"When in doubt, leave it out," will always be an excellent journalist's maxim and holds no less true for the 'blogosphere.
For a day, I left almost everything out (apart from tweaks to the previous entry), and caught up with replies to mails. The rest of my mental equipment was engaged in quiet semi-conscious preparation for the first hefty session with Dr F., who shall henceforth be known as the Mind Juggler, in deference to her sense of fun, her patent skills and gifts (and some ... entities in the next book eventually up for review, 'Revelation Space,' by Alastair Reynolds).
At last, a shaman of a psychotherapist in her way, with whom I feel increasingly at ease now that we've cut the crap and begun some real work. Better, she doesn't adhere to any school and is open to exchange rather than some of the rites I've endured in the past.
"Juggler" because I also like the word's etymology: "Middle English jogelour, from Old English geogelere jester, from Old French jogleour, from Latin joculator, from joculari" (Merriam-Webster Online).
"When getting over a downer, indulge yourself in a shopping spree!"
That's a rather more risky favourite maxim, perilous indeed before I learned to keep track of every single cent in and out with an accounts computing programme. I got a very friendly welcome at the 'Village Voice' (Parler Paris for a change), notwithstanding the substantial backlog of credit they owed me from an error last time, and decided that instead of just recalling Gurdjieff's contribution to my mindlife, it'll soon be time to read 'Beelzebub's Tales to his Grandson' again.
I also acquired one of the most highly praised translations of Lao Tzu's 'Tao Te Ching' (Amazon US) and physicist Brian Greene's 'The Elegant Universe', since after last year's introduction to the issue from neighbourhood Webwiz François, in 2004 I'd like to wrap my neurons round "superstrings" and "hidden dimensions".
Finally, apart from a little more sci-fi, the time has come when I want a first-class reference work on consciousness and all that, and the 'Oxford Companion to the Mind', after 45 minutes' perusal, struck me as about the most comprehensive on offer.
So while it's not exactly all light reading for 2004, this 'blog seems set to take some novel further turns.
People with no qualms about shopping for books, music and video online might, by the way, need alerting to the fact that the linked Amazon sites here (UK and France) and the US one have all launched their January sales. In an extensive look at the lot over the weekend, I found a lot of dross (to my taste), but also a handful of real gems going for almost unbeatable prices.
In the past few months, moreover, I've occasionally made use of Amazon's "more buying choices" option and have so far had excellent dealings with third-party vendors, but it's worth having the patience to double-check their ratings before you part with cash for what can be some astonishing bargains.
I know a sufficiently large number of people who do still have strong reservations about using their bank card over the Internet to suggest that if you're wavering, Shopsafe (UK) or Safeshopping (American Bar Association) are wise places to drop by. Both sites include tips which are useful reminders even for those of us who do it fairly frequently.
Touch wood, I've only been really badly stung once in several years of online purchasing.
It was the devil's own job, calling for considerable ingenuity, to track down the fraud to source. I was lucky, managed it, and recovered nearly all that had been pinched, but that nearly successful sting taught me to look before leaping once you go for it.
12:17:00 AM link
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