swimming with the fishes

Its a fabulous day outside, well looking out the window anyway. I am in the computer room listening to Bruce Springsteen and some quite horrible (in my humble opinion) 1980s music and I do hope that nobody heard me listening to 'Holding out for a hero' and 'I'm still standing'. All those jokes about me looking like Elton John, which cut me deeply, have stopped the moment I got rid of my glasses and now that the hair is getting longer than Elton's. Having lived through that horrible experience, I do not think badly of my bullies, *sniff*, even though if they do not watch themselves, *even bigger sniff*, they might end up like Jade Goody - chubby, stupid, racist and alone. You know who I am talking about!!! :)

Something interesting in the news today and something quite different. There is this Slovenian born 52-year-old man, Martin Strel, who wants to swim the Amazon river. Its not quite the same thing as swimming the English Channel or swimming the Seine, as this river has quite a nasty list of inhabitants: sharks, pirhanas, crocodiles, a vast array of snakes and all sorts of really 'interesting' fishes. For example, there is this fish that the locals call the 'Brazilian vampire fish', which can track you down even in that murky water as it is attracted by blood and urine. Why its called a 'vampire' is because, looking like an eel, it will slither bravely into territory where no fish has gone before, attach itself to you and have a 'wee' drink of your blood. I don't really know what happens after, does it just remove itself from a dubious part of your body and go, or does it leave a small itching present behind. Perhaps we can ask Martin when he gets out of the water after his daily swim, as he might be dragging a few of these vampires in his wetsuit. Its apparently going to take 70 days. Good luck to him. If you want you can follow Martin on the web; http://www.amazonswim.com/main.php

Started doing research for my final article for the 'Risk Reporting' course today. Its quite an interesting course, but as most of us are more occupied with the looming dissertation deadline, this course is not getting the maximum effort it deserves. Leaving the dissertation aside, there is something about the theory we talk about, which makes me think of Jurgen Habermas and his 'crazy ass' way of expressing the simplest of things and thus the connection between the two German writers is not a positive one. I am researching material to write about the global warming impact here in Wales and this, I must admit, is pretty interesting stuff. As it is my last worthless essay / article of my academic career, perhaps I will put some 'extra' effort into writing it. Will keep you posted.

Enjoy the sun, the rain, the stars and the wind. Most of them, according to scientists, will change and will be more brutal in the future. So enjoy it while it lasts.