Ok, I'll go first then.  It is storming here; I'm trying to justify the "camera phone" being offered to me free of charge as I renew my wireless contract (will no longer have an excuse for not posting my picture, huh?); broke down and got broadband (may be out of internet service for a few days during the change-over); looking for a recipe for grouper.

Any fans of grouper out there?

Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. -Voltaire

Well I missed a package delivery this morning which always tees me off. Before heading off to SF for the afternoon I'm trying to avoid further engagement on the torture bill since everyone is foaming at the mouth.

you are the media you consume.

Rained...rained some more...and rained some more...

Spent the entire day down with the horses...groomed them, mucked out their beds, fed them, exercised them by going for a nice fast hack in the Phoenix Park, got WET, groomed them some more, fed them some more...swept the huge puddles into the gutter...just the sort of day that makes you want something stewy and warm.

Headed home to where we're waiting on a jar of duck confit with beans - from our last trip to Paris - to turn into something related to cassouleut which we'll eat with a nice bottle of Burgundy.

Oh...and it rained some more...and will probably rain even more...

(Typed by Sam...semi dictated by Colman)

Went to a local airfield to talk about booking an aerobatic flying lesson.

Rain - and lots of it - stopped play. Instead I got to sit in a cockpit, peer at dials while making 'Hmmmm...' noises and waggling controls around. (No 'brrrm brrrm' sounds though.)

Drove home over Salisbury Plain, chased by occasional rainbows.

I don't know whether Laurent GUERBY mentioned this, but a few days ago a delegation of people from StopDRM.info decided to present itself at a central Parisian police station. The idea: to turn themselves in for infringement of the DADVSI law (each had brought proof of their action, one had transferred a legally purchased MP3 from one MP3 player to another MP3 player, another had watched a DVD on linux, etc). There is a video of them arriving at the police station, and there are dozens of policemen waiting!

Video (not particularly interesting, and in French, but if you skip to the end you'll see then arriving at the station): http://blog.mendes-france.com/2006/09/19/premier-smartmob-judiciaire-de-stopdrminfo/

And here is StopDRM.info's article on their own action (all 3 were released):
http://stopdrm.info/index.php?2006/09/20/110-compte-rendu-de-l-operation-des-interoperabilisateurs-v olontaires

More varied news. The president of the Bobigny tribunal, who was recently accused by Nicolas Sarkozy of not putting enough kids in jail, has a blog (in French).

EU-US airline data sharing talks have collapsed.

Airlines that don't provide the information don't get US landing rights. Airlines that do are breaking EU law.

It's worth reading.

Pissed it down all day here in Oslo.

I can't understand why they are sitting on gazillions in oil money but they invest ALL of it abroad.

Apparently it's inflationary to invest in your own country's infrastructure.

What total bollocks conventional Economics is.

Watched a movie against my usually better judgement due to being outvoted by two female Orlando Bloom fans - and actually enjoyed it very much.

It could have been a disaster, but good direction, good acting and a script that needed a sensitive, fresh director to make it work, brought in a minor classic. It is laugh out loud funny too. Excellent casting.

You can't be me, I'm taken

the weather is lovely again, autumn sliding in as yet quite unobtrusively.

mushroom season is just beginning, chesnuts too.
i found some ceps, fried them up and served them on toast, brit style.

some tasty field mushrooms from the paddock are popping up regularly too

yum....

this is a great time to harvest chestnuts, as there is a 2 week window before the leaves start to fall, when the nuts are easiest to harvest, being easily visible against the ground.

i likes 'em boiled, then eaten as a snack, biting off a corner, then pressing the shell between incisors, thus squeezing out the puree onto the tongue.

simple annual pleasures that define the seasons, and are new each year, yet ever more familiar.

massaged three people on a painting villa holiday, all 3 very nice and mellow, polled out the tablas this evening and had a jam with a friend on acoustic bass, experimenting with some interesting time sigs, like 7/4.

meditated on relationship between music and mathematics, while internalising these rhythms by counting them until they felt familiar enough to stop counting, then picking up the count again, and seeing if the votes tallied!

serious fun...

off tp massage in the morning, then the rest of the day doing chores, goofing off and warming up for the gig at the restaurant, come vespers time.

a. is visiting from napoli. so the tomato sauce was extra special tonight!

i've been burning cd's of my fave blues podcast, called the roadhouse.

these have been amazing to listen to driving to work....funky, raw and stimulating blues. all types, eras and styles.

new faves: blues caravan...anyone here know them?

'time bears witness' is such a well contructed tune, imo. i figured it out on the piano, and i can feel it influencing me on a deep level...i wish i'd written it.

so i looked them up on the web and fired off an email complimenting the writer, ian parker.

he graciously wrote back, and i felt a little less 'cosmically alone'.

as i do when i pop in here and catch up widja blogbuds.

a friend sent me a book about horse psychology that looks like a great read.

happy weekend et'ers!

Peace is not the absence of war -- peace is the absence of fear. Ursula Franklin