It is gratifying that in this day of instant celebrity based on no tangible skill or ability that the most humble scientist, someone like Randy Pausch can be so important. 

Enough said..

Visitors will be able to enjoy a first-hand look at the numerous finds unearthed by the Sedgeford Historical and Archaeological Research Project (SHARP) in its 12-year history, including evidence from the recently-discovered Anglo Saxon village.

Experts will also be available to answer any questions people may have while youngsters can have a go at "trowelling" for finds, enjoy dressing up in period costume and learn ancient writing techniques.

The SHARP site is signposted in the village and can be found off Snettisham Road.

The event is open from 10am to 4pm, admission is free and parking costs £2.

More details....

I've been doing great with food...it's hard to say if I've been perfect, but then again I'm not really pushing for "perfection" as such. I know that I've been extremely good, and I'd say I've blown my "80% of the time" goal out of the water, so I'm pleased about that. I've slipped back into the groove of making good choices nearly all of the time and that's always such a source of positive energy for me.

I have done two of my three push-up sets - the third one will be today or tonight - and each time I've added two sets of fifteen crunches and two sets of fifteen reverse crunches. Last night I finally got off my butt (and it was so hard, because I felt horrible, thanks to TOM) and did a little over 30 minutes on the treadmill while I watched the first episode of Californication on DVD (I'm ambivalent about it, it's very gritty and a little nauseating and I honestly haven't seen a lot of merit in it yet to make it worth wading through all the gratuitous sex; I'm a bit disappointed in it, but it was only the first episode so I'm clinging to hope that it will improve.) I also finally tried out the incredible plank/tricep kickback combo that MizFit demonstrated the other day...and I am just as much in love with it as I'd thought I would be. I am not kidding you...this thing rocks. I only did two sets of fifteen (unweighted) with each arm, because I was really just giving it a test run...but on my "non-pushup" nights from now on, I will be doing these with weights.

So...I'm getting back into the exercise game, slowly. I tend to take it a bit slower during TOM, for a number of reasons, but I find that at least being a little bit active helps. I haven't gotten outside to walk because my walking partner has a health issue that's keeping her out of the game, and ED seems less than thrilled with the concept. But that is starting back up next week one way or another, and that generally entails at least an hour of pretty brisk cardio, if not longer.

I don't want to jump in with both feet and burn out, which I know from experience I will do, but it feels good to at least have a plan of attack.

Enough aimless rambling. On to the meat of the post - my Labor Day Challenge.

It's pretty simple really. I think you have to have some sort of guidelines, but I don't want anything strict, so here goes:

• The goal is to see a measurable change in yourself by Labor Day. Now, you can use whatever yardstick you want - the scale, the measuring tape, the fit of your clothes, the way your arm feels when you smack it, the amount of fat that muffin-tops over your jeans, the tightness of your abs, the energy you have every day, or even just the sense of pride and accomplishment you feel every night when you go to bed. It doesn't matter what it is - this is your yardstick, so you pick what changes you want to see. Or don't pick one - just decide you want to see something change.
• Pick at least one thing, every week, that you are going to do differently in order to make that change happen. You can do more than one thing if you want, sure. But do at least one. A different type of exercise maybe, taking a vitamin supplement, trying a new food, meditating, biking instead of driving to a regular errand...whatever. I'll try to come up with suggestions every Monday, but really this is very individual. Just one thing a week - and then do it. Make it small enough that you can actually do it, but something that is actually going to move you toward your goal of seeing a real change. Post a comment on Monday's Challenge post (here) to let us know what you're going to be doing that week, and how you did on the last week's change.
• And a neat segue...let us know how you're doing. Post about it on your blog, comment about it here, or hire a skywriter if it's a really good moment, but just stay in the game. If it's a bad week, okay, no big deal. We all have them. But talk about it! Let us know what's going on, maybe we can help...that's what we do for each other, right? Or crow about how great you're doing so we can share your success, especially if we're having a bad week ourselves. You'll keep us going too. :-)
• This one's optional but important for me: don't try to gauge your success by using your yardstick during the challenge. For me, this means I won't weigh, I won't measure, I won't try on the outfit that I want to fit differently. I'm going to focus on what I'm doing and sticking with my behaviors and changes, and I'll figure out at the end of the challenge if I've succeeded. No letdowns when I see I'm not progressing as fast as I'd like; no momentary highs when I think I'm doing better than I'd hoped. I want to let the behaviors be their own reward.

Okay, anyone want to join in? I know my wonderful Bex said she's on board and my walking partner, B. (who doesn't blog) is also - who else? Anybody?  (C'mon, Chris, you can do this one.)  I would love to have the company of anyone and everyone! :-)

And may you all have a particularly fabulous weekend!

Drinking one’s own urine is not uncommon. It is widespread in India, can be found in a number of religious teachings and is recommended by alternative therapists for the treatment of a variety of ailments.

Urine mostly consists of water and urea with a bunch of other compounds and metabolites. These are excreted as surplus to requirement as part of the natural digestive process of the human body. From what I have been able to discover there are no firm grounds for accepting the claims that drinking urine can be beneficial to health.

The medicinal claims for urine therapy may not have been substantiated by scientific evidence but this lack of credibility has done little to quench the thirst for those who like a drop of the golden stuff. Even British actress Sarah Miles has been widely cited as a celebrity who regularly drinks her own urine.

While practitioners may regard drinking one’s own urine as perfectly acceptable, drinking someone else’s is considered perverted. This is an interesting distinction to draw. In July this year, 56-year-old Alan D. Patton was arrested for criminal mischief after he was discovered collecting and drinking the urine from young boys at a sports stadium in Dublin, Ohio. His ingenious method for harvesting the fluid was to collect it in foam cups strategically placed in toilets that were covered with plastic wrap and the flushing water was shut off.

Patton has a 16-year history of urophilia and specifically drinking the urine from young boys. Despite public protest at his latest escapades, Patton has not committed any crime. There is no law against drinking the urine from young boys.

So why does he do it? There are many reasons that individuals develop fetishes but in the case of Alan D. Patton, there is a good dose of psychological essentialism and vitalistic thinking. In 1993 he was arrested for similar offences and told police that he did it to “become a part of their youth, happiness and strength.” This reminded me of the Rotenberg cannibal Armin Meiwes who ate Bernd Brandes that I discuss in the book. Armin wanted to incorporate another person into his own body.

Patton clearly has a history of sexual deviance but I wonder if his fetish behaviour is just an extreme variation on a continuum of practices where individuals try to absorb the vital essence of another. I think that many aspects of intimacy and sexual activity can be interpreted within this framework. It does not make it acceptable but simply more understandable. It’s still pretty gross.

What say you?

First, the Random Tidbits:

Today, of course, is the end of the Birthday Challenge - and a gloriously Happy Birthday to my girl, Bex; I hope you have an amazing one.  And y'all stop on by and wish her a Happy Birthday if you have a minute, would ya?  :-)

So, today is also the end of Phase One of my self-imposed weightlessness, i.e., life without a scale.  I'm fairly pleased with how I've handled it; I haven't cheated once, even though there's a scale downstairs at work (a hundred years old, but I know the differential between the reading and the legitimate number, oh, yes I do), and I've only had scale-cravings once or twice.  Never enough to actually go looking for it.

I debated whether to weigh in...and decided that if I felt anxious about it this morning, I wouldn't do it - in other words, if I felt like the number was going to have any impact on my mood or well-being, I would abstain.  I finally decided to go ahead, because I wasn't feeling like I cared much either way.

170.6.  Hmm.  I looked at the number and realized I couldn't decide how to feel...which meant I didn't have feelings about it.  Which, after all, was sort of the point.  :-)

Logically, it's an okay number.  It's up 2.4 pounds from my last weight.  Okay.  I'm currently entertaining my good buddy TOM after a six-week hiatus.  I can live with it.  Also, the body fat and hydration numbers hadn't changed, and I am extremely happy about that.

So I think maybe I'm getting there, "there" being a place where I don't live by the numbers.  I know that I've been extremely lax in behaviors, and I know that in the past week, I've turned that around enormously.  That is what I should feel bad and good, respectively, about - and that's actually what I do feel bad and good, respectively, about.  I'm making progress!

I won't weigh in again until my own birthday, or actually a few days before as my birthday is just after Labor Day.  So the Friday before Labor Day will be the next appearance of the scale at my house; it's going back into hiding today courtesy of DH.  And I'm actually not remotely upset about that.  It will, however, be interesting to see if I have scale-cravings a few weeks into my good behaviors.  Are they going to be enough for me, or am I going to feel the need for numerical reinforcement?  That will, I think, be the real test.  It's easy not to crave the scale when you're goofing off and know the number won't be good.  :-)

I do have a goal for my Labor Day Challenge.  It's a simple one, and hard to quantify, but I like it.  By Labor Day, I want to see a change.  No, no numbers to hit...no pants sizes to get into...no measurements, no weight, no nothing like that.  I want to see a change.  I want to feel my clothes fit a bit differently, I want to feel more strength and muscle tone, I want to wobble a bit less.  It doesn't have to be dramatic, just a noticeable, visible, palpable change.   It's a completely achievable goal, I think.  And I'm going to start using my stars on my calendar again, since what I'm really shooting for here is behavioral consistency.  Today is Day One...anyone want to join me?

I had a wonderful conversation with a friend last night about the difference between being motivated by weight, and being motivated by how we feel, how we move and how we're treating our bodies.  It was a great reinforcement of the ideals and goals we share and it went a long way toward shoring up my motivation.  It is good to have someone to share things like this with.

I did Week Two, Day Two of the Hundred PushUp Challenge last night, and it went well.  At the end, where you do as many as you can but at least a certain number, I always shoot for the minimum for the level above mine, just because then I feel like I've sort of gone the extra mile.  Last night, that meant ten...and I did it, even after all the other pushups I had done.  I was quite pleased.  :-)  I also did my crunches and reverse crunches.  Still no cardio...unless you count the walking I did yesterday morning when I had to move a turtle out of the road but the nearest place to pull over was about a quarter of a mile up the road.  I don't know if I count that but it felt good to get out and move a little.

Other tidbits...I haven't mentioned it, but I have poison ivy.  Like, everywhere.  In addition to everything else.  It's even on my face.  My face.  It's extremely distressing to me and for the first time ever, I'm considering going to the doctor for a shot.  But I have to say, the blackberry cobbler that I made with the berries I picked (which is where I got the poison ivy) was so, so worth it.  It was amazing.  And yet, that doesn't make me happier about my face.

Today they start putting in the new carpet, I'm simultaneously excited and terrified.  I always question my decorating decisions horribly when the actual process starts; I'm so afraid I will have screwed up enormously and when there's this much money involved, that makes me want to yak.  I've never been unhappy with the end result...yet...but I always do this.  But I'll know soon enough and it's too late to do anything about it anyway.

And now for my thankfulness.  Nothing profound...today, as I was driving in to work, careening down the mountain with AC/DC pouring out of the speakers at pretty near top volume, I thought, "I'm a little strange, maybe.  You don't see a lot of 35-year-olds on their morning commute to their job in a law office, careening down the mountain with AC/DC pouring out of the speakers at pretty near top volume.  At least, not in this neighborhood."  And then I laughed, because I really don't want to be like the other commuters in this neighborhood anyway.

Today, I am feeling a bit thankful for individuality. Not just mine, but individuality in general.  I am so, so, SO glad that we live in a world where everyone is different.  I tend to choose friends from among the "fringe" so to speak - people who are who and what they are, unapologetically, whether that's the same as Betty next door or completely different from anyone in the neighborhood.  I don't tend to be drawn to conformists, or really even to people who just naturally fall into the same niche as 80% of the people around them.  I am drawn to that sparkle, that edge, that something that makes a person stand out just a little bit, and usually there's some laughing at oneself and not taking life too seriously involved.  I like people who think for themselves, too, rather than taking whatever is served to them as the law.

I am very blessed in having met many people like this, and being able to get to know them.  I also feel pretty blessed in being one of those people myself.  So today, I am thankful for individuality and the fact that we are not all alike - and many of us don't even want to be.

I love you all for who you are, and I hope that you do, too.  Have a wonderful Thursday!

As you probably know if you've read any of my posts, I have a problem with mirrors.  Actually the mirrors aren't the problem, it's what I see in them - which is not necessarily what they are actually showing me.  I tend to see a reflection not of myself, but rather of what my mindset is - happiness, confidence or high energy will typically show me someone pretty attractive, while depression, anxiety or fatigue will give me something out of a horror story.  The only good thing about it is that I have finally realized it's happening, so I'm slowly learning not to take it seriously.  :-)

I'm aware that I'm far from unique in this; in fact, I'd venture to say it's a leading factor in girls/women beginning the yo-yo dieting cycle that ends, as we all know, in disaster - if it ever ends.

But the other day, something surprising happened when I was doing my usual pre-shower self-critique.  I wasn't feeling upbeat that day; actually, I'd been bemoaning the loss of muscle tone I've experienced due to spotty exercise habits and thinking about how much ground I need to regain.  But as I was examining my poor, long-suffering and much-maligned body, I found myself doing something completely new.  I found myself (and I use the passive form because it was completely unplanned on my part) evaluating my body from a non-judgmental perspective.

I looked at my legs, and thought, "Hmm...okay, there's a little more fat there than there was a year ago.  We've lost some ground there.  But wow, the muscle tone has really held up.  That walking has been doing more good than I thought.  We've got a great infrastructure to build on, there."

I looked at my butt and thought, "Well, it might be sagging a little more than a year ago; it's hard to tell.  Definitely hasn't gotten any bigger, though.  That's great.  That should tighten up really nicely once we're back in the groove."

I looked at my stomach and thought, "Oh, definitely not as flat.  I think some of that is bloating though, I really do.  And it's not super flabby.  I can tighten up the muscles and feel them pull pretty strongly, so we haven't lost a ton of ground there, either.  That'll tighten up pretty well, too."

I went through the whole body that way, but I won't detail it; I'm sure you get the picture.  For once, I was thinking of my body in terms of a starting point, not in terms of a pathetically inadequate end result.

And that was, for me, a bit of an epiphany.  I'm not done yet! And from that came, I don't have to be done yet.  I am a work in progress.

I have always said that this process is a marathon, not a sprint.  I have always said that I have the rest of my life to get where I'm going, because the rest of my life is how long I will be doing this anyway.  And for the love of God, my flipping tagline on this blog says, "Notes from a Work in Progress."  It's not like this is really news to me. But as I've said before, it's one thing to know this intellectually and another to really feel it.

It's an amazing thing to be able to look at your body as a great template for the work you know you can and will be doing.  It's freeing and a little intoxicating to be able to look at your body and simultaneously see the work you need to do and the great things that have already been done.  To be able to see what you need to do and still feel good about it.

I know that there's a good chance that in a few days, I'll have lost the immediacy of that experience and be back to sighing over batwings and (a friend said this and it's too funny not to repeat) the upper-thigh fat that feels like "mudflaps for my vagina".   Which is, of course, why I blog.  So that when I forget, I can be reminded.  And I need to be reminded, because:

If we'd walked into the Sistine Chapel when Michaelangelo was halfway through the ceiling, would we have been all that impressed?  If we'd seen the Taj Majal when only the foundation was there, would we have sighed in delight at the potential, or would we have shrugged and wandered away?  If we'd watched Da Vinci smudging in the background for the Mona Lisa, would we have shuddered and questioned his artistic ability?

Or would we have known better?  Would we have pursed our lips and said, "Okay, it doesn't look like much now...but there's something good coming, I can just tell by the way he holds that brush..."?  I'd like to think we would have.  Knowing what we know now, we'd never judge any of these works of art based on their beginnings.

So don't judge yourself that way either.  No, you're not perfect now.  You won't ever be.  Sorry, that's just the truth.  Even the Mona Lisa isn't perfect...but it's a classic and enduring work of art, and so are you.  You just aren't done yet.  And that's okay.  You don't have to be done yet.

Because remember, Da Vinci didn't give up halfway through either.  He didn't look at the half-done canvas and say, "God, this looks like crap.  I've worked my tail off, I can't believe it still looks that bad!  I'm never going to get there.  Forget it.  I'm just going to set this in the corner and go do a nice paint-by-number.  And look for a day job."

It's okay to be a work in progress.  It's okay to know there's still a lot to be done.  And I have to believe that as difficult and exhausting as it must have been to paint the Sistine Chapel, still Michaelangelo spent every moment knowing it was a labor of love, and a life's work.  And that passion and joy in creation show in the finished product.

That's what passes for wisdom from me today.  You are a life's work, too, and a masterpiece in the making.  Don't judge yourself on the basis of what you are, what you have, or what you look like today.  Remember that you're not done yet, and put every ounce of passion and joy you have into the making of what you will be.  And at the end of it all, when you move on to the next life (whatever your belief of that may be), know that you are the work of a Master.

Have a wonderful Wednesday, and a wonderful week!

I am an optimistic person and have taken hommage from Dr Seus for the name of my blog. I have a young family and Dr Seus books are by far my favourite of all childrens books to read. They are consistently enjoyable to read and are always enjoyed by my boys.

I run a web development company and we have a strong focus on good design and the user experience. We are not led by technology but embrace it to achieve the goals we set.

I am starting this blog to see how it is accepted and what will come from it. It will be very much commentary on my thoughts about technology, politics and life. ie Why on earth do people wait outside for a new piece of technology when the first release of anything is always flawed, seems to be a double whammy of showcasing their idiocracy. On another point since I am having a bit of a rant, the use of the term evengelists in web development community, Microsoft Evengelists, User Experience Evangelists.... come on please you are not ordained.Well that should be enough for a first blog and we will see where things go from here.

1st earth tremor in 300 years, some people have been gassed.

So the crack team go underground to check out Boudicea theory

Viv - "I feel a bit sick I need a smoothie" (a smoothie, is that not about the last thing you would want if you felt sick)

Geologist stops them and asks who are you?

Dolly replies - "Bon viveurs and erotic adventurers" (otherwise known as pretty boring archaeologists from Wessex University)

THEORY - the type of hend hewn limestone caves under the baths were Celtic (how on earth do they know that?)

LET'S DIG.....   (let's not....)

A quick detector sweep (how did they manage to smuggle that thing in) and adopt an ad hoc investigation.

So begins the usual archaeological practice of wrenching artefacts from the ground (first it was a piece of the one true cross, now it is 1st century celtic stuff)

But wait a minute - this ring has melted - these people were burnt

THEORY - two prisoners held under Roman Baths.  Could one of them have been Boudicea.  She was killed by Romans was she not?  Well, you sometimes have to take a leap of faith.

Another tremor, Viv clutches Ben, Gillian jealous (do you feel a sub plot emerging?)

Dolly and Viv retire to lab, apparently Dolly gives good strontium (what on earth does that mean)

Meanwhile back in the caves, more dubious metal detecting, "these are Celt things"

Gillian bored with all that crawls down cave, Ben goes after her, another tremor, cave gets blocked, no way out. Sulphorous gas, purple tessarae, "HELLS TITS"  "JAW BONE DISTINCTLY BLOODY ROMAN".

Gillian cleans mosaic, good grief a Celtic Queen, betrayal of Rome, its all becoming clear

QUESTION - How did Marcus Q have the means to make a mosaic down a cave?

Actually, I really don't care any more.  This is absolute drivel

Jump to end

Pretentious SPEECH by BEN

Archaeologists should be kinky

Archaeologists should use their imagination

Some however are braver than others

Scientific dreamers are the pioneers