How does this one tie in with papal infallibility I wonder?
http://derrenbrown.co.uk/blog/2009/11/vatican-joins-search-alien-life/#comment-43315
Monday, 16 November 2009
Sunday, 15 November 2009
Salmon en Croute and how easy it is.....
Made a pretty fabulous Salmon en Croute this evening.
Can't claim any credit for the recipe - it was taken from Jamie Oliver's Ministry of Food.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Jamies-Ministry-Food-Anyone-Learn/dp/0718148622/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1258320077&sr=8-1
You've probably heard about this book by now, but I honestly couldn't recommend it highly enough - got it for Christmas last year and it's made a big difference to my approach and know how in the kitchen. I'm a regular lemon, garlic, olive oil etc user - things I had no idea how to use until I read it.
I always thought Mr. Oliver was a bit of an idiot, gurning away on the tv screen, but to be fair you have to admire his crusades (see this link for the latest in the US: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6916590.ece) and the Ministry of Food book and approach is excellent - aiming to teach everyone a few simple dishes they can make.
Anyone can use this book and make something they can genuinely be proud of - as I am proud of this evening's Salmon en Croute. You'd see it in a restaurant and think 'no way could I make that', but it was honestly a doddle - half an hour to prep, roughly same to cook - and you couldn't get it wrong.
Heven't told the other half how easy it was though - stacking up the brownie points always a good plan.
Can't claim any credit for the recipe - it was taken from Jamie Oliver's Ministry of Food.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Jamies-Ministry-Food-Anyone-Learn/dp/0718148622/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1258320077&sr=8-1
You've probably heard about this book by now, but I honestly couldn't recommend it highly enough - got it for Christmas last year and it's made a big difference to my approach and know how in the kitchen. I'm a regular lemon, garlic, olive oil etc user - things I had no idea how to use until I read it.
I always thought Mr. Oliver was a bit of an idiot, gurning away on the tv screen, but to be fair you have to admire his crusades (see this link for the latest in the US: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6916590.ece) and the Ministry of Food book and approach is excellent - aiming to teach everyone a few simple dishes they can make.
Anyone can use this book and make something they can genuinely be proud of - as I am proud of this evening's Salmon en Croute. You'd see it in a restaurant and think 'no way could I make that', but it was honestly a doddle - half an hour to prep, roughly same to cook - and you couldn't get it wrong.
Heven't told the other half how easy it was though - stacking up the brownie points always a good plan.
The Lives of Others
Saw this last night and this morning. Fantastic.
It's been out since 2007 (coming to things late there) and has had rave reviews.
Briefly, it's set in Communist era East Germany and follows the story of the Stasi (state spies) as they look in on the life of a couple active in the East Berlin arts scene.
Very moving stuff, the drabness of East Berlin is beautifully done (anyone who has been there will recognise it) and the film's understatedness of the brutal interference of the regime in individual's lives is compelling.
I'll not write a plot spoiler, but if you haven't seen it it is really worth seeing.
There were also rumours of a Hollywood remake prior to Sidney Pollack's death (the film is German language with subtitles but please don't let that put you off). Not sure what I think about a remake - probably would be a good thing if it popularises a superb work of art to a wider audience (who then go on to watch the original).
Amazon link here:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lives-Others-DVD-Martina-Gedeck/dp/B000R342QS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1258296326&sr=8-1
106 5* reviews out of 127, so even allowing for a biased source, that's a pretty strong recommendation to back up my own.
It's been out since 2007 (coming to things late there) and has had rave reviews.
Briefly, it's set in Communist era East Germany and follows the story of the Stasi (state spies) as they look in on the life of a couple active in the East Berlin arts scene.
Very moving stuff, the drabness of East Berlin is beautifully done (anyone who has been there will recognise it) and the film's understatedness of the brutal interference of the regime in individual's lives is compelling.
I'll not write a plot spoiler, but if you haven't seen it it is really worth seeing.
There were also rumours of a Hollywood remake prior to Sidney Pollack's death (the film is German language with subtitles but please don't let that put you off). Not sure what I think about a remake - probably would be a good thing if it popularises a superb work of art to a wider audience (who then go on to watch the original).
Amazon link here:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lives-Others-DVD-Martina-Gedeck/dp/B000R342QS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1258296326&sr=8-1
106 5* reviews out of 127, so even allowing for a biased source, that's a pretty strong recommendation to back up my own.
Careerism and the Agony of Choice
So, here's my first blog entry, welcome.
It's been prompted by my own recent career issues, and crises of confidence in what it is that I do today, set against what I would really like to do.
Am sure this is not new ground for anyone, and people everywhere will be going through, or have been through similar crises in the past.
The agony of choice is a favourite concept of mine - the ability to choose in our society today is fantastic, and I wouldn't be without it, but the downside is the lack of certainty. Oh for the days when life choices for people were simple - the pit, the shipyards, manual labour. Of course in reality it would be odd to hark back to those tough, narrow existences, but one positive was the sense of certainty it gave to people - along with community and identity.
Nowadays we are freer to be what we want to be - but whilst reaching out and achieving that could be fantastic, in practice achieving it is less straight forward.
A really good book I've been using as a tool to help with my current career crisis is Anita Houghton's "Finding Square Holes":
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Finding-Square-Holes-Discover-Perfect/dp/1904424848/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1258294897&sr=8-1
I've been working through this over the past week and it has been excellent - thought provoking and esteem building. Key premise is that career satisfaction comes when your work is in line with your core values and strengths, and the book challenges you to identify those for yourself. Everyone has them, we just sometimes forget to remember them and assume that what we are good at, everyone is - when in reality they aren't!
It also uses Myers Briggs MBTI principles (which is something else I will blog on anon) in its analyses, something that is very useful and illuminating. As an aside, for those familiar with MBTI, I'm an ENFP (again, for those not, I'll explain more anon, but I do love categories...).
The point of mentioning this book is that it is incredibly helpful for starting you on your way to dealing with the agony of career choice - it narrows things down for you and gives you a proper sense of perspective.
So, my challenge is now to do something with what the book has helped me uncover. A particular problem for me is I have a well-paid job (heart bleeds eh?) but it's current configuration is not in line with my values or strengths.
As such my work led to a personal crisis - symptoms including running around the house screaming with frustration before work, and then leading into contracting a pretty bad fluey virus which laid me low for a couple of weeks. I'm convinced the two are related, and that moment of crisis gave me several moments of clarity which led me to decide to take a long hard look at myself and what I'm doing with my life.
Hence buying the book above - and then hence onto this blog. One of my passions has always been writing, and the world of blogging is a great outlet for that, so here I am. A theme I'll probably return to is my coming to things late - so yes, I know blogging has been around for ages and I'm late on the bus, but it never really appealed or seemed important until now.
I now see it as an outlet for creative talents I have, as well as my desire to share information and help enlighten people (very ENFP tendencies). So it's a conscious choice I've made - to start to write and express myself. I've always felt I had interesting things to say, just without an audience. As of today I have no audience of course, but we'll see how that goes over time.
We'll also see whether I keep this blog going - a real talent of mine is bright ideas that burn out quickly through lack of will to keep them going, but in this case I hope my not giving myself too many boundaries I can use this as a forum to create and express myself.
So -I'll keep you posted on my careering anon, hopefully to be able to report some success. The goal I've set myself is to find a role in which I feel happy and fulfilled by April next year - be that in current job, company, or elsewhere. Look forward to trying!
The above was written in considerably less than 40 mins - a good start, wonder how long it will take people to read.
All feedback welcome.
It's been prompted by my own recent career issues, and crises of confidence in what it is that I do today, set against what I would really like to do.
Am sure this is not new ground for anyone, and people everywhere will be going through, or have been through similar crises in the past.
The agony of choice is a favourite concept of mine - the ability to choose in our society today is fantastic, and I wouldn't be without it, but the downside is the lack of certainty. Oh for the days when life choices for people were simple - the pit, the shipyards, manual labour. Of course in reality it would be odd to hark back to those tough, narrow existences, but one positive was the sense of certainty it gave to people - along with community and identity.
Nowadays we are freer to be what we want to be - but whilst reaching out and achieving that could be fantastic, in practice achieving it is less straight forward.
A really good book I've been using as a tool to help with my current career crisis is Anita Houghton's "Finding Square Holes":
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Finding-Square-Holes-Discover-Perfect/dp/1904424848/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1258294897&sr=8-1
I've been working through this over the past week and it has been excellent - thought provoking and esteem building. Key premise is that career satisfaction comes when your work is in line with your core values and strengths, and the book challenges you to identify those for yourself. Everyone has them, we just sometimes forget to remember them and assume that what we are good at, everyone is - when in reality they aren't!
It also uses Myers Briggs MBTI principles (which is something else I will blog on anon) in its analyses, something that is very useful and illuminating. As an aside, for those familiar with MBTI, I'm an ENFP (again, for those not, I'll explain more anon, but I do love categories...).
The point of mentioning this book is that it is incredibly helpful for starting you on your way to dealing with the agony of career choice - it narrows things down for you and gives you a proper sense of perspective.
So, my challenge is now to do something with what the book has helped me uncover. A particular problem for me is I have a well-paid job (heart bleeds eh?) but it's current configuration is not in line with my values or strengths.
As such my work led to a personal crisis - symptoms including running around the house screaming with frustration before work, and then leading into contracting a pretty bad fluey virus which laid me low for a couple of weeks. I'm convinced the two are related, and that moment of crisis gave me several moments of clarity which led me to decide to take a long hard look at myself and what I'm doing with my life.
Hence buying the book above - and then hence onto this blog. One of my passions has always been writing, and the world of blogging is a great outlet for that, so here I am. A theme I'll probably return to is my coming to things late - so yes, I know blogging has been around for ages and I'm late on the bus, but it never really appealed or seemed important until now.
I now see it as an outlet for creative talents I have, as well as my desire to share information and help enlighten people (very ENFP tendencies). So it's a conscious choice I've made - to start to write and express myself. I've always felt I had interesting things to say, just without an audience. As of today I have no audience of course, but we'll see how that goes over time.
We'll also see whether I keep this blog going - a real talent of mine is bright ideas that burn out quickly through lack of will to keep them going, but in this case I hope my not giving myself too many boundaries I can use this as a forum to create and express myself.
So -I'll keep you posted on my careering anon, hopefully to be able to report some success. The goal I've set myself is to find a role in which I feel happy and fulfilled by April next year - be that in current job, company, or elsewhere. Look forward to trying!
The above was written in considerably less than 40 mins - a good start, wonder how long it will take people to read.
All feedback welcome.
For starters
First ever blog.
Been meaning to set this up for a while, thinking about ideas and themes. This will be very much an amatuer blog, no fancy-dannery, with a pretty simple purpose, but hopefully interesting content.
The key theme is 44 minutes - forty minutes to write, four minutes to read.
Time, as always is precious for people. So my purpose is to write some interesting, illuminating and stimulating blogs, make some points, and do so concisely to be read in 4 minutes. Sounds like a good idea - but as ever the test will be to achieve this in reality.
Themes will be whatever I am taken to write or comment about on a given day - I could do a list now, but it would be a pointless exercise in that I'm sure it wouldn't be comprehensive. So, you'll have to wait and see.
Hope you enjoy reading - one key theme will be free speech and debate, so please do comment away. Never say never, but I'll endeavour not to delete posts that disagree with anything I say, save for legal reasons. And, the ubiquitous spam will be removed.
So, speak to you soon.
Been meaning to set this up for a while, thinking about ideas and themes. This will be very much an amatuer blog, no fancy-dannery, with a pretty simple purpose, but hopefully interesting content.
The key theme is 44 minutes - forty minutes to write, four minutes to read.
Time, as always is precious for people. So my purpose is to write some interesting, illuminating and stimulating blogs, make some points, and do so concisely to be read in 4 minutes. Sounds like a good idea - but as ever the test will be to achieve this in reality.
Themes will be whatever I am taken to write or comment about on a given day - I could do a list now, but it would be a pointless exercise in that I'm sure it wouldn't be comprehensive. So, you'll have to wait and see.
Hope you enjoy reading - one key theme will be free speech and debate, so please do comment away. Never say never, but I'll endeavour not to delete posts that disagree with anything I say, save for legal reasons. And, the ubiquitous spam will be removed.
So, speak to you soon.
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