Sunday, February 26, 2006

Bear Faced Cheek

Last night I made what is for me a rare trip to the big screen to see Werner Herzog's Grizzly Man - in summary this is an after the fact product of the editing suite, based on over a hundred hours of footage filmed in Alaskan bear habitat by Timothy Treadwell. The aspect that really makes it "a story" rather than another wildlife documentary is the fact that Treadwell was a lone operator doing this for no reason other than that he'd dedicated his life to the bear cause. Well, that and the fact he ended up getting himself killed and eaten by a bear... Some of the footage is quite outstanding - for example, there's two bears fighting, filmed from what is nothing like a safe distance, and then there's Treadwell himself doing an awful lot of pieces to camera which range from the engaging enthusiast to the rampant obsessive. In between the anthropomorphic whimsy there's a measured commentary from interviews with people who knew the guy, and Herzog himself commenting on the thorough film-making skills that enabled him to do so much with the footage. It's a troubling mixture of the wow factor at the sort of footage you just don't get out of orthodox film-makers, and the unhealthy closeness of Treadwell to the bears, though of course that's what makes the film. If you find yourself bored of Hollywood explosions, car chases and CGI effects, this is about as real as it gets - it's well worth the effort of tracking it down!

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Rock Around The Clock

Well, I feel pretty good considering. Being at my desk means I'm just about getting over the disorienting what-time-is-it-where-am-I? feeling, the sun's out (sort of) and everything's good.

Sunday night was a very late night, for frustrating technological reasons, monday was an earlier start than normal so I could drive to work and then drive away in the afternoon. I spent some of the afternoon on a train, heading off to watch a half-hour live acoustic set in a branch of a major high street music retailer.

There's always something special about the day a new album comes out, whether or not it's the first chance to hear new songs as intended rather than as scratchy live versions, and though I've already been listening to the new album for a couple of weeks it's still a pleasure to see it finally turn up on the shelves of what old-fashioned stick-in-the-muds like me can't help calling 'record shops'.

So, a 5pm performance saw us queued up outside HMV like we were waiting for the Beatles, and after some time catching up* with mates of mine who I rarely see from one tour to the next, I was on a train out of New Street station by 7pm and home for 9.30 - not the sort of time I would normally get home from gigs in the Midlands!

* and arranging who's going where on the forthcoming tour, natch!

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Friday, February 17, 2006

The Numbers Game

I've rather given up on marking anniversaries, not least because once you've been around the calendar there's little value in an exercise of 'guess what, it's the same anniversary as last year!' posting. That said, there's the odd thing that crops up that does seem worth noting, and at some point in either the last couple of days or the next couple, one such occurs.

Post graduation there were a number of years I spent alternating between a variety of temporary agency jobs - chambermaid, gardener, hospital porter, tent assembler, kitchen staff, paint sprayer, surveyor's assistant, I've done it all - and being unemployed. Ironically it took moving away to a slightly less economically blessed region where support for (and availability of) learning skills of some practical benefit actually existed to set me on the way to where I am today.

Someone else takes some credit for helping support me while I did the only job-relevant training course I have a certificate for, though the information I learned then has long since become obsolete. There was a long time where my present situation of being several years into a job I mostly enjoy and where I have almost everything my way, never mind the possibility of buying a house of my own and all that sort of stuff looked no more plausible a prospect than an elephant flying to the moon with me on its back.

I don't live in the past, but I do like to remember where I've come from sometimes, and how lucky I am. And it's with that in mind I'm pleased to realise that some time right now is the tenth anniversary of the last time I signed on.


Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Food For Thought

It seems like longer ago than that I was just talking about food. A combination of the factors of cutting down on cake and chocolate, trying to eat more fruit and drink more water, along with a weekend of unexpectedly heavy exercise instead of the bottle of wine that was otherwise looming seem to have wrought a miraculous change. I've felt the difference in my legs cycling to and from work this week, and there was defintely a bit more power there than a couple of weeks ago. So yesterday I stepped on the scales to see what they said, and was staggered at the suggestion of that much variation in weight over such a short period. It would be easy to take that for granted, but what I really want to keep in mind is that just as eating high volumes of refined sugar products is a habit I picked up rather than a nutritional requirement, so the extra salad, vegetables and eating meals rather than snacks can become a habit.

Sunday, February 12, 2006

The Key's The Timing

The difference that timing can make is prominent in my mind this week; through an error in record keeping, I spent this weekend doing something I thought I was doing next weekend, and it was only a chance double-checking of arrangements on thursday that showed up my mistake. And over the course of the weekend I've been reminded what difference a second or two can make in a very real life and limb sense. As a result of this, over the weekend I've had plenty of exercise and compared with the other day I mentioned, I'm surprised to find the scales showing the lightening effects of fluid loss and a small amount of muscle toning and getting on the scales before I had my dinner, but again timing does something that looks like something else. This evening I've failed to buy something on ebay, something that would have been a bargain at that price but which is something I have no real imminent need for, and which I don't have lots of spare cash for at the moment. Beaten by someone using a snipe tool, it's timing again. On the plus side, this does leave me in a better position to take advantage of what difference timing can make financially, if you can hold your nerve and wait for the sales. Yesterday and today I've had the unexpectedly early opportunity to try out the high tech trousers this tag relates to in the great outdoors, and though I'm holding out for further reductions, a second pair at that price would still be a worthy investment.

Friday, February 10, 2006

Here Comes The Sun

What a beautiful day, riding towards work into the sun as the frost cleared, and enjoying sunlight streaming through the office windows once I got here. Tomorrow I get to see a bit more of the great outdoors than I'd planned for this weekend (calendar malfunction, see!) and it seems like this flaming cold is finally shifting, so this feels like seeing the first tiny signs of distant spring.

Hope the sun is shining on you too!


Wednesday, February 08, 2006

I Predict a Diet

Or something vaguely like that - let's not get carried away!

Over a couple of days last week when I wasn't at work and was more or less confined to the house, I found myself on the scales and slightly surprised by how much of me there was. It's easy to put it down to not leaving the house for 36 hours, and eating out of boredom, but I had also been feeling not like eating much.

In the meantime, I think I've worked out roughly where the problem is; I don't really enjoy what I eat, I mean, sure I love eating and my capacity is huge, but it's rare that I take much time or care over eating. It's a function rather than a pleasure.

This isn't helped by spending so much time driving around, going to see bands or watch football matches - it can be difficult to make the time to prepare an organic butternut squash quiche served on a bed of four kinds of lettuce with a macrobiotic radish and onion dressing, and even more difficult to eat off the passenger seat of my car while I'm driving. The convenience of ready bagged crisps and chocolate confectionary items is hard to beat, I'm just lucky the same applies to fruit or I'd otherwise eat nothing but over-processed rubbish.

So, the salad and veg drawer in my fridge is now a bit fuller, and making the effort to make cheese and salad rolls for lunch instead of buying so many pasties and replacing doughnuts and muffins with bagels and trying to up my water intake is a good place to start...


Thursday, February 02, 2006

Taking Stock

I've taken the advantage of being off sick to spend some of this afternoon on my frequently threatened but rarely attempted plan of going through all of my clothes and finding out exactly what I've got. What you see below is a poorly lit picture of most of my t-shirts, though crucially with a standard size mug for scale. That pile comprises the better part of eighty band t-shirts and twenty t-shirts either representing my football team or sporting events I've participated in. That's not such a surprise as I knew I had roughly that many, but what's less expected is just how many that looks like when you put them all together!

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