Lent

It's Shrove Tuesday and I'm not having any pancakes.
I'm sure everyone knows the traditions behind today and tomorrow (Ash Wednesday) and some know more traditions than others but the clearing of the fat from the house to allow easier fasting is similar to what I'm doing with a vodka martini right now. A LARGE vodka martini.
I suffer from a few problems, an excess of body and a lack of funds and will power (actually these three are the same thing) but I realised quite a while back that the ability to change these is within me, and not doing anything about it is my own fault as well.
So.
Booze is my biggest excess so I'm giving it up for the 40 days (and Sundays - see, people forget that Sundays don't count, especially Refreshment or Mothering Sunday) but as a priest I used to know once said, Lent is also a chance to start something.
With this in mind, as well as not drinking from tomorrow until Easter I'm going to finally get off my arse and start exercising properly. I should probably keep a track online of what I'm doing, what with this now being in the public domain and my friends being likely the best thing to keep me on track.
I've got a copy of the RAF fitness test downloaded - well, I say that, I mean I've got a copy of the beep test that the RAF use - so all I need now is will power.
Nuts.
Which is pretty much where if I'm not careful it's all going to go wrong. 40 days (+ Sundays) isn't that long and I should be able to see some results in that time but (as I just realised from the Simpson's) when I look back on Lent this year I want to feel like I've accomplished something. Admittedly I want to be able to look back on every year, and one day every day, with satisfaction that I've done everything I can with the time I've had, but one step at a time.
If this sounds a bit fluffy and touchy-feely, it is, but I blame Snopes, and in particular this Snopes article and , for that. Steve Jobs' comments on the old expression about living every day as if it was your last made me realise what that actually meant hit home; but maybe not enough to make me act on it yet. That can change. Again, the ability to change or to not rests in myself and I can't blame anyone except myself for me not changing.

Anyway, apart from that, enjoy some steampunk stuff: case mods, monitors and keyboards (Dear Santa).

Oh, four tuna!

One of the blogs I watch is Amanda Bauer's Astropixie, and from there Phil Plait at Bad astronomy pulled the alternative lyrics to Carmena Burana. Well worth a look, laughter is almost guaranteed.

Sunday Driver

As I've previously posted, I signed up with the local IAM group and we've got weekly lectures with observed drives every Saturday. Think of it as like taking your driving test every week for two and a half months. Yeah, that much fun.
Parallel parking, reversing round corners and turning in the road, well I'll get better at them. I've been getting good advice and am developing nicely but we're supposed to get as much practice as we can during the week and I normally cycle to work. I can easily do a week without driving under normal circumstances but now have to get more "wheel time."
With that in mind after last Saturday's drive I went for a bit of a spin on Sunday. My plan was to pootle through the Highlands and maybe find myself on a certain road I know. We've had, as you might have noticed, a bit of snow but I couldn't afford to hit the slopes (which is a shame as the guys on XV said they've never seen better snow in Scotland - gits) and the mountains were covered in a lovely layer.
Just south of Elgin I noticed something that made me stop and get out my camera (brought with me for just this reason):

Highlan' Coos!

At Cromdale there is a narrow bridge with traffic lights to stop people smashing into each other on the bridge, there was no one coming but the lights were just changing to red. I stopped (smoothly and controlled), waiting for the lights and then noticed that right in front of me was a tiny little rabbit that crossed in front of me. For the life of me it looked like the lights had changed to let a tiny little rabbit cross the road. Made I laugh it did!

Scooting through the Highlands (oh it was lovely!) I did make it to the road I'd been aiming for - the B9007. It's quite possibly the best road in the UK. Smooth corners and wonderful scenery. Don't believe me, well here we go:

In the summer it's a truly epic road, in the winter it's epic and snowy. The view is spectacular and the road curves and rolls and flows wonderfully. If anyone wants to try it, from Carrbridge (just north or Aviemore) head east and take the Forres road marked "B9007 - not gritted in evening." I think I might have another go on the road with the video camera mounted on the front of the car, any excuse basically.
And that's how I spent my weekend. This Sunday I've got work. So not so much chance to drive, but there's always Saturday.
Shame about the rugby though...

After too long a time, THEY"RE BACK!!!!!

The Prodigy's new single, The Omen, is out for download today.
I caught the video on channel 4 a few weeks back, thinking, "it's been a while since their last new stuff, can they still make me want to shout loudly and jump all over the shop?"
Oh yes.
Oh yeah gods yes.
You can catch the video at a few places, including the MTV Two Video chart, where we can all click to vote and get some gratuitous hard dance back in the video charts! Or the Prodigy official site, which is full of angry sounding shouty goodness.

Course, knowledge and ignorance.

This last week I've been on a two day first aid course specialising in outdoors first aid. It ends up covering all of the Appointed Person standard but there are differences. For example, the current thing is that after checking for Danger, Response, (shout for help) Airway, Check for breathing, you then go for help. In the situations we're looking at help may be 4 or more hours away so we have to adjust things slightly.
On Thursday I went (through the snow) so the first lecture for the local Advanced Motoring group and realised I've forgotten LOTS since Yorkshire and got into far too many bad habits. We had the first observed drive today and the local group seem to do things slightly differently so the previous ones, but there are certain things that are common. I'll be adding to the Student Room AD thread to cover some of the things I've picked up.
Today the six nations starts (WOOHOO!) and there's a double bill of Firefly on Sci Fi as well (Double WOOHOO!). Following a link I came upon Rock, Paper, Cynic, and in particular, this comic. Lots of the comics made me laugh, some made me think, that one did both.
And finally, following another link, a way to see minimalist Flickr photo streams, type the browser address ihardlyknowher.com/mountainmetman or replace the last with the Flickr name of who ever's stream you want to see. Or your user name, whatever's good.