goodwill

I'm sat at the dining room table at my mum's house, in that gorgeous lull after presents have been opened and before (long before) Christmas dinner is ready.

So, as usual, I'm starting to have that lovely, slightly nostalgic, Christmassy feeling -- thinking about Christmases gone by, and how much things have changed.

This is the first Christmas when I have really, properly, been living away from home. Of course, at uni I was living away from home for the majority of the year, but now I don't have the great long prescriptive holidays -- I now have 'annual leave' to contend with.

I think having only a limited number of allocated days when I can come home home makes me appreciate it all the more. When I first started uni, Dad said "You'll come back from uni after all that excitement and change and be amazed when you see everything at home is completely the same -- your life will be going at such a fast pace, it'll seem strange when you come back and nothing here will have changed!"

In many ways, he was right. Life at uni (and now working life) did, and does, seem to go very quickly. But I think Dad might have been worried that when I came back for holidays, home would seem a bit dull and predictable in comparison. In actual fact, 'predictable' or, rather, 'comfortable' is exactly what I want when I come home! When everything else feels a little overwhelming and grown-up, coming home and feeling utterly at home and comfy is perfection!

At no other time is this feeling felt stronger than at Christmas. As a Christian, Christmas has a very special significance to me anyway, but it's also a time of year that is embraced by everyone. If not the historic and theological importance, the cultural feeling of familiarity and cosiness is something that everyone can appreciate -- and we love it!

So, thank God for Christmas. Thank God for family, friends, and for the wafts of Christmas dinner floating through our houses.

finally (it's an epic one...)

So, Facebook Timeline has finally arrived! Given that making the most of social media is part of my job description, I now have the perfect excuse to be truly nosy and geek-ish about the inner workings of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and the like.

After what seemed an interminable wait, I’ve finally been able to test out Timeline for myself. In my opinion, it was entirely worth the wait. It is by far the best update we’ve had from Facebook yet, and I stand by my previous opinions to say that I think they’ve finally cracked it -- Facebook has changed forever and, I think, changed for the better.

Users’ profiles are now centred around a vertical line running the length of their browser page, with the individual posts, photos and status updates appearing in boxes either side of the line. Boxes containing content about significant events (e.g. graduation from university, marriage, new job) are automatically detected by Facebook and made larger -- taking up the entire width of the page -- to ‘feature’, or highlight, the event. Other, undetected events can also be enlarged by clicking the star icon in the corner of each box. Equally, events can be un-featured by clicking the star icon again.

The new Timeline profiles are much more app-driven, giving people real-time updates about what their friends are listening to, watching, reading, cooking. Mark Zuckerberg's aim is for Facebook to become a natural extension to real-life relationships, with users taking advantage of Facebook’s new capabilities and using it as a primary means of sharing life with friends, not just ‘Friends’.

At the top of the timeline, above your profile picture, there is space for a ‘cover picture’ -- a large, widescreen image of your choosing. Currently, mine is the teacup from my blog header above, but it can be anything. I’ve seen some interesting and imaginative examples online, which I have scattered through this post.

To the right of the timeline is a list of years, starting at your year of birth and ending with the current year, allowing users to click to a particular year (and even a specific month) to view the content added at that time. Basically this all means is that the events, photos and statuses from years gone by that have previously been confined to the depths of Facebook’s memory, virtually irretrievable, are now very easily accessed and viewed.

It’s this feature of Timeline that people seem to have the most issue with. Many users seem mortified at the prospect of early posts now resurfacing, often years later, to be inspected by their Facebook friends. Now, to me, this just prompts the question: if their previous content is so private -- why post it in the first place?!

I understand that people that are now adults, with jobs and responsibilities, will be reluctant to let any posy, emo pictures and such emerge from the vaults to be mocked by their Facebook 'Friends' but, again, it all comes down to personal responsibility. For me, I like to keep Facebook for actual friends and family, not colleagues (LinkedIn) and vague acquaintances (vague recesses of memory). In fact, the news that Timeline was slowly being rolled out in the past few weeks has caused me to review my Friends list (as I do fairly frequently anyway) and delete people that I haven’t spoken to online for ages -- if ever. My rule of thumb? If you haven’t seen or spoken to someone in over a year, or ever, they’re off the list.

After all, deleting someone from Facebook doesn’t mean that you then can’t speak to them in real life! Or, indeed, that you can’t re-add them at some point in the future (unless, of course, they delete you in a moment of outrage at your un-friending, but that in itself tells a story...). There always seems to be a strange finality to deleting someone from Facebook, as though you are rejecting them as a person and as a part of your life. Nonsense! Facebook needs to remain what it was always intended to be -- a means of communication with people that we already communicate with, not the only means! Anyway, back to Timeline...

In general, the interface is much more user-friendly and (in my opinion) beautifully designed. The timelines are image-driven, clean, uncluttered, and generally much more engaging. Despite what detractors say -- that Timeline is a stalker’s paradise, with endless streams of personal information ripe for the picking -- I actually think that Timeline will force Facebook users to think much more carefully about the information that they share online. Or so it should.

People become enraged and irate about Facebook’s now fairly regular updates and the apparently endless scope for identity theft, but they leave almost no room for people’s common sense. Yes, of course it would be easy for unsavoury types to find out more about you, your history and your habits if you broadcast your life for all the world to see -- but Facebook offers a plethora of privacy options that can mean you don’t even have to appear in name searches if you don’t want to!

Having said that, I imagine that there will be a fair few people modifying their timelines for the benefit of people that they have added since the early days of their Facebook life, who don’t particularly want the photographic evidence of ill-advised nights out displayed on their timeline resplendent in their sordid glory. Facebook allows you to either hide (which means only you can see them) or delete posts altogether, by clicking the pencil icon in each box.

Perhaps, though, the most interesting feature of all, is the ability to add events onto your timeline. This can be an event from any point of your life. Taken to its extreme, this means that users could (if they had the time and inclination) chronicle literally every significant (or perhaps not so significant) event of their life, all on their timeline.

It’s this feature that got Mark Zuckerberg choked up at the f8 conference this year, at Timeline’s grand unveiling. The idea that Timeline might be the facilitator of the recording of people’s life history, allowing them to look back with ease at every event of their existence -- having history just a mouse click away, accessible forever. His vision for Facebook is: ‘We don't want you to spend more time on Facebook; we want the time you spend on Facebook to be so valuable you come back every day'.

Has the new Timeline layout added value to Facebook? I think so. Whether Facebook will ever reach the dizzying heights of near-real-life sharing remains to be seen. Either way -- hats off to you, Facebook. Job well done.

magazine

So, the other day, this arrived on my doorstep...

I'm a subscriber to Oh Comely magazine and it is, quite simply, perfection. It's full of just the kind of lovely stuff that I'm a sucker for -- beautiful pictures, interesting witty articles about interesting quirky people (one such article is about a man who lives in the countryside and makes his money by building coracles), recipes... Just general good stuff.

If you're interested in remotely the same kind of thing as any of those -- buy a copy. You won't regret it.

uke

Result of a practise session with my mate Andy's camera. I'm privileged to be filming his wedding later this month and he's lending me his dishy 7D to do it. So I let him play on my uke - fair's fair...

hum

So, I was on the train today (on my way to a Tweet Meet, as it happens - oh yes, a conference about Twitter. I love my job), and it reminded me of something I've been thinking about for a little while.

It first occurred to me when I blithely downloaded an album from iTunes the other day (the How To Train Your Dragon soundtrack actually...). This is fast becoming a bit of a habit, but the truth is I much prefer going to music shops and buying the physical CD (you know, IRL). I've always been a bit of an advocate of supporting record shops and not giving in to the undeniable convenience of downloading music, but recently - with a real and distinct lack of spare time on my hands - I've fallen for iTunes' charms.

I think part of the reason I was initially (and still am, to be honest) concerned about the proliferation of downloadable music, is its instant availability. And while this is obviously one of its great advantages, it also inevitably means that we start taking music more for granted. Going to a record shop, browsing the aisles, feeling the CD case in your hand, is a lot more of an experience than the 30 seconds it takes to locate and download something from iTunes.

Back to the train journey this afternoon. The carriage was humming with electronic music. A chino-clad girl sat across from me - iPod on, earphones in - looked completely unmoved by the music she was listening to. I'm guilty of this too - I listen to the same music over and over and, like anything else, I guess you do sort of become used to it. Whatever the reason, few could deny that music has become far more the background noise to our lives than the event and luxury it used to be.

But then I started thinking about it another way. Take food as an alternative example - anything other than what could be grown in Britain was once a precious commodity, available only at great expense and taking months to travel the hundreds of miles required to sell it in our shops. Now, thanks to the changes to the way the world works, we have access to different types of food from pretty much anywhere accessible to man. Sure, these foods have become less of a novelty, but think of all the enriching experiences and tastes we would have missed out on if we'd refused to change the old way of doing things, or to embrace new ways of living.

Now, I know I'm not saying anything new here. It's just something I've been thinking about - how we adapt to the advances made in the way we live our lives, and how we continue to value the things that really matter. Also, the How To Train Your Dragon soundtrack is amazing. Go download it buy the CD.

boots

I just got back from one of the best - and most unexpected - cinema trips I've had in a long while. After much scepticism, sighing, huffing and puffing, I allowed myself to be dragged to see the new Footloose film. I know, it's a remake. And, I know, remakes are generally crap. But trust me when I say, this one's worth seeing.

I think what I loved about it was the fact that, unlike most other remakes I've seen, it didn't try to change things for the sake of being different from the original - it let you enjoy getting all excited and nostalgic when you saw bits you recognised. This film was, pretty much, exactly the same as the 1984 version, but with new actors and a (very unobtrusively) few modern updates (Wren has an iPod. That's pretty much it).

In many cases the characters were better than the original cast, I thought, and the music was a really nice blend of country, modern, and the original songs (one of which was a gorgeous acoustic arrangement). I was initially worried that all the songs would end up being "modernised" into hip hop and the whole thing would end up being a hideous Step Up/Save The Last Dance wannabe within the frame of Footloose. But it wasn't - I think they got the balance just right (she says, while listening to the soundtrack, freshly iTuned).

Beautifully shot, good music, loads of fun. Do yourself a favour - go see it.

Daisy

I'll miss my cat.

tech

So, firstly, a couple of cringey graduation pictures (as promised):

Secondly, technology. So excited with recent updates to Facebook and Google(+). Facebook in particular actually (surprisingly) - if you haven't seen the plans for Facebook Timeline, you should. I literally clapped my hands with glee when I watched the respective videos - it feels like Facebook has finally got its act together in terms of design and being imaginative with its own possibilities. It's kind of felt like Facebook has been this massive half-tapped source of mint internet interactivity for a long time, but has been resting on its laurels as the dominator of social networks.

I guess it's kind of unsurprising that they haven't made any huge changes to their layout, as any time they make any kind of tweak there are floods of thousands of people going "WTF??!! Whys fb keep changeing evrything?!?!" It must be pretty wearing if each time they try and be innovative they come up against a wall of people keep clinging to the old, less user-friendly version, as though Facebook's effectively trampling over their rights as users.

It seems as though Facebook are making a very clear choice in their marketing for this new Timeline layout, which I find interesting. The advertising video is framed around a married, middle-aged man with kids: very middle-class, very conventional. Markedly absent in the "apps" video were the likes of Farmville and Mafia Wars - replaced with cooking apps, running schedules, and The Guardian. 

Are Facebook trying to phase out of their post-MySpace and -Bebo status as, like, the only social network worth using? What started as a clean, simply-designed, self-consciously middle-class alternative to MySpace and Bebo and the like has since (inevitably) become littered with "vampire requests", poorly-made and corrupted Pages linking to third-party websites, and PoStS TyPeD LiKe ThIs. Is this Facebook reclaiming their original concept of simplicity and connectivity? Are they (finally) branching out into user-directed design that was previously the realm of MySpace, and which I feel has been lacking in Facebook until now? Exciting times, people!

finale

I had to do the inevitable thing. Come on, "end of an era", "we've grown up with him", "proper end of our childhood [apparently Toy Story 3 wasn't it after all]". It's all pretty true.

So, here is my (very) wee debrief: I loved it. Truly. It wasn't perfect, and - naturally - it wasn't completely like the book, but man I loved this film. I started crying fairly promptly after McGonagall said: "Hogwarts is threatened! Man the boundaries, protect us! Do your duty to our school!" Even just typing that quote gave me goosebumps.

The thing is, I did grow up with Harry Potter. I remember when I bought the first book. I was on holiday and visiting this teeny little village somewhere in Shropshire, and we went into a little bookshop called the Red Balloon Bookshop, and I was looking for something to read. My mum said, "Oh look, I've heard this Harry Potter book is good – why don't you try that?" So I did. A few months later, Harry Potter exploded across the country – everyone, apparently, had "heard this Harry Potter book is good."

And from there it was just kind of woven into the background of our lives. We were always living in pre-book-release or post-release-aftermath. I don't pretend to be a die-hard Harry fan – I don't know all the intricate details of the Black family tree, I don't know the names of all the Deatheaters, but, man, I loved those books. So much so that I refused to see the first film for the first few months, because I was worried it would spoil the books for me.

Eventually I did watch the films, of course. And, of course, they were a little bit of a disappointment. Not because they were particularly bad films – on the contrary, I enjoyed them all – but because no films would ever be able to live up to the way we imagined it, and it wasn't fair for us to expect them to. But, best of all, they allowed us to live in the world of Hogwarts a little bit longer – even after the books were all finished.

It's because of this, I think, that I cried pretty much from McGonagall's quote all the way to the end. Because it really is the end this time, no more books, no more films. Of course I'll re-read them and re-watch them, but we all know it isn't quite the same. I also cried because, for many of us, it really does mark the end of our childhood. Not just because the films have finished, but because they've finished at a time when a lot of other things have finished too.

I've finished university, I've moved away from home, and a lot of my friends are moving away from my new home. I now have to start dealing with council tax, housing benefits, and temporary unemployment. This would all have happened regardless of a lad with glasses and a lightning scar, but somehow the end of the films seemed to mark the real end of something.

So that's why I cried. Not just because it's over, but because I've loved it.

search

So, it's been an age since the last post. Well, almost a month - not quite an age. Still, it's been an eon in my imaginings, so it's high time for an update.

It's been a pretty big upheaval-y kind of few weeks, I have done the following:

• Moved house (new house is delish).
• Been to London. Twice.
• Worked at two of the Great Swim series.
• Stayed at two lovely hotels (neither of which I could afford but gratefully was able to stay there courtesy of the company I was working with at the above).
• Officially finished uni with a 2:1 in English Literature (graduation set for 14th July - cringe-worthy pictures will no doubt follow, fear not...).
• Applied for jobs. A lot of jobs. Kind of running out of ways to say "hire me". But very excited at the opportunities.

I've spent most of this morning doing those little niggly jobs that have needed doing a while - like divvying up the remaining money in the secondary bank account I set up for the bills for my house last year. Kind of feel like a fiscal Father Christmas, telling my ex-housemates "Here, have 94 quid". Quite nice really :)

Also, have to renew my passport (this one's of a fairly urgent nature, given I'm meant to be going to Italy avec la famille - or however you say it in Italian - at the end of July...) - to get the fast-track service I have to go to Durham to specifically ask for it, so will make a day of it with the chap. Huzzah for that!

Right, lunch break over. The job hunt continues...

love

kit

So, I'm typing this post on my Mum's brand new shiny iPad. "What?! Such extravagance and frippery!" I hear you say. Well, yes. HOWEVER, after much scoffing and huffing and puffing at the seemingly pointless frivolousness of iPads, I have actually warmed to them. I've been playing on Mum's for all of 45 minutes and already I'm pretty much sold. 

The thing is, most people (myself included until the last half hour) just see iPads as a fairly needless luxury. And, in a sense, they kind of are. BUT, I don't think it's until you've had a proper go with one (longer than 10 minutes in an Apple shop can afford) that you start to see their real potential. Basically, I've got this (very tentative) theory about a problem with the advertising we've seen for the iPad (not that I, a mere mortal, could ever really criticise Apple marketing which is, on the whole, perfection). 

My theory is that they tried too hard to make it seem a viable piece of technology for everyone, all at once. Their determination to demonstrate how universal it is has, I think, actually weakened their campaign. They've focused so much on how it can be used for gaming, photography, presentations, Internet, books - businessmen, artists, young families - that it's made it feel kind of confused. 

Instead of demonstrating how the iPad can be perfect for, say, a photographer in every aspect of their work, they tried to show how perfect it is for EVERYONE all at the same time. I reckon a series of adverts targeted at specific people (business people using them for presentations and easy transportation of files, artists using them as portfolios, commuters using them as libraries and games consoles, etc.) would help people better imagine how an iPad would slot seamlessly into their lives. Instead, I think the current adverts leave you thinking, "We-ell, I think I'd maybe use it for one of those things..." 

Anyway, just a thought. My experience using one this afternoon has left me thinking, "Ah yeah, it'd be really useful for this and that". Also, typing on it is surprisingly easy ;)

film

Do you vaguely remember me mentioning a documentary module that I was taking this semester at uni? 

Well, the deadline for handing in the documentary (and an essay about it) is tomorrow. So, I thought it only fair to give it its premier on these fair pages.

So, with no further gilding the lily and with no more ado, I give you: my film.

stitched

So, I’ve just sent my dissertation to be bound. Everyone’s been telling me how I’ll feel when I give it in – relieved, panicked, ill. But honestly, I just feel sad.

Sad because I’ve loved uni, and because, to me, this feels like the culmination of three years’ work and life and tears and hysterical laughter.

I had my last seminar this morning too, with one of my favourite tutors, and I can’t beat away the feeling that it’s all, well, ending.

It is, I know it is, it’s exam period and I knew it was coming to an end. I just didn’t feel like it was. But somehow, giving in that little pile of paper to be stitched together felt a bit like saying goodbye.

And I’m not ready for that yet.

Monday's Faces

Quite a formidable-looking woman isn't she? Something very kind about her face though. She looks quite matronly, as though she'd know what to do in a crisis, and her hair and clothes are very practical, as though she's used to scooping up any number of children and generally keeping order. 

This is quite an unusual picture compared to the others, I think, because she doesn't appear to know that it's being taken – or, at least, hasn't been given much time to prepare for it, as she seems to be still walking out of the building. Maybe someone told her that she was having her picture taken that day, and she was grumblingly on her way out, thinking that she "didn't have enough time for such nonsense."

Superman

So, watching Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (new favourite, utterly hooked) last night with my chap:

Lois: You read my work?
Superman: All the time.

Me: Awwww!
Him: [quiet voice] I read your blog...

Mint :)

cossie

So, all the Wedding shenanigans and seeing the sylph-like Middleton lasses sashaying down the aisle has made me seriously reconsider my (non-existent) health regime. I am monumentally unfit given the fairly inevitable fizzling-out of my "jogging phase", and I'm more than a fair amount heftier than when I started uni. SO, I've decided to invest in the only real form of exercise that I a) can endure, and b) actually enjoy: swimming.

This decision, however, comes with its own set of problems – namely, I have to wear a swimming costume. In public. As in, around people. Hideous.

Given that this particular aspect of the whole swimming experience is somewhat difficult to avoid, today I grabbed the bull by the not-inconsiderable horns and went to buy a new cossie. Deciding that a venture into TopShop or New Look – wading my way through size 6 nothings – would be intolerable, I opted to stick with good ol' M&S. 

So, armed with a new lippy from Boots to build confidence, in I went, jaw set in determination. I snaffled a few modest all-in-ones from the rails and headed to the changing rooms to try them on. A few torturous minutes later, I had managed to shoehorn myself into the first one. The look I was going for was "20s French chic" to go with my hair (and the gorgeous lippy). Difficult to achieve when you look like a sow in an elastic band.

The first four (okay, five) looked hideous beyond all belief, but the last one was marginally tolerable (black and kind of ruched down the front – nicer than it sounds) with "tummy control", apparently. Unfortunately it's rather more difficult to find a costume with "thigh, bum, and upper-arm control", but I've done my best...

So "huzzah" for that, all that remains is to research opening times and prices of my local pool and away we go – I shall slip through the water like a minnow and be a size 10 in no time. Hopefully.

bells

Ah man, the wedding. That's right, The Wedding. It was, needless to say, sublime. There's nay point gilding the lilly, so here's my summary:

Pippa's a beaut, Harry's a dish, Beatrice's antlers a huge mistake, maple trees an excellent idea, the dress perfection, the homily lovely, and "Wings Travel" received the best global advertisement one could wish for...

My favourite bit? Probably when William and Harry walked into Westminster Abbey, just the two lads together. Lovely beyond words.

© BBC 

BBQ

Man, I love Easter. All the new flowers, sunshine, warm breezes, chocolate eggs, barbecues, family and every good thing. Marvellous. And today is particularly warm-breezy, barbecue-y and blissful.

All these things I love. But mostly, of course, the fact that:

His love is never, never, never based on our performance, never conditioned by our moods–of elation or depression. The furious love of God knows no shadow of alteration or change. It is reliable. And always tender.
      -- Brennan Manning

Amen.

Monday's Faces (somewhat belated)

What a sweet chap. I love his cap – and pipe for that matter. I accidentally (yes, really) had a puff of a pipe when I was about 7 – the foulest thing I've ever tasted (except for beetroot). Still, they do look dapper.

I'm trying to work out why he was having his picture taken there – it almost looks like someone caught him walking down the street and asked him to smile. Maybe he just wanted his picture taken outside his house? Who knows? Looks like he's fairly dressed up though – maybe the morning of his wedding? Capturing his last moments as a free man? I kind of hope that's the case, I like the thought of him being so happy at the thought that his single days are over.

lemonade

So today I went here with a rather lovely chap. Was a rather lovely day, too.

Monday's Faces

I love this one (realised I say that about all of them, but doesn't make it less true). She really really reminds me of Marilla Cuthbert from Anne of Green Gables – who is, needless to say, a legend.

I wonder why she's wearing black, maybe she's a widow? And, more mysteriously, I wonder what the paper is that she's holding. She looks pretty pleased, whatever it is. I love her smile, she looks very grandmotherly I think. Trying to work out where she's from is also pretty tricky. Something makes me feel like it could be somewhere in America or Canada, not sure why. Something about the combination of that curtain and the wallpaper. Can't put my finger on it though.

So, pretty much a real-life Marilla Cuthbert. Not a bad accolade.

j'adore

Monday's Faces

She's gorgeous, isn't she? I love her hair and clothes, she looks so stylish. I love that she's called Dorothy, I reckon her friends called her Dot.

I think it's so interesting that so many of these old portraits are postcards - I wonder how that worked? Did people get a batch made, or just one-offs? I wonder how much it cost - was it just for special occasions or did everyone get them done?

I love her smile, just a hint. Mona Lisa's got nothing on this lass.

pep

So, I'm really rather excited for three reasons.

1. Last week I availed myself of one of these. This has revolutionised my coffee-consumption. Coffee-making now feels like more of an event - crack out the ol' percolator and away we go.
2. Seriously considering the future and what I want to do after uni has led me to the possibility of a job so exciting that I'm still trying to convince myself that it's within my reach. So I'm sat here giving my CV a wash and scrub-up and pondering thoughts for a cover letter. More on this when there's more to tell.
3. Purchased the soundtrack to this film that I went to see a week or so ago (twice, actually). Well worth a watch/listen:

Élévation

Au-dessus des étangs, au-dessus des vallées,
Des montagnes, des bois, des nuages, des mers,
Par delà le soleil, par delà les éthers,
Par delà les confins des sphères étoilées,

Mon esprit, tu te meus avec agilité,
Et, comme un bon nageur qui se pâme dans l'onde,
Tu sillonnes gaiement l'immensité profonde
Avec un indicible et mâle volupté.

Envole-toi bien loin de ces miasmes morbides;
Va te purifier dans l'air supérieur,
Et bois, comme une pure et divine liqueur,
Le feu clair qui remplit les espaces limpides.

Derrière les ennuis et les vastes chagrins
Qui chargent de leur poids l'existence brumeuse,
Heureux celui qui peut d'une aile vigoureuse
S'élancer vers les champs lumineux et sereins;

Celui dont les pensers, comme des alouettes,
Vers les cieux le matin prennent un libre essor,
—Qui plane sur la vie, et comprend sans effort
Le langage des fleurs et des chose muettes!

________

Above the valleys, over rills and meres,
Above the mountains, woods, the oceans, clouds,
Beyond the sun, past all ethereal bounds,
Beyond the borders of the starry spheres,

My agile spirit, how you take your flight!
Like a strong swimmer swooning on the sea
You gaily plough the vast immensity
With manly, inexpressible delight.

Fly far above this morbid, vapourous place;
Go cleanse yourself in higher, finer air,
And drink up, like a pure, divine liqueur,
Bright fire, out of clear and limpid space.

Beyond ennui, past troubles and ordeals
That load our dim existence with their weight,
Happy the strong-winged man, who makes the great
Leap upward to the bright and peaceful fields!

The man whose thoughts, like larks, take to their wings
Each morning, freely speeding through the air,
—Who soars above this life, interpreter
Of flowers' speech, the voice of silent things!

-- C. Baudelaire

Monday's Faces

Just look at this lovely little lad - what a poppet! Thought I'd post this one today seeing as it's such gorgeous weather outside; makes me feel summery. It's quite tricky trying to guess where he might be, but I reckon he's just visiting the seaside for the day. Looks like a city lad to me. And look at his little face, "glee" personified.

My favourite bit of this picture, though, is his little boat on a string. It makes me wonder where he got it. Did he buy it in a little seaside shop? Something makes me doubt it. I reckon he brought it with him specially, and had it in his lap all the way to the seaside on the train. You know when you see something so beautiful, or so lovely, it kind of makes you feel like your heart might break? Well, that little boat is a heart-clencher.

snobs continued...

So, I'm reading the letters of John Keats for my dissertation and have come across conclusive evidence for my hypothesis that English students and their ilk are indeed incorrigible snobs.

Keats hadn't written to the love of his life as much as much as she would have liked one particular week. What was his excuse?

I have been writing with a vile old pen the whole week, which is excessively ungallant. The fault is in the Quill: I have mended it and still it is very much inclin'd to make blind 'e's.

See, happens to the best of us.

Monday's Faces

This one's so lovely. Even though neither of them look like either of us, it reminds me of my dad and I. It makes me wonder where they were going when they stopped for their picnic. Me and Dad used to go to the Lake District for the occasional weekend when I was younger, and we used make stops for what became affectionately known as "car picnics". 

In fact, I used to kind of hope that it'd rain so that we could have a car picnic instead of one outside because, somehow, sitting in the car all cosy while the rain battered down on the roof and windows seemed much more of an adventure. It was a comforting, warm space with just me and Dad out in the middle of nowhere with our Scotch eggs and apple turnovers. Perfect. I like to think that the girl in this picture was feeling something of the happiness I felt at those times.

Monday's Faces

I bloomin love this one. I've had to up the contrast a wee bit because it was so faded - so faded, in fact, that the guy on the stall gave me it for free. It was just too good to miss. 

I didn't think much of it until I read what it said on the back: 

The bear and I. 

I flicked back to the picture and realised that, indeed, it was a bloke with a gun and a dead bear. What I want to know is, where on earth was this picture taken? I'm assuming, perhaps wrongly, that it was taken in the UK given the unlikelihood of a picture from elsewhere finding its way onto a market stall in Tynemouth, but maybe I'm wrong?

My favourite thing about this picture is the caption on the back. Dead simple, no explanation, no beating around the bush, grammar-perfect. What a lad.

drawer

OK, so here's the thing. I cannot wait to have a house. Not in a I-must-have-a-house-and-make-homemade-bread-and-lentil-soup-in-order-to-be-a-real-woman kind of way. Just in a I-can't-wait-to-decorate-and-fill-it-with-random-and-cosy-stuff-and-have-a-cat-and-a-bedroom-bigger-than-a-shoebox kind of way.

To that end, for the last little while I've been collecting odds and ends for my Bottom Drawer. This wondrous concept was introduced to me by my ma a couple of years ago when we were in some shop and I happened to say something like: "Ooh, those plates are nice." Then she said, oh fateful words, "You should buy them for your Bottom Drawer." Turns out there's this whole world of pre-marital hoarding that I didn't know about - apparently it's a tradition so antiquated that even blessed Wiki doesn't have a definition for it. However, I did find one that described this concept as: 

               n (Brit) a young woman's collection of clothes, 
               linen, cutlery, etc., in anticipation of marriage.

Now, tragic as this inevitably makes me sound, I do in fact now possess a Bottom Drawer. Well, more a Sprawling Collection, but still.

To be honest it's less in anticipation of marriage than the more-comfortingly-imminent hope of owning a house. Or, at least, long-term renting one. So, in anticipation of said house-ownership I now have a delightful array of, well, mostly mugs, plates and bowls actually (for the aforementioned mismatched-chic). The last two trips I made to buy birthday presents for friends may have just happened to lead me into the home and kitchen section of Fenwick's and might possibly have lead me to the latest handful of really very reasonable culinary appendages.

So, say what you like, I shall continue this wee collection with which I can festoon my humble abode. And, if nothing else, I can live in the vain hope that perhaps it'll make me vaguely more marriage-material: "It's alright chaps, at least she comes with her own crockery."

objets

So, yesterday I had to give The Bombshell back (it was quite a wrench, can't lie...) but not before I took a few pretty pictures.

A wee taste of what's to come in my documentary - I set up these shots and couldn't resist taking a photo, tee hee. 

Had my seminar for the documentary module today and my tutor was explaining the basics of Final Cut Pro - well, that was it. Paroxysms of delight inevitably ensued, and I cannot wait to get my eager little hands on those computers (oh, hang on, those Macs, should I say...). SO excited! Promptly called Dad to eulogise the utter wonder that is Final Cut. Suffice it to say, everything that I wish my software could do, Final Cut does.

Of course, my one-to-one tutorial isn't until next week so my tutor may yet hurl my idea out of the proverbial window and send me back to the drawing board. But I hope not.

Monday's Faces

So, haven't done a Monday's Faces post in about oh, I don't know, a billion years. 

So after a quick meander in Tynemouth Market and a quick browse of the ol' photo stall I came across a few new beauties and, making the most of the Canon bombshell while I can, I took pictures of the lot of them so that I can blog them over the next few weeks.

Well, how could I resist this lovely little lad? By the looks of it, it seems that he's on a farm somewhere (I reckon those buildings behind him are barns of some sort) - I love his dungarees and the way he's got his hands in his pockets, like he's copying his dad. Such a serious little face, and he looks so adult. Except for his little sandals. Cute!

More mysterious, though, is the writing on the back of the picture. If who can guess? And who's giving the picture away? The handwriting looks fairly old, and it's written in fountain pen by the looks. It reminds me of that game you play at school, where you all bring in a baby picture and you try to guess who's in each picture. Maybe it was something like that? Seems unlikely.

I love the mystery of it though, just that little note on the back: no name, no date - looks like something from a film. Love it!

glorious

So today I had my hands on this tasty SLR, courtesy of the aforementioned documentary module I'm studying, and went off to the also aforementioned Tynemouth Market to film my first few shots "on location". 

Needless to say, I am now utterly in love. I've never used an SLR before so after a quick peruse of the "quick and dirty guide to shooting" we were given I just went for it, twirling various dials and flicking switches to my heart's delight. And, well, it's a revelation. Such good quality, such a good zoom. It's fab. And, tragically, well out of my price range... A quick recce on Amazon revealed that to own this beautiful piece of kit I'd have to fork out something in the region of £600. I weep.

However, I fully intend to make the most of this little beauty while I have the chance. I've got it until Monday evening then I'll have to book another slot. It's making me want to go out taking pictures too - it's a photographical dream! Ah man. One day.

snobs

This is something I have learned during my time at uni: English Literature students are the most inimitable snobs. That is, when it comes to pen and paper.

Writing materials, granted, are something of a necessity when attending any course at university, but never have I seen such a glorious array of handmade, embossed, and leather-bound notebooks and fluidly elegant pens than when scanning a lecture theatre full of English Lit students.

You can tell when someone has forgotten their pen - they heave their shoulders in a great sigh of consternation and begrudgingly enquire if their neighbour has a spare. The trouble is that it is not a question of merely borrowing another pen, it is the dismay at having forgotten your own hand-picked implement of perfect weight, nib-size and ink type; the pen which, after trawling through and trialling endless others, you finally rested on as the perfect vehicle for transferring your flourishing ideas to paper. The ink which does not blot, spread or seep through your page, but skates uninhibitingly across its surface.

The page which, naturally, is the perfect size, thickness, and hue to complement your pen of choice. The page bound within the book which you weighed in your hand before making the decision between lined or unlined, and thereby constraint or liberty. 

Then there is the thin margin between quality and ostentation, refinement and frivolity. There is an unspoken principle of vanity which dictates that one's writing is worth reading, and therefore the writing materials should display these luminary ideas in a manner befitting their worth. It is not mere scribbling, it is a masterpiece. We are not mere students, we are Writers.

Honestly, we'd use quills and parchment if we could.

gifts

This is utterly sublime. That is all.

cordon bleu

Ah man, I love cooking. The best is when I've got the house to myself; I can crunk up Radio 3 and really go for it. 

I love experimenting with new recipes (to which end this little gem has been abundantly helpful). In fact, I love the whole process of cooking. I went food shopping today and somehow it never feels like a chore - in fact, in a bit of a geekish way it makes me feel like a proper grown-up. 

I love the feel of all the different types of food - all the different textures and smells. How they feel in your hands and how occasionally wretchedly awkward things are to chop and peel. I love standing by the hob and stirring as though I'm making some marvellous concoction that no one else has ever made; as though I'm the first person to ever experience that particular flavour.

I love that all the hard work and heat and the not infrequent stress is all for a purpose, and you can see and taste the result. I began to take a real pride in the finished product, it becomes a labour of true love and dedication - a work of art.

How hateful it must be to be afraid or begrudging of food. I think about how blessed I am each time I take a teaspoonful to taste as I go along, or breathe in deeply the formative flavourful smell.

Food is glorious, and I try not to take it for granted.

finished

So, the aforementioned Events Week finished last week and it was bloomin amazing! Here is a video summarising all that went on:



Well, suffice it to say it was all marvellous and I was pooped to the highest degree when it was all over - so so much organisation and so many early mornings and late nights. All wholly worth it though!

So, in a quick sum-up of all that's been happening in the last few weeks, given my blog posts have been scanty to say the least:

• I presented a few ideas for my documentary for my Contemporary Documentary module (which I'm loving). The only fly in the ointment is that my tutor hasn't been over-enamoured with any of my ideas so far. However, I've storyboarded the one I like best and I'm just going to run with it - hopefully I'll be able to prove that I'm not a total non-entity, haha. SO eager to get my hands on the SLRs that we're using to film the documentaries - I've booked one out for this coming Wednesday and also the weekend. Cannee wait!
  
  
• I've seen the following films at the cinema: 
• Hereafter (6/10 could have cut half an hour out of it without breaking a sweat)
• Black Swan (8/10 gripping throughout and beautifully shot)
• The Fighter (8/10 Christian Bale was fantastic - didn't really like him as an actor until this film)
• True Grit (8/10 a little slow at times but beautiful and some clever funny lines)
  
  
• I've read the following books (excluding uni-related): 
• Never Let Me Go (I was determined to read it before seeing the film - which hopefully I'll be seeing tomorrow. It's well worth a read, very compelling)
• The Screwtape Letters (a re-read, still a definite favourite - typical glorious C. S. Lewis eloquence and wit)
• Searching for God Knows What (technically still reading this one, but it's brilliant so far)
  
  
• Got a couple of offers for work experience in a couple of marketing agencies in London (I know right?!) - so so excited about them! Can't imagine little ol' me commuting into the Big Smoke for work!
   
• Started knitted the long-awaited iPod sock. It's my first time using a proper pattern and involved me learning to purl (a tad harder than anticipated...) but lovely Ellie has been on hand with counselling and lightning-fast knitting-reflexes, haha.

Can't think of anything else in particular, but it's seemed like a really busy few weeks - with more social gatherings and cups of coffee than I care to remember. Jolly good stuff.

latest

So, coming up scarily soon is our CU's annual Events Week. It's the biggest thing in our CU calendar, and it's basically a week packed full of events for people to invite their mates to - there are talks with a free lunch on every day of the week, and events in the evenings like acoustic nights, curry nights, and sports matches. Great stuff! The whole idea is that people come along and find out what it means to be a Christian.

This year our chosen theme is "The God Delusions" (a clever take on the title of Richard Dawkin's book The God Delusion) - basically we're focusing the daily talks around common misconceptions people have about God (e.g. "if there's a God, why is there suffering in the world?").

Anyway, I made a quick promotional film about it that we'll be littering Facebook with in the week before it all kicks off - here it is!

camera

This post is making me feel like the hugest underachiever. To my shame, I haven't picked up my digital camera with anything resembling intent for bloomin' months. 

My attraction to hulaseventy's gorgeous blog is somewhat bittersweet. In fact, the blogging world in general is at once beautiful and nigglingly irksome. Scrolling through endless pages of talented, creative people committed to whichever art form they have dedicated themselves to - photography, writing, film - is bound to provoke some twinge of unease.

Somehow they all find time to be gloriously creative!  Good grief. I need to sally forth into this next term with a much more determined focus - a focus on taking pictures in particular. 

Time to dust off the Nikon and look at the world with new eyes. 

Mary

So, first of all, happy new year one and all! Here's to 2011 - it'll be a good 'un, I can tell.

Secondly. I am currently writing my dissertation (as I'm in my third, and final, year of uni), and I've chosen to write about John Keats and Mary Shelley. I'm focusing on their personal letters rather than their literary works per se, and am discussing their desire to be remembered and their work to be recognised, as well as the huge struggles they came up against despite being incredible writers/poets.

Well, it's a blast if you're into Romantic poetry.

Anyway, I was reading some of Mary Shelley's letters today and came across this passage written after the death of her husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley. It's so stunning that it actually made me cry. This lady knows how to write grief. I've kept her spellings:

...I can at those moments forget myself - until some idea, which I think I would communicate to him, occurs & then the yawning & dark gulph again displays itself unshaded by the rainbows which the imagination had formed. Despair, energy, love, despondency & excessive affliction are like clouds, driven across my mind, one by one, until tears blot the scene, & weariness of spirit consign me to temporary repose...

The world will surely one day feel what it has lost when this bright child of song deserted her - Is not Adonais his own Elegy - & there does he truly depict the universal woe which should overspread all good minds since he has ceased to be their fellow labourer in this worldly scene...

Thus may I also say - The eight years I passed with him was spun out beyond the usual length of a man's life - And what I have suffered since will write years on my brow & intrench them in my heart...

Wow.

Don't worry, I'll post something perkier next time.