Flickring about

Kingsford Smith & Theodore
Originally uploaded by Bandido of Oz.

this morning and panicking about my paper which I cannot write.

Got so much to say but cannot organise my ideas ... aaaanyway, I found this thing about URBAN CAMPING in Times Square. Very cool indeed.

But I have also discovered that I missed showing my fandom to the world by not applying for Schwag.

I am very determined not to be so remiss next time.


But it is not too late to hear the Flickr song.

I am always copying Anya!!

There are so many clever people on Flickr.

here is yet anther game someone has made up; it is all such bonding stuff.

New York!! New York!!

Well this is the other Big Apple. (Apart from my Powerbook I mean.)

In 2003 TT and I were SO excited to go to NYC (well, at least I was. I could barely sleep at all the night before we left. He was just quietly anticipating a good trip).

Anyway, while there I bought my first digital camera, a sony cybershot 2.0 megapixel. I took loads of photos with the cute little thing and carried it round in my bag for the next 2 years. Then TT gave me the Big Brother version, a cybershot 5.1. This is an excellent camera but I will never want to part with the little baby one.

Anyway here are a few shots I took in NYC, (just after buying the 2.0), where we had a whale of a time and saw all the sights.



Anyway TT is taking Sam the Man to see NYC next week for two weeks while I stay at home and slave away. (I wonder how much money I can spend in a fortnight???)

Dyke on a bike

Originally uploaded by deborah lattimore.

Beautiful ..

Gay Pride

Originally uploaded by deborah lattimore.

Found on Flickr. I love it. They seem prety serious actually.

In the swing

of using Comic Life now.

(photos by Trois Tetes)

First attempt

at using comiclife



It literally took minutes to work out how to use it - took longer to upload to Flickr.
I just dragged the photos and bubbles across to the template.
Nerxt time I will do a good cartoon.

Comic Life

Page_13
Originally uploaded by hamttam.

Anya told us about this

And I think we should all take it into schools.
Flickr users are so clever at taking up new ideas so fast.

Buy it here.

Shall I join a gym again?

Having reached the peak of unfitness in my own living memory, shall I join the gym again?

Advantages:
1. Stave off old age.
2. Be able to climb stairs to my bedroom without feeling that my legs will give way and lungs explode.
3. Get Babylicious body - abs to die for; long lean limbs; baby fresh skin - God, better stop, am feeling aroused by description of self.)


Disadvantages:
1. Less time to blog.
2. It costs money.
3. I might end up not going.
4. I might get addicted again (and therefore boring)
5. Will end up not being able to work as late as I want as have to get to the gym AND to the kids ...
6. Would have to buy new kit as old stuff = minute.

OK. What shall I do?

Check this out

Make sure your speakers are on, click 'PLAY' and enjoy!

You will not be disappointed.

(Thanks to Muriel for this one.)

Time to vote!!

Get your arses over to the Big Blogger House 2005. If you have any respect for me what so ever, you will vote for DrRob to be kicked out.
(He is already losing)

And don't forget to ring to vote Roberto out of the UK Big Brother house:

That is: 09016 16 16 09

You know it makes sense.

Visiting

a colleague yesterday, I was struck by how an ugly-looking buildings from the outside can provide such a good view from the inside.

We could see for miles out of the window on such a fine day.



I also gained a perspective of what it was like to be Chris looking out of the window. We could mainly see her foot between the two gorgeous flower arrangements. Quite a dream composition really.




Awe inspiring.

Get involved

in The Big Blogger House.

You need to make sure Vitriola wins.

yucky yuk yuk

Even I would draw the line at this gross USB drive available here.

Techy Divas are much better advised to shop here and check out the Tulip style laptops Mmmm Hmmm.




Frankly these are divine but you would have to save for ages to afford one. Luckily they don't come out till October 2005 so have time to save up.

Gizmag explains that:

The Tulip E-Go Diamond notebook is inlaid with solid palladium white gold plates in which thousands (80 carats) of top-quality, brilliant cut diamonds have been pave set with surgical precision. The magnificent end result also incorporates a unique square cut ruby set in both Tulip logos and costs 283,000 Euros (US$355,000). Without the bling, the E-Go (short for easy going) computer is even more innovative, using overmolding to enable fabrics, leather, wood, and metals to be incorporated into interchangeable, lifestyle-oriented covers that enable the laptop “look” to be changed on a daily basis as a fashion accessory.

We want one don't we?

Egg on face or what?

Thanks very much to Arancaytor who has just told me that the riverbend blog is after all alive and kicking.

So it is here and I am going to try to be grown up about the fact that I went off in a whole hoity toity temper thing about blogs, books and greedy capitalism.
Oh well, easily done. I didn't get the right address I spose.

and the main thing is ... YOU CAN NOW READ THE BLOG,

Baghdad Burning.

I recommend to you that you look at the first few posts (written in January 2003)as they are very moving and set up some of the crucial explanations I think.

(In fact, having just wriiten that, I think I might make a mental note to look at lots of first posts and compare them to the most recent. That might be a good project.)

Just a snappy one today ...

If you go here you can check out what it means to have been born on the day you were born. Then scroll down and find out the meaning of your name.
It is uncanny.
You will see the REAL you.

Muriel Robinson,Principal of this college, Fan of The Archers and The Archer's chatroom told me about the Birthday site.


See you again on Wednesday ... off to Leicester now

vitriolica webb's ite

vitriolica webb's ite (sic) is the BEST BLOG EVER.
Or perhaps it is THIS.

OK OK sorry to all other bloggers this may be my excitement speaking.

But there is a whole genre of women's blog that is ironic feminist. Some of them are academics (e.g. Profgirrrl and Bitch PhD) but many are not.
This is v v important to research and I will.

I don't wanna

read blogs that have been turned into books. I want them to stay as blogs.



Are we still at the point where we have to take stuff off the Internet and put them in a book to show we value them?

Or is it that some publisher wants to make sure they make a pile of cash by taking significant blogs off the web and then selling them?

But closer to my heart is the argument that the text will lose something if we turn it into a book. I like to see the stuff as live on the net and to see the issue as growing history, not squished between covers, packaged and sorted and marketed and sold to the West. I think maybe I am being too romantic in saying that the words are more powerful residing in the hands of the blogger, still live and speaking from Iraq to 'The West'. The book way is to give it to the west to sort and market etc and sell.
(Yeah I have thought that the money will give the Iraqui woman important financial capital too ... )

The link : http:www.riverbend.blogspot.com is now dead and so if you want to read this story, then you must have it on paper.

Well, the blog looks interesting and offers the view of a female in Iraq,describing new hardships and a more confined way of living since the 'liberating' forces arrived.
I'll let you sift through the ironies in all of this.

Diamond Geezer

Wall in Ion Gardens
Originally uploaded by diamond geezer.

Diamond Geezer's Blog got a great mention in The Guardian Guide this week.
This photo really needs to be in Hoody Moral Panic. Without a doubt.
The photos there are amongst the scariest you will ever ever see.

But back to DG, he has a link to this cool blog The Big Blogger House, although of course that was a theme TT began long ago and sadly did not maintain.
Maybe we could continue our fun with BBLB linking to The Big Blogger Blog.

Anyway check out his blog and see what you think (there's a very nice section on BB with links to sites I have not seen before)- but I recommend not bothering with today's post which shows all the signs of Bloggers Block - probably caused by fame overload.

Autobiography, artefacts and photos

DSCN4097
Originally uploaded by Miss Peach.

Well this might be the jackpot find of the week.
Anya blogged this site which is so fascinating with its clothes as artefacts about a person's life.

I know that Kate will lurve it.

But Miss Peach - well she is amazing I think. I first came to her via her shots of what is in her handbag. She loves her little commmodities and wotnot. But she is really good and shooting food (so to speak) and somehow manages to make it look cosmetic and girlish every time.
How does she do that?


Her nail project is pretty cool too.

Dracula Blogged

This is an interesting idea; here is the first entry to help you work out what it is about:

Draculablog launches
This blog will publish Bram Stoker's Dracula for the next six months. Individual pieces of the novel will appear on the calendar dates indicated in the text, starting with Jonathan Harker's May 3rd Bistriz journal entry, and finishing up with November 6 and the final Note.

I'm planning on two categories of posts. First, and primarily, will be the novel's text. Secondarily I'll post about the novel, or reflections on this project.

Comments are most welcome!

Has anyone else come across this kind of thing before?
Is it too contrived?
Too derivative?

I have looked at a few comments and they are quite interesting. Look at this for example:

For those of us who have read the novel (some of us several times!), reading it in blog is a new experience, one that is triggering some interesting comments. One of the biggest is how slowly the story is unfolding. Jonathan has already been at castle Dracula for a month. When you read the novel, Jonathan's stay at the castle seems to transpire in a matter of days

.

(Found here.)

What do y'all think?

whales

whales2
Originally uploaded by retchm2112.

Cool innit?

Take a photo of yourself with a poster and join the March on June 19th.

April en Malieke

April en Malieke
Originally uploaded by rterwiel.

Greenpeace "Whale Embassy" protest against a whale meat processing plant, Ulsan, Korea.

Greenpeace "Whale Embassy" protest against a whale meat processing plant, Ulsan, Korea.
Originally uploaded by gillo.

I have beeen asked by Wackydoodler, a Flickr contact, to join a 'No Whaling' Virtual March.
This is a very exciting idea.
I found out as Wacky asked me to join this group.
Maybe you would like to also join.
Fascinating how Flickr is now joining activists online and using photographs as a way of protesting.
The concept of webspace being used as a march is aso pretty mindblowing as a metaphor.

Not only this but also.....

I have sent out a questionnaire to some of my Flickr contacts in order to just help me back out some of my hunches about the Flickr community. I will use some quotes for my paper at the UKLA conference.

It is incredible how Flickr is having such a powerful impact on people's lives but also at how AWARE many of them are, of the social learning processes they are involved in.

I had not realised either that there are Flickr meetups - attended internationally.

SO EXCITING.

Check out the photos

here.

Gulliver's Travels

Rosa's web site is coming together here.

The site will show the travels af a real teddybear going round the world. He will be looked after by kids who are unwell and have photos of him taken wherever they are. The kids will write a kind of diary telling what Gulliver has been up to, where he went and what he saw etc. This info will be put up on the website with the photos.
So exciting.
I'll keep you updated.

At last!!

My article for Linguistics and Education is finally out here. Can hardly remember writing it - I sent it off in November 2003!!
The editor had left a particular university and then given up being editor so it lay in an empty office for months on end as far as I can make out.
But now I notice the web site has it down as being published in summer 2004 - a little bit wrong I think.
Anyway, at least it's out now and is about lovely girls talking.

Research on the Internet

I am mesmerised by some of what I see on the Internet, and this teachers' chatroom has me gripped.
Check out what you think of this researcher's efforts to look for teachers to interview...

I would be really interested in what you guys think.

On line Off course

here is the paper given by Neil Selwyn at The Institute last week.
And here is his very exciting homepage.


And blow me if he is not based in CARDIFF.
*cough, cough*.
Could be a good place to work.

Caught

this guy in a private moment last Friday.



No wonder Jo could not concentrate on our conversation.
Although Jo was involved in this very wonderful and serious poject, it seems that when sheep are having a difficult time, she cannot concentrate.

Globalisation and identity

What the hell do you make of this??!!

Madness in the BB house.
They need to read Giddens. Thank God I bought the book to explain it all to me today.

Been shopping

and got new books.

This Liz Jenesen one promises to be as good as The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time.
TT likes Su Doku.

And the Runaway World? Well, I feel I should read the Giddens intro to Globalisation ...




Next up are these:



All pictures and no words ... Jeannie Baker makes collages and then photographs them. Hugely detailed, these books show stories of the world from a view through the window. They are exquisite works of art and I will enjoy them for ages.


And now these:




- Upbeat descriptions of new technologies, popular culture and the digital generation enjoying them.

Finally, bought this for TT, but expect I will browse too:



There you go, a good trip, where I got some nice brain food.

But don't forget to look at the post I did earlier today, and take the opportunity to browse through the Darfur photos. Putting these on Flickr and then on my blog straight after a post which featured a book on globalisation offers some kind of irony I think. (But was not really intended; I just noticed it.)

Girl in ZamZam camp, Darfur

DSC_0056
Originally uploaded by aheavens.

Found this within a set taken in Darfur.
Click on the photo and check out the others.
This is the wonder of Flickr; a different kind of photo journalism.

What a fascinating pair

of articles The Grauniad has run over the last couple of days.
The first which was our Chaz rattling on about the rubbishness of texting in comparison to Old Bill, and the demise of the English curriculum.
The second, reflects on the banality of conversation teens indulge in on their phones, and the sad 'fact'that they are not talking as much anymore.

This is of course, not a new observation, and my unfriend Zygmunt Baumann moaned similarly in Liquid Love (no, don't get excited, it is not a rude book.) Here he talks about the demise of relationships in a 'connected society' of 'networks' which now exist instead of 'relationships' (See the introduction and the chapter:In and out of the toolbox of sociality'.)

Yesterday I was discussing Bernstein's' 'Vertical and Horizontal Discourse: An Essay' with Anne-Marie.

Now there IS an interesting piece of work. Bernstein uses metaphors to describe different types of discourse, or 'forms of knowledge'. I will let you read the article if you want to get involved in the definitions etc, but I have had an interesting time thinking about the metaphors Bernstein uses to describe differenttypes of knowledge. The vertical form refers to the types of knowledge which tend to be most revered in society, priveleged forms which have a principled structure and which are exemplified through school curricular. The horizontal forms of discourse could, I think, be defined as folk forms of knowledge; perhaps the kind of knowledge which is taught within groups of teenagers about text meassaging.
Berntein's view is that the horizontal forms of knowledge tend to be about the particular and tied to specific contexts. They cannot be built upwards and developed in such sophisticated ways. He ends with this kind of comment:
'Horizontal discourse may be seen as a crucial resource for pedagogic populism in the name of empowering or unsilencing voices to combat elitism and alleged authoritarianism of vertical discourse'(my italics) (page 169)

I think Prince Chaz would agree with Bernstein if he understood it. But I think that text messaging plays a different role in society to Shakespearian sonnets (etc.) and is not of lower quality but of different use (at the moment). The skills of texting can be built upon and developed so that texting can be done better or worse by different people.
A long time ago, as an undergraduate, I read a book by Loreto Todd about Pidgins and Creoles. The central tenet of the book was that although these forms of language are looked down upon by many, their ability to express concepts and ideas were as sophisticated as the speakers who used them. I.e. it is not languages which are of inherent greater or lesser quality. Modern linguistics is based upon such notions. Similarly I think we can apply the same to text messaging.

One more thing: When Anya was talking about these articles, she also mentioned Chaz's view that some people should not be encouraged to believe they can go to university. Chaz talked last year about giving people ideas above their station.
I think I would rather argue, that universities are not the place for everyone and that other types of knowledge offered elsewhere are equally valid. Much as I could not vote for any other party, I would say that Labour has an obsession with university education, and there is much more to Education' than that offered by the academy. All forms of knowledge are equally valid and I am not keen n the metaphor which Bernstein uses since the tidiness of the axes he describes, obscures the messiness of discourses and forms of knowledge which are after all social constructs themselves.

However, I know that not everyone will agree. I am a member of the Times Educational Supplement chatroom. And so far in answer to my thread about text speak, I have had this response:

"English STUDIES"????? wtf???
That's bad enough as it is.
As if kids need any help 'studying' the art of text messaging!!
He said last year that "some people without "the natural ability" were being encouraged to rise above their station".
And yes, I agree with him.

So there we have it.
To follow the discussion it is in the English staffroom here.

And finally, if you are exited by all this, more thoughts on Bernstein and online discourses will soon be discussed over on Blogtrax. Hooray.

Dog's dinner

I really understannd how Sam feels, dishing up a dog's dinner.

There is many the time that I have tried to delight the folks with my cordon bleu cuisine, only to be given sorrowful glances at the state of what is on their plates.
Am looking forward to seeing you folks evicting the dog's dinner tomorrow.
The person to vote out is Maxwell, who I spotted last night patting Vanessa on the BTM.
Please ring:

09016 16 16 08

JESUS The Monster Truck

I think you need to check out what is going on here at JESUS The Monster Truck: "
If this is not enough you may like to checkout the medical history of American presidents.
Did you know that Roosevelt hid from the press, the fact he had polio?
And finally, you may wish to visit the blog, Shiny, pointy and Tall. It is a blog of photos of people taking photos of the Chrysler building.

All very weird.
You may have heard it here first, but I heard it here. It is basically the weblink junkyard of a self-confessed chronic websurfer.
Very cool.

Blooming with Joy and in the PINK

Blooming with Joy
Originally uploaded by !efatima.

(At Kate's request.)

Shooting Stars

Shooting Stars
Originally uploaded by !efatima.

Liking this a lot.

Lip Gloss Glitches

Smear
Originally uploaded by Rigmarole.

There can never be too much lipstick


From the Lip Gloss Bitches of last year's BB5 house we move to the Lip Gloss Glitches.
Last night we were treated to Sam crying her heart out as she hunted for her hidden make up bag.
She stormed in to the diary room, crying 'The Bitches!!' and 'It's not fair' . Finally sobbing, 'It had my big lip gloss in.'

Well I think Kate and Anya can totally understand this one. As can I.
We need our lip gloss and we need our mascara.
Poor poor Sam. But the dispute rages on.

Who is anonymous?

She is a she. She is married. She uses her computer in the evenings.

Hmmm.

She likes ER and Desperate Housewives.

I think she is not in her twenties.

She liked the Darth Vader quiz -therefore in touch with many forms of popular culture ...

*Brain ticks.*

Is she Jane?

(Don't tell me if I am wrong.Just give me a little teensy clue.)

Confessions

of a techie addict.

An anonymous commenter has asked me a few questions about my blogging - where and when I do it and what on. Where do I get my info...
Now let's see ....
Yes I am on wireless networking. This is a real boon to the busy blogger who also happens to be an academic, who also happens to be a mother, a cook, a reluctant ironer and gardener, as well as a very dutiful wife. Blogging can be done around all these arrangements.
I sometimes blog in bed before I get up.
Sometimes I blog while the potatoes are boiling. hence there are a number of cooking shots in my posts.

and when I am doing my cultural studies homework, ( I tend to focus on Reality TV), I blog then.


I click about looking at sites when I am on the phone, I read other people's blogs and follow links allover the place. My son tells me sites sometimes (Darth Vader site) and my daughter tells me others. I am forever on the lookout, scanning the world for STUFF to put in.


Now, of course I am not looking for sympathy, as I do LURVE my work, unlike the beliefs of some, (who shall remain nameless - for the moment), but academics are not so time rich that they have time to spare, doing nothing but blog blog blog. I sometimes get up VERY early in order to write my blog or to read papers for meetings etc. (Not saying that others don't do this, but somehow lots of folks out there think we are on holidays all the damn time. - You know who you are.)
Today while I was on the phone at work, I also browsed stuff on Flickr at the same time.
I click about on links as I talk on the phone sometimes (women multitask apparently.)

And while we are getting close up and personal, here is an itinerary of a typical day in my blogging life. In fact it is today:

7 a.m. got up and read 7 applications for study leave. Made notes on these.
7.30 Got son his breakfast, and wished him luck for his Biology and Geography GCSE exams. Carried on reading study leave papers. Checked comments on blog and replied to two.
8.30. Got ready for work - shower, etc.
9.00. Walked to work.
9.20 arrived at work, checked post and went to study leave committee meeting for 9.30.
11.45. Finished study leave meeting and went to ICT meeting to plan writing extra bits for a teaching and learning type bid for new ICT equipment.
1.00 p.m. Checked e mail, replied to a million queries. Opened my post. looked at blog and took ten mins to write a blog post in response to a comment from Anya.
1.45. Checked the agenda for the ICT policy planning meeting.
2.00 Chaired ICT planning committee and took minutes on my laptop. (Was very tempted to go online and look at blog.)
3.15 Finished ICT meeting, spoke to two colleagues about matters arising from the meeting.
4.00 Went to office, replied to two phone calls (browsed on Flickr as I talked to colleagues.) Kate came to my office for about three mins before leaving for London. gave her her birthday present.
5.00 Started reading a paper from an MA student; had phone call from home,daughter not feeling well. Walked home.
5.30 Arrive home, talk to daughter, check out son's exams etc. All is well.
5.50 Get tea. While it is cooking I look up recipes for tomorrow - PhD student coming for tea!!
6.30 Start reading a paper I printed off from the Internet and check what meetings I have tomorrow.
9.45 Realise I still have not marked MA paper; will do it in the morning as want to watch Big Brother at ten. Write this post since tonight I want to watch without blogging at the same time ...
Anticipate phonecall from darling husband after BB. Will go to bed early so can get up and mark in the morning before work.

And that, dear friends, is how to fit blogging in, without ruining your appetite.

DrJoolz

is happy to give you uptodate info on the housemates ...
Saskia won the task yesterday but the other housemates do not know.
Nor do they know the prize - that she is now allowed to listen to the housemates in the diaryroom.

So exciting ... so exciting

I love it when it gets eeeeeeeevil.

Question:

Why is it that every year in the BB house the housemates are forever having conversations about whether people are 'fake' or genuine', 'two faced' or 'will bitch to your face' (this latter apparently being positive.

What is a a fake person exactly?
And if I went round in my life telling people excatly what I thought of them, their lives would be a bit crap, as would mine.

Mrs Featherbottom's daughter

May-31-2005 3.32.50 PM
Originally uploaded by Mrs. Featherbottom.

I think I am actually in love.

Backlash blockbusters

I love this phrase, which Martin Mills uses in The International Journal of Education (2003, 7:1 .
He talks about the way in which concerns for boys (the 'poor boys') syndrome is partly a reaction to the concerns shown for girls in the 1980s. I love the phrase,(which sounds slightly rude - backlash blockbusters- it sums up the way the so called boys underachievement phenomenon has attracted one sided headlines. It makes you think of fat novels, like bodice rippers and then view these boys as victims discourses in the same way. It is almost a part of poular culture now, this pathologised view that boys just can't help themselves. Schools therefore have to provide macho stuff in order to attract the poor boys into academic success.

Anyway one of my students mentioned laddettes the other day, those sassy girls who underachieve, as being worthy of study. Yes I prefer sassy girls.

I have a book about girls who were called 'slut' at school and what has happened to them now. It's very good and was first mentioned to me by Julie Hooper. Julie is a brilliant teacher at Sheffield College.

She knows how to motivate learners without resorting to wild conclusions and stereotyping about gender issues...

Bitch PhD

has written a really depressing post about working in academia.

I feel lucky that at my university we can take study leave without receiving a cut in pay ... hope the Vice Chancellor does not read Bitch PhD's post and get ideas. (Somehow though I don't think he is into blogging.)

Yet she describes a similar situation to ours in terms of being out of pocket for attendance at conferences - having to shell out the money your self and then wait ages for reimbursement.
Although these days, in our department, we have to pay for ourselves full stop. The only way we can make sure we don't get out of pocket is by taking on additional, but small, funded research projects. If they are small, the money can be paid into a 'discretionary' account and then we can draw on that cash to pay for conferences etc.
In this way, in order to attend conferences we have to take on additional work; i.e. additional to the additional work of writing a paper for, and then attending the conference.
But hey we love our work dont we? (Otherwise we would not be up till 10 on a Saturday night doing stuff like an autoethnographic blog.)

What do you say

when people say things like this:

'I read your blog the other day. I don't understand it. What is a blog? Is it a diary? Why do you write it? You must take ages on it ... or do you do it when you are supposed to be working?'

More musings on this over on Blogtrax.

Who did it?

Made myself very clear yesterday that you were to vote Craig out.
What have you done?

We now lose the drama of the Wiccan Queen.

Keeping up with it all is proving difficult; apparently Maxwell has now made a move on the voluptuous Saskia, motivated partly motivated by the fact that one of her breasts is bigger than her head.

Yeah, right, Maxwell.

Maxwell Housemate

Why is he named after a poor brand of coffee?
Why not call him Kenco?
For a super frothy cup.
(Check out this old favourite.)

Well, anyway he is so aggressive. If I were living in the same house as him I would actually be nervous he might start a fight.
He looks like one of tose people who appear on 'Booze Britain', hammered out of their heads and picking fights with strangers over nothing.
It seems he has been offered the challenge not to swear..
I don't think he can do it.
In the conversation he and 'the lads' had last night about which girls they fancied, Maxwell led the way in musing over the size of their breasts, and blah blah blah.

What they need is a bunch of academics in there.

Most compelling viewing I would say.


Finally, vote CRAIG OUT. We need Mary as she does spells.

Desperate Housemates

1. I love Makosi and Kemal. They are a great duo, both divas and drama queens. They know it's a game. I love them. I want one of them to win.
2. Derek - very well spoken and therefore the victim of people's prejudices. (They think it is fair cop to have a go at his accent,but not Lesley's lilting Yorkshire tones.)Is a Tory though and should be kept for entertainment purposes only.
3. Sorry but she has to go. (Lesley of course.) Someone who decides whether she likes someone according to the size of their breasts is a bit odd. She was heard to say,

'Ive got the biggest tits* in Huddersfield. Well my Mam has got bigger and my nana has got bigger than hers.'

Nice.(At least she did not say they were bigger than Huddersfield.)
4.Vanessa, boring; Anthony boring.
5. Sam, no. It is not enough to smile and have a grand sexual appetite. Ditto Saskia. Keep all the details to yourselves next time loves.
6. Craig - stop crying. Maxwell stop swearing and acting like a thug. You both have to go soon.
7.Roberto. Well. Apparently he was a teacher but I do not believe it. Maybe in a private school where no teacher training (etc.) is a requirement. I heard him say that black people are physiologicaly different and it made them better at some things, such as sport (especially running) and dancing. Science (a black housemate) said he was not sure (yep) whether he agreed and Roberto helpfully and patiently pointed out to Science he has flared nostrils and this means that he can take in more oxygen and therefore run faster. Right on Roberto. I suppose all Italians are better lovers and cooks? Out you go.
8.Science - nice Jamaican accent you picked up in Leeds. 'Know what I mean? Respect to you, boy!' I will let you come fourth.

So tell me this - why is it an insult to say to a housemate - 'You act up to the cameras. You are doing stuff cos you know you are being filmed.'?
They all volunteered to be filmed for three months for God's sake.

OK you heard it here first .. Craig will be kicked out tonight.
Cast your votes now.

*(Sorry re the terminology)

Maybe

if I write my to do list on here it will shame me into doing it. Maybe it will turn me into a supersonic worker because that is what seems to have happened to Anya since she put her list up.

1. Finish Gender and Education article.
2. Write article on the AYME discussion board.
3. Write the paper for the UKLA conference.
4. Go to school X and finish interviews for the Pathways to Success evaluation.
5. Sort out interviews for the evaluation of the schools' pilot for the Sheffield College blended learning course.
6. Mark stuff ... one MA assignment and a couple of doctoral chapters ...
7. Drive MY NEW CAR!!!!!!!!!!
8. Play with NEW APPLE SOFTWARE!!!!!!
9. Order new book.
10. Find out how to put my papers and drafts etc on the web so I can have links to them..

I have put a few easy ones in here.
by the way, the

UKLA CONFERENCE

is worth mentioning again as it will be

FAB.

Look no hands!!

Rosa and I go to a hospital appointment about every two or three weeks. Like all National Health Service places in the UK it is like a trip back to the 1950s. Including the kinds of pictures kids draw:




It's hard to envisage how the doctor (boy) and nurse (girl) can do their jobs with no hands ... or indeed how these two could cuddle with no arms:


(To see the detail, click on the photo, then when at Flickr click on 'different sizes' and choose 'large')
But back to my first point - why do all girls do this kind of picture at some stage in their artistic careers? And how can we tell they are done by a girl? (Because they were and I could.)