Bury me in my....

...biodegradable recycled-paper burial pod.
plzthnx.

Alternatively, "two new technologies have eco-geeks (not to mention sci-fi fans) excited. The process of alkaline hydrolysis involves liquefying your body in a solution of lye and water, resulting in a pile of bone ash and a bottle of biofluid that you can pour on your houseplants. One of its leading proponents, a Scotland-based company called Resomation Ltd., claims that the procedure has a carbon footprint 18 times smaller than a typical cremator. In the other procedure, called promession, a corpse gets freeze-dried with liquid nitrogen and then shattered into powder, Terminator-style. Neither of these options is commercially available yet, but both the Mayo Clinic and the University of Florida use alkaline hydrolysis to dispose of their teaching cadavers. So, you experimental types—why not turn yourself into the ultimate recycling project and donate your body to science?"
Source

Quote of the day

"Adventure is really a soft option. It requires far less courage to be an explorer than to be a chartered accountant."
-Peter Fleming, 1933

Anyone got any better ideas?

Theodore Dalrymple, British ex-patriate and author of "Not With a Bang but a Whimper: The Politics and Culture of Decline" (a collection of essays), despairs of the 'social pathologies' emerging in Britain in recent decades. He considers a major cause to have been the direction of Britain's social welfare policies, which have left "many people in contemporary Britain with very little of importance to decide for themselves. … They are educated by the state (at least nominally) … the state provides for them in old age and has made savings unnecessary … they are treated and cured by the state when they are ill; they are housed by the state if they cannot otherwise afford decent housing. Their choices concern only sex and shopping.

"No wonder the British have changed in character, their sturdy independence replaced by passivity, querulousness, or even, at the lower reaches of society, a sullen resentment that not enough has been … done for them. For those at the bottom, such money as they receive is, in effect pocket money, … reserved for the satisfaction of whims. As a result they are infantilized. If they behave irresponsibly — for example by abandoning their own children … — it is because both the rewards for behaving responsibly and the penalties for behaving irresponsibly have vanished."

He also has plenty to say about the pitfalls of the contemporary approach to morality generally.

He makes a good case, but I can't really imagine what a solution might look like. I find myself wondering if perhaps our generation, having this kind of thinking so deeply ingrained in us, are just going to have to let the postmodern phase play out, until our kids get sick of it and look for a more positive direction. But maybe that's just laziness on my part. Because, like everyone else apparently, I'm full of inbuilt resistance to making hard decisions and choosing a direction - especially if it involves making impositions on anyone else.

Housekeeping

From 14 Feb until I go overseas in July, I'm renting a little apartment in Riccarton which I shall probably have all to myself. I'm spending a little more than I planned to, but I think it will be worth it, because it's quite a wonderful place, and I hope you will all find ways to make extensive use of it. I'm currently plotting ways to make the most out of it, and possibilities definitely include gigs and the like (quietish ones). Because it's a very old building that nobody cares about, I will also have free reign to decorate it as I please :D

There's also potentially a spare room, so if anyone knows anyone who needs temporary *cheap* accommodation, for a couple of days or a couple of weeks or whatever, let me know because it would be cool to have people to stay, and that would help me meet my costs, so everyone wins. Even if you have friends visiting for a night or whatever.

There's a few things I'm needing to kit it out, and before I go ahead and spend money, I thought I'd check if anyone has any of the following items to spare. Let me know the price, or I'm very happy to babysit anything you don't want to actually get rid of, or maybe even babysit and then sell on for you in July.

Things I would love to take off your hands:

• leftover paint, in pretty much any quantity and any colour that's not awful. The place is currently arrayed in garish primary colours, so anything would be an improvement, even if it ends up a bit patchwork.
• fabric of any substantial size, and any sewing stuff you will never use again, e.g. threads. For curtains and decorating.
  
• lots of cushions and beanbags for sitting on
• vacuum cleaner
• maybe an oil heater? something economical
• stereo? (well I might as well ask :)
  
• armchairs, particularly anything with a somewhat old-fashioned look (I might be a bit fussy about this one)
  
• small coffee table (as in really small, just to put between a couple of chairs)
  
• standard lamp/s
• indoor plants
  
• cake tins :)
• big jars for bulk foods. If they already have bulk foods in them that's fine too!
  
• small bookcase

Not sure yet what kitchen stuff I'll need. My landlord apparently has a bunch of stuff I can use, but he hasn't dug it out yet so I don't know what I've got. Might update this once I know. I imagine I will probably need pots and pans and an electric jug or kettle.

My church is having a garage sale the day I move in, so anything I haven't got hold of by then I will hopefully be picking up there for cheap. So let me know quick if poss!