Bicycles For Fish

a milestone achieved!

2009-10-22T07:00:51Z

My upgrade viva has taken place (yesterday), and I am delighted to say that it was successful, and I have been provisionally upgraded from MPhil student to PhD student. Upon submission of a revised timetable for completion of my thesis, I will be officially be upgraded to PhD student.

This is the culmination of quite a lot of hard work. It also confirms that others more experienced than me in academic thinking and writing have confidence in my ability to complete a thesis in four years. I didn't quite understand the monumentality of that statement until I actually tried doing it. A thesis is quite a beast: it's one very long argument, and it's imperative that I don't repeat myself in it (because examiners will definitely catch it, and give me a dressing down for it). I need to maintain my argument throughout, and ensure that everything in the thesis is there for a reason, not just superfluous filler. This sounds quite straightforward, but at times is quite a challenge.

I got very useful comments at the upgrade viva yesterday, all of which I will (and am expected to) incorporate into new versions of chapters. But it was good to have other academics besides my supervisor and my other half read my work and critique it. I'm very pleased with how yesterday went - and ecstatic that I am allowed to continue with my research and work toward my PhD!

So I'm taking today off from PhD stuff. I have a massage booked at 10am, and then I'm not quite sure what I'll do. Maybe snooze! Or up my jewelcrafting in WoW...

how time flies

2009-09-08T16:49:25Z

I'm updating so that this journal doesn't look abandoned. I've submitted my upgrade materials for my upgrade from MPhil student to PhD student status. I have my upgrade viva later this month. I'm feeling pretty good about it - confident, like.

Not sure what else I fancy sharing with the world. Funny how I've had this journal for over seven years, and the longer I've had it, the more private I feel I want to keep my life. I am considering just closing this, but then I get all nostalgic and think, oh but think how long this LJ thing has been a part of my life. And so I keep it, though I don't know what actual benefit it provides me.

Though I did discover two LJ communities which tickle my fancy, so perhaps that's a reason to keep this active.

well now

2009-06-25T16:48:02Z

Oh noes y'all -- Farrah Fawcett is dead!

This journal is still active

2009-06-12T14:33:19Z

Ah the lifespan of computing.

The new iPhone 3G S has the same processor speed and RAM as my 2002 iBook.

This is basically a post so that my journal doesn't look like I've abandoned it. I've not, I've just been very busy with research, writing, and other things. Sadly I have nothing new to post, apart from a HUGE desire to drink champagne and get a massage. Not necessarily together.

Well as long as I'm here, I might as well talk about the trials and tribulations, to coin a phrase, of doing a PhD in the UK. So I was supposed to "upgrade" from MPhil to PhD student status. This is a standard process here apparently. For the first two years of the PhD I'm "officially" registered as an MPhil student, which I guess is a Master of Philosophy, so in case you fuck up and don't complete your PhD you at least get something. After two years, you undergo a "viva", or oral examination, to upgrade you to official PhD student status. I was scheduled to do my upgrade viva in May, just after I'd returned from a week away. I go to meet with my supervisor before the viva, and she gives me the news that my viva is being "postponed" until September, basically because nobody thinks I'm ready to upgrade, and everything thinks I should be further along in my research and argument construction.

This is a bit disappointing, and frustrating, because it's true: I should be further along, and have been dropping the ball for the past few months. I think there are several things causing this: lack of desire (mid-thesis slump), lack of motivation (see previous), fear of success, fear of failure, uncertainty of what I'm doing, lack of confidence in my argument construction skills are the top reasons. And World of Warcraft.

Anyway I'm back on track, because this "postponement" was quite a kick up my intellectual backside. I've spent the past couple of weeks going over my data, and thinking a lot about what my overall argument is for my thesis. I've also read a few theses in my area, which have been particularly helpful, because the structure of a PhD thesis is quite different than the structure of a Master's dissertation, or book, or even journal article. I've also made contact with a really interesting academic at Western Michigan University who is actually researching what I am, flight attendant/pilot communication, but from an aviation psychology/safety/CRM approach. That is, she's not coming at it from a theoretical, linguistic anthropology framework.

So that's how I'm occupying my time right now. A distinct change from what I was doing with my life 5 years ago.

text versus images

2009-04-07T16:21:05Z

I hope I am not the only one mystified/confused/frustrated at mindmaps. How are they supposed to help? I just tried making one, and it only confused me further. Hrmph.

A bit of sad

2009-02-18T09:29:38Z

I just found out that Lux Interior died. This makes me quite sad, as The Cramps have been a constant (if not very obvious) musical companion since 1987.

R.I.P. Lux.

javafox @ 2009-02-02T02:48:00

2009-02-02T02:51:46Z

I have an iPhone! Finally!

And it's snowing so much here in Kent, we're forecasted to get up to 6 inches!

An Historic Day

2009-01-20T23:49:08Z

Well, what a great day for the United States of America. I watched live, on the BBC, the pre-inauguration stuff, and the inauguration. Didn't get a chance to see the parade or anything after that, as our Sky is rubbish (which means we only get a few channels, not the plethora we normally get). I am so, so happy that Obama is now our president!!! By "our" of course I mean America, but really, while some people do not like to admit it, America has a very influential role in the rest of the world, so in a way, Obama is "president" for the world.

I sat inches away from the TV (mainly because my left eye is getting increasingly worse), waving my invisible flag, clapping like a mental person and just giddy with hope and glee and joy and the sheer happiness that the darkness which has enveloped me for the past 8 years has lifted.

I've got Newsnight on now, with the lovely (and kinda hot) Jeremy Paxman, and Ted Koppel is talking about his views about today. Earlier another guest was Chuck D. Bob Woodward offered his views as well. What a great day for the world. No longer does the US have in power someone who, quite frankly in my opinion, hated America.

Ok so now that optimistic American view is down, I can be a bit more British: Aretha's voice isn't quite what it used to be, is it? Shame. I quite enjoyed the quartet as well, that was a lovely arrangement, and so multi-culti. Very in fitting with the mood of the future.

In other news, because I so rarely talk about myself here: my PhD upgrade viva is rapidly approaching. This is the ceremony when I am quizzed orally about my research, and it is decided whether I am allowed to proceed with my research in the PhD programme, or if I must graduate with an MPhil degree. Which is, I believe, a Masters of Philosophy. I was a wee bit terrified until I sat down today and made myself a schedule. A schedule always helps me, and makes me feel more in control. I like feeling in control; it makes me very happy and calm.

For this viva and upgrade process, I must hand in several documents, including a 15,000-20,000 word document, usually a chapter from my thesis (what the UK calls a PhD dissertation). Crikey. That's a lot of words! But I broke it down into manageable chunks, and it's feeling a lot more achievable right now. Of course I've had a couple glasses of wine now, so pretty much everything is feeling achievable right now :-)

Random spotting of former ANTM contestant

2009-01-14T21:47:06Z

This is so random. I'm watching something on BBC4 about Rankin, the photographer, recreating famous fashion photographs from the past, e.g., from Helmut Newton and David Bailey. Anyway, he was recreating a famous Helmut Newton one, and one of the models he used was Mollie Sue from ANTM cycle 6! There she was, all cute with her cute short boy hair! Good on her!

thoughts.

2009-01-08T03:47:03Z

Toby Young has blagged his way onto Top Chef pretending/claiming to be a food critic. Not just a food critic but a "famed British food critic". Um. I live in Britain, yo, and this cat is a misanthrope. I don't remember him being a food critic. He's a journalist. And 10 years ago was a drug supplier to Fat Les for a great photo shoot for Vanity Fair, the magazine he got fired from, for pissing off everyone there. I'm watching him carefully during this episode, and thus far he's not said anything which would lead me to believe that he knows what he's talking about, culinary-wise. I could be wrong, but Toby Young is pretty much known in Britain for being a dick, who pisses everyone off, who acts inappropriately, who says shit that angers people. Though he has been on Celebrity Come Dine With Me. Hardly food critic stuff though.

Edit: Yeah, he is just a little prick! If you read How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, that sums him up precisely. Ooh that stupid little face he has! With his stupid little bald head! Ok maybe it's becoming clear that Toby Young is not my favourite person, lol. Seriously though, listen to him - he sounds nothing like Colicchio, who is clearly an educated palate.

Tv Heaven

2009-01-06T04:21:05Z

Oh my word, Intervention! There are no better words!

javafox @ 2008-12-31T23:39:00

2009-01-01T04:39:58Z

Happy New Year 2009 everyone!!!

javafox @ 2008-11-05T14:40:00

2008-11-05T14:41:20Z

I'm in Iceland!

And we won!!!!! Did we do it?

YES WE DID!!!!

waking-up thoughts

2008-10-23T06:39:21Z

All of this hoo-ha about Palin's makeover, and everything else about her, and it strikes me that she is a female version of chimpy. Because chimpy is male, his overarching status as masculine-dominant seemed to neutralise, or at least counteract, the stupid things he says and does. Palin, on the other hand, does not have that necessary Y-chromosome, and therefore people think she is stupid, vapid, and not fit for the office of (vice-)president. Interesting, and telling about the state of gender relations in the US.

I was browsing The Huffington Post's article and slideshow about Palin's makeover, and didn't realise she'd been wearing (rather hot) heels during the debate. I wonder what shoes Ferraro wore at her debate (was there even a VP debate back then?). Haha, political party shoe wars. Democrats wear Birkenstocks, and the Green Party wears hemp sandals woven by third world children, to earn money for the new clean water system for their village.

I find the entire Palin circus fascinating on many levels: political, social, gender, fashion, class. Funny that when something is revealed about the McCain/Palin ticket which is unflattering to the Republicans, they seem to play the "sexist" card more frequently than they should. I don't think it's sexist to report Palin got a $150k wardrobe makeover funded by the Republican National Party; I find it fascinating that a number of media outlets would report it, and the furore it seems to be causing in some circles is equally telling about unspoken social norms and gender(ed) expectations. And rather hypocritical too, considering the Republicans a few years ago were very vocal about Edwards' haircut he paid for (eventually) with his own money, and Clinton's alleged haircut on the LAX runway (I think it was LAX).

The really horrible thing, the more insidious element of all of this, is the fact that everything seems to be political nowadays. It's nice living in a different country, where every little detail and element of life is not interpreted as a marker of your political affiliation. I like the fact that health care and reproductive rights and the car we drive are not seen as political statements. Actually, over here, the food one eats, the newspaper one reads and the grocery store one shops at are more likely markers of political or class affiliation. Read the Guardian? You are lefty middle class. Shop at Tesco? Working class. Shop at Iceland? Pramface. Read the Daily Sport? Sad dude who likes to look at titties.

slightly pissed thoughts on the evil little toad

2008-10-19T01:07:31Z

So I'm getting round to watching the last debate. I used to really like McCain back in the day, when he was the acceptable face of the fascist, sorry, Republican party when he was on The Daily Show. Now he's just an evil, lying toad who blinks a freakishly excessive amount.

He spews lies, and makes Obama look that much more moral, intelligent, calm, rational, and presidential. He tries to distance himself from "the last eight years"; HELLO you little toad, you WERE RESPONSIBLE for the last eight years.

(self-edited for brevity)

McCain = FAIL

Obama = WIN!!!!!!!!!!

The Beauty of the Baize, Part One.

2008-10-18T00:05:19Z

I want an extra Sky+ Box (digital video recorder) just for the snooker. It's Grand Prix time, and I've still got some World Championships to watch, from May.

Ronnie got eliminated by a 19-year-old kid whose nickname is "Haircut 100".

Yes, I know I just did an entire post, short as it may be, about snooker.

Debate Redux

2008-10-07T06:46:53Z

oh my God I nearly fell off my chair laughing at this!!

javafox @ 2008-10-02T15:57:00

2008-10-02T15:01:33Z

Ok. I have restrained myself immensely from any political talk, mostly because I'm over here and that's all going on over there. But the nomination of Sarah Palin to be McCain's VP has sparked a schadenfreude fascination in me that is incomparable.

I post this URL mostly for selfish reasons: because I want to remember it, and possibly revisit it, possibly multiple times, over the course of the next month. Perhaps there will be additional Greatest Hits reels to accompany it. And bookmarking it seems like a lot of work (mostly in the finding the bookmark stage, not in the making of the bookmark).

Jeez that was rambling. Anyway, enjoy.

Edit: Forgot to say, the video is a little choppy, which is unfortunate because I think the edits could lead to undue criticism of content. However, I think the spirit of the speakers come across.

Unexpected Joy

2008-09-17T23:55:48Z

Note to self: no matter how bad things get, they always get better.

And be happy if you don't have cholera, gonorrhea or syphilis!

Or yellow fever!

Edit: wtf how does wine sneak up on you like that?! :-p

javafox @ 2008-08-27T11:12:00

2008-08-27T10:20:14Z

I just read Hillary's speech she gave last night at the Democratic National Convention. I found it so good I got a little misty-eyed, and I'm fairly sure it's not the remnants of sleep still clinging to the corners of my peepers.

In other news, I have begun the protozoic stages of my first chapter of my PhD dissertation, or as it's known in the UK, thesis. Not to be confused with what I wrote for my Master's Degree, which was a dissertation. See, not that confusing. :-) And of course Word decides to eff up -- what is it with Microsoft that they seem incapable of writing code or an application which does not have bugs that crop up at the most inconvenient times? I mean that as a rhetorical question, but if anyone has a serious answer, I'm all ears. Does anyone remember that e-mail that went around like 7 or 8 years ago, about Microsoft forming a new company called "PatchSoft"? Obviously it was a joke/funny/haha, but one of them what with a touch of truth behind it.

Let's end on a positive note! I can get an iPhone in only six months!! :-D

EVIL!!

2008-07-02T23:56:19Z

Evil,

evil,

EVIL

drama

2008-05-29T12:15:16Z

So living in the country is lovely. Except when you have neighbours who hate you, and you don't have CCTV installed (yet) to catch vandals in the act of property destruction.

Last night I'm coming home when it's dark, and I pull up to our gate. One of the doors is lying down on the ground. I'm like, uh, ok. I get out to look, thinking maybe it was so incredibly windy that a door blew down. This is unlikely, as the doors are fairly heavy (too heavy for me to carry), and when I had a look, I did not see anything that would indicate the door fell down on its own. So my next line of thinking is someone (or many someones) actually LIFTED the door off its hinges and put it on the ground. I cannot think of any other way it would have been removed from its hinges.

This is not the first time we have suffered property damage in a suspicious way.
1. A sundial went missing from our back garden last year. Who would take a sundial? Neighbours who hate us would, that's who.
2. When we had another car parked in the front, it mysteriously got keyed 4 times along the passenger side. Deep gouges too, down to the metal.
3. Our tax disc went missing. A tax disc is not of any benefit to anyone other than the owner of the car the disc is linked to. The disc is evidence that you've paid your yearly road tax, that is all. It's unique to the car, and cannot be transferred to or used for another car. The tax disc is in the front passenger side on the dash. This side faces away from our house, and can't be easily seen if someone is standing and watching in the back garden. We rarely left our car unlocked, and since it went missing we never do.
4. Two of our tires were punctured. At home. Parked on our property. Safely (?) inside our fence. The tires were both on the passenger side, the side that is not visible from the house or the back garden. Punctured in the same place on both tyres, right near the ground. So it's not like we ran over something sharp and it randomly punctured the tyres. Oh and the tyres were fine when we parked the car.
5. A piece of door trim went missing from the front passenger side door. Yes the same side that can't be seen from the house.

Our neighbours hate us, and are crazy. They hate us because we own a piece of property which borders on their driveway, and they want us to move our fence to give them wider access to their driveway. Ren doesn't want to do it, because he doesn't want them to think they have more property than they do, and he doesn't want to inadvertently give away property, however small it may be. Also, this piece of property used to belong to them, and they sold it to the previous owner of our house when they needed money. So we got it when Ren bought the house. So it's ours, not theirs, but boy you'd think otherwise.

They also do not like when we have fires in the back garden, in the piece of property which they used to own, which is now ours. Oh boy don't they like it. In fact, most of the damage that I've described above has happened almost immediately after we've had a fire.

They have also contacted the council, who in turn has sent us a letter telling us that our neighbours have complained about our "nuisance" fires and if this continues they will investigate (we of course are like, yeah, investigate, and you'll see we are doing everything we are allowed to do).

And they've had their lawyer send us a letter threatening us with legal action if we continue to harass this poor, old, retired couple who have never done us any harm, and we are constantly coming on to their property and harassing and intimidating them. This is a compete lie. I personally have been on their property exactly once, at her insistence, when she was doing quite a bit of harassing and intimidating me. She and her daughter, on the other hand, have been VERY intimidating, threatening and harassing to us, on our property, pushing their way into the fence when the door was propped shut, as if they own the property and it's theirs to do whatever they want on.

And finally they have contacted the trust which owns the piece of property we both have to drive over to get access to our respective properties. This bit of land is not owned by either of us; we both pay a yearly fee to have access to our properties. This should mean that it is not their business what happens on that bit of land (within reason; obviously if someone is being harmed or something that would be a different matter). For example, if we happen to leave our fence gate doors open for a half hour or so, it is not their business, as it does not impact them in the slightest (the doors do not block access to their driveway). Nor should it matter to them if we have visitors park on that property, as long as the cars do not block access to their driveway or access to the turning space. But they have written to the trust and complained that we are doing all of these things (blocking access to their land, blocking access to the turning space), which we are not doing. Perhaps we have had visitors park on the communal (trust-owned) property, but it has in no way blocked or impeded access to either their land or the turning space. However, they have often done both: blocked access to our property, and blocked access to turning space, either with delivery vans, visitors, or deliveries of building materials.

I've started documenting when all of these things happen. In fact, this entry is mainly to document all activities up to this point in time. I'm calling our locksmith to come out and look at installing a CCTV system, because I want to catch whoever is doing all of this in the act. I suspect it is the neighbours, or some agent of them. Who else has such strong negative feelings about us, however valid they may or may not be?

I am getting mighty sick of all of this, though. I am not used to living next door to people who hate me! I just want peace and quiet. We are in the country, after all.

javafox @ 2008-05-09T00:23:00

2008-05-08T23:23:51Z

If I were going to be a nurse, or therapist, I would totally specialise in transsexuals. Everyone deserves to be happy.

javafox @ 2008-04-28T17:25:00

2008-04-28T16:36:01Z

I know it's been a fairly productive day when it's half 5 and I've not gotten dressed. Seriously. Even though I slept til 11 this morning, I have written words and accomplished work! I have a deadline of 15 May for a progress report, for which I have to have 5000+ words written. I am in the middle of producing a "field notebook", e.g., what it was like to be a flight attendant at my former employer. It is astounding (to me, anyway) at how much I know about the job. So far I am up to 10k words and only maybe 1/10 of the way to completion. This is mainly for my own good; I doubt I will use much of this for my final thesis, but it gets me writing, and producing words and coherent sentences, something for which I am totally grateful to my supervisor for forcing me to do.

Plus the snooker is on!! 888.com World Championships in Sheffield, 17 gorgeous blissful days of world-class snooker, and the last event of the season. Saddo that I am, I am recording what I don't watch live on the Sky+ box for later. If they were available, I would totally buy DVDs of great snooker matches. They do that for football and rugby matches, why not snooker? (That is a rhetorical question; I am well aware some people think it's a dull, boring game.) This afternoon, Ronnie O'Sullivan, who is so incredibly talented at the game, did a 147 in the final frame of his match against Mark Williams. 147 is the widely recognised maximum break (highest score you can get minus being awarded foul points), and is pretty difficult to get in general, let alone in the most prestigious tournament of the season, and the final frame of a match. But there he goes, making it look so incredibly easy. Best thing is that this tournament is really long, and there are still 7 more days of snooker, all day and all evening. Boyfriend is probably grateful I have taken over the tv, as that means he stays in his study and gets more work done. Win-win!

accessories, sweetie darling

2008-04-22T03:25:00Z

I am obsessed with finding Tumi bags at TJ Maxx, Marshalls, et al.

Thank God I am returning home to the UK tomorrow, and can save my money. I know what happens to me (and my bank account) when an obsession with bags takes over. I can't help it though - I can never have too many bags and shoes!