Author: martinjamesphd
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Results are in!: diet week #5
Exactly 1 stone lost in 5 weeks! If you had have offered me that at the beginning of the journey I would have snapped your hand off, so it’s paradoxical that I feel a little disappointed week to week. 1.8 + 1.8 + 1.6 lbs losses (the last 3 weigh-ins) isn’t much to be excited…
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Cava pilava
As I’m sure you all know Prosecco exploded in the UK in 2008. Don’t get me wrong it was readily available before but few paid it much attention. Then the recession hit and the masses went looking for an alternative to Champagne. Prosecco became the popular choice and soon after the default choice of fizz…
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“White Collar” & “The Power Elite”
I’m very happy to add these classics to my library. C. Wright Mills was a great sociologist, a particularly bright star in a golden age of American organisational analysis. The observations in “White Collar” resonate 70 years on, which is an apt reminder of how continuity prevails over change. I am less familiar with “The…
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“Why we can’t afford the rich”
My first read of the new era was Andrew Sayer’s exceptional “Why we can’t afford the rich” (Polity Press, 2016). I discovered Sayer’s work when I first became familiar with critical realism, which is now my theoretical toolkit of choice. I love the depth of analysis here, especially the relentless cross-examination of “greed/inequality is good”…
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“THIS COUNTRY” (BBC)
I doubt I’m the only person raised in a former mining town wondering “how did they get it so right!?” “Kurtan” is the average Hucknall 20-something, or at least was back in the 90s. The hair (which I had a worse version of), the outfits, the backwater mindset – it’s uncanny. Such a good show about the UK’s hopeless…
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“THE LAST DANCE” (Netflix)
If this isn’t the ultimate nostalgia TV I don’t know what is?! I played basketball in junior school and loved it. I was pretty good too (for a chubby white kid), so was disappointed to find out that my high school didn’t have a team. Nonetheless, during those formative years “The Bulls” turned basketball into…
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CHEAP IMITATIONS THAT ARE (ALMOST) AS GOOD AS THE REAL THING
I was first introduced to Yankee Candle when I was about 20. On my first trip to the US my American girlfriend dragged me into a candle store with a jingoistic patriotic name and “US customer service” (which I hated). On the flip side the store was very well upholstered, more like an upmarket perfume…
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New look homepage!
This is the first significance design change since I set the site up in early May 2020. It now looks pretty much how I envisaged so it’s an important step forward. As with many people I’m not a one dimensional caricature committed to one thing. I have a variety of hobbies and interests and I…
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Gym session #1
This workout was a bit of a rush job, and the effort to record it was far more time consuming than I imagined. It was the first time I’d used my new tripod and finding the best camera angles required a bit of working out. I’m sure I’ll get the hang of it. It was…
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Garden makeover rolls on…
Nobody can do it all, the notion that anybody can is a myth peddled by privileged types who have a (concealed) army to do it all for them. I have no such army and I don’t especially want one, my standards are too exacting and I would end up re-doing it all anyway. Moreover, there…
Dr Martin James 