Now that "the last Ricky Gervais Show for a very long time" went out on Monday night (audible.co.uk), it's "only" the brilliant EXTRAS on TV that's currently left of my beloved Ricky Gervais. Needless to say that I was ecstatic to find that every episode of EXTRAS is now viewable here on the BBC2 website>

Now that's 'news'. Tell us something we didn't already know - particularly for a London resident it is blatantly obvious that the genuine threat has been increased 10fold. In addition to that general paranoia, personal freedom, prejudices towards ethnic minorities and political extremism have clearly been on the up since the illegal invasion of Iraq. To top it all up, it seems that public spending priorities have shifted once more towards hyped up security spending and moved away from areas where the money would be desperately needed (Social Security, NHS, Public Transport).

Read here: http://www.nytimes.com

As a follow up on the pavement painter, here's Scott Wade. His thing is painting on dirty cars, in the dust of the rear wind screen. Yepp. Check it out.

Interesting aspect of his 'philosophy': He doesn't own a garage or even a car port and doesn't mind the rain. Guess he lives in a pretty dusty part of the world.

Few blogs (excluding this one) are actually really interesting for more than a handful of people. One of those few was recently introduced to me and it shall only ever be genuine lack of time that keeps me from frequenting it more than I already do, because its fun-factor is very rare on the web.

Read "May I Fart Now?" from Sam de Brite's rocking blog.

Thanku Jim, Sydney Morning Herald and Sam of course.

The single most important thing - and definitely more important than the unbelievably overrated political correctness - is empathy. Empathy is the most important thing in our social life and our abilty to communicate. So many people seem to forget that... (myself included).

Many middle-aged, single women who keep a cat or a dog as life companions to compensate for lost or missing love is bad (and sad) enough a cliche, though one of the few that strangely has not yet revealed itself us anywhere near false to me. Isn't the dire misconception of some women from their late 40s / early 50s onwards, looking into their cat's eyes, interpreting their look as "understanding", "caring" or "loving" the same that it takes to applaud dolphins in an 'aqua zoo' who are made to jump through hoops as "they clearly enjoy it because they are so obviously smiling all the time"? The pet seems to get humanised and becomes the substitute listener to the owner, who is opening his/her heart about how bleedin' awful life is... and turns into the only true and loyal life partner. In fact, even when these ladies do mix with other people, they'd talk about their pets a lot, "Topsy was so cute today staring out of the window watching that bird in the garden for 1/2 hour, wondering why the stars only shine at night. Oh, he is such a clever dog..." Is this when certain social skills are disappearing, and speaking to other people about feelings and things that matter gets more of a tricky business? Is this what I have to be afraid of? Maybe - or maybe I just don't get it. Well, whatever it takes to avoid this branch of life... because this appears like going full circle from little children talking to their teddy bear while cuddling it and saying "You are my only friend in the whole wide world"!

I feel sad today, numb, almost in a never ending state of despair. There's still so much grief and pain and the future looks grim - even today. How many times have I now been trying to find distraction in other things; shallowness, dumb entertainment? And nobody seems to be able to do anything... everything seems to hopeless... pointless and utterly lost. I know there are many people who feel exactly like me today. Agony and open displays of deep sadness that simply won't go away: ..... Michael Schumacher has announced his retirement from Formula 1 racing and will never again drive his car really really fast around chicanes as he did when the world was still a happy place.

It's been almost 3 years now, since we made this little video for Seb. Reminds me how much fun it is to make movies...

He produces the most amazing stuff and is definitely worth a virtual visit - at at least online, but best when he's painting the streets near you... I love this guy! Check out this website and then scroll down to the 3D drawings.

Alternatively try this one, or this, or even this Flickr collection...

One of the heart warming aspects of day2day life clearly must be, when you not only get recognised, but when people even memorise your habits. The first time I walked into my local coffee shop in the morning and got greeted and served with "my usual" without even ordering, I got this warm feeling of lost anonymity in a busy patch like Central London.

This is only topped by a lover ordering "my usual" for me for the first time.

I can't remember the last time I felt so much truth coming from one book. Robert McFarlane's "Mountains of the Mind" is a fascinating climb through the peaks and valleys of the human urge to touch danger and experience fear on the search for the Sublime. Not only for mountain crazy Londoners, but for everyone who ever wondered why people want to jump out of airplanes, fancy a trip to the South Pole or consider extreme Scuba Diving a jolly good idea. I learnt a lot about myself, and apart from the fact that ropes and climbing shoes are already grinning into my face again, I feel inspired and intrigued at the same time in realising that my enthusiasm is in fact a fundamental quirk of the soul.