Full disclosure: If you buy the book through the link, it won’t cost you any more, but I’ll get a few pennies. A recent email conversation reminded me about my much-loved book on eccentrics written by a proper psychologist who did proper research. One of the first questions he tried to answer was whether or not eccentrics are slightly mentally ill. The answer was a resounding “No!” By all the…
“Making Habits, Breaking Habits” Chapter 2
“Making Habits, Breaking Habits” by Jeremy Dean. Full disclosure: If you buy the book through the link, it won’t cost you any more, but I’ll get a few pennies. But my main motivation for doing this is to understand the book properly. What follows is my summary of the chapter. We like to think that we chose our habits on purpose. Yeah right. Habits build up slowly, like learning to…
Why aren’t I writing?
Why aren’t I writing? I’m a writer and I should be writing! I’ve beenreading John Scalzi’s “You’re not Fooling Anyone When You Take YourLaptop to the Coffee Shop”, and he often produced 5,000 words in aday. Welp. Maybe it has something to do with trying to catch up with cleaning andlaundry after the party season, and the quarterly tax return, andtaking the decorations down, and distributing my books around theisland,…
The Bell from La Verdad
Today we have a guest post by Thomas Cox from Maine, USA Being a lifelong ocean sailor, some years ago I was intrigued when I found the ships bell from La Verdad for sale in a marine antique store. I bought it. In searching for some history about the Verdad, I came to realize that the vessel was built in La Palma in 1873 and has quite a history. There…
Pitahayas
The fruits of several different cactuses are called pitahayas. The yellow ones in the picture are Hylocereus megalanthus, and the pink ones are Hylocereus undatus. To be honest, I was rather disappointed by the (lack of) flavour of them both. Some time ago I had what I think was a Hylocereus costaricensis, which was deep red all the way through, and much tastier. I wish I had a bigger garden,…
Making Habits, Breaking Habits
Christmas in Spain doesn’t finish until January 6th, when the three kings take their presents to Baby Jesus, and to good children. So it’s sort-of new year today. Or at least, it’s the first day of 2015 when I’ve had time to get off the hamster wheel for some medium-to-long term planning. So I’m reading “Making Habits, Breaking Habits” by Jeremy Dean. Like most people, I don’t do very well…