You ate rather a lot of beetroot last night, remember?

I just found a pile of old “Consequences” sheets. I think they are from the second Devon Lek.

Barney Frotterbum
Met Miss Love-a-lot
At a gloryhole in a cottage
He said “Oil me up and fetch the larger forceps”
And she said “I couldn’t possibly, I’m on a low-protein diet”
And they could not quite manage a 69 with all the eyes looking at them on stalks.

Frood and I introduced that game to my parents at Christmas…

I lost my coffee.

I had a mug of coffee. I lost it. I lost it while Frood was in the bathroom.

I found it in the wardrobe.

Frood‘s list of things for me to do.

The environment and semiotics.

Putting in place effective policies to stimulate climate-friendly behaviour in the UK is clearly essential, but so too is the use of effective communications. Today in the UK, more stakeholders, including every type of media outlet, the Government, environmental groups and companies, are discussing or communicating on climate change than ever before. But what impact are these stakeholders having? Are they helping or hindering efforts to achieve behaviour change? Will producing more of the same communications do the job, and if not, how could the way climate change is communicated be improved?

To help answer those questions, ippr commissioned Linguistic Landscapes to analyse current UK constructions and conceptions of climate change in the public domain, using some of the tools and principles of discourse analysis and semiotics.

The discussion of “linguistic repertoires” is especially good. My favourite, I think, is “British comic nihilism (‘Oh, bugger it and open another bottle!’)”. Some of the pseudo-intellectual diagrams are whimsically bollocks and make me smile.

You have to register to read, and it was published way back in 2006 (there’s a sequel), but worth a look if you’re interested in the way words can affect thoughts and thus population behaviour on a global scale.

With our thoughts we make the world…

Just arrived in my mailbox:

…to let you know we acknowledge you and respect your ancienty.

Carpe Diem,
The Raven Heads
http://ravenheads.com

“Ancienty”?

Good word, dudes. Let’s take a look… Oh cool! A band! Destroy Him My Robots, eh? Personally I prefer a much faster bpm, but thanks for thinking of me. Der Stereotyp is better. That one’s really growing on me.

Anyway, just for mailing me, I shall tell my blogosphere that you guys can be heard playing in Terrassa (that’s Spain) on 17th May. I’m racing that weekend, and I live in Scotland, so I can’t make it.

I’m more into Psy Goa Trance, for the record. I’m a big fan of GMS and I like the Spun Records label.

I’m watching the Paris Roubaix (the Hell of the North) on ITV4. Every time I hear the name Stuart O’Grady I hear the words:

“Who produced the world’s stickiest bogie?”
“Toxteth O’Grady, USA.”
“Correct, five points.”
“You bum bag!”

Damn you, Young Ones.

This morning, while riding to work, I was coming up Forth Valley towards the turning for Melville Street and had to stop because the bus in front of me had stopped.

I squeezed the front brake. Nothing. I squeezed it again, brain disengaging into WTF mode. Still nothing.

Frantically pumping the front brake lever I went into fixed-gear override and skidded the bike to slow down, finally putting my feet on the ground to keep the machine upright as I wrestled it to a stop. Courier I ain’t. Luckily I’m a consistent skidder.

Can we see the problem boys and girls?

I changed the brake pads a month ago and it has been fine since then. I can’t for the life of me figure out where in the hell that pad went. The rotation of the wheel should have forced it against the front of the shoe, and the retaining pin was definitely properly in place. I know how to fit brake pads. Not only that but I’d used the brakes already on the ride, and they’d been working. Somewhere between the descent on Crewe Road South and the Forth Valley traffic blockade, my offside front brake pad went missing.

Buggered if I know what happened to it. Good job you don’t need brakes to stop a fixed, though.

Yes, I do have a rear brake on that bike, but I use it so rarely the damn thing had seized so that wasn’t working either.

I need to replace my virus checker. Norton is a great, fat, bloated warthog of a beast that conflicts with Skype and has been a royal pain in the ass.

Recommendations please?

“Are you going to let me throw away some of your mugs?”

“But I use them all!”

“This one for tea in the morning, this one for tea in the afternoon, this one for tea just before bed. This one for posh tea. This one for coffee. This one for coffee when friends are round…”

“Well, yeah.”

“I know you do, my wuvly.”

“I don’t want this one with the fish on it.”

“Oooooooh. A whole mug.”

We’re trying to downsize because our new flat has less space. I packrat kitchen equipment. It’s the kitchen that’s a lot smaller.