tcpip: (Default)
Diary of a B+ Grade Polymath ([personal profile] tcpip) wrote2004-01-12 12:37 pm

A publisher, articles and ancient history

Well, it looks like I've found a publisher for my Jim Cairns study. Otford Press seem to be enthusiastic and - best of all appropriate. Meanwhile, New Politics have accepted my review of Strangio's biography of Cairns.

This Wednesday between 6pm and 7pm I'm being interviews on a RMIT student radio session (90.7fm) as the founder of Labor for Refugees. Be prepared to pitch me some difficult questions ;-)

Have been html-ising some ancient history, including an article on Magic in Roleplaying and Reality, which I wrote in 1996 for Mimesis and Reflection on the Death of Superman, which was published in Green Left Weekly in 1993. As I said, ancient history. Hopefully I'll manage to collate most of the things I've written this year in a single place!

Greylock alerted me to
this BBC article
on luxuries versus necessities. The following table says it all really.

Luxuries
Make-up: $18bn
Perfumes: $15bn
Ocean cruises: $14bn
Ice-cream in Europe: $11 bn
Needs
Eliminate hunger: $19bn
Reproductive health care for all women: $12bn
Clean water for all: $10bn
Universal literacy: $5bn

The rest of the week has consisted of plodding away on my Data Security subchapter of my thesis and coding for the Tetum-Bahasa-Portuguese-English translation programme. Coding for Sesami.org is finished and ConnectIE are happy with the result. If anyone else needs a very motivated and skilled IT generalist for the short or long term you know where to find me.

Spent the weekend being quite sociable - dinner on Friday night with some friends of severina_242, some senior East Timor and military people on Saturday and Sunday all-singing and all-dancing Iranians. Whilst each event was individually very pleasant, it has also reminded me how much I really enjoy my own company - and how little of that I get.

My diet starts today. No, I'm serious. I returned from East Timor slightly thinner than usual - probably clocking in at 84kg. Now, three months back and with the festive season, I'm about 95kg. With a height of around 181 cm, this does put me in the "overweight" range and with a BMI of about 28-29 - which is far too high. Fortunately I'm one of those people who loses/gains weight quite quickly. A few weeks on a diet of complex carbohydrates, pure protein, skim milk, vitamin supplements and cycling should see me return to the more healthly level.

Je-sus. I just checked the BBC BMI site. It reckons that I should go down to about 76kg... I haven't weighed that much since, ummm, 1988... Oh well, here goes...

Update

An interesting experiment. Friend_Whoring. Join.

[identity profile] zey.livejournal.com 2004-01-13 01:10 am (UTC)(link)

Je-sus. I just checked the BBC BMI site. It reckons that I should go down to about 76kg... I haven't weighed that much since, ummm, 1988... Oh well, here goes...



Same here, though only just (maybe I've overestimated my height). The lightest I've been was 65kg back in 1996 when I lived in the inner city and was walking everywhere. I'm about 17 kilo heavier now, so I probably really should do a bit more...



I'm slack though. I can only justify doing walking if I've actually got a destination I want to go to. None of this 'walking for the sake of exercise' malarchy.


[identity profile] tcpip.livejournal.com 2004-01-13 01:39 am (UTC)(link)

The advantage of inner city life is that one covers more social ground over physical ground (higher density) making the journey on an aesthetic level more pleasing.

For those who really enjoy the stay at home life (not that there's anything wrong with that) the very outer suburbs/rural fringe (just within local 'phone call range for Inet access!) is best.