Thursday, 27 March, 2003
I haven't been writing here for a while. You may have noticed. Although I doubt I get too many daily visitors - I mean, if I'm not a daily visitor, why should anyone else be?
So, what's been going on in my life?
Well... I've been working reasonably hard. I've actually had stuff to do - papers to prepare, proof read and get published (although I don't actually do the last bit myself, but I do say when they are ready tp be published. The Power! HA HA HA!) I had a meeting yesterday. I didn't actually mean to have a meeting yesterday, but I did. My colleague, Helen, had a meeting yesterday but she couldn't make it in to work because her son was ill. So I did it. It was a Standard Setting Meeting. When a group of examiners mark the same paper they get together to try and set a standard way of marking. It seemed that, after all this time, (they have been doing it for a fair few years now...) they were pretty much on the same wavelength. The one thing I can say about them is that some of the candidates are damned lucky that there is no mark reduction for spelling and grammatical errors.
What else. I'm currently reading Robin Hobb's Farseer trilogy. And it's rather marvellous. I'm streaking through the books, finding them extremely difficult to put down. It has taken me a long time to get around to reading them (I read her second trilogy - The Liveship Traders - when I was working at Waterstone's and she came to do a signing) but I'm glad I have. I was trying to think what other fantasy I have read recently and couldn't think of anything since Chaz's Outremer series. (Which is being released in the States this year, which is rather exciting. The only novel which I have chosen to buy more than one version of is The Lord of the Rings. I don't know if this means anything, it's just something I thought worth mentioning. And I got to put another Amazon link in.) I'm sure I have, but I just can't remember them. Which shows how good they must have been. (And I'm not really counting Terry Pratchett, because he's only sort of partially fantasy.) Anyway, read them all. They're all very good.
Candy is still throwing up. It's not as bad as it was, but it's still happening. we (and especially she) are pretty much resigned to it happening it all the way through to the end. It only happens once when she gets up in the morning and then she's pretty much okay for the rest of the day, but it's still not good. We are now calling the bump Hecky The Kung-Fu Bump (I don't remember if I explained the origin of the name 'Hecky' or not. When we heard it's heartbeat, it sounded exactly like a helicopter. so - hecky-lopter. Obvious, really.) It's a case of Crouching Foetus, Hidden Baby... I have felt it kick against my hand a few times and last night, lying in bed, I actually saw Candy's belly bulge out momentarily as it kicked. Now that is weird. Exciting, but weird.
My mom is down here this weekend. At long last, she is getting her birthday present from us. From last November. We are taking her to see We Will Rock You, the Queen musical. I'm expecting it to be fairly appalling, but the music will be good. So, that'll be fun.
Another rather fun link I discovered. Or, at least I assume it's fun. I can get to the front page, but I can't get any farther, becaase C&G blocks it for some reason. Good, eh? It's an Online Etymological Dictionary. Which is a very nice idea.
Posted by stephen @ 09:27 AM GMT [Link]
Tuesday, 25 March, 2003
A quote from Jack Dee:
You know the world is crazy when the best rapper is white, the best golfer is black, France is accusing the US of arrogance and Germany doesnt want to go to war "
And this from Messrs Stipe et al.:
R.E.M. has posted their new song "The Final Straw" online for the world to
hear. The song has a strong anti-war sentiment, and REM joins a number of
artists including Madonna and the Beastie Boys who have posted anti-war songs
on their sites in response to the invasion of Iraq.
You can listen to streaming Windows Media or Quicktime copies here.
On REM's site, the following is posted.
This is the strongest voice I could think of to send out there.
We had to send something out there now.
We are praying and hoping for the lives of all people involved,
the troops, the Iraqi civilians, refugees, pow's, families of troops, the
innocents--
that they are safe and okay. Safe home, all. --Michael Stipe
The Final Straw
R.E.M.
Buck, Mills, Stipe
Posted by stephen @ 03:11 PM GMT [Link]
Thursday, 20 March, 2003
Two websites that I have come across this morning.
The first is Where is Raed? a blog from someone in Baghdad.
The second is a site created by the National Cattlemen's Beef Board, called Cool 2B Real. And, quite frankly, looking at this one, the mind boggles...
Posted by stephen @ 09:31 AM GMT [Link]
Thursday, 6 March, 2003
Candy had her 20 week scan yesterday. And, to celebrate, I bought a scanner. You know. As you do... It's some what easier to put the picture and the info on it up here, although I will do it on the Sprog page at some point...
It went reasonably well - all the bits are there. There were a couple of problems - it was in an awkward position so the nurse couldn't see it's heart properly (although she saw enough to be able to say that it was healthy, she couldn't get all the measurements she needed or something) so Candy has to go back in a couple of weeks to re-check it. Also, the placenta is apparently a bit low - it's not covering the birth channel but it is a bit close to it. Again, the nurse said that there was a 95% chance that it would be okay, but it also means there is a slight chance that Candy may need a caesarean. In the picture - which is a bit harder to make out than the first one, I think, the head is top left in profile and the feet are top right. The solid white stripe down the middle (running left to right) is the spine.
Posted by stephen @ 11:29 AM GMT [Link]
!
Stephen alleges that he cannot upload images. However, I think I can!
Roger (under an assumed name).
Posted by stephen @ 11:17 AM GMT [Link]
Wednesday, 5 March, 2003
Another great site is book crossing.com. You label a book with one of their labels, register it with them and leave it somewhere. Then. when someone picks it up, you can see where it's got to. I think I'll have to find a book and do this.
Posted by stephen @ 09:45 AM GMT [Link]
I've just discovered a rather fun new site. It's The Word Spy. A site that tells you about neoligisms and new uses for old words (of which I am certain there must be a word, but I don't know what it is. Jean? Chaz?) It has meanings for words and phrases such as 'googling' (a word which Google are somewhat annoyed about and are attempting to stop. I don't think it's going to work though and they are going to become victims of their own popularity, much like Anadin and Hoover. Oh well...)
