Walsingham

Another hungover day, dedicated to doing absolutely nothing. I'm just about starting to feel human after months of pressure. Here's hoping I can hang onto the feeling.

Anouar Brahem's Astrakhan Cafe It's got surprisingly hot here, and the music perfectly suits my mood, gazing listlessly out at the brick-dark city, the way a goat would look at a fly.

Just so you don't think Laozi is insane, there were three spamposts there.

Holy crabs! you're right! You do quite well, then, considering. Englanders get taxed all over the place, not to mention special charges for just about everything. One of the most noxious of these I recently discovered is that soldiers are now charged for their meals.

Added the important parts for those who don't feel like reading the article. Very decent of you!

mkreku, you may know the answer to this. When my graphics chip was overheating it was suggested that the motherboard was simply too feeble to take the transfer rates across it. Possible/likely? Could impact on your choice of the other stuff to stick on it. In any event, I thought the basic rule of thumb was pick up the best motherboard you can afford?

I think it's great. As someone who may need to have my ass grown back by Queen and Country at some point.

35-40%! Well **** me sideways! In the UK that's the bracket we reserve for super-rich foreigners! And how come so much of your budget is going on healthcare when it's not even for the whole population? I think you chaps are getting gypped, frankly.

Crikey. That's going to hurt. How do you feel about safety on a motorcycle? I have a couple of friends who own them, but they're Army majors, with all that entails. You can be very safe on a motorcycle, as long as you don't act foolish on one. Of course, it's the other drivers you have to worry about, and there's only so much you can do about them. Other drivers and pedestrians. I'm scrupulous to avoid launching out into stationary traffic, but many others do so with iPods ablaze. But then a lot of people do a lot of things without considering others.

No, absolutely, I couldn't agree more. When you really use something a lot your opinion shifts dramatically. I still might get a kukri. We'll see how work goes, and how much free cash I have. The biggest pain is that in the British Army you don't feth about, pretending you're a ghurka. You might meet one. And they make nails seem like twiglets in the hard department. Otherwise, I was interested in ceramics. I'm not shy of new tech like that. It seemed kind of cool. But I DO drop things, and besides which I like steel knives. There's a meditative quality in sharpening them. I know this is creepy, but when I was a teacher I used it to good effect. You'd be amazed how often pupils DON'T give out to you if you spend your free time sharpening knives in the common room, in view from the window. It also gave me an easy way to ingratiate myself with teh other teachers, because once I realised the propaganda value I got them to bring in their knives as well.

You're damned lucky, IMO. I hate mobile gifs.

Crikey. That's going to hurt. How do you feel about safety on a motorcycle? I have a couple of friends who own them, but they're Army majors, with all that entails.

How much tax do you chaps pay, anyway? You don't get free healthcare, you spend one year less in school (totalling the hours according to Atlantic Monthly magazine), and you get minimal protection as consumers.

I accept that lofting enough missiles in the air would mean some get through, but well, how many missiles do you think are actually carried in an engagement? There are only so many tubes on a boat that can stay loaded up during fighting I'd imagine. Bearing in mind we're only about ten years away from useful beam weapons for countering incoming missiles and what do you have? I believe we are looking at engagements fought at much closer ranges using either hypersonic missiles and or heavy guns. And of those two hypersonic missiles just need something solid put in their path since their own velocity adds violence to an impact. So yes, I'm saying ship to ship. A close in brawler that is certainly a specialist, but once within range can systematically mince anything in range.

True enough that we still generally have pretty cheap gas compared to other countries. But I think in any country, if anything has a fairly noticeable impact on your budget, where you can't easily adjust to accommodate it, you have a "right" to complain. This kind of rapid rise in price at the pump hurts a lot of people - even in the US. Especially in areas - in any country - where housing/rent/insurances etc. vs. income have so many people on very tight budgets already. That said, anyone obsessed with gas-hungry vanity vehicles when they don't actually need such a vehicle (SUV's etc....)... and could afford to get a more efficient vehicle (I know many can't right away...), I don't have much sympathy. Fair enough. I'd probably be complaining more loudly if it affected me more. But our (subcompact) car pretty much stays in the parking garage collecting soot all week, until I need to do a grocery run or somesuch. The subway might not be the fastest way to travel (my commute is about 5 miles as the crow flies, but it takes me 30-35 minutes each way), but it does insulate me from fluctuations in global energy markets to a certain extent. I know this officially makes me a communist, but why not just walk? Should only take you about an hour. Plus you'd get great exercise.

I'm planning on making my own barbecue sauce and thought something along these line: 1 tube tomato paste 2 table spoons molasses (called dark treacle here for some reason) Black pepper cayenne pepper sea salt ground coriander (always good with meat) Th eproblem is that won't taste very barbecue-y. I'm therefore thinking maybe some fresh toasted ground nuts, like hazelnuts? Something which works very VERY well with ribs is to mix up mpeanut butter and pre-chopped chillis with some soy sauce or fish sauce. Takes about 20 seconds to make, and you have instant satay.

A lot of the city ones are ****in' pricks, yes. The racist ones that roam around clubs in groups, picking fights, that hang around pubs and train stations that are pissed and stoned of their ****, that hang around Centrelink, smell like ****, have rotten teeth, are loud, confrontational, rob houses, steal cars and smash windows with bricks and ****.. yeah they're wankers. But on the flip side the mongrel country/suburban Abo's are few and far between, and given my location that's good news for me. These types are usually better educated, more sheltered and more into footy than drugs than their counterpart city cousins are. In fact one of the nicest guys I've ever met is an Aboriginal. Very polite, easy going, well groomed footy player he was. Like in every culture there's ****suckers that give the rest a bad name but there appears to be more rotten apples than good ones in the Abo bunch to me. Surely you're more likely to notice the bad apples, since they're the ones in the street causing a ruckus?

I have found a a French recipe for duck slow cooked in goose fat with thyme and lots of salt. This is cooked for hours, then for serving is fast cooked. I think this should work very well in my mix of gear.

Back on topic, really, I'd never CHOOSE to be in a brawl any more. I've come too close to being stabbed in the past. If it's just me then I'll simply run away. I have no pride whatever when it comes to survival. Which is not to say I don't back up my friends if they are daft enough to get into things. It's just that a high speed sprint for five minutes will typically weed out all but the most determined pursuer. Anyone that determined is then usefully identified as such, and you can do other things. For example, it's only a twenty minute run to the police station from anywhere in town! Anyone still chasing you after twenty minutes probably deserves to catch you.

It's an interesting comparison. I went to Sunday school as a child, and really liked it. In case it's an alien term, Sunday school is a sort of creche for Christian kids to get filled up with feelthy propaganda like helping people, and not hurting them. My boarding school also had religious affiliation, but of a more Muscular Christian type. The kind used by Gordon of Khartoum. Of course it got him killed by Dervishes. Anyway, imagine, if you will, the equivalent bimble-headed but well-meaning stuff you'd get taught in sex-ed. Things like 'just try to be nice' early on. But when you got a bit older, smarter, nd started asking questions like "Why do girls not like nice guys?" Who knows?

'Fraid so. You should have had some veg for vitamins and minerals, and definitely some protein. Yours sounds delicious, but all carbs.

I don't know about muay thai not discriminating against height. The Thais don't, but that's another story. In the boxing itself kicks land anywhere you like, particularly ribs, and to tire out your opponent's arms. But if you're shorter then getting kicks to the neck (believe it or not this is what you are supposed to do) is very hard. I don't know what the orthodoxy is but my teacher was very strict on the fact that muay thai is not a martial art. It is a sport. You don't advance by learning moves. You advance by bashing people. Not how I choose to enjoy my free time any more, but good at the time. LC, I just remembered that if you're looking to build up hand and forearm strength then making chainmail is very efffective, and of course afterwards you have chainmail. I learned how from a friend and we used to do our 'man knitting' in front of the TV.

I haven't had an opportunity to run anything seriously hardcore, but my new 512MB 9600GT handles Company of Heroes on maximum everything in full fight mode. I'm very glad I saved a lot compared with maybe 10% performance with the 8800.

Thanks for the in-depth there, tarna. I'm ashamed to say I was mostly joking about the knives. I bought some Global knives for friends this last Christmas. Great fething big chef's knives. Expensive, but easy to clean, surprisingly easy to hold. However, I was brought up to prize a soft steel knife in the kitchen. Just keep a piece of ceramic plate handy and you'll keep a fine edge. As a further warning about expensive knives my little brother bought the wrong sharpening kit (one of those cheater's wheels) and has almost wrecked his Global knives. The edge on them now is far too obtuse. As for fryers I'd actually quite like one, but I'm too old to be encouraging the eating of fried food on anything like a regular basis. Might get one for my older brother though. He doesn't seem to mind what he eats.