Planting update #2

Day 5


Day 5

Fantastic! When I took the first picture, below, that was the only life to be seen. Now, two days later, some of the other varieties of seeds have burst into life. The action is all progressing at a rip-roaring pace; before I know it I'll have to re-plant them into properly spaced rows. I wonder how far they will get in the next 4 weeks that I have to observe them?

After then, I will be unicycling excessively, from Land's End to John O'Groats! See The official trip website for all the trip details.

Planting update #1

Come forth, my precious. Seed shell bursting life from the fetid wastes of unknown matter.

This is the currect stage of development of my botanical bounty. It's something of a test case, as it is planted at all the wrong time of year, and all that, but I just wanted to see if it would grow, and what might happen.

I'm currently quite excited, as I only planted these seeds in a tray on my windowledge on Monday night. They should take about two to three months to come to fruition. Most of them are fairy covered by the compost still, but there are some which are open for public viewing. Little do they know quite how public their viewing is... potential audience of billions. Potential.

Can you guess what it is yet?

Stay tuned and you shall get updates as they happen. This also gives me a rather good excuse to take lots of macro shots with my shiny new piece of consumerism (a Canon A520, if you care about such things).

Alarm clocks kill dreams

This is the slogan of the Canadian Work Less Party.

It appeals to me a lot. I haven't read much of their site, so don't think that I advocate all of their policies, but the idea is a good one. Not just in a slobby student why-can't- I -stay-in-bed-all-day way, but a rebellion against the pointless treadmill of working for money, so you can spend it on stuff that other people have spent their time making... getting more tired and stressed by trying to make life better.

There are countless things I would like to do with my time which I simply don't 'have time' to do...

I have a pile of books which I'd love to read, if only I made time.

I have several canvases lying blank, with paints in tubes, just begging for life and creativity to be applied through one onto the other.

I have more unreplied-to emails and letters from wonderful friends, which I have long failed to reciprocate, than I care to uncover. If this is you, please forgive me... and write again.

There are many things I'd love to learn to do, where the most difficult part is simply to get around to trying.

Now I'm going to leave this computer and do a bit of the above.
Why not do the same?

"Britain's finest neo-medieval psychedelic folk-rock band"

As I walked away from HMV this afternoon I thought to myself:

"Ooh, I've just gone and bought my first mainstream album in years. It's been ages since I last bothered with anything from 'downstairs' in HMV."

Preferring rather such musical subtleties as charity-shop fayre (a veritable trove of discounted obscurity), online purchases of Christian bands famous only within very limited circles, and the scope of HMV's 'upstairs' range of Classical, soundtracks and showtunes.

Then it occurred that perhaps Circulus still doesn't quite count as Mainstream. A septet of fellows and a fellowess from Plumsted, who dress in a combination of what was cool in 1970 and 1270, playing songs about scarecrows and pixies on unpronounceable wind instruments, blended with layered, floating electronic prog rock.

After its nationwide release on Monday, the Bath branch of HMV still had all of the three copies which they'd been supplied with, meaning that I was the first to take one of these from their shelves. Possibly a mite less frantic than the imminent release of another certain product blending the mystical with the modern. Counting down the hours to a book release, indeed?

Condem-nation

This isn't a news source, so I didn't need to rush to a keyboard to post something about the daily happenings of last week.

After "7/7" in London (good to see that at least they have a consideration for the illogical date system used by our all-too-easily-confused brothers across the pond), from the various news sources which seem to saturate one's senses at times like this, the thing I heard most was this: "we condemn".

Forgive me for being naive, (and being too lazy to look for the double-dotted i) but what's the point? This is a disturbing trend of recent times. Do we need our leaders to issue a statement to speedily "condemn" things like this? Are they concerned that, if they don't reassure us quickly that they don't condone such violence (at least not against us... erm... no, I won't go there...), we may think that they secretly planned it.

How many of us were sighing resignedly to see good ol' Tony playing at being President? With all the hobnobbing with those who have large marble mantelpieces, he must have forgotten that he has a parliament to address for things like this. Having Mr. Dubya on his shoulder hardly lessened the effect. Can no-one see that the worst thing that we can do is to take pride in this pathetic claim of defiance? Did having the US of A soaked in stars and stripes improve anything beyond Dubya's ratings? Did it improve the Christian White West's image to the rest of the world?

With recent evidence, I'm doubting it.

I know I'm not addressing the world by writing here (thank goodness!). The "let's just get on with things" mantra is highly applaudable, and the deeper it goes towards peoples' hearts, the better.

Though I have become, even a little, more sympathetic to the difficulty of this deliberate apathy. After having little connection with which to empathise with New Yorkers four years ago, these bombs in London provided I think the most concerning news I've seen. With several good friends and family in London, though I knew of no reason why they should be involved in those Tube stations at that time, it was quite unsettling.

There could have been individuals from something like 10 million people on the Tubes. Under 1000 were hurt, making it 0.01%, in my mind anyway.

Statistics are one thing, but when it comes to the crunch, it can be hard to believe them.

But to desperately call around anyone who could have possibly been in the area would be rather less than "acting as normal". If there's anything I need to know, I'd know soon enough. Yes, I'll keep on trying this defiant apathy thing. What did I have for dinner today then? Cold pasta salad with some very nice dressing, followed by a cup of tea. How patriotic.

So, what was I trying to say in all this? Oh yes, haven't we had enough condemnation yet?

Live 8. Yes. Well, it's better than No.

Make Poverty History. Probably the best publicity campaign I have ever seen. The BBC is seemingly obsessed with Africa. Turn on the TV, radio or glance at a website and it'll be talking about Africa, poverty and development. There is a swelling sense of optimism that this just might actually be another step forward in the long, slow process.

"It's not to get hands in pockets, it's to get fists in the air" - Bono.

So the cynics can whine to themselves. They can say that it won't work, that everyone else (but them) are naive. They can say it's a waste of time and ego boosting.

This cartoon from CartoonChurch.com expresses my feeling with excellence.

I'll just quote lyrics from Switchfoot...

From the third world to the corporate core
We are the symphony of modern humanity

If we're adding to the noise
Turn off this song
If we're adding to the noise
Turn off your stereo, radio, video

If don't want to do anything, if you want to be consoled into a comfortable apathy, turn off everything, go and read the opinions in the Telegraph. Today won't solve everything. It won't suddenly make the world the way it was, and is, meant to be, but it can do something

And the first thing that needs to change is us.

I've only recently been reminded that Nestlé are still causing the death of over 4000 babies a day (yes, I know I'm sounding like Sir Bob, but get over it) through promotion of powdered baby milk which many mothers are coerced into using, which they then have to use with infected water. I think I can go without anything from Nestlé for the forseeable future. After all, they only make luxury products, and I'll never need chocolate or cereal that badly.