Aldous

some things are better left unsaid. some things come flying out the mouth whether you believe them or not. i'm with Aldous "I wanted to change the world. But I have found that the only thing one can be sure of changing is oneself."

Ready

time to get the skateboard out again

photograph courtesy of sidewalk magazine

What is not

The Importance of What is Not

We join thirty spokes
to the hub of a wheel,
yet it's the center hold
that drives the chariot

We shape clay
to birth a vessel,
yet it's the hollow within
that makes it useful.

We chisel doors and windows
to construct a room,
yet it's the inner space
that makes it livable.

Thus do we create what is
to use what is not.
(Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching)

nothingness is not a reference to the absence of content, but rather to the absence of aggression. Lao Tzu does not advocate not doing over doing (the popular Homer Simpson mis-conception) rather celebrates the maximal doing with the minimal effort. the yin element is essential in all things.

the shopkeeper says,
"what is happiness? happiness is a state of mind"
an answer difficult to argue with. we decide and are responsible for our own happiness.

Happiness

Today the shop keeper asks me:
"What is happiness?"

Rant

I need to travel 220 miles. First i check the train prices my favourite (fastest and most environmentally friendly) means of travel anywhere and in any country: cheap advance fare £85. second i check the airplane prices just to get a little context: £75.20

aaaaaahhhh, i exhale the way a man does when he's so tired he forgets he's going to have to breath in again. the plane is 3 times quicker and costs £10 less but getting on a plane and flying 200miles on a non-essential journey over ground is a complete joke if you ask me. so, why is the plane £10 cheaper to travel 220 miles than it is to get on a train that costs a fraction of the running cost?

I'm walking along and a man walks past followed by the mysterious eyes of a woman wearing a burqa. is there anything more disgraceful to the human race than a woman hidden in a burqa? Nicolas Sarkozy said that burqas are "not welcome" in France, commenting that:
"In our country, we cannot accept that women be prisoners behind a screen, cut off from all social life, deprived of all identity"
wearing a burqu has been banned in French schools since 2004. thank God someone can still call a spade a spade "touché, appeler un chat un chat". Home Secretary Alan Johnson raised the UK terror alert from "substantial" to "severe" despite no intelligence to suggest why, best make sure and put our soldiers in the airport to play it safe ay? ah, wait, they're in Afganistan shooting people....inconvenient

America has sent over a thousand marines armed to the teeth to Haiti, taken over the airport and turned it into a military base. now planes full of aid, medicine and water have been denied landing while Chinooks swarm in full of bullets for what Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called a major effort to provide earthquake relief. i'd give you the link to the youtube video, but it's mysteriously disappeared.

i'm in a lot of pain, anger and irritation comes easily. my back has locked up again like it did in Australia, i can't really walk or lay down, my left shoulder can't take any weight or tension and my guts hurt from being burned and lasered by a surgeon on wednesday. to make things worse all i seem to hear from people left right and center is moaning and complaining about this, that and everything else. it's depressing, but i really do understand. i do my very best not to encourage or amplify negative sentiment as i walk along the high street in the town centre at midday in the dark, past empty bankrupt retail outlets while a well dressed student plays a funeral song on her amplified violin.

Jesus Christ what happened? did we lose a war i don't know about? sometimes i think that some people are happy being miserable, which of course is fine but it won't do for me. Another way to look at things is to look at the cause rather than the symptoms. where i live there is rubbish left everywhere, it really irritates me so i pick up rubbish and end up carrying it round for miles because there aren't any rubbish bins. transport is the same, taxation is extremely high to deter motorists, but the alternative is very infrequent, irregular and very expensive public transport. a poor alternative is no alternative at all. however, we should accept such things and have the attitude to either change them or live with them. life isn't easy but we're all in the same boat so lets get on with it. you won't get clean by rolling about in the mud.

BPM

i was hooked up the heart monitor,
"you keep fit?"
"not really"
the alarm kept tripping signaling cardiac arrest,
"don't worry about that, it's set to 'British'!"
"yeah we're guna have to stop having these healthy people in"
the nurse said as the alarm went off again. 45 BPM. ace.

Gordon Ramsay

it's easy to dislike a person like British chef Gordon Ramsay, the harsh language, the 'in your face' and often aggressive attitude. my first experience of him on the television i remember him hiding parma ham in a pizza then feeding it to a vegetarian who enjoyed it immensely, then telling him afterwards in a cocky manner and watching the poor guy turn white as he threw it up. i didn't entertain him for a few years after that stunt. i think it took quite a while before viewers came to accept him at all, never mind to actually like him.

One of my favourite television series was Kitchen Nightmares where he toured restaurants around England and later America turning round worthless businesses led by ambitious, but mostly deluded business owners, and in my opinion genuinely changing peoples lives for the better, leaving them with the skills to excel. good reality television.

i recently finished watching the first part of his new three part series titled "Gordon Ramsay's Great Escape" it's called this because things haven't been going well for the guy. in the new series he travels in India to find out about great Indian food from the richest and poorest places. a great show.

say what you want to say about the persona that is Gordon Ramsay, but, the bottom line is this: the guy is a winner. full stop. but a winner at what cost? well it comes at the cost of a few people finding him rude and i'm sure a few people being upset, but, the man is at the top of several trees with a list of accomplishments longer than an Indian banquet guest list in a career that doesn't take prisoners, it executes them. a person that constantly faces challenges (sometimes life threatening) runs marathons for charity and is constantly re-inventing himself and facing new fears without a moments hesitation.

personally i don't own a TV, and this suits me like smoke does a salmon. it helps me enjoy the sprinkling of television i have watched over the past year or two. no doubt a little of the guy goes along way, but i used to be a much rougher version of the person i am now. i upset plenty of people, rattled a few cages, told people how i saw it and thought very little of it. but i'm a smart guy and a cheeky monkey with it. i'll never forget leaving a woman in tears, then bumping into her years later and her thanking me saying that a bit of truth was what she needed. it's a mistake to be closed minded about any behaviour in a world where things are simply not as they seem, nor are they otherwise.

the media love to see a hero fall, but he's a fighter that won't stay down despite countless beatings. in modern Britain's age of extreme political correctness Gordon is a rare gem. the very nature of genius is to be at least a little mis-understood. and lets not forget, nobody needs a kick in the face but some people need a kick up the arse for their own good.

sorry, but it's true.

Smoothie

so i've taken to using the amazing 'older than me' blender given to me by the living legend that is my mother. these days diet is a very topical issue, and it should be. English diet is terrible, diet is a massive influence on health and bad diet is completely reversible and preventable. put crap in your body and you should expect to feel awful and to get sick. on the flip side if you've read a book on diet and tried to follow the instructions you might have found that most nutritionists are insane and following their custom designed diets makes eating a complete misery, how good it might be for your body then becomes completely irrelevant leaving me running for the pork pies screaming "i need it or i'll murder somebody!"

"Enzymes are organic catalysts that increase the rate at which foods are broken down and absorbed by the body. Found in plant foods such as fruits and vegetables, enzymes are destroyed when these foods are cooked. this is why fresh raw produce should constitute at least half of your diet. The quick and easy digestion of these foods, made possible by the enzymes will give you greater energy and health." (Juicing for Life)

if you're anything like me it's difficult to eat enough fruit or veg, and the stuff from the supermarket can often be rubbish and tasteless putting me off eating fruit altogether. however, stick it all in a blender and it's ace. thin it out with water, milk or fruit juice an even healthier add a little raw leafy green veg, like broccoli or kale (as in the picture). great thing about blenders is you can customise the drink exactly to your taste, you can vary the ingredients endlessly, you can ingest more fruit and veg than you would like to by itself and blenders are cheap to buy and easy to clean.

an easier, quicker and tastier way to eat more fruit and veg- great. because to put it quite frankly: if you don't eat fruit or veg you're f**ked.

Z-Trip

If you haven't heard, allow me the pleasure of providing the link to an exceptional DJ www.djztrip.com
RJD2 went pop ($) and left a bit of a hole behind where he used to be. Z-trip plays the tracks i want to hear that seem familiar, that i have in fact never heard before. in my opinion that's what it's all about. fresher than a tube of toothpaste. if it doesn't have you shaking your fist in the air and shouting 'yes!' then donate your ears to charity because other people need to use them.

Soldier boy

screw driver in hand i'm fixing the door, the cold weather has made it stick and fail to close properly. in such icy weather i'm wearing my paratroop boots, plain green trousers, black jacket and a burglar style thinsulate hat (the only hat i haven't had stolen). this lovely ensemble is nicely rounded off with a Glock 6" combat knife securely holstered in my belt, the perfect tool to scrape out the ice in and around the door frame and shave off any splintered wood around the door. unaware they're in earshot my two new neighbours confer quietly as they approach walking up the stairs to the entrance of our building,

"he's a bit..."
"oooo i see what u mean"

i keep this amusement for myself. for me in rough weather, function often supersedes fashion. i often wear warm comfortable clothes, practical footwear and dark colours that don't show dirt. sometimes i look very much like a bad-ass squadie in civvis. difficult not to look like that in those boots without a load of dreadlocks on top of your head, difficult not to wear them in the snow when the soles are made by a tyre company and the fabric is thick leather, breathable, waterproof and they cost £30.

super hardened high polymer lightweight plastic cases the military uses to transport guns and rocket launchers i use as luggage for my laptop and camera gear. an LED torch housed in aircraft grade aluminium that's brighter, lighter and more battery efficient than anything in it's class. the Glock knife sharp and strong with a hole in the holster so it doesn't fill up with rain, a clip on the hilt so you can't grab it from my hip and the top guard which just 'happens' to be the perfect size to open beer bottles. fancy that, the standard issue knife of military forces worldwide has a hook that opens beer bottles....what a co-incidence!

i think the things that attract me to the military issue items that i possess isn't a romantic idea about war or an insecure attempt to project toughness to those around me, but an enthusiasm and excitement about things that work. i'm not a mechanically minded person that likes to disassemble things, take them to bits then repair them while putting it all back together. i'm a person that likes it when none of that is necessary. to buy and own things that other people might scoff at with distaste, but items which last me a decade, are beautifully designed, operate perfectly, are repairable and keep me and my equipment safe. quality long term.

i do think that it's a shame that such huge financial and intellectual resources are invested in weapons of war when they could be practically applied to improve human life with medicine, healthcare, logistics, welfare, housing, communication, peace and prosperity. i don't wear the boots to kick hippies, i wear them to keep my feet dry.

Blood

the blood clinic feels a bit like Dracula is hiding around the corner....!

More Snow

snow, makes even the bins look nice.

snow is brilliant

Year end

Christmas

6 smiley faces on cars later, and i finally got it out of my system. a real white Christmas in England, pretty difficult to top that.

Snow

i got home 30 minutes till sunset, 3 miles to the top of the hill. jogged a large portion of the way happy snapping as i went. when i got to the top i found a guy where i was guna go, so i shot him. they'll never find the body, murrha harr... turns out he was an artist http://richardsweeney.co.uk/

Snowboarding in Manchester

Yesterday i had my very first snowboarding experience, in Manchester of all places. i like snowboarding. it was a indoor 'proper snow' place, kinda like a giant fridge, little kids being dragged round in tyres by their folks, tobogganing, snow ball fights. what a great place.

Fall in

Epping Bowl from william johnson on Vimeo.

The biggest baddest custom built piece of mayhem i ever fell into with a video camera.

Spooky

the other night i had a walk home in the freezing fog. it was the type of weather you wouldn't be surprised being murdered in. spooky

Waste

There are some things and thought processes that i cannot begin to understand or can ever imagine wanting to. to know why somethings happen is to be better informed, but what does it change? walking home i see a packet of chips, but, it's full and its sitting on top of the bin next to the cigarette ends. not only has someone bought or had bought these chips, but they've discarded all of them, during the day without a drunken night for an excuse of wastefulness. not only that but they don't have the tact to actually put them IN the bin. some people...

Absolutely

just about as sharp and swift a chemical kick to the head can be.

Block Rock

i had to leave the careers centre early today because someone threw somebody else across the table and the staff hit the panic alarm. i'm feeling optimistic about my employment prospects.

Home

back home. Melbourne to Huddersfield, summer to winter, 25ºC to 1ºC, sunshine to rain and frost. on the flip side the French markets are in town so it's cheap gourmet eating while i sit back and enjoy some music through some proper speakers.

Keep Calm

when things fall apart, the unexpected can help us back to our feet. the other night i was left stranded 10 miles from home after my bike fell apart. i left the bike for dead to head home on foot. several blocks later i'm under a railway bridge, i glance across to read a sign

"keep calm and carry on"

i immediately felt better. i did some research and found out that in 1939 the British Government's Ministry of Information commissioned a series of propaganda posters to be displayed throughout the country upon the outbreak of war, yet the sign i read was in Melbourne and this was 2009. this particular poster was never issued and was never seen by the general public.

its possible a person called Mark Coop is responsible for this posters revival and the message has found its way to the other side of the world. impressive.

to face adversity is nothing new. a sign, a helping hand, a smile, such little things can make a huge difference. i'm back in England now, it's raining and it's dark in the middle of the day, at home i look at my copy of the sign and i'm reminded of the people who came before me and how much of life is not about what we face each day, but about how we face those challenges. with the right attitude there's very little that can't be done.

Mark Coop is selling high quality screen prints of this sign from his site online.

click on the post title to visit the online shop or click here

Dabi

Danger at breakfast, time travelling with a salmon and cream cheese wrap. in the desert with my dessert. the grass ain't green cos there ain't none. air-con suits my cheesecake just fine, half way there where the sun shines. late but arriving early.

Australia

yeah i'd like a light fruity red please. i'm sold a 14% wine for £10 that's as weak and delicate as a pit-bull terrier.

it goes without saying the 3 months i have spent in Melbourne are not enough to discover the scene there is here. there are some great restaurants, cafes, bars and shops, but how is that different from any other cultural capital? for me it isn't. being from Yorkshire and living in Melbourne was like living a long way away from home without being anywhere different. Melbourne has some cutting edge things but nothing truly amazing, except the public transport system and screw-top beer bottles although the actual beer in the bottles is terrible and alcohol everywhere is extremely expensive, think upwards of £6 a pint.

so in a few hours i take a long flight back home. England... well... it's cold and wet, but the water is good, the alcohol is cheap and the internet is fast. so when it's been a cold wet day i go home, have a cup of tea or a beer from anywhere in Europe for a £1 and feel a bit better about everything. i can eat the best meat and vegetables. i can listen to the best music on the best sound systems in the world. i can switch the radio off when bob dylan starts his radio 2 show, then switch on my computer and use the internet at a speed that doesn't make me think it's 1999.

if nothing else, every 10,000 miles i travel i like to think i learn another lesson. maybe this one is that i should start going on holiday instead of trying to leave the country.

Mullets

Never Back Down

'Never Back Down' was a film released last year that i just finished watching. i would summarise the film as 'Karate Kid for a fast food generation' ie a little less Japanese philosophy and a little more fighting. the film isn't groundbreaking, and at times it's so corny that it's difficult to watch. so, this should beg the question as to why i'm writing about it at all. well i am because in the film are questions raised that we all face in life at one time or another and in one form or another and in this film in the end they get the message right.

as you may know big questions are a big interest for me and so are martial arts. in my opinion such things are only interesting in movies as a theme if they address the question 'why learn martial arts?' and ultimately answer or offer insight regarding their true philosophy. From my limited understanding and what i hope is the attitude for the major martial arts worldwide is that to learn martial arts is to learn something with fundamental benevolence. to learn how to better oneself and to become a stronger and healthier person for the greater good and a better world. as you may know this is also a big interest for me.

you may ask "how can studying about fighting benefit the world?"

well my answer is: "if we purge the fear of each other from our minds we gain a better understanding of ourselves. we can calm our aggression, deflate our egos and move closer to the true nature of the self. with an attitude that violence is weak, martial arts give us the means with which to fight evil and injustice, but the direction to avoid fighting each other"

'martial arts' and 'martial sports' are two different things:

martial sports are the things that are broadcast on the television and taught at your local fitness gym for fitness. martial sports are in my opinion an attempt to make clear the distinction that these are things learnt for health of the body rather than lethal killing techniques, while often martial sport ends up being an ironic contradiction as the popularised violence that is sold to us and broadcast into our living rooms.

our abilities to talk and reason with each other are our most special and sadly most under appreciated qualities as human beings. in becoming strong, we lessen the need to fight, increase our ability to see strength and merit in others and encourage opportunities for real peace and prosperity. as 'to make an enemy a friend is to vanquish the powers of destruction'

in case you didn't get all that from the film 'Never back Down' i thought i would write it all down :) +

Luna Park

Epic

It's surprisingly easy to describe the sensation of dropping in the bowl at Epping skatepark: find a rather high first floor balcony

then fall off it.

As you might imagine, having some wheels on a piece of wood under your feet isn't exactly comforting if you find out you survived the fall and are now facing a concrete wall known only to spectators as the other side of the ramp.

i would have complained if i wasn't too busy trying to wipe the smile off my face.

Blunt

bluntslide. photo by Chris Kehoe

Roc Raida

He was a true pioneer and a humble genius. Anthony Williams b.k.a Grandmaster Roc Raida (May 18, 1972- September 19, 2009)

Join the Dots

i've been a fan of the Nextmen for a while now. their latest album 'Join The Dots' was released recently. unlike any other they beautifully blend beats and styles to create a truly exciting and eclectic album.
if you haven't got it, get it.

Rock Ling

it's a deep sea fish called Rock Ling, sometimes the fish can be over 50 years old. it's good.