The smallest things

Window ledge and city skyline from Coit Tower.
National Geographic Photo Camp picture by Julian Aguas
(special to the San Francisco Chronicle)

Today's picture comes from a great National Geographic project in the US of A, called Photo Camp, which encourages young people to photograph their communities and explores young people's 'views' of the world through displaying these pictures in various exhibitions. I like this photo blogging perspective on the world and look forward to seeing more projects like this run locally. I would love to know what young people see when they look around this city. A thousand portraits of faces staring at them with thinly veiled aggressive suspicion, I'd wager....

Find out more about this project here. And here. And read a thoroughly thought-provoking article on democracy and children and young people from PLAYLINK, here.

I stayed up last night until a ridiculous time having a Torchwood DVD festival at G's house. I don't like Torchwood as much as I like the good Doctor, and I have no desire to work for Torchwood as I do to be the Doctor's next assistant (especially as David Tennant, I would love to assist David Tennant), but I still could not stop watching the damn thing. Darn that alien technology.

Yesterday, my stars in the Independent on Sunday revealed that:

Physical ill-being is beyond the reach of allopathic professionals, but view alternative treatments with suspicion. The smallest things have the largest effects. Your desire to change should start with the time you get up in the morning.

And who said that reading your stars reflected the 'dumbing down' of contemporary culture?

My stars revealed three things to me:

Firstly, that Indie on Sunday readers are not stupid people. I actually had to look up 'allopathic' in the dictionary. Just think about that for a moment. I had to use a dictionary to understand my stars. Of course, I'm not going to leave you out in the cold, and I'm going to make an assumption that will also make me feel better about not knowing: allopathic means 'of conventional medicine' and is often used as a derisive term by our homeopathic friends. So, confirmation that I'm a hypochondriac?

Secondly, I was impressed with the phrase,"the smallest things have the largest effects" and I'm sure male readers are nodding vigorously right now.

Lastly, I was struck by the advice to 'start with the time I get up in the morning.' By chance on Sunday, I got up at 6.40 am, read for an hour with a pot of coffee (I drank the coffee, it was not to my knowledge, reading anything), dozed till 9 and then got up.

Would that every day would start so well. So, I've decided to get up earlier every day. I'm going to aim for pre-7am.

God help my colleagues at the Ministry - I am not known by close associates as 'a morning person.'