via Gordon (in a fairly loose way)

I love the sheer inventiveness of some of the business cards in this article – there’s others I’m not as keen on, but all told it’s really interesting (at least to me) to see the ideas that some people can put into their cards.

I find it hard to understand the new government health guidelines that say under-15s shouldn’t be allowed to drink any alcohol that were released yesterday. Even if you gloss over the fact that by that age most teenagers have had at least one alcoholic drink anyway, the advice seems somewhat flawed.

Personally, I think it’s a better policy to be introduced to alcohol as part of the process of growing up. I don’t mean to the point of abuse, or a drink with every meal, but I do believe that introducing it early, not making a big deal of it, and letting it just be part of life is a better way of dealing with it.

To me, it seems that a lot of the ritual around teenage drinking etc. is because alcohol is seen as “forbidden” and “naughty” – drinking it before you’re legally supposed to is just one of those rebellion things that people go through as they grow up. But if it’s something that’s got no shock value, something that’s part of normal life, it loses the power (unless one goes to extremes, of course) to be seen as a tool of rebellion.

I could be wrong on this of course – it’s not like I’m a parent myself – but I know that growing up (all those years ago) I was allowed to try beer, wine, lager, and even vodka and whisky. I learned the taste and smell of them, as well as what I liked and didn’t like. Once I was able to go to a pub, I knew what I could order, and whether I’d like it or not.

It meant I didn’t make the really stupid mistakes when I was old enough – such as trying to drink that first illicit bottle of vodka in one go before anyone found me and made me stop – although I was still able to make plenty of other non-drink-related stupid mistakes instead…

I’ve written many times about the @Media conference, which is one I always look forward to and attend when I can. I missed last years because we were travelling to Ireland on the Friday of the conference, so it wasn’t worth it.

This year it’s a bit later, on the 25/26th June at the South Bank Centre, which should be fun. I’ve never been there for conferences etc. before, so it’s another new place on the list.

Early-bird tickets (Two days for £299 plus VAT) went on sale last night, and I’m already booked in for it.

Happy, happy day.

Is it just me that finds it slightly depressing to read that Subway plan to open up 600 new shops in the next two years? That’s something like 6 new shops a week, just under one a day. (5.75 per week, 0.82 per day, to be accurate)

Yet another franchise model comes over from the US a la Macdonalds, Starbucks and the rest.

Admittedly, I’d rather have something from a Subway than from a Macdonalds when it comes to “fast food”, and I don’t object (too much) to their food, but still, I’d rather not be seeing them on every sodding high-street, which seems to be the goal.

While I was at the doctors on Monday, I opted for killing multiple birds with one stone, and also got an accurate weight measurement as well as starting off a request for a referral to a nutritionist so I can get some proper advice.

Weight-wise, I was actually quite surprised – I currently tip the scales at 140Kg. (22 stone, or just over 300 pounds) I’m not happy about it, obviously – there’s some way to go on the weightloss front for sure – but it means I was just about spot-on back in September when I estimated my own weight. Admittedly I felt like I’d put more on since then, but still, that’s what I am at the moment.

It also means that I’m one stone above where I was back at the start of 2005, which is a bit depressing. Then again, it also shows that if I do sod-all, my weight remains remarkably stable. Yes, stable at “fat bastard” level, but it’s not really going up and dwon from that point.

Still, I’m going to be working on losing some of it again – particularly now that I finally seem to be starting to be able to breathe OK again without coughing my chest up – throughout this year, and we’ll just have to see how it goes.

There are times where I really love just how daft some people can be.

Fantastic little story.