Salute the `gong!

Today happened to be a great day. You see, I'm down in the `gong (Wollongong) at the moment, soaking up the occasional ray when I can catch it, in between 12 hours of back-to-back science lectures and physics seminars. It's quite a nice international conference, the lunches have been outstanding. A barrel full of oysters and prawns every day, along with prawn salads, fresh crabs and octopus. I never got a chance to touch the Barra or steak or pork. Incredible.

And today I sat down with Mr. M (he wants privacy, go figure) for lunch, and Alain Aspect and Bill Phillips sat down at our table with us (Bill got the Nobel prize in 97). There were a couple of other important scientist, and we all discussed what is meant by a "slow" train in France, England, American and Australia. Then I went for a swim. Awesome.

I must say, I have had THE BEST calimari that I've ever had in my entire life down here in the Gong. Outstanding. I'm going back for more tonight. Yum.

Best books ever

In perusing the New York Time's 10 Best Books of 2007 I decided to have a little fun. Here are the first five. Only the titles have been changed. I found the book descriptions ridiculous, so I left them as is. Try to imagine what the real title actually is. Then click and find out. Click on the title-links to see the real reviews.

A MAN GOES DOWN AND WAITS IN A SOCIAL SECURITY LINE
By Michael Thomas. Black Cat/Grove/Atlantic, paper, $14. This first novel explores the fragmented personal histories behind four desperate days in a black writer’s life.

OUT OF THE FRYING PAN...
By Per Petterson. Translated by Anne Born. Graywolf Press, $22. In this short yet spacious Norwegian novel, an Oslo professional hopes to cure his loneliness with a plunge into solitude.

THE WILD APES IN DYMOCKS
By Roberto Bolaño. Translated by Natasha Wimmer. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $27. A craftily autobiographical novel about a band of literary guerrillas.

REALITY T.V. PRESENTS RICKY GERVAIS
By Joshua Ferris. Little, Brown & Company, $23.99. Layoff notices fly in Ferris’s acidly funny first novel, set in a white-collar office in the wake of the dot-com debacle.

CHRIST, THERE'S CHARLIE! WELL, CHARLIE, MEET CHRIST!
By Denis Johnson. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $27. The author of “Jesus’ Son” offers a soulful novel about the travails of a large cast of characters during the Vietnam War.

Where does all this impatience come from? Tellmetellmetellme

Perhaps there is reason to believe I won't make the best parent when I grow up. It's some thing to do with this impatience complex I have. I'm am currently in training to cool myself down a little. Chill-lax, as my flatmate would say.

Hence the tea room conversation need to go from this...to this...

Sheer brilliance.

Ok, so I read this a while ago, but, my god, Stephen Colbert is fantastic. Pour yourself a Dirty Cosmotinijito and settle into this brief show of humour.

Best science

I have got nothing for lunch. And I am hungry. Although hunger sharpens my sense, making me edgy, and nervous with energy, ready to pounce. And I crouch on my chair, sitting on my heels, making skittish eye movements as I tap away on my laptop.

And that's when I do my best science.

Reclaiming the space

So, it's been a month since I last threw a post up here. There's been quite a few kilometers in the water, finished a book or two, seen a few flicks. Let's cover a few things of interest here...

Finished Tom Robbin's Villa Incognito.


Quite a good read, contains a lovely summary of the beauty of mayonnaise.

And saw a great flick called Nothing, directed by the guy who did Cube. Had an interesting take on many things. I particularly enjoyed a scene where the protagonists were able to eliminate thoughts and memories, like anger. It reminded me of those who have a sweet spot for chemical "blindfolds", who enjoy the sensation of clearing the mind of everything except the now. The pleasant now. Ignoring the yucky bits in life.

Strange

Ok. So I went to the pool today, and I've swum 2.3km. In the last month.

I'd like to highlight the danger of alcohol for someone who also has some really strange sleeping patterns. Allow me the chart the progression.

1. Drinking on Saturday afternoon. Empty stomach, warm sun, few beers.
   
2. Suddenly feeling very tired, and going home to sleep.
3. Waking up at 11:30pm on a Saturday night with nothing to do. And knowing you won't sleep again till 2pm tomorrow afternoon.

Ach. This will drive me nuts. Though, alternatively, I could go and get some more actual science done.

This evening, I enclose an (unsent) letter I wrote a few minutes ago. You see, I woke up, opened up my laptop, and saw a really funny comic that reminded me of an estranged ex. (Don't worry people, it's an old old ex.) In my strange delirium state I decided to send it to them via Facebooks.

After a few seconds consideration (which always occurs after one has pressed the SEND button), I decided to bash out a quick explanation letter, to keep on hand just in case this correspondence was undesired. I pro-actively prepare for everything these days...

I hope you take that in good faith. I mean, there's alotta water under the bridge (where is the bridge? how old is it? who built it anyway?), and that sort of innocuous and harmless humour can be either appreciated or disregarded. Yet, I wouldn't put it past anyone, anyone, to really get over what they've felt. I mean, do feelings just whither and die? I don't think so. They just become less and less relevant to the immediate world one lives in: to the point where one (arbitrarily) decides one day that they're not important anymore.

So, given that this monologue is written in the off chance that you are, in any way, still angry with me, I wish you all the best. And I'll endeavor to maintain that respectful distance that is most keenly sort out. The distance between happiness and reality.

[update]

The above letter does seem a little... harsh. Hehe, here's hoping I don't have to send it.

Sex, power and vendettas

So I just finished reading Helen Garner's the first stone, and it wasn't a bad read. I preferred Joe Cinque's Consolation, yet this gave me a lot more to think about.

I work in an engineering department. One of the last bastion's of traditionally male fields. And I also work there as a tutor, which brings me into contact with the new generation of engineers. It's wonderful to see more women coming into the area.

But the whole conversation about power and sex (and gender, in my case) isn't well addressed in my work place. It would be nice to see a discourse arise. And hopefully it doesn't come about in such an extreme way as what happened in Ormond.

I also saw V for Vendetta tonight. Was it about democracy? About protesting against the government? Is it related to the Chaser's actions at APEC? These things will need to be discussed at the pub tomorrow. God bless Fridays.

Sum-times

It's times for maths!

Just kidding, I'm not going to inundate you with possibly the most boring subject in the world. I just thought the title was snappy.

And here is a comic.



















Nothing else doing in the world of Stu. Stay tuned for further updates, containing roughly the same amount of useless information.

Cheers.

P.S. Some may notice that his graph isn't even a normal distribution. It kinda looks more Poisson to me. That just makes it sooo much funnier.

What a mistake

In my last post I discussed science using a graph. And, as with all science, I need to note a correction. Originally I said some about "left-to-right" when I really meant "right-to-left", and vice versa. Ok, so I screwed up. I've made the corrections. Sorry to all those amateur science buffs.

Somebody should call Mediawatch and get me on as "Dog of the Week".

A good day

Well, it's been a great day actually. Enjoying my room in the new digs, soaking up the sunshine from my couch. Lunar eclipse tomorrow night, I'm hoping we can make an evening of it.

So, let's get down to business. If anyone needs any help using the software package XMDS to simulate or solve complex stochastic differential equations, then I'm your man. I've got it all working, here at home on my laptop (on the couch).

Getting a picture is the shit for theoretical scientific research in physics. You gotta get a pic, and then interpret it. Then you write a paper, and a PhD, and then it's applauses and champagne all round. For the super eager, you can change a few parameters, run the solution a few times, get to know the equation, right? And that's what I spent today doing. Working out the solution. Playing with my equation. Und eet's bin sooo much fun!

Here's a sample of science in action. See if you can guess what's going on...
That's right kids, it's decreasing. If you go from left-to-right, of course. If you go from right-to-left, then it's increasing, but then you just change the units so that it's decreasing in the other direction.
Ahh, science at it's best.

Aside from that, an important part of my life is leaving soon. Kinda like spring. You have it briefly for a few months, revel in it, enjoying your time, taking it for granted. Then, all of a sudden, it's gone. And it's the blazing hot summer sun beating down on your brow, reminding you that nothing ever stays the same.

I'm going to miss spring. And sometimes you think it's the best season to have.

Yet the rest of the year is usually pretty good too. And it has other benefits. So I'll try and enjoy those. Maybe hit the pool on occasion. Did it last Sunday. Total length swum this year : 500m.

That time of the month

It's cold outside, and I haven't seen May in a while; I wonder what she's up to...
Have quite a few things to review in Stue-style: Transformers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, PRAQSYS 07, Reid, Black Sheep, etc.

Will attempt these at a more reasonable time, when I'm in the new digs. Warning to all letter writers; I'm moving house, and I keep all correspondence neatly filed away in some shoeboxes.

Hi-jacked hi-jinxes

Sometimes when you lend your technologies to others, in the hope they don't misuse or abuse such opportunities, they can still surprise you. As such, I think my cyberspace identity has been violated.

Yet, if it wasn't my lovely flatmate Gabrielle, who could it be? Maybe Ryan has been hacking my laptop.

[update]

It was Gabrielle. Her childish shenanigans are typical of the French disregard for other cultures. I think I will try and burn her with a cigarette lighter. (just to show her how much I care)

Plop

You never talk about me bloody newspaper man !
Maaaaaaaaaah


But I'll have th final word...
gnark gnark gnark


(mou)


signed:
the mysterious XXX

Quote of the day

Sometimes, if you want to seem right about something, just refer to yourself saying the same thing somewhere else at another time. It adds credit to your claim. When reading a scientific article today, I came across this little gem...

A natural choice of Lambda, suggested in Ref.[9], is....

and when one flicks to reference [9], one finds another paper written by the same author. Just gold. His reasoning just feels.... natural.

Nothing but the weekend to look forward to

Feeling like I could step into the shoes of a proper "Dr" scientist position. I want to get a digital camera so that I could have taken a photo of the lamb steaks I cooked tonight. You guys would've flipped.

Still haven't talked about Sydney. Well, there was a lot of science, a lot of talking, a beautiful building for accommodation and some walking around.That walking lead to a weekend; starting with drinking around the docks Friday night, dancing till dawn in Kings Cross, recovering in Hyde Park in the morning, getting punched in the lip (will explain later), spending an amazing day in the Royal Botanical Gardens with the Opera House and Bridge in the background, then an evening in the Sandringham in Newtown. Next morning took me on a walk from Bondi down to Coogge, including fish and chips, and then a delightful evening around the Rocks.

An' then another week full of science. Gosh I love it!

You may hate me

You may hate me for doing something so banal and emotionally ursurping as to place the lyrics of a song I didn't write up on the web, as if it is a true reflection of how I feel. So I won't. I just feel like putting up something; an indication that I am still feeling, in some way, something. Just a yellow card to say "hey, back off Zinedine, he's still in the game". And so here it is

"Leave Me (Like You Found Me)"
That's when I knew you
You might be lonely too
That's what I wished for
Somebody just like you
To tell me what to do, honestly
And leave me like you found me

Can you believe it
I'm somebody just like you
Content with being blue, honestly
Leave me like you found me

Guy is back in town

Scoffed down some decent coffee and croissants in Sydney this morning before stepping on to a bus and scooting back into sweet old Canberra town. Temperature drop was approximately 10 degrees between stepping on in Sydney this morning and stepping off in Canberra.

Have much to tell about hilarity and hi-jinks in Sydney, but all will ensue and be revealed. Suffice to say I dragged myself into work today and sat through some discussions on H infinity control. Got home tonight and cooked up some decent storm-action in the kitchen. Slurped up some MediaWatch for desserts.

P.S. The "guy" in the title is how Gabrielle refers to me, as in "hey, guy, c'mon".

Stu Fury rides again

Woke up livid today. Wave of pure fury rolling out of me like liquid fire.

Then I went for a bike ride and felt a lot better.

Have considered airing nasty thoughts up here on the net. A net-vent. I can't say I've decided not too, either.

I'm just too furious about my ex. I recalled a whole lot of things that she did wrong, and instead of forgiveness, I was just filled with anger.

I guess in the past I was just focusing on the episode with the chin, and forgetting the rest of the unpleasentness. I wonder if we'll ever talk about it. I doubt it. She didn't even want to discuss the chin episode. Now that's something I still don't understand.

I guess forgiveness is hard to give, nay, impossible to feel, when the aggressor isn't sorry. (Well, maybe for the chin thing, but the rest? Hmmm.... doubt it)

I'm going to a quantum control conference in Sydney, (this is me at my last conference)













... and then am taking a few days off around Sydney. Then I might go camping at the coast later in the month. (this is me in the wild)













It's what you do, eh?

(update)

Any prompt from a reader for said information will be met with quick consideration, and then an almost immediate divulging, explaining all and sundry. Go on, I dare you. Provoke me. Watch the wrath unfold!

Crook

I'm sick as a dog at home, with so much to do. Have crazy thoughts going through my head.

(update)
Turns out taking some cold and flu tablets and going down to the pub for beer battered chips, two schooners and half a dozen B&H subtles, can really help one along the road of recovery.

Am trying to get through Edward Abbey's The Monkey Wrench Gang. Can't wait to pass it on to Glen when I finish.

Flicking

Flicking towels in the kitchen against each other is an integral part of living with people. So it's nice to come home to that sort of activity. And mad dancing. And smoking. And opening up a bottle of `04 Bin 28 Penfolds Shiraz and quaffing it down like you're 16 and it's sangreia on a Saturday arvo.

Spent a great weekend with the good folk in Springwood in the Blue Mountains. Family never looked so good.

The solstice of fun

Got up early and went for a swim in Lake Burley Griffith. Crazy cold, crazy fun. I'm the second from the left. T'was 8am and 8 degrees.

Who's an ass?

Jim Carey is my new hero. Conan doesn't know shit. See here.

Whose humps?

and I always thought she was kinda boring...

An open declaration of fear and despair

Just in case Wendy invites me to her party. Why I am not going. Even though I have plans, why I couldn’t . I shouldn’t .

Even though a lot of my friends will be there. Ones who would support me and take care off me. Why I wouldn’t go.

Because I don’t want to see her happy. Because I don’t want to think about her moving on. Because I haven’t moved on myself. I won’t. I can’t yet. It’s only been 7 weeks. After 18 months, 7 weeks is not a long time.

Because I need to look after myself. Because I’m very fragile at the moment. I have a hard enough time with just thoughts of her in my head. I don’t think visual images or actually being near her would help. At all. It would only make things worse.

I still miss her. I wish we could talk. I wish things were better. But they’re not. And I need to get over her and move on, to feel better. And that will come. But only if I don’t have to think about her. And going to her birthday party would not be the way to do that.

(update)
Bahh. The so-and-so didn't invite me anyway. What did I expect? To be treated like a friend?

Ice on my seat

There was ice on my bike seat tonight. At the tender time of 10pm. Crazy.

Looks to be more fun just around the corner. Met Gabrielle at Wig and Pen on Friday, and was inundated with unexpected company in the form of Royd, Masa, Glen and Obelia. A long day with John Manton doing free stuff, followed by poker with Gab and Ryan on Saturday.

Sunday I watched the Pirates of the Crapibbean. T'was almost excruciating, I could hardly care about it. Monday was a bummer of a day until I got out of the house and looks around. Nice city. Too cold though.

I am going spare on all this new music lying around me which I've sudden woken up to. Have had Chinese Translation by M.Ward flowing through my head all day.

Re-cap

I'm gonna try recap what I've been up to over the weekend. I guess it involved some drinks Friday night at uni pub and a very early night. Saturday was good fun kicking around the house, some really exciting maths discussions with John Manton, and a house interview with Steph.

Then the eagerly anticipated drinks on Sat night again putting me to sleep early. Sunday was recovery mode with Mas over for more soup. That guy must be getting sick of it by now...

Discoveries

Have discovered three amazing things this morning...

1.) A religious man with music in his heart and a lot of travel on his schedule. Found his work going through some CDs... damn, DAMN it's nice. It also explains that T-shirt that's been going around "Feeling the Illinoise"...

2.) Bitching about departmental policy in the tea room when the head of the department walks in can be embarrassing. Continuing when he leaves, only to discover later that he had been standing in the hallway, can be worse.

3.) Life without flatmates sucks. I have no reason to get dressed in the morning. Except when I go outside to get the newspaper. Won't be making that mistake twice....

Weekend concluded

Had further fine dine experiences over the weekend.

Was woken Saturday morn by an officemate who happened to want to talk about work. Well, it was around 11, so it's not an unreasonable request. Found myself discussing quantum field theory before I'd even had my first cup of morning coffee. How exciting.

Then chuffed off to Lambert's vineyard to celebrate Jen Pinkerton's 30th (happy birthday girl!). Always a pleasure to sink a fine wine while watching the sun set over another great Australian landscape.

And Sunday, well, I tidied up slowly around the house and cooked soup for a good friend for dinner. During the meal in bursts another mate (the one from Friday night) with a fresh, warm, home-cooked apple crumble. How delish! Even came with crockery I can keep (granted, it was to replace broken stuff from the Friday before, but hey, there must be something Greek in me with regards to cooking a good meal and breaking plates...)

FINE dining...

A great eve dining with crazy young folk of the Canberra origin. So spoilt! ;)

Beers

Ah, beers with an old friend.

Hang on, an old friend? How old? How long have I known them? Have I known them long enough to call them that? How long is long enough? A year? Two? What if we've only really gotten to know each other in the last 6 months? Can I call them old if they're not really that old? Well, not as old as me?

I'll stick with my first statement, because I think it succinctly distills the essence of my sentiment down to a few words....

Beers with an old friend. Ahh, so good. Then tea at home afterwards. Great day. With lots of physic-y fun.

Back

Am back from another conference: this time in Caloundra. It was my old childhood stomping grounds when I was ...oh, let's say 5-10 years old.















Drove past the old place, the old tree is still out there in the back yard.














Also came back sans wallet. And sans phone. I am without contact. So, e-mail me. Leave me a message. Don't let me curl up doin' a foetal in ma bedroom....

Catch phrases...

I just want somewhere to store some quote I've seen over the years....
"Hot piss!" - as an exclamation of excitement
"Now the worm is on the other foot.."

Both of them beautiful gems from Weebl and Bob. Ahh, those favourite eggs of mine, with donkey and pirate and co. I salute you, fictional characters!

How smart...?

I no longer want to be known as "smart", I just want to be known as "stupid-impaired".

Lost it.

I lost my blog there for a second. Bugger. Need to try and keep track of it. Perhaps if I just link it up with Glen's...

Just had an amazing dinner with Trudy, Tjalka and Mathys; Masahiro, Fiona and Royd popped in to enjoy some delicious lamb with baked goodies. I think I made that oh-so-common mistake of worrying more about the food than enjoying my guests. Ah well. Will see them in June when Des comes here.

First go

So, this is the first attempt at blogging. Here anyway. Finally, it's offical.

Free speech

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_speech_zone

"The existence of free speech zones is based on U.S. court decisions stipulating that the government may regulate the time, place, and manner, but not content of expression."

Fascinating...

Wasted on Wolfmother

I just wasted 7 minutes of my life reading a thread about Wolfmother (a guy at another web-site). Or whatever. How crazy is all that? I just log on in here to peer into the mind of someone in the office next door. All sneaky-like. It's amazing what you can learn on the internet.

Another great weekend

Another wonderful weekend just passed me by, spent seriously catching up on some S.F.A (look up SFA on Wiki, it's the last interpretation). Df and I watched sooo many apocolytic/futuristic movies, like "Children of God" and "12 Monkeys". Brad Pitt plays the perfect insane person, inklings of his future-inner-Tyler-Durden coming out. Grand stuff.

Had one of the best Friday nights in a while, eating take-away curry in my favourite old pub in town and drinking beer with Df and discussing the definition of voltage on a p-n junction. I think I won. It wasn't an arguement. It was a discussion...

Well, perhaps there's one to put out there to the greater crowds and hoards on the intra-nerd.... IS there a voltage across an open-circuit diode? The responses I've received have been many and varied... though I doubt it's worth stirring up too much trouble on this leetle quill-based site by posting up as a "Deep Thought".... although, I am know as the great antagonist....

Imus and the blacks

Hoo-hoo-hoo.... wait for df to finish her darn samples. She should just go out and buy one. (for those not in-the-know, that's a pv joke (for those not in-the-know, "pv" stands for photovoltaics (for those... well, most people, that means solar cells....))).....

and I has this interesting thought. Actually, I remembered a thought my flatmate had down at the pub the other night. Aloud. To the rest of the group. Ok, so it was more like a comment, but I does remember it as clearly as if it was a few days ago. And I did back his comment up with a few grunts of affirmation of my own. So it was something to the effect of....

This whole Imus thing is way outta control. How can anyone take a skinny old white guy wearing a ree-dic-o-lous 144 gallon hat seriously? Shouldn't our society be robust enough now, to be able to merely point and laugh at the guy? Make him out to be a point of ridicule, instead of a martyr?

I'm not going to talk about the players. They have their own feelings to sort out. But I'm backing what Jason Whitlock said, about people "making ... the problems much bigger than what they should be."

I mean, insult to injury is the apology from Imus, highlighting the "problem" instead of the solution : "Here's what I've learned: that you can't make fun of everybody, because some people don't deserve it."

What? Why? Because they're black?

Virginia Tech

First: Happy birthday to the little-miss-fluffy-lovin', fuzzy-haired git. You're hot. I most definitely would.

Df and I have been discussing the Virginia sitch for the last few days, as has 3 halves of the world's media-obsessed pontificators. Firstly props to the Scot on nailing my impression of the issue. However, I'm eager to consider the following....

I wonder: in a time of national crisis like this, will anyone stand up and purport that there was no way to stop it, so let's not point fingers or look for reasons?

The concept of closing down the entire university. The idea of the police getting the wrong person.

There ain't no reason to these shite things that happen, so I guess there ain't likely going to be any way to stop things like this completely.

Lobster-boy and Mermaid-girl

Last night I had wonderful munchables with df a.k.a Wendy, who cooked fresh fatty chips, served with dip from a dinner party we had on Saturday night. Then we played Rummikub with a rather funny bunch of kiddies she lives with, and ate apples and watched The Adventures of the Little Mermaid and Lobster Boy.

Good fun all round, so there!

A bitch/whinge...

Strange things have happend recently. Hopefully I'll be able to run away for the weekend and forget all such rot, yet there is a sense that at least some of it should be put down for all posterity before I bleach it all from my mind with some harsh Australian sunshine.

A sense of injustice pervades the arena of others, yet i wonder if I caused such a thing? Not really; I think I saw things as they were a few weeks earlier, and managed to face up to it and nip it in the bud. Well, in a "I'm just going to stay in my room" sorta way of dealing with things. But hey. It worked.

It's hard that I don't understand such anger, such indignant injustice. Reign fire, rain fur, I don't care; really there are two wrongs, on both sides, and neither one can really claim the moral highground. It's just the way it is. There can no resolution, there can only be a melancholy resignation.


An old story....

I had an ex once, and we had planned to go to a concert with a friend. Things fell apart two weeks before the concert, so I grabbed my ticket and decided it would be best to hide away up the back of the concert, leaving the girls to their devices. They were good friends, an I thought it was the noble thing to do.

We hadn't spoken for those two weeks either. So it really seemed quite dead in the water.

For some reason my ex had expected me to still go along, pretending everythign was hunky-dory. She didn't seem to realise I was hurting. Perhaps that's why she'd just let things die the way they did. Two weeks is an age in the digital age.

So she pulled out, and the mutual friend was confused and couldn't stand up to the concert either.

She had wanted to be friends, while being oblivious to how I was hurting. She was angry because I couldn't just do it and pretend. I'm a heart-on-my-sleeves sorta guy, I couldn't just stand there and not be overwhelmed. So how could she be angry at me because of it? Why didnt' she just go along anyway, if everything had seemed ok with her?

I didn't understand it. I still don't. And I feel that it's kinda what's been happening around my head these days.

I wonder if this will be censored?



Anyway, my Dad said the other day "A woman standing in the rain to get wet is a silly way to have a relationship"

Bombs

P.S. I think Iran should have a bomb. A big fat one. And then we can all sit down and watch Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, and then try and remember all the things we've forgotten since the Cold War.

Nouveau Science

Bah. So far, no Perfume, and hence, no necking (see above).

I've been thinking about Science alot recently. Science with a capital Psi. I've read a little about the philosophy of Science, and how it's done. Popper and his idea of checking everything 3 times a day and twice on Sunday. And then Kuhn and the "paradigm". His bloody "para-dig-gigm".

Anyway, after turning most people away from the tea-room at work discussing to death the reality of atoms (what evidence do we have that they exist? Two twinkies for the first person to name the scientist and the experiment!), I've realised I want to take a 16th Catholic Church view to Science.

Let's take all the crazy internet crack-pots and burn them at the stake. Then, to test a Scientific idea, we take the person who proposes it, tie them up and throw them in the river. If they float, then they are a crazy internet crack-pot, and should be burned at the stake. If they sink, we adopt their principle into our body of knowledge, then mourn their loss to the Scientific community.

I'm weighing down my sneakers with lead as we speak.

The Outsider, by stu

SPOILER WARNING!!

The Outisder by Albert Camus. A review by Daspar.

Live in a funny, dodgey apartment. Go to your Mom's funeral. Meet a chick and then take her out to the beach with dodgey people from your apartment. Then kill someone. Watch the trial unfold with complete apathy.

Then write a fascinating and gripping story about it all, portraying existentialism and the classic human condition (don't ask me what that is), and with the very least, a social commentary on the death penalty.

Wow. That last line about the death penalty reminds me of Perfume coming out soon. Soooo good! Can't wait. I'm going to take a cute girl and neck during the orgy scene.

Marriage follow up

I just noticed I didn't mention the wife in my description of marriage. In that case, drop the upfront payment and the white dress, and that would fill a current vacuum in my life....

Perhaps, I'll keep the dress. It's, err, for my sister.

Marriage

---

I've got to say it. It's my new motif on marriage, that was inspired by my friend's open disgust towards it.

Marriage : It's only appropriate when it's superfluous, redundant....

In other words, if you think it's a good idea, then it's probably not a good idea.

Please don't give me all that crap about "public declaration of commitment," or "confirming between ourselves our devotion" or "sharing our love with others."

If your relationship really requires that sort of action, if you think to yourself "things will be different when we're married", or "we're going to be so much happier when we're married," then perhaps you should ask yourself this simple question?

What's missing in your relationship right now?

What vacuum in your current life do you imagine will be filled via a $30,000 payment, a white dress, a cake, 150 drunk friends and family and a shag-fest holiday?

A general surgeon's post about the dangers of commitment to your health. Remember: marriage is institution, and no one sane wants to be institutionalised.

We all put off our own happiness until later in life. When I have the car, the husband, the wife, the kids, the house, the job, the income, the financial security, THE WEDDING.......then I'll be happy.

What is wrong with being happy right now?