na_lon: (mesmall)
I have had another busy day. Started with a bit of writing chat via text with Viala (who had a writing snag that needed desnagging) on the bus to the hospital to have my foot x-rayed. It's not got any signs of stress-fractures, hooray! Then picked up my parcel (delivered yesterday while we were out) of Na'Quis's and my internet shopping from the other day. Work - sorted out a few things, sent of the emails I prepared yesterday, met with two reps from McGraw-Hill who talked about some resources that sound rather intriguing. Had a lovely coffee with Versatile (who helped with the Athena application), and who gave me advice about how to investigate changing schools for Na'Quis as and when we move to Brum. Versatile also made the 'mistake' of asking me about my (novel) writing and so I burbled at length and with great enthusiasm...

The photo is colour inspired. The three items of clothing which arrived for me in the parcel (and which I am very pleased with) are all in similar shades which I really like, but which don't go with each other. I liked the idea of recording this.

Read more... )

P.S. I can't stand the new look LiveJournal. Probably will get used to it out of necessity. Bah.
na_lon: (Default)
I have already posted this once on my lj in a comment, but here it is again, because I wanted to make sure that [livejournal.com profile] gramarye1971 gets to see it.

Gramarye, if you are reading this, you may also wish to take a look (if you haven't already) at the comments in response to the post I made for your birthday -- there are a few notes about this drabble and an insightful comment by [livejournal.com profile] jane_somebody.

This is just a beginning... things should become clear as I go.

TDIR drabble for Gramarye )
na_lon: (Default)
The Marquis asked me to post a quick post on lj about a novel competition on Richard and Judy, in case anyone is interested out there.

From what I recall it's a four A4 pages double-spaced synopsis and a first chapter, winner get's a 50k book contract.

Maybe there's more info available on the web?

Anyway... hope this is what the Marquis had in mind.
na_lon: (Default)
While I monopolise the internet connection and phoneline in our house, the Marquis often plays a computer game called Diablo, which is a sort of 'Buffy goes to the Hellmouth to give the demons some trouble'+ D&D type of game. He's been playing this rogue character called Xenatu for the last several weeks, but today decided to start a new character. A warrior in fact. I suggested he call him Fred, and the Marquis called him Fred. And I am absurdly pleased again, which is -- as Polly remarked -- something one should be more often.

Na'Lon's Sunday )
na_lon: (Default)
So I didn't get much at all of what I had intended done today, but the Marquis and I went foodshopping and spent lots of money at the second-hand bookshop which is MUCH bigger than I'd realised. It has catacombs full of sheet music amongst other things.

Did lots of emithering with Pellegrina -- we are sort of nearing an end of 'Midnight snack', where 'sort of' is the operative word. But hey, we're having fun.

There was also summat else un-related to Pellegrina's and my writing that I had to write and send off today to meet a deadline. I managed to cobble something okay together, but it's not one of my most sparkley offerings.

Oh yes, and Pellegrina and I did our weekly stint on the phone to each other. It's so nice to talk about such varied topics and ideas. I almost always feel invigorated by our chats, except when we're both of us mopey, when it just feels nice to know that someone else cares, too.

The Marquis and I had the last bottle of the Norman cidre we bought at the food fair at Easter tonight. It was very nice and very bubbly -- nearly uncorked itself. Pity we will miss the next food fair, as we'll have moved to Wolves by then...
na_lon: (Default)
Okay, so it's about 20 to eleven, and I have wet hair and so need to stay up a little longer if I want to avoid the evil hair-dryer (which make my hair frizzy), but I am tired.

What I really want to do is sit down and start writing the beginning of Ch. 3 of GoN-WiP, 'cos I finally had an idea about how to get it started, but since I am also tired and want to updat my lj, I'll start with that.

Today, then... today's been one of those days for me as well as [livejournal.com profile] pellegrina although in different ways )
na_lon: (Default)
I have finally this evening started my yoghurt making endeavour. I have had my yoghurt maker since before we moved house in August 2002. I have also bought many cartons of UHT milk and live yoghurt, to actually try making some. A few weeks ago I finally bought the thermometer to go with the whole mess. Because if you heat the milk to more than 45 degrees C, the heat kills of the bacteria in the yoghurt... By bedtime i should know whether tonight's attempt was successful.

Apart from yoghurt making and more laundry, I have been in creative writing land all day. This in principle should have been a good thing, but I am not making much headway. TK is difficult -- got a space action scene to write anf that's tough. The emither started yesterday is shaping up to be quite grim and tough. An old idea has re-impinged itself on my brain: will have to decide what to do about that. Oh, and it's my turn to draft the next section of GoN-WiP.

On the positive side... Pellegrina and I wrapped up Chapter 2 today, and the Marquis has read it and seems to have enjoyed it :-). Now we just need to get our website sorted out...
na_lon: (Default)
Not that much of it is left.

I have spent far too much time on the phone this weekend, while the Marquis was away on TS business. I spoke to Viala, Malaheed, Pellegrina (2x) and to Alitophilus (2x but one time was short). Most of it was game and writing talk but some it was also good ol' fashioned gossip. :-)

Apart from that I did so much laundry I have almost managed to catch up with my backlog. Except now I have to wait for some of it to dry.

I also added tat, chi, tsu, te, to, na, ni, nu, ne, and no to my collection of Hirigana. I can therefore now write Tsusuki (Tatsumi will have to wait) in Hiragana, and Osaka, and Kana. But I am also helplessly confused now. I can usually write them all if I keep them in the correct order, but the moment I try to adlib, about half of them disappear from my brain. But hey, perseverance....

I have earlier edited Chapter 2 of my and Pellegrina's WiP -- it still needs input from Pellegrina, but we are getting closer to the completion of the chapter, despite being at opposite ends of the country. We've also started a new emither ("Midnight Snack"). I have the first bit in my inbox (not read yet at time of writing this) -- really looking forward to this one, but I think it is going to be a toughy...

Dinner was one of the two frozen meals that Parrot Knight gave us as a gift last time he was here visiting. It was very yummy. Thank you, Sir Knight.

Time to post this and read my emither...
na_lon: (Default)
It's been beautiful and sunny for much of the day and I even managed to site in my class this afternoon with my jumper off, without freezing. Roll on warmth. I have had enough of winter.

This morning I got involved (impromptu) in this recruitment day at my college, because Ceejay needed someone who could bend over and attach electrodes to volunteers ankles for our polygraph demonstration. It was quite a nice thing to be involved in and I got free lunch out of it. Just sandwiches, but hey, don't knock it.

In the afternoon I went to a session about the portfolio for my PGC in Learning and Teaching in HE. Pedagogist was being his usual woolly self, but fortunately my favourite tutor, Athena came along for the second half of the session and we had some very productive discussions about our action research projects. Mine is going to be about the way my research methodology and statistics course have worked this semester after I redesigned them over the summer. The issue I am particularly interested in is how the students have felt about their level of involvement in the course and the effects that the course design (letting students decide upon the questions to investigate and putting research projects together from those with guidance from the tutors) has had upon their motivation. I actually look forward to reading up upon a lot of this stuff.

Now I am back at home and dithering about whether to type up some stuff for a potential publication I want to send of for consideration, or whether to get back to Ta'Kiri. [livejournal.com profile] the_marquis and I had a very fruitful discussion this morning about some story logistics, which I still needed to think through before launching into ch 15.

Oh, and [livejournal.com profile] pellegrina has managed to hand Ch 1 of our WiP to a bonafide test-reader... Looking forward to the feedback.
na_lon: (Default)
Today I returned from a fantabulous day at [livejournal.com profile] pellegrina. Even the 95-minute delay on the train home hasn't managed to dent my feeling of satisfaction...

So what did we actually do?

10 things to do when you are on (a writing) holiday )
na_lon: (Default)
It turns out you can train Cuban crocodiles much in the same way you can train a dog. The dragon in me is pleased with this discovery. But crocs are probably a bit more dangerous than dogs nevertheless.

In other news )
na_lon: (Default)
... marking, my friends. I so don't like this part of my job. It is depressing. Especially the bit where I marked a paper yesterday that appears to be plagiarised well and truly. I have ordered the book I think the stuff comes from from the library in Lancaster. Hopefully I'll receive it by Thursday for the unhappy task of trying to identify each instance of plagiarism. This is so sad.

Apart from that, my neck is very sore -- I think I have an irritated possible even inflamed nerve. Don't know what to do about it. Tried ice-pack and ibuprofen gel yesterday, but may need to try and make an appointment with the doctor. Painful neck and marking do not go well together...

But not all is glum. I went to the library today with an armful of books I'd cunningly forgotten to renew last Friday and they didn't charge me for the fine! Yay!

I finally let the Marquis read some of my creative writing scribblings of the last couple of weeks, while I emithered the next installment for Eudesia ('The Private Room').
na_lon: (Default)
... about what I could write an entry about. I feel like making an entry, but don't particularly feel that I have anything pertinent to say... But heck... the subtitle to this Journal is 'inane ramblings'.

Been being quite slack this last week. Deliberately, in a sort of experiment not to get too wound up by things. It's kind of in keeping with odd lenten fast this year. I decided to give up ranting about certain things that annoy me. I haven't entirely managed, but I have been more or less keeping to it. (Quite please about that).

The one thing that I haven't been slack about is the obsessive-compulsive bout of B5 game fic writing that I have been engaged in over the last couple of weeks. I've worked quite hard on this and enjoyed writing most of it. Been on and off the phone to Pellegrina about some of this writing, cause it was sparked off by our joint project.

Tonight, however, I'll have to actually get some comments written on the now marked pieces of student work that have been the bane of my existence for the last couple of weeks. Sigh... I'd rather continue with some of the writing. Maybe when I have done some comments???
na_lon: (Default)
Or am I just flattering myself? :-)

The last couple of weeks have been very strange and instead of getting my various thoughts and contemplations transferred onto lj, I have been frantically scribbling (or rather tapping) away at a couple of ‘drafts’(for want of a better word) on [livejournal.com profile] pellegrina and my ambitious current writing project.

More about my scribblings )

Waffling about the New Job at Wolves )
na_lon: (Default)
Didn't want to go to work today :-(. But went anyway, and got not an awful lot done. At least I didn't have to go to Lancaster.

However, I managed to get myself roped into some post-work badminton by Fred, Marxist and the Marquis. It was fun and now I ache very badly.

Sorted out some of the double marking with Ceejay. Ceejay also told me a lovely story about her terrible Teenager being really chuffed that her mum is pregnant. I thought it was a nice story, because Ceejay was worried that Teenager would be embarrassed instead.

The Marquis and I got 200 points in University Challenge tonight. Which is the best we've done in a while.

On the Soapy Place )

Anyway, now I am going to go to bed, and tomorrow, I will approach life and work with a more productive attitude, I hope! I shall make a little list... Not done that in a while.
na_lon: (Imi)
11-09-772 (later)
Need I even say it?

They were there. Of course, they were there. Mares’s family )
na_lon: (Imi)
11-09-772 (later)
Need I even say it?

They were there. Of course, they were there. Mares’s family )
na_lon: (Imi)
11-09-772
I was going to write down what's happened, wasn't I? I've got an hour or so before I set off for my new House's city residence, so here goes. But before I start, let's just remind everyone that the Emperor is insane. I am not talking 'idiosyncratic' or something quaint like that here. I am talking truly, totally, unrepentently KeRaZy!!!

This got longer than intended. )
na_lon: (Imi)
11-09-772
I was going to write down what's happened, wasn't I? I've got an hour or so before I set off for my new House's city residence, so here goes. But before I start, let's just remind everyone that the Emperor is insane. I am not talking 'idiosyncratic' or something quaint like that here. I am talking truly, totally, unrepentently KeRaZy!!!

This got longer than intended. )
na_lon: (Imi)
05-09-772
In all the confusion, forgot to pack journal, so thought I'd get a new one. Court is boring: boring fashion-obsessed girls with not a pair of braincells to rub together between them (!). But can't stay in room and read. Most of the men are self-important prats. Going to see how much *real* gossip I can track down.

Update: apparently Lord Dovir is here! Haven't seen him yet. Will find out if he really is such an enfant terrible of Centaurum. Teehee. Father would be horrified. Serve him right for sending me to Court.

06-09-772
Spotted Dovir today: doesn't seem that bad. He's short and compact, has short v. dark brown hair and hazel eyes. Has no dress-sense -- or so the women I was standing with claimed. I wouldn't know. I liked the waistcoat. But the Marquis de Refraichment is definitely better looking. But he's a bit of a fop, too.

Tore the lace collar on my favourite not-black dress -- bummer. Didn't bring anything to repair it with, either, and I don't trust it not to go missing if I give the dress to someone else to mend. Not sure what I am going to wear to Emperor's party this pm. It'll have to be black and lace if it's going to be smart... Oh well. I'll live through the comments of those airheaded girls.

07-09-772
Bored, bored, bored, bored, bored. Party was rubbish. But apparently the Emperor has a new obsession. We'll see. Must find some way of keeping my brain from atrophying.

10-09-772
Er, don't know where to start...
I seem to have got married. To Lord Dovir, no less. This will take some explaining to Father...
More when I am not so tired.

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