Friends

We all despise Ryanair, and I swore I wouldn't fly with them again,
but with a taxless (taxless!) weekend return flight to London at the end of September for €20, who could resist?


"Delira!"

I am weak.

In other news, the rewrites are going well.
I've gayed up the detective's sidekick, just because.
Envisioning the focus changing to different recurring characters with each book.
So book one focuses on the sidekick, book two on the love interest, book three on the detective, and so on.
It's a technique that was pioneered by Ed McBain in his 87th Precinct series,
and eventually filtered into the mainstream depiction of cop shows with multiple heroes.



Elizabeth George does a nifty line in multiple heroes within a classic detective formula -
characters other than her detective Inspector Lynley are permitted to solve cases with his help/hindrance.
P D James has flirted with the concept by fleshing out the secondary detectives convincingly,
although her detective Adam Dalgliesh is invariably the hero of the piece.
Both of those authors veer a tad towards melodrama for my taste, though.



"Bring back brevity!" cries the world.
"OK," I shrug. "Let's do it."

No, really.

I got a bike yesterday.

I got to work in 10 minutes this morning. I got from South Yarra to the CBD in 20 minutes this afternoon. I got from the CBD to home just now.

I LOVE BIKE!

01. Forgot passport, had to rush back home, get it, fork out for a new ticket - with Ryanair (bleurgh).



02. Discover Jamie's bedsit in Salford looks very impressive, but, as he has warned me, there are several flaws in the design - such as an absence of windows, which means the balcony door is always open. Brrr.


"The architect's original plan."

03. Big up to the Polish Bison Grass vodka.



04. London Boy of Fitlads Fame (James)* offers me a ticket to Madonna, hops on me, then says "Oh noes, we mustn't ruin our friendship."
I am too drunk to do anything but agree with all of these things.



05. Meanwhile, Michael throws up in the street, subsequently gets thrown out of a taxi, and passes out in a field with his long-term Polish crush.



06. Canal Street is still shite, but fun shite.



07. Poptastic is amazing.


"N.B. I did not kiss a girl."

08. Ben & Jerry's + Wall.E = Sunday comedown


"Don't litter, or this li'l guy will have to shit it out FOREVER."

09. Incident with security at Manchester Airport.

HER: Who's is this?
ME: It's mine.
CUE: 10 minute debacle in which security woman extrapolates my "disrespect" for her from two words, and gets armed security involved.



10. Back to work. A. G. A-I-N.



*Henceforth known as LBFF(J)

Meme courtesy of chrisopotamus

01. Plastic



02. Pet Shop Boys



03. Poetry of Phillip Larkin



04. Pop music



05. Passive guys



06. Pants



07. Pierre et Gilles



08. Piercings



09. Pints



10. Penis

I happen to agree with this ad, but either way, this is a pretty great piece of political propaganda.

For Most People,
College Is a Waste of Time


Incredibly interesting article, especially as I study for the GREs and apply to grad school. I think this would be a great way to combat the current system of degree inflation, making it irrelevant. I don't know that I agree that the certification system could be so easily implemented... but given the model of the CPA certification, it could be done.

It does resound pretty heavily with me though, having my Political Science degree and realizing that the skill set from that will do me little outside of academia.

The only danger I can see with this is the shift away from a liberal arts education to something entirely practical, and "teaching to the test". I have to say, I learned wayyyyy more in college then simply Politics, much of which I use every day and I can't necessarily quantify it... and when the goal is so much more rooted in a practical certification instead of simply "learning", those opportunities are weeded out because they are seen, superficially, as a waste of time. That would be truly sad, and instead of "thinkers" we become "workers". A step backward indeed.

A very interesting proposition, though.

Now my daily commute is a walk from Richmond to South Yarra, I'm thinking about getting a bike.

I haven't rode since high school. I know nothing about bikes. I've heard the Giant CRX series is good. Help?!