Stats are a riot

What percentage of people arrested during the riots have an existing record? Do you think someone will work that out at some point? I think that would be very interesting to know.

Horoscope, by Hayibo

You are ruled by Mercury, which means if you fall on the floor you will split into 200 small silver blobs and it will take an entire Grade 8 Science class to scoop you up and put you back in your bottle.

Chortle

Graphic novel + food?

Sign me up!

GET JIRO! is a futuristic action thriller that takes America’s newfound obsession with exotic cuisine to a manic, violent extreme. It takes place in a world where food and the secrets of how to prepare it are the source of all power leading master chefs to fight over Jiro, a mysterious top-notch sushi chef with ideas of his own.  (From Graphic Content)

 I wonder if The Brother-in-Law would enjoy this? It is written by Anthony Bourdain after all.

When people have nothing to lose

This is the result.

I can't stress enough how much I think young people generally have legitimate grievances.

They do, they absolutely do. But it's the part where they're so disconnected from society, so disaffected, and so disenfranchised, that hurting and damaging the communities many of them live in* seems like a super idea that just shakes me.

And when people act like this, the gulf between them and people who might have been sympathetic, and people who actually have the power to change the status quo, gets bigger and bigger.


Just had such an unexpected and fascinating conversation with a patron of the chippy around the corner (since Tesco was shut in anticipation of rioting, I guess) - an actual conversation that talked about the rioting in terms of issues rather than shoot the bastards. It was refreshing.

How will average people be able to get over what has been done to them? How will these rioters and looters be able to get back to some semblance of normality? What's the conversation that comes next, the - and I hate this word - the dialogue?

How the hell do we bridge this gulf and prevent it from happening again, 30 years from now.

* Catherine just made a really valid point on her blog via a Guardian article that in fact these people don't feel part of any community - so they're not damaging their own.

Stuff everywhere

Stuff all over my room. Stuff in my bag. Stuff in my head. Stuff on my desk. Stuff under my bed. Stuff I want to eat. Stuff I want to eat but shouldn't. Stuff I need to do but don't want to. Stuff I need to do and want to but other stuff keeps getting in the way. Stuff that keeps getting in the way. Stuff to read. Stuff to watch. Stuff to play. Stuff to post. Stuff to copy. Stuff to plan. Stuff to remember. Stuff to forget.

Stuff.

How big a saddo are you, Liz?

I just ordered Meeulanders*, the DVD collection, off of Kalahari with international postage**, as a birthday present to myself.

* And I swear, if I could find Seapatrol on DVD, I would get that too.

** This was actually cheaper in pounds than my last order off of Amazon. How's that for the pound/rand exchange.

At least my subconscious is happy

I dreamt we were in a fish market. We were trying to pick the right fish to buy, but not taking it very seriously. In fact, we weren't very serious at all about the fish, choosing instead to tease each other about our choices. You chose a selection of salmon and tuna fillets, and the long-suffering fishmonger packed them up in a bag for you, all soaked in marinade. "That was what I was going to have," I insisted. "Now I'll have to pick something else." "Pick a nice shellfish," you laughed, and I grumbled and poked at the various lobsters and crabs on offer. Eventually I went for a dressed crab, and even in the dream I thought, mmmm, seafood soup. As I paid for it you laughed, put your arm around my shoulders and cupped my elbow. And I felt warm and content, and cared for.

It'll be fine

So after a week of being incredibly good and planning my meals and having basically no sugar, I've lost half a pound. I was hoping for more, but I'm also being realistic and realising that this probably on show on the scale next week. So I'm still feeling motivated. I know Weightwatchers meetings get a lot of stick, but I actually quite enjoy them. They really feel like a support group, and my leader is really great. So all in all, half a pound, yay!

I officially got "the crate" at work, to pack my desk stuff up in. I start in my new team on 1 August. I had a quick chat with one of my new managers, and she had really nice things to say about me (flattery will get you everywhere) and it sounds like she's really wanting me to go into this role with energy and enthusiasm and try to infect other people with it. This faculty has a bad reputation as far as new and innovative goes. They really don't want to embrace online learning, which unfortunately is where our students want to learn. So this is going to be tough.

I had a really good one-to-one with my current boss today. We both got a bit upset about the move yesterday, and kind of infected each other with negativity. I was really brooding about it last night, and I thought, no, we can't have this. I emailed her last night asking if we could have a coffee and a talk today, and we both apparantly had the same thoughts overnight, and had a decent meeting today. We decided to put our personal upset about the move to the side, and just work with the changes, so I can go down with a clear mind, throw myself into learning a new job (God, ack) and not be worrying about the fact that I've left the team with basically no resources and no time to find anyone else.

She's been an amazing boss, and she's without a doubt my mentor, and she says, we're mates. So it'll be fine!

Three cheers for therapy

I got some nice compliments on my people skills at work today, and now I'm being all grateful like a sap. It's so ironic being thanked for people skills because I find it quite hard work to interact with people. I have to put effort in. I don't mean that I'm faking it, just that I'm thinking about my interactions a lot? It's not sort of natural I guess. But I know that's probably true for the vast majority of people, although some people have an enviable skill for interaction.

There are some days when I use all the skills that Michael the Therapist taught me nine years ago, and I'm so grateful for them. It's hard sometimes to remember them and put them into practice, and it's also hard work to be open, pragmatic, positive, non-judgemental and...what's the opposite of paranoid? The skills he taught me for interacting with people are the ones that I use most though.

I know a lot of who I am now is just due to getting older, but two years of therapy was worth it. Everybody should do it at least once.

Free-floating hopes

And then, a piece of good news, wrapped up in sad, as all good news inevitably is. So now I'm happy and afraid and hopeful. I can live with that. Sorry to be coy, but more news later.

Free-floating fears

I feel like all my anxieties and fears are leaving my body and settling around me like a cloak. It's heavy and thick.

Things I have achieved today

• Not changing out of my pyjamas.
• Finishing my latest book.
• Brushing the dog.
• Drinking a lot of Diet Coke.
• Annoying the hamsters.
• Untying some washing line for my mother.
• Eating grilled cheese and onion sandwiches.
• Not thought about work. Much. Although I checked my email a bit.

Not my problem

At which point is it ok to say, ok, that's not my problem? I'm thinking of work in particular. I feel so responsible when things go wrong, as they often do. Where is the line between my job and what I'm in control of, and getting overly involved?

Worlds within worlds

I've been rewatching Lord of the Rings, and so I've also been rediscovering the incredible lore Tolkein created as part of his writing on Middle-Earth.

I find the idea of whole worlds, cultures and languages being created by authors completely fascinating. It's so easy to get involved in a new world like that - I almost wish that I had discovered Lord of the Rings before Star Trek, because I spent so much time absorbing the world of the United Federation of Planets, and I could have been memorising all the kings of Gondor instead.

Oh well, it's not too late!

A week from hell

What a truly shitty, horrible, stressful week. My stomach has been in knots. I've expected the sky to fall in at any moment.

And then, thank goodness, today emails flew around that cut people down to size, and offered actual solutions to problems, instead of petty slaps. And I got a lot done.

I feel better. Still no certainty. But I feel better.

Little Phoetus Philemon

Not to be confused with Curtis the Foetus.

Boy oh boy

So The Sister and The Brother-in-Law and The Nephew found out today that it's another little boy on the way to be a part of their family.

So excited to meet this little person who is going to be joining us (and this time I won't have to wait a whole year before meeting him for the first time). And at least I know how boys work. But it's also going to be very strange, that there will be two instead of one. Strange, and expensive.

Why not?

I think I'm going to set myself a little task, to read all the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winners. Some I have already read, and I've marked those. As I read them I'll update this post.

1910s

• 1918: His Family by Ernest Poole
• 1919: The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington

1920s

• 1920: no award given
• 1921: The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
• 1922: Alice Adams by Booth Tarkington
• 1923: One of Ours by Willa Cather
• 1924: The Able McLaughlins by Margaret Wilson
• 1925: So Big by Edna Ferber
• 1926: Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis (declined prize)
• 1927: Early Autumn by Louis Bromfield
• 1928: The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder
• 1929: Scarlet Sister Mary by Julia Peterkin

1930s

• 1930: Laughing Boy by Oliver La Farge
• 1931: Years of Grace by Margaret Ayer Barnes
• 1932: The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
• 1933: The Store by Thomas Sigismund Stribling
• 1934: Lamb in His Bosom by Caroline Miller
• 1935: Now in November by Josephine Winslow Johnson
• 1936: Honey in the Horn by Harold L. Davis
• 1937: Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
• 1938: The Late George Apley by John Phillips Marquand
• 1939: The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

1940s

• 1940: The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
• 1941: no award given ^[2]
• 1942: In This Our Life by Ellen Glasgow
• 1943: Dragon's Teeth by Upton Sinclair
• 1944: Journey in the Dark by Martin Flavin
• 1945: A Bell for Adano by John Hersey
• 1946: no award given
• 1947: All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren
• 1948: Tales of the South Pacific by James A. Michener
• 1949: Guard of Honor by James Gould Cozzens

1950s

• 1950: The Way West by A. B. Guthrie, Jr.
• 1951: The Town by Conrad Richter
• 1952: The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk
• 1953: The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
• 1954: No award given
• 1955: A Fable by William Faulkner
• 1956: Andersonville by MacKinlay Kantor
• 1957: No award given^[3]
• 1958: A Death in the Family by James Agee
• 1959: The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters by Robert Lewis Taylor

1960s

• 1960: Advise and Consent by Allen Drury
• 1961: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
• 1962: The Edge of Sadness by Edwin O'Connor
• 1963: The Reivers by William Faulkner
• 1964: No award given
• 1965: The Keepers of the House by Shirley Ann Grau
• 1966: The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter by Katherine Anne Porter
• 1967: The Fixer by Bernard Malamud
• 1968: The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron
• 1969: House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday

1970s

• 1970: The Collected Stories of Jean Stafford by Jean Stafford
• 1971: No award given^[4]
• 1972: Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner
• 1973: The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty
• 1974: No award given ^[5]
• 1975: The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara
• 1976: Humboldt's Gift by Saul Bellow
• 1977: No award given ^[6]
• 1978: Elbow Room by James Alan McPherson
• 1979: The Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever

1980s

Entries from this point on include the finalists listed after the winner for each year.

• 1980: The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer
• 1981: A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole (posthumous win)
• 1982: Rabbit Is Rich by John Updike
• 1983: The Color Purple by Alice Walker
• 1984: Ironweed by William Kennedy
• 1985: Foreign Affairs by Alison Lurie
• 1986: Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
• 1987: A Summons to Memphis by Peter Taylor
• 1988: Beloved by Toni Morrison
• 1989: Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler

1990s

• 1990: The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos
• 1991: Rabbit at Rest by John Updike
• 1992: A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley
• 1993: A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler
• 1994: The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx
• 1995: The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields
• 1996: Independence Day by Richard Ford
• 1997: Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer by Steven Millhauser
• 1998: American Pastoral by Philip Roth
• 1999: The Hours by Michael Cunningham

2000s

• 2000: Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
• 2001: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
• 2002: Empire Falls by Richard Russo
• 2003: Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
• 2004: The Known World by Edward P. Jones
• 2005: Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
• 2006: March by Geraldine Brooks
• 2007: The Road by Cormac McCarthy
• 2008: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz
• 2009: Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

2010s

• 2010: Tinkers by Paul Harding
• 2011: A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

Music meme

1. Put Your MP3 player on Shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. You must write down the name of the song no matter how silly it sounds!

In the week to come:


1. What will you achieve?
Fall at your feet (Crowded House)

2. What should your motto be?
Mockingbird (Eminem)

3. What’s going to be on your mind?
Lucy in the sky with diamonds (The Beatles)

4. What’ll your best friend be like?
Make your own kind of music (Mama Cass)

5. What’ll happen with the person you like?
Feel (Robbie Williams)

6. What’ll your job be like?
Summer Nights (John Travolta and Olivia Newton John)

7. What will you do with the person you like?
Streets of London (Ralph McTell)

8. What will happen with your hobby/interest?
The kids don't stand a chance (Vampire Weekend)

9. What’ll happen with your friends?
Welcome Home (Radical Face)

10. What’s your goal for the end of the week?
Golden Slumbers (Will Young)

11. How will you feel?
Nightingale (Laura Veirs)

12. What's your outlook on the week to come?
Caramel (Suzanne Vega)

13.What will family relations be like?
Yellow Submarine (The Beatles)

14. What’ll strangers think of you?
Torn (Natalie Imbruglia)

15. What’ll happen with your exes?
Horchata (Vampire Weekend)

16. How will your love life be?
Somethin' Stupid (Robbie Williams and Nicole Kidman)

17. What’ll happen with your kids (if you have any)?
Matchstalk Men and Matchstalk Cats and Dogs (The Original Haughton Weavers)

18.What’ll your employers treat you like?
Don't Panic (Coldplay)

19. What occasions will happen?
Unwell (Matchbox 20)

20. THE SOUNDTRACK OF THIS WEEK:
A boy named Sue (Johnny Cash)

21. If you get drunk, you should get drunk to:
I melt (Rascall Flats)

22. If you have a party, its theme should be:
Sweet Disposition (The Temper Trap)

23. If you’re depressed, you’ll be depro too:
You're the top (Cole Porter)

24. What should you say if things go bad?
Caring is creepy (The Shins)

25. What's the first thing you’ll do?
The last day of the melting snow (The Leisure Society)

26. What will you post this as?
I am a man of constant sorrow (Alison Krauss + Union Station)

Being fiction

I'm having a pretty ok day over here, feeling all right, working, doing my job. And then I went on lunch. I had a Spanish omelette with garlic green beans, a diet coke, two biscuits and a latte. For the first half of my lunch I had to talk to a co-worker who discovered me in the cafeteria and ignored my do not disturb signal. But for the other half I read a book called Suspect, by Jennifer Rowe. It's pretty good.

And then I went back to my office and instead of feeling ok and all right and working, I feel flat and uninspired and generally malcontented.

But it's not me feeling these things, it's Tessa, the detective in Suspect. She's on the trail of a serial killer and has just been dumped by her pratty boyfriend.

I was feeling pretty blue there, until I realised why. Does anyone else experience this?