LJ Bio.

. . . has been updated for the new year. Last year's, for the record, was :

Ah well. Another year under my belt (and it shows), and another year down the path to EmbitteredOldGitdom. Still, it could be worse - I could be dead in a box. So for the benefit of those of you who haven't met me, I'm an unattractive overweight atheist with no sense of humour, living in the Fens with two pet goths and a genome project for company. By day I meddle with Things Man Was Not Meant To Know, Nor Woman Neither. By night I gather my friends together and make them listen to Things Nobody Should Ever Have To Hear.

Bugger.

It looks like we have a burst pipe in the kitchen. A steady drip rather than a flood at this stage, but it's definitely not underneath the bathroom so it's not likely to be anything there overflowing.

Drive-by truckers.

That's interesting. Southern Rock Opera's getting a vinyl release. There's a new Bonnie "Prince" Billy on the way too. As well as Clearlake and the Bad Seeds (although not, I should stress, in collaboration).

As sneerpout pointed out earlier today, a man has been arrested in Florida after a DNA sample indicated that he might be responsible for the 1993 rape and murder of Mia Zapata, singer of a Seattle band called The Gits that my friend Ximena was playing me stuff by the last time I saw her - in Texas in the middle of '99, I think. Articles here and here.

Further to my recent dronings (both here and in the real world) about Milgram's Small World hypothesis, there's an article in the Grauniad today about a documentary that's on on Friday. To test it, a journalist advertised in Outer Mongolia for someone to be in said documentary. She decided on a nomadic herder who'd trained as a teacher but never met a foreigner. She got to him in eight.

And thank you to original_aj for pointing out this doubtless invaluable book, which I'm sure we'll all be equipping ourselves with. Does the Pope? I'm sure he would if that's where he was.

Currently :

Listening - Suicide, A Life In Fragments, from the new album "American Supreme".

Reading - Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation.

Drinking - Caledonian Brewery's Edinburgh Strong Ale