You may not rate my riding style (I would label it “cautious”) but my video has monkeys 🙂

My advice is to maybe take it easy to begin with, start with a route you know you will be able to achieve

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365/26 26/1/12 monroe[/url] by rOcKeTdOgUk[/url], on Flickr

I filled it in but it seemed to be more about the qualities needed to win in sport as opposed to anything I can relate to mountain biking, which is about getting fit, pootling around, and er, basically not racing anyone!

Game of two halves in terms of stories about drugs in the press today

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2090941/Magic-mushroom-therapy-treat-depression-happen-UK-inside-year.html

Race – it’s just a figure of speech. Now get out on your bike. It’s nice and sunny today 😀

There are websites that list every tune for every advert – they may be able to help?

I took it very slowly after having this done in May. I was in Brazil though and without my bike, but I did go to the gym. I began doing just 5 minutes on a sitting down gym bike and slowly built up to 30 minutes over the course of a couple of months. I am no expert, but I really think you should not rush back on the bike, and you will also be given many exercises to do to build strength back up which will help.

I think the answer to this riddle of is it Elf or not is in his name

Ha! STW

Or have I been watching too much Sherlock?

While I am in no way anti chocolate brownies, can they in fact be classified as “cake?” I think of them more in terms of a “slice” or an offshoot of the scone genus.

I am thinking that you really need a cafe for a mid-ride cake as otherwise it would get mashed up with all the radical sickness of a downhill rock garden nature I normally experience.

Has to be carrot cake, and then some Galloway cake for post ride coffee and cake bit.

My book is self-published in paperback (Lulu), Kindle (Kindle platform) and also ePub (Lulu).

The way I see it is that it is incredibly difficult for new authors to find even an agent, let alone a publisher. I see it now as being in a band, where you make your own CDs to sell at gigs, and build up a local following before looking for a record deal.

Many successful self-published writers of fiction publish their novels for 99p and then develop a readership that way. They can then start to sell novels for £2.99.

My book of course is specialised non-fiction so I have built up interest with a blog, magazine reviews and a facebook page for it.

If you do self-publish, it can be a great way for other related things such as book reading events etc.

With all this Playstation and Wii nonsense nowadays I just wonder how many kids have lost out in their lives due to never having experienced this?

Although I take that back as it seems to have relaunched recently!

Well I didn’t find the waterfalls as I took the wrong road out of Drumfries but still a cracking ride today.

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16th January[/url] by simon ralli[/url], on Flickr

I took a series of Edinburgh Castle as there was a stunningly clear and colourful sunset. Very happy

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13th January Edinburgh Castle[/url] by simon ralli[/url], on Flickr

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Edinburgh Castle[/url] by simon ralli[/url], on Flickr

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IMG_3094[/url] by simon ralli[/url], on Flickr

Complete set here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/simonralli/sets/72157628869542857/with/6696728955/

I also got very lucky with a rainbow at Drumlanrig!

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9th January[/url] by simon ralli[/url], on Flickr

Another amazing day today. I am just off on my bike looking for a waterfall a friend told me about. Will be taking a lot of pics today if I can keep warm enough. 😀

No riding for me but the last few days have been pretty amazing in Edinburgh. Back on my bike tomorrow after a month off.

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13th January Edinburgh Castle[/url] by simon ralli[/url], on Flickr

Well if anyone wants to join here is a group I started at the beginning of 2009. Can you believe it is now in its 4th year!

http://www.flickr.com/groups/onephotoeveryday/

And a happy new gear everyone! 😀

But science is systematic, observable, reliable, repeatable and more importantly testable within our current understanding of the universe.

Although I well understand this, science does not progress in this manner. Many scientific “discoveries” were in fact new perceptions of meaning, i.e. new ways of understanding the same data coming in through the senses. When Galileo looked through his telescope, he did not “see” mountains on the moon. He had to come to this conclusion after many observations. Our “seeing” is not purely sensory, it is loaded with our conceptual understanding of the world. Therefore the statement above, as interpreted by many scientists, can be regarded as “naive empiricism”.

This problem of interpreting the world through our senses, while also considering them as unreliable, leads us to many disputes in science as people have many different ways of interpreting facts.

Therefore I agree with BenHoldsworth, although the problem of course is people interpret science through many many world views, paradigms, assumptions and metaphysics, you name it. This is a huge problem for science.

Well here we go.

I joined a Spiritualist Church group and have undergone training in being a medium. I was told many times I was clairvoyant but never believed anyone. I joined their “circle” in order to explore things for my own curiosity, and to experience that which the medium was experiencing.

I think it is not a black and white type phenomena. I think some low quality mediums are only picking up psychic energy, and therefore just because they can describe a loved one who has died is not actually proof os survival of death.

Obviously I have also undergone shamanic initiation, and I find many explanations of the afterlife very cheesy and not authentic. I think the deeper realms of reality are very much stranger than we realise.

As for physics and the second law of thermodynamics, well many people used that (and some still do) to prove that evolution can not possibly be true, so just citing that is no proof at all really, especially when much of the matter in our cosmos can not be explained.

And then finally you have many valid philosophical reasons for questioning the validity of modern scientific methodologies. I am not saying science is wrong, just that I find it somewhat limited and arrogant in the extreme that it is the only path to the “truth” and that science can and will eventually be able to explain everything. But this argument is one of questioning the notion of “being” which is maybe too much for a Wednesday morning on STW : )

However, for me I would say go and experiment yourselves with lots of things and don’t just try and discuss this rationally through a very small percentage of your intellects!

None of what I have said will make a blind bit of difference to what anyone here thinks. My approach has always been to explore things for myself and see how this matches other people’s concepts, assertions and their own experiences. And yes, there are many dodgy “mediums” out there, and there are many terrible shaman, I am not defending them, just saying what I have explored.

I came off my bike riding down the spiral cycle path bridge today. The back wheel just came out from under me, very embarrassing!

Yes good Captain.

I guess I won’t risk an internet purchase and will visit some shops instead. I’m getting her a nice Christmas present but its her birthday in a few weeks time and she said she wants one like mine 🙂

If there were any justice in the world Mrs Toast’s picture should at least have made it into the STW calendar!

Wasn’t that thread about some chap wanting a logo in black?

I wouldn’t want to pick a negative thread, but in terms of outstanding posts for me Kiwidave’s long post about his experiences as a tour guide was as good as any magazine article.

Just had my first proper magazine review in Resurgence Magazine! * gulp *

It’s funny to see what people pick up on in a review when you think they may have focussed on other aspects of the book.

http://www.resurgence.org/magazine/article3578-a-shamanic-quest.html

But it is also of course great to get feedback for the next writing projects too.

hello everyone. please don’t expect too much. i’m old and tired.

What a shame.

There are old trolls.

There are bold trolls.

There are no old bold trolls!

If I were to offer some sage advice to “theprawn” it just be these four words:

“Keith Chegwin” “Naked Jungle”

Beware of comebacks you know, tread carefully as very few people can be like the great Mick Hucknall and just keep going and going.

🙂

I do though now have very high expectations of interesting threads. Welcome back into the salt n shake crisp bag of multicoloured M and Ms that is STW.

I find the whole Olympics thing heartbreaking. It could be so good. People talk about corruption and waste in the EU, and that is terrible, but look at how our own politicians treat money here in this country. I am pretty much going to attempt to miss the olympics as much as possible and try and focus on other things.

Well for me the kindle version outsells my paperback by around 3 to 1, but then the kindle version is around 1/3 of the cost of the book right now.

For me reading a story on a kindle is fine, but for academic works I really feel the need for marking sections, adding notes and flipping back and forth and I can’t see myself giving up books any time soon. Maybe a few which are not so important to me I would read on a Kindle.

Maybe if interfaces improve in the coming year it may get better, and there is the advantage of space when travelling, but I also have a dream of having a mini library in my home one day with all my books finally on shelves.

I remembered Danny Hart’s interview after his famous run when he won and he said there was a stream forming a channel and he just went for it. Well for me there was an element of using the force but the force wasn’t with me much. But then the force isn’t with me much in 25 degree heat, sun and perfect vision 🙂 Great ride though and at least the climb was out of the wind, quite sheltered.

I’ve not heard any of their songs. Anyone want to recommend any so I can experience them?

Heh

I have three blogs

The Transition of Consciousness
http://www.transitionconsciousness.org

Ayahuasca Curandero (stuff related to my book)
simonralli.wordpress.com

Shamanic Drumming
http://www.shamanicdrumming.co.uk

There are five of us on a desert island. We each have £1.

I decide to be a bank, so you all give me your £1 to look after.

I lend one of you a fiver. There is now £10 on the island.

This is a great example but for me it helps to distinguish between money and debt. In this example, the opening balance already consisted of “money” but in reality what it that?

Another way to look at it is to say that £5 is deposited in the bank. The £5 that get’s “lent” is not actually the same as that money in the bank’s deposits. In this system there is £5 in the bank and a “£5 debt. But the bank is going to ask for interest too, say another £1 which does not exist. More debt needs to be created in the form of money lent to ensure that the first debt can be paid off. This is where we are at with the current banking crisis. There is not enough “money” in the system to pay off all the “debt” hence a crash. Banking is just a ponzai scheme that will always crash 🙂

The descent from the summit of Carn Daimh on the longer of the trails will be almost three miles long, making it one of the longest in the country.

Can’t argue with that can you – just so long as it isn’t too rocky!

Well that didn’t go too well did it. Skywalker has gone. Do you think we maybe need a bit of work on the old welcoming situation?

Hello skywalker if you have gone back to lurking!

Funny that because he wasn’t on the tracks at Ae either!

😮

Good grief Simon. Is that extra winter layers or a few months of good livin’?

Heh – a mix of extra layers, plus a few additional pounds due to me not getting out much as I’ve been writing, and the love of a good woman! 🙂

Elaine

I thought myself looking at the photos but it is very much the right size. Must just be the angle of photo or maybe my glowing aura making me look bigger than I am 🙂

Also, John discovered that my seat post although in theory the right size, was in fact just a tad too small, and I think the seat may have been a tad lower than I normally ride it with.

Yeah – I was a bit chilly but plenty of riders there just in base and mid layers! As Davy-G said – its a better day than the whole of summer!

The northshore was a bit dicy though – starts off with chicken wire then you ride around a corder to be confronted with no wire and solid ice. Managed not to end up in the gloop tho.

I guess my rucksack looks a lot bigger with the cover on – I just likje to keep things dry and clean – can’t argue with that really? 🙂