Friday, February 5th, 2010
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11:12 am - Britain Today...
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Research has shown that the number of children dying a violent death in England and Wales is 40% lower today than it was in 1974.
Yes, lower. I blame social workers and society in general.
We used to be the fourth worst in the Western world, now we're the fourth best.
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Wednesday, January 27th, 2010
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11:28 pm - 100 years ago today...
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Wednesday, January 13th, 2010
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10:33 pm - Exams!
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I had my first two exams today - Internet & Agents.
Four hours of writing left my hand aching but I think they went okay. I'm pretty sure I passed both of them, maybe getting 60-70% in each, possibly more in the examiner is in a good mood.
Then I spent ages trying to get home in the snow. Not much, but enough to screw up the trains.
I've only got one more - on Friday, then lectures restart next week.
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Thursday, January 7th, 2010
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4:06 pm - Snow
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Despite the UK being hammered by the worst winter weather for 30-odd years, I've been pretty lucky. We've had about an inch and a half. All the local roads are easily passable, most of them are completely clear.
The pavements are compacted sheets of ice, except for the ones through the park which have been gritted. I assume the council department in charge of the parks has spare grit and manpower.
Thomas was off school today since they closed it. I'm not sure why, for so little snow. Daniel's nursery school was open.
When it fell yesterday the snow was great for snowballs and snowmen - it was wet and heavy - but today it seems to have all dried out into powdery crumbly rubbish. Daniel and I made 2 snowmen yesterday.
Kathy made it into work easily. My term doesn't start until the 18th, but I do have exams next Weds & Friday. So it'd be nice if the weather didn't get any worse.
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Wednesday, December 16th, 2009
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12:41 pm - It's Snowing!!
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Big fat flakes are drifting lazily down. It's not really laying on the pavement or road, it's slightly too warm for that, but the hedges and grass are getting a dusting.
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Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009
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8:06 pm - Plagiarism
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Thomas is doing a project on France and last week I noticed that he'd copy/pasted a bunch of stuff from Wikipedia.
So we had a talk about how copy/pasting stuff is not going to teach him anything. Not to mention the fact that the teacher will know it's not his work.
Anyway, he seemed to understand the issue.
And then today one of my lecturers is discussing our mid-term coursework (non-assessed, just to give us feedback on our progress) and he declares that a bunch of students ("a significant subset" of the class) have copy/pasted the answer to one of the questions. From Wikipedia. :0
How on earth can a bunch of 3rd year BSc (or possibly even MSc) students not know about plagiarism??? If they'd done it for assessed coursework they'd be in a lot of trouble...
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Tuesday, November 17th, 2009
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11:40 pm - Long time no post
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Still alive...
I've been on my university course 8 or so weeks now. It's all going rather fast and I've got my first exams in a couple of months. And the first draft of a review paper due in a couple of weeks. It's all suddenly becoming real. :o
It's going well. I've realised that in my other courses (undergrad & previous masters) I wasn't really interested in most of the courses. I did the assigned work, and revised and stuff, but I didn't read around the subject - I never went beyond the stuff I was taught in the lectures.
Now I'm reading loads of academic papers, and grabbing loads more to read when I've time. I suppose to some extent it's because it's a lot easier now. I don't have to go to the library and photocopy them, I can just get them off the internet. Or maybe it's because I'm older. Or paying for it. :-)
I need to bring my camera into London some time. The views off Waterloo Bridge at night are quite something.
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Sunday, October 18th, 2009
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5:06 pm - Burning bibles on Halloween
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It's what Jesus would have wanted!
Marc Grizzard, of Amazing Grace Baptist Church in Canton, North Carolina, says that the first King James translation of the Bible is the only true declaration of God’s word, and that all others are “satanic”.
Pastor Grizzard and 14 other members of the church plan to burn copies of the other “perversions” of Scripture on Halloween, 31 October.
They're planning a barbecue as well. Presumably using the burning gospels to grill the sausages.
I'm not a Christian, but I'm pretty sure they're doing it wrong.
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Saturday, October 17th, 2009
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6:37 pm - I can hear lots of fireworks.
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Saturday, September 19th, 2009
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9:38 am - Talk like a pirate day
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Wednesday, September 16th, 2009
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12:51 pm - The world is a noisy place
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Wow, it's noisy.
I had a few kilos of ear wax splurted out of my ears this morning after being almost deaf for 2 weeks. I can hear birds singing again.
And this keyboard sounds very loud.
My left ear is still a bit deaf, apparently it's water. Should be okay once it's dried out.
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Monday, September 7th, 2009
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10:28 pm - It's a thing, for your thumb!
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Friday, August 28th, 2009
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6:35 pm - Honest, the moon's made out of wood!!
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Monday, August 24th, 2009
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9:53 pm - Currently reading...
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A History of Venice by John Julius Norwich.
Picked up second-hand a while ago, but just got round to reading it.
Awesome stuff.
Interestingly, Venice had a state provided health service by 1335.
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Monday, August 17th, 2009
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1:34 pm - Snail Apocalypse
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I cut the hedge in the back garden today for the first time since we moved in 3 years ago. I hacked it right back, hopefully it'll recover. It's rather brown and woody, since most of the leaves have be chopped off.
And it was FULL of snails. They ended up scattered over the lawn and patio. There's something a little tragic than the sound of snails getting squashed underfoot... I think I'll sweep the surviving ones back under the remaining hedge.
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Sunday, August 16th, 2009
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10:43 am - Wot I did on my hols
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I'm back from holiday.
It was very good despite some slightly dodgy weather. Considering the summer we've had it we were lucky not to get rained on every day, but we only had 1 or 2 soggy moments and I managed to get sunburned.
We spent a week in St Ives in Cornwall down in the far south west of Britain, about a 300 mile drive (which is nothing for USA people, but really quite a long way for us Brits). It was (as usual for us) a walking holiday with organised walks (so we didn't get lost, and so the kids had other kids to play with).
There were mostly cliff top coastal walks (lots of ups and downs) and some field & woods walks (lots of blackberries). Daniel did a fair bit of walking considering his age, but I carried him on my shoulders a bit more than I would have liked (he's heavy!). Thomas clocked up 25 miles over 5 walks, not particularly long for him, but then we did some really short ones because of Daniel.
We also did some beach stuff - Daniel got sand *everywhere* - and a visit to an animal park (mainly birds).
It simultaneously felt longer than a week and much much shorter, which I think is a sign of a good holiday.
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Thursday, August 6th, 2009
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9:39 am - Waistcoat
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I have a sudden hankering to wear a waistcoat. A big, bright, brocade waistcoat.
I fear that watching Desperate Romantics is affecting me...
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Thursday, July 16th, 2009
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12:00 pm - VCR broke
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Our VHS player/recorder seems to have died. Or at least dying.
And we have lots of kids videos we can't play any more.
I wonder if they even sell VCRs nowadays...
Hmmm... maybe I'll check ebay.
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Wednesday, July 15th, 2009
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9:09 pm - Swim boy
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Thomas had his school swimming gala today. He was in two races and came 3rd and joint 2nd (out of 6).
His team came joint 1st!
He doesn't get it from me, I only drink like a fish. :D
My foot still hurts a bit. Maybe I broke something after all. It's a little late to bother going to the doctor though.
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Tuesday, July 14th, 2009
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11:14 pm - kid stuff
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Thomas had his school sports day today. Daniel and I went along to watch, cheer and get wet in the rain. Thomas was in the 'football slalom relay' and 'hockey slalom relay'. His team won the hockey relay and I think they came second in the football slalom (he wasn't sure either).
His team won the overall prize. :-)
Daniel has turned into Mr Grumpy-Bossy-Pants. I mentioned that the sky was blue and he started insisting that it was, in fact, green. He then got upset and outraged once he went outside and saw it was BLUE! It's like reality is conspiring against him!
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