Exam results!!

Not mine though.

I haven't had to sit an exam in a number of years... :)

But my students do. I'm currently in the process of hauling them all in to "discuss" their results so far. Just the kind of thing I really hated when my shoe was on somebody else's foot. Now, I have my own shoe and a mixed-up metaphor. That'll show'em.

Internet Catz

They seem to be everywhere now - Internet Catz. I see them linked from all kinds of sites. Here are some of my personal favourites...

Bootiful Boycott

Wow, it's been a long day today. The trains are playing up at the moment so while I headed over to Huddersfield for the usual weekend at Sally's, Transpennine Express weren't willing to help be come back as easily. The trains were barely running last night (engineering at Selby), so I waited until this morning to come back. After being woken by Sally at a less-that-usual 6.30am (sob), it was off to the station for the semi-usual 8.12am. It gets to Hull for 9.36am, one quick taxi and I'm not usually late for work. But not today... No, the engineering is perversely from 7.30am-9.30am and 4.30pm onwards, just to make sure commuters are stuffed. :) So it was a train as far as Selby, then a bus to Hull. I got home roughly 10.30am, and to work just before 11am. Luckily, my Monday teaching only starts at 1pm, but I'm still a bit peeved.

I'm also peeved at Bernard Matthews and his turkeys. I'm not a big believer in food scares, and I'm not worried by this bird 'flu business. In fact, short of taking a lovely stroll across the countryside, stumbling across a dead bird and them rubbing it into your face, I don't think we're likely to catch it. But shifty companies do get up my nose. So along with Terrys and O2, Bernard Matthews are now on my 'black list'. :)

House of Cards RIP

Recently, I bought and started re-watching the BBC series "House of Cards". I always enjoyed it - some great acting. So I'm very disappointed to hear that Ian Richardson - the politican who "couldn't possibly comment" has passed away :-( The story is here.

He was also the voice of "Death" in the recent Hogfather.

Road Pricing Proposals?

This seems legit so I thought I'd mention it (Thanks for the e-mail Paul). See this link for a BBC article about it a couple of weeks ago. Seems the numbers have changed since then.

Sarah Kennedy was on about this proposed car tax scheme on the radio, apparently there is only one month left to register your objection to the 'Pay as you go' road tax. The petition is on the 10 Downing St website but they didn't tell anybody about it. Therefore at the time of Sarah's comments only 250,000 people had signed it so far and 750,000 signatures are required to stop them introducing it.

This is from the 10 Downing Street's website. [Might be worth finding the link through their website]. Once you've given your details (you don't have to give your full address, just house number and postcode will do), they will send you an email with a link in it. Once you click on that link, you'll have signed the petition. (JAMES EDIT: You *do* give a lot of address info).

Democracy in action?

The government's proposal to introduce road pricing will mean you having to purchase a tracking device for your car and paying a monthly bill to use it. The tracking device will cost about £200 and in a recent study by the BBC, the lowest monthly bill was £28 for a rural florist and £194 for a delivery driver. A non-working mother who used the car to take the kids to school paid £86 in one month.

On top of this massive increase in tax, you will be tracked. Somebody will know where you are at all times. They will also know how fast you have been going, so even if you accidentally creep over a speed limit in time you can probably expect a Notice of Intended Prosecution with your monthly bill. If you care about our freedom and stopping the constant bashing of the car driver, please sign the petition on No 10's new website (link below) and pass this on to as many people as possible.

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/traveltax/

Nothing, really...

But if you look at it from a different angle, you realise just how clever this is. This is Julian Beever's work. I was sent a few examples the other day and while I've heard of him before, I couldn't resist posting something here.

What's wrong with the picture?

Muammar Gaddafi

It's not very PC, and of course there's Lockerbie, but even so, I've always had a bit of a soft spot for Colonel Gaddaffi (Libya). He's madder than a box of frogs... Yesterday, he arrived in Ethiopia for the African Union summit with two suitcases full of gold bars - "gifts for the leaders of African nations" explained his aides to airport officials. How thoughful of him. Exactly what I would have wanted too. :)

Forks!!

Snow this morning. Caught me by surprise a little. My flatmate left the house before me (about 8.45am) and sicne we both cycle in, he got smothered by a sudden snowstorm. It lasted about 30mins, so since I decided to wait and see if it subsided, I missed it completely - and was still in before 9.30am, btw. And now, it's turned into a lovely day. Clear blue sky and all that. Nice one.

Anyhow, on with today's fascinating fact/urban myth: Eating with a fork was once considered scandalous.

Forks were first used in the Middle Ages, but eating with one was considered scandalous. In the 11th Century, when a Greek princess died shortly after introducing forks at her wedding with a Venetian Doge (chief magistrate) Domenico Selvo, it was perceived as divine punishment. While forks were a regular feature on the tables of nobles in Italy since the 11th Century, and used in France in the 14th Century, it was introduced in England only in 1611 by Thomas Coryat through his book "Coryat's Curdities Hastily gobbled up in Five Months Travels in France." Even then, he was mocked about promoting the use of forks and called "Furcifer," meaning fork-bearer. The upper classes of Spain were using forks in the 16th Century, as could be told from a large assortment of forks that were recovered from the wreck of La Girona, which sank off the coast of Ireland in 1588. In 1630, Governor Winthrop of Massachusetts had the first and only fork in colonial America. So what did people eat with before using forks? They used wooden spoons, knifes and, of course, their hands. Forks, mostly being two-tined, were known as "split spoons". Although there are examples of four- and five-tined forks from the before the 1600s, the four-tined fork became popular only in the late 1800s.

In Thailand, It is still considered scandalous to bring the food to your mouth with a fork; you only use the fork to bring the food in your spoon to eat it.

Masking Tape

Yes, everything can be fixed by masking tape!!

I have two windows in my office. One doesn't quite shut properly. The weather is being weird today too. So while it switches between blue sky and sunshine (though cold) and the odd hailshower, I have to contend with: (a) draughts and (b) hailstones coming through the gap between window and sill. All hail masking tape!

A Game of Thrones

Talking about books, I love this series of novels (A Song of Fire & Ice). They're big, complicated, and some of the characters are downright horrible. Plus, I admire an author willing to kill off main characters (often) for the sake of the story. Credit goes to Jason here for first mentioning the books to me, however many years ago it was before I picked them up. My one regret is that I found a picture of the author, but even that failed to dampen my enthusiasm(!) The man even likes Battlestar Galactica - but that could be explained away by the photo... ;-)

Anyhow - with thanks to Mik - news for the fan boys.

The Burning Crusade/Flashman

Some of you will know - and many will hang their heads and "tut" - but I am relatively keen on this World of Warcraft game... The new expansion pack is out and into The Outlands I went. Or rather, into The Outlands we *all* went. Almost everyone on the server poured into the new zones at the same time, causing the tiniest bit of lag. So I'll get back to that in a couple of days! Until then, I've actually been doing a bit of work.

Lately, I've been diverted by a borrowed copy of "Flashman" (thanks Mik). Pretty cynical story-telling... But if you don't take offence easily, great fun to read. Mik got his copy for something like 20p when a local school sold off some of its books. I have to agree with him, it's a little "adult" for the kiddies in places. Even so, I'll have to track down the rest in the series. Though as Sally would say: "Not your role model".

New Year Round-up 2

After all that too-ing and fro-ing, I think we were both really starting to run out of steam. Me for certain, as I *still* had that huge pile of marking to do. 45 projects and 65 essays later (at an average of slightly under 15mins each), and I'd turned the corner. I still wasn't blogging though!!

Right now, I'm onto my own homework. When you start as a lecturer these days, you have to complete a higher education teaching certificate, of which I'm into the Second Module (each takes a year). So - the indignity... ;-) - I have homework to hand in for Wednesday. A summative refelective account of the course so far. *Urgh*

But I'm fresh from Huddersfield, it didn't rain on me this morning, and if this is the worst of my problems, then I'm doing ok!

New Year Round-up

Right then. *rolls up sleeves* It's time to start things anew. My host of marking is done - well, until the exams next week - so it's time to get bang up to date. Firstly, no New Year resolutions. Not one. Can't think of anything I really, really need to do to improve(!) Not even my hefty sense of self-delusion. I'm drinking less anyway - at least, during the week (discounting Wednesdays...), I don't smoke, and I don't have the drive and inclination to do more exercise. So, steady as she goes, Captain. ;-)

New Year was fun though, if hectic. I certainly needed time to recover. Christmas with the parents (York), New Year was spent down in London (with Sally, Alex, and Julian; and some time at Jason and Serena's, managing to meet Lauren and bump into Pradeep too). And the inbetween/slightly afterwards was with Sally in festive Huddersfield. Phew! Sally and I flew down to Heathrow from Manchester - as you can see from her Blog. It was something like 30mins to Heathrow (a bit bumpy but the wind was with us) and 35mins back. Decadent, yes. Especially with Julian meeting us at the airport and driving us back. :-) What I liked best was that we took off, reached 18,000ft, got served a cup of tea and biscuit, then we descended/landed. Sorted. Actually, we struggled a bit... Sally didn't like her biscuit so I had to eat two, and since the cup of tea was too hot, it was a struggle to drink/eat them before landing. Sheesh(!) More later.

Heh

Looks like I wasn't updating over Christmas. lol. But rest assured, the marking is almost done - and in the nick of time. :)

Last day at work

Yep, last day before Christmas. I'm off home to York tomorrow - depending on lifts!! And I'm taking my PC with me. Then it's Huddersfield from Boxing Day (Sally) and down to London by plane from Manchester - so decadent! yet cheaper than the train and way, way better than driving for five hours - to see Alex, Julian (and Jason??) as New Year tradition demands. I do have a lot of marking, but it's the feedback that takes time, not the marking itself. You know, trying to find something good to say about something at the rubbish end of the scale. Plus, at some point, I'll get to watch the second half of the Hogfather (Sky One). Long story...

So, while I'll be updating over Christmas, Seasons Greetings everyone. :)

The Good, the Bad, and nothing Ugly.

I have a lot of marking waiting for me again. 45 practicals (3,000 words) and 75 essays (1,500 words) to mark before 9th January. Pretty do-able I think, but I stress that I don't actually *want* to do this marking.

Still, on the upside, I paid too much tax 2005/6 and I've just had a chunky repayment. Nice one. :-)

Random comment about no buses for days, then three in a row. ;-)

Gareth's Blog is music-heavy - and rightly so! I very much enjoyed his You-Tubing of Imagine the other day so I thought I'd post something from the past. Who remembers this?

August 23rd, 2008

That's the date of Eddie and Yvonne's wedding so I'm told. By Sally. And she should know, as we were at Eddie and Yvonne's engagement party in Barrow on Saturday night and Eddie pointed out the church and told her so. That's a good week before my 35th birthday [see how I turned that post into something about me. Good eh? ;-)] Thanks to Mik and Karolina for the lift, btw. I very much enjoyed it, and funnily enough, it was my first time across the Humber Bridge in twenty years at least. Cue second fascinating fact of the day - that the stanchions of the bridge are four inches nearer each other at the top then they are at the bottom - purely due to the curvature of the Earth. More geeky facts later? Who can tell.

Anyhow, Hull actually looks somewhat stunning from several miles away. Across an estuary. At night. And only then, probably... ;-)

Christmas is coming!!

Er, is it??

It may just be me, but I'm not seeing many signs. I mean, lights are going up, Newland Avenue is looking suitably festive - or else, it would be, but the sun is hining, some trees even still have leaves, and winter seems just as far away as ever. It's mid-December, and it should be cold, wet, windy and horrible. But it isn't. How odd.

Side note: Did you know that while it's winter, we're closer to the sun that any other time of year. I discovered (though reading a book!) that it's colder not because we're tilting away form the Sun at this time of year, but that we're tilting *towards* it! The angle is such that light rays are being scattered across the northerm hemisphere and are reflecting/bouncing off. Just the kind of fact that does your head in. ;-)