Jen Bee

I thought I should post something

2011-04-16T12:32:00.000+01:00

Been busy. Dissertation, y'know.

Here,

I'm not sure where I found this one, either.

Edible Book Day

2011-04-01T19:43:00.001+01:00

This is no April Fool. Unlike, say, Gmail Motion -- now you can control Gmail with your body. Or AdBlock Freedom: augmented reality eyewear that detects and removes ads from the world in realtime. (If only.)

www.books2eat.com

April 1st is the birthday of French gastronome Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (1755-1826), famous for his bookPhysiologie du goût, a witty meditation on food. April fools' day is also the perfect day to eat your words and play with them as the "books" are consumed on the day of the event. This ephemeral global banquet, in which anyone can participate, is shared by all on the internet and allows everyone to preserve and discover unique bookish nourishments. This festival is a celebration of the ingestion of culture and a way to concretely share a book; it is also a deeper reflexion on our attachment to food and our cultural differences.

I liked my idea, and still do, even though it turned out a lot less...edible, overall...than I'd envisioned.

The real test now is for someone to recognise what it is.
(I've already tested the cake.)

Addendum: 2011 Gallery (including yours truly)

"Where we've never, ever been." — Doctor Who, and time

2011-03-30T18:06:00.000+01:00

Neil Gaiman has been working on his episode of this year's Doctor Who for months. It's a safe bet the other writers have been doing the same.

That's just the writing.

Then there's location finding, set creation, costume making, prop making, etc., etc., etc., etc., etc..

Filming. For 5 minutes. Setting up for 50. Take 2...

Housemate No. 1 is currently editing a 10 minute documentary, which is consuming a fair portion of her hours/days/life. I lasted about an hour, so I can only imagine the editing of 13 x 45 minutes.

Months of work by hundreds of individuals, condensed into 1 minute:

Diana Wynne Jones

2011-03-27T20:12:00.002+01:00

Just found out Diana Wynne Jones died last night. She was—and still is and will forever be—my most favourite author, ever, and now I am sad.

Neil Gaiman says some lovely things about her, and about being there, here.

Where I Live

2011-03-25T15:14:00.001Z

No, my dear stalkers, I'm not about to disclose my address. It's about to change soon anyway.

This was inspired by Julia Munroe Martin over at wordsxo, which I in turn inspired with a picture of the pile of notes I found around my desk. The Guardian also did a thing.

Most of my last two years have been spent here:

Every item I can identify in that picture has a (not necessarily interesting) story. You can see part of my VW camper-van collection, part of my Doctor Who collection, and a lot of my book collection.

(Yes, that's English Grammar For Dummies at the end of the shelf. Siblings + birthday = what's turned out to be quite a helpful book.)

There's also a view from my window, but it's not great.

For your amusement...

2011-03-15T14:56:00.000Z

I've just received our Gas Safety Record. They've been here since 9am; it's now after 2pm.

1. Exterior [illegible word] not sealed.
2. Blowoff not connected properly.
3. Cooker [something] defective.
4. Gas pipe not sleeved through wall in kitchen.

This may explain the "There's always a first" and, "G'day mate" and, "Scheiße".

And the many, many Yowch-es.

But all is now well:

1. Exterior [illegible] sealed with cement.
2. Blowoff done to [something].
3. Cooker [something] replaced for new.
4. Gas pipe removed, sleeved and re-done.

And I was finally able to get some food and, of course, tea.

A Day With Dogs

2011-03-05T20:20:00.004Z

Some things are inevitable. Take 3 dogs—one old, one slow, and one young—and some sort of mess is bound to ensue. Today we have managed several.

I've been around dogs all my 20-something years. I say 'dogs' but it tended to be one at a time. Also I'm not at home so much these days.

November Koda
(see the end for why I can't
get my camera right now)

6am. My door exploded inwards, followed by Sister No. 2 (chronologically speaking). She took a tuppaware (Christmas, pipes, aqua-kitchen, bedroom becomes storage) and left a sorry.

6.15am. The Parents and Sister No. 2 left. I drank tea and stood in the shower, missed the starlings, drank more tea, and stared at my big pile of work. Followed by dogs during all but shower (when I was followed by cats).

Brandy

8.30am. Fed dogs. Gemma first. She's about 17 now, which is about 84 in dog years or 0.1 Neptune years. She's deaf, and she has a bit of trouble back there. No, you didn't want to know that, but it's important later.

Brandy next. She's a rough collie from San Diego who seems to prefer the weather here. She's 9ish and a bit slow, except when it comes to food. Easy.

Koda. (As in). He's 7 months and I don't think he trusts me. He stared at his food, nibbled some, then stared at me, and then went and sat in the porch and waited for mum to come back.

9.30am. Pancakes and a film as part of Sister No. 1's continuing 21st ~~commiserations~~ celebrations.

Gemma

12.30pm. Sister No. 1 came back to the Parents'. Koda cheered up, ate his food, and tried to dismember a blanked when she hid underneath it and called him. He became extra confused when she put a phone under the blanket and called him on that. Cleaned Gemma's wee off conservatory floor.

2pm. Cat screams, Koda snarls. Shoo and shoe them apart to find they were fighting over Other Cat's sick. Get Brandy to clean it up.

Pippin and Merry
(Yes, from The Lord of the Rings)

6.30.pm. Fed dogs. As before. Let them all out to relieve themselves in the right order (I got that wrong last time, at Christmas), Koda on his lead because he has an unfortunate habit of eating things that should not be eaten.

7pm. Cleaned up Koda's poo in lounge, thankfully still a bare concrete floor (Christmas, pipes, aqua-lounge). Sister No. 1 leaves. Koda resumes place in porch. I find his squeaky ball and he chews it contentedly.

7.30pm. Gemma and Brandy doze. Chair moves. Peer under table and tell Koda to stop chewing it. He looks at me, stops, and goes to sleep too. I decide I don't really need a cup of tea and try not to make any loud noises or sudden movements.

baby Koda

This would have been a Facebook status had it been shorter

2011-02-27T16:16:00.002Z

Some mornings go better than others. You can see this is not one of the good ones as it's now 4pm and is still not working.

My last 20 minutes went like this:

Saw time. 3:45pm.
Decided I should probably change out of my pyjamas.
Decided to have a shower first. Housemates all away. Thought this a sensible idea.
Got into shower. Put shampoo in hair.
Remembered pizza in oven.
Finished washing at top speed.
Ran downstairs in towel. Felt glad of housemates' absence.
Opened oven. Pizza still frozen. Forgot to turn it on.

On the plus side, I found two cups of tea which are barely worse for microwaving.

Pirate Keyboard

2011-02-23T16:21:00.000Z

Sadly, I have no idea where/who this image originally came from.

Dear Blog

2011-02-14T22:04:00.002Z

Dear Blog,

I am very sorry to have neglected you. I keep thinking of things to say, but I'm barely keeping up with my uni work at the moment and no, I don't go out. Ever. Except Thursdays for an hour and a half when I help out with Girl Guides.

There are several drafts of links and notes, and more links and notes in documents on my laptop, and scribblings on scraps of paper. Things about queries and the recent library stuff and a funny thing Ursula K. Le Guin said and a youtube video where a Kindle gets shot. Okay, you can have that one. I will try and shuffle some of them together when I need a break from over-thinking everything.

Yours,
Jen

Too Many Blogs

2011-01-17T10:23:00.002Z

So I'm off back to uni and, last time I checked, there's another blog for another module. If they're interesting I may post them here, otherwise I'll probably be concentrating on that rather than this what with the former, you know, actually counting for something (and costing something).

Meanwhile, if the 'archives' don't interest you there's storycomments.blogspot.com, updated daily (because it only takes me about 5 minutes to copy out notes I'm noting anyway, 10 minutes if there's a picture).

Scroll to the bottom of this blog for a sneak peak.

Last Resort

2011-01-06T00:55:00.002Z

Dugan sat on a rock with his chin in his hands wondering where he was, and why he was where he was.

‘There is not enough time.’ said the man with the crooked finger, his first words besides ‘Do hurry up lad’ since he’d appeared at Dugan’s house that morning.

‘No time for what?’ Dugan ventured, rising.

The man ceased pacing. ‘Why, to assemble a Motley Crew of course.’

‘Do- Do we need one?’

‘Do we need– ha! All the more certainly for such a question.’

Dugan fidgeted and tried to recall how this had started. Something about money, and Father’s death.

‘I still don’t know why you want me,’ he muttered.

‘Because, and do not take this too harshly now, but you were the most miserable poor wretch I could find at such intolerably late notice.’

Dugan, for that very reason, was no stranger to insults. He found himself looking again at the crooked finger. ‘Are you a Spellcaster?’

‘I much prefer Conjuror if you would not mind. Now, a tavern, that will be the trick. Do you know of any?’

‘I’ve never-’

‘Of course not.’ The Conjuror sighed. ‘How about you begin with a direction?’

‘I don’t even know where we are.’

‘Fate, lad, will lead us, as it leads all of us. Save for the stubborn who it will drag,’ he added.

Shadowland (Rights of Passage 3), Rhiannon Lassiter

2010-11-12T17:17:00.007Z

(a shorter version)

First things first, I like to review books as I'm reading them. It's less reflective, more immediate (and I can write stuff as I think it, rather than trying to remember what I was thinking). Plus I tend to move right on to the next book after finishing. I will finish this one. Meanwhile...

Peering carefully through the net of her fingers she looked up through the open door and tried to make sense of what she saw.

This is not the first time I've started a series at the end. Nor is it the most confusing, but that's another story.

Perhaps the only way to discover what is realistic is to explore every possibility as it comes to you.

At first I found the switching-between-character-viewpoints a little frustrating. I was just getting to know someone when I'd be moved on to someone else. And there are a lot of characters. However, and possibly due to this, I soon had a good idea of who was who. I also like this layout (in The Two Towers I alternate chapters to keep tabs on both Aragorn and Frodo).

I'm scheduled for Salvage, he said. Whatever that is.

The characters are fantastic. They are mean and angry and selfish, and human. In so many stories the goodies are too good and the baddies are too bad - all kind of obvious and predictable. Here, well... These teenagers think and behave like teenagers.

The entrance to the study was hidden behind one of the curtains.

I joined the characters in their confusion, unsure who to trust or who to believe. I empathised with them as I read their first person narrative, and then with their enemies when I read theirs'. Never does it feel out of character.

In all the known worlds the Great Library is a thing apart.

As for the story, what a world. The Great Library seems jungle-like: beautiful, fascinating, and dangerous, with people like animals coming and going and fighting for survival. The action does seem to be taking a while to get going, though there's still plenty going on...

All Hallow's Read

2010-10-29T21:34:00.008+01:00

Pashmina (like the scarf)

Steam Punk

2010-10-14T16:42:00.020+01:00

I heard a great description of Steampunk the other day. It was in Castle, which is one of the good ones.

It wouldn't quite fit on Twitter.

"It's a subculture that embraces the simplicity and romance of the past and at the same time couples it with the hope and promise and sheer supercoolness of futuristic design."

Raymond Carver’s turn

2010-07-25T14:30:00.019+01:00

I’m still picking through Great Writers on the Art of Fiction (ed. James Daley) and I really liked what Raymond Carver had to say in his six pages, even though I’m still undecided on his fiction. I don’t not like it, but neither do I do like it. (Yes, I wrote it like that on purpose.)

His approach seemed to be that, while writing successfully (i.e. the sort that gets you published, lots) requires ambition, luck, and talent, there’s something else...

‘...a unique and exact way of looking at things, and finding the right context for expressing that way of looking...’

‘Every great or even very good writer makes the world over according to his own specifications.’

‘It is akin to style, but it isn’t style alone. It is the writer’s particular and unmistakable signature on everything he writes. It is his world and no other. This is one of the things that distinguishes one writer from another. Not talent. There’s plenty of that around. But a writer who has some special way of looking at things and who gives artistic expression to that way of looking...’

‘...a writer needs to be able to just stand and gape at this or that thing—a sunset or an old shoe—in absolute and simple amazement.’

found at
Focus photoblog
‘The real experimenters have to Make It New...and in the process have to find things out for themselves.’

‘That’s all we have, finally, the words, and they had better be the right ones, with the punctuation in the right places so that they can best say what they are meant to say.’

Do I have a unique and exact way of looking at things? Do you? Is it even important? And what's so great about an old shoe anyway?

How to avoid distractions, part 2

2010-07-16T10:48:00.033+01:00

Part 1

4. Don’t read other people’s blogs, and especially don’t comment on them.

Who are these folks anyway? There’s a picture and sometimes a whole paragraph about them, whatever that proves.

And how did they figure out what they know about [insert subject here]? Did they read it on a blog by someone who read it on another blog? Or in a book about writing? Or did they figure it out for themselves?

So far I’ve found only 3 things that all writers agree on:

Read lots (some say literature, some say genre, some say everything, some say never force yourself to read something you don’t like, some say do force yourself to read something you don’t like)

Write lots (set a target, don’t set a target, find a good time, find any time, outside, inside, on your bed, under your desk)

and

Adverbs are bad

As for commenting, these bloggers may have a dozen followers or a hundred, all potential readers. Hopefully none of them do read because they’re all away writing their books or reading or eradicating adverbs. They don’t need to know you’ve been there, or what you think.

I do try to comment on everything I read, even if it’s just a “Jen was here” (plus a link back to my blog in case they’re interested in another writer’s thoughts).

But that’s because I’m still learning about writing and am allowed to make these mistakes.

Kurt Vonnegut explains...

2010-07-10T15:15:00.018+01:00

...why all the stories I write contain tea.

This is borrowed from Great Writers on the Art of Fiction, edited by James Daley. I found mine in the library, Amazon have some too. Now all I need is the British equivalent.

Over to Vonnegut.

Find a subject you care about and which you in your heart feel others should care about. It is this genuine caring, and not your games with language, which will be the most compelling and seductive element in your style.

I am not urging you to write a novel, by the way - although I would not be sorry if you wrote one, provided you genuinely cared about something. A petition to the mayor about a pothole in front of your house or a love letter to the girl next door will do.

Do not ramble, though.

Dear Diary,

2010-06-15T22:10:00.039+01:00

Yesterday I had lunch with [an acquaintance]. He’s from 2130, and over coronation chicken baguettes he told me some time next year [an inferior professor] will unprove the existence of vampires. There will be a small poof and some pinkish puffs here and there around the world that will be mistaken for chalk dust. All [the professor]’s notes will vanish, gaps will appear in bookshelves and DVD collections, particularly the teen sections, and this entry too will cease to exist. Oh, and vampire bats are re-named piranha bats. No one will remember otherwise.

How to avoid distractions, part 1

2010-05-28T16:33:00.013+01:00

1. Delete your Facebook account. I don't mean deactivate it, that's leaving it open for temptation. You don't need to stay in touch with your friends or keep up with their latest news. If they're getting engaged, for instance, you'll find out sooner or later. How to permanently delete your Facebook account.

2. Stop talking to/writing to/phoning/e-mailing/texting your friends and family. If you don't believe this is an important step in freeing up important writing time, count how many minutes you spend on them a week. If it is under 16 it is possible you have already taken this step.

3. Stop blogging. Who reads these things anyway?

image discovered on Abhi Blog

Lecturers, who needs them

2010-05-12T12:14:00.027+01:00

image from this blog
because I can't draw

(Yes, I know there should be a question mark there but I’ve chosen not to use one. It’s a creative thing.)

To begin with, Lecturers cram so much into 2 hours that sufficient note taking is not possible, and then they ask you to condense that into 2000 words. Packing a year’s worth of stuff into a rucksack was easier. I’m doing ‘Creative Studies’ here, no one believes I actually have to work.

On top of that they will recommend books. As if your shelf isn’t piled high enough yet, the monthly £5 book budget blown weeks ago, the library limit reached. I’ve no idea when you’re supposed squash in the time to read any of them either.

They make you paranoid. Not just that you’ll be picked on to say something in class (it’s like school all over again), but about every word, every punctuation mark. I'm never using semicolons.

It's also much harder to write anything when you know they’ll be reading it, or when they say things like “I’m looking forward to reading it” because then you know nothing will ever be good enough. Thank Goodness for deadlines, that’s all I can say, rescuing you from endless re-revising.

Finally, however great your problems with the work, however long you have spent agonising over them, they will offer a casual solution in less than 5 minutes.

That time of the year again, again

2010-04-22T18:46:00.039+01:00

It goes something like this:

found at Wait-Till-I.Com

Beautiful Blogger Award

2010-04-12T18:00:00.051+01:00

I still consider myself a newcomer here, though this seems pretty simple: 7 facts, about me, and 15 nominations. But first, the thanks: to Valerie Valdes for the nomination.

I'd only deviated onto Twitter for a moment before intending to settle down and write a short uni assignment. The evening still being young, I clicked on her blog entry. They're a good read and don't steal too long of one's procrastination time.

It was about her receiving a Beautiful Blogger Award. I was most surprised and cheered to find my name included in her 15.

So, me.

1. I am currently at university, my second year nearly over, studying 'Creative Studies' - mostly creative writing, some film and media. The theatre and journalism and new media are not so much my thing. It's not bad at all, but I'd swear there's less writing of stories this year.

2. I took two gap years. I'd applied for uni, the same course, and had been accepted. I had my loan and accommodation sorted. Then I worked in an outdoor centre in Scotland over the summer and they asked me to stay, and I said yes. While there, a friend and I planned a 6 week trip to New Zealand but since we wouldn't get back until November (too late to start uni), I figured why not stay a few more months. It was awesome.

3. I'm going to open a tea shop. Hopefully sometime soon after hopefully finishing uni, probably sometime later. It will hopefully be in Pembrokeshire, because it is near to family who are always useful to have around when starting new businesses, and because it is lovely there. Check back in a couple of years for an update.

4. I love the old 60s/70s VW camper vans. I wish to drive nothing else, once I can drive. (I am learning to drive. He says I'm doing well. See points 1 and 2 for why this is so late.)

5. My favourite authors include, J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Douglas Adams, Patrick O'Brian, Jasper Fforde, Neil Gaiman, Orson Scott Card, Jennifer Donnelly, Rosemund Pilcher, Ian Rankin, Frank Peretti, and Ted Dekker, to name just the joint-first. Need to discover more female writers to love.

6. Given the choice between a cat or a dog, I would choose both. There are 2 cats (Merry and Pippin) and 2 dogs (Gemma and Brandy) at home/my parent's, and I love them all. Equally but differently. For instance, Gemma and Merry aren't so keen on hugs.

7. I really dislike elastic bands. I cannot touch them, and if someone (my brothers) even mime pulling one, I cower. Balloons are like giant, loud elastic bands. I really dislike them too. And, well, elastic in general.

And now for my 15 nominations for the Beautiful Blogger Award:

Brayden Hirsch, write big

Brittany Landgrebe, the words of a writer

Dave Hibbins, bookblog, appreciating the written word

Jennifer Stakes, Writer in the Wilderness

Jody Hedlund, author

Johanna Harness's blog

Sally Carter, online story blog (coming soon)

Steve Phipps, Chasing Trails (mountain biking)

Valerie Geary, Something to Write About

VB Tremper's blog

Shoot. It is as I feared. Like I said, I'm new to this. Don't even know of more than 10 blogs, excepting some famous persons. Rather than spend precious assignment-writing-time searching, I will write a reminder to look out for at least 5 more blogs. Or just leave it at that, wouldn't want the award to become too common (she jested).

Piloting is easier than laundry (for robots)

2010-04-07T23:47:00.039+01:00

Researchers Achieve Breakthrough With Towel-Folding Robot

People can easily fold towels, but getting robots to do that has been a real challenge. That's because the robot requires a complex combination of artificial intelligence, computer vision and machine learning in order to make an orderly stack from a jumbled pile of towels. [One News Page]

I like this. Nothing against pilots--my attempt at Flight Simulator makes it quite clear it is not an attainable career for myself--but it cheers me regarding the whole human race that only we can see sense in a pile of washing. If I don't think about it too deeply.

Rebus is back

2010-03-26T23:46:00.022Z

The Very Last Drop

‘And this is where the ghost’s usually seen,’ the guide said. ‘So I hope nobody’s of a nervous disposition.’ His eyes were fixed on Rebus, though there four other people on the tour. They had wandered through the brewery in their luminous health-and-safety vests and white hard-hats, climbing up flights of steps, ducking for low doorways, and were now huddled together on what seemed to be the building’s attic level. The tour itself had been a retirement present. Rebus had almost let the voucher lapse, until reminded by Siobhan Clarke, whose gift it had been... [Read on]

Making things strange

2010-03-25T12:14:00.029Z

A word unknown to Microsoft Word, and to my trusty WordWeb. It was the subject of last week’s Creative Writing Stories lecture.

David Lodge (The Art of Fiction, 1992, below) writes that:

DEFAMILIARIZATION is the usual English translation of ostranenie (literally, “making strange”)

He goes on to quote Victor Shklovsky’s 1917 essay, ‘Art as Technique’

Habitualization devours works, clothes, furniture, one’s wife, and the fear of war . . . And art exists that one may recover the sensation of life; it exists to make one feel things, to make the stone stony. The purpose of art is to impart the sensation of things as they are perceived and not as they are known.

Dis ∙ join ∙ ted

2010-03-19T13:23:00.028Z

Alas, Thursday evening was stolen from me by The Time Thing in the guise of HawthoRNe. Haven't heard of it? Click there. Don't like hospital dramas? Neither do I.

So, my feedback told me my story opening was disjointed. It is. It's terrible.

Ideas come to me in two ways:

1. Accompanied by an overhead lightbulb and a ‘ping’, or at least it would if I lived in a cartoon.

2. Following lots and lots and lots of thinking and plotting and planning (and structuring). This resort is only used when 1. fails and inescapable deadlines loom.

As much as I love making up a story as I go, without strong characters it gets stuck. Hits the middle and sags like an unstructured roof. Or a badly-stacked pile of custard creams.

Structure, for more than just your home

2010-03-10T21:42:00.017Z

Essential. Essential? With or without a question mark? Or perhaps an exclamation mark or two: Essential!! Unless what you're working on is "experimental". Experimental structure? Bit like the Scottish Parliament building.

Obviously every writer writes differently. For a hundred, thousand reasons. Looked at structure this week. Turns out it may suit me. I have a tendency to get distracted, sidetracked, or completely lost in my stories. Oh, and stuck in middles.

Thus, setting out a mere four points, A. Inciting Incident, B. Conflict, C. Climax and D. Resolution, provides a sort of guide / map / cattleprod for those more stuck, less inspirational moments.

I have a line for my protagonist, just the one hill, and a line for my story, a veritable mountain range.

I reckon it's worth a try. Even if only once. Even if you only find that you hate it.

10 Characteristics of Fantasy, & other genres

2010-03-07T18:42:00.014Z

Choosing 10 characteristics of a genre of our choice was one of my assignments last week.

I picked Fantasy and picked up Orson Scott Card's How to write Science Fiction & Fantasy for some promts (seen second in the pile). The trickiest bit was finding things broad enough to cover ~~all~~ most fantasy stories.

1. Magic
2. Medieval setting - swords, arrows, horses, trees
3. Good vs. Evil
4. Mythical Creatures
5. Quest / Journey
6. Elves, Dwarves, etc.
7. Humble Beginnings
8. Romantic Subplot
9. Trilogy / Series (open-ended)
10. Alternative World

Genre is for publishers and booksellers, and readers. I don't sort my books (or my DVDs--they're done by colour) by genre. I do it by author, mostly because it requires less thinking, especially on mulit-genre books like Jasper Fforde's.

Scott Card describes it "Like the stable in C. S. Lewis's Last Narnia book, The Last Battle, the science fiction (& fantasy) ghetto is much larger on the inside than it is on the outside." (brackets mine)

My Inner Calamity Jane

2010-03-06T13:33:00.014Z

Thursday it was water.

Friday it was candle wax. I created a very effective laptop cleaning kit from cotton buds, the tweezers and toothpick from my penkinfe, and a cheap USB hoover that was too rubbish to even be a joke present last Christmas.

The Shift key is still a bit funny though, or maybe I'm just noticing it now.

This morning, hovering on this afternoon, I turned on my laptop and went downstairs to get a cuppa. I was just checking e-mails, listening to my Weekend Morning playlist (the contents of which I shall not divulge) and replying to a Facebook message about The Candle Wax Incident last night, when the now half emptied mug of tea took a dive next to me.

Thankfully, it headed to the right, onto my notebooks, and only splashed my laptop a little.

New Rule : No more liquids near the laptop

18 books on a writer-girl's shelf, yo ho ho and a mug of tea

2010-03-05T12:12:00.012Z

The work is finished, mostly, and the day is yet young. Why not catch up on reading? thought I.

I took the books from my desk - on top and below - the two piles balancing on my radiator, the one propping up the heater, and the one from my bag. I piled them up. There were a few more than I'd reckoned on.

18, in fact. (6 of which are library books, I spot them as I'm shelving.)

My whole book collection is gradually being added over at LibraryThing.

Dydd Dewi Sant, St David's Day

2010-03-01T10:20:00.016Z

The sun is shining, right in my eyes actually, the seagulls are kicking up a racket, Sam the slightly-stray cat ambushed me as I was taking the bins out this morning and is now asleep on my bed, and I'm munching pineapple chunks from the can (the alternatives were less appealing). Oh, and it's St David's Day, and in the spirit of that, here's some online Welsh stuff.

First, A Brief History Of Wales. Really brief. 360 words. I counted. On Word.

This person's image because mine is on the other computer

Then you can learn how to say:

Lanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.

It's easy. I learned it (on that very site) to prove to Scots and Kiwis that I knew at least a little Welsh. The Kiwis weren't as impressed, what with their word.

There are a lot of welshcakes recipes. Google offers 326,000. I offer the best I've found (so far), which, like most (but not all), is incredibly simple. No lard or lemons or whatnot.

This person's image because I've not
photographed mine before

8oz self raising flour
4oz butter
4oz caster sugar
4oz sultanas
1 egg
1tsp mixed spice

If you have a griddle, perfect. If not, a heavy based frying pan will do the trick. I don't have one of those either, but a normal frying pan works just fine. Pre-heat whichever you use.

Mix the flour and butter. Add sugar, fruit and beaten eggs. (Can add a dash of milk if the dough is too dry, but I never need to.) Roll out (or take a chunk and squish it in your hands) to about half a centimeter thick, cut circles and pop them onto your griddle/pan until they're golden brown. Dip in caster sugar. Consume. Repeat.

Beginnings...

2010-02-26T23:45:00.006Z

Don't exist.

I've started Introduction to Literature, Criticism and Theory (third edition, by Andrew Bennett and Nicholas Royle) which is fascinating, and very readably written--even I understood most of it.

And I took notes. I take notes on everything these days. Uni does that.

They say:

No journey, no life, no narrative ever really begins: all have in some sense already begun before they begin. But that is not to say that we can do without the concept of the beginning.

If beginnings always have a context and are therefore determined by what comes before....in turn, beginnings determine what comes after.