Things and people that please me

Remote places

I've never been anywhere quite as remote as I'd like to be; among the places that I have been, one of my favourites is Exmoor, in West Somerset. I also like Cornwall.

A really good really basic meal

Something simple and nutritious, with no pretence. I quite like cooking my own stuff, except for washing up afterwards (partly because the water from my heater is too hot and that's not adjustable, and partly because some things need soaking and so get left until later which makes a messy pile of things in my kitchen). In particular, I like stir-fries, kebabs, noodles, picnics, baked beans or spaghetti straight out of the tin. People thought I was unsophisticated when they saw me eating beans from the tin, using a spoon. Then I explained that when I'm feeling unsophisticated, I fashion a makeshift spoon from the lid of the tin and use that. Git 'ard I am. Or possibly just a git.

Sunsets

I even photograph them sometimes, but mostly I just stand there enjoying them.

Journeys on empty roads

At any time of day, but mostly very early, very late, or overnight, I like making my way through the quiet countryside.

emacs

A working environment that I can type concise commands at, that doesn't patronize me that much, and that I can customize as I like.

Markup languages (TeX, LaTeX, troff+pic+tbl+eqn, HTML....)

These present the document I'm working on in terms of its structure. For example, I can see whether the vertical gap between two paragraphs is a particular size because they're paragraphs, or because they're in different sections, or there's something between them... in a WYSIWYG system, it would just be unidentified white space.

Reliable people.

If you tell me you'll do something, and then you do it, even if you found yourself wishing you hadn't said you'd do it, my opinion of you will be good.

People who don't talk when they have nothing to say.

It's good to be with people who understand peacefulness and aren't driven to drivel on rather than be silent.

Friends.

I have several of these...

Traditional architecture.

Ely has some nice examples of this.

[Thoughts] John C. G. Sturdy

Last modified: Sun Jun 10 18:17:20 GMT Daylight Time 2007