Out of little conkers grow big, well small, trees...

On Sunday, 26th September, it was my little baby horse chestnut's first birthday! :D



That's him on his birthday, only small, I know, but he is a baby. I found the conker on a walk on this date last year and planted it up. I had a good day.

Here is him with other baby trees, two self-sown oaks that we have rescued from their vunerable locations and potted temporarily, and a baby hazel we are growing.



We have many many other baby trees in the garden, and full grown ones, I need an arboretum - someone get me some land. :)

To celebrate the birthday, I planted some of the tree's baby brothers, 5 more conkers fallen from the same tree last year.



Yes, I know Aesculus hippocastanum (yes it's part of the Buckeye family) isn't native to this country, it's native to Northern Greece and Albania, but NM - I like them.

And Back He Goes...

Well it's that time of year again, the autumn term begins at the various academic institutions around this country, and with that my brother returns to his degree in the sunny town of Colchester....

Apart from the obvious sadness of not having him about to go out with, watch stuff, and generally have a laugh; this year I also have to deal with the loss of this computer - which is his: hence it's going back with him... ARGH!!

As my computer(s) are languishing in various states of disrepair (ie. can't afford to fix them), this means I will be very short on computer, and therefore net, access for the forseeable future. Bugger.

And just in time, my new Canon 300d arrived today!! Hooray!!!!!!

However, digital cameras without computers have restricted use, so I'm going to have to fix something.

Anyhow, the upshot of this is that I will be posting/commenting only sporadically for awhile. Depends when I can beg, borrow, or steal net access from mates...

Might be lucky and get one straight away, might not be online at all till Christmas - all down to luck, oh great.

Who I want to be when I grow up...

When I was very young, not much younger actually, still applies today - from a long time ago, I like most people had idols, people I wanted to grow up to be like.

However, not being an entirely standard person, my idols were likewise unusual.

Yoda

Ludo

Wisest of the Mystics

Snuffleupagus

Beaker

Treebeard

Junior Gorg


Yes, I appreciate I was odd.

Over the years, I think I've become most like Junior Gorg, physically there is little to seperate us - though he is far cuter, but the general disposition is much the same as me - my likeness in felt. :)

I'd like to think I retained some of Ludo's playfulness and friendliness, at least in that I still approach these areas much as a child would. From the Mystics and Yoda I have inherited the knack of talking in riddles, usually I either manage to confuse people or bore them to death. From Beaker I received his fear, and nervousness, qualities I quite like in others but am not much keen on in myself - but Beaker was always special.

From Treebeard, the most important things, slowness - "anything worth saying, is worth taking a long time over", knowing what side I'm on, and above all a love of trees.

Yes, it's good to have something to grow up to be - once I have done so, I'll let you know if I'm worth taking any time over.

Super Size Me

Or rather don't....

Just saw Super Size Me (imdb)...

It was very good, although with me its message was preaching to the converted. Essentially the message was - McDs (note the child aimed marketing on their website) and the other fast food that we eat is exceptionally bad for us, and that we as a world society are becoming seriously unhealthy from it. No argument here.

The film focussed very much on the human aspects, predominantly the health issues with the food, and its consumption, but also the effect of marketing and the profit motivated disregard for all else.

There was barely a mention of the more questionable corporate policies of the companies involved, or more importantly the animal rights issues, and general environmental issues that revolve around the preprocessed, mass produced cack that they produce. But too be honest, that was prudent. If you want to get the publics' attention, go for what they care about: themselves.

They did focus heavily, sorry for the pun, on schools and general US dietary trends. All rather worrying and concerning.

However the film has had some results, McDs stopped offering Super-Size after it was released, and a number of states banned soft drinks in schools. Hooray!

I am pleased to see McDonalds joining the debate with their website: http://www.supersizeme-thedebate.co.uk/ - this is good. They obviously defend themselves and say that their meals are not unhealthy as part of a balanced diet and eaten in moderation, which is reasonably accurate, but not compelling. They end their spiel with...

What can't change overnight is people's perceptions, but we would like to think that in 5 to 10 years time we may be as famous for our salads, our fruit or our organic food as we are for our Hamburgers

Call me sceptical, but I doubt that.

As always if you eat a lot of fast food, a good first step is to cut out the soft drinks, they are saturated with sugar and various other nasties.

Oh, the man who made this film, his girlfriend - she's a vegan health chef. I can't believe she sat and watched him do that, I suppose the goal is the thing. Personally I wouldn't of been able to hack it. Long live vegan chefs, may they multiply.

Somewhere Over The Rainbow...

Not sure who has seen the new Lynx advert that has been running of late, for Lynx Touch, but it is great..

Good concept, very touching, or at least it would be if it wasn't created to market a product.

But the song, the music, is wonderful, truly.

Some quick investigation led to the discovery that the song was performed by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole (biography) - a Haiwan legend.



He died in 1997, aged 38, not surprising at that size (6'2", 757lbs max), but he has a beautiful voice.

I managed to grab the song off KaZaa without trouble - I recommend it to all.

May the legend continue, thanks for uplifting me.

Looks like I'm going to hell then.... Bugger

I took this test about a year ago, and I swear I came out better then....

The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Fifth Level of Hell!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Very Low
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	Very Low
Level 2 (Lustful)	High
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	High
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Very Low
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	Extreme
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	High
Level 7 (Violent)	Very High
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	Very High
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Very High

Take the Dante's Inferno Hell Test

Makes sense though, I have always seen gluttony, lust and wrathfulness as my primary sins. But at least I'll not get stuck in limbo, and have dreadful uncertainty hanging over me. Looks like I've got the "Do not pass Go" card.

Whilst I'm at it with these silly things, might aswell assess my personality disorders. LOL

Disorder	Rating
Paranoid:	Very High
Schizoid:	High
Schizotypal:	High
Antisocial:	High
Borderline:	Moderate
Histrionic:	Very High
Narcissistic:	Very High
Avoidant:	Very High
Dependent:	High
Obsessive-Compulsive:	High
-- Personality Disorder Test - Take It! --

Cinema - Application for Residency

Hmm, I've been to the cinema an awful lot lately... I should get my own seat.

These unlimited passes are a great idea, though I'm not entirely sure I've got the hang of it yet. I've been 5 days out of the last 6...

Since I've had my pass I've seen the following films:

13 Going On 30 8
A Cinderella Story 8
A Tale Of Two Sisters 8
Catwoman 7
Dodgeball 9
Garfield 7
Home On The Range 7
I, Robot 9
King Arthur 8
Soul Plane 6
Spider-man 2 8
Stage Beauty 8
The Alamo 7
The Chronicles Of Riddick 8
The Motorcycle Diaries 9
The Village 8

[I hope I didn't forget any, links are to iMDB to save time, with my rating out of 10]

Plenty more to see this month, I hope to see Hellboy, The Terminal and Raising Helen before next Friday aswell. :)

At least I get my monies worth. £9.99 x 2, and I've only just entered my second month.

The Fool(s) and I

I feel sick.

Really really sick.

What is the matter..... with kids today

Society is coming to pieces, and no one seems to be doing anything about it.

Everytime I go out it's worse, more young teenagers (or younger) shouting, swearing, drinking, smoking, making an utter nuisance of themselves. It has got to stop. The behaviour of many is now far beyond appauling, it would've been unimaginable even ten years ago. But now..... things have gone to hell.

I was sitting on the bus this evening, and 3 young boys and 2 girls got on the bus and came up to the back of the top deck where I was sitting. (People who know about London buses will say "Karl you fool, why are you sitting *there*??" - I should be able to sit anywhere on the bus). Two of the boys were about 14, the other was maybe 10-11, the girls were about 13-14. I heard them coming, constant shout of "blud, blud" (oddly, they seem to be pronouncing it with a t on the end.. :S) - they were drunk.

Oh great.

They proceeded to jump about, climbing over chairs, shouting and swearing, the girls spent the whole time swearing into their mobiles, coordinating some sort of mass gathering. One of the boys tried to drink vodka neat and promptly threw it all up over the gangway. Great. The other lit up a joint. Fantastic. Then the one that had just kindly redecorated the floor pulled the plastic stripping holding the bell cables in place from the ceiling, turned it in to a whip and started whipping the other boys. The girls got off. Now they were smashing up the chairs, whipping them with their make shift flail. To say they had pissed me off would be rather like saying that LotR was sort of alright. So I broke the rule, I looked at this complete arse, starred at him, he said "Alright". I said, "Can you stop that please." - oh dear I hear you cry, he went and did it.

"Why?"

Why... for the sake of hell... what a ridiculous question. "It's bloody annoying I said" (may have slipped and used stronger language).

Fool: "Why?"
I: "Why do you think?"
Fool: "I don't know..."
I: "Because it's fe..ing annoying, you're making a horrible noise, and damaging the bus."
Fool: "No I'm not it's cleaning it, look [hits chair again with flail], it gets the dust out."
I: "Yeah, and in to me. Stop it, now."
Fool: "You're not making any sense, you're just babbling, you're not being constructive."
I: "Just stop it, right now, behave."

Thankfully, they sort of stopped, and then got off at the next stop.

A cheer went up from the front. :)