Sunday, Aug. 16, 2009 - 01:36

There are lots of numbered points today. This is not an indication of quality, however, merely of quantity. If you want quality, go find a proper author. Preferably one wearing a purple hippy-ish blouse and a floaty skirt.

1. Bit peeved that I've hardly done any reading recently. The thriller novel I have in my work bag has proved not to be all that exciting and enthralling - or rather it has failed to make it's self un-put-down-able in the first fifty pages. I wonder if I should switch to something factual, stretch my brain or something.

2. My chess playing appears to be going OK recently - I think I've lost one of the last twenty I have played. Admittedly I win a lot by forcing mistakes and by better time management than my opponant, but.. both players start with the same amount on the clock and on the board, so if I end up with more of both, I must be doing something right!

3. On the floor near my desk at the moment is a jar of Thai green curry sauce. It is a rather unfortunate colour, alas - the sort of greeny yellow that I imagine babies poo is as a result of being fed on milk.

4. How do they work out the amount of alcohol in a drink? I suppose, since I work in an office next to a food chemistry lab, finding out would be relatively easy to do. Will ask someone next week - it's probably something to do with boiling points, I guess.

5. Bit of excitement at work last week - we isolated a pretty dangerous bacteria from some raw meat that a food manufacturer had sent in. The lab manager was on the phone to the managers of this company telling them what to do next, there was a lot of concern, and.. well.. it's interesting for a geeky microbiologist like me.

6. Whoo-ha! Middlesboro' went away to Swansea this afternoon, and left with all three points. Three goals to nil it finished (Johnson, Emnes and Tuncay), leaving The Smoggies in fourth place. That's a first away win in thirteen matches in the league! Elsewhere, Newcastle won 3-0 - impressive against Reading, and putting them just above Middlesboro'.

7. For some unknown reason (i.e. I've not been watching mobile phone adverts on TV) I've got Vashti Bunyan's 'Diamond Day' stuck in my head.

8. Please see number 19.

9. My mind goes blank whenever people ask me to name actresses or famous people that I find very attractive. I mean, I can usually come up with one or two ladies who I think are muchly lovely, but never someone I absolutely adore and go loopy over. I used to think Isla Fisher was fab, mainly because of a poster in a red bikini that I had on my wall when I was at uni, but these days.. decidely unfixed in obsessions am I.

10. Watched 'Oh Brother Where Art Thou' on Friday night as I ate my mar-who-sieve biryani. It was an entertaining enough film, nice music (as I know from the soundtrack - a fave of mine) and decent acting. I think I miss a few of the Iliad references, but neverthless got quite a few of 'em.

11. I was commenting to my mother on the phone earlier in the week that I wish I had a better understanding of weather and climate. Not so I can predict the weather on a daily basis (for fucks sake, people religiously watching the weather forecast and carrying around brollies at all times in case they get wet - WE HAVE WATERPROOF SKIN YOU FUCKING VAIN BATSARDS/BITCHES!!!) but moreso so I had more idea about the things that affect climate and stuff.

12. "He thought he saw a Buffalo, upon the chimney-piece: He looked again, and found it was, his Sister's Husband's Niece. 'Unless you leave this house,' he said, 'I'll send for the Police!'"

13. Five years ago I was deep in the midst of that period of my life when I took leave of my senses (partially being pussy drunk, partly being blindly optomistic, partly knowing I would regret fucking up FOR EVER if I did anything to do so - hence allowing myself to be trampled into the ground) and got engaged and all that to a mad European Female. I'm not going to dwell, but that summer has done something fucky to my esteem and my personality, I think.

14. "What happened to us? (jusqua la fin). Soon it will be gone forever (en plein soleil). Infatuated only with ourselves (jusqua la fin). And neither of us can think straight, anymore. (en plein amour)"

15. Learnt an interesting thing in the week - about the whole story surrounding the poisoning of Jamaica Ginger in the Prohibition years of the 1920's and 30's, and it's resultant condition of 'Jake Leg'. An interesting point was made when I was reading about it, in that the US authorities largely ignored the problem, 'cause it affected mainly alcoholics, the poor and migrant workers. Raised some interesting points about public health strategies.

16. One film I'd like to see is 'Trois Colouers Bleu', with Juliette Binoche. I've seen Red and White, and very interesting and beautiful they were too, I've just not yet seen the other of the trilogy.

17. Primary pulmonary histoplasmosis is caused by inhalation of Histoplasma capsulatum spores, and approximately 10% of people with this acute infection develop erythema nodosum.

18. ..I was feeling insecure. You might not love me any more. I was shivering inside. I was shivering inside. I didn't mean to hurt you. I'm sorry that I made you cry..

19. Please refer to number 8.

20. Midweek international football held mixed (but generally bad!) results for the home nations. Only Scotland had a 'competitive' fixture, which they contrived to lose 4-0 to Norway - hence putting qualification for WC 2010 into doubt. England played like chumps in the first half, and went in 2-0 down to Holland due to some awful backpasses. In the second half the substitutes played well and Carlton Cole and James Milner impressed as Defoe got two goals to make the final score 2-2. Wales and Rep Ireland lost friendlies to Montenegro and Australia, and Northern Ireland drew with Israel in another friendly.

21. Got a bit of spam today, which read "table, and the books, 'Walk in, gentlemen, walk in! Don't be ill, and boys who happened to have nothing particular to do, and were the weather the worst let in the wind and rain through wide". Quite interesting, whatsay? :-)

22. After a little research, that appears to be a little bit of "American Notes for General Circulation" by Charles Dickens. I never really liked Mr Dickens - seemed to be all that was wrong with that time and type of literature. Or perhaps I am being unfair, as I am insufficiently educated or experienced to have a just opinion.

23. I bought a packet of chilli snacks (like reformed potato extrusions, same as them Walkers 'French Fries' you can get) the other day, and can't understand how anyone can eat them. I've only managed half the pack so far, and that's in four sittings before the chilli flavour made me cry so much (a wuss, I know) and I had to stop. These foreigners have asbestos mouths!

24. Joan Baez has got a very pure voice, hasn't she? I *do* like 'Diamonds and Rust' by her, as I'm sure I've mentioned in the past.

25. I'd like to know more about game theory. Alas, I think my mathematical knowledge isn't up to it. Don't get me wrong - I'm good at maths and used to win awards at school and that, but I'm no whizz like some peeps.

26. I mean, I always wondered how to solve a 'top trumps' type game where each player has numbered cards 1-10 and each chooses which to play (simultaneously or face down). The winner of each hand is the higher value. Do you hope to play your '1' against your opponants '10' then win every other hand? What's the psychology of such stuff?

27. Ooh. It seems this is (or is very similar to)Colonel Blotto's game!

28. I'm developing a bit of a headache and a sore throat. I hope it disperses by Monday.

29. Friday evening, I travelled home from work with one of the blokes from the lab. I was (alas) a little tired and quiet so probably wasn't great company as we popped into a local rock pub for a pint on the way back through town. More annoying, however, was the fact there was a bald bloke in the pub who I recognised but couldn't place. He didn't look like a partic pleasant bloke, to be honest.

30. On further thought, I think he might have been the boyfriend of a lass who was friends with one of my ex-workmates. I've been drinking in a group with him a few times a few years back, I think.

31. Today Chelsea benefitted from the usual good luck that seems to befall the top teams (and rarely benefits the less fashionable sides) in getting an injury-time cross cumshot winner against Hull, to be victorious by a score of 2-1.

32. Wolves will be gutted to have lost at Molineaux to West Ham. The pundits generally are speaking about Wolves having a good chance of surviving because they've got goals in their side. With two or three players out, including strikers such as Kevin Doyle, they didn't look like they'd score hatfuls today!

33. Wigan got an excellent 2-0 win at Villa for new manager Roberto Martinez. This'll be disappointing for the Midlands side, whose efforts last season gave them hope that they'd 'push on' this year. They may have to find effective replacement for Garry Bareth and Martin Laursen.

34. Stoke showed Burnley how hard life in the top division is going to be, with a 2-0 win. I reckon that such results by teams like Stoke - i.e. ensuring they pick up points at home to teams expected to finish in the bottom half - are perchance going to keep some of the lesser teams from demotion.

35. Man City got a 2-0 win at Blackburn, by virtue of a goal three minutes from the end, and one three minutes from the end. It wasn't an outstandingly spectacular performance for all those millions spent, but professional nevertheless.

36. Bolton lost 1-0 to Sunderland, Darren Bent getting a goal on his Black Cat debut. Gary (S)Megson will be disappointed with the result, especially at home, for the same reasons outlined above as pertaining to Stoke.

37. Fulham beat Pompey 1-0 due to a freaky goal, Dempsey's shot deflecting off Zamora and hence stranding David James. Neither side did much to impress, and will presumibaly struggle unless they add to their squads.

38. In the late game between Everton and Arsenal, the Gooners sneaked past the Toffees. By six goals to one, that is, putting Arsenal top of the league :-) All the experts said Arsenal would struggle a bit this year after losing Toure and Adebayor, but they've players coming back from injury and a few young players coming through.

39. Whilst reading about Jake Leg earlier in the week, I chanced upon an interesting resource online, including a load of presentations on public health and epidemiology. It's called Supercourse (somewhat cringeworthily) and I found it impressive in it's depth and breadth, from initial impressions at least.

40. One of the interesting (yet obvious, if you think about it) facts I found from the above was that "Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death among teenagers in the United States, accounting for 36% of deaths of persons aged 15 to 19 years. The fatal crash rate per million miles for 16-year-old drivers is more than 7 times the rate for drivers aged 30 to 59 years".

41. Similar, but more impressive (and more wide ranging) is the stuff at MIT Open Courseware, which I've had bookmarked for ages but haven't looked at to a satisfactory degree, yet. Must make a point of investigating that further.

42. Has any of y'all seen a ghost? It's something that used to interest me loads as a kid, but I suppose as I got older and more cynical (and more scientific, I guess) I either lost interest or became sceptical. I suppose the stance I take at the moment is that I am open minded that there may be a small number of things that cannot be explained away, and that's sorta proof of the supernatural.

43. After all, all our senses are just electrical stimuli jiggling about between our sense organs and our brains. Hence why couldn't a dead person (esp. violently killed) leave some kind of non visible (e.g. electromagnetic?) stain that can be sensed?

LISTENING TO:- I've been hand picking various folky sort of tunes from my 'not yet played' list in iTunes.