Home! And thinking.

Hey hey everybody :)

My my, what a lot has happened since my last post ... in chronological order:

-I got a part-time job (2 days a week), to do with maths education, starting mid-July. Paperwork hasn't come through yet but I'm pretty confident there won't be any problems - I know one of the people I'll be working under, which gives a bit of security (as in, I can pretty safely count on there not being a phone call in a couple of days that tells me the whole thing's off - although of course in theory in jobhunting you /should/ keep looking until you've actually signed and started working).

-I GRADUATED!!! I now have a degree in Mathematics!!! How awesome is that? 'Scuse the exclamation marks. It's very exciting. I might have to put a couple of pictures up (can't at the moment as none of them are on my camera - all are on friends' / family cameras).

-I came home :) at the weekend. The house is currently full of boxes. I'm not under much pressure to unpack quickly so I'm taking it slow ... it's a very nice feeling. My family - particularly my parents and sister - were stars at helping pack and load stuff. My Dad's definition of what is possible is pretty big (as in, when others were going 'um, we're not going to fit this in 2 cars given that each car must carry 3 people ... someone will have to take the train back ...' he was saying 'it'll be fine' - which was my opinion too - and indeed it was). It was really cool to hang out with them all again - I've talked to them lots individually on the phone, but it's not the same, you don't have the same interplay of personalities and stuff. We're going to go and visit them for Christmas, which I'm really looking forward to.

I've also been thinking more about this new-blog thing ... I came up with a full title today: "Eudoxia Friday : Thoughtful Eclecticism". What do you all think?

I wanted to incorporate the idea of a diverse set of ideas and topics, hence eclectic, but I didn't want to just be sort of "My Random Musings" - mostly because I already did that, when I was about 14, and don't see the need to do it again. And I wanted to communicate that that blog /isn't/ just going to be 'random ravings', it /is/ going to have work done on it and - I hope - each piece will be well-thought-out and well-written. Hence the 'Thoughtful'. Also, I googled 'eclecticism' (partly to check it was a word) and found:

Wikipedia page on Eclecticism: this says it's a school of philosophy (or an approach in other areas) that seeks to take what it sees as best or true, from various sources, and combine it.

The following definition of 'Eclectic':

"1 : selecting what appears to be best in various doctrines, methods, or styles
2 : composed of elements drawn from various sources"

And those really do describe what I want to do with the blog - to draw together elements from different areas, but always trying to take the best of what I can from those areas.

Still to do on the blog-planning front: Read the "Writing Well" book (I've just unpacked it, which is a good start!). Write a good 'About' page. Sort out a colour scheme - I've got lots of ideas (lots of silvery grey and white, and light green, and dashes of dark purple, I'm thinking) but need to hammer those into a banner, at least, if not a whole template. Need to chat with the sister about this one.

How's everyone else? Please do comment and chat :)

Thoughts on Blogging - brainstorming

Today I've been thinking about blogging, and about writing generally.

I want to take blogging more seriously in future - I think that building a blog that regularly has interesting things to say, has a good balance of content, and that is full of the things that matter to me would be a really worthwhile and satisfying task. And now that my exams are out of the way and I'm going to be turning into a Real Person rather than a super-highly-pressured student, I think I'm much more likely to have the time to work on a really good blog.

So I just went away and decided to get something down on paper because I think better on paper than I think when typing, and this is what I came up with:

rough ideas

Some big decisions I need to make:

1) Do I stick with the attempt at anonymity, or do I come clean about who I am and where I am? The rationale for changing would be: personal information has become much, much more prevalent over the last 6 years (plus, I've become a fully-fledged adult, rather than a minor). And this can become part of how I market myself to the world; would that be a good thing?

Maybe I come clean about the University I've been a part of for the last 3 years. This has been a pretty formative time, and being able to talk about details more openly would be cool. On the other hand, it might make me pretty easy to stalk - I'm not sure what info is publicly available (but say you got hold of the list of all the people in my year, well, then you've got my first name and subject, that's probably a unique identifier).

2) On a related note, do I start using identifiable photos of myself? 

I haven't done so in the past, but I think I will do in the future.

3) What do I call myself?

I have an answer to this; my facebook name (which I fondly like to think of as my superhero name), Eudoxia Friday. Jingle Bella is a name that feels like it fits me less well now. And I have really, really grown to like Eudoxia. I'm secretly tempted to change my name by deed poll so I can add it as a middle name.

4) How do I structure and balance the blog?

I want this blog to be a rounded expression of myself. I want to talk about my husband / family / friends a little more. I want to talk about intellectual / academic / geeky stuff a little more. I want to talk about creative stuff regularly.

5) How often do I update?

Having regular updating days will be important, to give myself structure. I don't think I can update every day; not unless someone starts paying me to do this! Fewer than 3 times a week seems too infrequent. 3 or 4 times a week? Which days? What times on those days? I haven't generally taken advantage of the function that lets you queue up posts to be published in the future at a specific time; in the future I intend to.

6) How much time do I spend on this?

An hour per post will be an absolute minimum, I should think. Do I have that kind of time? This obviously feeds into the above. I think I have time for 3 or 4 updates a week. 

7) Do I have regular features?

I think this could be a good idea. Probably with categories that are pretty vague, though, so as to make it manageable. Like posting something that made me smile each Monday, or an article each Thursday.

8) How do I label posts and make them searchable?

The answer to this is probably to think of labels sensibly beforehand, like "how-to" "article" "cookery" etc, and then apply them consistently.

9) How do I improve my writing?

I think the main answer to this is 'by doing it, and critiquing it'. At the moment I don't generally reread or edit posts before they go live; this has been a personal off-the-cuff blog. But if I want to do things more seriously, and now that I have a bit more time, I can start paying more attention to writing techniques and the like. I'm going to start by reading this:

 

I picked it up in a bookshop about a week ago. It was calling to me. I haven't had time to start it yet, but will do soon.

10) How do I attract and encourage comments and discussion?

Much as I'd like to pretend that I'm doing this for the sheer art of it and because it is a worthwhile goal in and of itself (which I do think it is), of course I like it when people read and comment. And one of the coolest things about some blogs I read like Already Pretty and Momastery is the comments, because of the great diversity of opinions and conversation that goes on there. The first step is to explicitly ask for and invite comments, apart from that, what do I do? We'll see. 

On that note: Any comments on these ideas very much appreciated! Some questions: do you blog? If so, why? If you used to but don't now, why did you give it up? What do you think makes a successful and enjoyable blog?

Stopping to Breathe

Aaaaand the really really busy part of post-exam celebration is coming to an end. Seriously, the last week has been pretty much: sleep. Get up. Get dressed up and go out somewhere. Eat and drink lots of party food (cake, strawberries and cream, pimms). Come home. Sleep. Repeat.
Or the bits that don't go like that are full of phoning Chris, or realising that I don't have something sorted to wear to the next event and therefore sorting that out, or organising future events and sending organisational emails.

But I'm now pretty much finished on this ... I've still got lots on on the next few days, but now I have lots of time to sleep, and I mostly just have to show up to stuff (as opposed to being involved in organising it / needing to bring complicated things).

Here's a sneak peek of what I've been doing:

Making tiny dark chocolate cookies with rose icing

Making a great big orange necklace

 

 Playing mathematical Pictionary (this one says: "proof by hand-waving")

 

Eating peanut butter brownies (which I also made) at a maths party.

Playing bananagrams

Glitterizing shoes

Working on a petticoat

Eating strawberries and cream

Ferris wheel!

And lots of seeing friends, drinking Pimms, reading books, and so on.

It's been a great week. (Especially as I now have my results - I've got a 2.1. Thank God. (At the moment I am too busy being relieved to be happy - it's what I expected, but I was starting to get worried about well what if it all went wrong somehow etc etc.)) 

But it will be nice to have a bit more time to sleep (I've been to 3 all-night events in the last week). Unwinding.

Upcoming Posts ...

Now that I'm finished with exams I have lots of time to do exciting and/or crafty things! This is fun.
Hence: posts to look forward to:
-DIY Flower Necklace (inspired by lovemaegan)
-DIY glitter shoes (inspired by a couple of blogs)
-DIY petticoat (inspired by not wanting to pay £30 for one ...)
-Peanut butter chocolate chip brownies
-Mystery Baking (it's exciting and slightly unusual; not saying what it is as it's for a party tomorrow afternoon and I want it to be a surprise then)

I've done the baking in both cases, and haven't done the fashion stuff yet although I've purchased most of the necessary materials. The necklace is for a party on thursday night, so that will have to be done soon.

Yay, time to make things! :)

I'm Finished!

Last exam this morning :). My four exams were: really bad, really good, good, really good. So pretty decent.

I am tired.

Here are some of my plans for the nearish future:

And a lot of hanging out with friends and enjoying the sunshine. And a lot of shopping.


*tired smiley*