Friday, October 31, 2008
Needs a bigger dictionary
I wish to register a complaint.
There I was, distracting myself with Dr Kawashima's More Brain Training when it tossed me the letters NOGREA and asked me to unscramble them into a word. Okay, no problem there. My response was the word ONAGER. But no, it wouldn't accept it and told me that the word it was looking for was ORANGE. What's wrong with ONAGER? It's a perfectly good word:
ONAGER
1. a wild ass, Equus hemionus, of southwestern Asia.
2. an ancient and medieval military catapult for throwing stones.
onager. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Retrieved October 31, 2008, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/onager
Bah. But at least I found the DS recharger so I could actually play with the thing so it's not all bad.
2 comments
There I was, distracting myself with Dr Kawashima's More Brain Training when it tossed me the letters NOGREA and asked me to unscramble them into a word. Okay, no problem there. My response was the word ONAGER. But no, it wouldn't accept it and told me that the word it was looking for was ORANGE. What's wrong with ONAGER? It's a perfectly good word:
ONAGER
1. a wild ass, Equus hemionus, of southwestern Asia.
2. an ancient and medieval military catapult for throwing stones.
onager. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Retrieved October 31, 2008, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/onager
Bah. But at least I found the DS recharger so I could actually play with the thing so it's not all bad.
2 comments
Thursday, October 30, 2008
How to lose friends and influence people
My home internet seems to be a bit on the shaky side, like a number of other things around here. I came into work this morning and did my normal perusal of the local news (always good to keep up on what might be discussed at coffee) and discovered a report on some presentations by Iceland's richest men - the people who are locally considered to have played a major part in the collapse of the national economy. The article itself is here, but allow me to share with you the gist of my favourite bit.
Iceland's richest man basically says it doesn't really matter that I was responsible for making the mess, the important thing is that the Central Bank failed to react properly when everything fell apart. What?!?!?! This is the sort of attitude that is making local people terribly hostile to the financiers, who they blame (with Brown and Darling) for destroying Iceland's reputation overseas. There is a definite political swing to the left as a result of this, with calls to return to the egalitarian Iceland of twenty years ago.
Of course I'm sure that there are British, American and various other nationalities of businessmen who have the same attitude, and I have just as much respect for them as I do for Björgólfur Þór.
2 comments
Iceland's richest man basically says it doesn't really matter that I was responsible for making the mess, the important thing is that the Central Bank failed to react properly when everything fell apart. What?!?!?! This is the sort of attitude that is making local people terribly hostile to the financiers, who they blame (with Brown and Darling) for destroying Iceland's reputation overseas. There is a definite political swing to the left as a result of this, with calls to return to the egalitarian Iceland of twenty years ago.
Of course I'm sure that there are British, American and various other nationalities of businessmen who have the same attitude, and I have just as much respect for them as I do for Björgólfur Þór.
2 comments
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Bright and sunny
It has been quite bright and sunny today.
The sunshine seems to have thawed a bit of the snow but hasn't done anything about the wind and the general temperature. It's been well below freezing for over a week now, so today I found that I was very happy with my new hat and gloves.
There was a brief flurry of excitement this evening shortly after my neighbour J had let me know that sometime tomorrow evening the snowplough would be along to clear the car park. A deep rumble passed through the flat, making me think at first that it was one of our regular earthquakes, but this went on for much longer. Instead it appeared that the snowplough had turned up a day early and we all had to rush outside to move our cars. The ploughing had already started and the waist-high drift in front of the door was missing - this was a shame in a way, as it was quite amusing having to walk through the 30cm gap in this great wave of snow.
The office car park is somewhat shrunken thanks to the huge mounds of ploughed snow on its fringes. Between these and the fact that half of the car park has been fenced off while the university builds itself a new building it means that park spaces can be a little thin on the ground. One big advantage of the recent weather is that all of the potholes in the car park are now full of compressed snow, making any journey across the car park a lot smoother than it used to be, even if you are at a much greater risk of sliding sideways.
0 comments
The sunshine seems to have thawed a bit of the snow but hasn't done anything about the wind and the general temperature. It's been well below freezing for over a week now, so today I found that I was very happy with my new hat and gloves.
There was a brief flurry of excitement this evening shortly after my neighbour J had let me know that sometime tomorrow evening the snowplough would be along to clear the car park. A deep rumble passed through the flat, making me think at first that it was one of our regular earthquakes, but this went on for much longer. Instead it appeared that the snowplough had turned up a day early and we all had to rush outside to move our cars. The ploughing had already started and the waist-high drift in front of the door was missing - this was a shame in a way, as it was quite amusing having to walk through the 30cm gap in this great wave of snow.
The office car park is somewhat shrunken thanks to the huge mounds of ploughed snow on its fringes. Between these and the fact that half of the car park has been fenced off while the university builds itself a new building it means that park spaces can be a little thin on the ground. One big advantage of the recent weather is that all of the potholes in the car park are now full of compressed snow, making any journey across the car park a lot smoother than it used to be, even if you are at a much greater risk of sliding sideways.
0 comments
Monday, October 27, 2008
Mittens on string
It's a tempting thought.
The weather here continues to be beastly. I noticed last week that my purple fleece gloves now have a hole in them which, although it doesn't hinder their purpose of keeping my hands warm too much, annoys me enough to make me think of replacing them. I also suspect that it's the tip of the iceberg in terms of other seams coming apart.
The gloves have a matching hat which is one of the most unflattering hats I've ever owned, but it is flexible enough that I can get it on over my hair if, as is usual, I have the hair bundled up in a stylee on the back of my head. Perhaps, then, it was time to buy a new hat as well.
Now what I'd really like is a Zhivago hat; something that won't look like a pimple on a mountain. Unfortunately that's not really a practical option given the current economic situation, so today I paid a visit to our local Arctic clothing store, 66 North, and came out with a fetching hat and gloves set in black.
The acquisition of new mittens raises the point that I really don't want to lose them, hence the thought of the traditional mittens-on-string approach. Yes, I know that's normally reserved for three-year-olds, but it does strike me as an eminently practical solution to the problem. After all, I'm now wearing my black winter coat and will probably keep doing so until the snow retreats and I no longer need these big Ziru Sirka mittens* . Another factor that lends itself to the string solution is that the glove are big enough that they won't fit comfortably in the pocket of my handbag and I don't have pockets in the coat.
I think that in the medium term this is going to call for a long piece of lucet string, but as a 1.5m piece will take me several days I think I'll have to go for a ribbon in the short term. Don't worry - I'm not going to stoop to the depths of using elastic. :)
* Traveller reference - in one particular culture big mittens were a status symbol in that you didn't need gloves that allowed fine work because you had servants to do that sort of thing for you.
4 comments
The weather here continues to be beastly. I noticed last week that my purple fleece gloves now have a hole in them which, although it doesn't hinder their purpose of keeping my hands warm too much, annoys me enough to make me think of replacing them. I also suspect that it's the tip of the iceberg in terms of other seams coming apart.
The gloves have a matching hat which is one of the most unflattering hats I've ever owned, but it is flexible enough that I can get it on over my hair if, as is usual, I have the hair bundled up in a stylee on the back of my head. Perhaps, then, it was time to buy a new hat as well.
Now what I'd really like is a Zhivago hat; something that won't look like a pimple on a mountain. Unfortunately that's not really a practical option given the current economic situation, so today I paid a visit to our local Arctic clothing store, 66 North, and came out with a fetching hat and gloves set in black.
The acquisition of new mittens raises the point that I really don't want to lose them, hence the thought of the traditional mittens-on-string approach. Yes, I know that's normally reserved for three-year-olds, but it does strike me as an eminently practical solution to the problem. After all, I'm now wearing my black winter coat and will probably keep doing so until the snow retreats and I no longer need these big Ziru Sirka mittens
I think that in the medium term this is going to call for a long piece of lucet string, but as a 1.5m piece will take me several days I think I'll have to go for a ribbon in the short term. Don't worry - I'm not going to stoop to the depths of using elastic. :)
4 comments
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Still here, and home again
It looks like this event may be a little longer than planned.
It's 13:00, and we're still on site with no signs of moving. The weather has settled in and all of the roads between here and Akureyri are closed. Akureyri is having quite a storm by the sound of things. We're out of milk and so there has been some discussion about which of the local farms could probably provide us with 5-10 litres fresh from the cow (it's about 2.5km away) and some eggs (about 4km). Fortunately there's quite a bit of food left, given that we were three gentles short last night and so the amounts cooked were lowered. We're fine, I'm told, for four or five days.
If we're lucky there will be an escape window at about 17:00 today, but it may not be clement enough to get all of the cars through, nor long enough to have one car make two trips so that the remaining car can be collected when the storm breaks. The snowploughs should be out and about early tomorrow morning so we should be able to get out then. Right now it's looking as if a lot of people are going to have to phone their places of work/education tomorrow to say that they won't be in due to the weather.
For now, then, we're watching the teletext updates on road conditions and waiting for our route home to register as open (rather than as closed with heavy snowfalls).
***
At 16:00 we got a partial go-ahead for the return trip - Víkurskarð would be open for a short while if we left in the next hour. We took the two larger cars with seven people, leaving the non-essential luggage for the third to follow tomorrow... or whenever the pass opened properly.
It was another interesting trip. We found outselves at the head of a convoy of about ten vehicles as we approached the pass, at which point we joined onto the tail of another fifty or so that had built up waiting for the snowplough to go through. The ploughs - larger cousins of the urban snowploughs we see here in town - had managed to clear one lane of the road, which was also blocked by a large lorry that had been snowed in near the top. Even though we took the more direct route it still took us over two and a half hours to get back instead of the hour we'd expect in good weather.
There's an excellent website showing the road conditions in Iceland, run by the roads agency. It's updated every hour, and the roads we did today were coloured dark grey ("Difficult road conditions"), blue ("Slippery") and white ("Wet snow/snow"). Belive me, blue and white cover a multitude of sins in terms of comparitive road conditions. We started off on the road running north-south on the right of the map (under the box marked 'Hólasandur') then turned west that the top of the road to travel over Víkurskarð towards the fjord and Akureyri.
We had a lot of blowing snow - skafrenningur - which picks up off the ground snow and is as likely to move up as down, depending upon the wind direction. This is what tends to close the passes as the snow lifts off the valleys and lands on the roads. Of course when you get a heavy snowfall as well then there's no hope for some of these roads.
I am back on my sofa though, even if some of my luggage isn't. The important things - the computer and the calligraphy materials - came back with me and I'm now looking forward to a hot shower and a night in a comfy bed. And maybe some chocolate.
0 comments
It's 13:00, and we're still on site with no signs of moving. The weather has settled in and all of the roads between here and Akureyri are closed. Akureyri is having quite a storm by the sound of things. We're out of milk and so there has been some discussion about which of the local farms could probably provide us with 5-10 litres fresh from the cow (it's about 2.5km away) and some eggs (about 4km). Fortunately there's quite a bit of food left, given that we were three gentles short last night and so the amounts cooked were lowered. We're fine, I'm told, for four or five days.
If we're lucky there will be an escape window at about 17:00 today, but it may not be clement enough to get all of the cars through, nor long enough to have one car make two trips so that the remaining car can be collected when the storm breaks. The snowploughs should be out and about early tomorrow morning so we should be able to get out then. Right now it's looking as if a lot of people are going to have to phone their places of work/education tomorrow to say that they won't be in due to the weather.
For now, then, we're watching the teletext updates on road conditions and waiting for our route home to register as open (rather than as closed with heavy snowfalls).
***
At 16:00 we got a partial go-ahead for the return trip - Víkurskarð would be open for a short while if we left in the next hour. We took the two larger cars with seven people, leaving the non-essential luggage for the third to follow tomorrow... or whenever the pass opened properly.
It was another interesting trip. We found outselves at the head of a convoy of about ten vehicles as we approached the pass, at which point we joined onto the tail of another fifty or so that had built up waiting for the snowplough to go through. The ploughs - larger cousins of the urban snowploughs we see here in town - had managed to clear one lane of the road, which was also blocked by a large lorry that had been snowed in near the top. Even though we took the more direct route it still took us over two and a half hours to get back instead of the hour we'd expect in good weather.
There's an excellent website showing the road conditions in Iceland, run by the roads agency. It's updated every hour, and the roads we did today were coloured dark grey ("Difficult road conditions"), blue ("Slippery") and white ("Wet snow/snow"). Belive me, blue and white cover a multitude of sins in terms of comparitive road conditions. We started off on the road running north-south on the right of the map (under the box marked 'Hólasandur') then turned west that the top of the road to travel over Víkurskarð towards the fjord and Akureyri.
We had a lot of blowing snow - skafrenningur - which picks up off the ground snow and is as likely to move up as down, depending upon the wind direction. This is what tends to close the passes as the snow lifts off the valleys and lands on the roads. Of course when you get a heavy snowfall as well then there's no hope for some of these roads.
I am back on my sofa though, even if some of my luggage isn't. The important things - the computer and the calligraphy materials - came back with me and I'm now looking forward to a hot shower and a night in a comfy bed. And maybe some chocolate.
0 comments
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Smaller than expected
After the drama of the journey to site yesterday today continued in a similar manner.
Several of the shire members who were planning to attend were due to arrive this morning... or, more accurately, one of the folks already on site was due to do the hour's drive back to town to collect them. The weather had other ideas. Calls to the weather and roads people for advice meant that En didn't set out until after 11:00 and eventually turned back after getting about a quarter of the way in an hour.
By now I'd already pretty much abandoned my original schedule for the weekend. The folks who wanted to do the class on maile were still in Akureyri, the ground wasn't safe for fencing and the ice and snow had frozen the section of telegraph pole that we'd been planning to use as a thrown weapons target into a block so hard that things bouced off it rather than stick into it. We did look at the barns to see if either of them could be used as list fields but the ground was too uneven, spongy, or covered in metal grills with bits sticking up, so no joy there either.
Instead, then, it became a purely A&S day, with much embroidery, dressmaking, calligraphy and the playing of games until the evening's feast. As usual, H rose to the occasion in spite of limited cooking equipment (some of which was also due to arrive this morning) and made a superb veal and beer stew, amongst other things. The prize for weirdness of the day must go to Es for discovering that sweet fish pie went very well with mashed turnip and ice-cream. H also won the prize for the silly hat competition with a woolen hat made using three seperate period stitches and a story about needing the hat to cover her hair (which was an interesting shade of green 'after an unfortunate run-in with an elf').
Naturally the drinking continued into the night and my new tablero board got its first outing. Overall it wasn't a bad day, just not the one I had planned.
0 comments
Several of the shire members who were planning to attend were due to arrive this morning... or, more accurately, one of the folks already on site was due to do the hour's drive back to town to collect them. The weather had other ideas. Calls to the weather and roads people for advice meant that En didn't set out until after 11:00 and eventually turned back after getting about a quarter of the way in an hour.
By now I'd already pretty much abandoned my original schedule for the weekend. The folks who wanted to do the class on maile were still in Akureyri, the ground wasn't safe for fencing and the ice and snow had frozen the section of telegraph pole that we'd been planning to use as a thrown weapons target into a block so hard that things bouced off it rather than stick into it. We did look at the barns to see if either of them could be used as list fields but the ground was too uneven, spongy, or covered in metal grills with bits sticking up, so no joy there either.
Instead, then, it became a purely A&S day, with much embroidery, dressmaking, calligraphy and the playing of games until the evening's feast. As usual, H rose to the occasion in spite of limited cooking equipment (some of which was also due to arrive this morning) and made a superb veal and beer stew, amongst other things. The prize for weirdness of the day must go to Es for discovering that sweet fish pie went very well with mashed turnip and ice-cream. H also won the prize for the silly hat competition with a woolen hat made using three seperate period stitches and a story about needing the hat to cover her hair (which was an interesting shade of green 'after an unfortunate run-in with an elf').
Naturally the drinking continued into the night and my new tablero board got its first outing. Overall it wasn't a bad day, just not the one I had planned.
0 comments
Friday, October 24, 2008
Snowdrift
Finally made it to the site - at which point car 1 drove into a snowdrift and had to be dug out.
This certainly ranks as one of my most exciting journeys ever. It'll be interesting to see what the weather is like on the way back.
Sent með Blackberry frá Vodafone
0 comments
This certainly ranks as one of my most exciting journeys ever. It'll be interesting to see what the weather is like on the way back.
Sent með Blackberry frá Vodafone
0 comments
Excitement!
Ooh that was exciting! The middle car of the convoy just went of the road and we had to tow it back onto the road.
Fortunately there was a towrope available and I got to use one of my less-commonly-used skillsets. The conversation went like this:
A (holding one end of rope): Do you know knots?
Me: Yes.
A (surprised): Oh. Here.
One bowline later we put the 4x4 into low ratio and pulled the othee back onto the road.
This is turning into quite an adventure and we're not even half way there yet.
Sent með Blackberry frá Vodafone
2 comments
Fortunately there was a towrope available and I got to use one of my less-commonly-used skillsets. The conversation went like this:
A (holding one end of rope): Do you know knots?
Me: Yes.
A (surprised): Oh. Here.
One bowline later we put the 4x4 into low ratio and pulled the othee back onto the road.
This is turning into quite an adventure and we're not even half way there yet.
Sent með Blackberry frá Vodafone
2 comments
Convoy
We're now travelling in convoy through a whiteout. It's definitely got to the point of being scary. If I'd been driving I'd have turned back 20 minutes ago - although the locals are far more comfortable driving in it than I am.
Sent með Blackberry frá Vodafone
0 comments
Sent með Blackberry frá Vodafone
0 comments
On the way
I'm currently sitting in a 4x4 on my way to the site. The weather forecast is that the route will be a stinker but someone onsite says that it's bright and sunny out there.
Further updates as and when we get stuck in a blizard, :)
Sent með Blackberry frá Vodafone
0 comments
Further updates as and when we get stuck in a blizard, :)
Sent með Blackberry frá Vodafone
0 comments
Thursday, October 23, 2008
My friend Mr Snowplough...
...Had a lie-in this morning.
I realised this when I woke up at 07:13, two minutes before the alarm went off, and realised that outside was far lighter than it really ought to be. This is not an uncommon occurrence in winter, as it just means that it has snowed overnight and the streetlights are reflecting off the snow. I knew that the snowplough hadn't been through because they normally wake me just before 07:00 with either the engine noise or the scraping noise.
When I looked out onto the balcony I realised the severity of the situation; the balcony fence was supporting about 20cm of snow. As was the road outside. Oops! It being a Thursday I cursed, as I had an 08:10 lab and would now have to dig the car out. I made it to the office on time, although there were a couple of dodgy moments in the unploughed snow; one of my students were much later and several more just didn't make it at all.
Thankfully by the time I left the office at lunchtime the snowploughs had woken up and cleared the roads - it really does make a difference. My concern now is that I'm off to Álfadans tomorrow, which is being held in the same place where we held the arming workshop - about an hour's drive away over a mountain pass which was closed at first this morning and then up into a little valley on what I would term a farm track but which is designated a normal road. Oh yes, and we're due a pile more snow tomorrow night...
Mr Snowplough is at work outside even as I type. There is the flashing yellow light of the heavy machinery, plus the grumble of the engine, the scrape of the blade and the intermittent beeping of the reversing warning. At least this means that the sideroad up to the main road should be clear tomorrow. And that there will be a 3m high mound of snow in the shopping centre car park.
1 comments
I realised this when I woke up at 07:13, two minutes before the alarm went off, and realised that outside was far lighter than it really ought to be. This is not an uncommon occurrence in winter, as it just means that it has snowed overnight and the streetlights are reflecting off the snow. I knew that the snowplough hadn't been through because they normally wake me just before 07:00 with either the engine noise or the scraping noise.
When I looked out onto the balcony I realised the severity of the situation; the balcony fence was supporting about 20cm of snow. As was the road outside. Oops! It being a Thursday I cursed, as I had an 08:10 lab and would now have to dig the car out. I made it to the office on time, although there were a couple of dodgy moments in the unploughed snow; one of my students were much later and several more just didn't make it at all.
Thankfully by the time I left the office at lunchtime the snowploughs had woken up and cleared the roads - it really does make a difference. My concern now is that I'm off to Álfadans tomorrow, which is being held in the same place where we held the arming workshop - about an hour's drive away over a mountain pass which was closed at first this morning and then up into a little valley on what I would term a farm track but which is designated a normal road. Oh yes, and we're due a pile more snow tomorrow night...
Mr Snowplough is at work outside even as I type. There is the flashing yellow light of the heavy machinery, plus the grumble of the engine, the scrape of the blade and the intermittent beeping of the reversing warning. At least this means that the sideroad up to the main road should be clear tomorrow. And that there will be a 3m high mound of snow in the shopping centre car park.
1 comments
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
A few exercises
It has been an evening of many different exercises.
Didn't get anything done this evening, it being a fencing night. I was very tempted to bail out but I missed last week and I have this terrible sense of duty... As it turned out there were only four of us so I started work on more complex parries by looking at responses to head shots. We had quite a fruitful evening in the end.
In one way it's a little strange doing fencing in the gym now that the nights are drawing in. Two sides of the gym are glazed from about 50cm high to the ceiling and look out over grassy areas so when it's dark they act as quite effective mirrors. I found myself demonstrating something from a very high guard and caught sight of my reflection in the window. It's exceeding odd to see myself doing some surprisingly graceful and controlled maneouvers.
Also on the exercise front, this step aerobics to How It's Made seems to be working quite well. I just have to remember to start off a few minutes before the programme starts so that a) I don't miss the beginning because I'm doing the WiiFit setup, and b) so that it doesn't over-run into the next episode for the post-exercise sequence. While watching today, and letting my mind wander a bit, it occurred to me that I could calculate how much energy I was using in terms of potential energy. A little work with the caluclator later, and I find that half an hour of step aerobics is equivalent to a change in height of 3m and requires just over 40kJ of energy, or just under 10 Calories. Hmm... that's not a lot. Thankfully I was also getting quite warm so there would be more energy given off as heat.
It's easy to calculate changes in potential energy - that's just mgΔh. But I wonder if there's a simple (or even not-so simple) formula for calculating the overall energy output when a human body raises itself a particular height? Or, better still, for both raising and lowering itself (given that step aerobics make you go down as well as up).
Ah, the joys of physics. :)
0 comments
Didn't get anything done this evening, it being a fencing night. I was very tempted to bail out but I missed last week and I have this terrible sense of duty... As it turned out there were only four of us so I started work on more complex parries by looking at responses to head shots. We had quite a fruitful evening in the end.
In one way it's a little strange doing fencing in the gym now that the nights are drawing in. Two sides of the gym are glazed from about 50cm high to the ceiling and look out over grassy areas so when it's dark they act as quite effective mirrors. I found myself demonstrating something from a very high guard and caught sight of my reflection in the window. It's exceeding odd to see myself doing some surprisingly graceful and controlled maneouvers.
Also on the exercise front, this step aerobics to How It's Made seems to be working quite well. I just have to remember to start off a few minutes before the programme starts so that a) I don't miss the beginning because I'm doing the WiiFit setup, and b) so that it doesn't over-run into the next episode for the post-exercise sequence. While watching today, and letting my mind wander a bit, it occurred to me that I could calculate how much energy I was using in terms of potential energy. A little work with the caluclator later, and I find that half an hour of step aerobics is equivalent to a change in height of 3m and requires just over 40kJ of energy, or just under 10 Calories. Hmm... that's not a lot. Thankfully I was also getting quite warm so there would be more energy given off as heat.
It's easy to calculate changes in potential energy - that's just mgΔh. But I wonder if there's a simple (or even not-so simple) formula for calculating the overall energy output when a human body raises itself a particular height? Or, better still, for both raising and lowering itself (given that step aerobics make you go down as well as up).
Ah, the joys of physics. :)
0 comments
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
A day or two
It's been a strange couple of days.
I went into work yesterday morning to find an email summoning all staff and students to a presentation given by the Icelandic president. He seems to be on a calm down everybody, Iceland's still functioning tour. Many people filled the largest lecturing space the university can muster (nominally about 80 seats although there were a number of people standing at the sides) to hear Ólafur Ragnar speak for about 20 minutes and then answer questions from all comers for almost an hour. I only understood the occasionally word but I've developed some skill in looking as if I'm following the conversation - nodding appreciatively in the right places and so on. Nevertheless I was there flying the flag for the faculty, as it were. And saying nothing because I have a very British accent...
After work I came back to continue on the 'normal' pre-event panic. People need new garb and I have a sewing machine, so I don't think I'm going to have any evenings to myself this week. While K was working on garb for Y I did manage to finish off the second set of backlog scrolls, so they're no longer distracting me from all of the Alfadans stuff... except that I've identified the next set and am already mentally planning them. I will not start work upon them until after the weekend.
Today? Today has been... well, by half past one it felt as if it should be four o'clock, and there was a lot of work on a project I'm not convinced will ever come off, but I still have to do it properly for my own peace of mind. It's definitely becoming more difficult to stay positive about things.
Tonight half of the shire descended upon me again, but I did manage to get the event tokens done. I've still got a bunch of things I need to do before Friday, and as Thursday is A&S day and the shire will descend once more, I may have to skip fencing tomorrow evening and do them then.
0 comments
I went into work yesterday morning to find an email summoning all staff and students to a presentation given by the Icelandic president. He seems to be on a calm down everybody, Iceland's still functioning tour. Many people filled the largest lecturing space the university can muster (nominally about 80 seats although there were a number of people standing at the sides) to hear Ólafur Ragnar speak for about 20 minutes and then answer questions from all comers for almost an hour. I only understood the occasionally word but I've developed some skill in looking as if I'm following the conversation - nodding appreciatively in the right places and so on. Nevertheless I was there flying the flag for the faculty, as it were. And saying nothing because I have a very British accent...
After work I came back to continue on the 'normal' pre-event panic. People need new garb and I have a sewing machine, so I don't think I'm going to have any evenings to myself this week. While K was working on garb for Y I did manage to finish off the second set of backlog scrolls, so they're no longer distracting me from all of the Alfadans stuff... except that I've identified the next set and am already mentally planning them. I will not start work upon them until after the weekend.
Today? Today has been... well, by half past one it felt as if it should be four o'clock, and there was a lot of work on a project I'm not convinced will ever come off, but I still have to do it properly for my own peace of mind. It's definitely becoming more difficult to stay positive about things.
Tonight half of the shire descended upon me again, but I did manage to get the event tokens done. I've still got a bunch of things I need to do before Friday, and as Thursday is A&S day and the shire will descend once more, I may have to skip fencing tomorrow evening and do them then.
0 comments
Sunday, October 19, 2008
This fryer is no more
I think my deep fat fryer is dead.
For a couple of months now it seems to leak when in operation. While sitting there on the worktop it's fine, but as soon as I heat it up and put anything in it I get oil leaking down the front two legs. This makes me think that the seal has gone... but it is at least six years old so I suppose it's not too surprising. I shall replace it with a smaller one, I think.
Today was going to be terribly active, but the battleplan didn't survive contact with the enemy. I've now got my final to-do list for Alfadans next week and was hoping to knock a couple of things off the list - event tokens, assorted prizes, that sort of thing - but ended up falling asleep on the sofa instead, then deciding to get some more of the calligraphy out of the way.
I'm trying to rationalise the work on the scrolls as once they're completed they won't distract me from the other things I have to do but I know that's just an excuse. BRP #8, #9 and #10 are now complete apart from the whitework, so I'm going to put them in the post this week and wait for confirmation of arrival before picking up the next batch. That should take me beyond the weekend, which will be good timing.
0 comments
For a couple of months now it seems to leak when in operation. While sitting there on the worktop it's fine, but as soon as I heat it up and put anything in it I get oil leaking down the front two legs. This makes me think that the seal has gone... but it is at least six years old so I suppose it's not too surprising. I shall replace it with a smaller one, I think.
Today was going to be terribly active, but the battleplan didn't survive contact with the enemy. I've now got my final to-do list for Alfadans next week and was hoping to knock a couple of things off the list - event tokens, assorted prizes, that sort of thing - but ended up falling asleep on the sofa instead, then deciding to get some more of the calligraphy out of the way.
I'm trying to rationalise the work on the scrolls as once they're completed they won't distract me from the other things I have to do but I know that's just an excuse. BRP #8, #9 and #10 are now complete apart from the whitework, so I'm going to put them in the post this week and wait for confirmation of arrival before picking up the next batch. That should take me beyond the weekend, which will be good timing.
0 comments
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Okay, that might work
Finding time to exercise can be a problem.
My original Wii exercise plan was to do an hour of exercise a day. Even before I did my back in while lecturing two weeks ago this was becoming something of a burden given all of the other things I want to do, and I'd done nothing for the past two weeks and blamed it on my back.
Then, earlier today, T commented that his use of the WiiFit was very boring and that he just did 30 minutes of free step whilst listening to the radio every day. Hmm... perhaps that was the approach I needed to take. After all, 30 minutes is an episode of How It Works and I normally manage to catch that at some point during the day. As the free step programme allows you to watch another channel while exercising I could, in theory, come in from work, turn it on, do half an hour before dinner and then have the rest of the evening free.
So I've tried it. It just so happened that today is one of National Geographic's channel's occasional show an entire series of Xdays and today the series is How It Works. I have just done half an hour of step aerobics whilst watching the production process for bicycle helmets, Thai hot chille sauce, Hugo Boss suits and Dunkin' Donuts. There's definitely something virtuous about exercising while watching them drench deep-fried doughnut centres in icing... although it certainly made my mouth water and has me thinking about lunch rather earlier than usual.
This may be the solution I'm looking for, although I won't desert my little rhythm boxing trainer altogether. If I can do the free step maybe five days a week and do the thythm boxing on the other two then it'll still give me oodles of exercise time without eating into the embroidery and calligraphy time. Which is probably a good thing in the run-up to Christmas.
0 comments
My original Wii exercise plan was to do an hour of exercise a day. Even before I did my back in while lecturing two weeks ago this was becoming something of a burden given all of the other things I want to do, and I'd done nothing for the past two weeks and blamed it on my back.
Then, earlier today, T commented that his use of the WiiFit was very boring and that he just did 30 minutes of free step whilst listening to the radio every day. Hmm... perhaps that was the approach I needed to take. After all, 30 minutes is an episode of How It Works and I normally manage to catch that at some point during the day. As the free step programme allows you to watch another channel while exercising I could, in theory, come in from work, turn it on, do half an hour before dinner and then have the rest of the evening free.
So I've tried it. It just so happened that today is one of National Geographic's channel's occasional show an entire series of Xdays and today the series is How It Works. I have just done half an hour of step aerobics whilst watching the production process for bicycle helmets, Thai hot chille sauce, Hugo Boss suits and Dunkin' Donuts. There's definitely something virtuous about exercising while watching them drench deep-fried doughnut centres in icing... although it certainly made my mouth water and has me thinking about lunch rather earlier than usual.
This may be the solution I'm looking for, although I won't desert my little rhythm boxing trainer altogether. If I can do the free step maybe five days a week and do the thythm boxing on the other two then it'll still give me oodles of exercise time without eating into the embroidery and calligraphy time. Which is probably a good thing in the run-up to Christmas.
0 comments
Friday, October 17, 2008
A bargain
Today I picked up a super little bargain - in German.
As there's only a week to go before Alfadans I popped into the local craft shop to pick up the cord I need to make the event tokens. Actually that wasn't the reason I went to the shop; I went to get some plastic canvas to form the basis of my creation for the sillyhat competition and realised while I was in the shop that I hadn't sorted them out yet. Fortunately there are only a dozen or so to do, so I should be able to get most of them done during our last-minute workshop tomorrow.
While I was there, looking for something with which to decorate said silly hat, I spotted a book lying on top of a stray shelf. It's a thin hardback that rejoices in the title Zauberhafter Glitzerschmuck (mit Swarovski Perlen), written entirely in German but with beautiful clear diagrammatic instructions that make the language irrelevent.
Now that hits three of my buttons. 1: It's a craft book. 2: It's a beading book. 3: It has really clever diagrams. Japanese crochet books do the same with their excellent symbolic pattern diagrams. It so happens that I already have quite a few of the bicone crystals that form the mainstay of the patterns in this book, and it's given me several ideas for my 'homemade Christmas' this year. Once I've got Alfadans out of the way I'll sit down and get started on that.
0 comments
As there's only a week to go before Alfadans I popped into the local craft shop to pick up the cord I need to make the event tokens. Actually that wasn't the reason I went to the shop; I went to get some plastic canvas to form the basis of my creation for the sillyhat competition and realised while I was in the shop that I hadn't sorted them out yet. Fortunately there are only a dozen or so to do, so I should be able to get most of them done during our last-minute workshop tomorrow.
While I was there, looking for something with which to decorate said silly hat, I spotted a book lying on top of a stray shelf. It's a thin hardback that rejoices in the title Zauberhafter Glitzerschmuck (mit Swarovski Perlen), written entirely in German but with beautiful clear diagrammatic instructions that make the language irrelevent.
Now that hits three of my buttons. 1: It's a craft book. 2: It's a beading book. 3: It has really clever diagrams. Japanese crochet books do the same with their excellent symbolic pattern diagrams. It so happens that I already have quite a few of the bicone crystals that form the mainstay of the patterns in this book, and it's given me several ideas for my 'homemade Christmas' this year. Once I've got Alfadans out of the way I'll sit down and get started on that.
0 comments
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Committing organisation
That's what I'm currently doing to my apartment - committing organisation upon it.
My depression had allowed it to get to the point where it was beginning to annoy me; all of the cardboard, paper and plastic bottles sitting there waiting to go to the recycling centre were taking up a lot of space. So now they're gone and I have a kitchen again. I'm also gradually re-acquiring a living room as I brutally toss things in the rubbish I think that there are also going to be several boxes of stuff that will go downstairs to the store-room over the weekend.
A second reason for the organisation was that A&S was held here tonight because I have the heavy-duty sewing maching. Getting 8 people into my apartment is a bit of a squeeze at the best of times, so 8 people and the recycling was just too much. I didn't really do anything seriously creative but I did make a pineapple upside-down cake, served with custard, much to the delight of my visitors, who'd never had either element before. There's enough left for me to have for breakfast. Or, more likely, a late night nibble.
I've also been talking to our Signet Clerk, who is of the opinion that backlog scrolls can be posted online before reaching the recipients in person because the award has already been made. Besides, if people see their scrolls online, she reasons, they may get in contact with her to say I'm here! Send me my scroll! which will make her life a little easier in terms of tracking them down. So here are the recent 5; some people may recognise their names. :)
The others are in the same gallery, following on from that one.
3 comments
My depression had allowed it to get to the point where it was beginning to annoy me; all of the cardboard, paper and plastic bottles sitting there waiting to go to the recycling centre were taking up a lot of space. So now they're gone and I have a kitchen again. I'm also gradually re-acquiring a living room as I brutally toss things in the rubbish I think that there are also going to be several boxes of stuff that will go downstairs to the store-room over the weekend.
A second reason for the organisation was that A&S was held here tonight because I have the heavy-duty sewing maching. Getting 8 people into my apartment is a bit of a squeeze at the best of times, so 8 people and the recycling was just too much. I didn't really do anything seriously creative but I did make a pineapple upside-down cake, served with custard, much to the delight of my visitors, who'd never had either element before. There's enough left for me to have for breakfast. Or, more likely, a late night nibble.
I've also been talking to our Signet Clerk, who is of the opinion that backlog scrolls can be posted online before reaching the recipients in person because the award has already been made. Besides, if people see their scrolls online, she reasons, they may get in contact with her to say I'm here! Send me my scroll! which will make her life a little easier in terms of tracking them down. So here are the recent 5; some people may recognise their names. :)
The others are in the same gallery, following on from that one.
3 comments
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Big question
Do I need a Slingbox?
From time to time I answer surveys from YouGov about an assortment of things. One of the recent ones asked me about all of thefun toysconsumer black goods I own. On the list of possibilities was a Slingbox, which made me think wozzat, and how do I get one?
Having done a bit of a google I've discovered that the Slingbox is clearly how I can get real BBC television after Christmas. If I get one of these new magic boxes and attach it to the Freeview box in the bedroom in Liverpool then I can access it from here in Iceland and watch important things like Dr Who in real time. And even record them, should I wish. Mmm... want one! I already have the Freeview receiver for my MacBook but unfortunately the UK digital terrestrial signal doesn't reach this far into the Atlantic. :(
I'm sure that there's a business opportunity in there somewhere. You buy the mid-range box and pay someone a service fee to connect it to an aerial and the internet for you. I'm also sure that the BBC would complain and would at the very least demand that you pay a license fee for it.
1 comments
From time to time I answer surveys from YouGov about an assortment of things. One of the recent ones asked me about all of the
Having done a bit of a google I've discovered that the Slingbox is clearly how I can get real BBC television after Christmas. If I get one of these new magic boxes and attach it to the Freeview box in the bedroom in Liverpool then I can access it from here in Iceland and watch important things like Dr Who in real time. And even record them, should I wish. Mmm... want one! I already have the Freeview receiver for my MacBook but unfortunately the UK digital terrestrial signal doesn't reach this far into the Atlantic. :(
I'm sure that there's a business opportunity in there somewhere. You buy the mid-range box and pay someone a service fee to connect it to an aerial and the internet for you. I'm also sure that the BBC would complain and would at the very least demand that you pay a license fee for it.
1 comments
Monday, October 13, 2008
Uninspired
It's been a pretty uninspired day.
Work was... uninspired, although I did receive an inspection copy of a new HCI book. I'm planning to re-write the module for next year (same problem-based learning lab assignment, different lectures) so I'm looking at a couple of possible alterative text books. Other than that there was much discussion of the current economic situation - it's still crap, to the extent that you can only buy foreign currency from your bank if you can show them a valid ticket off the rock. Oh yes, and I downloaded Oracle 10g Express to see how much I'd have to change the database labs to take advantage of a serious database.
At home I've been working on the fifth of my five backlog scrolls. This is the more complicated one based upon the style of the Lindisfarne Gospels. I've done the calligraphy, the versal and tonight I completed the border. It was looking a little dull until I added the white highlights, which have really made a difference. I've now just got to do the millions of little red dots outlining the versal and it's complete. The complexity of this one has meant that it's taking three to four times as long as my normal style of AoA-level scroll, but I wanted to try something a little more challenging for this one.
That's about it. It's currently project week at work so there are no lectures. I was originally due to be in Brussels on an exchange visit this week but given the current exchange rates I'm quite happy to be here spending very little rather than abroad spending a lot by only spending a little.
0 comments
Work was... uninspired, although I did receive an inspection copy of a new HCI book. I'm planning to re-write the module for next year (same problem-based learning lab assignment, different lectures) so I'm looking at a couple of possible alterative text books. Other than that there was much discussion of the current economic situation - it's still crap, to the extent that you can only buy foreign currency from your bank if you can show them a valid ticket off the rock. Oh yes, and I downloaded Oracle 10g Express to see how much I'd have to change the database labs to take advantage of a serious database.
At home I've been working on the fifth of my five backlog scrolls. This is the more complicated one based upon the style of the Lindisfarne Gospels. I've done the calligraphy, the versal and tonight I completed the border. It was looking a little dull until I added the white highlights, which have really made a difference. I've now just got to do the millions of little red dots outlining the versal and it's complete. The complexity of this one has meant that it's taking three to four times as long as my normal style of AoA-level scroll, but I wanted to try something a little more challenging for this one.
That's about it. It's currently project week at work so there are no lectures. I was originally due to be in Brussels on an exchange visit this week but given the current exchange rates I'm quite happy to be here spending very little rather than abroad spending a lot by only spending a little.
0 comments
Sunday, October 12, 2008
A good weekend
It's been a good weekend.
The weekend started with a shire meeting on Friday night. I know that these are not generally the most exciting and inspiring of meetings, but this one had the added interest of being a video-conferenced meeting. Given that we now have two very active groups in the shire who are separated by about 250 miles, it can be a little difficult to get folks together for something as uninspired as a business meeting. It so happens that there is a member in each group with a MacBook (any laptop with a built-in video camera would do though) so we just opened up a Skype call and turned on the video option. It was surprisingly effective, and the only thing we have to remember next time is to get an external microphone for the centre of the table as the built-in ones produced quite a bit of feedback hiss over the expanse of the open table.
Yesterday was fairly quiet during the day, with me spending a lot of time reading The Mythology of Discworld and a fair bit of time baking chocolate chip and cranberry rock cakes for the evening's roleplaying session...
...which was a very amusing Cyberpunk game in which I play a Welsh medic in a rather Mad Max environment. At least I have usable skills, unlike our poor stockbroker and our air traffic controller. Silly accents all round and jolly good fun.
Today has been back to the books. I've finished the first early this morning and am now well into Prince of the Blood by Raymond Feist. It's take, me a while to get around to it but one day I will finish the entire set. Now I'm just waiting for dinner to finish cooking (a pork and apple curry) before I settle down with either a documentary or an episode of Ashes to Ashes. Rather a relaxing time, really.
2 comments
The weekend started with a shire meeting on Friday night. I know that these are not generally the most exciting and inspiring of meetings, but this one had the added interest of being a video-conferenced meeting. Given that we now have two very active groups in the shire who are separated by about 250 miles, it can be a little difficult to get folks together for something as uninspired as a business meeting. It so happens that there is a member in each group with a MacBook (any laptop with a built-in video camera would do though) so we just opened up a Skype call and turned on the video option. It was surprisingly effective, and the only thing we have to remember next time is to get an external microphone for the centre of the table as the built-in ones produced quite a bit of feedback hiss over the expanse of the open table.
Yesterday was fairly quiet during the day, with me spending a lot of time reading The Mythology of Discworld and a fair bit of time baking chocolate chip and cranberry rock cakes for the evening's roleplaying session...
...which was a very amusing Cyberpunk game in which I play a Welsh medic in a rather Mad Max environment. At least I have usable skills, unlike our poor stockbroker and our air traffic controller. Silly accents all round and jolly good fun.
Today has been back to the books. I've finished the first early this morning and am now well into Prince of the Blood by Raymond Feist. It's take, me a while to get around to it but one day I will finish the entire set. Now I'm just waiting for dinner to finish cooking (a pork and apple curry) before I settle down with either a documentary or an episode of Ashes to Ashes. Rather a relaxing time, really.
2 comments
Friday, October 10, 2008
Earth calling Gordon Brown
I wonder what planet Gordon Brown is on. He's demanding that all money held by British citizens, companies and organisations in Icelandic banks be paid back. I presume that this means that the British government will be guaranteeing all deposits in Northern Rock and Bradford and Bingley, no matter whether they are above or below the 35K mark. Hasn't he just been berating Ireland for offering that guarantee?
These banks offered high interest rates. High rates generally mean high risks - even I recognise that, and my knowledge of economics is of the money goes from one government bank account back to another government bank account via my account and the accounts of several businesses, and in the process allows me to eat and visit the UK occasionally variety. It seems to me that Iceland is being used as a convenient scapegoat in order to allow other governments to distract their citizens from their own financial messes. Not that Iceland's politicians are guilt-free in this by any means, but there seems to be a lot of over-reacting going on all round.
And don't get me started on how ridiculous the use of anti-terror laws is. It's a worrying thought that the UK has laws that can be so easily perverted by a desperate government. Iceland is no more a terrorist state than is the Isle of Man.
2 comments
These banks offered high interest rates. High rates generally mean high risks - even I recognise that, and my knowledge of economics is of the money goes from one government bank account back to another government bank account via my account and the accounts of several businesses, and in the process allows me to eat and visit the UK occasionally variety. It seems to me that Iceland is being used as a convenient scapegoat in order to allow other governments to distract their citizens from their own financial messes. Not that Iceland's politicians are guilt-free in this by any means, but there seems to be a lot of over-reacting going on all round.
And don't get me started on how ridiculous the use of anti-terror laws is. It's a worrying thought that the UK has laws that can be so easily perverted by a desperate government. Iceland is no more a terrorist state than is the Isle of Man.
2 comments
Thursday, October 09, 2008
The eye of the storm
I don't think that Iceland has been so visible on the UK stage since the Cod War.
Here in the Frozen North I listen to Sky News quite a lot. It's one of my main sources for world news, given that although my reading of Icelandic is improving I don't have the time to go through Morgunblaðið with a dictionary every day. I do, however, read the Icelandic news at Iceland Review and IceNews) - if you're interested in getting the Icelandic view of the current situation I would recommend that you give these two sites a look. Iceland Review also has a Daily Life section in which other people, both Icelanders and útlendingar, talk about current affairs (although 'current affairs' may include the weather and the colours of sheep, which is quite amusing).
Of course the economy is the only real topic of conversation nowadays. The faculty coffee breaks have become a hotbed of technical discussion, aided by the facts that everyone wants to get together to talk about it and that we have a department of business that teaches finance and economics.
In practical terms I can see food prices increasing, but my credit and debit cards still work (I'm with Glitnir, so my bank is only 3/4 government-owned, unline Landsbanki and Kaupþing). I don't have huge savings over here so for now the main effect it's having is that I'm not shopping online anywhere near as much as I used to. I'm also thinking of taking a shorter UK break at Christmas given that everything will be that much more expensive, but I'll deal with that problem next month... by which time, I hope, we'll have some idea what the fallout is going to be.
0 comments
Here in the Frozen North I listen to Sky News quite a lot. It's one of my main sources for world news, given that although my reading of Icelandic is improving I don't have the time to go through Morgunblaðið with a dictionary every day. I do, however, read the Icelandic news at Iceland Review and IceNews) - if you're interested in getting the Icelandic view of the current situation I would recommend that you give these two sites a look. Iceland Review also has a Daily Life section in which other people, both Icelanders and útlendingar, talk about current affairs (although 'current affairs' may include the weather and the colours of sheep, which is quite amusing).
Of course the economy is the only real topic of conversation nowadays. The faculty coffee breaks have become a hotbed of technical discussion, aided by the facts that everyone wants to get together to talk about it and that we have a department of business that teaches finance and economics.
In practical terms I can see food prices increasing, but my credit and debit cards still work (I'm with Glitnir, so my bank is only 3/4 government-owned, unline Landsbanki and Kaupþing). I don't have huge savings over here so for now the main effect it's having is that I'm not shopping online anywhere near as much as I used to. I'm also thinking of taking a shorter UK break at Christmas given that everything will be that much more expensive, but I'll deal with that problem next month... by which time, I hope, we'll have some idea what the fallout is going to be.
0 comments
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
Codeine is my friend. :)
I realised this as I walked down the stairs from my apartment to the car park this morning.
Fortunately I'd picked up a packet of co-codamol (Tyledol in the US) while I was in the UK because I had a horrible suspicion that the arthritis in my fingers was going to start causing problems as the weather changed and sometimes ibuprofen just isn't enough. By the time I got into work I was practically bent double, sufficient for my colleagues to ask what was wrong, and with a lecture to give within an hour it was definitely time for the painkillers.
In the end I lectured sitting on the desk rather than standing. I don't like lecturing from seated but sometimes there's no other option. Well, there was the option of cancelling the lecture but that would be inconvenient all around. :) During the coffee break I had a pleasant surprise - one of my students commented that the WiiFitting was clearly paying off as I was definitely looking good for it. That's just the sort of encouragement I needed right now as I haven't been inspired to do anything with it other than the daily body test for the last week. Now, though - or at least once my back resettles - I'll get back to it again.
0 comments
Fortunately I'd picked up a packet of co-codamol (Tyledol in the US) while I was in the UK because I had a horrible suspicion that the arthritis in my fingers was going to start causing problems as the weather changed and sometimes ibuprofen just isn't enough. By the time I got into work I was practically bent double, sufficient for my colleagues to ask what was wrong, and with a lecture to give within an hour it was definitely time for the painkillers.
In the end I lectured sitting on the desk rather than standing. I don't like lecturing from seated but sometimes there's no other option. Well, there was the option of cancelling the lecture but that would be inconvenient all around. :) During the coffee break I had a pleasant surprise - one of my students commented that the WiiFitting was clearly paying off as I was definitely looking good for it. That's just the sort of encouragement I needed right now as I haven't been inspired to do anything with it other than the daily body test for the last week. Now, though - or at least once my back resettles - I'll get back to it again.
0 comments
Monday, October 06, 2008
Useless
Is it politically correct to refer to the disciples as 'a bunch of tossers'?
Let me explain... Thanks to a lower back pain issue that came on during my databases lecture this morning, I've spent an easy evening watching a DVD. The DVD in question is a recording of an Icelandic-language version of Jesus Christ Superstar made by the two local high schools a few years ago. I borrowed it from one of our Shire members, B, who is the owner of the Gambeson From Hell and who played the role of Herod (in a fetching pair of bright red Donald Duck bermuda shorts).
It was very good. I know JCS pretty well, so I had no problems following the plot (!) and the songs. It was a little rough on the edges, but a far more emotional performance than I've seen in professional versions (of which I've seen 3 in English plus 2 soundtrack versions). The guy who played Jesus was extremely good; I hear that he went off to become an actor later and I'm not at all surprised. He actually made me feel sorry for Jesus. Judas too gave a very raw and emotional performance although he didn't have the same stage presence that Jesus had.
So why the comment about the disciples? I've always felt that the disciples in JCS are a bunch of wimps who just sit around in the background and get drunk/high. Yes, I know that's the point of the thing, but every time I watch/listen to it I am reminded of the fact. In most productions I've seen/heard Jesus is also a bit of a wimp, so it was a pleasant surprise to see him portrayed as such a strong character.
I've caused a certain amount of confusion at the office with JCS - it, together with Chess, goes to make up a playlist of a convenient length of time for office work and so it's often the soundtrack to me doing general stuff. And occasionally singing along. One of my colleagues with whom I politely disagree on religious matters (me being orthodox atheist and he not) was rather surprised at that. Why would an atheist be listening to religious music? Because it has catchy tunes and memorable lyrics, that's why. Of course my admission that my favourite roles to sing along with are Judas and Pilate probably makes me completely beyond redemption... :)
2 comments
Let me explain... Thanks to a lower back pain issue that came on during my databases lecture this morning, I've spent an easy evening watching a DVD. The DVD in question is a recording of an Icelandic-language version of Jesus Christ Superstar made by the two local high schools a few years ago. I borrowed it from one of our Shire members, B, who is the owner of the Gambeson From Hell and who played the role of Herod (in a fetching pair of bright red Donald Duck bermuda shorts).
It was very good. I know JCS pretty well, so I had no problems following the plot (!) and the songs. It was a little rough on the edges, but a far more emotional performance than I've seen in professional versions (of which I've seen 3 in English plus 2 soundtrack versions). The guy who played Jesus was extremely good; I hear that he went off to become an actor later and I'm not at all surprised. He actually made me feel sorry for Jesus. Judas too gave a very raw and emotional performance although he didn't have the same stage presence that Jesus had.
So why the comment about the disciples? I've always felt that the disciples in JCS are a bunch of wimps who just sit around in the background and get drunk/high. Yes, I know that's the point of the thing, but every time I watch/listen to it I am reminded of the fact. In most productions I've seen/heard Jesus is also a bit of a wimp, so it was a pleasant surprise to see him portrayed as such a strong character.
I've caused a certain amount of confusion at the office with JCS - it, together with Chess, goes to make up a playlist of a convenient length of time for office work and so it's often the soundtrack to me doing general stuff. And occasionally singing along. One of my colleagues with whom I politely disagree on religious matters (me being orthodox atheist and he not) was rather surprised at that. Why would an atheist be listening to religious music? Because it has catchy tunes and memorable lyrics, that's why. Of course my admission that my favourite roles to sing along with are Judas and Pilate probably makes me completely beyond redemption... :)
2 comments
Sunday, October 05, 2008
One book, one scroll
And a bit of tidying up.
That's the tally for this weekend. The book in questions was George R.R. Martin's A Game of Thrones, which had been lent to me as background reading for the RPG campaign. It's thick. Thick like a Peter F. Hamilton novel, and just as complicated. But that's okay, it was a quiet weekend, and at least I now have some idea of the background in which I'm gaming.
I've also completed the second version of the Lindquistringes scroll. Thanks to my super-duper drawing board that makes it so much simpler to draw parallel lines, I've changed the spacing of the text slightly which means that the letters don't looks as elongated as they did with my original spacing.
The only real problem I had was with the paper. It's getting difficult to find good paper around here as AB-buðin has run out of my preferred cream variety. They have the off-white equivalent but that's a bit too white for my liking. The only other option, and the one I've used for this scroll, was pale ivory smooth cartridge paper. Again, it's a bit too white and it's also proven to be a little too smooth for the ink to flow properly. I may have to take a deep breath and order some more appropriate paper online. :(
No picture, I'm afraid, as there is a chance that the recipient might get to see it. When I first volunteered to help on the backlog I looked at the list of unassigned scrolls and volunteered to do all of those whose names I recognised. So no more showing off my improving calligraphy and illumination skills for now.
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That's the tally for this weekend. The book in questions was George R.R. Martin's A Game of Thrones, which had been lent to me as background reading for the RPG campaign. It's thick. Thick like a Peter F. Hamilton novel, and just as complicated. But that's okay, it was a quiet weekend, and at least I now have some idea of the background in which I'm gaming.
I've also completed the second version of the Lindquistringes scroll. Thanks to my super-duper drawing board that makes it so much simpler to draw parallel lines, I've changed the spacing of the text slightly which means that the letters don't looks as elongated as they did with my original spacing.
The only real problem I had was with the paper. It's getting difficult to find good paper around here as AB-buðin has run out of my preferred cream variety. They have the off-white equivalent but that's a bit too white for my liking. The only other option, and the one I've used for this scroll, was pale ivory smooth cartridge paper. Again, it's a bit too white and it's also proven to be a little too smooth for the ink to flow properly. I may have to take a deep breath and order some more appropriate paper online. :(
No picture, I'm afraid, as there is a chance that the recipient might get to see it. When I first volunteered to help on the backlog I looked at the list of unassigned scrolls and volunteered to do all of those whose names I recognised. So no more showing off my improving calligraphy and illumination skills for now.
2 comments
Friday, October 03, 2008
Drat redux
After last night's scroll disaster I wondered what to do about it.
I rather liked the idea of the peasant with a wheelbarrow bringing in the missing word - but could I draw it? After a bit of doodling during my lunch break I decided that my artistic skills might not be up to drawing a passable peasant. I could do the wheelbarrow. I could do the handcart. But the peasant came out even more grotesque than is normal for a grotesque. Time for a rethink.
Okay, I thought, if you can't make it good, make it look ridiculous. And so, I present to you my snail:
Then why the drat? Because as I finished painting the snail I managed to get a drop of water on the main text. Not a good idea at all. In spite of my ever-so-cute snail, then, I'm going to have to do a new scroll anyway. Part of me is relieved by this as I still have huge self-esteem issues considering the worthiness of my work, and sending out something that isn't perfect is very, very difficult. Part of me is annoyed because I like my snail.
In other news, as I'm planning a quiet month (i.e. no flights off the Rock) I decided to go ahead and buy myself an A3 technical drawing board. It has a very nice wide ruler - ideal for all of those parallel writing lines - and even comes with a bag for storage and for carrying it to scriptoria. I've fancied one of these for a while but couldn't justify it. My current burst of scribal enthusiasm has given me just the excuse I needed.
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I rather liked the idea of the peasant with a wheelbarrow bringing in the missing word - but could I draw it? After a bit of doodling during my lunch break I decided that my artistic skills might not be up to drawing a passable peasant. I could do the wheelbarrow. I could do the handcart. But the peasant came out even more grotesque than is normal for a grotesque. Time for a rethink.
Okay, I thought, if you can't make it good, make it look ridiculous. And so, I present to you my snail:
Then why the drat? Because as I finished painting the snail I managed to get a drop of water on the main text. Not a good idea at all. In spite of my ever-so-cute snail, then, I'm going to have to do a new scroll anyway. Part of me is relieved by this as I still have huge self-esteem issues considering the worthiness of my work, and sending out something that isn't perfect is very, very difficult. Part of me is annoyed because I like my snail.
In other news, as I'm planning a quiet month (i.e. no flights off the Rock) I decided to go ahead and buy myself an A3 technical drawing board. It has a very nice wide ruler - ideal for all of those parallel writing lines - and even comes with a bag for storage and for carrying it to scriptoria. I've fancied one of these for a while but couldn't justify it. My current burst of scribal enthusiasm has given me just the excuse I needed.
Labels: calligraphy
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Thursday, October 02, 2008
Drat and double drat
We held a scriptorium this evening.
This was a good thing, as there was much perusal of calligraphy and illumination books, some calligraphy, some scroll layout planning and a little bit of illumination. It looks like we'll be doing more of this for the next couple of weeks, which is a great thing from my point of view.
What is less of a great thing is that I finished the illumination of a second scroll just before the meeting and so took it along with me. As we discussed the wording on various scrolls I read this one aloud... and discovered that I'd missed a word. Oh drat. Drat and double drat.
My first response it to just tear it up and start again. Except that I'm really quite pleased with the illumination; I've spent quite a bit of time working out how to draw a ring formed of a wingless dragon in annulo widdershins, maintaining in chief with all four legs and mouth a gem without making it look like a rolled up cuddly dragon draught excluder.
I know that scrolls go out with mistakes in them; one of mine has a mistake in it, but that hasn't stopped me putting it on the wall. But I'd know it was there. On the other hand, there are also mediaeval documents with mistakes in them, sometimes with the words written in between the lines, at other times marginalia of humourous little drawings of peasants carrying the missing words as if about to drop them into place. I'm going to mull this over for a couple of days before I make a decision.
Other than the frustration of finding such an annoying error, I made some good progress on my third backlog scroll. This is a slightly higher-status one than the other two, and in many ways I'm using it to see if I feel that I have the confidence to tackle other high-status scrolls. I've now got the layout sorted, with the versal and borders sketched out, plus I know which hand I'm going to use for the body text (insular mejuscule). It's going to take a while, but I think that I can do it. Starting upon it is one of this weekend's projects.
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This was a good thing, as there was much perusal of calligraphy and illumination books, some calligraphy, some scroll layout planning and a little bit of illumination. It looks like we'll be doing more of this for the next couple of weeks, which is a great thing from my point of view.
What is less of a great thing is that I finished the illumination of a second scroll just before the meeting and so took it along with me. As we discussed the wording on various scrolls I read this one aloud... and discovered that I'd missed a word. Oh drat. Drat and double drat.
My first response it to just tear it up and start again. Except that I'm really quite pleased with the illumination; I've spent quite a bit of time working out how to draw a ring formed of a wingless dragon in annulo widdershins, maintaining in chief with all four legs and mouth a gem without making it look like a rolled up cuddly dragon draught excluder.
I know that scrolls go out with mistakes in them; one of mine has a mistake in it, but that hasn't stopped me putting it on the wall. But I'd know it was there. On the other hand, there are also mediaeval documents with mistakes in them, sometimes with the words written in between the lines, at other times marginalia of humourous little drawings of peasants carrying the missing words as if about to drop them into place. I'm going to mull this over for a couple of days before I make a decision.
Other than the frustration of finding such an annoying error, I made some good progress on my third backlog scroll. This is a slightly higher-status one than the other two, and in many ways I'm using it to see if I feel that I have the confidence to tackle other high-status scrolls. I've now got the layout sorted, with the versal and borders sketched out, plus I know which hand I'm going to use for the body text (insular mejuscule). It's going to take a while, but I think that I can do it. Starting upon it is one of this weekend's projects.
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Wednesday, October 01, 2008
Teaching or training?
What's the difference?
One of the things that I'm doing at work at present is designing a new degree in Applied Computing. That's a very different subject to computer science; whereas computer science is in many ways a knowledge-based subject, applied computing is a skill-based subject. The entire curriculum must change, as must the focus on how we teach the modules. What was once theoretical must now become practical.
As a result I'm doing a lot of background reading into the current best practices for doing all of this. Much of this is familiar, as I've been using these techniques for some time, but it's interesting to pick up some of the theoretical bases for them. One thing has occurred to me about my own teaching methods though - am I teaching or am I training?
That may sound like a strange question, but I've noticed that my teaching methods do differ quite a bit from those of some of my colleagues, and I wonder if this is because I learned most of them in industry as a technical trainer rather than simply going from Ph.D. to lecturing position? My lectures are self-contained items, with formal introductions and summaries rather than picking up where I left off last time and then continuing to lecture until time runs out.
Is this because there is a fundamental difference between teaching and training? Am I trying to train my students rather than teach them? As far as I can tell, broadly speaking teaching imparts knowledge while training imparts skills; neither automatically imparts understanding. Both styles can encourage both shallow learning (memorise this list of facts or this sequence of operations) and deep learning (generate new ideas based upon this information or apply this skill in unusual circumstances). Training is certainly a subset of teaching, but what makes training different? Is it just the knowledge/skill aspect or is there something else?
Certainly I am more comfortable 'teaching' practical, skill-based modules than the more theoretical ones, and I'm a big fan of having plenty of practical problem-solving within any module. This probably makes me more of a trainer than a teacher, but in a skills-based subject that may not be a bad thing.
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One of the things that I'm doing at work at present is designing a new degree in Applied Computing. That's a very different subject to computer science; whereas computer science is in many ways a knowledge-based subject, applied computing is a skill-based subject. The entire curriculum must change, as must the focus on how we teach the modules. What was once theoretical must now become practical.
As a result I'm doing a lot of background reading into the current best practices for doing all of this. Much of this is familiar, as I've been using these techniques for some time, but it's interesting to pick up some of the theoretical bases for them. One thing has occurred to me about my own teaching methods though - am I teaching or am I training?
That may sound like a strange question, but I've noticed that my teaching methods do differ quite a bit from those of some of my colleagues, and I wonder if this is because I learned most of them in industry as a technical trainer rather than simply going from Ph.D. to lecturing position? My lectures are self-contained items, with formal introductions and summaries rather than picking up where I left off last time and then continuing to lecture until time runs out.
Is this because there is a fundamental difference between teaching and training? Am I trying to train my students rather than teach them? As far as I can tell, broadly speaking teaching imparts knowledge while training imparts skills; neither automatically imparts understanding. Both styles can encourage both shallow learning (memorise this list of facts or this sequence of operations) and deep learning (generate new ideas based upon this information or apply this skill in unusual circumstances). Training is certainly a subset of teaching, but what makes training different? Is it just the knowledge/skill aspect or is there something else?
Certainly I am more comfortable 'teaching' practical, skill-based modules than the more theoretical ones, and I'm a big fan of having plenty of practical problem-solving within any module. This probably makes me more of a trainer than a teacher, but in a skills-based subject that may not be a bad thing.
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