So i was thinking about fashion the other day. Why? Thats a good question because i dont really know. I was i guess, just merely obverving it in the wild. Because I didn't 'get it' and clearly I dont understand fashion. Actually, maybe that means i dress funny and dont really know it? But I thought about it and then by brain hurt and then I thought about it and fell asleep and finally i wrote it down, because I was frustrated that i was still thinking abou it. Why does my brain work this way? Dunno...

I get it. Really I do. About fashion. Now. or maybe I dont. Anyway, I've got it all wrong up until now. Fashion is not practical. It's not supposed to be. It's all about style, looks and perhaps ego. Take for instance last night in the gym. This dude walks in with his baseball cap on backwards, he looks straight off MTV. And it's not just in the gym, where the lack of effective practicality is obvious ie. there is no sun. In shopping malls, tube stations, restaurants - all places with a distinct lack of sun. But I get it. Another example is sunglasses. I tend to think it's just woman who are the real culprits but perhaps I'm wrong because guys also often wear them indoors. It's a style thing.

I don't know if it's my upbringing. Maybe I had a cynical upbringing. If it wasn't practical, then what was the point of it? I've been stung by this way of thinking early in my childhood: I remember when I was a kid, walking into a shop with a newly acquired ring which I admired for some reason and was wearing it on my ring finger. The lady at the till said to me, very sarcastically, "so what are you married?" I said I wasn't and it was just because I liked it.(stupid lady) Same obvious reaction came if you wore sunglasses when there was no sun, Sandals in winter and Baseball caps indoors. Go figure.

The thing is, sometimes I see all these sunglasses, baseball caps, loose, bum-showing jeans, high heels all in the same way that lady at the till saw it. Cynically. I have to catch myself thinking this way.

Times have changed. It's not about practicality, it's not about having one thing or the right time and place. It's about making it work everywhere at any time, fashion wise and getting more stuff to meet that requirement. So I can't get frustrated when I see some lady clearly uncomfortably walking in high heels or some dude wearing sunglasses on a night out. That's their choice. Practical or otherwise. Practicality is not the king of the castle any longer. These aren't the times of before, there is constant availability. Everything can be gotten online, on the high street. There is no need for getting and using what is practical when it's needed, where perhaps there was a real need for it, say in war time Britain or poverty stricken South Africa. In Britain, and throughout the modern developed, booming markets, though there is now excess. And with excess, practicality is no longer always needed. It's a back seat driver. Style and fashion is the aesthetic art of excess.

I still, wear brightly coloured running trainers to work, not because I'm going running right then and there but because they are comfortable and look cool. Practical in one sense and fashion in another. Best of both worlds or just confused about fashion? Perhaps that and more, or am I just like everyone else, including that dude in the gym.

Last week, I headed off to a team event down in North Greenwich, and I decided to walk down to London Bridge station and catch a train but on the way the guys got side tracked and so I wasn't standing around and went for a coffee a little way off while they were distracted. I was right back with them about 5 minutes later. it's like hearding cats with them. whatever. So I said to the lady, I'd like a regular latte. In hind sight, i guess, I watched her in slow motion, as the paper cup went under the machine as I realised I didn't have my wallet. When reality sped up and caught up to me, and my mind fast tracked to the present, I had to tell her to stop making it because I wouldn't be able to pay for it. As it turns out they were a nice bunch and I ended up I walking out with my regular latte. That was last week but it made an impression on me so I went back and paid for it today. That's noteworthy.

The laser tag was cool. I did feel at one point that I actually was inside my Xbox, that did pass however when I fell over in the mud and bashed my shins on an obstacle and couldn't recover humbly as I'd've like to have. I went over and came tumbling down in the darkness - I think on my rapid decent my wayward hand touched the girl in front of me's bum on the way down...which was pretty weird because I couldn't handle all this stuff happening at once but she forgave me. Thank god. That obviously doesn't happen with an Xbox. I played four 10 minute games and got "Good shooting", "pretty average shooting", "better than most" and "not a bad performance" remarks on my score cabrds. During play, I even crouched and dipped like some sort of experienced soldier, trying to land and avoid enemy fire whilst in the bunker. But I did forget about the "Armour piercing" and "rapid fire" gun configurations which might partly explain my mediocre performances. But who am I kidding, right? I'm not even a good first person shooter, even in real unreal life, Xbox or not.

So today, I found a pretty great playlist which got me pretty productive. At the moment in trying to improve the performance of the feature I've been working on these past 8 weeks. There is this philosophy that I subscribe to: make it work and then make it work fast. That pretty much works most places in life too I think: Don't think so much first up front but concentrate on what really matters - making it work. So yeah that's what I've been doing today.

Body has been a bit down lately, so I avoided taxing it at the gym but I'm feeling good to go now, and I've got these new headphones that make things easier. These headphones are waterproof see and real comfortable. So with the recent clear skies and heat, I decided to to replace running outside with going to the gym. It was a good decision - I don't like running in the sun. I can do it but, not if I don't have to. So now I stroll to the gym, hook up my headphones and prepare for the gym, which I kill - I found that I actually do more work at the gym than I do running from work. There is actually a lot of interesting things I have discovered. See at the gym I can consistently maintain a constant pace or rate of work which, I think, is key. I am at about 80% of my max heart rate which is something I can't do reliably running street-to-street amount people to Waterloo. But with the increase in performance, I miss the scenery at the cost of performance. It's been pretty cool comparing these statistics, got a good insight. The other thing I found was how much more I can do with a snack before the gym session, so I'm having a snack of dried fruit but mix on the way. That sorts me out.

Ramping up my schedule for the next year, study wise - just registered two more new modules. The one is about money and personal finance, which is well placed to discuss different types of loans, mortgages and other financial vehicles etc. and I kinda want to know about that stuff right now. The other is more on track, standard stuff really : web technologies and programming. Look forward to it but I'm going to have to more strict about my time.

I got a new gadget, an cheap android cell phone which is kinda fun, trying to write software for it and just play with. Sometimes I get a little restless at work and need a distraction. This is a good distraction, the other thing is regular outdoor coffee breaks. If I was a smoker, I'd take my smoke breaks. but I'm not. Sometimes I bring it (the android phone) in, just so I can browse the net or tweet on it because its got a large screen and it fun to use. It doesn't have a sim card and i don't really plan on using it much as I Still use my iPhone as a phone though. I don't trust the android yet. It's growing on me though.

The other day I woke up to the radio playing. Doesn't normally happen. I'm not used to the accent in the morning broadcast - I guess I'm not used to it. I Never listen to the radio much growing up. Must have been a blip in my clock/radio settings...mysterious. Might leave it that way actually... But maybe i wont.

I might miss my run today - I've got drinks later. Figured if I don't drink I might still be able to run which was what happened. Stayed out at this outdoor bar in Shoredich. Shoredich is a real arty kinda lookin place: graphics, art, trendy stuff and everything. Not fancy, more what i call uncomfortably hip. Expressionism is pretty personal and can be alarming to the senses or can be calming to them. I guess, there too much variety of style for it to be calming, for me anyhows. Still, trendy is trendy i suppose. Im glad i hit the streets though. the evening was beautifully lit up with blue skies all over. It's times like that were the comparison between drinking vs using your body and running tilts strongly in favour of the latter.

Listened to Louis Armstrong last night while doing something. I think the world really misses him. He says things like 'melancholy' in the most pleasant way I've ever heard - It's a real trick to do that. The other day I stayed up all night watching a Humphrey Bogart film where he's a convict with 2 others and plans to escape the island where they are imprisoned. Real entertaining because it was funny as hell. I should've been sleeping but eh.br/br/Been to the park a couple of times recently, twice to read up on various study material. Boring. Though, the outdoors has an allure unto itself. I even when running through the forest. They've re-made the old overgrown entrance pathways with law movers and running through the day-old openings into the forest was pretty cool. They're setting up for a big fair coming up in Wimbledon village. It's gonna be big it seems. That's why they were cleaning up the common. I ran right through it. Trucks, rides, caravans. It was funny, seeing people in caravans. I don't know why.