Travelling Rings

Travelling rings look totally cool. Here's a bit I stole from the swingaring website since they explain pretty clearly what it's about.

"Traveling rings are unique outdoor physical fitness equipment that provide enjoyable and challenging exercise for the whole body. The structure consists of support posts and a top beam from which 8-10 rings, spaced 7-8 feet apart, hang on swivel chains 6-7 feet above the ground. Ring swingers "travel" from one ring to the next by using their arms, legs, and trunk to build momentum. The swivels enable the swinger to spin around and encourage more creative use."

There is a video about it too.

The best bit is that they are in Santa Monica which is close to where Jen lives. So my fitness goal is now to go there and be fit enough to use them.

The first step is working out with kettlebells. I ordered a DVD about it which I just got today and it looks really cool. It's all about full body exercises. I've been finding the writings of Josh Hill very enlightening as well. He's the one who inspired me to buy a kettlebell (by writing about the 300 workout), and had the link to that travelling rings video.

I'll be taking some before and after photos, but I won't be posting anything until the after photos are worth seeing.

Adventure holiday

Who wants to go halves with me in an adventure holiday.

Pointy teeth

Something to add to my wishlist.

And some other toys

Unnatural ichor

I bought myself a caesar salad for lunch today, from one of those places that has it in a big tub, and they scoop you out a serve, being very careful of course not to give you too much of the good stuff they arrange artfully on the top to make it look like there is lots of it.

Because of this artistry, it appeared that the dressing was just on the top and not on the lettuce where it needed to be. So I made a simple request - Could I have a little more dressing please? Now, I was ready to be told that it would cost extra, and I was ok with paying for extra mats. But instead he told me, in a very grumpy way, that it already had dressing on it. He wasn't even a grumpy, old guy. He was relatively young and good looking and should have been happier with life, even if he was working in a cafe which (I was soon to discover) sells dodgey salad.

Now, one of the guys had to go 'out the back' where they keep the dressing to put it on - hence the apparant inconvenience - and on eating said salad I realised it must be because they keep it in a huge vat. It was quite clearly insipid institutional style dressing usually served in university food halls and hospital cafeterias. Not the creamy goodness that you're supposed to get from a place serving real food.

I have never worked out for sure how they make this vile stuff but I am beginning to suspect it is whole egg mayonaise. Either that, or it's secreted from the glands of huge pulsating insect queens much like slurm, but without any of the otherwise appealing qualities.

Photos at last

Books! Books! Books!

I was at Angus & Robertson today and I picked up a copy of their Top 100 as voted by YOU, the Australian Public.

Now we all know popularity doesn't automatically mean worthwhile since a lot of people are morons. But, it's a useful indicator of what is worth investigating so you can make your own decisions. Also, it's also safe to assume that people who actually read might be a little more trustworthy than average. However, I may be biased because I'm a bibliophile.

Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is that I'm going to try to read all the books on the list. I've said this before about other lists and given it a go. Fortunately the lists have a core that doesn't change so each time I try it, I get closer to my goal.

This is the list as it stands so far. Key: read | partly read | unread

1. Harry Potter Series - J.K. Rowling
2. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
3. The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien
4. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. The Power of One - Bryce Courtenay
7. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
8. My Sister's Keeper - Jodi Picoult
9. Magician - Raymond E. Feist
10. Angels and Demons - Dan Brown
11. Cloudstreet - Tim Winton
12. The Bronze Horseman - Paullina Simons
13. It - Stephen King
14. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
15. April Fool's Day - Bryce Courtenay
16. Mao's Last Dancer - Li Cunxin
17. Eragon - Christopher Paolini
18. The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien
19. Gone with the Wind - Margaret Mitchell
20. Good News Bible
21. Jessica - Bryce Courtenay
22. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
23. Alchemist - Paulo Coelho
24. The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
25. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
26. Nineteen Eighty-four - George Orwell
27. Ice Station - Matthew Reilly
28. The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
29. A Fortunate Life - A. B. Facey & Robert Juniper
30. Cross Stitch - Diana Gabaldon
31. Perfume - Patrick Suskind
32. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
33. The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy
34. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
35. The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
36. Little Women - Louisa M. Alcott
37. Tully - Paullina Simons
38. Shantaram - Roberts Gregory David
39. Wild Swans - Jung Chang
40. The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
41. Angela's Ashes - Frank McCourt
42. Tuesdays with Morrie - Mitch Albom
43. The Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett
44. The Potato Factory - Bryce Courtenay
45. The Reef - Di Morrissey
46. The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver
47. A Child Called It - Dave Pelzer
48. Clan of the Cave Bear - Jean M. Auel
49. The Memory Keeper's Daughter - Kim Edwards
50. Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
51. Emma - Jane Austen
52. The Thorn Birds - Colleen McCullough
53. The Horse Whisperer - Nicholas Evans
54. Marley and Me - John Grogan
55. River God - Wilbur Smith
56. One for the Money - Janet Evanovich
57. The Pact - Jodi Picoult
58. The Five People You Meet in Heaven - Mitch Albom
59. Animal Farm - George Orwell
60. The Godfather - Mario Puzo
61. The Ancient Future - Traci Harding
62. The Great Gatsby - F.Scott Fitzgerald
63. Year of Wonders - Geraldine Brooks
64. Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
65. Dirt Music - Tim Winton
66. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
67. The Notebook - Nicholas Sparks
68. The Stand - Stephen King
69. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
70. Interview with the Vampire - Anne Rice
71. Scarecrow - Matthew Reilly
72. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
73. A Million Little Pieces - James Frey
74. Across the Nightingale Floor - Lian Hearn
75. Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
76. Assassin's Apprentice - Robin Hobb
77. Dune - Frank Herbert
78. The Bride Stripped Bare - Anonymous
79. Girl With a Pearl Earring - Tracy Chevalier
80. War and Peace - L.N. Tolstoy
81. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Hunter S. Thompson
82. Anna Karenina - L.N. Tolstoy
83. The Eyre Affair - Jasper Fforde
84. The Celestine Prophecy - James Redfield
85. The Blind Assassin - Margaret Atwood
86. Flowers in the Attic - Virginia Andrews
87. Plain Truth - Jodi Picoult
88. Kane and Abel - Jeffrey Archer
89. The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
90. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
91. Brave New World -Aldous Huxley
92. The Other Boleyn Girl - Philippa Gregory
93. The Secret River - Kate Grenville
94. The Devil Wears Prada - Weisberger Lauren
95. Four Fires - Bryce Courtenay
96. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
97. Rich Dad, Poor Dad - Robert T. Kiyosaki
98. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
99. The Poet - Michael Connelly
100. Desert Flower - Waris Dirie

I can't believe I've only read 24 of these. I'd like to know how many books I've read.

Johari Window

Jen had a link to this on her blog, and I decided to get one of my own.

Johari Window

It's a way of comparing how you think of yourself to how others see you.