So ... had the lovely sister mention that there's a facebook group for these ... had to go and check it out. Will post them, with comments ... probably most of them will be awful ... but let's see:
Disclaimer: Of course as a very happily married woman none of these would *actually* work on me. But I can still laugh at them and critique them!
(Numbers left to match the facebook group; I've deleted the ones that were too dull for words)
1. "Nice Bible."
Uh ... nice try.
2. "Is this pew taken?"
Not too bad.
3. "I just don't feel called to celibacy."
Groan ... this sounds waaaaay sleazy. Plus, I don't think that many people feel called to celibacy, probably including those who are.
4. "For you I would slay two Goliaths"
Kind of sweet yet pathetic.
5. "I would go through more than Job for you"
Hah, no thanks. Bet you wouldn't really. Have your livelihood completely decimated and your children killed?
8. "You are so unblemished that I would sacrifice you."
I kind of like this. Possibly this is worrying ...
9. "What, this here? Oh ... that's my study bible - it's a little bigger but i can handle the extra spiritual and physical weight."
HILARIOUS! This ought to be followed up by a thorough grilling on something tricky and theological.
12. "The word says 'Give drink to those who are thirsty, and feed the hungry'; how about dinner?"
Kind of slick, kind of cool. I think this ought to be followed up by an offer of doing something free together (say, going to a museum) and giving the money that would've been spent on dinner to World Vision to feed those who are *realy* hungry - I think that the guy's reaction to that would show you a lot about his personality.
13. "I didn't believe in predestination until tonight."
Too cheesy for words ...
19. "I can be your Boaz."
A bit misguided, I think. Good reply would be something like "Hmmm ... so you're saying we're secretly related and so you're here to save me so I won't starve? No thanks ..."
20. "My spiritual gift is my good looks... it lifts people's spirits"
Anybody who says that deserves to be slapped.
22. "Is this the transfiguration.. because you are glowing"
Kind of aww.
25. "Hey ... I would work 7 years for your sister ... but I would work 7 more years for you."
LOL. If someone said that would you slap them or laugh? I'm thinking both ..
27. "Hey good-looking, Ecclesiastes 4:11..."
This would totally get a grin from me. The previous version I've heard is "Oh, you look cold ... Ecclesiastes 4:11?"
31. "Marry me."
Not a good chat-up line.
Comment partway through: there are looooads of these that are like "I am/have X" where X is something related to either Christianity or Christian pop culture. These are basically boasts. Boasting is not a good way to go; it makes you look stupid, especially if you're boasting about being wonderful and humble and giving.
35. "My favourite species of vegetation is the church plant."
That's almost clever.
38. "now i know why Solomon had 700 wives... Because he never met you."
That's not.
39. "I used to believe in natural theology, but since I met you I've converted to divine revelation"
That is hilarious ... and kind of cool. I would be semi-impressed by this.
40. "I look after widows"
Citation needed. But very laudable, very laudable indeed. Does he look after Grecian and Hebrew widows equally?
41. "Is that a thinline, duo-tone, compact, ESV Travel Bible in your pocket"
... or are you just pleased to see me? (Oh dear)
42. "Why don't I have a Bible dictionary? Well, I don't really need it."
There must be some suitably impossible questions to ask such a person.
43. "Bathsheba had nothing on you"
"Is that an invitation to adultery, unwanted pregnancy, heartbreak, and being an accomplice to murder? Hmmm ... no thanks." *withering look*
45. "your hair is like a flock of goats descending from Gilead"
Awesome. Really awesome. No, actually.
48. "How would you like to join my Purpose Driven Life?"
Hmm ... want some response based on another Christian classic.
49. "If you say no, i will rip out my hair and my beard"
C'mon ... it would be worth saying no JUST to see this happen.
50. "If you say no, I'm going to tear my clothes, get in my sackcloth and rub dust into my head.."
Even BETTER!
51. "If you say no, I'm going on a pilgrimage."
This would also be quite interesting. Perhaps they could take photos whilst on the pilgrimage to show you when they get back to try and get you to change your mind.
54. "Let me remove my sandals before I come any closer.."
This would get a big grin from me ...
55. "Let's say, hypothetically, you were married. I would send your husband to the front line against the Amorites"
No, no, no. Murder is not attractive.
57. "Feel free to meet me at the threshing floor."
Dod-gy ... I have it on good authority that Ruth was being sent to seduce Boaz properly ... read the chapter carefully and you should at least pick out some hints of that. Forget the bit in your Youth Bible where it claims that they did not have even a hint of impurity; oh yes they did.
58. "You can lie at my feet.."
See above.
60. "If I had to choose between a romantic date with you or a night with the fellas ... I would sit at home and read my bible."
I see this as being both unflattering and unhealthy. Reading the Word is no substitute for human relationships, and human relationships are incredibly important.
61. "I really like your spirituality, it goes well with that shirt."
I quite like this. This is kinda bizzare and therefore appealing.
62. "Welcome to the christian family... the only family where brothers and sisters can marry each other"
That would make me laugh.
66. "I'm a Proverbs 32 kind of guy and you're a Proverbs 31 kinda woman..."
Now call me sad but I actually rather like this one. However, the guy in question would have to know the girl in question pretty well for it to be meaningful and really flattering and touching.
So I'm only up to 66 out of 114 ... maybe others can come at some future point.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Foundation
Was on a long train journey yesterday, so I finished reading foundation (and started making real progress on Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson).
Foundation was goooood. It was very, very Asimov, which was neat as it's been a while since I've read any Asimov. Unfortunately that was not a good description for anybody who's not read any Asimov yet ... although if you haven't read any yet, the answer is clearly to READ SOME! He is great. I would suggest starting with some short stories as it doesn't take much of a time investment and his short stories are really rather good (unlike many short stories which are bland and boring ... or maybe I just have little tolerance for slice-of-life style stuff?).
It also, I feel, follows the principle of "You can have one impossible thing, and then the rest needs to be plausible" - one you agree that with psychohistory you can predict the future to an amazing extent, the rest does pretty much follow. The characters were good and believable, although this was definitely plot-driven rather than character-driven - and I found the forces (like trade, religion etc) were done pretty well. I really liked it ... will try and get the rest of them* from the library, or else convince someone who owns them to post them to me.
*by which I mean the 2nd and 3rd books.
Foundation was goooood. It was very, very Asimov, which was neat as it's been a while since I've read any Asimov. Unfortunately that was not a good description for anybody who's not read any Asimov yet ... although if you haven't read any yet, the answer is clearly to READ SOME! He is great. I would suggest starting with some short stories as it doesn't take much of a time investment and his short stories are really rather good (unlike many short stories which are bland and boring ... or maybe I just have little tolerance for slice-of-life style stuff?).
It also, I feel, follows the principle of "You can have one impossible thing, and then the rest needs to be plausible" - one you agree that with psychohistory you can predict the future to an amazing extent, the rest does pretty much follow. The characters were good and believable, although this was definitely plot-driven rather than character-driven - and I found the forces (like trade, religion etc) were done pretty well. I really liked it ... will try and get the rest of them* from the library, or else convince someone who owns them to post them to me.
*by which I mean the 2nd and 3rd books.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Musings on Evangelical Christian Literature
... as you do.
(NB by "literature" I mean "printed books and stuff", not trying to imply anything about the quality of writing ...)
Browsing in a bookshop over the last couple of days - it's struck me that the tone of some Evangelical Christian publications is really quite worrying and one that I wholeheartedly reject. No, you can't tell me how to "Unlock the One Spiritual Key that is Missing" from my life, cheers, but life's not like that. Or "Reveal the Power of the Prayer Shawl" to show me how if only I get hold of a traditional Jewish prayer shawl, my prayers will become more valid and more likely to be answered and I will unleash new power into my life.
I mean really. What's with all that? 'And Jesus spake unto them, and said, "Lo, and Now I shall tell you a Secret which will Exclude Most of my Followers, but if each of you wilt gather up a prayer shawl, and using the Ancient Art of Origami fold it into a lotus flower, you shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven and Prosperity shall cover your lives all your days' - I'm not buying this ... I don't think he said stuff like that. I think he said stuff like: Love God. Love each other. You'll be persecuted, which kind of sucks, but it'll be worth it in the end. Keep the faith, persevere, be generous, do this whole life thing and do it well, okay guys? None of this secret-revealed-extra-powerful-knowledge stuff.
(It kind of worries me that once upon a time I would've swallowed this sort of stuff (which is to say I would have read it with minimal skepticism rather than rejecting it outright - I wouldn't have been *completely* suckered, or at least I think not). )
On a similar note, I saw some comments crying about how awful it was that science is now basically athiest. They seemed to be implying that science should be explicitly religious. Hmm ... how about ... no. Science should be irreligious; science is only worth studying if we agree that there are laws we can find which are self consistent and can be studied without need to reference a deity (I'm cool if you want to take the point of view that God personally involves Himself with gravity / the paths photons take / etc, so long as we agree that He does it the same way each time except for a very few times when you get miracles, so we can still study it without reference to Him).
There's a lot of weird stuff out there ... and a lot of it looks awfully respectable til you read it.
NB I am using 'Evangelical' as it is the best word I can think of to describe this section of the Christian community, not to denote any particular church / association of churches / etc.
(NB by "literature" I mean "printed books and stuff", not trying to imply anything about the quality of writing ...)
Browsing in a bookshop over the last couple of days - it's struck me that the tone of some Evangelical Christian publications is really quite worrying and one that I wholeheartedly reject. No, you can't tell me how to "Unlock the One Spiritual Key that is Missing" from my life, cheers, but life's not like that. Or "Reveal the Power of the Prayer Shawl" to show me how if only I get hold of a traditional Jewish prayer shawl, my prayers will become more valid and more likely to be answered and I will unleash new power into my life.
I mean really. What's with all that? 'And Jesus spake unto them, and said, "Lo, and Now I shall tell you a Secret which will Exclude Most of my Followers, but if each of you wilt gather up a prayer shawl, and using the Ancient Art of Origami fold it into a lotus flower, you shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven and Prosperity shall cover your lives all your days' - I'm not buying this ... I don't think he said stuff like that. I think he said stuff like: Love God. Love each other. You'll be persecuted, which kind of sucks, but it'll be worth it in the end. Keep the faith, persevere, be generous, do this whole life thing and do it well, okay guys? None of this secret-revealed-extra-powerful-knowledge stuff.
(It kind of worries me that once upon a time I would've swallowed this sort of stuff (which is to say I would have read it with minimal skepticism rather than rejecting it outright - I wouldn't have been *completely* suckered, or at least I think not). )
On a similar note, I saw some comments crying about how awful it was that science is now basically athiest. They seemed to be implying that science should be explicitly religious. Hmm ... how about ... no. Science should be irreligious; science is only worth studying if we agree that there are laws we can find which are self consistent and can be studied without need to reference a deity (I'm cool if you want to take the point of view that God personally involves Himself with gravity / the paths photons take / etc, so long as we agree that He does it the same way each time except for a very few times when you get miracles, so we can still study it without reference to Him).
There's a lot of weird stuff out there ... and a lot of it looks awfully respectable til you read it.
NB I am using 'Evangelical' as it is the best word I can think of to describe this section of the Christian community, not to denote any particular church / association of churches / etc.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Recently I have been Reading ...
Comments on 4 things I have been reading recently:
1) Bujold: The Curse of Chalion
I really enjoyed this, although it goes to show how I pay no attention to titles or blurbs ... I was mildly surprised when a curse showed up about 2/3 of the way through the book. Had just been engrossed in the general story up to that point! I guess that probably means I missed some foreshadowing, but hey, it was a good read. I quite like the style of fantasy in this book - it reminded me of Tamora Pierce's Song of the Lioness quartet. They were by no means the same, but had something of the same flavour about them. I also liked the fact that it was an older protagonist with a history - I think this is the best way to write fantasy that has politics and such in it; you need someone with enough experience to reasonably discern all the plots/sub-plots/treacheries/tangles.
2) Bujold: Paladin of Souls
I liked this and The Curse of Chalion equally - think it's because I liked the two protagonists equally (talking to some friends who've read them, one said he liked The Curse of Chalion more to start off with as he identified with the character more, but on later reading came to really appreciate Paladin of Souls). Again, I completely ignored the title and therefore did not immediately realise that the main character would end up with some sort of interesting power over souls. Very good book, very readable, would definitely recommend.
3) Assorted short stories by Lovecraft
I was lent a book of short stories - think it was "The Call of Cthulu and other tales" or some name like that ... I read the first 4 or so stories, but stopped there. I find Lovecraft fairly unreadable, and just really not that good ... I can kind of understand how people might find him amazing if they really clicked with his style, but no, not for me thanks. I guess it's worth reading one just so you get the idea of what he's like?
4) Piers Anthony: Wielding a Red Sword
Now this I found very readable. I'm not sure I'd say I liked it, but I didn't dislike it. Certainly if I were faced with a long train journey with nothing to do, and then found a Piers Anthony book, I would probably read the Piers Anthony book. It wasn't deep, it wasn't meaningful, I didn't feel there was any meaningful characterisation - okay, the main character develops a *teensy* bit, but ... I felt that it was basically Anthony going "hey, wouldn't this system of immortals / incarnations / satan / God / etc be kind of interesting?" and then writing a story with cardboard characters about it.
One thing that was REALLY notable though was its treatment of gender - the main character has beautiful women throwing themselves at him pretty much the whole way through the book. Now, I don't tend to gender-analyse stuff I read as I read - I might look back and think "hm, actually that was cool, she was a really strong female character who stood out, and he was a pretty awesome male character" but this was really in-your-face stuff. The women basically had no purpose other than to be beautiful and to be bait (i.e. Satan uses pretty woman to entrap protagonist; repeat). To be fair, the main character had no purpose other than to show off the cool world system. But still ... to have women literally wandering up to him going "Hey, if you want to *ahem*, I'm up for it" was really a bit much (at least for those of them who weren't demonesses created by Satan for this purpose).
Next I will be reading: Foundation, Isaac Asimov.
1) Bujold: The Curse of Chalion
I really enjoyed this, although it goes to show how I pay no attention to titles or blurbs ... I was mildly surprised when a curse showed up about 2/3 of the way through the book. Had just been engrossed in the general story up to that point! I guess that probably means I missed some foreshadowing, but hey, it was a good read. I quite like the style of fantasy in this book - it reminded me of Tamora Pierce's Song of the Lioness quartet. They were by no means the same, but had something of the same flavour about them. I also liked the fact that it was an older protagonist with a history - I think this is the best way to write fantasy that has politics and such in it; you need someone with enough experience to reasonably discern all the plots/sub-plots/treacheries/tangles.
2) Bujold: Paladin of Souls
I liked this and The Curse of Chalion equally - think it's because I liked the two protagonists equally (talking to some friends who've read them, one said he liked The Curse of Chalion more to start off with as he identified with the character more, but on later reading came to really appreciate Paladin of Souls). Again, I completely ignored the title and therefore did not immediately realise that the main character would end up with some sort of interesting power over souls. Very good book, very readable, would definitely recommend.
3) Assorted short stories by Lovecraft
I was lent a book of short stories - think it was "The Call of Cthulu and other tales" or some name like that ... I read the first 4 or so stories, but stopped there. I find Lovecraft fairly unreadable, and just really not that good ... I can kind of understand how people might find him amazing if they really clicked with his style, but no, not for me thanks. I guess it's worth reading one just so you get the idea of what he's like?
4) Piers Anthony: Wielding a Red Sword
Now this I found very readable. I'm not sure I'd say I liked it, but I didn't dislike it. Certainly if I were faced with a long train journey with nothing to do, and then found a Piers Anthony book, I would probably read the Piers Anthony book. It wasn't deep, it wasn't meaningful, I didn't feel there was any meaningful characterisation - okay, the main character develops a *teensy* bit, but ... I felt that it was basically Anthony going "hey, wouldn't this system of immortals / incarnations / satan / God / etc be kind of interesting?" and then writing a story with cardboard characters about it.
One thing that was REALLY notable though was its treatment of gender - the main character has beautiful women throwing themselves at him pretty much the whole way through the book. Now, I don't tend to gender-analyse stuff I read as I read - I might look back and think "hm, actually that was cool, she was a really strong female character who stood out, and he was a pretty awesome male character" but this was really in-your-face stuff. The women basically had no purpose other than to be beautiful and to be bait (i.e. Satan uses pretty woman to entrap protagonist; repeat). To be fair, the main character had no purpose other than to show off the cool world system. But still ... to have women literally wandering up to him going "Hey, if you want to *ahem*, I'm up for it" was really a bit much (at least for those of them who weren't demonesses created by Satan for this purpose).
Next I will be reading: Foundation, Isaac Asimov.
What has it got in its pocketses?
Before leaving Uni I went shopping one last time - probably due to watching Mary, Queen of Shops, I felt like wandering through a charity shop. I found two wonderful things: firstly, an old-fashioned egg-beater - the kind with a handle you turn and it whizzes the beaters round super-fast. Much better than a single hand whisk.
Cake-making here I come!
Aaaand I have this lovely bag:
Cake-making here I come!
Aaaand I have this lovely bag:
It appeals a lot to my "things should be fit for purpose" side. The side of me that loved having a watch that was 30M waterproof and generally rugged, and likes rucksacks that can take punishment and walking boots that will be comfortable for hours (and keep your feet dry throughout, no matter what sort of awful mud you're walking through). I do like pretty things, but I also really, really like practical ones. And this bag is exceedingly practical ... it's made from hemp, so is eco-friendly and will probably last forever, and is has LOADS of pockets. A bit of quick googling has located it here for £30.99. Found mine for £3.99 at Oxfam, score!
Some inside shots:
The front pocket has slots for just about everything - pens, credit cards, a phone holder, two general pockets - and of course you can just tuck stuff away in there too. The back pocket has a pop-fastening pocket which holds a wallet happily, a neat little D-ring to put your keys on, a luggage tag, and enough space to happily take a large paperback - now that makes it my kind of bag.
Some inside shots:
The front pocket has slots for just about everything - pens, credit cards, a phone holder, two general pockets - and of course you can just tuck stuff away in there too. The back pocket has a pop-fastening pocket which holds a wallet happily, a neat little D-ring to put your keys on, a luggage tag, and enough space to happily take a large paperback - now that makes it my kind of bag.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Britain's Next Top Model
I've had Chris recording this for me on the Sky+ box, so now that I'm home I have the whole season waiting, which is fantastic (I would link to the site but I'm afraid if I go and look it up it might tell me who's won). The first episode - in which they create the "wartime glamour" sort of intro that was used in all the ads for the series - was fantastic. I think that style looks just amazing ... I could probably never pull it off, but it looks beautiful. (See the trailer here - really, do watch it, it's an awesome little film clip, and it's only a minute long) Chris pointed out to me that the phrase "New Model Army" is a clever historical reference too, which is neat.
I've only watched 2 episodes so far, so not long enough to start having favourites and making conjectures about who might win ... though having said that, I usually watch modelling programs simply to look at the processes they go through, without much regard for the personalities involved. I mean, it's nice when people are nice, and less nice when people are mean, so I tend to like the nice people - but I don't usually end up with a strong favourite. For me it's more about seeing the amazing clothes and hair and how they put the photographs together.
I've only watched 2 episodes so far, so not long enough to start having favourites and making conjectures about who might win ... though having said that, I usually watch modelling programs simply to look at the processes they go through, without much regard for the personalities involved. I mean, it's nice when people are nice, and less nice when people are mean, so I tend to like the nice people - but I don't usually end up with a strong favourite. For me it's more about seeing the amazing clothes and hair and how they put the photographs together.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Rollerblades!
So, today I've come home. I've done a bit of sentimental end-of-term stuff on facebook, so won't repeat it here - but am looking forward to the summer, it should be good. I've got a small amount of part time work lined up, which is great, and then there are two (separate) weeks I'll be on holiday, plus a couple of probable weekend events. So plenty to look forward to (rather than 3 months of nothing stretching forward ahead of me!). I also have aspirations to:
1) Work on coursework / courses for next year. Should be interesting, and will help things.
2) Rollerblade a lot - have just picked up my rollerblades from my parents today. I love these things ... the trick will be finding somewhere sufficiently smooth and quiet to rollerblade. I'm perfectly competent on them but wouldn't particularly like to cross busy roads away from lights, for example. This is mostly because I think I'm going to do a lot less exercise now I'm home as I have fewer active hobbies here, but also because rollerblading is awesome fun :)
3) Put in groundwork for university society stuff I'm involved in - some planning, writing to people, etc. I've been thinking a fair amount about what societies etc I want to be involved with next year, and for those that I want to stay really committed to planning and thinking ahead how I can best be involved will be useful.
4) Learn to play the tin whistle. I bought this some months ago, dabbled a tiny bit but mostly left it alone due to lack of time. It will be an interesting challenge as I've not really played a wind instrument before - just the recorder when I was lots younger - so my breath control etc isn't good. Possibly I will get a recorder, too ... I recall quite liking the recorder. My thoughts may be tinged with nostalgia, but it's not like a recorder is a pricey thing, it may be worth a try.
1) Work on coursework / courses for next year. Should be interesting, and will help things.
2) Rollerblade a lot - have just picked up my rollerblades from my parents today. I love these things ... the trick will be finding somewhere sufficiently smooth and quiet to rollerblade. I'm perfectly competent on them but wouldn't particularly like to cross busy roads away from lights, for example. This is mostly because I think I'm going to do a lot less exercise now I'm home as I have fewer active hobbies here, but also because rollerblading is awesome fun :)
3) Put in groundwork for university society stuff I'm involved in - some planning, writing to people, etc. I've been thinking a fair amount about what societies etc I want to be involved with next year, and for those that I want to stay really committed to planning and thinking ahead how I can best be involved will be useful.
4) Learn to play the tin whistle. I bought this some months ago, dabbled a tiny bit but mostly left it alone due to lack of time. It will be an interesting challenge as I've not really played a wind instrument before - just the recorder when I was lots younger - so my breath control etc isn't good. Possibly I will get a recorder, too ... I recall quite liking the recorder. My thoughts may be tinged with nostalgia, but it's not like a recorder is a pricey thing, it may be worth a try.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Updates
I made the melting moments ... they were lovely. Sandwiched half of them with chocolate buttercream and the other half with plain buttercream and jam (or rather, had minions do it for me ...) - I think I forgot to take any photos though, which is a shame. It was a nice party :) although the rain (which wasn't quite sure whether it *was*, or whether it *wasn't*) was a little disruptive but not too much.
In other news I got my exam results back yesterday and I have done badly ... looking over it I think I really messed up my exam technique - tried to do too much too fast, hence didn't do questions thoroughly, which is really penalised. It's very strange to feel that I definitely did better this year in terms of working hard and learning my stuff, but to have got a worse result than I did last year - the number of questions I attempted to answer was too ambitious. Next year I will not make that mistake, so should do better.
So now term is really almost over and I need to pack ... this is a bit of a pain, but oh well, it must be done. Going home on Sunday, so I want to do most of the packing today, and then finish it up tomorrow.
In other news I got my exam results back yesterday and I have done badly ... looking over it I think I really messed up my exam technique - tried to do too much too fast, hence didn't do questions thoroughly, which is really penalised. It's very strange to feel that I definitely did better this year in terms of working hard and learning my stuff, but to have got a worse result than I did last year - the number of questions I attempted to answer was too ambitious. Next year I will not make that mistake, so should do better.
So now term is really almost over and I need to pack ... this is a bit of a pain, but oh well, it must be done. Going home on Sunday, so I want to do most of the packing today, and then finish it up tomorrow.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Shortbread or melting moments?
I need to make one or the other of these tomorrow morning, for a party. I think I have everything ... well, I might not have cornflour, but I think I have butter / icing sugar / flour / baking powder. Hopefully this will be a good way to use up flour and icing sugar, so that I don't have much to take home at the end of term (which is fast approaching).
Recipes will be from the Edmonds cookbook, of course. Pictures possibly to follow if I get some good ones :)
Recipes will be from the Edmonds cookbook, of course. Pictures possibly to follow if I get some good ones :)
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Finally, the shopping can stop.
This is good news. There's been a lot of stuff I've needed to get in the last week, and today I finally finished off the last of it:
-eye drops
-more hayfever medication
-tissues
-something for my arms to go with my ball dress
Wrt the last, I was initially looking for some sort of shawl/shrug/thing, but couldn't find anything in the colours I wanted (blue/silver) that I thought would work ... after a fair bit of traipsing around, I decided that long gloves would be a better choice. In the end, I bought some black over-the-elbow gloves (I'm wearing black shoes, so they will tie in a little bit). I think they'll look pretty cool. Plus, they were £10 (so cheaper than a cardigan etc would have been), and are a nice addition to the collection of black accessories I've been building up.
-eye drops
-more hayfever medication
-tissues
-something for my arms to go with my ball dress
Wrt the last, I was initially looking for some sort of shawl/shrug/thing, but couldn't find anything in the colours I wanted (blue/silver) that I thought would work ... after a fair bit of traipsing around, I decided that long gloves would be a better choice. In the end, I bought some black over-the-elbow gloves (I'm wearing black shoes, so they will tie in a little bit). I think they'll look pretty cool. Plus, they were £10 (so cheaper than a cardigan etc would have been), and are a nice addition to the collection of black accessories I've been building up.
Saturday
Friday evening ended with ... oh wait, it ended with getting home at 5am Saturday morning. Right. So Saturday started off with lots of sleep ... and then getting up to do a couple of things, and then more sleep ... in the evening there was a big function on (another society thing, different society) which I'd offered to help with, so my afternoon/evening was spent getting to venue / helping prepare food (I'm really quite fast at chopping peppers into strips so as to be dipped into hummus) / etc etc etc. It was good to be useful, service really is a good discipline.
Friday
Friday was indeed full, and for the most part very pleasant. I managed to get the mix of isolation/socialising about right, which was brilliant - I am starting to both know myself *and* have the presence of mind to act on what I know about myself in this regard, which is definitely a good thing.
Galois theory is really cool! Definitely taking a course on it next year. Woo pure! Ramsey theory is also quite cool but the lecture wasn't great as I was struggling against hayfever / Friday afternoon sleepiness, and the lectures were set up so as to be very interactive, but when you're feeling sleepy etc interactive is the last thing you want to be. Or at least that's what I find - especially with maths, because of its right/wrong properties - I'd be perfectly happy to interact with regard to an English class when I was sleepy / finding it hard to concentrate, but I am very reluctant to do maths in public on the spot unless I feel I'm on form. Even when the lecturer is saying that it's fine to make mistakes etc, that's okay, I know it's fine, I just don't want to!
Friday evening - society dinner - this was awesome. I went last year, but last year I only knew a few people and this year I knew many more. I was seated betwixt two notorious characters which was absolutely hilarious, and I loved it - had a wonderful evening. Unfortunately I don't have any proper photos of my outfit but it was awesome.
Galois theory is really cool! Definitely taking a course on it next year. Woo pure! Ramsey theory is also quite cool but the lecture wasn't great as I was struggling against hayfever / Friday afternoon sleepiness, and the lectures were set up so as to be very interactive, but when you're feeling sleepy etc interactive is the last thing you want to be. Or at least that's what I find - especially with maths, because of its right/wrong properties - I'd be perfectly happy to interact with regard to an English class when I was sleepy / finding it hard to concentrate, but I am very reluctant to do maths in public on the spot unless I feel I'm on form. Even when the lecturer is saying that it's fine to make mistakes etc, that's okay, I know it's fine, I just don't want to!
Friday evening - society dinner - this was awesome. I went last year, but last year I only knew a few people and this year I knew many more. I was seated betwixt two notorious characters which was absolutely hilarious, and I loved it - had a wonderful evening. Unfortunately I don't have any proper photos of my outfit but it was awesome.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Another day ...
... a lot of this one was spent traipsing around town in search of mysterious objects, which was quite fun (but quite tiring). Other notable features include: getting plenty of sleep (hurrah!), having sushi for lunch (hurrah again!) and finishing the day with lots of pizza, curly fries, and relaxed conversation. It's been a good day.
Tomorrow will be a very full day ... got a couple of lectures-of-interest to go to which are supposed to take all morning and all afternoon ... then a small function with official-type-people, then a big society dinner. It should be a fun day, if a slightly hectic one. I'm currently trying to finalise my outfit for tomorrow evening - it utilizes the black corsage blogged about yesterday, as well as these. I think I'm happy with it now - which means I should get to bed, it being 1 in the morning.
Tomorrow will be a very full day ... got a couple of lectures-of-interest to go to which are supposed to take all morning and all afternoon ... then a small function with official-type-people, then a big society dinner. It should be a fun day, if a slightly hectic one. I'm currently trying to finalise my outfit for tomorrow evening - it utilizes the black corsage blogged about yesterday, as well as these. I think I'm happy with it now - which means I should get to bed, it being 1 in the morning.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Quiet Evening In
I've had a lovely time with Chris, and then Hazel, over the past few days, and tonight I'm on my own again - which is rather nice. Socialising is fantastic but then again there are times when one needs solitude - especially if one is a bit on the geeky/bookworm side, like I certainly am. Am currently sitting at my laptop with a mug of redbush chai - which has definitely become my late-night hot drink of choice; something about the spices are very soothing and nighttime.
So, more pictures in this post ... first up: I am prepared for festivities:
Deep Heat (my new best friend), Cleansing Wipes (for those times when you come in really late and just want to roll into bed but are well-trained enough to realise that taking makeup off is important) and those gel-cushion things for heels. I haven't tried the latter out yet, but I am hoping for good things. I figure they wouldn't have stayed on the market for as long as they have if they weren't any good ...
Next: yay, I have a bag that matches my ball dress!
Hurrah for Debenhams Debut. I'm sure this wasn't there when I bought the dress; I'm really pleased to have found it now - the wrist strap should mean that I can keep hold of it easily and with no hassle (certainly much superior to a shoulder strap for this style of bag, in my view - I have tried the dinky evening bag with tiny shoulder strap thing, and just end up dropping them ...)
And last but not least: I have a giant corsage! Pen provided for scale; I'm not proposing to accessorise with both giant fake flowers *and* biros. Although actually, I can just about imagine that working ... hmm ... perhaps that's a sign that I'm strange ...
I am definitely a fan of big, punchy accessories. I love the whole elegant and understated thing, but 99% of the time I don't feel like it works for me ... I can see that it works for other people, but when I've tried to emulate it in the past I mostly just end up feeling uncomfortable. This is why I've started wearing lots of colour and having lots of big earrings / necklaces - it feels more "me", most of the time. I already have a teal flower corsage thing which is not as nice as this one (tis about 2/3 the size, and less well made) but I have worn it a fair bit and so I'm pretty confident that this will get used lots too. Probably more on special occasions, as it's black ... I've pretty much removed black from my everyday wardrobe now, but have a few for-special-occasions bits and pieces which are black which is nice - it means that it all matches, and is easy to switch round. Hurrah for mixing and matching and capsule wardrobes and all that jazz.
That's all for tonight ... I know, I know, more shopping; anybody who doesn't like shopping is probably getting quite bored ... but hey, at least I'm updating. That's got to be worth something, right? :)
So, more pictures in this post ... first up: I am prepared for festivities:
Deep Heat (my new best friend), Cleansing Wipes (for those times when you come in really late and just want to roll into bed but are well-trained enough to realise that taking makeup off is important) and those gel-cushion things for heels. I haven't tried the latter out yet, but I am hoping for good things. I figure they wouldn't have stayed on the market for as long as they have if they weren't any good ...
Next: yay, I have a bag that matches my ball dress!Hurrah for Debenhams Debut. I'm sure this wasn't there when I bought the dress; I'm really pleased to have found it now - the wrist strap should mean that I can keep hold of it easily and with no hassle (certainly much superior to a shoulder strap for this style of bag, in my view - I have tried the dinky evening bag with tiny shoulder strap thing, and just end up dropping them ...)
And last but not least: I have a giant corsage! Pen provided for scale; I'm not proposing to accessorise with both giant fake flowers *and* biros. Although actually, I can just about imagine that working ... hmm ... perhaps that's a sign that I'm strange ...I am definitely a fan of big, punchy accessories. I love the whole elegant and understated thing, but 99% of the time I don't feel like it works for me ... I can see that it works for other people, but when I've tried to emulate it in the past I mostly just end up feeling uncomfortable. This is why I've started wearing lots of colour and having lots of big earrings / necklaces - it feels more "me", most of the time. I already have a teal flower corsage thing which is not as nice as this one (tis about 2/3 the size, and less well made) but I have worn it a fair bit and so I'm pretty confident that this will get used lots too. Probably more on special occasions, as it's black ... I've pretty much removed black from my everyday wardrobe now, but have a few for-special-occasions bits and pieces which are black which is nice - it means that it all matches, and is easy to switch round. Hurrah for mixing and matching and capsule wardrobes and all that jazz.
That's all for tonight ... I know, I know, more shopping; anybody who doesn't like shopping is probably getting quite bored ... but hey, at least I'm updating. That's got to be worth something, right? :)
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
Brief summary:
Waking up.
Mooching.
Lunch.
Shopping.
Shopping.
More shopping.
McDonald's.
Mooching.
Port, cheese, and The Shawshank Redemption.
Details and photos to follow.
Mooching.
Lunch.
Shopping.
Shopping.
More shopping.
McDonald's.
Mooching.
Port, cheese, and The Shawshank Redemption.
Details and photos to follow.
Monday, June 08, 2009
Post from Sunday: Bits and pieces
Not much happened today that I can put up without providing incriminating details - both in terms of location-specifying and in terms of taking part in an activity which some may consider embarrassing and silly! - so this will be rather short.
Highlights:
-Chris being here :) he stayed until about lunchtime. We had toasties for breakfast using my new toastie maker, and played Sims 3, and chatted, and had more brownies, and it was generally nice.
-Seeing my parents and Hazel - parents were only here for a couple of hours, but it was good to see them, and Hazel is now here with me for a couple of days which is cool.
-Going to a couple of society meetings with Hazel - yay, she gets to meet my scary uni friends! She appears to like most of them. This is nice :)
-Being able to walk, after taking part in physical exercise - yay, deep heat is my friend!
-Parents buying me a new kind of earl grey - Dragonfly Tea Rooiboos Earl Grey. I now have 3 kinds - that one, Twinings, and an Earl Grey with Rose Petals. They're quite different teas; I'm not sure what I think of the Rooiboos yet - I had a cup this (Monday) morning, and I'm not quite convinced ... but I'm not convinced my milk is 100% good, so that may have been it. Twinings is still my go-to Earl Grey of choice whenever I feel I 'need' it (e.g. using it to cheer me up), and the rose petal one is sweeter and softer and really rather lovely.
-Parents also buying me some more Dragonfly Tea Rooiboos Chai. This tea is lovely, and because it's chai, I think the fact that it's rooiboos is somewhat disguised - I should really try normal Redbush at some point ... I've tried the two kinds referenced above, and also a Rooiboos Blueberry Muffin tea (which really did taste like blueberry muffins; unfortunately it tasted like the slightly-artificial blueberry muffins out of a plasticky packet from the supermarket), so I don't really have a good reference point as to what Redbush tea might taste like on its own.
-Discovering Carr's Nibbles (Cheese). They are deliciously addictive.
-Realising that Lena from The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants movies is played by Alexis Bledel aka Rory Gilmore. I went "Hey, their voices sound the same" and Hazel went "Um ... that's because it's the same actress ..." cue me going "No way!" and keeping an eye out for ways in which they've styled her to look different - and I think she really, really does look different. Possibly weight loss has something to do with it - Lena has a very sort of thin and angular look, and Rory (although slim) doesn't ... and definitely hair, makeup, and clothing makes a huge difference. (We were watching the second Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants movie).
Hey, that turned out to be a longer post than I thought it would. Clearly being able to ramble about tea helps with stuff like that :)
Highlights:
-Chris being here :) he stayed until about lunchtime. We had toasties for breakfast using my new toastie maker, and played Sims 3, and chatted, and had more brownies, and it was generally nice.
-Seeing my parents and Hazel - parents were only here for a couple of hours, but it was good to see them, and Hazel is now here with me for a couple of days which is cool.
-Going to a couple of society meetings with Hazel - yay, she gets to meet my scary uni friends! She appears to like most of them. This is nice :)
-Being able to walk, after taking part in physical exercise - yay, deep heat is my friend!
-Parents buying me a new kind of earl grey - Dragonfly Tea Rooiboos Earl Grey. I now have 3 kinds - that one, Twinings, and an Earl Grey with Rose Petals. They're quite different teas; I'm not sure what I think of the Rooiboos yet - I had a cup this (Monday) morning, and I'm not quite convinced ... but I'm not convinced my milk is 100% good, so that may have been it. Twinings is still my go-to Earl Grey of choice whenever I feel I 'need' it (e.g. using it to cheer me up), and the rose petal one is sweeter and softer and really rather lovely.
-Parents also buying me some more Dragonfly Tea Rooiboos Chai. This tea is lovely, and because it's chai, I think the fact that it's rooiboos is somewhat disguised - I should really try normal Redbush at some point ... I've tried the two kinds referenced above, and also a Rooiboos Blueberry Muffin tea (which really did taste like blueberry muffins; unfortunately it tasted like the slightly-artificial blueberry muffins out of a plasticky packet from the supermarket), so I don't really have a good reference point as to what Redbush tea might taste like on its own.
-Discovering Carr's Nibbles (Cheese). They are deliciously addictive.
-Realising that Lena from The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants movies is played by Alexis Bledel aka Rory Gilmore. I went "Hey, their voices sound the same" and Hazel went "Um ... that's because it's the same actress ..." cue me going "No way!" and keeping an eye out for ways in which they've styled her to look different - and I think she really, really does look different. Possibly weight loss has something to do with it - Lena has a very sort of thin and angular look, and Rory (although slim) doesn't ... and definitely hair, makeup, and clothing makes a huge difference. (We were watching the second Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants movie).
Hey, that turned out to be a longer post than I thought it would. Clearly being able to ramble about tea helps with stuff like that :)
Post from Saturday: Successful shopping trip!
As referenced yesterday, exams are over ... this means that I am in a celebratory mood. This often leads to shopping. I've just come back from an extremely successful shopping trip in town, in which I bought:
1) A toasted sandwich maker. I was on a forum last night reading a thread about how wonderful toasties are ... and yes, yes they are. And you can buy toastie makers from Argos for £6. So now I have. Note blurry reflection of me.
1b) Bread. For above.
3) Several magazines - Red, marie claire, and Glamour. I barely ever buy magazines - they are either an indulgent purchase (as now), or something I buy if I'm waiting in an airport lounge and they seem to be the best way to fill my time. My magazine buying is also definitely conditioned on what free stuff there is with the magazines - I genuinely like marie claire and so will often go for that if I'm looking for magazines, and I quite like Glamour, but would only buy the latter provided they had good free stuff. A reasonable haul this month, I feel - free cosmetic bag with Red which is really really nice (and also definitely something that will be useful to me), free novel with marie claire which I don't particularly want but is by one of Hazel's favourite authors (so have given it to her), and free mini benefit mascara in Glamour which is definitely a good thing, as it's definitely not the sort of thing I'd usually buy but equally is something I'm looking forward to trying. I still have 2 full-size benefit lipglosses that came with Glamour some months back (mostly used up by now), and they were great, although not sufficiently great for me to buy them full price, but I am definitely a fan of good makeup brands as free samples.
4) A magic wand and magic trick - I'm going to a dinner at the end of the week during which I will be required to prove that I am a wizard. I think these will help.
I'm thinking I might be able to do the Water of India trick with some sort of alcohol - port or wine or something - which will make it easier to put an impressive spin on.
Now for purchases I don't have photos for:
5) Assorted note cards, which is good because I have some thank you notes to write and they were really nice and cheap and buy one get one free, so that's that sorted.
6) Maybelline Dream Satin Liquid in Sand - I've seen good things about this, and have been looking for something light for summer ... I don't usually wear much makeup but would like to wear slightly more than I currently do; and I tried to do the whole "take a couple of colour samples and then go out into natural lighting and see how they look to see if the colour *actually* suits you or only suits you under yellowy artificial store lighting" thing, which I think helped. So hopefully this will work for me.
All in all, Saturday was an extremely productive shopping trip, which is great. I still have stuff I need to get, but it's less urgent now, which is good.
Aaaaand, on Saturday evening Chris came up to visit, which was great :) we hung out, he brought brownies (woohoo!) and also the Sims 3, which ran perfectly happily on my laptop on low graphics settings - it is a great game. You can put a lot more personality into your Sims, and you can have your whole town growing at the same time. No more "I want X to marry Y. So I need to play on X's game lots for them to grow up. Okay, so now X is grown up, but Y is still a child (eww). So I need to play on Y's game lots to make them grow up. Then they can start having a proper relationship with X ..." (meanwhile X and Y's childhood friend Z is still a child.) All in all an extremely good day.
1) A toasted sandwich maker. I was on a forum last night reading a thread about how wonderful toasties are ... and yes, yes they are. And you can buy toastie makers from Argos for £6. So now I have. Note blurry reflection of me.
1b) Bread. For above.
2)
10 squares of Earl Grey Chocolate! Haven't tried any of it yet but am hoping it will be amazing - I had some in Belgium on a family holiday there a few years back, although that was Earl Grey truffles rather than Earl Grey chocolate, and it was great ... (added note on Monday: Have now tried some of it. It is rather lovely, although I think it would be even better if it was milk chocolate rather than dark, as that would let the tea shine through more strongly.)
10 squares of Earl Grey Chocolate! Haven't tried any of it yet but am hoping it will be amazing - I had some in Belgium on a family holiday there a few years back, although that was Earl Grey truffles rather than Earl Grey chocolate, and it was great ... (added note on Monday: Have now tried some of it. It is rather lovely, although I think it would be even better if it was milk chocolate rather than dark, as that would let the tea shine through more strongly.)3) Several magazines - Red, marie claire, and Glamour. I barely ever buy magazines - they are either an indulgent purchase (as now), or something I buy if I'm waiting in an airport lounge and they seem to be the best way to fill my time. My magazine buying is also definitely conditioned on what free stuff there is with the magazines - I genuinely like marie claire and so will often go for that if I'm looking for magazines, and I quite like Glamour, but would only buy the latter provided they had good free stuff. A reasonable haul this month, I feel - free cosmetic bag with Red which is really really nice (and also definitely something that will be useful to me), free novel with marie claire which I don't particularly want but is by one of Hazel's favourite authors (so have given it to her), and free mini benefit mascara in Glamour which is definitely a good thing, as it's definitely not the sort of thing I'd usually buy but equally is something I'm looking forward to trying. I still have 2 full-size benefit lipglosses that came with Glamour some months back (mostly used up by now), and they were great, although not sufficiently great for me to buy them full price, but I am definitely a fan of good makeup brands as free samples.
4) A magic wand and magic trick - I'm going to a dinner at the end of the week during which I will be required to prove that I am a wizard. I think these will help.I'm thinking I might be able to do the Water of India trick with some sort of alcohol - port or wine or something - which will make it easier to put an impressive spin on.Now for purchases I don't have photos for:
5) Assorted note cards, which is good because I have some thank you notes to write and they were really nice and cheap and buy one get one free, so that's that sorted.
6) Maybelline Dream Satin Liquid in Sand - I've seen good things about this, and have been looking for something light for summer ... I don't usually wear much makeup but would like to wear slightly more than I currently do; and I tried to do the whole "take a couple of colour samples and then go out into natural lighting and see how they look to see if the colour *actually* suits you or only suits you under yellowy artificial store lighting" thing, which I think helped. So hopefully this will work for me.
All in all, Saturday was an extremely productive shopping trip, which is great. I still have stuff I need to get, but it's less urgent now, which is good.
Aaaaand, on Saturday evening Chris came up to visit, which was great :) we hung out, he brought brownies (woohoo!) and also the Sims 3, which ran perfectly happily on my laptop on low graphics settings - it is a great game. You can put a lot more personality into your Sims, and you can have your whole town growing at the same time. No more "I want X to marry Y. So I need to play on X's game lots for them to grow up. Okay, so now X is grown up, but Y is still a child (eww). So I need to play on Y's game lots to make them grow up. Then they can start having a proper relationship with X ..." (meanwhile X and Y's childhood friend Z is still a child.) All in all an extremely good day.
Bah, missed posts.
So, I started drafting a post on Saturday, and then forgot to finish it off and publish it ... and then yesterday Chris came up, and today he went home and Hazel has come up to visit ... so am busy. Will update tomorrow. Honest.
Saturday, June 06, 2009
They're over!!!
My exams for the year are over! Hurrah! They all went fairly well, but it is nice to be done. Now for the exciting end-of-term stuff - parties and balls and madness and dancing. And reading of science fiction and fantasy books; and doing all those things I've been meaning to do but have been putting off until after exams. Hurrah.
I shall Make a List.
Things To Do: (Unscheduled)
-Read Dune
-Read Gardens of the Moon
-Read The Gods Themselves
-Read Paladin of Souls
-Read The Curse of Chalion
-Play Zendo
-Finish knitting my second klein bottle
-Finish making the necklace from jewellery kit my sister gave me for Christmas (I've made the earrings, and started making the necklace)
-Take down all my revision notes and recycle / file them as appropriate
-Buy a bag to go with my ball dress
-Buy those insert-things to go in my shoes for my ball dress
-Buy a couple of new summer skirts
-Buy several people birthday cards
-Work out what food to bring to the 3 events I need to bring food to
-Get lots and lots of sleep ...
-Watch the rest of Gilmore girls season 3 so I can give it back to Alicia by the end of term
That's probably enough to be getting on with ...
I shall Make a List.
Things To Do: (Unscheduled)
-Read Dune
-Read Gardens of the Moon
-Read The Gods Themselves
-Read Paladin of Souls
-Read The Curse of Chalion
-Play Zendo
-Finish knitting my second klein bottle
-Finish making the necklace from jewellery kit my sister gave me for Christmas (I've made the earrings, and started making the necklace)
-Take down all my revision notes and recycle / file them as appropriate
-Buy a bag to go with my ball dress
-Buy those insert-things to go in my shoes for my ball dress
-Buy a couple of new summer skirts
-Buy several people birthday cards
-Work out what food to bring to the 3 events I need to bring food to
-Get lots and lots of sleep ...
-Watch the rest of Gilmore girls season 3 so I can give it back to Alicia by the end of term
That's probably enough to be getting on with ...
Friday, June 05, 2009
Another tired day of tired ...
... mostly because I had some normal tea before bed last night, whilst socialising. This was Silly - I slept badly from 12-6, and then okay from 6-8 (briefly woke up at 6). Should be able to get a really good block of decent sleep in tonight though, which will be fab.
Sleep is an interesting thing ... and often much neglected, I think. I certainly think that the different phases the brain goes through are interesting ... some time ago I read a very good popsci book on the subject, Counting Sheep: The science and pleasures of sleep and dreams, by Paul Martin. Should reread that sometime soon ... although there are probably lots of other books I need to read more pressingly, e.g. fantasy/scifi I've borrowed from people that I should finish by the end of term ...
Sleep does amazing things for you. Your body regenerates in all sorts of ways, which is the most important thing. And sometimes you get cool dreams out of it. I'd like to be able to lucid dream ... I can remember my dreams reasonably often, although they're usually not worth writing down. Dream fragments I've had recently include attempting to make James a cup of tea (possibly Assam, possibly Earl Grey - this makes sense as those are the two kinds of Twinings I have at the moment), and finding random bags of cooked rice in my fridge which - when I opened the fridge door - started growing and expanding and spilling out everywhere. I don't attach much significance to these, although of course if anybody wanted to give a comical interpretation that would be very much encouraged.
Over and out for another day,
--JB
Sleep is an interesting thing ... and often much neglected, I think. I certainly think that the different phases the brain goes through are interesting ... some time ago I read a very good popsci book on the subject, Counting Sheep: The science and pleasures of sleep and dreams, by Paul Martin. Should reread that sometime soon ... although there are probably lots of other books I need to read more pressingly, e.g. fantasy/scifi I've borrowed from people that I should finish by the end of term ...
Sleep does amazing things for you. Your body regenerates in all sorts of ways, which is the most important thing. And sometimes you get cool dreams out of it. I'd like to be able to lucid dream ... I can remember my dreams reasonably often, although they're usually not worth writing down. Dream fragments I've had recently include attempting to make James a cup of tea (possibly Assam, possibly Earl Grey - this makes sense as those are the two kinds of Twinings I have at the moment), and finding random bags of cooked rice in my fridge which - when I opened the fridge door - started growing and expanding and spilling out everywhere. I don't attach much significance to these, although of course if anybody wanted to give a comical interpretation that would be very much encouraged.
Over and out for another day,
--JB
Thursday, June 04, 2009
Wednesday, June 03, 2009
Tired
Mostly posting this in order to fulfil the blogging daily thing. Am tired, it's half past 11, and I need to get up early tomorrow so will be heading to bed post-haste ... hmm. This would be a good time to try a thankfulness post.
Things I am thankful for today ...
1) Friends who offer tea
2) It not being terribly sunny and therefore not feeling silly for wearing black tights (which I was planning to do for reasons unrelated to weather)
3) Chocolate cake
4) Gok's Fashion Fix ... am sad that the series is now over! You can still see it on 4oD for a few more weeks.
5) Mysterious presents left in my pigeonhole :) thank you muchly!
6) Bible chat (by the way, if we're looking for prophets whose initials spell BDSM, can we find them? We can have Samuel and Micah ... possibly Daniel ... we need a B. Boaz wasn't a prophet ...)
7) Sillyness and laughing - good to relieve exam stress.
8) Talking to sister-dear. Your maths is easier than my maths! Ah, for the days when "prove inductively that 2^k > 2k (for k>2)" was a question you'd get marks for ...
9) New swirly skirt of swirly. Swirls!
10) Sleep. G'night!
Things I am thankful for today ...
1) Friends who offer tea
2) It not being terribly sunny and therefore not feeling silly for wearing black tights (which I was planning to do for reasons unrelated to weather)
3) Chocolate cake
4) Gok's Fashion Fix ... am sad that the series is now over! You can still see it on 4oD for a few more weeks.
5) Mysterious presents left in my pigeonhole :) thank you muchly!
6) Bible chat (by the way, if we're looking for prophets whose initials spell BDSM, can we find them? We can have Samuel and Micah ... possibly Daniel ... we need a B. Boaz wasn't a prophet ...)
7) Sillyness and laughing - good to relieve exam stress.
8) Talking to sister-dear. Your maths is easier than my maths! Ah, for the days when "prove inductively that 2^k > 2k (for k>2)" was a question you'd get marks for ...
9) New swirly skirt of swirly. Swirls!
10) Sleep. G'night!
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
Lovely weather we're having, isn't it?
So, the birds are singing, the sun is shining, the weather is balmy ... ah yes, it must be exam season! I've been feeling oddly calm about exams this year. Perhaps all the praying for peace is being answered. Or perhaps it's something to do with hours of preparation ... or perhaps more likely a combination of the two.
The other thing that this time of year brings for me, though, is hayfever and that is *not* fun ... thankfully it hasn't been too bad so far, my loratadine kicks in pretty quickly (speaking of which, boots appear to sell precisely the same product - active ingredient loratadine 10mg - for about £1 for 7 tablets or £2.50 for 7 tablets with no difference other than packaging. Weird, but I can see why they do it. Hey, I'm up for buying value-hayfever-meds, I don't need the shiny blue box ...) and then I'm good for most of the day.
Also it becomes sunscreen time. Ugh. Being a well-indoctrinated little kiwi I do feel the need for sunscreen when the sun rages ... just hate wearing it. I mean, for my face I've got an everyday SPF15 built into my moisturiser anyway, so that's fine, it's the arms/legs/neck being all sticky that I don't like. Maybe I'll just tan. But any amount of tanning is a sign of sun damage ... maybe I'll just try to stay out of the sun ... I guess that's probably the best option. There are people baking themselves out on the grass around where I live now ... it does make me wonder; I imagine that not many of them are using protection. Woot melanoma?
I've started people watching a lot more (when I'm out and about) now that the sun is shining. This is partly because I want to buy a couple of skirts this summer, so I am definitely keeping an eye out to see what other people are wearing and whether I spot something I particularly like ... but also I'm getting more interested in colour combinations and such. And often thinking "hmm, why on earth would you pair those colours together?" but it's still interesting.
The other thing that this time of year brings for me, though, is hayfever and that is *not* fun ... thankfully it hasn't been too bad so far, my loratadine kicks in pretty quickly (speaking of which, boots appear to sell precisely the same product - active ingredient loratadine 10mg - for about £1 for 7 tablets or £2.50 for 7 tablets with no difference other than packaging. Weird, but I can see why they do it. Hey, I'm up for buying value-hayfever-meds, I don't need the shiny blue box ...) and then I'm good for most of the day.
Also it becomes sunscreen time. Ugh. Being a well-indoctrinated little kiwi I do feel the need for sunscreen when the sun rages ... just hate wearing it. I mean, for my face I've got an everyday SPF15 built into my moisturiser anyway, so that's fine, it's the arms/legs/neck being all sticky that I don't like. Maybe I'll just tan. But any amount of tanning is a sign of sun damage ... maybe I'll just try to stay out of the sun ... I guess that's probably the best option. There are people baking themselves out on the grass around where I live now ... it does make me wonder; I imagine that not many of them are using protection. Woot melanoma?
I've started people watching a lot more (when I'm out and about) now that the sun is shining. This is partly because I want to buy a couple of skirts this summer, so I am definitely keeping an eye out to see what other people are wearing and whether I spot something I particularly like ... but also I'm getting more interested in colour combinations and such. And often thinking "hmm, why on earth would you pair those colours together?" but it's still interesting.
Monday, June 01, 2009
Musings on Facebook
I was reading a blog post yesterday talking about pros and cons of Facebook and how you can be "sucked in" by it ... it was on SimpleMom, I think, or linked to from that (SimpleMom is another blog I've been checking every now and then. I really can't work out why; most of it I don't find particularly interesting or relevant to me - although some of the marriage communication posts and the taking-care-of-yourself posts were quite good. Finally deleted it from my bookmarks yesterday as I realised it was basically wasting my time).
I didn't particularly want to get Facebook ... which is why I'm on there under an assumed name (it was basically akin to a dare), although I've kept the name because I now really like it. Besides, having multiple identities is mysterious, right? (or something). But it has become a really useful tool and I am now a big fan of Facebook, given that I have the willpower to use it as I want to and not waste all my time "poking" people or taking daft badly-written quizzes.
The best point about it, I think, is that it gives you a level of casual contact with people somewhat between the "I nod at them if I see them in the corridor" and "If I see them standing around I go up and say hi and we chat" sort of levels. People who are on my course who I don't know very well can comment on my facebook status and we might strike up a conversation. From thereon in I might make new friends and get to know people who I wouldn't otherwise have got to know. I really like this aspect of it - it's communication without having to get to the level where you feel comfortable asking for their phone number / email address.
The other major boon is the way in which you can arrange group events on it. One of my friends is having a birthday party on it, and wanted to have it on a day such that the maximum number of his friends would be able to come ... so he created a facebook event, invited people, and asked them to write on the wall what times they could do. This meant everybody could see who else was definitely going, what times they were free, etc etc ... and worked really really well.
And then there's the being reunited with old friends from around the world aspect ... I can see a few of my old friends from NZ on facebook as we've found each other via email addresses. This is quite nice. I can see photos of them, they can see photos of me, we can vaguely keep in touch, it's nice. For me though, this isn't a major draw, or at least not at the moment - I'm more interested in how facebook affects the communication I have with the people immediately around me. I suspect that will change when I leave University though.
I didn't particularly want to get Facebook ... which is why I'm on there under an assumed name (it was basically akin to a dare), although I've kept the name because I now really like it. Besides, having multiple identities is mysterious, right? (or something). But it has become a really useful tool and I am now a big fan of Facebook, given that I have the willpower to use it as I want to and not waste all my time "poking" people or taking daft badly-written quizzes.
The best point about it, I think, is that it gives you a level of casual contact with people somewhat between the "I nod at them if I see them in the corridor" and "If I see them standing around I go up and say hi and we chat" sort of levels. People who are on my course who I don't know very well can comment on my facebook status and we might strike up a conversation. From thereon in I might make new friends and get to know people who I wouldn't otherwise have got to know. I really like this aspect of it - it's communication without having to get to the level where you feel comfortable asking for their phone number / email address.
The other major boon is the way in which you can arrange group events on it. One of my friends is having a birthday party on it, and wanted to have it on a day such that the maximum number of his friends would be able to come ... so he created a facebook event, invited people, and asked them to write on the wall what times they could do. This meant everybody could see who else was definitely going, what times they were free, etc etc ... and worked really really well.
And then there's the being reunited with old friends from around the world aspect ... I can see a few of my old friends from NZ on facebook as we've found each other via email addresses. This is quite nice. I can see photos of them, they can see photos of me, we can vaguely keep in touch, it's nice. For me though, this isn't a major draw, or at least not at the moment - I'm more interested in how facebook affects the communication I have with the people immediately around me. I suspect that will change when I leave University though.
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