Sit and stare

hamster dead no one home

2010-02-27T23:20:00.005Z

It is difficult to blog when you brain is enclosed in a thin but inpenetrable* membrane that physically stops thoughts from leaving it without very intense concentration and frowning.

*this proves my point - I really don't know if this is a word or not and, if it is, how to spell it.

Interrobang/Banginterro?

2009-11-04T21:48:00.005Z

This post may be a bit incoherent at times.

I recently consulted Wikipedia about interrobangs: should they be ?! or !?. I now realise that 'Interrobang' refers specifically to the informal punctuation mark that is a merge of the two - so not just them next to each other. I cannot imagine why its inventor (Richard Isbell) thought the merge was needed...and it wasn't. Well it didn't catch on anyway.

However, I totally agree that !? and ?! are vital to modern life. Ha. I hate sentences like that!? Or do I?!

This is what Wikipedia says about the merged punctuation mark and the order. It's a bit of a shame because it's what I was going to say but now I can't take credit for it:

"Use of an interrobang may be considered somewhat redundant, considering the same effect is captured in standard English by ending a sentence with both an exclamation point and a question mark, the order of which is determined by whether it is more rhetorical/excited or more interrogative."

I'll contribute by providing some examples inspired by Nipper's toys:
A trainer wearing rodeo zebra!? (more rhetorical/excited)
Why does that snail have huge nostrils?! (more interrogative)

By the way, I don't know where I was going with the second paragraph but I've left it there anyway.

I quite like the French 'point exclarrogatif'. Sounds a bit drunk and rambling.

Do you?

2008-09-05T13:25:00.003Z

Well, it’s been an interesting year for the abortion debate. There were attempts to change the law in the UK in the summer and now Sarah Palin has stepped into the arena in the US. As ever, my own opinions regarding the ‘rights and wrongs’ (inverted commas deliberate) of abortion are not something I feel comfortable commenting about online and, as ever, it amazes me that people can see it as a black and white issue anyway: even if you personally feel very strongly that abortion either is or isn’t ok, it doesn’t mean that it has become a simple issue.

Anyway, my goat was slightly got today when watching a Youtube video of a preacher saying that abortion is wrong because God started creating life at conception and you just can’t cut across God when he is knitting life together. Fine, but why can’t you cut across God when he’s giving life? I’m not saying you should/shouldn’t but that statement isn’t logical; it’s just a given for lots of people.

I think all I’m saying is that I wish we could have debates about the big stuff in life without there being givens. It’s hard to shed worldviews, probably impossible really. But it might make for fuller discussion.

Well I’m just off to try and shed my Western worldview that logic matters. I assume Sarah Palin has already done so as she is apparently pro-life and pro-death penalty…unless, that is, she doesn’t use the sanctity of life argument when she has her anti-abortion hat on. I don’t know.

Commas, clauses, blah blah blah

2008-08-21T20:55:00.005Z

I suddenly tired of commas after one entry about them. I will carry it on properly but not now.

The problem with not writing about commas is that there isn't really anything to write about. Well, it's either commas or world poverty/similar...I find it hard to strike a balance!

Seriously though...world poverty. And all this.

We are gruesomely lucky.

What he said.

Commas: clauses

2008-05-17T18:31:00.003Z

Here begins a little series on commas. Commas go right to the heart of grammar so they’re tricky things to write about. Gotta do some background work on clauses first.

A clause is a group of words. Clause spotters say that a clause is made up of a subject and a predicate (something that describes the subject). I learnt to find a clause by looking out for the verb and I quite like the focus on the verb because it helps my mind get into gear about other things too – like correct tense or mode and subject-verb agreement…sorry, got a bit boring there.

So, yeah, look for the verb. This is a doing or being word and will be attached to a subject (the thing that is doing/being). I have put all the verbs I used up to this point in bold to help you see what a verb is. Sometimes it made more sense if I included some of the surrounding words in with the verb. This is called a verbal phrase. For example, is made includes two verbs (from the infinitives* ‘to be’ and ‘to make’) so both words merge into a verbal phrase.

*Infinitives. You may remember these from such things as French lessons. We have them in English too. They are the home of the verb. Look at the examples below to see how the verb breaks down from the infinitive so that we can use attach it to lots of different subjects (n.b. I have only included how they break down in the present tense):

Infinitive: to be
I am
You are
We/they are
He/she/it is

Infinitive: to make
I make
You make
We/they make
He/she/it makes

I guess infinitives are a helpful way to identify a verb: ask yourself if can you find a version of the word that you can put ‘to’ at the beginning of to make it into an infinitive. It takes some thought to do this though.

The way this will all relate to commas eventually is that commas can be used to separate clauses to help make writing clearer. And if you find a verb, you've probably found a clause. More on that another time though.

This sort of grammar is hard to get to grips with because, like emotions and thought, language seems to come, at least partly, from within us. It’s hard to explain why we do things that we have always done. Children have such an inherent understanding of grammar that they are sometimes over correct. For example, they know how verbs normally get changed into the past tense so they might say I runned instead of I ran.

Apostrophes for abbreviation

2008-04-29T17:32:00.004Z

Might be worth saying, if you want to see about apostrophes for possession, go to April 15th 2008. This is the one about the other use for apostrophes...

...and it's actually really simple: the apostrophe is just put in in place of some missing letters. Sometimes we want to merge two words together to make it easier to say or read something. For example, instead of saying do not go there we might say don't go there. In this example, and in most examples, nothing changes about the original words other than a letter is missed out and the words are squashed together into one word. Sometimes more than one letter is missed out and very occasionally there are changes to the spelling of the original words*. Here are some examples of the change:

do not...donot...don't
must not...mustnot...mustn't
have not...havenot...haven't
It is...itis...it's
cannot...(no merge - one word already)...can't
I will...Iwill...I'll
would have...wouldhave...would've
will not...willnot...won't*

The blue letters are the ones that get missed out and replaced with an apostrophe.

You will notice that I have included it's in the list above. Only put an apostrophe in the word 'its' if you are saying 'it is' in a shortened way. That is all you need to know. If you are saying 'its' to mean that something belongs to 'it' you DO NOT need an apostrophe. Here are some correct examples:

Its main advantage is that it goes faster.
Its tyres are bald.
It's a shiny red car.

Semi-colons

2008-04-28T18:48:00.004Z

For some reason there is a big debate going on in the world right now about semi-colons. It's not just the usual about what to do with them but whether they should exist or not which I find faintly bizarre...they do exist! Even if someone tells me they don't exist, I will still use them.

Maybe this is because I'm a teacher and feel that it is necessary to say the same thing in three different ways to ensure that I have imparted knowledge thoroughly enough: semi-colons are there to link two sentences (or would-be sentences?) that are closely related to each other. So I might want to say: Semi-colons are cool. All the gangstas are using them. Well, the second statement confirms the first so that's pretty strongly related...you might as well use a semi-colon: Semi-colons are cool; all the gangstas are using them.

There's no rule about how exactly the sentences have to be related...I don't think! There are a few examples below of sentences that are linked in different ways just to give you a feel. I wouldn't say that you ever have to use a semi-colon. You would just use one having made the decision to communicate to your readers that those two sentences were related.

Some examples:

The goldfish came home from the vets'* today; it had been there for a week.
Her hairstyle is freaky; I don't think it's normal to have snakes' heads on the end of each hair.
The effects on the goldfish population were monumentally catastrophic; there has never been such a serious dip in the population.

The other time to use semi-colons is in a list when you need to use commas to describe the things you're listing. (This is ringing a bell...have I posted about this before?) For example: My favourite films are Finding Nemo; Jaws, the all-time classic; and Shark Tale. It just helps make it all a bit clearer. And cleariness is next to godliness in Grammar World.

I do feel like I'm missing something, bearing in mind that there's a global debate about this. Am I? Have I got it all wrong? I haven't consulted anyone/anything about it since my GCSEs 10 years ago.

*I'm assuming this was a practice run by several vets.

2008-04-21T19:38:00.001Z

Well, it's better now so not worse than ever but still not finished!

2008-04-21T14:49:00.001Z

Just undergoing some refurbishments here! Sorry that it looks worse than ever but Toby is working some wonders to make it look great. He's a love.

Possessive Apostrophes

2008-04-15T14:33:00.003Z

Well hello again.

We'll do contractions (e.g. contracting 'do not' to 'don't') another day.

For now it's what to do when something/someone owns something/someone:

Jane's porridge (single owner = apostrophe before the extra 's')
All of the boys' porridge (more than one owner = apostrophe after the already existing 's'. No further 's' required.)
The children's porridge ('the children'* make up a single group so, like with Jane who is a single person, there is an apostrophe before the extra 's')

Just ask yourself, "Who/what does _______ belong to?" After the last letter of your answer to that question, put the apostrophe. Add an extra 's' if you need an 's' sound. It's up to you whether you bother if you don't need an extra 's' sound; both Jesus' porridge and Jesus's porridge are legitimate.

A couple of tricksy areas:
1. Sometimes you will see apostrophes that aren't there because of contractions and seem to be nothing to do with anyone owning anything. Think laterally: The kids' performance 'belonged' to the kids. Last week's news 'belonged' to last week.
2. You do not need to worry about how many things are owned. You do need to worry about how many owners there are.

This is something that people do find hard so why do we have to bother? As with all grammar/punctuation it is supposed to make something seem clearer. For example, the apostrophe could clarify that there was more than one boy in the porridge scenario. Or it could clarify that the porridge wasn't made out of boys but belonged to boys. The context normally makes it obvious but the punctuation does help. In some cases, especially in officialdom, the punctuation can be essential for resolving disputes about the original meaning of something. I think that is the way of it in the legal world.

*'Children' is a collective noun. The same applies for other collective nouns such as 'team' or 'government'...or a 'bloat of hippopotami' for you collective noun lovers.

2008-04-15T14:19:00.002Z

After a nice little comment on a post I feel encouraged to post again. But what about?

Maybe apostrophes because they are a problem. I'll just go and check I haven't done one on that already (although how?) and then I'll log into Firefox (no little formatting icons on Safari) and then I'll BE BACK!

Peace.

a turquoise

2008-02-01T09:54:00.000Z

Well, I still haven't found a new layout for my blog. But I will put a picture on here anyway.

I made this at our churpch's ladios weekend. It was a good old time and Mary ran a craft session with scraps of material and ironing them down. I also did some embroidery on it but I cut off the beads to fit it into a frame. It went to Megs and Malcs in the end because I don't have anywhere at home that is turquoise or even goes with anything turquoise. They have turquoise towels.

It could be a sea or a bird or a mess. I made it as a sea and there are little orange fishes and bits of spray and the water meets the sand.

Onion Tart and Orangette

2008-01-05T15:38:00.000Z

Go take a look at Orangette. It is a lovely food blog. I've just made an Onion Tart from it and it was really superb.

Yum.

So anyways. I think I will start posting some pictures of my paintings and stuff. That's why I've changed my template but I actually want something more blank but more interesting than this one. Don't know how to do that but Toby's on the case.

xxx

Brilliant

2007-12-20T18:04:00.000Z

Toby has sorted out my naughty font. Fairly predictably it was all my fault. I pasted the code into the CSS that was already part of my template. Oh dears. I thought I had followed the instructions but I hadn't. They were a big lump of text and I didn't really understand them. Toby sorted it out though, as well as my photo.

Joely's coming for dinner tonight which is chili. Or chilli? Toby makes a nice one. Unfortunately we haven't tidied up because we don't care about the house today! Our car has broken again and I feel that, consequently, I don't have to tidy up or do any work. So there.

Times

2007-12-18T10:01:00.000Z

Oh no. My blog has gone all Times News Roman on me and for no good reason: I added some Google thing that Toby said about and then the font changed. I don't even know why I added it because I'm blatantly not going to get hits on my blog through Google because no one comes here. Oh well.

2007-12-08T12:51:00.000Z

This photo is determined to publish itself sideways but it looks Christmassy anyway so until Toby can sort it out, I'll keep it here in all its sideways glory.

Paul Dring, writing for this month’s Waitrose Food Illustrated says that whereas centuries ago mulling wine made sense because it rescued it from being vinegary and unpalatable, nowadays, “mulling is a good way of making perfectly good wine undrinkable”.

This is a classic example of opinion represented as fact (for any of you GCSE English students out there). Why do winies (what’s the noun? I’ve adapted ‘foodies’ because I can’t remember) say that mulled wine is undrinkable when it is demonstrably not as lots of people drink it with pleasure? Of course, they are sad about how the delicate process of wine-making is all for nothing in the end if we just add orange juice, brandy and spices to it. But people do like mulled wine and how else are they supposed to make it, other than by using wine?

Oh anyway, it annoys me and I keep reading articles slating mulled wine which, apparently, isn’t a very original topic. Why not tell us something useful about what wine to have at Christmas instead?

Oh hai blogger! U dus want post?

2007-12-04T19:49:00.000Z

Well. Even though I have been blogging much more often than some people, I am not appearing on Toby's recently updated list. Even Dave Atherall makes it onto the list and he has not blogged since the 22nd of August. This is not fair.

Toby and Nick are having some jokes downstairs and I'm missing out on them.

Oh

2007-11-22T12:04:00.000Z

my goodness.

A Grammar Cat

2007-11-10T18:12:00.000Z

There are funner ones but this iz a grammar blog and that is a grammar cat. icanhascheezburger.com - it's one of my hobbies...

Work

2007-11-08T13:25:00.000Z

Well, it is now November and I'm back at work. There is a lot of it. I am now not working, I realise, but I have been going strong all week and I'm about to be working hard for another three and a half hours in a tick.

It makes the time go by at least!

Tires...

Young people nowadays?

2007-10-31T13:44:00.002Z

I just can’t get on board with the idea that humanity is getting worse. What makes people think that it was ever significantly better overall? I know that sounds rather rhetorical but I am actually interested in the answer.

There are some things that tempt me towards the ‘everything’s going downhill’ pov, notably areas of British life that have changed dramatically either post WW2 or post industrial revolution (can’t decide which was more pivotal right now – perhaps neither!):

• Technology
• Communication/Media
• Family life
• Food

There are probably more but these leap out at me.

Technology and Communication/Media, I presume, are more advanced than they have ever been before. However, that is clearly not a bad thing all round. The now hackneyed charge that all the new types of communication are destroying real relationships doesn’t hold much water for me. Without exception email, Facebook, MySpace, msn, texts, blogging…have enhanced my relationships with others. Including my family. Perhaps that’s just me. More serious, perhaps, is the way that modern technology etc. has sped up the pace of life. But is that really the case? All (I can’t think of any exceptions) my friends who have lived for some amount of time in Australia or South Africa say that the pace of life there is so much more relaxed and yet they have access to the same technology in those countries.

Oh, there is so much more to say about my first two bullet points (a little taster: freedom of speech, photography, propaganda, hyperreality, charities, medical technology, the Hippocratic oath, image manipulation, transport, pollution, weapons…), particularly about the press . However, nothing that I think of really convinces me that humanity is being damaged by these in a way that we have never been damaged before.

That’s really the same for the state of family life and food (in modern-day Britain, at least) both of which are pretty miserable at the moment. When were they ever that much better overall? The problems and the causes vary immensely over time and location but there have always been horribly malnourished people and appalling mothers and fathers en masse.

Is the problem facing humanity, in fact, simply that there are so many more of us living on an elderly globe? There are more people doing the same amount of wrong things and it’s too hard (as it always has been) for most people, most of the time to step away from the glory of wealth, the pleasure of a quiet life, the horror of suffering or the temptations of what is just out of reach… to take the long view and act. Earth may be slowly (or quickly) dying but compare its rulers, children, youth, parents, teachers, managers, writers, role models, wealthy, poor, etc. to their equivalents in times gone by and I’m not sure there’ll be much in it.

And yet, we’re still here. Somehow, people manage to scrape away the dirt and find love, dreams, talents, pleasure and hope. That is a sign that humanity hasn't gone down the drain with a final glug. This is too. Whatever rises above the rest.

Well hello

2007-10-30T14:59:00.000Z

I just commented at length on Toby's blag and now I feel like I should put a post on mine but can't really be bothered to write loads again.

It was a year ago that I tried to blog every day. That was an effort.

Things I would like to do in the next few days:

Y11 folders
PSHE plans
All our filing
Varnish table
Research skips?
Clear out garage and understairs cupboard
Marking
Finish my picture

Just thought I'd write that list there and then. You can ask me how it goes. You probably know the answer already.

Went to see David Ford on Saturday. Brilliant! Apart from some rude people. Tone of voice and kindness/politeness, etc are all so important. I know I slip up in those areas too but it really riles me when people are rude to me! Me, me, me.

Absolute

2007-10-25T20:01:00.000Z

Well. Here is another post. I've been put off blogging because I don't know the answer to the among/amongst issue. So I'ma ignore that one for the mo and tell you about a dress.

It is blue, has a swooping v-neck, is baggy until below the hips then tight down to the mid-upper thigh. That's where it stops. I love it. It looks so much better than I thought it would. And it was only £2. Woot.

I also have:

more tights. Thank God.
a black skinny polar neck
colourful (easily distinguishable) socks. Thank God.
vest tops.

Luckily it was one of those trips when we all actually needed everything and we all found it too. So no guilt or frustration.

Right. Now I'm going to go make Cec feel ok about washing up stinky old lunchboxes. She just sighed from the heart.

With love. El

While/whilst

2007-10-12T13:16:00.002Z

Toby asked me to do a Grammar Thought on while/whilst. I’m struggling to find a definitive answer (art not science) on this but here are the views I have discovered in my (not very extensive) research.

‘Whilst’ is an adverbial genitive
I won’t go into genitives here, not least because I’m only just starting to understand what they are, so focus on the ‘adverbial’ bit of that term… ‘whilst’ describes/adds to verbs so only use ‘whilst’ when the next word is a verb. Otherwise it’s ‘while’:

Whilst speaking her hands trembled.

While she spoke her hands trembled.

I think this view appeals most to my logical mind. Yes, I do have a logical mind. The logic just gets tempered by some other stuff.

‘Whilst’ precedes a vowel; ‘while’ precedes a consonant
This view holds that ‘st’ is an excrescent suffix, simply added to aid the flow of a sentence. Just like we don’t say ‘a orange’ (we add an ‘n’) we’d add ‘st’ (and scrap the ‘e’) to while when saying, for example, ‘while abseiling I painted my nails’.

I’m not sure this view really works as the last sound in the word ‘while’ is a consonant therefore the flow is not disrupted: consonant ending + vowel beginning is not a problem for flow whereas vowel ending + vowel beginning is.

‘Whilst’ is British/archaic/formal/written; ‘while’ is the opposite
The sub-heading speaks for itself. I think it’s wrong though! Well, it’s certainly not true for me. I have, however, read that The Times and The Guardian’s style guides do specify that their writers should only use ‘while’ because 'whilst' is archaic.

‘Whilst’ is temporal; ‘while’ means ‘whereas’ (or vice versa!)
Apparently this is the rule for American legal language. This would mean that both of the examples under the first sub-heading should be ‘whilst’ because they both explain what’s happening at the same time (hence the term ‘temporal’) that something else is happening. ‘While’ would be used to draw attention to a contrast: ‘Karen’s the obvious choice as she is good at her job while Mike is not’. The only problem with this is that it’s not how most people distinguish between the two and you know the deal with language changing according to how it’s used…

So, I don’t know. Sorry. Perhaps just choose one of the options and stick with it so that at least you’re being consistent. Has anyone got a copy of Fowlers? What does that say?

I know I do

2007-10-11T18:59:00.000Z

n't.

What a busy time recently. I'm really enjoying my job. Which is making me work harder. But I think I might be feeling a bit stressed underneath it all. Do you ever get that slight feeling that perhaps you're just, but only just, keeping it all together? I think perhaps everyone does but the difference is that some people ignore that feeling and some people embrace it. Not sure which is better. Madness intrigues me because I sometimes think mad people are just closer to reality or a sense of themselves than everyone else. Are the rest of us missing out?!

Don't worry, I'm not belittling mental illness. I know it's real and horrific.

Toby has put Radiohead on repeat because he figured I wouldn't notice and therefore wouldn't complain. Which I didn't. Though wouldn't have complained anyway because I'm enjoying it. A shock for y'all there.

2007-10-08T12:45:00.001Z

Not my hobby. This guy's hobby.

Oh dear

2007-09-28T11:55:00.000Z

I have not blogged recently. Dave has put me to shame.

However, I have just overdone deep thoughts with Charlotte and I can't think of anymore.

It is really very cold at school at the moment and I hardly have any jumpers. I think I might spend this evening sorting out my clothes and chucking things out. I'm not feeling very sentimental towards them at the moment and I have had some of them since I was 15 (or younger).

Oooh, I just came frighteningly close to revealing an embarrassing fact about myself to the world then. Phew, that was a close one.

Here

2007-09-02T08:38:00.000Z

It's nice to be here in New Ash Green. I'm loving all our friends.

Back to school

2007-08-31T20:01:00.000Z

It's time.

It's been a good holiday though. Lovely friends and good things to do. I know I'll feel differently about this when I'm 80 but I like how life's flying by at the moment. It's more interesting this way. Bad things are over and done with and good things are always round the corner.

I'm breezy...

Me, my sister and my brother at his wedding:

Grammar QUESTION

2007-08-21T14:20:00.000Z

Put into practise/Put into practice?

I think it's 'c' because I think it means that you take a theory and put it into your practice*. But for some reason (that I can't remember now) I remain unconvinced.

Tell me the answer.

*A little grammar thought to keep you going...if you are choosing between 'c' and 's', you might need to work out whether the word in question is a noun or a verb. Nouns (naming words) = 'c', verbs (doing/being words) = 's':
Noun: Do your piano practice! Why won't you just take my advice? This is my driving licence.
Verb: Just practise the song, now! Why won't you let me advise you? I am licensed to drive.

Did I already do that grammar thought? Oh well, if I did, at least it's in context in this post.

Holsidays

2007-08-21T12:44:00.000Z

We went to Julie and Andy's and then to my Grandparents'. It was all good. I would post a picture of Julie and Andy's baby but I'm not too sure if it's ok to post pictures of other people's kids...unless they say it is, of course. Although, what about the kid's opinion later on? I don't know. So instead I'll post a picture of Cornwall which is where they live. Here:Now, the other thing was a grammar question. But I've forgotten which one it was. Something about an apostrophe somewhere or some sort of subject-verb agreement or something. I'll have a think.

Posterity

2007-07-01T14:25:00.000Z

Is the webbernet resulting in a loss of posterity and status when it comes to texts, images, information, literature...?

Does it matter?

Mornings...

2007-06-25T19:38:00.000Z

...are always distastrous. Why can't I just get a grip. My whole day would then be so much better.

Times

2007-06-24T12:45:00.000Z

Well, I haven't posted for quite a while and I thought I'd start up again because I quite like it really.

A lot's happened since March. And nothing has happened. Maybe a lot's just happened to other people and I've been there!

Paul and Jo got married
Cec got a job at Dicken's world
Ol worked very hard
Strangeday are going to Serbia
There was Mother's Day, Toby's birthday, Annette's birthday, Sarah's birthday and Father's Day
Annette got into Ridley Hall
Toby had a 1950s party
Sarah had a cocktail party
Toby played cricket lots
Strangeday played some gigs
I went to the ballet
I saw Abbey
Julie and Andy had a baby
Megan and Malcolm had a baby
Pete and Hayley had a baby
There were Hen Nights, Stag Weekends and Baby Showers
Imogen had a birthday in a pub
There was work. Always something happening there.

Probably some other things as well. Here's a picture of Paul and Jo.

I'm gonna start blogging again

2007-03-11T21:19:00.000Z

I was provoked by something I wrote on Toby's blog to write a post of my own again but I can't remember what...

Oh now I do.

Before you read on, please know that I'm not even beginning to criticise gay people in this post, rather some Christian speakers - happily no one from the church that I am a part of.

I honestly don't know what God's opinion regarding homosexuality is. Some people think they do. Some of them harp on about it without knowing what they're talking about, others have done lots of thinking and research.

Either way, it drives me round the bend when people publicly say things in church meetings that berate the gay community.* Often this comes either in the form of seemingly harmless jokes that we've all got used to or huge statements like, "Let's stand together against homosexuality." Imagine being a gay person visiting the church any time something along those lines was said.

Unless an issue in someone's life (any issue) is brought up with enough tenderness to see that person through the pain of dealing with it, s/he is being failed. Most preachers would make an effort to be tender if they were actually trying to speak into people's lifestyles through their sermons. Homosexuality, though, often seems to be treated as a political issue** (instead of as a personal issue) and fought with the same venom.

People's sexuality is intensely personal and should be broached with the utmost of care. Not joked about or battled against.

*And, for that matter, other religious communities. I think most of what I'm saying applies there as well.

**Another tricky topic: Church meets Politics. A treacle tin of tension.

January

2007-02-09T14:21:00.000Z

I did not like January.

It was too busy, miserable weather, I was tired for all of it and (slightly) bad things kept happening.

There were two good things:

A PERFECT Christmas celebration with my lovely family
The Strangeday album launch gig

February was an instant improvement.

Punctuation thought for Caelie

2007-01-24T11:52:00.005Z

‘these ones’

• Titles (although it’s often neater to underline titles or put them in italics)
• Speech in real printed novels (bizarrely)
• Sarcasm/irony

• Quoting one or two words only in essays and in life

“these ones”

• Speech when you’re at school/in handwriting/referring to what someone has said in real life
• Quoting longer phrases/sentences (or longer) in essays and in life.

I’m not sure on all these – they’re just conventions that I’ve picked up on the way. Add to the lists if you want.

Also, you need to think about what to do when you want to quote within a quotation. You could use one type round the outer quotation and the other type round the inner quotation. I don’t think I do that, I think I stick to the conventions above but I’m not sure. In this case, I would use whatever way looks clearer for the reader.

The other little tricky issue with quotation marks is whether to put fullstops and other punctuation inside or outside the quotation marks. If the quotation takes up most of the sentence, then people seem to put the punctuation inside:

Lewis also explains that “the average amount of food eaten is in direct proportion to hunger.”

People seem to put the punctuation on the outside if there are only a few words in the quotation:

Lewis’s revelations, although rather unexpected, have caused scientists to rethink their theories regarding consumption – a development that has been described as ‘controversial’.

The rules for speech are more rigid though – there must be a piece of punctuation before every speech mark. Can’t be bothered to explain that one. Just notice it!

No grammar this week

2007-01-14T16:29:00.000Z

Sorry not to have posted a grammar post. I was at a very very boring educational fair during my Friday free period. I hate the word 'fair' in that context. It definitely has the wrong connotations.

Active vs. passive

2007-01-04T20:37:00.000Z

This is a very quick grammar thought as I am very very tired.

Active voice vs. passive voice

If you want to make clear who/what is responsible for something, use the active voice. If you want to be more ambiguous or you want to focus on what happened rather than who did it, use the passive voice. There is obviously lots of potential here for manipulation.

Example sentences:

Active: I keep the butter in the fridge.
Passive: The butter is kept in the fridge.

Active: They stole the painting.
Passive: The painting was stolen.

Active: They are repairing the road.
Passive: The road is being repaired.

Active: Shakespeare wrote Hamlet.
Passive: Hamlet was written by Shakespeare.

Active: A dog bit him.
Passive: He was bitten by a dog.

Due to/Owing to?

2006-12-15T15:45:00.000Z

Welcome to Grammar Thought the second.

Here it is.

I've been wondering about this for years and finally got round to asking my Dad last week. When should it be 'due to' and when should it be 'owing to'?

Well, it's simple but perhaps tricky to put into practice.
Due to: adjectival
Owing to: adverbial

So 'due to' is there to describe a noun: if you wanted to describe the weather (noun), you might say, "This weather is due to a depression in the Atlantic."

'Owing to' is there to explain a verb: if you wanted to explain why Spud is limping (verb), you might say, "Spud is limping owing to his bad foot"

There is no logic to this one - they both mean the same thing - but it is a convention.

Grammar thought for the week

2006-12-09T14:17:00.000Z

My friend Jack and I are very cool. We set aside a whole Friday evening for discussing Grammar. And we enjoyed it. To add to the coolness, I said that I would continue to impart the art of grammar to Jack by emailing her a grammar thought-for-the-week every Friday in my free. I honestly can't think why people think teachers are nerds.

Anyway, for the benefit of you all, here is my thought for this week.

Welcome to Grammar Thought for the Week. This week's thought is brought to you by the letters I, M and E.

People often think that they should use 'I' instead of 'me' all the time if they are to be absolutely correct. However, if they stripped the sentence down, it would not make sense to do so:

If I was to invite you out with me, I would say, "Come out with me tonight!" If I was to add Toby in, the sentence would remain the same but with Toby added: "Come out with me and Toby tonight!". There is no logical reason for changing the 'me' to an 'I' (as many people do because they have lost track of the flow of the sentence and they think they're being super-correct* - often, people say things like, "Come out with Toby and I tonight!").

What is correct, however is to keep the 'I' in a sentence where it would have originally been an 'I', e.g. "I will go" becomes, "Toby and I will go", not "Me and Toby will go"

So don't change the pronoun from its original state.

Incidentally, did you notice how 'me' feels more natural going before the other person's name and 'I' would feel positively wrong unless it was after the other person's name?

*There is, of course, no such thing as super-correct when it comes to grammar. When people try to be super-correct, they just reveal their ignorance and/or lack of imagination. E.g. "All persons must check-in," (instead of, "Everyone must check-in," or, "All [specific plural noun, e.g. 'passengers'] must check-in,") equals crap.

By the way, our Friday evening was a lot more soulful than this as it linked grammar to literature and culture. Although I don't think that's going to help me in the cool stakes.

2006-11-19T17:33:00.000Z

I should blog. I've bought some paint today so I might finish my painting. I've gone back to acrylic because I used to enjoy it setting fast and making ridges. And you don't need linseed oil and white spirit. And the oils were expensive.

Everyone needs a Tobes

2006-11-10T14:28:00.000Z

I have been neglecting my blog of late because I got fed up of it over the holidays. Sorry to the five people who read it!

Anyway. I have been saying (to myself) recently that everyone needs a Tobes. He is a good one. Just in general. He's a cheerer-upper and a sorter outer.

And then last night he was a good one in more specific terms.

1. He texted me to make sure I came home from work on time
2. When I got home, there was a HUGE bouquet of flowers for me. From my favourite flower shop. I've never had a proper bouquet before, I don't think.
3. We went to have a curry at my favourite Indian restaurant (the New Ash Green one, if you want to know. The naan breads are objects of beauty).
4. Then he gave me an iced Chelsea bun.
5. Then we went to see Borat. Which I did want to see, before you ask. Very funny apart from some disgusting nudity.

Anyway. He is lovely. Despite (some) appearances!

Photos coming soon.

Tired

2006-10-28T15:32:00.000Z

I don't want to blog today.

Caffeine

2006-10-27T17:43:00.000Z

Is that how you spell it? I don't care enough to check.

Anyway, I was wide awake til about 4 or 5 in the morning last night, presumably because I had drunk a cup of coffee in the morning and a cup of tea in the evening. I normally have no caffeine whatsoever.

It wasn't all bad because I didn't have that horrible tired-but-can't-sleep feeling; I was just wide awake. So I did my work. Quite well, too!

I was wondering if it has such a strong effect because I used to drink a lot of caffeine then went straight to having none. Would that make it worse? I don't know.

Scheduled outage

2006-10-26T16:31:00.000Z

Blogger tells me that they have scheduled outage at 2PM PDT. I don't know what any of that means apart from 2pm. I can imagine 'scheduled outage' being something that Toby would make up to use when he's telling me that he's going to be out at a particular time.

Beautiful Websites

2006-10-25T10:38:00.000Z

I've become a bit addicted to this website which showcases the most beautifully designed websites it can find - 10 for every month since some time in 2005. Look at the archives to find the previous months.

It's not just the flair with which the designs are executed but simple things like the layout. A lot of it's done in flash but I think you could take some of the simpler layout stuff and do it in normal (whatever that is).

A non-eventful day

2006-10-24T18:21:00.000Z

Here's a picture of my Dad being a lizard. It was a funny evening:

In a little bit we are going to go and see my Mum and Dad for a cup of tea. And that will be the most eventful thing that has happened all day. Toby has been working on some little designs and I have been finishing The Constant Gardener. Which was good. But in some ways I wish it had a cheesy ending where you get to read about justice being served to all the villains.

Tomorrow, my sister is coming round and we are going to watch the whole of series four of Scrubs. I think. Although I have to do some work, having not done it last week. When I was writing my dissertation, I realised that it was going to come together at the last minute so I should enjoy the times when I wasn't writing, free of guilt. Then I went on a course in June this year where they said that if you're a last minute person, you always will be, so just plan to have time and energy available at the last minute. It's a nice thing to realise. So I'm feeling very un-guilty about having done nice things on holiday so far and I feel much better about actually doing the work itself.

The Constant Gardener

2006-10-23T16:55:00.000Z

I'm reading The Constant Gardener by John le Carre. It's good. You probably all know that as everyone else read it last year. I didn't feel much sympathy for any of the characters for the first quarter of the book though, which was a bit odd. It's all so shrouded in secrecy that you don't know whether any sympathy you may have is misplaced. But it's ok now because it's all starting to unfold. As these things do.

Meaning

2006-10-22T21:12:00.000Z

What meaning do you bring to this picture?

I just watched a programme on some of the symbolism associated with The Da Vinci Code (not just the film, the real stuff too.) It made me a bit sad because the program ended saying that there wasn't any symbolism/pattern/extra meaning behind various works of art.

BUT THERE MIGHT BE! Who knows what was in the artist's head? And what about the meaning that readers bring to the text? It was not a very soulful programme, I thought.

The Daily Mail

2006-10-21T12:06:00.000Z

I hate The Daily Mail because it pretends to be good journalism and it isn't. I don't mind The Sun and The Mirror so much because it's obvious that they're full of rubbish but everything about The Mail (layout, photograph style, banners, language) makes it appear decent.

?

2006-10-20T20:51:00.000Z

Blogger is being wierd.

Tobes

2006-10-20T19:29:00.000Z

Life with Tobes is funny and fun.

Lemon Surprise Pudding

2006-10-19T15:17:00.000Z

I am making Lemon Surprise Pudding in a minute and, as Delia says, the suprise is that there's a lemony sauce underneath the spongey pudding. I don't think that's a very big surprise but maybe it was to the first person who made it.

I also need to make a summer pudding to use up some defrosted berries that I've got. Summer Puddings always remind me of the opening to The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields. Daisy's mother dies of pre-eclampsia whilst making something like a summer pudding. It's horrible in a way because the raspberry juice is like blood and the bread is like her soft white skin. It's a sad book, I think. It's really a kitchen sink movement style book based on Daisy's experience of domesticity. It starts with love, passion even, between the summer pudding lady and her husband but ends with nothing.

Anti-Americanism

2006-10-18T18:18:00.000Z

From In the Shadow of No Towers by Art Spiegelman

It is perhaps strange and perhaps not so strange that this breed of racism goes unchallenged in many (most? all?) countries.

Some obvious comments we all enjoy making are on the subjects of the choice of president, the gung-ho foreign policy, globalisation, insincere cheerfulness, apparent arrogance/ignorance, bible-bashing... These obvious comments do, of course, have obvious roots which we can all remember with self-righteousness in our own heads.

I at least dislike, if not despise, all of the above but there are surely a couple of important points to bear in mind:

1. Not all Americans reflect all of these criticisms in their everyday lives. Obviously. In fact, I haven't met one American whose life reflects any of these aspects significantly. Just as we would hope to avoid judging Muslims, Scots, Germans, etc. on the grounds of their countries' actions, perhaps we should think twice before doing so to Americans.

2. There are some understandable reasons behind the stuff we like to criticise. Look at Britain in the first few hundred years of being an established country and power. (When I say understandable, I do not mean correct!)

This might be a silly thing to get on my soap box about - America doesn't really need defending: it's quite big. It is just that this racism seems to have been over-looked and I'm a bit concerned about the impact that this might have have on our pure and tolerant hearts and minds (!) and about the negativity Americans may have aimed at them through no fault of their own.

Done.

A tribute to Abbey

2006-10-17T22:59:00.000Z

10 minutes to go before I fail to post every day on just the second day...quick!

So, as I promised, a tribute to Abbey. Although perhaps it will be a bit shorter than I intended with the deadline looming and all.

Anti-Americanism is an interesting form of racism. I'll leave that comment hanging because I have no time to unpick it. Suffice to say, though, that most of us are anti-American in some way.

Well, if you fit into that bracket at all, you need to meet my friend Abbey (who is an American). She is all American but in such a way that you have to repent for all your anti-Americanism. She wants you to have a nice day and will make sure that you do.

So there you go. Hope that sounds like a tribute because it really is.

Hope I make it before midnight...agh, the suspense!

Mark and Abbey

2006-10-16T11:06:00.000Z

Holidays!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2006-10-16T10:18:00.000Z

Working that extra week in August is paying off now! I've got a two week half term holiday and it's already great. I'm staying with my friend Abbey who I will write more about when I can post a picture of her. It will be a tribute to Abbey.

Anyways, I am resolving to write every day of the holidays unless I stay away from home.

That is it.

Not 40 soon

2006-10-04T21:17:00.000Z

Just to confirm, I won't be 40 soon. I was making a point.

40 soon

2006-10-04T21:02:00.000Z

Matt is over and we're talking about blogs. Toby's is nice to look back on but I think mine will just be boring when I read it in the future.

Life is flying by very quick. October already. It's nearly half-term. Kerazy. And apparently it keeps getting quicker. Which is quite a scary thought considering how much quicker it's started going in the last few years. I will actually be 40 soon.

Oh well

The small people

2006-09-29T16:53:00.000Z

I had such a funny dream the other day. I actually woke up laughing to myself. It goes like this...

I was in my classroom and I got an email asking me to send all the small people down to the hall. I sent them down then wondered what they were doing so I went in to have a look. They were all sitting on chairs, swinging their legs because they were too small. I went and looked at the questionnaires they were filling in and they had questions like:

"When it's windy, do you get blown over?"
"Does this interfere with your learning?"

How funny! Even funnier that my mind made all that up. Once, in a dream, my mind made up a four or five page long booklet all about birds and I read it word for word. I don't even know anything about birds!

Sleep in the genes

2006-09-09T14:15:00.000Z

My father-in-law:
My husband (a self-portrait years ago):

Grammar teaching

2006-09-09T10:10:00.000Z

As you probably know, most governments are under immense pressure to raise standards of literacy and this government has responded by introducing The National Literacy Strategy. Which is not all bad, it has to be said. Although quite a lot of it is bad. The NLS, which does just has a recommended status (although recommended in the sense that if you don't follow it you've got to prove you're doing it better), instructs teachers to spend a significant amount of time on grammar teaching, some at word level and some at sentence level. There are so many opinions that everyone has on this but here's a fact for you...

The government introduced this recommended grammar on the basis of research that showed that grammar teaching improves writing. And that's what we all want, isn't it? HOWEVER, this is the state of that research:

The EPPI-Centre and English Review Team (an independent team who review vast quantities of research) searched their comprehensive database and came up with 4566 studies that had looked into the value of teaching grammar, specifically syntax, to improve children's writing. They then applied four criteria to each study to work out if they were thought out carefully enough and relevant enough. This slashed the figure of appropriate studies down to 58, only 33 of which were primary studies (as opposed to reviews). They then studied in depth the 10 best studies (according to their criteria) and only three of these were of medium-high quality. The review team concluded that all three were inconclusive.

This leaves teachers in a tricky position. Especially as the call for better functional literacy comes around year after year alongside all the debate surrounding exam results and standards.

There's more to say but I don't think you'd read it! I'll post a link to my essay one day and here's a link to the review that I was writing about. Enjoy!

No posting...everybody does it

2006-09-08T22:39:00.000Z

I've just been reading everyone's blogs (literally all the links working from Toby's) and everyone does a "sorry I haven't blogged for ages" post. This is mine. I feel a bit self-conscious about what to write. That's why. I don't have Toby's way with words when it comes to writing about nothing.

Well, I love my new job. Actually LOVE it! It's a good feeling.

I'm really trying to think of something interesting to say but it's hard.

Ok, Romeo and Juliet... Shakespeare uses anthithesis in the form of oxymorons to describe how love is never simple. Romeo describes his love for Rosaline by saying things like "bright smoke" and "cold flame". So love is always tainted. We can conclude.

Oh, this is cool: A Shakespeare insult generator. Everyone wants an insult.

Consumer Rights

2006-09-01T20:04:00.000Z

Toby's got a new iPod thanks to consumer rights and YOU need to know about them...

European law states that ANY electrical good that fails because of a fault with the product within two years of the date of acquisition (i.e. when it got delivered as opposed to when you paid for it) must be replaced or repaired.

The Sales of Goods Act says that consumers should expect goods to work for a reasonable amount of time. If the company says their product should last for at least five years then you have a case for demanding a repair or replacement if it breaks down within that time. In fact, you have a case whether or not they say it should last for that long. I imagine it's harder to get repairs/replacements on these grounds as they're a bit vague. The European law seems pretty solid though.

A friend in retail did say that companies can get round it by saying that it was clear at the time of purchase that the product was only guaranteed for, say, a year - something from the Office for Trading Standards helps them there - but I don't think the European law actually specifies anything about that; it's just a straightforward law that it must be repaired or replaced if it goes wrong.

Lots of companies only give a one year warranty - even for products like washing machines and ovens. This is caused by the concept of extended warranties where you pay the company to guarantee your product for longer. But don't, at least for the first two years, because they have to repair/replace it anyway.

Anyway, nice Apple people

Virtue

2006-08-21T15:06:00.000Z

I have had nothing to write recently as I have been very good tidying and cleaning and, as everyone knows, virtue is boring.

Virtue quotes...

"He has all of the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire" (Winston Churchill)

"As far as I'm concerned, I prefer silent vice to ostentatious virtue" (Albert Einstein)

...and a less cynical one

"Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one." (Marcus Aurelius)

Anyway, back to school on Wednesday so can't keep it up much longer. I should have some more interesting things to say then.

Elbs

It's a beautiful day

2006-08-19T09:22:00.000Z

The sun is shining, the birds are singing and Toby is washing up.

Working very hard

2006-08-17T12:07:00.000Z

I've had a very busy day today. I have sorted out every single teaching resource that I have on my computer into categories and renamed all the files so they make sense.

I have also researched the Great Vowel Shift...something that I should have known about prior to becoming an English teacher. Perhaps I did one day. It goes like this:

You know we have such problems with spelling in English. Well this is all because of the Great Vowel Shift (which, I think, is much cooler with those capitals - it's how it's written). From the 1400s to 1700s, there was a major change in the way that people pronounced their vowels. The reasons behind this are very complicated but the interesting thing is how it affected spelling. During the GVS the printing press was invented and so began the standardisation of English. English spellings, then, became standardised before the pronunciation had finished developing; our spellings relate much more to the way things were said in the 15th and 16th Centuries.

The following url has some recordings of the different pronunciations. (I don't know how to hyperlink yet):
http://alpha.furman.edu/~mmenzer/gvs/dialogue.htm

So now you know. Have pity on your English teachers.

Also, I found lots of Cockney Rhyming Slang on a great BBC encyclopedia website (h2g2):
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A649

Now I have to do a bit more research and reinvent upstairs.

Gym and school

2006-08-15T19:08:00.000Z

I went to the gym for the first time ever today. It was good.

Also I went to my new school to sort out my classroom:

Hello everyone

2006-08-14T19:22:00.000Z

I've given myself a blog. I read everyone else's all the time and I like it so I'm joining in.

But I should be tidying up. So I'm not really joining in quite yet. Cos I'm gonna tidy.

Yes, yes I am. Although I've been saying that since 8am and it's now 8:21pm.

Elbs