyway Roky Erickson has a new album out and it is great! I have been listening to it as I walk to work. Forget the Guardian review

On Jazz

I probably own less than 10 Jazz CDs, I wouldn't say I dislike Jazz. Occasionally I have come across a part of Jazz concert on TV and I have been put off by the long solos. Too much technique

There have been odd exceptions. In that I really like John Coltrane, but mostly I have not really tried to get into Jazz.

I was amused one time to hear that Alistair Cook who did the letter from America slot on the radio5 for many years tell a story, about playing a Jazz record to his mum. She burst into tears, because she regarded Jazz as for criminals and drug fiends. (This was before pop and rock I might add). This struck me as cool. There is a Jazz connection to the wildness of the Beat generation of course. But while their life style was wild, I was unconvinced by the music.

After having my musical tastes broadened by the freakzone radio show, I found that I like Free Jazz. Some people think it is chaotic, but that is what I like about it. The video below is by Ornette Coleman (Dancing In Your Head). Its groovy.

The Romantic Manifesto

I needed a book while I washed my clothes. So the last couple of sessions I have been reading "The Romantic Manifesto" by Ayn Rand.

The start of the blurb at the back of the book goes like: "in this beautifully written and brilliantly reasoned book, Ayn Rand throws a light on the nature of the art...." So you can see that humility is not one of her strong points.

I do like that she tried to write a philosophical novels (although she doesn't like the term). She is very keen on plot. After reading her discussion of music, I wouldn't try to introduce the Fall to her.

I would like to just say that I view "Atlas shrugged" as an evil book. In this Southpark agree with me.

my secret shame

Although I am (sort of) enjoying learning German, one problem is that we are expected to speak about the past and our feelings. Both of which I am not very good at, even if using English.

Today was a low point. I was asked to tell the class about famous building in the UK. I would like to point out, that although I was technically born in Southampton, I grew up in the North West of England, so that is where my sympathies lie. I start sweating when I am in the South of England (and that is not because it is hotter there) and I feel paranoid.

So when I started looping through the famous buildings of the UK, my mind went blank, and I could only think of famous buildings in London. Oh, the shame of it. Will I ever be able to walk down a street in Manchester again? The teacher kept saying can you mention any famous buildings outside London, but only a list of London buildings came from my mouth.. I suddenly had an inspiration and said the name of famous building associated with satanism, called Old Trafford. Oh the shame of it! Will I ever be able to walk down a street in Liverpool again?

I felt like Judas. The London mafia has brainwashed me.

Japanese festival in Dusseldorf

Last Saturday I went to the Japanese festival in Dusseldorf. The fstival was held on the bank of the Rhein close to the Aldstadt. There was a big firework display that I didn't stay for, because it didn't start to till late.

The festival had a lot of stalls that sold Japanese stuff and food. The food was a bit disappointing. They had to serve a lot of people, so there wasn't a sushi chef there, just the prepared boxes. I did get to drink a glass of Saki, so that was good. There were a lot of people wearing Japanese costumes. There were also a lot of Goths wearing black, but they could have also been characters from Manga. Who could tell. There were a number of people wearing Samurai swords. Perhaps they were fake, but I don't think so. I don't see that the British police would have been too happy to see swords at a UK festival.

An Englishman's home is a castle

I don't want to sound paranoid but I don't like answering the door, unless I know an appointment has been made. It is more likely to be someone who is trying to sell me something.

So I was not best pleased to hear the bell. I went to the door and pressed the intercom button. This was a good opportunity to try some German, so I said "yes". No response. So I thought good. A minute later the bell went again and then even worse there was a knock on my door of my flat.

I opened the door. A man and a woman stared at me. The man started talking to me in English. They were some kind of missionaries, who wanted to send me to some Bible school. I was just going to get my horse whip, when I remembered that I didn't have one. I did think of inviting them in to have a theological discussion on the balcony. "Yes that is an interesting point. Just let me get hold of your legs..."

After a short conversation I ended up with a book that I didn't want. The guy was very persuasive, so I have the horrible suspicion that they will come back to talk to me about it. Perhaps they will help me win the Templeton prize.

If you are reading this and you are thinking I am some kind of anti-social freak, or the mental illness meter has swung from creative and different to social misfit, because I don't like opening the door. I would like to point out that I am just applying a SPAM filter to the people coming to my door. I also refer you to. Safety first!

a projection of a dream

Last night although I had drunk enough beer to stop me dreaming I had a dream in the early morning. I was talking to a well known physicist about physics. He wanted to make some point about and he pulled out a remote control and used it to project a paper onto the wall.

What would have Freud thought about my dream? I can't even found some great company to produce small portable data projectors, because Amazon already sells them. This is what happens when you spend too much time online, your dreams are inspired by Amazon.

The girl with the dragon tattoo

I had a lot to do last weekend, so it was a mistake to start reading "The girl with the dragon tattoo" last Sunday. There seem to be a lot of crime writing coming from Sweden. First there was Wallander, and now there are the books by Stieg Larson, and I care about people with names such as Lisabeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist.

There are two more books in this series that I will have to read fairly soon.

How to study in college

I have finished reading "How to study in College" by Walter Pauk. The book contained a lot of useful information about how to study at University. The chapter on taking notes in lectures was interesting, particularly when I failed to understand my notes from last Friday's German class. Perhaps I will start using the Cornell system for notes.

Certainly there is more to college than beer and cheerleaders.

comic timing

I was given the "Mock the week: this years book" as a present

at Christmas. I enjoyed reading some of the jokes, although

they were a bit cruel at times. It reminded me of the

"famous" discussion about a joke on "Mock the week" that was

on Newsnight. The video shows the importance of comic

timing.

BBC trust

Below is my written submission to the BBC trust to try to stop them closing my favorite radio station down.

I am against the closure of radio6! At the moment I almost exclusively listen to radio 6 to learn about new music.

The majority of the output from Radio 1 could be covered on a commercial radio station. Apart from John Peel and a few other shows, radio 1 has a poor record of producing cutting edge music shows. Although I understand why Chris Moyles is on radio1, I don't see how his show is consistent with the BBC's new strategic principles. It is difficult to believe that the specialist shows on radio6 could transfer to radio1 and not be diluted and changed.

Many of the shows on radio6 could not survive in the commercial sector, however they do enhance the culture of the UK. New music is also important to the economy, for example by people downloading music and going to gigs, so it useful if there is national station that informs people of new sounds.

Please don't close radio6.

I think you will be doing more than "Reducing the BBC offer in pop music radio by closing 6 Music" Radio 6 puts out mostly specialsed innovative music, rather than just "pop music". The station is not a clone of radio 1. It provides musc that is not available in the commercial sector.

Although I occasionally use lastfm, there is no substitute for a knowlegable expert presenting a show.

Please don't shut 6music down.

Blue Bamboo

It has been a beautiful day in Wuppertal. The sun was bright, but there was a cool breeze to keep everyone cool. I sat on my balcony and watched the wind play with the leaves of the trees in the forrest.

I wanted to go to the park, but I get too depressed. It would have been full of people playing games and eating picnics. But I would have felt like an outsider, if I had walked amongst them.

I finished off "Blue Bamboo" by the Japenese writer Osamu Dazai. This was a collection of fantasy tales. The book started and ended with a stories about a family of five children who amuse themselves by writing a story. The story was a chain, with each part being written by one of the children. Each part of the story reflected the personality of the author. The stories were very warm, even when the subject matter was a bit bleak. The stories were so well written, that they filled me with me joy (a rare event).

When I looked up Osamu Dazai I see a life of pain and suicide. Today's joy died on a wikepedia page, Perhaps I will order another book by Osamu Daza, such as no longer human. That will cheer me up.

The 4-day work week.

I have just finished reading "the 4-hour work week" by Timothy Ferriss. The book was about how the author automated his business so he only needed to spend 4 hours a week working. The rest of his time he lived abroad and leaned new skills such as dancing or languages.

I liked some parts of the book. I liked the idea of mixing leisure and work, rather than putting off life until retirement. The idea that a business doens't have to keep growing. At some stage once the business is providing an adequate income, then a decision can be made to make it easy to run, rather than getting a lot more difficult customers, to get a bit more money.

However, there were a number of things I didn't like about the book. Ferriss's business was some kind of supplement for either althletic performance or better study skils. In fact he switched between them with out change, as far as I can tell. So my best guess is that his product is a placebo. When he was at University, if he got bad grades, he would go to the TA and ask them about his grades for a couple of hours, until he wore them down. Then the TA would be too scared to give bad grades again. So he is a wheeler and dealer type of guy.

Also he recommends not reading much. Look Tim dude, what did they fu*cking teach you at Havard. I like reading.

dreams

I didn't drink any alcohol on Sunday, so I had some strange dreams. I started off by taking opium in an opium den. It didn't effect me until I went to sleep, and the the drug and smoke hit me. Then I woke up. Later that night, I had a dream that I was traveling in time. I would travel to the present to do chi**2 minimization fits. Then I woke up. At the very least, I will cut down on the number of times I listen to Sherlock Holmes on the BBC iPlayer.

Last night I was sleeping well, until I had a dream about getting a message on facebook that one of the people I grew up with was dead. I woke up in despair. As my thoughts cleared, I realised since I had not had a couple of shots before I slept, so it must have been a dream.

These bad dreams mean I am not sleeping well. I feel terrible all day. What would Freud say about my dreams? Who can tell, he would probably be too annoyed with me for telling him "he was wrong, wrong, so wrong."

Hair

If you saw me today, you would have seen me stop at every possible place at work and admire myself. Perhaps I was being vain, but I was just happy I had done something I had been putting off for a couple of months. My hair was getting wilder and wilder, and I was worried that I was beginning to look like being a mad scientist. Madness I can deal with, but I don't want to look mad.

There are many challenges in living in a foreign country. Getting a hair cut is definitely one of the biggest challenges. What if I had gone into the barbers and I had came out with a perm, because of my poor German!

Today I decided I was going to get a haircut. I had seen a barbers (Frisseur) close to the main supermarket. It looked a bit posh to me, but when I looked in the shop, the man cutting the hair had the physique of a man who likes beer, sausage and schnapps. After waiting outside I picked up courage and went into the shop. The barber said "Was?", I replied "Haar schneiden bitte", and he pointed me to the chair, while he finished off cutting the hair of his current customer.

When it was my turn to have my hair cut. I started with "Tut mir leid, mein Deutsch ist sehr schlect" and then started to point to my hair. He said "Ja". How rude I thought. Anyway he cut my hair and talked to his friend. I payed and left.

I don't have high standards on these things, but I don't like the hair cut too much. My hair is a bit thick. However, since he used a cut throat razor on me, I was happy. I had to make sure I didn't start drooling when I saw the razor in his hand. One day I will my own.

On love

Some random thoughts on love.

At the moment Friday is my busiest day at work. Last week I was rushing to get some breakfast at the cafe close to my office. Two people who were clearly in love got in my way. It was all secret smiles and shared happiness. OK, fine, if you are in love, I am happy for you, but don't do it in front of the food, because some of us have 15 minutes to get a sandwich. Perhaps, I should have said "fucking schnell", rather than let it irate it me all week.

On the TV there are many adverts for online dating. (they get more pornographic later at night). There is one with a woman who is telling the TV how happy she is with her new partner. As part of the advert it shows her jumping up and down on a trampoline and staring at her new partner. Ok, the Internet tells me that jumping up and down on a trampoline is good for fitness. However, I would be scared if I went round to a woman's house and she starts jumping up and down on a trampoline and staring at me. I would say a quick "bye bye freak", before I run to the garden gate before she jumps on me.

I am not a great fan of Salmon Rushdie. I don't rate his book "Midnight's Children", so I will be pretty pissed if he gets the nobel prize for literature. The attached picture might me laugth though. She's going to dump him (or perhaps already has). I know I am being mean, but there it is.

A visitation of the plague

I got up this morning and saw the day was sunny. I thought perhaps a stroll through the park might be in my future, rather than turning on my computer and trying to work.

Instead I decided it was the perfect day to read "A visitation of the plague" by Daniel Defoe. I didn't read the back of the book correctly, because it described the book as an imaginary reconstruction of the great plague of London. I thought it was a real account, but according to wikipedia it was made up, because he was a child when the plague hit London.

I particularly liked a scene when he comes up to crowd around a woman, who saw an angel in the clouds. Defoe just sees a cloud with the sun on it. With so many people dying of the plague I don't begrudge a bit of hysteria.

Intellectual mastery of nature

A colleague helped me move flats in Liverpool. As he was helping me carry bags of books out to his car he asked the very strange question: "if you buy books, shouldn't you actually read them." He was in particular referring to the two volume set: Intellectual mastery of nature by Jungnickel and McCormmach. These two books are about the history of physics in Germany, Austria and Switzerland in the nineteenth century.

Now that I am living in Germany (until August at least), I felt that it was time to read the books. Last weekend I finished volunme I "The Torch of mathematics 1800-1870).

Although the two books are a scholarly study, the first volume was full of stories about how physics developed in Germany. At first there was very little research, but by persistence of the Profs managed to increase the funding of labs and get more students. The job market was even harder than today. The astronomers were always well funded because of their miltary applications, rather than for producing pretty pictures for the masses, as they do today (bastards).

another old post

So how did i spend my holiday in Portugal? I mostly wandered around the beach area and read books. There would be breaks for food and coffee of course. (Beer in the late evening of course).

The first book I read was "The Ultimate Good luck", by Richard Ford. This has been on my bookshelves for many years. It was a story about a man and his wife trying to get the wife's brother out of a Mexican jail. There was quite a big body count. Smoking a lot of dope clouded and distorted their minds

Next I moved onto reading the hanging garden by by Ian Rankin. I must have read most of the Rebus novels, but I had been saving this story for a special occasion. There was a gang land war and Rebus's daughter was run over.

I picked up a collection of three early Philip K Dick novels, that I not read before. The books were: the man who japed, Dr. Futurity, and Vulcan's hammer. The stories were not as confusing and paranoid as much of Dick's later work. The Dr Futurity novel reminded me a of stories by A E Van Got, because there was a lot of time travel. The book called Vulcan's hammer was the most paranoid of the books, with conspiracies inside conspiracies.

Last week I listened to a radio program about Thomas Paine. This motivated me to actually read my copy of "Rights of Man". This was Paine's book defense of the french revolution (with a bit about the American revolution as well). It was a vigorous argument, and gave the best argument for abolishment of the House of Lords.

Trouble is, with all that reading I didn't fully relax, even after a full week away.

sony book reader

Another old post just uploaded.

Every time I go on holiday I worry about the amount of books I have. What if I have nothing to read? As a result I always end up with a heavy bag. I then panic on day three of the holiday, that I am going to run out, so I try to buy yet more books. I now own a Sony E-reader. I had only read one book with it before, but I really fell in love with it on this holiday.

The books I read were: Dracula by Bram Stoker, The Chemical History of a Candle by Michael Faraday, A princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

It the size of a thin paperback book. It is much easier to read than a laptop screen. I had no problem reading it in sunlight.

It can be used to read PDF and word documents. I read about 20% of a PDF bokk on data intensive computing (4th paradim) that was a tribute to james Grey (the famous SQL guy, who was lost at sea recently). It is not very good at graphs. The paper I downloaded from thbe physics archive was a bit mangled, because most of the figures were trashed.

The e-reader stores the last page that was read. It makes reading a book cool, because it does looks as though you are playing a video game.

My main problem with it is the price of the e-books. There are special on-line stores, but the books always seem expensive. I get most of my books from amazon second hand market sellers. I am sure the price will come down. At the moment I pay a lot more in postage.

On the books I read, I have seen many versions of Dracula, so it was interesting to read the original. I liked the way it was made up of journal entries of the different characters.

The book by Faraday on the candle was a transcription of some lectures he had given. He used an explanation of a candle burnt to introduce some ideas about chemistry and the scientific method. he made it exciting, especially when you think that what he talking about was new knowledge, rather than textbook stuff.

old Portugal post

I found some old blog postings from holiday around March 18th of this year. Enjoy....

Last week I was feeling tired and burnt out. I had not had a proper holiday for over a year, so I decided that it was time for some R and R. After some investigation on the Ryanair web site, I decided to fly to Faro in Portugal from the Dusseldorf-Weeze airport.

I am still slightly confused as to whether the Dusseldorf-Weeze airport is even in Germany. It is not that close to Dusseldorf. It takes over an hour to get from Dusseldorf to Weeze. Still a holiday is about the process of changing routines and not working. My flight was at 7:00 in the morning I so spent the night in a small hotel next to Weeze railway station (this losing any savings from booking via Ryanair)

Weeze is a small town. Somehow it seemed cuter than most German cities i have been to. The use of concrete was more elegant. I arrived in Weeze after 8:00, so most shops were closed. I decided that I should do a quick tour of Weeze, partly for my own education and to provide new fresh information for this blog, and definitely not as a quest to find beer. Eventually I found an open supermarket. As I looked at the alcohol section I though "this is what hell must be like". There were many bottles of beer, but no can or bottle openers. This is very green, but kind of annoying when you don't have a bottle opener back in the hotel. The clerks in the store were surprised to see me shaking my fist in the air and shouting "why me God", after I found plastic bottles of alcohol free beer on the shelves. After further inspection I found real beer in plastic bottles close by, so my holiday could start.

Birthstone

I wanted to spend the weekend learning hypnosis, but instead I spent a lot of time reading Birthstone by DM Thomas. This is a book I have carried around with me for many a long year. First off it was a very well written by someone who knows how to how to float sentences onto the page. It was a strange mix of realism and magic. The book was written from the perspective of a woman, but since the author was a man, the female perspective involved liking a lot of kiny sex.

CKM dreams

I had a dream about the CKM matrix last night. And not in a good way! A good dream about the CKM matrix would be me at some kind or orgy. As I watched the flowing of the flesh, suddenly I would see a pattern emerge and I would understand why the matrix has the form it has.

I am thinking about the guy who discovered the structure of the benzene molecule. He had a dream about a snake. The snake tried to bites its tale, so when he woke up he came up with the idea that the benzene molecule was a ring.

The dream I had was me sitting in meeting, trying to explain my interest in a CKM matrix so that I would get my name on a paper. The other authors on the paper were skeptical, and I was humiliated. That is why it was not a good creative dream. I was just being a careerist. (And no orgy either).

Philip K Dick

I am a big fan of the author of Philip K Dick, so I picked up a copy of "Selected literary and philosophical writings" in a UK bookshop sometime ago. The book was a collections of essays, book reviews, and other nonfiction writings. Dick was a novelist, so his most important work is contained in his stories. It was, however, interesting to read his essays. He was always very interested in philosophy as well as all forms od science fiction.

He had a plot idea for the TV series of "mission impossible", that made me think he would have been a great script writer for the prisoner TV series. He didn't make much money until near the end of his life -- which was a shame.

In 1974 Dick had some kind of religous vision. After that his writing got even weirder and many people thought that he had gone insane. Reading his later essays, I did think that I wanted to see the work of the old Dick. Of course in 1971, when he got burgled, he made up a list of suspects that included the FBI and himself, so sanity was never one of his strong points.

I see that his later journal of crazy writings (The Exegesis) is going to be published next year. But will it help me tame this reality.

letters to a young contrarian

I seem to be going through a phase of reading a lot of Christopher Hitchen books. I have just read his book "letters to a young contrarian". I will show my lack of understanding of his book by saying it is about how to live a radical life. I now understand Hitchens support for the second war in Iraq. He is not one to flinch from unpopular decisions. His prose style is very classical.

I really enjoyed the book. His main flaw is on the cover of the book a cigarette burnt down and his second rate writing buddies: Martin Amis and Salmon Rushdie.

On death

There is double glazing in my front windows. Yesterday a bee got stuck in between the two panes of the double glazing. I don't know how it got there. I was disturbed because the bee was trapped and I would have to watch it try to survive. I watched it search in vain for an exit. I didn't have the tools to open the windows to let it out. What could I do. Was this some kind of sign from God?

Anyway I went back to thinking about glueballs and completely forgot about the bee, until I started writing this post.

nuts

When I told people I was going to live in Germany for a bit they were worried that I would indulge in too much Bier and sausages. I hardly eat Wurst, so one out of two is not bad. What I do eat a lot of is peanuts. I am almost at the addict stage. Well I actually only eat 3 or 4 tins per week. My favourite brand is "Ja", because it is cheap and salty. "Ja" is some supercheap brand in Germany. I also drink a brand of "Ja" tea that is 2 Euro cheaper than other types of tea.

Anyway I will be OK as long as salt is not bad for me.

Mars bar paranoid

I was watching German TV. There was an advert that showed some Germans watching or listening to their national team play in the football world cup final, through the years. The advert claimed that there was always one tradition that Germans held to when they watched the world cup final. Apparently they all liked eating a Marsbar. This seemed a bit unlikely to me. Perhaps this is a subtle dig against the English national football team. The only reason they could be enjoying a mars bar, because that think that England football team will never reach a cup final.

Long German train journey

I was at a meeting in Regensburg yesterday I took a train from Regensburg to Wuppertal today. The journey took about 7 hours. On the plus side there is more room on a German train. However there was a delay of 40 minutes. It seemed just like a journey on an English train, because we stopped for about an hour, because of some problem with the track.

On the train there was a group of attractive young women in matching t-shirts who had a box of things to sell. Although I could have confused the situation, because of my bad German. At some stage a packet of Durex's landed on me, and the women made some kind of funny speech to her friends. Terribly exciting. I am now much more motivated to learn German, so I can understand, and respond better to situations like this.

On the train I finally read "The museum of doubt" by James Meek. This book has been in my pile of unread books for many years. It was a surrealist set of stories. It suited my mood, because I was feeling weary because of only getting 4 hours of sleep.

The Cameron Delusion

On the long train journey from Wuppertal to Regensburg I read "The Cameron Delusion" by Peter Hitchens. Peter is the brother of Christopher Hitchens who is currently trying to get the Pope arrested.

I enjoyed the book, but I don't agree with many of the things that Peter believes. He is very keen on the Monarchy and the house of Lords and fan of this nasty christainity business. He wants to leave the EU and keep nuclear weapons. Perhaps typically he gave up Marxism, and then transferred his affections to the church.

However, I did agree with much of what he says.

Peter really hates the conservatives and Cameron.

spring

Below is an another exciting picture of the view from my window. When I first moved in all the trees had leaves and I felt at one with mother nature. I used to like to watch the wind play with the trees. As winter came, the trees lost all their leaves and I was left with a view of a road and maybe some allotments.

But the cycle of life continues, the picture shows the first sprouting of buds that will give me back my ocean of green leaves. I will be able to dance naked on my balcony again.

a short walk

unday is pretty boring in Germany. Nothing is open. During the long winter I stopped going out of my flat for the entire weekend. Now that spring is here, I thought I might go for a short walk.

There is long road that leads into the building where I live. There is a turn off, that I only see on the rare times I get a Taxi home. Today I thought I would investigate the road. I just found that 50 yards after the turn off the road ended at a large sinister house

I did learn that the painter Hans Von Marées lived close to where I live because there was a sign. If I had know who he was I might have been able to guess that because his second name is close to the street name.

A history of modern Britain

The few people who read this blog must think I am terribly homesick because I keep reading about English history, while I live in Germany. The way things are going however, I will be back in the UK in August to sign on the dole.

I have just finished reading "A history of modern Britain" by Andrew Marr. The book was about the history of the UK from 1945 to about 2007. Great stuff. I did wonder what I was doing when some of the events happened -- probably writing code. Marr doesn't like shopping for some reason. Also I was surprised to see a reference to the Velvet Underground band in the book -- perhaps Marr was trying to be cool.

I actually got the book because I had WH Smiths vouchers, and there wasn't that much bigger choice of books in the Burnley store.

German politics today

I am slowly reading A History of Modern Britain by Andrew Marr. I feel slightly guilty about learning about Britain when I a living in Germany.

However, I have read the book German politics today by Geoffrey Roberts. This books gives a good overview of all aspects of politics in Germany. So now I know a little bit about "the basic law".

I also learnt a new German word: politikverdrossenheit That means alienation from politics. That's me, vote evil Tory or failed new labour.

Bad Science

I was given some WH Smiths tokens for Christmas. One of the books I purchased with the token was "Bad Science" by Ben Goldacre. Goldacre writes a column in the Guardian that debunks the poor and misleading use of scientific arguments. All the examples are in medicine or nutrition, not surprising because Goldacre is a doctor.

The book made me very angry. In particular what happened in South Africa, where people were told to take vitamins rather than anti-AIDS drugs. There is a also a chapter on the MMR hoax, where the Blairs as usual show they are too stupid to understand evidence, but clever enough to exploit their children in an autobiography.

On a similar theme I was happy to see that Simon Singh had won a libel case brought against him by the British Chiropractic Association.

On Suicide

I pulled a bunch of unread books from a crate in my office and took them home. On top of a pile of books was a book by the philosopher David Hume called "On Suicide". The front cover had the quote: "I believe that no man ever threw away life while it was worth keeping". Thanks Penguin, I was unhappy and depressed, so having this book stare at me didn't really cheer me up.

However, when I read this short book, I found that only one short chapter was about suicide. The other chapters were on ethics and aesthetics. The chapter on sucide was all about whether God minds whether a person kills themselves. Frankly not something I would worry about.

Easter in Germany is boring. Most of the shops close and everything is pretty dead. Given that they close the shops on Sunday it is a long weekend.

I usually work for 2 hours on Sunday morning. I then eat and watch the A-team (in German) on the TV. Today, there was no A-team, just some film about some dude called "Moses". This was some kind of sword and sandals film. Of course there are other channels. I could have switched over to watch Black beauty. Grrr. Anyway the A-team came on later, so all was well.

Indestructable Euro notes

This past six months I have washed my hands more than any peroid in my life. This was partly because of all the concerns about bird flu, but also I felt a bit dirty, because I have to handle Euros all day.

There has been a lot of talk recently about the fate of the Euro. This is based on the problems of Greece's debt. However, I am pleased to report I have some evidence that the Euro is stronger than many people think.

I pulled a clean pair of jeans from the wardrobe. I found a 10 Euro note in the pocket. The note had survived being washed. The occasions I have left British money in the pockets of trousers that have been washed, I stare at a crumbled up piece of paper and think of what type of lager I could have got with this money.

Given the strength of Euro I feel much more European. Perhaps I will start wearing a beret. Also perhaps I should start to learn how to usa a bidet. I have been too embarrassed to ask anyone how to use one, but thanks to youtube, I can get all the facts.

space

Here is an exciting action packed video of my hotel room in Portugal. This cost me 12 pounds a night. It was huge. In fact when I got back to Germany, I was depressed because my flat here is 2 to 3 times smaller than the hotel room. Then I remembered the reason why I live in a small flat is because it is easy to clean.

pool

Below are some photographs of the hotel pool in Portugal. I only saw 2 people in the pool over the full week. Early Sunday morning I did hear a lot of splashing and shouting. Party animals I thought. There was a pool side bar, so I did vaguely think about spending all day drinking there. But the lack of people would have made it depressing. (Drinking all day would be bad of course).

Sinister concrete fountain

Here is a picture of what I think is a fountain that was close to my hotel in Portugal. This is not exactly a wishing well. Some water comes out of steel grill. What is the point? It was not as if the water was used to help plants grow

Portugal

Somewhat confusingly I write this post from Portugal. I am staying in a cheap hotel in a town called Portimao. It is very touristy area, but has a certain style about it. I have been here for a couple of days now. I have just been lazing around and reading. The weather has been warm, but not really hot, however I am walking around in a t-shirt and shorts. I am not totally warm, but it is a holiday (and the thing to do if you grew up in the North-West of England).

It is off seaon at the moment, so the place is empty. There are lots of places to drink here, but I don't like being the only person in a bar. Every night there are football games on the TV. For example, yesterday ManU versus Liverpool. After that there was a big European game. So the sound of sport is played out in every empty bar.

Although it a famlity type area there are a couple of sex shops and a strip bar. Perhaps the strip bar is full of people in the evening.

no spare time for Wolfenstein

This is not a science blog, but I was amused by this link. I did see that paper on the Wolfenstein parameterization of the CKM matrix, but I decided from the abstract that it was probably crap, so I ignored it.

Of course after climategate it could be that I am a narrow minded scientist, but there are only so many hours in the day and many more worthy things to worry about. In the unlikey event of it being an important result, I am sure someone will let me know.

a fighter's heart

I just finished reading "a fighter's heart" by Sam Sheridan. Sam tells stories of him training in various martial arts. He starts off training in Muay Thai, but he also worked on his ground work in Brazil (where else). He also hangs out with some dog fighting people.

He also spent some time meditating, but he was bored by that, and only got into it just before he left.

I liked the parts about failure the best. He was sparring in a boxing gym, and the opponent He had a bad injury to his ribs that had stopped him training, but he was better. His opponent hit him in the ribs and he freaked and totally lost the fight. He had a lot of negative dialogue where he started worrying, and he lost focus. This used to happen to me all time. (If I every fought Sam I would train a lot of body shots to the ribs, but maybe he is smart and actually has problems with getting punched in the head. I know that this makes me sound like a bad person, but this is the way fighting works).

He did seem to get injured a lot. I felt sorry for him. He went to train in Brazil, but he injured his shoulder, so he couldn't train.

Nice try Tory, but I still hate you.

I finally understand what it means to be bought off by politicians. Download speed is an important quality of life issue. However being able to download a movie from Itunes in a minute will not make up for being under Tory rule. Even living in Germany, I am starting to feel ill with the idea that they will be back.

This means this

I have just finished reading "This means this, this means that a user's guide to Semiotics". I have been listening to Baldi on the BBC iplayer. Normally I hate priests, but Baldi is also a lecturer in semiotics, and he solves crimes. I wanted to be cool as well.

The book had a picture or some banner text on every page with a couple of paragraphs discussing it. For example, see the picture attached. Does this picture represent my feelings about Semiotics? But perhaps, if you knew that I was a particle physicist, the picture might represent my goal of the unification of forces to one single force. Maybe it is my view of string theory? Or more likely I just copied it from the Internet to make this post longer without having to write more text. This post must be enough to make me Prof. of Semiotics.

Godzilla

Yet more snow in Germany! While I was watching TV, I saw a TV program that asked what is your favourite between the American and Japanese version of Godzilla. They then illustrated the question by showing Godzilla destroying the Sydney opera house. How much more international can you get?

in the beginning was the command lin

I can't help feeling that Neal Stephenson is one of us. Stephenson is a famous science fiction writer I have just read "in the beginning was the command line". This is a short book about operating systems and computers from a users perspective. Although it is over 10 years old, I really enjoyed reading it. Most of it is still relevant

One point that book makes is that people don't buy Microsoft windows for rational reasons. Somehow it is a bizzare group delusion. Once that dream is over Microsoft will have problems. (I am not sure how getting a "free copy" of windows with every PC you buy, effects the group delusion.)

Nasty Torys are almost back...

Although I have not bothered to vote in the last few elections, I am starting to dread the next election when those nasty conservatives will get back into power. It is difficult to describe how much Thatcher and her cronnies were hated. This recession has been bad, but somehow this time around the goverment actually did something, rather than say "when my father didn't have a job, he got on his bike to find one."

The omens are not good. We are back in dispute with Argentina about the Falklands. Perhaps there will be another war once Cameron gets into a difficult patch after a few years in office.

I was sad to see that Micheal Foot had died. He was the last of the generation of a particular type of politician and journalist. I remember how the Sun attacked him for wearing a donkey jacket at a memorial. So Murdoch has won again, we are only allowed people like Blair or Blair clones like Cameron as leaders.

Since this post is turning into a bit of a rant, I really am unhappy about the closure of the 6music radio station. As per usual it is a Tory based attack on culture. 6music plays lots of interesting music, it is really sad to have it taken from us. I have joined the relevant facebook group and I will write a strong letter to the BBC trust. That shit Murdoch!

Just to lighten the mood, the video is of Bono falling off a stage.