James Foreman - cushtie.com - Page 228

Author: James Foreman

  • Seeking the wrong goal

    “I don’t know, it feels like my life is devoid of purpose.” “Isn’t there anything you could do that would make a difference to the world?” “Well… I could take up making nuclear bombs like my brother.” “I don’t want to live in the middle of nowhere in Sweden!” “Don’t worry, we could live in […]

  • Sulking and coding don’t mix

    I had an unsuccessful hour of trying to teach myself R today. I’m trying to build a tool to scrape information out of Twitter and then do clever things with it, but sadly it’s not working. What’s more frustrating is that it used to work. Then I upgraded.

  • Recovery

    I meant to run a race today, but like a fool I stayed up until 2 this morning watching The Shield, a violent US cop series. That removed any chance of getting up in time for a 6:30 start, which meant I stayed in bed until almost 11 this morning, only rising in order to […]

  • Consequences

    Predictably enough, today was an utter write-off; I spent the morning nauseous and crapulent. I couldn’t face food or water until mid-afternoon, and only felt like a human being in the evening. And then the weekend musical celebration of something or other started up.

  • Overindulged

    After work, we went for a quiet drink: it had been a long week with much to do, and it was good to ease gently into the weekend. Four bucket-sized glasses of Hoegaarden later, things were going a bit south. If we’d stopped then, instead of starting in on the wine, things might have been […]

  • Possibly genius, probably a terrible idea

    I know what to do – let’s just sue the government!

  • Sick of returning to vomit

    I’m coming down with a cold, which is a ridiculous thing to happen in a tropical country. I have muscular pains in my legs, my head aches and my voice is deterioating into a whisper. I’ve taken vitamin C, paracetamol and chocolate and still I feel quite, quite grotty.

  • Settlers

    Near my office is a cafe called Settlers; it’s in a row of shops and bars that starts with a vaguely lacklustre bar and ends with one of those karaoke joints where there are no windows and you have a terrible (but possibly unjustified) sense of foreboding when you walk past. Having said that, Settlers […]

  • I’m not racist but …

    How come you never hear the phrase “I’m not racist but …” apart from when it suffixes something racist? To my knowledge, nobody has ever said “I’m not racist, but did you know that bauxite is the most plentiful source of aluminium in the world?” Then again, you never hear anyone say “I’m not hungry, […]

  • Ribblestrop

    Today I read another book set partly underground, the rather odd Ribblestrop. Rather than being full ofexcrement-encrusted soldiers, it’s populated with some fairly likeable children (one with an indestructible head, another missing a toe but with a mysterious fortune, a feisty heroine, a gang of eccentric Himalayans), some unlikeable or ineffective adults, an underground labyrinth […]