I just wanted to record this mainly for my own benefit but will leave it open so others may stumble across it.

"I write because I can't do normal work like other people. I write because I want to read books like the ones I write. I write because I am angry at all of you, angry at everyone. I write because I love sitting in a room all day writing. I write because I can only partake in real life by changing it. I write because I want others, all of us, the whole world to know what sort of life we lived, and continue to live in Instanbul, in Turkey. I write because I love the smell of paper, pen and ink. I write because I believe in literature, in the art of the novel, more than I believe in anything else. I write because it is a habit, a passion. I write because I am afraid of being forgotten. I write because I like the glory and interest that writing brings. I write to be alone. Perhaps I write to understand why I am so very very angry at all of you, so very very angry at everyone. I write because I like to be read. I write because once I have begun a novel, an essay, a page, I want to finish it. I write because everyone expects me to write. I write because I have a childish belief in the immortality of literature. I write because it is exciting to turn all of life's beauties and riches into words. I write not to tell a story but to compose a story. I write because I want to escape from the foreboding that there is a place I must go but-just as in a dream-I can't quite get there. I write because I have never managed to be happy. I write to be happy"

all typos and mistakes are mine

I do a lot of work at a 5 year old desk top in our study. It has my life stored on it....that's another story as I am transferring my life to "the cloud".

Of late this computer has been extremely slow and the final straw has been a freezing mouse. On another recently deceased and even older computer these things were preliminary to computer death. I feared that this one might die too before I got all the files uploaded to flickr and google.

Last week I tried all the fixes I could find on the net. I got a new faster modem to see if that would speed something up at least. Not much help.

So I ordered a new computer hoping to at least salvage the hard drive from the old one and run it as an extra disc.

One last search on the net and in an obscure post in an obscure forum I read this tip for the described problems: Turn the computer off and UNPLUG it. Length of unplugging time unspecified, but in subsequent posts half an hour seemed like a good time.

So I tried it and guess what: The computer runs faster, the mouse no longer freezes, the new modem seems faster still. Only the last is a bit subjective, but I reckon they are all true.

I pass this on in the wish that one day this extremely simple little tip might be of use to you.

cheers all


PS: I didn't cancel the new computer but would certainly not have ordered it if I had found this tip a few days earlier.

This one first noticed on weebly's facebook page:


http://www.thisisderbyshire.co.uk/news/Couple-s-book-hobby-crosses-globe/article-1153529-detail/article.html

noticed on Mol's facebook

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article6684717.ece

Rain over the weekend brought poor dry Adelaide up to the average rainfall for the year to date. Let's hope it continues. We had to go and remove leaves from the filter of one of the tanks. The seriously dry (try dead) front lawn is on show as well

going around and around on the baggage carousel. I hope the rest of the suitcase made it

Those who know me well will know I am buzzing with ideas and little projects. I have an ongoing interest in a very small branch of my specialty. Over the last several years a couple of colleagues and I have done a very lovely little study. Great results. Done honestly and meticulously. Contributes well to the body of knowledge. Has the ability to change some current practices in a small but meaningful way.
All done a shoestring with a lot of volunteer work and typing up at home etc etc. As a comparison there is another trial going on here in which the researchers are getting several thousand dollars a patient. No secrets for guessing ours was unsponsored and this second has a medium pharma behind it.

To make a long story short we aimed high and first submitted our paper to THE BEST journal, only to see it rejected with a few unhelpful remarks. It's no big deal because they only accept 10 to 15% of submissions. But it really threw the junior bloke that wrote it all up. Has set us back a bit.

So how do I feel when I find that THE BEST journal, which rejected us, is one of those caught up in this, the Madoff equivalent of my little world:

http://writedit.wordpress.com/2009/03/07/massive-fraud-calls-into-question-multimodal-analgesia/

hey we didn't get published (yet) but we can sleep at nights.

When we got rejected I stopped my journal subscription. I will have to go to the library or look online as they tear themselves apart explaining this.

It calls into question the whole system of peer reviewed journals and pharma sponsored trials.

There have been some awful times recently in Australia. I accept that and we mourn.
However the extreme heat has brought some wonderful photographs of koalas and koala encounters.
As background they are not very human friendly. They usually hang around high in trees asleep during the day. The spit and growl if disturbed. We are taught they don't need much water as they get their hydration from all the gum leaves they eat.

The link below contains some wonderful koala antics that are new to many of us and I guess are a reflection of the recent extreme conditions:

http://blogs.abc.net.au/sa/2009/02/thirsty-koala-1.html?program=adelaide_big_red_roving

while the human death toll is soon likely to pass 200 and may reach 300 we must also spare a thought for the animals. There was one published estimate of a million dead animals. I think it included wild animals and livestock. I have NO idea how the figure was derived, but it gives some idea of the scale of things