“Q: In your earlier philosophical writings…. did you have any stylistic ambitions?

Sartre: ….I wanted to write as simply as possible in French, and I did not always do this, as, for example, in the Critique de la raison dialectique (which was due to the amphetamines I was taking).”

Team News International, Wapping Sky are going to have a jolly time with French bureaucracy next season.

This morning there were two nervous cyclists. Now there are two happy much-more-confident cyclists!

My job rocks.

(While I'm here: anyone London-based who wants bike training? Funding available in some boroughs.)

Hello Long neglected livejournal.

Is anyone still out there? Of have you all gone to facebook?

Self Non Self
December 9th, 8pm - late
The Moustache Bar, Stoke Newington Road

And some other COP15 links as well, while I'm at it.

Spent some time down there yesterday helping anchor tents and feeding the rocket stove. And listening to half a dozen activists patiently try to explain consensus process to Julia Pendry (Met officer-in-charge-of-talking-to-us) and her accompanying aide. Which was entertaining, and slightly surreal.

Also went CLIMBING with doop, & now have my very own climbing shoes which actually work in a way which the hire ones don't really. I am slightly achey now.

Will e-books spell the end of great writing? [The Guardian].

This article makes me want to smash the laptop I am reading it on into a wall. Not because I agree with the author that digitising books somehow lessens them and that e-books, computers and online social network are resulting in a less rich life for all involved - no, it's just that it's the sort of stupid oh-I'm-so-old-fashioned faux-intellectualism that infuriates me.

Listen: if your enjoyment of reading is enhanced by the physical books themselves for whatever reason, keep buying books. They're not going anywhere anytime soon. Personally, though, my enjoyment of reading is largely unaffected by the media involved and gets a boost from anything that allows me to read more often (i.e. when I wouldn't otherwise have a book with me) or offers a greater choice of material (because I'm carrying 1000 books instead of one or two).

Also, have an owl in a bobble-hat:

Climate Camp have set up camp for the weekend in Trafalgar Square. Tripods & the big Xmas tree - very picturesque. Come along tonight for a ceilidh or tomorrow for workshops and other excitement. The kitchen marquee is going up at the moment - food available tomorrow, hot drinks available tonight as soon as the rocket stoves are up.

I was there until about an hr ago, at which point I realised that I couldn't stay standing up any more (been on my feet for much of the day and my knees still aren't up to that). Unfortunately that is about 30 min past the point at which I *should* have stopped standing up. I see ibuprofen in my future. I will be back tomorrow, anyway.

You can get the same Christmas tree every year! I wonder if you can just leave the decorations on...

http://www.christmastreeman.co.uk/Content/default.asp

Interesting news story about a study that suggests that loneliness is a socially-transmitted phenomenon. (Found here on Graham Harman's wonderful blog. I'm not that bothered about Harman's philosophy in general, but his advice on writing and study is astoundingly acute and helpful.)

Self Non Self
December 9th, 8pm - late
The Moustache Bar, Stoke Newington Road

It's Jojo's birthday! HOORAY!



See you later xx