Logo

slogan means war cry apparently. i found this intriguing.

The word slogan is derived from slogorn which was an Anglicisation of the Scottish Gaelic sluagh-ghairm (sluagh "army", "host" + gairm "cry")

do we go into battle everyday trying to be heard, remembered, loved, feared or admired? what is your war cry? how do you project yourself. how does the world see you?

slogans are very closely linked to logos. a logo is almost a graphical slogan but more powerful. it's an image you want to be immediately associated with you, the wall you just tagged, your notebook, or your company. think of superman's S, mcdonald's golden arches, or apple's apple with a bite out of it. simple but iconic.

barrack obama's logo

pepsi's logo

obama's logo seems like it's missing something. the pepsi logo seems to be, to me at least, altogether better formed, self contained. i decided to create a logo for me. while it might not be something elemental, something terrifying like batman's logo, it's a graphic symbol that represents an idea. plus it has a letter B in it (if you tilt your head to the left).

what do you think? can you improve upon it?

Flat for Sale

capacious. that's a word you rarely hear, unless of course you happen to be interacting with an estate agent. they have their own lingo, most of which is lies. maybe not quite lies, but not exactly truthful either.

i had no idea how much you had to lie when selling your home. small things that haven't bothered you at all, ever, suddenly jump out at you. little cracks in the paintwork, right angles that aren't quite right, messy neighbours, pet hair, the list goes on, and on. is there a fine line between lying and "maximising potential?"

you obviously want to make your property seem to be worth the asking price. if you want to maximise the potential of your property, don't let the estate agent take the pictures. the lady that came to value Bulbgirl's place, had a camera at the ready, but having seen her previous clients' photos, Bulbgirl said "my partner can take the photos." take them yourself, or you could be lumbered with poor shots, that have a an awful flash, washing everything out. it's the highest value item that most people will buy and sell, so take a little time and consideration when composing the shots.

top floor flat

the competition

i took the top one, making a natural border out of the trees. it's not your usual home selling pic, but i liked it. the darkness of the tree frame the block nicely. compare it with the competition's picture. two flats pretty close to each other, but one pic instantly more appealing because it was taken in better light (and some thought to composition).

the flat is on the market has been on sale for a little while and had very little interest. it's the current climate they say. a neighbour nearby on the ground floor (see above pic) let the estate agent take their pictures, which didn't do them any favours. the neighbout moved in about at the end of last year and is wanting £5k more now 6 months later (he's put it at a fixed price). Bulbgirl was wanting to put her flat on at a fixed price when seeing this guy do it, hoping to undercut him. it can only be a good thing for her, as with fixed price you can only come down, whereas with the offers over option there is more wiggle room for negotiations. myself and a friend told her this is probably unwise, although there are lots more people doing it now.

the problem is that Bulbgirl doesn't really believe in her property. the main selling points of the flat are space and views. it doesn't have central heating, but electric heating instead. that wouldn't bother me. if i was going to buy somewhere i'd rather go for space over heating any day. you can always fit another heating system later on, but you'll never be able to buy yourself more space, in a wee ground floor flat. the storage in the loft is a boon, because it's like another house (filled with canvasses and junk of mine). my junk is like expanding foam. it seems to grow and fill the allotted space, but i digress, that's another story.

dining room

in the picture of the dining room there is light coming in from the left. there is a window there and it appears as if the dawn is breaking through. it does do that, but wasn't at the time of the picture taking. we left it late and needed to get the pics to the estate agent the next day, so we faked it. Bulbgirl stood holding a long fluorescent light, just out of shot, to mimic the daylight coming in through the big window. she also made the 3 little stripey acrylic paintings you see there.

another benefit is that you can go and see horses, sheep and 2 highland cows less than 10 minutes walk away, that i will miss if we move closer to the city centre.

have you told any lies when selling your property?

update: the flat has now passed to the new owner.

Helicobacter

after having an endoscopy a couple of weeks ago, i got the results. apparently there is bacteria in my stomach. i got a call from the gp confirming this and telling me to come to the health centre to pick up my medicine. the girl on the phone sounded really young then mentioned "irradiation." it must be pretty bad if i have to pick up the medication at the health centre "i thought to myself", normally one picks up a prescription.





sure enough it was a prescription and a newbie on the phone who was giving out garbled messages. at the health centre they couldn't even tell what type of bacteria in my stomach was causing too much acid, and preventing me from keeping food down. bacteria in the stomach seemed like saying "blood in the veins". what do i know about biology though?

electron scanning microscope pic of helicobacter bacteria. i think they look pretty cute.

the pharmacist told me that the medication was probably for helicobacter. pharmacists train for nearly as long as gp's and usually have a more friendly manner. my sister had the same thing a few years ago, and suffered from acid reflux too. i wonder if there is a link there? my sister studied biology at university, and heard somewhere that a lot of people in the Glasgow area have helicobacter. According to wikipedia:

The most widely known species of the genus is H. pylori which
infects up to 50% of the human population.

it also says:

Acid reflux and esophageal cancer

As the incidence of gastric cancer has
decreased,
the incidences of gastroesophageal
reflux disease and esophageal cancer have
increased dramatically. In 1996, Martin J. Blaser put
forward the theory that H.pylori might also have a beneficial effect: by regulating the acidity of the stomach contents, it lowers the impact of
regurgitation of gastric acid into the esophagus.[3]
While some favorable evidence has been accumulated, as of 2005 the theory is
not universally accepted.

i have no idea what that means, if anything, but the medicine is making me feel pretty pukey as the pharmacist said it would. i'm keeping food down better so hopefully this will work.

to get rid of the helicobacter bacteria, i have to take 8 pills a day. 4 in the morning and 4 at night. they give you a horrible 'medical' taste in your mouth all day. chocolate spread helps but the taste comes back. it's only a few more days until they are all finished though, so hopefully all will be well then.

Light Snack

yesterday i didn't eat much. i had a light snack, or a snack of light. i had to have a medical procedure at the southern general hospital: an endoscopy. that's the one where they put a camera down your throat, not the other end. they need to give me this as my stomach has i've had some trouble with keeping food down and acid reflux.

it was scheduled for 8.30am, and i last ate anything about 6.30pm the night before. the leaflet i was given told me to not eat or drink anything from midnight, but my last herbal tea was about 9pm to be on the safe side.

the hospital staff were running a little late even though i was first of the day. they were dealing with other patients who were already in there, not just visiting like myself. the nurses were very nice and explained everything to me. i imagined it to be like visiting the dentist, but it was a more 'hospitally' visit than i imagined it would be: having to wear one of those gowns that split up the back, and giving me a name tag around my wrist, then wheeling me through on gurney.



the camera with the light on it could have been damaged by my tongue piercing so they asked if it could be taken out. i wasn't allowed to watch the monitor and see my insides unfortunately, only if you were getting the tube up "the other end" could you watch i was told. they sprayed the inside of my mouth a few times with an anaesthetic spray which tasted of bananas. laying down on my left side a nurse gave me one of those plastic things with a hole in it so that i could still breathe and not bite down on the camera tube.

my left arm was laid across in front of my right arm and resting on my right hip. they put one of those things to measure pulse or whatever on my index finger and a reassuring hand was laid on top of mine. this was probably not to reassure me but to prevent me from pulling the tube out if i started to gag and my body's normal self defence measures kicked in. who knows?

the endoscopy procedure was really quick, well once i had actually swallowed the tube. this is difficult when your throat had been numbed, the swallow muscles just didn't seem to want to swallow. having a camera/light down your throat brought to mind the facehugger from Alien, but it was mercifully short and didn't implant anything in my chest. on the contrary actually, a little bit of my stomach lining was taken out to biopsy. my stomach hurt a little after that, but was given the all clear. that means the rheumatologist can start testing me like a guineau pig on different meds.

after a wee lie down getting the tongue piercing back in again was difficult the most difficult part, almost creating a new hole in the process with the metal stud, not a sharp implement. i must have ripped away the protective layer that had built up on the inside of the tongue. this is actually the second time that's happened, it will heal soon.

after going to the hospital and having a sleep, Bulbgirl woke me up with a chocolate soya drink. perfect way to wake up.