Sunday Supplement

Excuse me for filching the title of Parkison's show on Radio2 but a long journey back from Reading this morning got me thinking about plenty of things to blog about and MP was nattering on in the background. Thought it was odd that he uses his TV show theme to introduce the show. Would have to assume from that that he's got the rights to it. He did play a new track from Cullum’s album ‘Catching Tales’, it was ‘On Day Will Come’ and I wasn’t much impressed I have to say. At least he'll get in the charts which is something that appeals to Jamie who's a bit less cynical and peculiar than Madeleine Peyroux who's gone missing just as he album sales climb.

Anyway, I'm going to do these in bullet points as I remember ...

1. Read an interesting article on using MindJet's MindManager to blog ... not got round to it yet, assume things flow by typing (see previous post regarding scepticism about MindMapping)

2. Started to read THISISVILLE! and realised my posts aren't always as cerebral as they could be. Lead me to some interesting stuff on Britishness which is worth a read if that sort of this interests you. Not sure on his slating of Michael Buerk by the way, from what they were saying on the radio this morning it seems his RT interview has been misquoted. I think gender debates are fascinating though, I really do. Having been at York and now being engaged to someone who studied under de Groot and Rendall there, I have to listen to an awful lot of gender politics and I always try and think of this stuff in relation to my interpretations of Sacha Baron-Cohen and some of my evolutionary Psych reading, it's not always easy and the only certainties are that such debates will continue ad infinitum. THISISVILLE! also one of many sites around the web praising Mo Mowlem. How weird that we've lost Mo and Robin Cook in one month? Two labour stalwarts and (particularly in the case of Mo) two politicians that were as shrewdly aware of their plublic image and how to play it as Tony himself. The only two that could match this in the Tories were Ann Widecombe and Boris Johnson though notably neither has had the same governmental success. Perhaps their excentricities went too far.

3. Despite my optimistic postings, it seems that the demolition and development on the waterfront in Ipswich isn't quite progressing as nothing's been done since the banners went up. In cyberspace (eugh!) this is mirrored by the fact that a cheeky lifecoach has registered the url http://www.ipswichwaterfront.com to cash in on his business. You have to wonder why? If someone's looking for leisure and entertainment on the Ipswich Waterfront or accommodation etc. why would they then think 'oh, a life coach, actually let's have a look and book up some sessions?' this sort of URL hijacking is idiotic. No doubt he'll now expect the council's marketing department to stumble across this URL and pay him 000s for it out of our council tax. Pillock.

4. Had a trawl through some bookmarks today in my browser. I've got loads of the damn things and many of them link to things I was planning on looking at again but I can't for the life of me remember why. It's a revelation looking through them to see what, at various browsing stages, interested you. Why not have a look through yours in a spare moment.

5. The economy. Why is it that petrol prices are going sky-high, my electricity bill is significantly more than last year and eating and drinking out seems to cost a ruddy fortune ... yet inflation is peanuts? well, it's because other prices are sinking and cancelling out these rises and we're all getting paid more too. The cost of clothes, consumer electricals and furnishings are all sinking at a ridiculously fast rate due to the emerging economies of the East being able to produce these items much much cheaper. In tandem with this, their demand for resources - coal, oil and financial services - are pushing those costs higher and higher. These economies (and I'm thinking particularly of China and India) have grown so quickly that they either don't have the material required (oil) or haven't had time to put it in place (services) hence the need to import these in massive quantities. In the developed world this is pouring money in to financial centres inflating wages and keeping price rises in energy in proportion. Perhaps this is an over-simplified model but it helped me to understand why - when I feel that I'm pouring more than I should be away in petrol and bills - I do not seem to be significantly worse off because of it. (Read this and some comment on another site)

6. Lost. Should finally get round to watching these this week on tape.

7. Danny Wallace, I will blog about this eventually...

Right, all done. If I remember more stuff I was supposed to blog about I'll let you know below...

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