Sod this, I'm off.

Since I set it up mere months ago InstaRav has become a blaze of activity, far more so than the original casleygera.com site, to be frank. But it looks - let's be honest - rubbish, and it has a stupid name. So! I decided it's high time this blog got a proper place in the sun. From now on, you'll find it at www.casleygera.com/blog - the official blog companion to the articles on the main site.

Please redirect your favourites, update your RSS feeds*, etc.


*http://feeds.feedburner.com/ravcasleygerablog; http://feeds.feedburner.com/ravcasleygerablog-comments

The Usual Fucking Complaining

I know, but seriously, the papers are just shit. Here's a cracker from the New York Times, "reporting" on the deaths of two bloggers from heart attacks:

To be sure, there is no official diagnosis of death by blogging, and the premature demise of two people obviously does not qualify as an epidemic. There is also no certainty that the stress of the work contributed to their deaths. But friends and family of the deceased, and fellow information workers, say those deaths have them thinking about the dangers of their work style.

Right. Possibly because the fucking New York Times rang them up and asked them whether the deaths of their friends had them thinking about the dangers of their work style. I also like the way they describe one's death of a heart attack and the other's being from a coronary. Because, you know, they're not exactly the same thing or anything.

Prize of the day, though, goes to Metro. Ah, god bless London's shitty freesheets. Thanks to the gossip page, for "informing" us that Mariah Carey has dismissed rumours she spent a fortune on doughnuts, saying, "my trainer would hunt me down."

The source for this minor revelation? An interview with the nutter herself? Cribbed from some obscure US showbiz blog, even? No. She said it on last week's The Friday Night Project. On Channel 4. Watched by at least, ooh, several million people.

this

is just a complete disaster.




"John McCain is a teacher's pet! John McCain dobs people in!" This is not the way to endear yourself to the conservatives who fucked John Kerry for mentioning soldiers' confessions of war crimes. I can hear them now: "your hero is your english teacher? what are you, gay?"

BBC:

The number of students going to university has fallen since variable fees were introduced, statistics show.

The figure dropped back to 40% of the 17-30 age group in 2006/07 from a high of 42% the previous year.

This is bloody typical. Now that the fight is over, now that no-one talks about it any more, now we find out that - as predicted - fees are reversing 40 years of progress in getting more people into higher education. bah.

UPDATE: oh.

jesus

no second-level password requirement. it even accepts auto-login cookies, for god's sake. Google Checkout is like leaving your credit card on the street.

MTV ARE LOOKING FOR THE YOUNG, THE BEAUTIFUL AND THE COOL FACE OF LONDON. IS IT YOU?

This pretty much sums up everything that's wrong with, well, everything.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "MTV Magazine Casting" <mail@dontstayin.com>
To:
Date: 22 Mar 2008 10:52:12 +0000
Subject: MTV ARE LOOKING FOR THE YOUNG, THE BEAUTIFUL AND THE COOL FACE OF LONDON. IS IT YOU?

Click here if you can't see the e-flyer below

depressing US media failure of the day

The Guardian's take on the Hillary archives

ABC's take on the Hillary archives

In other news, Chris Crocker gets meta

oh for GOD's sake.

New York Times: "Mr. Obama’s Profile in Courage"

Somebody should invent a piece of paper

Somebody should invent a piece of paper which reads out words as you read them. By scanning your eyes. So you could have audio on any book, and you could hear the audio at your own speed. Wouldn't work well for fiction.

hang on.

The Fed's cutting interest rates, reviving the banking markets, all to the good. But the sub-prime repossessions didn't really kick in until the rate rises of '07, right? So isn't the whole crisis kind of the Fed's fault anyway??

Alistair Darling made a mistake using "stability" as his budget watchword, I reckon. Hearing the word "stability" just makes me think of "instability" - it's one of those words that isn't as resonant as its antonym. "Prudence" works, because when has anyone heard George W. Bush trying to scare everyone with the risk of "imprudence"?

Words which sound like they mean something cooler than they actually do mean #1

1. incarcerate. I don't know to what extent Amy Winehouse writes her own lyrics, but if you're looking for proof of her gift with words look no further than her frequent, increasingly anguished shout-outs to her "Blake Incarcerated". For Amy knows that, of all the myriad words available to describe her addled hubby's condition, "incarcerated" has the hardest, coolest, and just sort of bestest ring to it. "Blake imprisoned", "Blake jailed" or even the politically-current "Black detained" just wouldn't have the same ring to it.

The truth is that "incarcerated" is far too funky a word to signify something as mundane as imprisonment. "To incarcerate someone" really sounds like you're going to cut them open with a rusty razor and hang them with their own duodenum. Which may or may not be a suitable fate for Mr. Fielder-Civil, I don't know...

DON'T SCAM

ON MY SQUIRREL

Oh god, look, I know it shouldn't matter but what the fuck has happened to Hillary's face? Her cheeks are exploding!

hmmm

so first week of diet: massive celebration! second week: gaaaaaaah (see facebook feed for details).

still, I'm learning. I'm remembering what hunger feels like, which is always good. And I'm getting a sense of why I crave certain crappy things at certain crappy times. Mornings, for example, are mostly about salt. So I want crisps. Mornings are also, in fairness, the time when I could just eat constantly till lunchtime and never feel full.

Afternoons are generally snack-free until about 6pm. This is Low Sugar Moment. If I don't eat something tolerable, I'll raid whatever biscuit tins are available. My god, do people realise how evil and twisted biscuits are? It takes about five minutes to consume the points you were saving for dinner. The solution to this is obviously in part to structure my day so at 6pm I don't always have two hours' more work to do; or failing that, to have something little in (I quite like those mini chocolate bars shaped like a frog).

I'm feeling quite confident about controlling my snacking this week. That, I'm 70% sure, is the real problem. Now I think about it though, this confidence is based on no actual rational interpretation of the evidence. Oh well! Thanks for the comments, especially the helpful ones. I imagine this stuff is mind-meltingly dull to read, but it's really motivating to think people are tracking my progress. Really! So stay with me. Just think, when I'm 12 stone you'll be able to borrow my clothes. If that isn't an incentive I don't know what is! Ahem.

P.S. All being well, I'm getting a new cameraphone next week. It's just possible I'll start providing visual belly updates. Be warned.

Adobe Air. Google Gears. What is it with offline-web applications and alliteration anyway?

worst.

brits.

ever.*





* oh, ok, for twenty years or so.

it's amazing

1. How quickly the body adapts to eating less crap. I’m actually craving lettuce and tomatoes for lunch.
2. How FUCKING long cooking takes. I seem to have spent most of my free time in the last few days either cooking, eating or cleaning up from cooking. This isn’t sustainable. I either need to put in place a highly efficient freezing & defrosting plan, or find a way to rely on frozen and ready meals without piling on the sugar.

See more progress on: be 13 stone by Christmas

one more thing.

asking for help does NOT mean I want you to say the following things to me:

1. “Why don’t you just exercise?” (I do)
2. “Ooh, you can’t eat those boiled potatoes! They’re carbs!” (Atkins died)
3. “If you want to lose weight you should start eating meat.” (No)
4. “I think you look fine” (Thanks. But seriously, I’m obese. This is about not dying.)

GREAT things to say would include:

1. “You look like you’ve lost weight” (if I have)
2. “Do you want to come running/walking/to the gym with me?” (exercise is horrible alone)
3. “Do you want an apple?”

See more progress on: be 13 stone by Christmas

seriously.

I’ve been going to Weight Watchers for a year and a half and I weigh more than when I started. This is plainly ridiculous.

So: help me, people. I have a new, clear goal: to lose an average of one pound a week this year. This will take me to 15 stones by my birthday in June, and 13 stone by Christmas, just a stone from my final goal. This will make me happier, sexier, and less likely to die an early death.

You’d think that would be enough motivation.

I really need help with this, so pester me to keep you updated on my progress. And don’t offer me cake.

The picture isn’t me, by the way.

See more progress on: be 13 stone by Christmas

trying something

why are goals always compared to 1990 levels? The Millennium Development Goals were designed in 2000 but are all measured against 1990 levels. And the EU emissions reductions targets, agreed in 2007, are also against 1990 levels. Why? Do the bureaucrats of transnational organisations all really love Twin Peaks? And isn't it kind of cheating? If I lost ten pounds in two months, and then loudly declared my intention to lose a stone (against the levels of two months previous), that goal wouldn't actually be that demanding, now, would it? I think I'm going to aim to increase the amount of my time I spend in a godforsaken office by 50 hours a week compared to 1990 levels. Oh look, finished!

I can't believe it's taken less than two years for Jeff Han's multi-touch megascreen to go from amazing at TED to annoying on CNN.

oh, jesus

who put the dumb, pretty office poof on CNN?

does anyone know

If John McCain wins, will he be the first divorced president?