I've been doing what for me is a lot of exercise recently.

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Two works of Oriental literature of which I have recently become aware:

The Epic of King Geser: I learned about this while reading Sergei Lukyanenko's excellent (excellent) novel Night Watch. Geser is a Tibetan/Mongolian epic poem that tells the story of King Geser of Ling, his semi-divine origins, his battle against the kingdom of Hor (Mongolia) ( Read more... )

Current status on some of my long-term projects:

Thesis: Up to ( 36 pages )

... and occasionally you re-learn something you already knew but had forgotten.

Thursday:

• If you're expecting someone to call you back about some work by a certain time and they haven't, call them before the deadline so problems can be sorted out. Don't rely on minions to pass on messages.
• If presented with the opportunity for paying work, seize ( Read more... )

One of the more useful ways of classifying martial arts is into external and internal, sometimes known as hard and soft. External martial arts (like karate and taekwondo) emphasize the actual mechanics of punching and kicking (or blocking, or throwing, or grappling), whereas internal martial arts (like aikido and tai chi) are more abstract, ( Read more... )

One of the things my new flatmate (whodo_voodoo, for those of you keeping track) brought with him is a television. I'm a bit dubious, as my ability to work is low enough as it is, but it did mean that I was finally able to catch an episode of Hustle, the "complicated confidence trick" series starring Robert Vaughn. I love crime capers even more than I love ( Read more... )