Chixe

There are a lot of things that people say will make a big difference to your life that get dismissed but really do make a big difference.

Stopping smoking, having meals at regular times (especially not skipping breakfast) and enough sleep.

Because you get used to how you feel and that is then your bar for what is normal, you don't appreciate that you could feel better. Only by doing these things do you really begin to reap the benefits.

With regard to sleep in particular, I saw a BBC documentary a few years ago where scientists were putting forward the theory that you accumulate a sleep debt as you go along, and even if you decide to start sleeping more hours in order to get back to normal, that sleep dept has to be paid before any benefits will kick in. You're effectively running in a more zombie like state to what you could be doing when your body isn't recovered and running at full power!

That probably sounds worse than the reality - normally if you've been burning the candle at both ends and feel extra tired, it can only take a matter of days before you feel normal again, but I bet that a month or so of planned sleep where you make sure you go to bed with enough time to get 7 or 8 hours would make you feel significantly better towards the end.

Of the three things mentioned at the top, I've done the smoking and meals thing - so maybe I'll experiment with the sleep thing too to see what difference it really makes to me. The first two made a huge difference in how I feel - both surprised me in how I felt as a result.

I'm off to see Frank Sidebottom live in Sheffield :)

Just an old mechanical telephone ring sound.

Vague resolutions won't work for me. I've made lists in several categories containing goals of varying sizes and difficulty and I want to work my way through these during the year. I'm hoping the smaller easier ones being ticked off will encourage me and build momentum to deal with the bigger ones.

I watched this which helped make me decide to do it this way.

A small, general overview of my lists are:

1. Health - various goals including weight loss with several waypoints (one sub-goal is to take a monthly photograph of myself in the same place so that I can see the progress I'm making)
2. Walking - a list of walks of increasing difficulty culminating in some quite tough day-long walks with thousands of feet of ascent. I'll be doing a similar cycling list as well.
3. Photography - lots of projects - things I've thought I want to try at some point but never seem to get round to doing - I've made a lit and I'll keep adding to this so that I don't forget about them. Some of these are tiny, some much bigger.

I've started using Backpack to keep track of this lot.

So good luck everyone! :)

As well as bias, I think because everything needs to be done fast and cheaply these days, journalism has suffered and some news articles, on TV or in newspapers or elsewhere, have suffered and often read like regurgitated press releases - which means that they're biassed towards the publisher of the press release.

Governments and companies can control the news pretty well these days - it's rare that some proper news in these areas is uncovered.

A couple for good measure...

I think this photo looks a lot better than the reality...

I'm going to Chatsworth House with a group of Flickr mates to wander around the estate and gardens and see their Beyond Limits sculpture exhibition which contains all sorts of things including a large statue of Kate Moss with her feet behind her head - although that isn't the reason I wanted to go!

These things tend to be more social than photography related - which is good - I'm not really in to stuffy camera clubs and serious discussions - this will just be day out and a laugh :)

I need to do something healthy on Sunday - most likely a long walk or bike ride in the forests close to home.

Lois from Malcolm in the Middle

I'd best get a secondary offence taken in to consideration - I watched the documentary about the battle to get the world record on Donkey Kong - that is pretty good from the human drama point of view even if you're not really in to Donkey Kong and stuff! It's really good!

I'll never mention any of this again, and I'm about to shine that special light in to my eyes to make sure I don't remember it myself! ;)

Regarding Donkey Kong, Shigeru Miyamoto, creator of the character, believed "donkey" meant "stupid" in English, and assumed the name would convey the sense "stupid ape" to an American audience. When he suggested this name to Nintendo of America, he was ridiculed, but the name stuck.

Also, ponies are the best.

I never really understood how Donkey Kong was an Ape.

Well, my icon was created because in 2005 I needed one for Flickr and I wanted something that would stick out and be recognisable - there were so many photos of people with a camera in front of their face or a close up of their eye, I just wanted something different that I'd be able to spot easily in the sea of comments.

Since then, I've got to know a lot of people through Flickr and people tell me that when they see the sign my avatar came from when out and about they think of me and my flickr stream. Quite a few people have said things like this actually.

So, as time went by, I got to the point where I couldn't change it any more because it was just part of me and my photos on Flickr.

It's just occurred to me though, that other than the favicon, it's not used on my blog at all.

Congratulations! :)

But really, leave the photography to the photographer and concentrate at the job at hand! tsk tsk! ;)

I have several default tabs:-

BBC News,
email (Google Apps)
calendar (Google Apps)
Google Reader
Flickr
last.fm
9rules
9rules2
publicenergy
Traineo
Pownce

I'm going to see a Flickr contact's sculpture exhibition in Grantham tomorrow - then popping in to see him at home later in the day partly because I promised to take some infrared photos of his dogs! I'm trying to make a day of it by including a visit to Tattershall Castle as well (and depending on how interesting that is, maybe Belton House too).

Being a bank holiday weekend in the UK, Monday isn't a work day, so I'm going to try and get all of my boring stuff done and out of the way on Sunday to free up Monday. I have no idea what for yet though.

Well, I'm out walking again, trying to build up my distances in order to do the Yorkshire Three Peaks walk later in the year. So tomorrow it's a 17 mile circular walk from Ladybower Reservoir to Alport Castles in the Peak District. I'm going with a couple of photographer mates which means that progress will not be that quick because we stop to take photos all of the time. Weather looks great though :)

Because it's a bank holiday in the UK, Monday counts as the weekend as well! - so I'm hoping to get back on the mountain bike and cause myself some hardship after not doing any cycling for a while - and I need to get rid of my "winter hibernation layer" and build my fitness back up.

Early night tonight. Tomorrow Go Ape which should be a laugh (been a number of times before).

Have some work to do helping out with a mountain biking forum on Saturday afternoon, but on Sunday I'm looking to get a big walk in - I'm trying to build up my distances ready for doing the Yorkshire Three Peaks later in the year.

Just caught up with this too. Lots of loose ends for the next series!

Very entertaining though. I'd never seen it before about 3 months ago and watched the mini-series after seeing it reviewed on Charlie Brooker's Screen Wipe. I managed to catch up about 4 or 5 episodes back so have been watching them on Monday nights since then.

I'm really looking forward to more now :)

Another option is to use your own domain name - they're pretty cheap these days - you could have pretty much anything you like then.

You can then use Googles Applications to use Gmail for your domain (if you really want to use Gmail).

About 15 miles west of Sheffield, UK.

Thanks to JPhill's invite, I'm here:-

virb.com/publicenergy - I'm still moving in though so haven't got much furniture! ;)

I think everyone is different and finds their own level. If I haven't had enough sleep before a day out mountain biking it affects me noticably (not as much energy). I think it can have more of an impact than other factors like diet in some ways so shouldn't be neglected - I tend to get 6 or 7 hours typically but try and get early nights before a big day out cycling to make sure I'm fully recharged!

Incidentally, Dean Karnazes, the guy who ran the 50 marathons in 50 days makes do with about 4 hours a night!.

If you have a favicon then you just need some code in your page headers to point to it and then 9rules will pick that up. Like this:-