When I was 15, the choice was Jackie or Marie Claire. Jackie is gone and I read Marie Claire at the dentist/doctor/beauticians only.

I’m having a breeze around issuu. I can’t help feeling there are more interesting things there to be found. And what I like about issuu (as opposed to pixelmags) is you can read it on a normal browser on a PC. Currently the pixelmags stuff is limited to iPhone (sucks to read a magazine on) and iPad which I won’t buy because frankly Apple products suck in my experience.

Thing is, I’d be good to buy magazines on a decent reader that didn’t cost 600E. I mean, yesterday I bought three and okay so one of them was unusual (Woodturning magazine because one of my photographs is in it) but I do buy a lot of magazines.

In the last month or so I have bought Advanced Photoshop, Photoshop Creative, Cooler, Surfgirl, Digital Arts, Digital Artists and only for the fact tha tI would truly bankrupt myself, I’d buy more. And I don’t have space to keep these things. Ideally it’d be nice if I could just download them into a bunch of nicely organised pdfs in a magazine reading library but that’s not really happening.

For now, however, though, I find something like issuu and it’s nice to wander around.

I was thinking this morning – I can’t remember why – that the music industry modus operandi is now broken. We don’t really need the big labels any more because we’ve a reasonably standard data format, artists can actually record studio quality albums at the sort of cost that you could only dream baout 10 years ago and the whole marketing platform has changed a lot. I don’t think the music industry has worked out just how broken it is, and how irrelevant the big labels are. I mean, I mostly pick up obscure music like Xavier Rudd from youtube videos, or extreme sports videos or the like. I listen to radio from all over the world and yet the record labels spend their time throttling promotional tools like last.fm. I bought loads of music as a result of last.fm recommendations.

These tools can be and are being leveraged by independent artists and small labels.

The publishing industry is heading for a similar change. I’m in the process of (early process of) assembling a photography book. It’s inspired by the great coffee table books that I have seen other people produce – I actually look at these things possibly because I am a photographer – but the point is – technology allows me to do this now and cut out a publisher if I want, or market it myself (which is going to be the hard part). Book publishers, to me, look to be understanding how technology can be leveraged to affect them although they’re slow on the technology uptake – I mean compare the iPad to any of the other e-readers. Black and white only – for crying out loud. Whose dumb idea was that when we have colour on phones for chrissake.

Magazines are going the same way – but you can see that some of the publishers have woken up to this. Advanced Photoshop and Photoshop Creative and the entire imagine publishing collection is available through pixelmags which is terrific apart from the fact that the last time I checked they didn’t really have a PC friendly interface which is essential in part because people like me won’t be buying an iPad if there’s a chance that a Windows friendly netbook will come along and do likewise for me via a browser. And obviously any of the ones on issuu are even faster on the uptake – and issuu make it possible for people like me to do stuff like this.

Meanwhile, you don’t have to be from Hawaii to read specialist sports magazines. I’d've taken surf at the age of 15 – I always loved surf and windsurf imagery and that’s why you buy these things (it’s not necessarily for the writing) but there are so many possibilities opened up by it being possible to get all these things, instantly.

It’s just amazine.

In Ireland, renting is

socially unacceptable.

That’s what it boils down to. It doesn’t matter where you are in your life, perfect strangers who know nothing about your life situation will cheerfully advise you that

there will never be a better time to buy.

Despite the fact that what I can buy versus what I can rent….means what I can rent is generally better.

But that shouldn’t matter. The point is, Ireland has apparently cast off the shackles – more or less – of being governed by an unelected judgmental elite called the Catholic Church but yet many people still feel the need to

be judgmental about other people’s life choices and

interfere in them wholesale.

So here’s how it works. There is nothing wrong with renting. It is for each individual to make a call. For me, for example, I rent a 3 bedroomed semiD in Dublin City. Or I buy a 1 bedroomed apartment 10 km out. What would you choose?

I don’t care what you’d choose. Point is, I choose the house in the city.

In short terms, if someone comes up to me and says “you should buy now” or “there’ll never be a better time to buy”, I’ll be safe in the knowledge that they are wrong. Because people are still thinking they “know” how it works.

They don’t. I don’t either. But I know how I work and if I buy what I can afford now, I’ll be less happy than I am now.

Is there something wrong with allowing people to make their own decisions in life?

Of course, if I did put this in the kitchen, I’d probably have to scrap the idea of having a red IKEA kitchen.

Fact: if I try and follow the total immersion style advice for freestyling, 25 m takes me 38 seconds. if I try and swim according to the way I was taught 4 years ago when I went for “proper” swimming lessons in the National Aquatic centre, I can do 25m in 29-30 seconds.

also I’m less likely to drown myself by swallowing water. End conclusion, does anyone want a Total Immersion book?

Because I didn’t get the distance in this morning that I had hoped, ie, at least 500m total, (I’ve done that before), I’m minded to go back later this evening.

I suspect there are 2 causes for this failure, namely:

• mother and baby collision avoidance
• not having had breakfast before I go out.

It would be interesting to know how much of an impact the whole breakfast thing had on life because frankly I’m wondering if 6am wouldn’t be a better time to go swimming. Although “after climbing” is also an option.

Currently on the beauty contest list for the New Kite, the one I will buy when I can swim 400m and kitesurf better than I can now (which is bloody lousy) are:

• Best Kahuna. It’s pretty. It better come in pink
• Bandit III or replacement there of
• Liquid Force

Size in question is 9 or 10m. I’m suspecting 10 to be honest.

1. Keel to Keem Beach, Achill Island. I’m naming this one my scariest because I have tried it twice now and the offshore wind conditions have disuaded me on both occasions. Frankly, the first time I turned around was the second most scared I’ve ever been in a car. The other time was in France so it doesn’t count.
2. Also in Achill Island, the drive up to the top of Mweelin, I think it’s called. It’s the mountain with the mast on the top. That would be scariest except I have driven it and have not driven Keel to Keem in the wind. Possibly when I get around to doing Keem Beach, this will slot in on top if it’s not quite that bad.
3. The “scenic” route from Inch to Camp, over the mountains. Apparently the scenery is nice. I didn’t see it much on account of having to carefully judge driving between the edges of the road and avoiding sheep. And praying to a god I don’t believe exists that nothing would meet me coming from Camp to Inch. I believe there’s a stone age grave site up there but frankly I wasn’t minded to try and find it.
4. The “not suitable for coaches” road around Ballinskelligs Bay. Trust me, it’s not for the faint hearted.
5. I personally haven’t driven the Vee in Tipperary but if it’s the one I’m thinking of, there’s some spectacular hairpin bends.

On balance, 40% of most scary roads are in Mayo and 40% are in Kerry. These are both good footballing counties from a GAA point of view. I wonder if there is a link.

Without going into the minutiae, I have to say I enjoyed it. Music not my favourite, but some terrific dancing, fairly decent script (ie one million times better than the We Will Rock You script). Social backdrop probably went over the heads of al ot of people in the theatre.

I enjoyed it. Not going to rate it or anything like that but if you’re free of a night in London, it’s good entertainment.

I know these holidays will be in September. If I thought I could hang in there until November, I would, and then bankrupt myself by going to Hawaii for big wave season. However, I’m already jaded and hunted and permanently tired which means it’s September or bust.

I have options. They are as follows:

1. Lacanau, south of France and the ASP World Tour. This is especially attractive because Kelly Slater is leading the world championship. He’s wone 9 previous championships and is probably the greatest surfer of all time. He is 38 years old. I would like to see him surf at least once.
2. Vlieland, Holland, and the PKRA world tour stop in Holland. This is especially attractive because the current world kite freestyle champion is Dutch; his name is Kevin Langaree and I have photographed him before. As a photography subject he rocks.
3. San Francisco, southern California. One of the few places in the US I really want to go. The other is Yosemite National Park.

Realistically, Lacanau is topping the poll at the moment. I don’t want to spend my entire holiday on the beach gazing adoringly at Kelly Slater however; I’d like to take some photographs, maybe do some surfing myself, and maybe go kitesurfing. In part, I want to do things but not feel under any pressure.

I have 3 or 4 days booked off in August to go kitesurfing in Achill Island. I’m looking forward to that and if it goes according to plan I’ll be doing a bit more kitesurfing in Dublin before the summer dies out.

I was at one that was based in Clonakilty once. WIth the silly penis straws and all that jazz. Can’t really see the attraction.

But I horrified them. Clon is not too far away from Inchydoney – so on both mornings of the weekend, I got up and went surfing.

They were shocked. Particularly on Sunday because they all had hangovers and were moaning about ending up in the bar in the rugby club. The idea that someone might be insane enough to get up at 9am on Sunday morning and go surfing for two hours – and Christ I am a lousy surfer anyway – was completely outside their ken. They couldn’t understand it.

So I’m a bit wary of hen parties because I drink precious little, can’t function past 1am and generally like doing stuff rather than suffering hangovers. Today I find out that some people have hen parties in the climbing wall in Dingle.

I uhem….

need to consider the people I hang out with.

Sometime in the not too distant future I’ll be designing a cute piece of art work with a thermometer – that looks wrong – and an F-One Bandit 3 or whatever replaces it in August (cos it’s usually around then we start hearing about the new season’s kites).

The deal is this. If I can front crawl 400m, preferably in 8 minutes, by the start of August, and if I get up on my board in Achill Island on my 5000th attempt to be some way competent a kitesurfer, my reward will be a 9 or 10 metre Bandit 3. It is going to be a long slog.

I am not as fit as I used to be and that’s because I haven’t gotten much exercise beyond occasional climbing. This is obviously something I want to turn around.

In the past, I’ve been significantly fitter; in that I could swim 1600m which sounds hugely impressive. But then again, it’s not bad either. But I backstroked. Only backstroked. However, there are practical applications to being able to swim forward (you can see where you’re going) and if I’m going to be doing more kitesurfing, then it probably wouldn’t be a bad idea to be a fitter swimmer in a practical self rescue sense. I’ve already had to swim in an inflated kite once. It sucks.

No. IT SUCKS BIG TIME.

So I’m back in the swimming pool swearing because you know not only can I not front crawl 400 m – because I never could – but I can’t backstroke worth a 5cent coin at the moment. And that bit is soul destroying because 1600 m down to 25 is pretty bad, really.

So currently I can string about 40m together front crawl which means I’m 10% of the distance there distance wise. I haven’t half drowned myself yet. My sinuses are not going berserk the way they did after the diving saga last November. Where I am now is pathetic but not overwhelming.

I quite like swimming. I feel far better after it than I do after walking or running, for example, and it’s a useful tool for, as I say, the kitesurfing. I’m also looking at going to France at the end of September to go to an ASP event in Hossegor or Lacanau or wherever they think they’ll have waves, and if I can, I’ll try to go back surfing again. I could do with the body strength to paddle as well. And a few people reckon that the additional upperbody strength will help the climbing which, post swim today, was an utter fiasco. Oops.

Why the hell did you not consider height as an issue when writing this piece of utter drivel?

If you read the whole piece of nonsense, you’ll see this quote.

Of course, because dress sizes vary so much from retailer to retailer, and because they are not based on standardised measurements, they don’t represent an accurate indicator of weight or health, so it certainly isn’t true to say that anyone wearing a size 14 has a problem. That will depend on your frame and height.

This is fine in itself. The entire rest of the article gives the overwhelming impression that being a size 14 is, in fact, a problem. I haven’t been a size 14 since I was about 19 years old, but that’s fine.

There’s something that makes me very, very angry about this, or it would, if I could be bothered to dig up the rage. About 5 years ago I came to the conclusion that the fixation on weight alone was not really healthy and I stopped and started looking at fitness levels instead. The HSE has actually caught up with this.

I’d like to see the shift away from focusing on things like BMI and instead get the mind to enjoy the process of becoming fitter and the sense of wellbeing that comes from a more active and healthy lifestyle.

The problem I have with the rest of the article is it doesn’t actually concentrate on this. It concentrates on how you’re lying to yourself if you’re a 14 and think you’re healthy.

The whole issue of health and stuff annoys me as far as the media is concerned. If you concentrate on weight, I’m not 100% healthy. But by the equivalent token, I do not drink and I do not smoke and as a result, am probably healthier than some people who do one or both of those activities to excess. I’m also 5 foot ten inches tall.

If the article was even remotely balanced, it wouldn’t concentrate on the whoe size 14 thing with as scant recognition of height/build as it did. Basically, the assumption is that the same rules apply to all women, except for that little caveat.

But the truth is a little more complex than that and this is something which the article doesn’t recognise. There are confounding factors.

When people are overweight and obese, by becoming fit they protect themselves from many of the health risks of obesity,” says Ailis Brosnan. “An overweight fit person has a much improved health profile than a lean unfit person.”