Walsingham

Gentlemen, ladies.... Summer is here, and I for one am sick of being tied to a desk by the PC. I want to work outdoors in the sunshine. The objective before us is a solution that will let us use laptops and phones out of doors. Let's make it happen and see how many of us can get our bosses to spring for the kit. Viva life!

Boo hiss! Can't you become a pole-dancer and earn thousands a night? Judging by the TV that's what most students do.

Well, we do moderate from a heavily armed compound, but there's no ATF hanging around outside, just a bunch of sweaty nerds.

Wong Kar Wai is the man! Fallen Angels is one of my favourite films, and In the Mood for Love is easily one of the smartest films ever.

I'm helping the British economy by buying from Amazon.co.uk! Their stuff cost like twice as much, but I got Season 3 Battlestar Galactica like 6 months earlier. Thanks Gordon Brown! That's interesting. If you're buying abroad what about South Africa? You buy in Rands it will be cheap, surely?

I think I started arguing for the sake of it there. It's still interesting though.

I'm not saying I think eating dog is necessarily evil. But I'm certainly not going to do it if I've got alternatives. Which may be culture bias, but why not? I try to drink fresh ground coffee whenever possible. It is better for you in my imagination. Plus it makes the house smell great.

Skipping rope is brilliant for getting your heart rate really high for intensive workouts. As are any kind of circuits. The important thing though in circuits is to work diffferent muscle groups. Don't back to back things like squat thrusts and situps or press-ups. Sling in some leg raises or skipping. I shoudl also own up to the fact that I have done no exercise at all for a week. I am feeling bloated but very relaxed.

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.