Close encounters of the arachnid kind

< shudder >I'm not fond of spiders at the best of times, but when they decide to run down the loo roll just as I'm unfurling it for immediate use, that really is a liberty too far! My abrupt departure from the vicinity was somewhat lacking in elegance, I'm sure. Since the beastie didn't have the decency to run away (possibly it was as stunned by the circumstances as I was) & the resident aww-bless-spider-rescuer was asleep, I had to resort to subterfuge & continued unrolling the paper (at arm's length) all the way to the floor, where the relevant sheet could be stamped on. < /shudder >
Then I re-arranged my attire, thankful that nobody had come downstairs to investigate!

Spiders & I have a working agreement, whereby I leave them alone in the garden on condition they leave me alone in the house. This one clearly hadn't read the rule book.

Things that don't make sense #3

Here we go again...

"A toddler was left sleeping on a bus in Leicester for more than two hours after being accidentally left behind," shouts this BBC news story, in bold font.

How terrible, poor little mite, etc., etc.
But hang on:

The child fell asleep just minutes after the bus left St Margaret's bus station.
He woke up five miles away in Groby and the driver Ishak Kachwal found him at the back of the vehicle.

Now, either buses drive v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y in Leicestershire, or that toddler wasn't really asleep for "more than two hours". In fact, subtract the "just minutes" from the time it takes to travel five miles, & the sleeping time was more like two minutes?

As a parent, I have no comment whatsoever to make on this bit:

Kian's parents only noticed he was missing when he did not join their four other children for pizza at home.

Jarvis connects!

Ten years ago, he was expressing what so many of us felt about the obscene self-serving suffer-the-little-children antics of one Michael Jackson at the Brit Awards.
(So he was pissed. So he's embarrassed & fed up with people still going on about it. Doesn't alter the fact that for many of us it was a defining moment.)

July 2006 & le Jarv hits MySpace :-)



Here's what the man has to say:

Welcome friends, to my humble little corner of the Internet. As you can see from the photo over there I have been computing to my heart's content for some time & now I want to share the experience with you. Because now I have something to share.
If all the technical bits & pieces are working properly then you should be able to hear a new song I've been working on. I wanted you to hear it now cos It's exactly 1 year since that Live-8 thing & it was the night of that event that I wrote this song. I apologise for all the swearing but sometimes that's the only thing that seems appropriate.
It's in no way a criticism of Geldof & co. but I remember thinking at the time: "Where does engaging with these politicians/businessmen really get you?" - ( 12 months on & the cunts still haven't paid up as far as I can make out) - maybe the problem is something more ..... fundamental. Anyway, what do I know? I'm just a pampered rock star - but at least I think it's good to discuss this stuff. Don't you?
Let me know what you think.Oh yeah - & thanks for visiting. I hope this is just the start of a beautiful relationship.
love, Jarvis xx

Love the ampersands! He got that from me, you know....

His song sets out 'so-so', not quite poetic, not quite musically striking, then an hour later you find you're still humming it. Listen to the lyrics.

Metaphorically speaking...

I'm about to click that "Register Now" button.
I'd had my eye on T185 for a while, & today I noticed that its final presentation is coming up in October this year. I've just accepted some extra work for October/November, but I think I would regret letting this one slip away. The course has its own taster website, & some of the sample materials, such as this history of metaphor, are just too intriguing to resist. I'm familiar with the power of metaphor from a literary perspective, but T185 promises to examine it from other angles - systems theory (which I had a taste of in T175) for instance, & cognitive science.

It used to be thought that although metaphors were useful for livening up what you said, they didn't do much else. But in the last couple of decades it has begun to be recognised that far from just being decorative, metaphor, and its underlying imagery, are crucial building blocks of everyday thinking and language. They shape our ideas (positively and negatively) and even our perceptions, in very fundamental ways.

Despite its T prefix, it looks like a U course, creatively interdisciplinary. Nothing nasty like CMAs or an exam, either, just a portfolio to prove you've joined in, & an ECA reviewing what you've learned.
I think it'll be fun :-)

Compromise, or cheating?

I think I know the answer, really....
Haven't quite given up smoking :-(
Took to sneaking out into the garden in the early hours of the morning (ie late at night) for half a cigarette & of course it made me feel so much more human that it soon develped into a habit that's now two or three sneakings each night. Alan actually suggested that I should carry on, & that 5 a day wouldn't be the end of the world, provided I didn't smoke them anywhere near him. Hmm.
I'm probably deluding myself when I tell the kids it's "only" at night, "only" outdoors & "only" halves. Ask me again in a month's time!