The Museum Of Modern Thinking

Nothing much to report, I’ve just added my PlayStation Portable ID to the footer, have a look.

And yes, I know I’m not much of a gamer :p

The Telegraph reports on a shock finding that exercise is good for fat people and it is extremely unlikely that fat people’s genes have a pre-disposition to weight gain.

The report was produced by the “Medical Research Council’s Epidemiology Unit in Cambridge”, by “analysing the genes of over 20,000 men and women aged 39 to 79, looking for 12 genetic markers known to increase body mass index (BMI) and the risk of obesity.” (note: items in quotes and copied and pasted from main article, I’m lazy).

Oddly enough, they found that “our research proves that even those who have the highest risk of obesity from their genes can improve their health by taking some form of daily physical activity.”

I’m sure this comes as no surprise to any sensible person. The body is a machine – feed it too much fuel and not burn it off, and it stores it. As lard. Eat 2,500 calories a day, burn off 2,500 calories a day – no weight gain.

I know this from personal experience: I like my food, but I’m careful what I eat and exercise regularly to keep my weight down. When training for both of my black belts, I increased my level of exercise to kickboxing 2 – 3 times a week, and jogging / running 40 minutes 2 -3 times a week. My weight went down from 12st 10lbs (way too high) to an even 12st. In other words, by exercising, I lost weight – amazing!

Now I’m not training as much, the weight is creeping back up to 12st 5.5lbs, which is no good at all. What’s worse is that I’ve been signed off work sick for two weeks with strict instructions to rest, not even jog. So, what am I going to do? Restrict my food intake, of course, and do some gentle walking.

I’m staggered that we (the rest of us who earn a living) are paying for people to have obesity operations on the NHS, when they should have some self-control and stop shoving pies down their throats. Education (or a lack of) has a huge part to play as well, with some fat people not knowing what foods are healthiest.

Incidentally, we’re now allowed to call obese people fat

I’ll sum up this post by what my late father always used to say on the subject of people’s weight: “There were no fat people in Belsen”; he was right.

So, Wednesday of last week, I noticed a funny taste in my mouth (no sniggering at the back), and my gums and teeth felt a bit odd. This carried on for a few days and on Saturday morning, I couldn’t curl one side of my lip back to do my teeth. I thought nothing of it, and went of with my wife and son (and my wife’s mum) for a fun day on fossil-hunting on Barmston beach near Bridlington, which was great. We also had a fantastic meal at Rags, Bridlington as well.

So, Saturday night comes round and my face starts feeling really funny and I lose the ability to speak clearly – well, as clear as usual. A quick peek in the mirror and a shocked looked from my wife confirms that the left-hand side of my face has dropped quite a bit, and my left eye doesn’t close any more.

A quick look online led me to believe it was Bell’s Palsy (not a stroke) which affects the facial nerve and can clear up in anywhere from six weeks to nine months. Understandably, I went to bed a bit dejected and visited Derby’s Walk-In Centre on Sunday. After not too much of a wait, I was seen by a couple of doctors and they confirmed it. On the plus side, my blood pressure and oxygenation was perfect They decide not to give me any treatment, and tell me to see my GP on Tuesday.

Tuesday rolls around with no improvement, so I go to my GP to make an appointment. This, apparently, can only be done over the phone and not in person, but after a bit of haranguing from me, the receptionist sees sense and puts me in to see the triage nurse who then makes an appointment – complicated, eh?

When I see my GP, they definitely confirm it’s Bell’s Palsy, I’m seen by another doctor who confirms it, and by a fifth-year student who also thought the same. I’m then put on a max dose of a steroid (which should have been done by the Walk-in Centre apparently), and sent out to buy “liquid tears” for my eye, and eye patch, and worst of all, artificial saliva. I mean, ugh.

So, I’m not sure what’s caused it, it could be stress as I’ve had a lot recently with my job, but I resigned recently, so stress over. It could be illness as Bell’s Palsy i’s linked to herpes simplex, the “cold sore” virus and I had a sinus infection recently (I think). It can also be caused by nerve trauma, and I did get punched in that side of the head recently in sparring. By a girl :s

It’s also a real pain that I can’t pronouce my Bs and Ps correctly, as telling someone you have Bell’s Palsy is a bit difficult. Fortunately, there’s not been too much drooling, but drinking is a real pain, I do like my tea but most of it ends up on the floor now. I’m having to drink through a straw, which requires me to hold the left side of my mouth shut to use. Fortunately, I have my sense of taste back and my gums and teeth no longer feel anaesthetised, so that’s always good.

Anyway, more updates on my condition to come, or maybe not, as really, it’s not that bad. The steroids I’m on could lead to suicidal tendencies and hallucinations, but no signs of those yet

It’s the ramblings of a c**t.

That is all.

There’s been a lot of talk in the broadsheets (not OK! magazine, oddly) about the rising stars of the new Cabinet. Theresa May has done well, until that mis-step banning the EDL (English Defence League) from having a protest march in Bradford. Gove is talking his schools plan up a lot, though it will be a while until it comes to fruition, and Iain Duncan Smith seems to have George Osborne’s backing for his much-needed welfare reforms.

The man who is standing out at the moment is Eric Pickles, currently wielding the sword of cuts against various quangos. His latest target, however, is all the visual clutter on England’s streets – all the “20mph zone” signage, all the arrows, all the pointless signs, the railings preventing you from getting somewhere, etc. As such, he has written to councils reminding them that they are not legally required to put up so many signs, and the money saved could be spent on other things, like repairing the roads.

A good example of pointless signage can be found in the next village: I turn into a country lane (which has no footpath) and halfway along the road is a sign, saying “No footpath for 450 yds”.

I KNOW THERE’S NO FOOTPATH – I HAVE EYES. There was no footpath on the main road, there was no footpath for half the road distance, now there’s a sign telling me there’s no footpath for the rest of the road? I KNOW. What a pointless sign.

Apparently, the Govt. will be asking members of the public to send in pictures / locations / complaints of all this clutter and will be acting accordingly, like they did with the Freedom Bill. I’ll be sending the aforementioned sign in, along with many others. I’m also considering putting a page up on this site with my pics.

Anyway, it’s good news – now, if we can only get them to put roads back to the speed limits they were before speed cameras came along and the limits were reduced and cameras were slapped on them BY LABOUR to raise revenue, that’d be great

I know this may not be news to everyone, but Channel 4′s On Demand player is available on YouTube. More happily, it contains one of the greatest comedy sketch shows known to man: Absolutely.

No, that’s the name of the programme, Absolutely. As the site itself says: “Many years ago, before The Fast Show, Big Train or Little Britain, came this influential Scottish sketch show. A splendid blend of comedy craft and surreal lunacy”.

I’ll second the surreal lunacy remark, but the comedy mostly comes from making the normal slightly bizarre, such as the council meeting of Stoneybridge Council in French. And Frank Hovis’ wisdom whilst he’s sitting on the toilet is truly inspirational…

So, take some time out and watch some shows, it’s rather brilliant. If you’d like to buy the DVD from Amazon containing all four series, please use the link below – I get money!

I was looking forward to seeing this film immensely, and even managed to get an evening pass on the first day of release. I also managed to see it for free and get a free ticket for another film thanks to the projectionist starting the film early, but that’s another tale.

The tale of The Expendables goes as follows (well, from what I saw from about 10 minutes in): Sylvester Stallone leads a small group of (highly capable) mercenaries consisting of himself, Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, Jet Li, Terry Crewes and Randy Couture. Sly is hired by a “friend” (after beating out another “friend” to the job) to go and take out another 80s star, Eric Roberts, who is running some scam on the (fictitious?) island of Vilena with the help of a corrupt general and Steve Austin (the MMA guy, not The Six Million Dollar man).

The first recon with Sly and Statham (who meet their contact there) goes very bad and they just about make it out, after stopping off for some serious aerial payback. Their contact refuses to go with them and goes into hiding, whilst Sly and Statham return.

After a bit of character development from Statham (basically him kicking the poop out of a guy who hit his ex-girlfriend), Sly chats to Mickey Rourke (who is very, very good in his small screen time) and decides to go back for the girl alone and probably kill Eric Roberts as well. He’s interrupted by a traitorious attempt on his life, but manages to get out of it with the aid of Jet Li, conveniently along for the ride – some humorous dialogue is exchanged during the chase, very funny.

Anyway, long story short, Sly is met at the plane by (almost) everyone on his team, they go back, and pretty much all hell breaks loose for the last 15 minutes of the film. The action is fast, frenetic, bloody (more on that later), there’s a machine shotgun, knife fights, mano-a-mano fisticuffs, almost everything you can conceive of in an 80s action film. I won’t spoil the ending as it pretty much writes itself, but there is a pleasant surprise at the end that I was pleased with.

But why only 8 / 10? Well, it’s very much Sly’s film (which is fine), but even then there didn’t seem to be lot of him or any of the other actors on screen for long. I suppose with that many big names (still), it’s hard to fit them all in. The chap who played the general (David Zayas) did a very good job, I really felt for his character and the dilemma he was in.

The fight scene between Jet Li and someone else was, unfortunately, choppily edited which is par for the course these days. However, later in the film when all hell is unleashed, the action is framed much better and there are some stand-out “wow” moments, e.g. Jason Statham’s two-shot to a soldier’s foot then face, and Sly’s extremely rapid reload-and-fire technique, which I can only assume he’s trained for.

One thing that really, really put me off was the CGI blood. Very badly done, too red, too comic book. The blood effects in the recent Rambo film were far more convincing, but maybe they hard to “cartoon it up” a bit for a 15 rating. That said, when the machine shotgun is doing it’s work, it’s awesome.

Overall, more than good film, definitely worth a watch. I personally don’t see it as throwback to the cheesy 80s action movies (Tango and Cash, anyone?) but rather a non-cheesy action movie in its own right.

Incidentally, the rather excellent UK martial artist Gary Daniels is also in it, whilst (again) he doesn’t get much screen time, he has a great fight at the end with Jet Li and a rather nasty end

Finally! I don’t know where he’s been, but it’s great to see his refreshing “no nonsense” views on the news review

Well, that’s all, really – installed the WordPress app onto my phone (Android OS) and away we go

Hi there, not posted for a while as I had trouble after my upgrade to WordPress 3.0, but we’re back in business now

Now, I’m off to make tea