On Saturday I attended an event run by the Centre for Inquiry called Monsters from the Deep!

Two scientists with an extra-curricular interest in cryptozoology gave talks about sea monsters and the likelihood that they exist.  Given that they defined sea monsters as anything over 2 metres in length, they more or less agreed that there probably are unidentified ‘monsters’ out there for us still to find!

However, an important theme of the talks was the idea that people don’t always see what they think they see – the gap between someone’s report of an encounter with a potential sea monster and what they actually perceived at the time can be influenced by all sorts of things.

Dr Darren Naish gave a fascinating talk on the ‘prehistoric survivor paradigm’ – a theory whereby creatures that have otherwise been assumed to be extinct have survived in some lake or part of the ocean somewhere.  This seems to be a fairly popular (and lucrative) theory amongst cryptzoologists.  However, Dr Naish was convincing in his arguments against it and one can’t help concluding that he is correct when he says that the more mundane explanations for reported sighting are much more likely to be true.

Particularly intriguing, however, was the case of the Cadborosaurus – a kind of camel-faced sea serpent, the story of which comes complete with a photograph of an alleged carcass.  The actual carcass went missing at some point…

It was certainly an interesting, if perculiar way to spend a Saturday afternoon…and the hunt for proper scientific evidence of such creatures continues…

“We’re looking for the Ogopogo

Funny little Ogopopo

His mother was an earwig, his Daddy was a snail

We’re going to put a little but of salt upon his tail!”

“We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Sahara. Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively outnumbers the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here.

Here is another respect in which we are lucky. The universe is older than 100 million centuries. Within a comparable time the sun will swell to a red giant and engulf the earth. Every century of hundreds of millions has been in its time, or will be when its time comes, ‘the present century.’ The present moves from the past to the future, like a tiny spotlight, inching its way along a gigantic ruler of time. Everything behind the spotlight is in darkness, the darkness of the dead past. Everything ahead of the spotlight is in the darkness of the unknown future. The odds of your century’s being the one in the spotlight are the same as the odds that a penny, tossed down at random, will land on a particular ant crawling somewhere along the road from New York to San Francisco. You are lucky to be alive and so am I.”

From Unweaving the Rainbow  by Richard Dawkins.

For my mum.

I’ve just discovered a fantastic new website, and a great new concept in recycling – Book Crossing.  If you have a book that you’ve finished with then you can pass it on to someone else by releasing it into the wild.  The idea is that you log your book on the website and you’re given a unique ID number for the book.  You then write a note with the ID number and explaining the process and put it into the book.  The book is then left in a public place and again you log where you have ‘released’ it on the website.

When someone finds and reads your book, they can log on and you’ll get feedback about how and where your books have travelled.  Ok, you may be thinking that we have libraries and charity shops for exchanging books, but there is something about the randomness of ‘releasing’ a book that appeals to me.

Perhaps it feels  a bit like a treasure hunt – will you get to a book first?   There’s also perhaps the idea that your book is taking on a life of its own.

So keep an eye out for wild books looking for new and temporary owners, and spread the word!

This has pretty much been in my head for the last month.  I love it, and I reckon everybody has their own ‘Phil Daoust’

Genius:

It’s been a while since I’ve blogged, so time for a general update.

I’ve not had any alcohol for over two weeks now.  It’s an experiment to see if it changes how I feel mentally, emotionally and/or physically.  So far it’s been interesting, and I’ve enjoyed the sense of being in control that it gives me. 

I’ve entered a half-marathon in September, and it’s got me out of bed and running a bit more regularly already.  I find that if I start the day with a run, I am so much more positive throughout the day and I tend to achieve a lot more.  I’m doing whatever it takes to stay happy and positive at the moment.  Exercise definitely helps.

The softball season has begun – one loss and one epic win.  A couple of very enjoyable tournaments.  Tonight sees behind the plate for the first time this season as an umpire!

I’m becoming strangely addicted to the indoor climbing malarky.  If I don’t go for a few days I start to get itchy over it.  I think it’s because I’ve made a few breakthroughs lately (flashed by first 5B, for those in the know) and I can feel myself becoming stronger.  I don’t want to lose what I’ve achieved and there is still so much more to achieve!

I’m half way through War and Peace.  Really enjoying it, although my mind wanders slightly during some of the war scenes.  It’s a lot more accessible than I thought it would be – a bit like an epic Russian soap -opera.

I made a recent trip to the National Theatre to see Dido Queen of Carthage.  Loved it.  Amazing production and a storyline which really got me thinking.  No man is worth setting yourself on fire for!  Alls Well That Ends Well, a trip to see the Tiger Lillies and a comedy charity night (Orangaid) lined up in the next few weeks.

That’s about it for now.  If you made it this far… hope all is well your side of the blogosphere!

It’s a beautiful sunny day out there today, and it feels like the perfect time for a fresh start.

Change is always stressful, but as some wise, yet it seems anonymous person, once said, ‘If nothing ever changed, there’d be no butterflies’, and who would want to live in a world without butterflies?

So things have changed again for me.   After a bad night’s sleep last night, I’m being gentle with myself today.  However, from tomorrow things change.   The best way to feel good about yourself has to be to keep yourself physically fit and healthy and do things you enjoy.  So I am running in the morning (no excuses!)  and working hard during the day getting my article ready to send off to an academic journal.  I need to keep telling myself how proud of myself I will feel if I get published.

Then, in the early evening I have booked myself a place at a yoga class with my old teacher – Julian Daizan Skinner.  He truly is remarkable both as a teacher and a person.  If he can’t get me back on the road to happiness, then nobody can.

I am going to put into perspective the distractions that fuel my depression, low self-esteem and self-doubt (facebook, obsessive email checking, stupid online games and so on) and reap the benefits of using my time effectively.  I will live my own life, focus on what I want for the future and value my own achievements.  All this I promise to myself, and by writing it down here make that promise public.

Sometimes, with all the hurt and pain and suffering , with all the illness, untimely deaths and cruelty on the front of our newspapers, with all the petty annoyances and disappointments of day to day life, it is easy to forget just what a beautiful world this really is.

It’s amazing what a sunny day can do…

So today has turned out to be beautiful day.  The sun is shining, and despite being stuck in London (yet again), I decided to make the most of it.  I started my day with a nice long run along the river.  There were lots of people out and about – rowing, cycling, walking dogs and playing in the park.  Next I decided that instead of piling on a crowded bus to the supermarket, I would take the 40 minute walk along the river.  The ducks are starting to look very smart in their mating pulmage, and the reflection of the blossoming trees iun the still water made me wish I’d taken my camera with me.

My day took a slight, although probably predictable dip whilst in the supermarket.  I’m not claiming that I do anything remarkable, but I do try to do the little things that perhaps might make a difference.  I always take my canvas bags with me to the supermarket, I make every effort to recycle and to choose my products responsibly.  So it is a little disheartening to realise how many people out there just don’t make any effort at all.  I’m greated on arrival in the carpark by a family of 6 ripping the wrappers off of ice-creams and just leaving a trail of litter and wrappings behind them.  This wasn’t just a couple of naughty kids.  This was a mother and father who have obviously shown their kids that this is acceptable.  I’m also disheartened by the number of people loading up with plastic bags and battery hen eggs.  Perhaps I’m missing something – but if you can afford to spend £2 on deli sun-dried tomatos, then you could probably splash out on some ethically sound eggs.

Anyway, now I’m back home and enjoying my wonderful discovery - Spotify. So, I’m making myself bubble and squeak, tackling the Everyman crossword and listening to all those songs that you love, but forget that you love…

Del Amitri – Always the Last to Know, Deacon Blue – Dignity (and others), OMD – Pandora’s Box,  Carole King (various)…and those are only the ones that I’m admitting to!

So, I’m over a week late, I didnt have any pancakes and I’m an atheist.  However, it’s that time of year again, and I’ve decided to take the arbritrary block of time that is ‘Lent’ to set myself some goals.  So two years ago it was chocolate and crisps.  This year it’s a bit less tangible.  The last month or so has been very emotional and stressful for me.  I thought I was at a fork in the road of my life, but it turns out it was a crossroads and I am now on my journey forwards on my own.  To make this a successful journey,  I need to make some changes.  I need to control some unhelpful behaviour that fuels my negative thinking and my tendancy not to value myself.  Whilst I’m taking steps to deal with this in a deeper, more long term sense, I need to make some practical changes as well for the short time to get myself back on track.  (To continue the metaphor, (probably beyond its usefulness) at the moment I am sitting by the side of the road gazing wistfully down the two tracks that weren’t meant for me.  I need to dust myself off and start making  postive steps along my own road)

So, my goals.  These mainly concern may tendancy to obsess and to waste time on things beyond my control.  The specifics of these goals are, well, quite specific and will be recorded elsewhere so as not to reveal anything on my general blog that might upset or annoy anyone else.  However, I will update on my progress here (and there) and I hope that by the 12th of April, just over 5 weeks from now, I will have curbed some destructive behaviour, and taken back control of my life, emotions and responsibiliy for my own happiness.

Wish me luck!