“It’s much harder to overeat when you are paying attention to what you are doing. Most compulsive behaviors are an attempt to go numb. The opposite of that is to be mindful and conscious. Zen Buddhist teacher and writer Ed Brown once told me a story about quitting smoking. When he asked Suzuki Roshi how to stop smoking, Roshi told him the way to stop was to honor his habit: every time he wanted a cigarette, he was to wrap it in a beautiful cloth, bow to the cigarette, and make a ceremony out of smoking it… When he gave the act more time and attention, he noticed what it felt like to smoke and realized he didn’t want to do it.”

— Ran Prieur

12:53 pm  •  14 September 2011

Tonight, I shall be dining with the dead Victorian John Ruskin.

4:51 pm  •  12 September 2011

By N, aged 7.

4:40 pm  •  12 September 2011  •  2 notes

“When considering the consequences of peak oil, no everyday experiences and only few historical parallels are at hand. It is therefore difficult to imagine how significant the effects of being gradually deprived of one of our civilisation’s most important energy sources will be. Psychological barriers cause indisputable facts to be blanked out and lead to almost instinctively refusing to look into this difficult subject in detail. Peak oil, however, is unavoidable (p. 91).”

— Complete English translation of German military analysis of peak oil now available | Energy Bulletin

12:14 pm  •  12 September 2011  •  1 note

It was very windy. Dust blew fiercely into our eyes. We walked round a crater from 2002, still steaming.

In 120kph winds, N nearly blew off, but I caught her by the hoodie. H got in a bit of a flap, announced that she would have nightmares about this for years to come.

The sea, three kilometers below, was barely visible.

If I had drawn this properly the entire landscape would be black.

Two days later Etna erupted.

11:42 am  •  12 September 2011