Tourist attraction

Last year I took a bike trip around Scotland, and it was like biker heaven. The scenery was amazing, the sinuous roads empty and stretching with gentle undulations through gorgeous panoramas that made you glad to be alive and sat on two wheels.

Of course, I could put up some pictures of said scenery to demonstrate my appreciation of the trip, but I'm thinking you might as well go on to a tourism website and look at proessionally captured images. So I won't.

Instead, have a look at this one, taken in the Kyle of Lochalsh just prior to a ride over the bridge to Skye. It demonstrates how the town has embraced modern technology and is at one with the new technocentric order of society:


Useful to know. I was tempted to follow it to see what sort of computer deserved it's own road sign, expecting some sort of Deep Thought artificial intelligence with hordes of technicians hurrying hither and thither, delivering important questions from locals about this year's haggis harvest and digging new single malt wells. Unfortunately, the call of the Talisker distillery was too strong so I didn't divert, so don't expect an explanation.

If you want to see it yourself, it's at the crossroads in the centre of town, just after the 'Microwave - 200 yards' sign.

Tragedy!

According to Kahn and Steeves in their cheerfully titled chapter 'The Experience of Suffering' (1996), suffering is a quintessential part of the human experience.

Now, I'm not one to diminish the experiences of others, but putting perspective aside I would like to share with you a tragedy the likes of which Sophocles or Shakespeare would have thought twice about including in their works, lest it tear the very fabric of society in twain with lamented wails of anguish.

My ukulele fell off the back of my motorbike:



Then got run over by a following Volvo.

Frowny, frowny face.

I know what you're thinking - how can he function? What's the point of carrying on? How has he the power of will to get up, brush himself down and overcome such adversity. Well, as the adage goes, life is problems and living is solving problems, so I came up with a cunning plan.

I bought another one.

Yay!

A funny thing happened at a funeral the other day . . .

I'm quite proud off my little boy. He's 20 months old at the mo and like an information sponge. You only have to tell him something seventy or eighty times and BLAM, he can sometimes retrieve it within hours. He does like books though, mostly with pictures (which I can relate to) although I have noted he's starting to recognise the odd letter here and there, and I'm encouraging this as best I can.

Imagine my pride when we were attending the funeral of his Great Uncle recently, and he interrupted proceedings to point at a great big wall-mounted crucifix and cheerily shout "Tuh! Tuh! Tuh!"

His Great Uncle would've appreciated that, I know.

It's quite a weird concept the christians have there, with the method of execution of their head wizard becoming their ultimate religious icon. If it was done today, would they all be wearing little electric chairs or syringes round their necks?

Imagine if he'd died of a heart attack during an orgy? I'd wear that pendant.

Inspiring stuff

I prefer to post my own pics on this here blog, as much as I can. In a small way, it gives me a sense of creativity and originality I suppose, even though the photos are just straight off my phone.

Every now and then though, you come across an image on the interweb which just screams achievement, which inspires in you a sense of awe and is a reminder that, at the end of the day, one should always aim as high as possible. The first image is this, taken from the conservatory on the International Space Station.Human achievement at it's pinnacle, here. I've got this as my desktop wallpaper.

Of course, such grand accomplishments are not resticted to Homo sapiens, and sometimes it is the feats of other species we can use to inspire:


One word. Orsum.

One word meme sucker!

Well, AV (at http://netherregionoftheearthii.blogspot.com/2008/11/i-got-stung-again-but-from-different.html) nominated me and 4 other suckers for this one-word meme, the rules being that I can only provide one-word answers to each question, and then I have to nominate 5 blogs for the same treatment.

I'm not sure why there isn't a number 10, but I presume it's because answering it would be too revealing. Here we go:

1. Where is your cell phone? There!
2. Where is your significant other? Adjacent
3. Your hair color? Braaaaaaaahn.
4. Your mother? Crone.
5. Your father? Bearded.
6. Your favorite thing? Multitool.
7. Your dream last night? Immemorial.
8. Your dream/goal? Immortality.
9. The room you’re in? Lounge.
11. Your fear? Nothing.
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Younger.
13. Where were you last night? Work.
14. What you’re not? Green.
15. One of your wish-list items? Finglonger.
16. Where you grew up? Willslock.
17. The last thing you did? Nappy.
18. What are you wearing? Out.
19. Your TV? Boring.
20. Your pet? Bert!
21. Your computer? Laptop.
22. Your mood? Positive.
23. Missing someone? Repetitively.
24. Your car? Practical.
25. Something you’re not wearing? Halo.
26. Favorite store? eBay.
27. Your summer? english.
28. Love someone? Absolutely.
29. Your favorite color? Green.
30. When is the last time you laughed? Recently.
31. Last time you cried? Weeks.


Do you lot fancy a go:
http://alexandtheblogdelusion.blogspot.com/
http://boomer-musings.blogspot.com/
http://shoppingkharma.blogspot.com/
http://doyouhateittoo.blogspot.com/
http://roarrah.blogspot.com/

Growth - medium.

My old crone of a mother (she refers to herself as that) is pretty good with plants, and seems to derive some pleasure out of gardening. She recently encouraged me to get into it, and advised one of those cheap plastic mini-greenhouses to start off with, as apparently you can get a good amount of herbage even in the dank shade of this North Atlantic island.

So earlier this year I took her advice, ready to delve into the world of horticulture, already imagining hosting a universally lauded gardening programme on BBC2 in a couple of years, not that I get ahead of myslef or anything.

Behold, I give you, the Tropicarium!

Note the bricks and sandbags. You can't have your crop being blown away by a sudden gust, so that's my first bit of gardening advice.

99% Perspiration

According to recent research, there is no such thing as innate talent, and having an IQ above 120 does not single anyone out for extra success in life. Apparently, in order to become a world expert at anything, you need to do something revolutionary;

Practise.

Okay, not particulalry startling, but this here research (and by research I mean magazine article) also suggests that, to truly master something, there is a certain number of hours of practise you need to get under your belt, and it doesn't matter whether you wnat to be a virtuoso on the violin or an evil criminal druglord, it's the same figure.

10,000 hours.

That's about 10 years, if you're dedicated, and appears to be the amount of time people thought of as the foremost practitioners in their field have spent getting to the top of their game. So I was thinking, what could I become a master of in ten years if I started in earnest now. I recently carved a hallowe'en courgette, which shows promise, although it's not as scary as might be anticipated:

Imagine how awesome that would be if I'd been doing nowt else for a decade! Makes you wonder, doesn't it?

So, what would you do, if you had the time and support? Ten years from now, you too could be an expert courgette carver, although I think the planet is too small for more than one.

Get your own niche.