Vanderbilt and the Yeggman. Vipers. Vigor, the Hammersmith wonder.

Just a quick note to say "I aten't dead". Just returned to PC after a long week of assorted skiving. Thanks ever so much to everyone who helped make my birthday an excellent one, and also thanks to everyone who made sure I had a great time at DuckCon. Proper post about these later, after I've read the "skip=[several billion]" posts with which you've all cluttered up my friends page in the interim.

I dreamt last night that I was trying to find a copy of The Letters of John Donne, to replace the 1984 edition my mother had lent me, as I knew a large stash of new items had been discovered since. In the dream Donne was an exciting polymath, in secret correspondence with a range of artists, scientists and politicians across Europe, including John Dee and Caravaggio. I found not only that there was no new edition, but that the editor had mysteriously disappeared! No doubt this was all the prelude to a grand Da-Vinci-Code-style romp through a variety of scenic locations, but unfortunately at that point the cats woke me up demanding breakfast.

( Marathon )

( Damson )

( Deer )

( Don't stand on Zanzibar )

Hope you all had a good weekend too!

I'm in a state of woe today, with a stinking cold, not much sleep, and would really like to take the morning off -- particularly as will be driving up to Derbyshire this afternoon -- but unfortunately I have some complicated urgent stuff that needs doing before the weekend. Ho hum. To cheer up, some snippets.

• An interesting piece here by Scott Adams about hypnosis and how he uses it in his writing. If you've never read his blog or think of him as just the guy who draws Dilbert, you might want to take a look: he covers some interesting thoughts. (Best to ignore the comments, though.) Also available at dilbert_blog.
• An excellent webcomic I've been reading lately is the rather beautiful Minus, with art reminiscent of The Little Prince. (Also at kiwifeed). And yesterday this led me to discover Jonny Crossbones, a kind of surreal Tintin homage, accompanied by Little Jonny Crossbones which is nicely Photoshopped to look like a vintage kids' comic. It is not clear whether Jonny is actually a skeleton or just looks like one. (Or what either of those options might mean.) lesmcclaine is the creator.

OK, better get to work now.

I've always had my doubts about Valentine's Day. ( And this is why )

So, to sum up, Bah Rose-flavoured-Humbug -- although ymmv of course, do feel free to tell me I'm talking nonsense.

I wa laid up all weekend with a stinking cold, meaning that I missed a friend's 40th do on Saturday. As if that wasn't bad enough I've got to go to the dentist this afternoon. I bit down too hard on something a while back (curse you home-made bread!), and managed to crack one of my molars, and now they're going to drill out that whole cusp to prevent the crack spreading further.

Last time I had something done on my teeth was wisdom removal around ten years ago, so I guess it's about time maybe, but it's still kind of galling and I'm really not looking forward to it. Hopefully sweet anaesthetic will ease the pain...

This got me thinking about dental insurance. In general I'm not a great believer in specialized insurance like this. I figure that they wouldn't be running it if they didn't expect to make a profit, so unless you're particularly risk-averse (eg. you don't have any way of covering a possible layout) you're better off just saving the money.

However it struck me that dental insurance is a bit different, because with a dentist it's effectively up to them what treatment you have. If you don't have insurance but just pay on a job basis, it's in the dentist's interest to recommend excessive or unnecessary treatment, because that's how they make their profit. (I'm sure most of them wouldn't do so, but that's always going to be at the back of your mind, isn't it?) Whereas if they're also providing your dental insurance, it's actually not in their interest to recommend treatment unless it would prevent more expensive and unavoidable treatment later. Of course if you take this too far they would never give you any treatment at all, just keep raking in the premiums, but in practice under our particular plan we do have to pay some money towards the fillings etc, so presumably that covers their costs at least. (Please tell me that adamsmithjr's already done an Under the Covers Economist on this...)

This does make me think though that dentistry is a dream business provided you don't mind having to bend over people's fetid breath all day long. But that's quite a big proviso, isn't it?

Edit: Had the filling done now, and it wasn't too bad -- seems to have come on quite a way since the last one I had, which must have been upwards of 20 years ago now.

Just a quickie -- got back from India last night. Fantastic time, we're both well and happy, hope you all are too!

It struck me the other day what a very nice activity giving blood is. (Apart from the pain, bruising, etc, that is.) The mood in the room is uplifting; everyone, donors and staff, is pleasant, friendly and appreciative of each other; there's a good mix of people of all descriptions among the donors; basically it comes across a bit like the ideal utopian society.
(At least, that's been the case in the various places where I've been. If it's different round you, maybe I've just been lucky.)
It made me wonder: when else do we get to have such a generally pleasant experience, apart from things involving one's near and dear and/or mind-altering substances? People at work, in shops, in pubs etc might be reasonably OK to be around, but you don't come out of those feeling uplifted and positive about life in general.
I wondered whether part of this mood is because this is the closest that most of us get to genuine altruism. Maybe the endorphin rush of for once being relatively unselfish, and being around other people in a similar rush, is responsible.
(Or maybe light-headedness from being shy a pint?)

A bit of zipping about, and a much-needed holiday. Nothing very startling, but that's August for you.

( T's family )

( Tony S )

( Sister )

( Peak practice )

( Books )
Got back here to find still another two days before going back to work, which seems very civilized. And here I am now supposedly at work but actually writing this, so I'll stop there for now.

I've been asked to make up the numbers in a 15 * 8-ball-overs match this evening, playing for a BT team captained by the husband of a friend of T's. Yikes! I've not laid hand on bat or ball since the stag weekend two years ago -- and I was very hungover then, so even that probably doesn't count.

I have now managed to drag my various kit out of the loft, shed, and cupboard under the stairs where it had been lurking... hmm, need to clean spikes...

The captain hinted ominously that, as I can't bat at the best of times, I'll probably have to bowl 3 overs. Hmm, I've never bowled an 8-ball over -- sounds kind of tiring. Plus of course I'm (a) terribly unfit, and (b) likely to drop any ball that comes near me. Now would be a good point to make a crack about the England team, except that they seem to be dong pretty well at the moment. (There, that's death-cursed 'em...)

Wish me luck!

One of those weekends when things seem to cluster together, and you end up only spending an hour or so loafing around reading the paper (which is surely what weekends are supposed to be for).

( Book group )

( Oysterband )

( BBQ )

( Neighbours )