Fisheye

“a lot of people get AIWS when they’re six or seven and grow out of it“.
A fascinating article, found via Warren Ellis’ blog, which suddenly reminded me when I read it this morning that I used to suffer a very occasional, very mild version of the same syndrome during my childhood and adolescence. All of a [...]

I vant to be alone

I was always a fairly solitary child. Despite having two elder siblings and a smattering of close friends, my preferred company was always my own. Once, at a birthday party, I retreated upstairs with the book I’d received as a present (Spiderman, if memory serves), leaving my friends downstairs to party on without me.
While my own [...]

Are you human?

From a book I’m currently reading:
“We were all terrible when we were little. Did you ever see how vicious and monstrous kids are to each other? And I’m not just talking about in the sandbox either, where they bang each other over the head with their trucks! Teenagers…God, teach them for a while if you want [...]

The thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to

I can’t remember the last time I physically injured myself. I’m not talking about breaking a nail or banging my head - I mean something that resulted in real bleeding, a large bruise, a break.
As a child I never needed to go to hospital - I’ve never broken a bone (although I did manage to [...]

Kamisa’s story

Sorry for the downer, but this is the saddest thing I’ve read in a long time. Can you imagine having to decide which of your children to save?

What do they teach you in school these days?

Not history any more, it seems. (EDIT - link no longer works. It was an Independent article about a proposal to make the teaching of history in shcools optional).
This comes soon after the decision to scrap compulsory foreign language lessons in UK schools. So not only will children not learn how to communicate with others, [...]

8 ball

For my sins (which are many and various) I have been tagged, so here goes.Eight random things about me:
1. I count stairs. I can tell you exactly how many stairs there are on each flight in my house (12, then 6, then 10, then 7. There are 13 down to the basement). This comes in handy [...]

Just don’t call me late for dinner

Do you like your name?
At one point when I was a child I decided that I didn’t like being called Simon and that I much preferred “David”. My family humoured me for a few days, but I knew that it wasn’t really true and asked them to stop.
But does your name really say [...]

Anal

I find, somewhat to my relief, that I’m chilling out as I get older. I never considered myself to be stressed, over-excitable or nervous, but I was certainly anal retentive about many things. I guess I still am to a certain extent, but it’s easing off. For example, I still keep books and cds in [...]

The sound of silence

When was the last time you were quiet? I don’t mean not talking, I mean not making any sound of any kind? It’s more difficult than you think. Even if you sit (or lay) perfectly still, there’s still your breathing, your heartbeat, your digestive system. And if you try to move…This came home to me [...]