Drawing of a Manga character in the little Moleskine sketchbook my other half gave me earlier this year. I use all the finest materials - I think this was a ballpoint pen from Office World…

Until I picked up the August 2008 edition of Wired Magazine while commuting home from London, I had no idea who Julia Allison was. It would appear that within the internet microcosm that is New York, with a little help from the Gawker celeb blog, Miss Allison has become quite the internet celebrity.

Most of the (admittedly few) articles I have read about her seem to be disparaging - with a transparent air of jealousy about them. It would seem Julia has figured out internet marketing in the same way that Madonna figured it out in the entertainment world - and is reaping the backlash at the moment.

She does however write an excellent blog over at Tumblr - go check it out (julia.nonsociety.com). Once you get past initial skepticism, she’s actually pretty entertaining - much to the annoyance of the old media journalists no doubt.

Perhaps citizen journalism really is the future.

While out for a walk at lunchtime in London, I picked up a copy of “Generation X” to read at last - the final well known book by Douglas Coupland that I have not read.

Here’s what Amazon has to say about it;

Andy, Dag and Claire have been handed a society beyond their means. Twentysomethings, brought up with divorce, Watergate and Three Mile Island, and scarred by the 80s fallout of yuppies, recession, crack and Ronald Reagan, they represent the new generation- Generation X. Fiercely suspicious of being lumped together as an advertiser’s target market, they have quit dreary careers and cut themselves adrift in the California desert. Unsure of their futures, they immerse themselves in a regime of heavy drinking and working in no future Mc Jobs in the service industry. Underemployed, overeducated and intensely private and unpredicatable, they have nowhere to direct their anger, no one to assuage their fears, and no culture to replace their anomie. So they tell stories: disturbingly funny tales that reveal their barricaded inner world. A world populated with dead TV shows, ‘Elvis moments’ and semi-disposible Swedish furniture.

Have you read it? What did you think of it?

After hearing so much about “On The Road” over the years, I thought it was about time I read it - and while wandering around London at lunchtime I stumbled across “Books etc” on the London Wall Road near Moorgate. “On The Road” was in among their summer reads promotion.

While sat on the underground travelling home this evening I eschewed my usual podcasts for the book, and while struggling through the first few pages, was soon sucked in.

Something funny happened too. Out of the corner of my eye, it became obvious that a couple of girls sitting nearby on the underground train were taking an interest in me - apparently because of the book. I had heard this happen because of “The Alchemist”, but never any other book. It would appear there are certain books that people like to see others reading.

So far I am enjoying “On The Road”. My only knowledge about Kerouac before was a visit to Cannery Row while visiting the US a couple of years ago, and my father in law talking about Kerouac and the beat poets back in the day (he is a huge Dylan fan, and saw some of his early performances). Oh - we went on something of a pilgrimage to City Lights book store in San Francisco too.

The journey home flew past. It’s the most I’ve been engrossed in a book for quite some time. I must admit that I find the story behind the writing of “On The Road” as interesting as the book itself… although the urban legend says it was written in the space of 3 weeks in a burst of frenzied work by Kerouac, it would seem the true timescale was closer to 3 years.

Of course, after reading the first 1/4 of “On The Road” I now want to find some Ginsberg to read.

Virgin and Scaled Composites have unveiled the first Virgin Galactic “Mothership” aircraft of their fleet that will launch tourists into space.

Due to the resumption in hostilities between myself and the British transport system that has been forced upon me by my employer for the next several months, I am afforded the chance to read far more books than usual, and to listen to podcasts.

The train carriage becomes my world for at least 4 hours each day, and in an attempt to avoid my brain eating itself while disconnected from the internet, I search for input. Last year I got through all manner of interesting books - from “Thus Spake Zarathustra“, to “JPod“, to “The Accidental“. Book of the year was definitely “Anna Karenina” - perhaps the only book I have ever read that met expectations and it’s own hype. It took ages to get into, but once sucked in was difficult to put down.

While listening to Leo Laporte’s various podcasts over recent months, he has continually mentioned one of his sponsors - Audible.com. They provide audio books for download, read by professional readers, the original authors, or famous actors. In a fit of money wasting mood this evening I had a look.

If Audible think I am going to spend the same amount (in pounds) that the US visitors spend in dollars, they are sadly mistaken. I’ve heard of some ridiculous things in my time, but charging european citizens double the price of your home market just isn’t right - and why you can’t just buy books is anybodies guess - they force you to purchase a paid membership before buying books.

So - no audio books. What other sources of interest could I find ?

I have a Palm organiser. It has been employed as a fancy MP3 player just recently, but of course it can do all manner of other useful things - like perform as the most expensive alarm clock in the world, or the most overblown pocket calculator in the world. You can even draw pictures on it.

The Palm Organser also lets you install an ebook reading application - turning the small slab of glass and metal into an entire library of books. Granted, the reading experience isn’t as good as a paper book, but if you have the right sort of mind, you forget it once reading.

It’s all very well having a fancy dandy device that can read books, but you still need the electronic books. Until recently the best place to find them was “Project Gutenberg” on the web. This has all changed though - sites like ManyBooks.net and Feedbooks.com house massive collections of free, well put together ebooks in a number of formats.

I just downloaded a number of classics to take with me on the train over the coming weeks.

For those reading this who have never tried reading on an electronic device, you need to see a demo of the Kindle. It’s not for sale in europe yet, but when it does arrive expect to start seeing the terms “Digital Paper” and “eInk” become far more widespread. “Digital Paper” has been the holy grail of the ebook market for some time - and finally the technology is catching up with the perceived use. Imagine a glass tablet where power is only required to change the image on it (read:page turn), and that has none of the glare issues surrounding traditional flat screens.

Of course none of these technological marvels are about to replace traditional paper books. Current generations have been conditioned from a very early age to accept word on paper - that’s not going to change for a very long time. I am lucky enough to have almost perfect vision (over 20/20, but as colourblind as a hedgehog in a bag) - many are not so lucky.

I’ll close with a complete rat hole. One of the reasons touted for ebooks is the savings made through not printing paper books in the long run. Books are made of paper, paper comes from trees, and we are all made to feel guilty about the destruction of the forests. What they don’t tell you is the fast food industry is to blame for the greater proportion of deforestation going on in the world. The land is needed to graze cattle destined for burgers the world over.

We had our weekly movie/pizza/beer night last night with some great friends who live a few minutes walk across town. In a fit of panic after realising we had (a) nothing to drink, and (b) no movie worth dick, I headed out after the girls ate their dinner to get supplies.

I came back with Wild Hogs. The funniest movie I have seen in quite some time - and entirely undeserving of “bargain bin” status in Blockbusters.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSvwmgWCJ2s&hl=en]

Wendy found it pant wettingly funny - in most part because William H Macy plays a computer geek, and she said his character was exactly what I will turn into in another 10 or 15 years. He had an Apple logo tattoo. I didn’t think it was quite as funny as she did for some reason.

It was the perfect medicine in our continuing quest to find mindless yet genuinely funny movies. If you have any other suggestions, let me know.

Now and again, something happens in the media that makes me angry, and I can’t keep my mouth shut about it. This is one of those times.

The minute Emma Watson - “Hermione Granger” of Harry Potter movie fame - turned 18 (a couple of nights ago), the press photographers hounded her every move - and succeeded within hours of pointing a camera up her skirt.

The exact same thing happened with Hayden Panettiere - “Claire Bennet” in the Heroes television series - she turned 18 and an immediate quest began among the Los Angeles paparazzi to point a camera up her skirt.

Is this not sexual harassment? Does the “celebrity” label really mean that these actresses have no right to at least keep what colour underwear they are wearing to themselves?

On the whole, our local library is pretty pathetic, but while wandering around the isles in-between extricating our children from book destroying antics, I spotted “The Elfish Gene” in amongst the biographies. I might have to go back to the library tonight and find it - then sit up all night reading it.

It wasn’t Dungeons and Dragons for me - it was 8 bit computers - but I can identify very closely with those who played with funny shaped dice in bedrooms up and down the land.

While scratching around for some music to put on for the girls to dance to earlier, I had a brainwave. They had never seen Kylie Minogue before. They have now. The cheer of the audience at the start of the concert caused very excitable squeals and clapping from our youngest - followed by a good hour of frenetic dancing around the room to each of Kylie’s records.

It just so happened that Wendy was out shopping during all of this - and when she returned I asked the girls “who have we been dancing to!”, greeted by excited shouts of “Kylie!”.

Wendy was not best pleased. Not only do we have bright pink bedrooms, flowers on everything and princess dolls everywhere, we now have little Kylie Minogue fans.