Tuesday, July 31, 2012

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"It is natural for one in this case to dread the loss of his faith, indeed of his own integrity and religious identity, and to cling de...
Wednesday, December 07, 2011

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On seeing.. A short exercise that I recommend trying..   (with an equivalent view of your own) Out of my window I can see a street.. I a...
Wednesday, July 27, 2011

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Dear friends and possible readers. I am working on a draft 'urbanmonk manifesto'.  If you're interested, or would like to help...
Sunday, July 17, 2011

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"The serene have not opted out of life. They see more widely, love more dearly, rejoice in the things the frantic mind no longer sees o...
Sunday, June 05, 2011

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"Demands to “make poverty history”, and the responses from those in power, revolve around money: less debt, freer and fairer trade, mor...
Thursday, May 05, 2011

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Don't surrender your loneliness so quickly. Let it cut more deep. Let it ferment and season you as few human Or even divine ingredien...
Saturday, November 20, 2010

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Yes! to Danny MacAskill's new wee film..  I don't care if it messes up the layout of my blog!
Monday, October 25, 2010

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On my cycle home I was crossing over an old stone bridge that spans a tranquil section of the River Almond, when I encountered a young man p...
Sunday, August 15, 2010

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My current favorite blog is the new blog/business/bakery sensation that is The Apocalypse Bakery! I sampled at least 5 cakes today at the c...
Thursday, July 01, 2010

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...and been dancing in the hills. ..actually I've been quite busy recently. I have become a farmer.
Sunday, May 02, 2010

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Some of us have been living here for a wee bit. It has excellent views and an atmospheric post-apocalyptic feel. I'm not complet...
Wednesday, April 21, 2010

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They are sending potting compost and quality plants to landfill. This supply line must be intercepted. We can do this with our vehicles. ...
Saturday, April 17, 2010

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Due to volcanic erruptions I am spending most of the day sitting near a ferry port. I have found a cafe where a mug of tea costs 85p and inc...
Thursday, April 15, 2010

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"Our major challenge is to focus on what we can create rather than what problems we can solve. Stop talking about what's wrong and...
Sunday, March 28, 2010

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"Chris has spent the summer following guerrilla gardeners around the city - a German girl who "flowerbombs" vacant plots of l...
Tuesday, March 09, 2010

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This is where I went in February by the way. It's at the top of here:
Monday, March 08, 2010

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NOTICE TO READERS: Apologies that this blog seems to have got stuck in time.. The comments have also gone weird due to technical issues....
Thursday, July 09, 2009

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"Learned and leisurely hospitality is the only antitode to the stance of deadly cleverness that is acquired in the professional pursuit...
Monday, June 29, 2009

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"It is commonly thought that conservative-minded people are as a rule old, whereas innovators are young. This is not quite true. Cons...
Sunday, March 22, 2009

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On leadership in our continent. (I live in Europe) There are various types of protest all over Europe about the 'current economic crisis...
Friday, March 06, 2009

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February is a good month. Every February there are two warm sunny days, that arrive just when you are not sure if there has ever been warm s...
Friday, February 06, 2009

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Some strong words about the love of money i am writing now to remind myself: "there was no escaping the feeling that all these titans o...
Saturday, December 27, 2008

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"Every patio, flat roof and window sill, can be looked upon as an opportunity for food production." -'The Self Sufficient Gard...
Tuesday, November 25, 2008

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"a home is not a home if there aren't any mattresses on the livingroom floor" -krister I like their home.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008

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"Had to disconnect cooker as unsafe." -Southern heating and plumbing. left by workmen on a scrap of paper in our kitchen. oc...
Monday, November 03, 2008

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"Western cultural views of how best to organize and lead (now the methods most used in the world) are contrary to what life teaches. Le...
Wednesday, October 22, 2008

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So the government is asking banks to be less harsh on people whose houses they are trying to repossess. I'm sure there's a parable J...
Thursday, October 09, 2008

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"Imagination is better than knowledge" -Albert Einstein. The world is all a mixture of imaginary and real. Perhaps the main way we...
Wednesday, October 01, 2008

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There are no paths of no return; the dangers are in getting stuck in dead ends. I think if we are always prepared to learn and humble enough...
Tuesday, September 30, 2008

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"He who sacrifices the mass good for his personal conscience has a peculiar conception of 'personal salvation'; he doesn't ...
Tuesday, August 26, 2008

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"Only two kinds of people can afford the luxury of acting on principle, those with absolute power and those with none and no desire to ...
Wednesday, August 06, 2008

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It was like some massive game of hide and seek where thousands of people slowly explored the huge crumbling palace, discovering art and smal...
Thursday, July 31, 2008

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"Computers are useless. They can only give you answers." -Pablo Picasso
Wednesday, July 30, 2008

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So I got talked into jumping on a bus to a festival in Poland at short notice. then in a separate incident I got talked into hitching back. ...
Tuesday, July 29, 2008

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Living simply and thinking collectively. We need to learn from: The Chinese.
Saturday, June 21, 2008

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Happy Summer Solstice!
Thursday, May 15, 2008

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I have been making important administrative phone calls to offices where they only speak French. This is hard. Got shouted at. But in the en...
Wednesday, May 14, 2008

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Been living in a park with beer and tea in the sun and football and BBQs and hundereds of randoms and some really good old friends and new. ...
Tuesday, May 13, 2008

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So I lost football against Connor and Brad. They beat me 63 - 54, in a 60 minute match.
Friday, April 18, 2008

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so i got stuck in some big hazy cloud of fever for a week and dreamt I had to play football matches in rivers, and got lost in huge mazes, a...
Thursday, April 03, 2008

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I´m a feminist. last saturday was womens day the news remembered: in europe Statistics show that for women between 16 and 44 years of age, d...
Monday, March 31, 2008

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"I'll go and get the axe [so that we can try and smash a hole in the ice on this frozen lake to jump through]" -E
Sunday, March 30, 2008

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and then I found myself drying my washing on the megabus again.
Thursday, March 13, 2008

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The sally hall smells of paint. My friend E's treecamp in Ireland is getting evicted as I type, they're all at the tops of trees and...
Thursday, March 06, 2008

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Gipsy people are good. Two guys just gave me a lift (hitch hiking again) and bought me lunch, and gave me free meal vouchers, and asked God ...
Thursday, February 07, 2008

2008

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Got threats for not writing on my blog. Who reads this anyway?! Well, lots of interesting stuff has been happening.. as it tends to. Been e...
Thursday, December 27, 2007

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Happy Christmas! I have been picking mushrooms. And pushing wheelchairs. And eating. Hope all well.
Tuesday, December 18, 2007

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Was looking at a war memorial and thinking: If I decide to fight for our empire against their empire, I'll just meet and destroy myself ...
Friday, December 07, 2007

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"The general fact is simple. Poetry is sane because it floats easily in an infinite sea; reason seeks to cross the infinite sea, and s...
Saturday, November 24, 2007

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There's frozen puddles in the gutters here now. They (we) discovered a new species of tree. Apparently it only grows on the Isle of Arra...
Saturday, November 10, 2007

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Played a rare 11 a-side football match last night. We won 8-4 despite going 1-0 down in the first 30seconds. Came back from 2-1 down to go 8...
Thursday, November 08, 2007

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Illusions of grandeur? S: Do you think there's any chance you sometimes take yourself too seriously. T: [Smile] Of course, but maybe mos...
Monday, October 29, 2007

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AUTUMN Have been on the roads tracks and waves a bit these past few weeks.. And lived in some stunning situations. Kinda stopped taking phot...
Wednesday, September 12, 2007

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European Championship Qualifying : Group B Table 12 September 2007 22:19 ..............................P......W.....D.......L.......F..........
Monday, August 13, 2007

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Whatever the future holds. Clue 4: Learning to live on the land.
Sunday, August 12, 2007

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From the trundling Radio2 lorry cab, to the banging trance tunes in the speeding party car of the geordie girls, tin of strongbow handed to ...
Saturday, August 11, 2007

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On our hillside the pianist plays and flames leap from the burning desk and scorch the surrounding grass.
Friday, August 10, 2007

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6 miles barefoot along the stunning ridge of hills.
Thursday, August 09, 2007

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He's an artist. Our job is to be a safety buffer between him and the public.
Wednesday, August 08, 2007

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I ran to the door of the bank to find 20 monkeys leaping and howling, filling the room. My tripping friend was spinning on his back on the f...
Monday, August 06, 2007

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This is my living room. This is where I sleep. On this circle of sofas on the side of this hill by this big oak tree. Making tea for strange...
Friday, August 03, 2007

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Trusting the high speed steering of a 5 year old through the trees. Winning lots of prizes at the local horticultural show. On a pilgrimage ...
Wednesday, August 01, 2007

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There are leeches in the green diving pond. That's ok. I'm enjoying the physical overlap between myself and these ecosystems in whic...
Tuesday, July 24, 2007

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Sat round fire cooking fish from the lake we were swimming in with the folk musicians who we met hitch hiking who are now playing incredible...
Tuesday, July 17, 2007

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Up in the rainclouds. Down under the loch. In a paperwork office. On the shopping centre floor. In the purple sunset sea, Under the red and ...
Friday, July 06, 2007

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Spent some days walking very slowly through steep sided valleys in torrential rain..
Monday, June 25, 2007

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sometimes it is light all night. sailing past vast cliffs. "When God made time, he made plenty of it." -an Orcadian man.
Tuesday, May 22, 2007

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post 300. so the building just got stormed by 6 teenagers throwing pancakes, we chatted. i've been walking the streets, meeting old frie...
Thursday, May 03, 2007

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"It's amazing what you can achieve when you are so remote you can't hear people's discouragement." -Dan the successfu...
Saturday, April 28, 2007

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"The writers of history have seldom noted the importance of land use. They seem not to have recognised that the destinies of most of ma...
Monday, April 09, 2007

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If you time it just right, you can topple a crouching rat with the gentlest push. Snow patches around the mountain summits but bare feet abo...
Friday, March 30, 2007

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In the 6ish hours between high tide and low tide (or vice versa) the water doesn't flow evenly, It turns gradually, then flows heavier a...
Wednesday, March 28, 2007

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This week there are lots of animals around, and I've met some great people, walked in a sunny park, made tea on a fire, and slept in a t...
Friday, March 23, 2007

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Apparently the mouse came home in the old lady's shopping.
Monday, March 19, 2007

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bowls of porridge and vermicelli on the 8 bus. urbanmonklife recommends: exhibition: by David Martin, at Royal Scottish Academy (building wi...
Friday, March 09, 2007

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Out of nowhere local mosque curries gone blazingly spicy.
Tuesday, February 27, 2007

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"If you are coming to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you are coming because your liberation is bound with mine, then let us...
Tuesday, February 20, 2007

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so i don't seem to have so much to say in 2007 so far.. I heard that the weight of humans on the planet is about the same as the weight ...
Saturday, February 10, 2007

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more sleet more drizzle happy with both
Tuesday, February 06, 2007

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"In times of profound change, the Learners inherit the earth. While the Learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a wor...
Thursday, February 01, 2007

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Several killer whales in the Firth of Forth at the moment.
Monday, January 01, 2007

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Furthermore
Wednesday, December 27, 2006

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Haven't seen the sun for several days, but today there was at least some variation in the grey ceiling. Went for a walk under the motorw...
Thursday, December 21, 2006

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I stood with my back to the cliffs of the boundary of conciousness; the wind farm turning behind me built in the stream of the updrafts comi...
Monday, December 04, 2006

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"Our systems always have errors, but this is good 'since it is always the errors of our systems that have released us from the tyra...
Sunday, December 03, 2006

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The sky is watery murk. It swipes you, and squeezes its coldness into the stones. met a guy who has written a book on magic mushrooms, based...
Monday, November 20, 2006

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in places wading through the dazzling soft snow up near the top of the mountain surrounded by the winter blue sky. sometimes it's obviou...
Wednesday, November 15, 2006

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"So teenagers.. you are the most screwed up and worst in Europe. You are unhealthy, promiscuous, binge drinking, violent, yobs. We are ...
Friday, November 10, 2006

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Today there is scaffolding blowing in the wind. Last night old Telford College South campus, was proper blazing. In at least 3 places. The ...
Tuesday, October 31, 2006

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"If you can specify exactly where you're going, you are not learning." -Mike Higton
Monday, October 30, 2006

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I like the way there is music on the buses now, from the mobile phones at the back of the top deck. The other day the hip-hop was so perfect...
Sunday, October 29, 2006

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There was an explosion in the road and the firework spiralled whining towards the front of the car that had slammed on its brakes a few feet...
Monday, October 23, 2006

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With two friends from Sweden, gate-crashed a lecture on 'The History of Science': 'In the late 16th century there was a major cr...
Monday, October 16, 2006

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We really could be a whole lot more creative with housing all our friends in the shelters available. Thanks to those who are living this. ...
Friday, October 13, 2006

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There is lots of copper piping to be had at our local demolition site, just bring a wheelie bin. And wear black in the night. Lots of mushro...
Wednesday, September 13, 2006

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Sometimes re-enchantment bubbles out of the ground.
Tuesday, September 12, 2006

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This frail 'order' is an imposter, but our desperate insecurities herd us to pay it homage. So many precious persons selling ourselv...
Friday, September 08, 2006

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The words were harsh but I could not ignore them: Your influence can brainwash you. Wealth can rob your life. Insured security can leave you...
Wednesday, September 06, 2006

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Picking our way through the slippery weed and discarded plastic, in the drizzly grey dusk, for a total immersion in the Granton manky-ness w...
Tuesday, September 05, 2006

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The greatest palaces of luxury will crumble into painful splinters and shards. Fortifications be turned to beseige. And towers crush their d...
Monday, September 04, 2006

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"Our culture is competent to implement almost anything, and to imagine almost nothing." -Walter Bruggemann
Wednesday, August 30, 2006

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And surely there is a vast need for humility, for we, Christians, are destroying much of what is good in this world, we are war criminals a...
Tuesday, August 29, 2006

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Scouring the old burnt out truck wreck for any part that could unbolt or cut away by the precipice edge of the treacherously winding mountai...
Wednesday, August 23, 2006

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Sat in long dusty grass by our vans, just woke up and ate a cheese and honey sandwich. Several days of dramatic activity have just passed, a...
Tuesday, August 22, 2006

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Chapter 5
Tuesday, July 11, 2006

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back on the road for a bit..
Thursday, June 15, 2006

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"if we get good enough at learning, we can learn from anyone, and any situation we find ourselves in." Some friends and I are star...
Wednesday, June 14, 2006

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Sunblasted by day, and showered with sparks from our fires by night.
Wednesday, June 07, 2006

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CELEBRITY IS FAILURE (i'm just writing this to see how it sounds)
Thursday, June 01, 2006

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they (we) have recently discovered a new giant creature that we didn't know had been alive all along.. It is a bit like the giant squid,...
Tuesday, May 16, 2006

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so the top deck of the bus had to be closed cos of the syringe needles left on it. ------ however but also: -the genius story written and p...
Friday, May 12, 2006

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As I have been getting older I have been thinking that maybe reading and writing could be good things to do.. If you can believe that readin...
Tuesday, May 02, 2006

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"In the 1950's the French Situationists developed a technique for travel which they called the derive, the "drift". They ...
Friday, April 21, 2006

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I climbed over the fence and walked a bit further into the tropical world, the luxuriant vegetation bursting through the air and pouring dee...
Tuesday, April 11, 2006

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Massive helicopter buzzing me on the dodgy cliff mountain side, hit by the ice of boiling breakers trying to mash the beach. A glowing red r...
Friday, April 07, 2006

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I think lots of us are prone to spending massive proportions of our time living either in the past, with our memories, regrets, and unsolved...
Friday, March 31, 2006

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“Power properly understood is nothing but the ability to achieve purpose. And one of the great problems of history is that the concepts of l...
Friday, March 24, 2006

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I have been thinking about PEACE. It is something that everyone (apart from arms companies), seems to want. But we have a range of approache...
Thursday, March 23, 2006

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"In everyday use, learning has come to be synonymous with 'taking in information'.. Yet taking in information is only distant...
Tuesday, March 21, 2006

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Some of our friends are even barred from Lidl.
Monday, March 20, 2006

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More BEARS. I haven't done a shout out to an animal for a while, but I've just recieved a phone call about this one.. The Water Bear...
Tuesday, March 14, 2006

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"War speaks to our most fundemental sense of identity: there is an 'us' and a 'them', and no possiblity of confusing th...
Tuesday, March 07, 2006

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If you watch sleet in reverse: it collects itself, peeling from the pavement, and then launches itself skywards. Get onto LiviMS radio show...
Monday, March 06, 2006

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In a world of time-distance compression. I have an idea for anyone who is craving space. (ok bear with me on this, and listen more to the ...
Sunday, March 05, 2006

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With a sunset exploding over the forest behind us, we stood high above the surrounding snowy plains; trying to predict the way we would be t...
Thursday, February 23, 2006

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"[I propose] that an enormous amount of modern ingenuity is expended on finding defences for the indefensible conduct of the powerful....
Wednesday, February 22, 2006

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The one thing you can guarantee about climate change, is that it will not stay the same. It never has done and it never will. If this is s...
Friday, February 17, 2006

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"I see it. I see it LOOMING" -pepper
Monday, February 06, 2006

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Sit on the car roof driving down the windy hill country muddy lanes with the tunes playing at a good volume. Look at the wind sculpted beec...
Saturday, February 04, 2006

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I think I can be certain that I am the only person to have ever lived, who has met face to face all the people that I have met. not quite su...
Wednesday, February 01, 2006

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“We have learned to see the world from the outside, as it were; objectively, so-called. We have learned to act on the world (and on others) ...
Wednesday, January 25, 2006

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So there was this crackling spray of blue sparks through the air and steady plumes of thick smoke. Stopped the van and ran round to the back...
Thursday, January 12, 2006

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"I can't predict what kind of community it will be, but the new community will be in reaction to the crushing bigness of systems....
Sunday, January 08, 2006

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"Trying to do too much, is amateurish." -quote for the New Year, -AS
Thursday, January 05, 2006

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so it begins... Forging ever onward into uncharted, uninhabited time.. We are guaranteed the unimaginable. What are you looking for? Looking...
Wednesday, December 28, 2005

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so: 1 tiger would beat 1 lion in a fight but, 5 lions would beat 5 tigers in a fight. and the big question: any predictions for 2006? (you d...
Tuesday, December 27, 2005

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COMPASSION NOT CONTEMPT Our placard message to the G8 leaders, the police, the media, the demonstrators, and ourselves.
Saturday, December 24, 2005

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just wait, hang on a minute.. So if, as I'm gradually coming to conclude, I am not the centre of the universe.. Then what is the cent...
Thursday, December 22, 2005

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anyone had any good ideas recently?
Wednesday, December 21, 2005

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Winter Solstice again, it's been pitch dark for a while already, Learning about what happens when the two heavily loaded words that are ...
Monday, December 19, 2005

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it has been said that "civilisation is chaos resting." i s'pose it depends on your view of what chaos is, or civilsation. I...
Thursday, December 15, 2005

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December can be good. Even Winter. Some people have known this all along. Some of us take longer to learn..
Sunday, December 11, 2005

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apparantly the reason I keep getting stopped by the police is cos I look like a junkie. there is porn trampled into the pavement, and puke a...
Thursday, December 01, 2005

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So December... Last night stumbled across a big street party, and were spinning and shouting in the electro folk, pipes and fiddles, thousan...
Wednesday, November 30, 2005

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Happy St. Andrews Day! I've been thinking about the space programs of different countries over the years, and especially about America...
Monday, November 28, 2005

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It is amazing how much can happen and change in a week. another cold Monday morning, I'm gonna go walk around..
Wednesday, November 23, 2005

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so I am sat in the middle of the MESS. and there has been mess, a smudgey mix of bacon rolls, airbourne paint, glowing paper and broken wind...
Thursday, November 17, 2005

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"The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware." -henry miller
Tuesday, November 08, 2005

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Met some really nice people from Slovakia and Austria, total strangers, gave me tea in their flat. Remembering when I was lost in the maze o...
Monday, November 07, 2005

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blue sky and sunshine, perfect for trying to fix databases. interested to have picked up some rumours of 'critiques' of urban monks....
Thursday, November 03, 2005

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it's like 49 degrees C in this computer lab, but no one else has noticed. I'm off.
Wednesday, November 02, 2005

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Plunging through a forest of wings. Every breath of air, every shadow, every muscle, the glass, the blood, the apparitions; All saturated de...
Tuesday, November 01, 2005

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Colds and rain. our bus wing mirrors got smashed off. and there's piss on our door.
Tuesday, October 25, 2005

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They say street crime in Scotland has just hit an all time high. The last few days have all been quite unusual; except in the kind of way th...
Wednesday, October 19, 2005

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"karen and i are getting rats. we have already built their pirate ship. mines gonna be called "argh"." ...
Sunday, October 16, 2005

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"YOU ARE NOT THE CONTENTS OF YOUR BRAIN" "We are to praise God with dancing. Psalm 150:4" And other accelerating visuals...
Friday, October 07, 2005

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Today I am moving to a place where I know nothing, and I have everything to learn.
Wednesday, October 05, 2005

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"Rome was not sacked in one day." -local graffiti
Tuesday, October 04, 2005

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Feeling at home, dole money, daily record, allday breakfasts and mugs of tea. Man comes in and orders 2 cans of Fanta and 2 cans of Irn Bru,...
Monday, October 03, 2005

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" Those lucky enough to be in the path of annularity and with clear skies should look for the "beads" or "gems" tha...
Sunday, October 02, 2005

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I think the two kebabs a day diet did me a whole lot of good. est. no. of diff places slept in last 5months: 51 (thanks if one was your so...
Wednesday, September 28, 2005

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Just got given some chocolate by a girl with a dog on a bridge. A total stranger. She's said I looked like I needed it. It was good.
Monday, September 19, 2005

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The air is freshfaced. A new day dawns. Thousands of new people just showed up in town who will all be here for the next 4 years or so. And ...
Tuesday, September 13, 2005

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"ALL IS WELL AND ALL IS WELL AND ALL MANNER OF THINGS SHALL BE WELL" -Julian of Norwich (an English lady of a...
Tuesday, August 30, 2005

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living on sunburn and beans. remembering time stopping present tense moments of being completely unable to escape just how irrepressible the...
Monday, August 15, 2005

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"Every man gives his life for what he believes, sometimes people believe in little or nothing and yet they give their lives to that lit...
Sunday, August 14, 2005

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"Men are from Earth. Women are from Earth. Deal with it!" -RB
Tuesday, August 09, 2005

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ok so i havn't just been drinking tea, I've been wandering around, mainly North. But sometimes when you're officially doing noth...
Wednesday, July 27, 2005

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drinking tea for a few days. recommend it.
Sunday, July 24, 2005

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too muscular to be a weasel, and too sleek a coat to be a stoat. polecat at dawn. been hanging out with the puffins, the hedgehogs, deer, ga...
Friday, July 15, 2005

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ok so I wrote like a whole article on that Monday and then didn't have anytime to write on the Wednesday when I had way more exciting ad...
Monday, July 04, 2005

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ARTICLE Urbanmonklife reporting live from Edinburgh.. (in the news-style) (for more bitesize+quirky posts please scroll down) Saturday was a...
Friday, June 24, 2005

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oh and I forgot to say.. I picked up my first hitchiker and his surfboard. Been hanging out with the only insured parkour instructor in may...
Tuesday, June 07, 2005

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"a work of art created by a whole series of lucky mistakes" -C And congratulations to our womens football team for beating Finland...
Wednesday, May 25, 2005

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Congratulations to Liverpool and any fans. You done grand!
Monday, May 09, 2005

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I have just constructed a track for a tricycle ralley.
Wednesday, May 04, 2005

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"We're at a funny stage of life," -D "Life is a series of funny stages." -K
Monday, May 02, 2005

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One day I was woken by a soundcheck. And had breakfast with a political rally as the backing track. From a big stage in park at end of our ...
Tuesday, April 26, 2005

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sleep in cupboards, sleep on trains, sleep in corridors+kitchens, sleep on motorway embankments, sleep under bikes, be careful if you sleep ...