Job applications

I really really hate filling in job applications. This one is made particularly irritating by the fact that I'm having to copy out in my less than great handwriting entire chunks of a very nicely laid-out CV. Grr, argh indeed.

Meanwhile, I herd students together so that I can teach them things later in the week that they probably don't really care about.

I was made to feel old earlier today when someone on one of my mailing lists asked why people put the suffix 'gate' to words when they mean a scandal.

It's a good job this is such a good song.

How I write

Last year's Computer Crash of Great Doom and Horror turns out to have had a really positive effect now that I've got a good year's perspective on it.

Left PC-less, I was forced to write long-hand. I wrote most of the Tolkien-based fic (including the novel) long-hand (mostly sitting on trains, actually). The best bits of the thesis have been written long-hand. I think it's something to do with adding a level of thought or control - you certainly think before you write...

Last week I was back writing scenes that involved lots of dialogue; rapid fire exchanges between characters. The keyboard was the only way to keep up with the dialogue as the characters played it out for me...

So, current preferred writing tools of choice? Back of used A4 printer paper and a cherry gel pen. Type up (and edit as you type), print, hack at with the cherry pen.

Or, as we were reduced to on Saturday while we waited to go into the cinema, the ever-trusty back of an envelope. Or, in this case, the back of a NatWest ATM paying-in envelope. That'll be worth a fortune one day...

Meme madness

You think you're deep, tortured and misunderstood.
You're not, you're just incoherent and a bit
silly. Now you know.


What Lord of the Rings engrish subtitle are you?
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For this to make any sense, go here. God, but it's funny.