psych0naut

Every so often, someone posts a query about how to write an essay without killing one's creativity. I struggled with this for years, but it came eventually. However, I have little faith in the "keep struggling" advice. Some people work hard and still never get there.

Then I picked up Diana Wynne Jones's Year of the Griffin. A "university story", it contains within it some of the best descriptions of bad teaching I've ever come across, but more important, it also contains one of the best descriptions of how to think about essays, and what essays can do, that I've ever seen.

You can go read the book, or you can just read the excerpt. It's posted on my website with DWJ's permission here.

• 14:16 Feeling like crap. #
• 16:31 Listening to Wes & Madison in the living room, making up silly songs about how much they love each other. #
• 16:34 Moment over, now they're singing about poop. #
• 20:20 Watching Kung Fu Panda. #
• 21:37 Introducing Blake to Boney M via snippets on iTunes. #
• 21:45 BONUS!!!!!! tinyurl.com/2huxba #
• 00:35 Headache/bed. #

~*Sunny @ Twitter*~
(Posted "nightly", around 5am, using LoudTwitter)

• 12:35 boom de yada, boom de yada, boom de yada, boom de ohmygodi'mgoinginsane #
• 13:27 vodafone have bought dot mobile, who I used to have an account with, and re-opened my account without my permission. SO PISSED OFF. #
• 14:01 "Hi, can I help you?" "I hope so. Apparently I have an account with you which I didn't sign a contract for." "Er, oh..." #
• 14:12 Waiting. New assistant asks if he can help me. Started to explain, mentioned dot mobile and he winced. I don't think I'm alone here... #
• 15:09 Almost done: vodafone account/bill cancelled. dot mobile charged me £25 and shouldn't have done. Starting reclaim process with my bank... #
• 18:53 This can't be good... is.gd/LZC #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

 more things that may or may not be good, i'll find out when i have time:
Ackroyd and architect-y exhibition/installation thing http://darkwaters.org.uk/
art and architecture collective Public Works http://www.publicworksgroup.net/
a thing. http://www.supportstructure.org/

"The spa will also offer cosmetic laser treatments intended to tighten the skin of the vulva in post-menopausal women.

“The outer layer can become almost scrotal, very wrinkly and lax,” Dr. Romanzi said."

Full Story

Also:

Happy Fourth of July, to all expatriate and inpatriate Americans!

Somehow, I can feel a short story coming on: Homeland Security breaking up the Boston Tea Party. Or, maybe, an internal Pentagon memo justifying waterboarding as a reasonable technique of interrogation on crates of tea suspected of Al-Quaeda sympathies.

Joking apart, picture a story told in declassified and heavily blacked-out transcripts of military tribunal hearings of the ringleaders. Or (whisper it quietly, they were all subversives and terrorists) the known authors and signatories of the Constitution...

Or has this already been done?

Originally published at xugglyblog. Please leave any comments there.

Until last weekend, I’d never even heard of the new Discovery Channel advert.

When xkcd #442 was published I didn’t understand it, and I didn’t like not understanding it, so I Googled it and read the lyrics.

That was okay, until yesterday, when I followed a YouTube link and saw it for the first time.

I love the mountains, I love the clear blue skies. I love big bridges, I love when great whites fly. I love the whole world, and all its sights and sounds. Boom de yada, boom de yada, boom de yada, boom de yada!

I love the oceans, I love real dirty things. I love to go fast, I love Egyptian kings. I love the whole world and all its craziness. Boom de yada, boom de yada, boom de yada, boom de yada!

I love tornadoes, I love arachnids. I love hot magma, I love the giant squids. I love the whole world, it’s such a brilliant place. Boom de yada, boom de yada, boom de yada, boom de yada, boom de yada, boom de yada, boom de yada, boom de yada, boom de yada, boom de yada!

On a slightly different note, the woman who loves Egyptian kings slightly disturbs me. I think it’s the way she looks into his eyes. I mean, there’s love, and there’s love.

• 16:49 Catching up on LJ and feeling like all kinds of ass. #
• 19:06 Showin' Blake my boobs. #
• 20:01 Reading about Rasputin, who apparently had a large penis. #
• 00:35 Bed. #

~*Sunny @ Twitter*~
(Posted "nightly", around 5am, using LoudTwitter)

some good things: 

Richard Heeps' current exhibition is on til 25th. 
http://www.rathbonegallery.com/exhibition.asp
http://www.richardheeps.co.uk/

temporary Southwark Lido opens soon, possibly tomorrow, saturday, or as this website says, next week. how cool?!
http://southwarklido.wordpress.com/

hometime.

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

This is a reply to one of the questions from my "ask me anything" poll.

Was there ever a defining incident which led to you being the person you are? Or a series of events?

( Read more... )

discovered in, of all places, a film museum

watched 2nd futurama movie yesterday. didn't think it was a patch on the 1st one. oh well.

• 20:15 Feeling completely out of it. #
• 20:35 Cleaning up pee. (Not mine.) #
• 21:15 Having Wes therapy. #
• 00:10 .....watching Hannah Montana to try and understand where I went wrong in my parenting and how to make things right. #
• 00:52 Taking Benadryl & Tylenol 1 and eating ice cream while I read and wait for the chemical kick in the ass towards bed. #

~*Sunny @ Twitter*~
(Posted "nightly", around 5am, using LoudTwitter)

• 01:09 Dear Mac geeks: when I asked about about browsers, I said *good* browsers. Not Safari. #
• 13:42 Shock horror! Called Virgin Media for details I need to set up the router and got someone in the UK! #
• 13:44 On the other hand, I am being played Maneater whilst I wait for technical support to answer the phone. #
• 13:46 Ooh, an upgrade to Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol. It's been sufficiently long since I heard it that it no longer irritates the fuck out of me. #
• 13:48 Technical support are, surprise surprise, in India. On hold again, now being played Bollywood music. Woo~ #
• 13:57 Ha. Technical support is only provided for Virgin Media provided routers. Helpful. #
• 13:59 "How much is a Virgin router?" "I do not know ma'am, I am in different department."
  
  s/department/country #
• 14:20 I give up. Upgraded to 10mb Internet and got a new router on the cheap. Now we have one of their routers maybe they'll give us tech support? #
• 16:23 1625 SPT-LIV #
• 17:05 Listening to Le Tigre and gazing out of the window. I think I must be the only person in England to love today's weather. #
• 22:26 Stuffed with chineefoo. Now collapsed on the sofa watching the Meaning of Life. #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

after a relatively good weekend (but still not good enough to risk going clubbing saturday), monday and tuesday were not the best days for headaches, but neither did i need to take anything. today, destruction noises are really starting to get to me along with other things, so have taken 50mg sumatriptan. we'll see.

• 12:01 Having an extremely bad reaction to my medication. Even my armpit glands are swollen and they hurt. :o( #
• 13:41 Hating my glasses. #
• 17:08 Trying to remember if I've been photographed having sex more than once. Laughing because I actually had to sit & think about it. #
• 18:25 Pooping on Alex's wall. #
• 19:31 Taking Benadryl. #
• 23:35 Taking more Benadryl. #
• 04:31 Woke up feverish and in pain, having had weird, flashing, conspiratory nightmares. Taking more Benadryl & Tylenol 1 & going back to bed. #

~*Sunny @ Twitter*~
(Posted "nightly", around 5am, using LoudTwitter)

This weekend I picked and ate saskatoon berries for the first time.
In Finsbury park, at abigailb's birthday picnic.
The berries were not quite purple-ripe - they were more a fuchsia shading to purple - but they were tasty.

I also ate a small pink-fleshed apple, that ccooke said was a crab-apple, that was growing on a tree in Finsbury Park.

I had a try at spinning poi. It was fun. I want to do that again.

*

I have two spare tickets to an new panel-game hosted by Marcus Brigstocke and it's today - Wednesday - in London - and it's free - the doors open at 6:45 -

It's at MTV Studios, Hawley Crescent, Camden, NW1 8TT


I should have told you earlier.

Originally published at xugglyblog. Please leave any comments there.

I was at the LGF tonight for the Manchester bi group, BiPhoria, and someone else pointed out that they had some women’s safer sex packs at the side of the room. I got a bit excited about this, as they’ve had men’s safer sex packs for quite some time, comprising of lube, condoms and so on - but until now, there’s hardly been anything labelled as being specifically for women.

On closer inspection, however, it wasn’t all it was hyped up to be. The pack, described here, had a leaflet going over the risks of sex with women and what you can catch, and advice:

“dental dams [...] can provide protection against such risks”

“using condoms on sex toys and changing them before using on a different person is a good way to prevent the exchange of bodily fluids”

“cover hands with latex gloves or individual finger cots”

Included with this leaflet is a small sachet of Durex Play Heat lube - and that’s it. Despite their leaflet effectively saying “use this stuff!” … they don’t bother including any of it.

No condoms, no gloves, no finger cuts, no dental dams. Just lube, which heats the skin when it’s blown on, because you know, chemical irritants are what safer sex is all about.

If you feel like dropping the sexual health co-ordinator at LGF a friendly email as I have done about how utterly pointless these “packs” are, you can contact him at nathanp@lgf.org.uk.

• 17:33 Setting up the router at home involves fiddling with Network settings. The instructions in the manual are for Mac 7.x or above... #
• 17:45 Mac geeks: which (good) browsers allow me to properly fiddle with proxies? I have to switch to one that does for the summer. #
• 18:13 My sister just claimed that the non-alcoholic lager she drinks has taste. Blasphemy! #
• 21:26 Boris Tory Wanker Homophobic Johnson writes for the Pink Paper :/ I didn't even realise if could spell. #
• 23:18 I hate rail replacement buses. Wouldn't be so bad if'd been advertised but I didn't know so am stuck walking home or forking out for a taxi. #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter