Interesting Links for 21-08-2012

• Stop giving your words away to social websites that treat them badly.
  (tags: web socialnetworking )
• Britian is actually on-track to have the fastest broadband in Europe
  (tags: broadband internet uk europe )
• I Fucking Google Everything (store information in my head? I'm using it for far more interesting things!)
  (tags: google knowledge internet thefuture )
• Legal myths about the Assange extradition
  (tags: JulianAssange extradition law rape )
• Bo Xilai's former mistress on display in Body Worlds?
  (tags: China wtf viaRoy )
• 'Jesus, What Is It Now?' Says Man Putting Down Swamp Thing Comic To Answer Phone Call From Wife
  (tags: TheOnion funny alanmoore )
• Spirituality correlates to better mental health regardless of religion
  (tags: mental_health belief religion )
• Pro-anorexic blogging seems to be actively helpful
  (tags: mental_health blogging anorexia )
• Believe you can change and it's more likely you'll grow.
  (tags: children motivation success learning psychology )
• Protein in semen acts on female brain to prompt ovulation
  (tags: women menstruation sperm )
• Pregnant Woman Relieved To Learn Her Rape Was Illegitimate
  (tags: TheOnion rape politics usa )
• The top ten jokes of the Edinburgh Fringe.
  (tags: jokes funny Edinburgh )
• Dogshaming
  (tags: dogs tumblr )
• Amazon Glacier - remote tape backup for 1c per month per gigabyte. That's pretty tempting for my music/video collection.
  (tags: backup amazon )
• Why do we let the Prudocracy police our sexual fantasies (rathern than telling them to mind their own damn business)
  (tags: sex fantasy obscenity freespeech )

Happy Birthday to me!

On my 40th birthday I feel like I ought to be writing a long post looking back over my life, charting the changes from each decade, and talking about how it's compared to my expectations.

But instead I shall be leaping out of work at 5:00, meeting Julie for dinner, and then going to see two mystery shows at The Fringe which she has obtained tickets for.

Sounds like a good deal to me!

3427 Wife Points to Julie!

We went for dinner at Cafe Rouge, which oddly has an emotional resonance, as we first to one when we went on our first holiday together. I had the merguez, and she had the fritôts de camembert, which looked delicious, even if that much cheese really isn't my thing. I had the boeuf bourguignon main, and it was absolutely delicious, with the beef falling apart under my fork and just the right amount of potato dauphinoise (although I could have happily had it more garlicy).

We then headed down the hill to Edinburgh Academy, where we saw Mixed Doubles, a collection of shorts about marriage written by a variety of writers. The writing and performances were both good, but it never quite hit the spot for me, partially because of the nature of miscellanies and partially because pretty much all of the scenes were object lessons in how to have a dysfunctional relationship.

After that we leapt onto a bus, crossed half of Edinburgh up to Chambers Street, walked to The Pleasance, and went to see The Boy With Tape On His Face, who was _hilarious_. Huge amounts of energy, and a fine example of someone who can make it look like they're doing random things in the middle of chaos while clearly following a well-oiled plan. I laughed until I cried, repeatedly, and he held the audience in the palm of his hand, picking people from the audience and getting them to do the strangest things, all without saying a word.

You can get a taster here, although his show this evening was funnier (and higher resolution):