An Open Letter to My Body

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To my Body, and those others who may find the following relevant,-

First of all, I would like to say that I'm sorry I havn't looked after you better. I'm sorry I forgot to take my vitamins, and I'm sorry for all the crap I ate, and Liver - I'm especially sorry for what I've put you through. I'm sorry for the walls I jumped off and sprained you, and the ill fitting shoes I wore, I'm sorry for the time I gave myself piercings. Actually, I'm not that sorry about that, we looked cool that year.

But seriously - you're doing a great job. I want to thank you for all the things you've taught me and all the things you let me experience. Thankyou for hugging and for stretching and for fucking. Thankyou for dancing - you remember that? You remember how close we were then? You knew what I wanted you to do before I even did, you were strong and beautiful and I really trusted you. I'm sorry I let that slide. It wasn't your fault that Knees gave way, I over worked you, and I'm sorry. I'm trying not to be angry with you any more. I'm still kindof scared about it, but I'm going to try and build that relationship with you again. I'm scared incase I can't do it anymore, and I'm scared incase it's not the same, but I am going to try.

I'm sorry for the times I said unkind things about you, for the time's I compared you to others. I'm equally sorry for the times I compared you favourably to others, because that breeds a competition that is, quite frankly stupid. I'm sorry for that wierd time when I really hated you - I hope you don't still hold it against me. I hope I didn't damage you too much. I actually really like a lot of you - Feet, you know how I feel about you. Is that wierd? I don't care if it is, I really like you Feet, you're strong and you bend wonderfully. I like Nose and Wrists too. Actually, all of you are pretty great.

Body, you are doing a really great job. I promise I will try to do better - I'll moisturise more, and I'll eat more fruit, and I'll not try tumbles that I know I wont be able to do! I promise I'll listen to you more, so if you're unhappy, just let me know. Anyway, yeh, thanks for holding it together. I really do appreciate everything you're doing, just so you know.

Yours faithfully,

Rio

Random Acts Of Kindness Day - 40 Ideas for your Karma

So according to Heart 106.2 fm (and I fail to see any more reliable source), tomorrow is Random Acts of Kindness Day. I love this idea, small  - or big - ways in which you can brighten someone elses day without them expecting it is such a lovely thing, I thought it might be nice to all jump on board. You know how I feel about bandwagons. Thus, I give you a little inspiration for creating a little nice feeling in the world.

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1 - Buy something from a vending machine. Leave it there.
2 - Give your friend that piece of your clothing they've always coveted. Or, you know, lend it for a month.
3 - Sign up to be an organ donor.
4 - Send thankyou cards to your parents, for being your parents.
5 - Do your housemate's ironing for them.
6 - Offer to walk the dog, before your dad does it.
7 - Write a note and stick it on the mirror of a public bathroom saying 'You are beautiful'.
8 - Buy your boss a coffee, even though they get paid more than you.
9 - Pick up litter you see in the street.
10 - Leave encouraging notes inside books in the library.

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11 - Actually buy a Big Issue for once!
12 - Let someone else have your parking space.
13 - Send a card to one of your old teachers, thanking them for what they did for you.
14 -Fold down the pages in a book of poetry that you think someone will like. Give it to them.
15 - Give up your seat on the bus, not just for an old person.
16 - Do everyone else's washing up.
17 - Let someone else have control of the remote, all night.
18 - Buy a treat for your pets.
19 - If you don't already, start recycling.
20 - Write a list of ten things you think are awesome about a friend and hide it under their pillow.

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21 - Call a random number (after setting your own number to private!) and loudly sing Bob Marley down the phone.
22 - Offer to mow an elderly neighbour's lawn.
23 - Say good morning to people you dont know - and smile.
24 - If you get good service, make a point of telling the person's manager.
25 - Give your partner a massage, don't get one back.
26 - Take an hour to do whatever frivolous, lazy or outrageous thing you want to do.
27 - Tell someone you think they're beautiful.
28 - Write to your favourite author (or their children) telling them how they've impacted your life.
29 - If you visit someone in hospital, spend a bit of time with someone else who doesn't have any visitors.
30 - Call an elderly relative.

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31 - If your the boss, let everyone leave half an hour early as a surprise.
32 - Get up early and make breakfast for your house.
33 - Give blood.
34 - Introduce two friends who you know would get on great but have never met each other.
35 - Leave home-made snacks on the desks of people at work.
36 - Tape a pound in a phone box with a note saying its for anyone who needs it.
37 - Leave flowers on a stranger's doorstep
38 - If someone tries to give you a flyer in the street, take it.
39 - Hug the next person you see.
40 - Always give way in traffic.

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Got any more ideas for how to spread a little love?

Inspired doesn't even cover it.

Today on Twitter, I found a very despondant tweet from my lovely friend Millie - "Overwhelmed by the feeling that nothing makes a difference". Now Millie is one of the most active and passionate people I know, and for her to be down really made me think about how frustrating life can be sometimes, how sometimes it feels like you're just banging your head against a brick wall, or that the whole world is against you. I promise you that the littlest things you can do to make the world a better place are making a difference, the world is constantly changing and reshaping, and its actions both small and large that make that change for the better. And no, its not always easy. Here are some women who made a huge difference, that history somehow forgot... absolutely inspiring, beautiful, pioneering, amazing.

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Irena Sendler (1910-2008) saved around 2,500 Jewish children from the Warsaw ghetto in the Second World War. Despite being captured and tortured by the Gestapo, she never revealed the identities of the children (who are now grown and living full lives) or her accomplices. She escaped after one of her guards was bribed, and was later nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.

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Rosalind Franklin is arguably the most important woman in science ever, yet most of us have never heard her name. She was a key player in the team that unravelled DNA, the team that won a Nobel Peace Prize for it in 1962 - but Rosalind had died in 1958, aged just 37, after battling ovarian cancer. The NPP is never awardes posthumously, so Rosalind went entirely unacknowledged until 1968, when her colleagues publicly recognised her hard work.

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Murasaki Shikubu (c.978-1030 approx) wrote The Tale of Genji, which some say was the first great novel, and others say was the first novel, period. She wrote it (basically inventing the art form of the novel) after her husband died, leaving her a single parent. Tragically, due to her time, very little is known about her, but her novel survives as a literary masterpiece.

You CAN make a difference!!

Stamina.

Whilst on my pre Christmas health kick (I went for a run the other day y'all!), I came across something I'm sure most sports persons are well familiar with; the five componants of fitness:

♥ Stamina
♥ Speed
♥ Strength
♥ Skill
♥ Suppleness

As I dragged myself around the perimetre of Sefton Park, I got to thinking about these. They seem to me to be not only key to fitness, but pretty key to life, so I'm going to have a muse about them all in a little mini series - Fitness For Life or something, we'll see if I can come up with a witty title.

So stamina. Perseverance, mind over matter, keeping going. We all know its a lot easier said than done, but I am constantly inspired by the people around me who refuse to give up. I know people who are struggling with their health, their relationships, their family, their courses - I know a couple of people who are struggling with all of them! But they havent given up, and in the words of Cheryl, if its worth having, its worth fighting for. Que famous thoughts -

When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.
- Franklin D. Roosevelt

Fall seven times, stand up eight.
- Japanese Proverb

If we are facing in the right direction, all we have to do is keep on walking.
- Buddhist Saying

If you are going through hell, keep going.
- Winston Churchill

I know how lucky I am, in so many ways, but I can empathise with the people out there who feel like they're getting to the end of their line. When you reach that point where you think, well, at least it can't get any worse, and then life just craps all over you again! But you know what, you keep going. I am constantly amazed at the strength people have, when it comes to the moment, the sink or swim - well, you swim. You have to. There are always going to be times in life when everything seems dark and hopeless, but - I've said this before - this too shall pass. From the limited life experience I have, and the extensive life experience I've gleaned from others, here are my top tips for keeping up your stamina...

♥ Lean on the people around you. There will always, always be someone willing to share the load, sometimes you just need to reach out to them.

♥ Focus on the end, the light at the end of the tunnel, the reason you're doing this in the first place.

♥ Keep it in persepective - there is always someone worse off than you.

♥ Play to your strengths; pick your battles.

♥ Stop putting it off. If it needs doing, it needs doing, and you'll feel a million times better once its done.

♥ On the other hand, give yourself a break from time to time, emotionally and physically. You only work at your best when you're properly rested.

♥ Practice perseverance, its a skill like any other. Even if something doesn't especially matter, if you follow it through, you'll be in better stead when something that does matter comes along.

♥ Never, never, never give up!

Demolition 2010, The Millbank Riots and a montage.

Yesterday was a real eye opener for me as to both the power and the ugliness of the human race. I've been yelled abuse at, dived out of the way of riot vans and had my hand shaken by an MP over the course of a crazy day.

When we left Liverpool at half five yesterday morning, there was a palpable excitement amongst us. Perhaps a student protest labelled 'Demolition', routed past Tory HQ was doomed from the beginning, but we were passionate about our cause and prepared for peaceful protest. After jumping off the coach (in the middle of a road in packed central London), we took up our placards and joined the throng. It was exactly how I'd imagined it to be - a vast gathering of young and old, united in protest about keeping education available to all. The placards ranged from the somewhat pointless and petty "Nick Clegg has a small penis" to the rather witty "How will I be able to afford to go to Hogwarts now?!".

We were marching against the proposed cuts to education funds, which would lead to University tuition fees being raised to £9000 a year. Obviously, this would mean many people were unable to go on to Higher Education - and I believe that education is a right, not a financial privilege or commodity. Admission should be based upon ability and potential, not how rich a family you come from. In his election campaign, Nick Clegg promised to fight against this saying "Tuition fees are wrong" - it doesn't get much clearer than that!

Obviously there was some reasonable frustration when he went back on his promises - many students voted Lib Dem purely on the strength of this promise.

Overall, my experience of the protest was a hugely positive one. There was a real sense of camaraderie (not to mention all the socialists), it was a lovely sunny day and we all felt strong and passionate about why we were there. Throughout however, there was a real anti-Tory undercurrent, which was tangible from the start, but not really a problem. Obviously, the alliances of the crowd were heavily biased, but this was not an anti Tory march any more than it was an anti Lib Dem or even Labour march - and to be fair, Clegg did take most of the bashing chant and placard wise.

As we came to the end of the march (unfortunately having missed the NUS president's speech), the march was dissipating and we were a little unsure where to go. Seeing a crowd around Millbank, Tory HQ, we began to head down there to see what was going on. Thank god, an NUS delegate stopped us and warned us that things were kicking off a little, and that we were better to keep out of it! I had heard someone shouting before that Millbank had been set on fire, and frankly, hadn't believed them, thought they were just trying to rile up the crowd. Its scary how easily people can get sucked into the mob mentality in that kind of situation. As we crossed the Thames, we were at the head of a crowd of people, still chanting and brandishing their placards peacefully, when we suddenly had to dive out of the way of Police riot vans, which were certainly not going to wait for us to dawdle out of the way!

Finding ourselves in a nice little pub, we watched events unfold on Sky News. People had broken into Millbank, initially just to shout and voice their opinions. This had quickly gotten violent, with people throwing bricks, smashing glass and setting fire to the building. Some were on the roof, throwing fire extinguishers down into the crowd (of their own protesters!!). THIS IS SHAMEFUL AND RIDICULOUS! It makes me so angry that people were choosing to be violent and vandalistic, that was not why we were there. Unfortunately, the Met had kept the riot police stationed outside Lib Dem headquarters, assuming (fairly), that this would be the target for any wayward action! The people who were involved in the Millbank riots were, in my opinion, looking for a chance to behave worse than animals, they had had their faces covered all day (and certainly when they later appeared on the news) - and that to me says that they knww they were in the wrong, and were intending to cause trouble. If they were genuinely fighting for their cause, they would be proud to take any punishment that resulted from their actions.

As we walked back along the Thames to our coach, we were met with a variety of responses. Many Londoners congratulated us on our peaceful actions, saying they believed in our cause. We were stopped and interviewed by the Washington Post. Particularly touching to me was the Lib Dem MP who stopped us in the street, shook our hands and apologised for her party going back on its promise. This meant so much, for her to say she supported us, I wish I knew who she was! It just goes to show that you cannot lump all MP's together, on any matter.

Sadly, those were not the only comments we received. Even as we were walking back at six o'clock, students were heading toward Millbank to join the mob - one guy even began to hurl abuse at us in the street for not doing so. He said we were betraying the cause, that we needed to fight together to gain back every inch we could. Well... excuse me? Its not exactly civil war. And what exactly were they hoping to achieve? Where do they think the money to clean up after them is going to come from? It'll be straight out of taxpayers money, not reeally helping to close the deficit eh? To be honest, it terrifies me how mindlessly violent human beings can be toward one another - and I think the Police handled the situation brilliantly. They get a lot of bashing for how they behave in riots, but speaking from what I saw yesterday, they did a brilliant job of staying calm, ignoring taunts and keeping people safe.

I only hope that the few hundred who behaved so shamefully don't detract from the message of the 51 and a half thousand peaceful protesters. I hope their mums saw them on the news, and that they get into a lot of trouble quite frankly.

I even made a montage.

Walking for water, the Poverty Challenge - my friend Maggie is AMAZING

My friend Maggie is amazing. In the words of Ruth, she's the kind of person I wish I was. She's a real citizen of the world, and involved in so many ways making our world better. At the moment, she's doing the Oxfam Poverty Challenge, in which she has to walk 4 miles before she can drink every 4 litres of water. The idea is to raise money and awareness for the conditions people are living in everyday, and how much we take things for granted. This one really made me think, just how much we do take simple things like turning on the tap as granted, when for some people, clean water is just not readily available. Maggie is being wonderfully strong, and I urge you to follow her blog, support her and make a donation!!

MAGGIES BLOG

Me and Mags at the Ellipsis Launch party, being classy as always. Bit of a contast -

Maggie, I thank you (and everyone else who is doing amazing things!) on behalf of our world!

The Virtues of Not Giving A Shit (or, how I learned to let it be and be happy)

This has been a pretty stressful year. I went to uni, dropped out of uni, my family got stranded on the other side of the planet, I had my drink spiked, I’ve been robbed, I got really actually ill and had to stay in hospital for like, a month, and then I went back to university.  I’m definitely due some good karma!! But this, this is not a post of self pity, this is a post of ‘fuck you life, you don’t win!’. Nolite te basdardes carborundorum and all that.

Around Easter, I was pretty damn stressed. I was lonely and bored after leaving university, I’d just broken up with someone, I was stuck in a dead end job I hated and I had no idea where I was going in life. Generally speaking, I’m a very ‘whatever’ kind of person, to a fault, but there was just so much going on, and seemingly no light at the end of the tunnel, it really started to get to me. I was miserable. And that misery continued for quite a while – not helped by my getting ill obviously. I wallowed basically, wallowed in self pity and apathy and sadness. At the time, there wasn’t actually anything practical I could do to improve my situation, and I despaired.

There wasn’t any special moment, an epiphany or revelation. The realisation came very gradually, with the faithful love of a lot of special people in my life – friends and family. There wasn’t anything I could do about my situation, except to accept it and deal. And no, of course it isn’t that easy. You can’t just stand up and say “I accept my life as it is, I am happy”, it doesn’t work that way. But I stumbled across a little phrase that really meant something to me.  

That doesn’t mean it’s easy. That doesn’t mean it won’t be long, and painful, and a lot of hard work. But it won’t last forever. It will pass, and things will get better. And that was enough for me to be able to pick myself and carry on, or at least drag myself on. I realised how supportive the people around me had been, and how lucky I was to have that. I realised that I had the rest of my life ahead of me, to do whatever I wanted to do. I realised that holding onto the dark times wasn’t going to help anybody. I realised, that I should, for a while, just not give a shit.

So when my boss was whining at me for something that wasn’t my fault, I tried not to give a shit. When I was lonely and wanted a cuddle, I tried not to give a shit (pets are helpful for this one too). When I was too poor to visit the friends I missed like hell, I tried not to give a shit. Because while ever you’re putting your energy into being miserable, you can’t put that energy into anything positive. I’ll say that again – while ever you’re putting energy into being miserable, you aren’t putting energy into being happy.. If those thoughts make you sad, they aren’t worth your time. Sometimes you have to do stuff you don’t like, but you can always help your mental attitude towards it. And usually, you only have to do things you don’t like to give yourself the opportunity to do something you do want. And even if nothing good is going to come of it? Fuck it. Hating on it will not achieve anything. My friend, let it be, and stop giving a shit.

Pale Blue Dot, with foresight (or - everyone alive should see this)

A few days ago I quoted the wife of Carl Sagan on his death.

Well, here is the work of Carl Sagan. Everyone alive should watch this video.

It is amazing. I'm not very knowledgeable when it comes to science, but I was actually inspired to buy the book 'Cosmos', just out of fascination and admiration for its author. He gives the science of the world around us a magical quality which I think we've really lost; the wonder of discovering the world around us. Children have it - joy at seeing a new type of animal or finding out how something works, but somewhere along the way we lost that wonder. I want it back.

"For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love."

"Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere."

"Personally, I would be delighted if there were a life after death, especially if it permitted me to continue to learn about this world and others, if it gave me a chance to discover how history turns out."

"Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known."

"The universe is not required to be in perfect harmony with human ambition."

"When you make the finding yourself - even if you're the last person on Earth to see the light - you'll never forget it."

"Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a humdrum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people."

Awesome, in every sense of the word!

I have beef with your beef.

So everyone in the world knows about Lady Gaga's recent meatylicious attire to the MTV Music Video Awards. Now, normally, I love a bit of Gaga. Not massive on the music, but I'm usually quite intruiged to see what bizzare shit she comes up with next. But... dude, seriously?

This guy is complaining that she only used cheap cuts. $100 dollars worth of meat he said. Asif, you know, if she'd used nice juicy rumps, that would be cool. I'm pretty big on animal rights, but this is not a vegetarian - holier - than - thou speech. I wish I didn't feel guilty about eating meat, I love meat. I just can't enjoy it knowing something died for it. My mind wanders. I heard she was doing it as an animal rights protest - which is erm, ironic? But apparently no. On The Ellen DeGeneres Show (some US equivalent of GMTV or something), she said it was actually do do with rights for gay people in the military....

"If we don't stand up for what we believe in and if we don't fight for our rights, pretty soon we're going to have as much rights as the meat on our own bones," she said. "And I am not a piece of meat."

Can anyone else make sense of this??!

Perhaps I'm just being dense. Or perhaps she just went a bit too far trying to be kooky and didn't quite think it through...

Gushful yet thought provoking.

At the risk of being very gushy and cheesy, today I am going to write about friendship. Specifically, I am going to write about my friend Rebecca, who is one of my closest and oldest friends - this is not to the detriment of my many other amazing and wonderful friends, just she's a good example.

Beccy and I met at a party when I was 13, and she needed to use the bathroom and I was passed out in the bath. It was the first proper party I went to, and I had not handled my alcohol well. Since then, we've been pretty tight, and she is unfailingly forgiving, kind, hilarous and a hugely good influence on me! I remember being massively and retardedly jealous when she got into a serious relationship, but it turns out Chris is equally lovely, and puts up with my crazy for her sake!

She's really been there for me over the years, from driving me to the middle of nowhere at two in the morning when I had to be somewhere in an emergency, to not minding when I threw up ALL over her carpet. In her bedroom, the corridor and two bathrooms... it was not my proudest moment. But the point is, she loves me anyway! I often do find myself asking exactly what she (and all my other wonderful friends for that matter) get out of our relationships!

So what makes a friend to you? Honestly, loyalty, a sense of humour, trust, affection, all of these are important to me. And I have different friends who specialise in different things. Thats whats so beautiful about friendship, that its limitless - you can't ever fill up your friendship quota! I'm aware that this post is massively gushy, but it's also incredibly heartfelt. I've had a really shit summer for various reasons, really really shit, and it's really made me realise how important my friends are to me and how good they are. All my friends are wonderful, and I am so grateful to them!! And I wuv them alllllll. Gushing over.

Its a sheep and a lion! And they're FRIENDS!!!!

Romanian lions and bad priests.

My beautiful friend Vicky came to stay with me this weekend, from daarn saarth, and we had a lovely time being very country in the Lincolnshire Wilderness I call home, except for an extreme series of fuck my life moments when Vicky fell very dramatically from a horse and then I - less dramatically but more annoyingly - lost my phone. It came back to me though, calm yourselves. Turns out, there isnt an awful lot to do in the South Yorkshire North Lincolnshire area, but we did go to the Yorkshire Wildlife park and see ROMANIAN LIONS. So much better than shitty African ones. They had been rescued from Romania (to the utopia of Doncaster, obvs). I love lions, ever since a childhood crush on Disney's Simba. Which with hindsight is more than a little disturbing.

Its so true.

There were meerkats aswell, and - I'm throwing it out there - if anyone wants to get me a meerkat for my birthday (18 DAYS GUYS NOT THAT IM EXCITED AT ALL). Or a wallaby, that would also be pretty cash. We went to pet them at feeding time and I was all like "Wallaby! Jump in my bag! I'll give you a good life!!" holding my bag open, and we got some seriously dodgy looks from the ranger. I think I could have made that wallaby happy.

                                     

Although I do look a bit like the wallaby equivolant of a peadophile here. A wallophile. 'Hmmmm, yesss, hello wallaby....'

Hilarious fun at the wildlife park aside, something seriously pissed me off this weekend. Some *insert expletive of choice* pastor in America thinks it a great idea to burn copies of the Qu'ran on the anniversairy of the 9/11 terrorist attacks?!?!?!?! Excuse me? Yes, its actually not a South Park joke. Reverand Terry Jones of the Dove World Outreach Centre, Florida, is organising a mass burning of the holy book of one of our earths major religions. As you probably no, I am not religious in the slight, but this makes me so angry. I just dont see why people feel they have the authority to decide that what they believe is definately right and therefore everyone else is wrong. Or actually, even if you think that, fair play as long as you dont BURN THEIR STUFF. Tezza Jones justifies what he's doing by quoting the Bible, paraphrased as any text than contradicts the Bible is evil an therefore should be destroyed. And somehow, he intends to go through with it, despite being advised by, well, pretty much the whole world, that its a total dickhead thing to do. Aside from the political implications, the direct prosecution of memers of a multi-cultural Western Society and the sheer pointlessness of it, its just such a wanky thing to do. I'm not religious myself, but I used to be very, and someof my closet friends have really strong faiths, and I see the joy and peace it brings to them, and I feel its a good thing.Why cant we just all believe what we believe, and mind our own fucking business when it comes to what makes other people happy? Gees, this doesnt even just apply to religion, its sexuality, dress sense, what kind of music we like - who the hell gave us the right to judge?

My uni friends - the A1 Mafia, now known as Club Heartbreak and The Love Shack respectively, had an unwritten (actually, it may have been written..) rule that we would not judge each other. The first rule of Mcnair... well, actually I'm not supposed to talk about it, but you get the gist. And that one simple rule has worked so well. We're so varied as a group, in backgrounds, morals, ideals and ambitions, but we all get on really well (mostly), cos we can say you know what, its different to me, but its you and I love you for it. And I'm gna stop writing now before this actually turns into a Martin Luther Jnr tribute speach.

But seriously Pastor Jones. Not cool.

Lean Mean Green Machine

Lets talk world. Something I've become really passionate about over the last couple of years is the environment, and our responsibility to look after it. We are so small in the grand scheme of the universe, and yet for some reason we feel we have a prerogative to use the earth in any way we want. The earth is BEAUTIFUL and I find it heartbreaking that so many people dont appreciate it. My friend Vicky - who inspires me in so many ways to be a better person - was the one who really turned me on to looking after the environment. Just little things that become habit can make such a difference (and its probably good karma too. I am all about the karma at the moment). Not leaving lights on. Turning the TV off standby. Re-using plastic bottles. Take the bus - even better, walk. Recycle recylce recycle! There really is no excuse not to.

Thing is, whether or not you believe in global warming or global cooling or whatever the fashionable theory of the time is, you can see the effects of human disrespect with your own eyes. Litter, landfill sites, great factories belching out pollution like they had one too many sambucas, only their vomit hangs in the sky like a great cloud of death! Okay, perhaps theres a little hyperbole there, but the point stands.

I truly believe that there is nothing special about humans beyond a little extra white matter, and, like Daddy Parker says, with great power comes great responsibility. And we are tiny! Its like an ant destroying your christmas dinner. If you're struggling to see our insignificance, you should watch this. Damn, you should watch this anyway, its amazing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p86BPM1GV8M&feature=fvsr

KARMA YOU ARE MY BITCH.

Thats right people. You know the firm belief I held in my own indestructability, temporarily faltering under debt, rejection, illness and general bad times - well its back. RIO MATCHETT IS LUCKY. I dont want to jinx anything yet - why tempt it - but lets just say good things are happening to Rio. The world is Rio's oyster. Rio is the lady of fortune, the seductress of situation. A voyager on the stormy sea of opportunity, and let me tell you, she is riding those waves. Karma - karma is Rio's bitch.

It occured to me recently, that I have somewhat fucked up my karma, with various antics, some mentionable, some not so. And, I was very very in need of some good karma. It was then, that my beautiful friend Beccy presented me with a solution. Beccy is one of life's good guys, she's everything my mother wishes I was, honestly. One of the amazing things she does to make the world a better place was a perfect opportunity for me to reconcile with karma. So... I've been knitting. Knitting squares to make blankets, for old people's homes.

Yeh baby! I got the whole family involved - the fancy white one with the cable, that was my Dad. We've been like a furious knitting machine, its highly compulsive. And - well, watch this space for confirmation of my AWESOME good luck! Clearly, doing good deeds just to get something back DOES work. J. S. Mill was right, we dont want none of this deontological crap. Thats what a semester of philosophy taught me, and I have put it into practice and it works. I suggest you go and create some good karma now!