I’m carving at least two more at the moment, but I may just pop those on facebook instead. Gosh, has it been since February? I should really post here more often.

Extreme religious fundamentalism!? Words can’t describe how offended I am by that. Basically, Brideshead Revisited explores Catholicism and how Christian ideals and beliefs influence a Catholic family and an atheist – amongst other characters – and how they examine their own lives. The characters in the book range from very strict Catholic to strong atheist, with the majority of characters fitting somewhere in between, much as they seem to in normal life. Major themes include faith, reconciliation, and vocations in life – themes which aren’t uncommon in any novels, religiously motivated or otherwise. Most characters undergo some form of ‘conversion’, but those conversions are more like epiphanies about their own lives than anything else, and all this takes place with the backdrop of an excellent story.

How dare the anyone describe this book as being about extreme religious fundamentalism! The very small minority of people who use being Muslim, or even masquerading as being Muslim, to act as terrorists and cause untold pain and suffering to so many people are merely described as ‘religious fundamentalists’ and yet a charming novel which commits the evil of allowing characters to consider God for even a moment during their lives must be described as being filled with ‘extreme religious fundamentalism’. The world truly has gone mad.

I would also take this opportunity to point out that in several book reviews I’ve read recently it seems that novels following more typical themes and underlying messages are described as being whateveritwas-themed, whereas books where Christianity is permitted to play even the smallest part are described as having a religious agenda.

This is not the first time recently that people who simply happen to be Christians have been described as religious fundamentalists. It’s becoming a frighteningly common occurrance, and it seems to be accepted in all standard media and by very well respected outlets. It seems that if anyone dares to profess their faith or to suggest that Christians be allowed to do so they get shouted down and vilified instantly (with one notable excpetion I heard on the radio once, when an Imam was outraged that officials wanted to rename Christmas in their area in case it offended minorities – he said how appalling it was and that we should all be entitled to religious freedom – hear hear!).

I may be something of a traditionalist Catholic, so does this mean I too am a religious fundamentalist? It’s worth pointing out here that I have a great many very liberal friends, and not only have they never described me as a fundamentalist, but on the infrequent occasions when we’ve had long discussions about morality and faith we’ve always had the greatest respect for each other’s views and though we’ve often disagreed we’ve never argued and always found a great deal more common ground than people expect.

Well, if I’m a religious fundamentalist is someone who’s a slightly less traditional Catholic than me a fundamentalist? How about someone a little more liberal than them? Would some atheists think that anyone who believes in God is a fundamentalist? The term fundamemtalist seems to me to be used by an increasing number of people as a tool by which to win arguments, it’s bandied about whenever someone wants to belittle a stance or even a thought if it’s held by someone religious, so that their argument can be dismissed as mere nonsense.

Sorry for the completely unprovoked rant, I should probably stop before I bore anyone who’s been determined enough to read this far down gives up. At least I’m not alone though, someone else appears to agree with me, and apparently this is discussed a lot in another blog too.

The second , from the same episode, is the full-length Sea Ponies song!!! ^_^ This is the first time the sea ponies were introdued to us – when Applejack fell through the rickety bridge and into the water – and a small part of the song is used throughout the series when the sea ponies are around. I love this song

Defnitely not new in the least, but it still made me happy to find it ^_^

I’ve just managed to get hold of a copy of L : Change the World (the third live action Death Note movie) and I can’t wait to watch it! The first two Death Note films were excellent, despite a few unnecessary plot changes, and L was the fangirl-tastic highlight of both of them. Kawaii! ^_^ This post contains a spoiler for the second Death Note film, and only a blurb for the third.

Directed by Nakata Hideo (who also directed the Ringu films), and with Matsuyama Ken’ichi reprising his role as L (if he hadn’t the sounds of fangirl tantrums would probably still be resounding around the world) this film promises to be an entertaining and surreal account of L’s final case.

At the end of Death Note : The Last Name there were 23 days unaccounted for between L solving the Kira case and L’s death, by his own hand, as set out in the Death Note. Change the World follows L in the last 23 days of his life as he investigates his final case, and the first case where he has not had Watari at his side. His final case comes in the form of a young Thai boy, the sole survivor when his village was swept with a virus, and Maki, the 12-year-old daughter of a scientist. L is forced to abandon his usual practice of solving his cases remotely as he battles to save the children from terrorists who, chillingly reminiscent of Kira, claim they are going to “change the world”.

When I’ve watched it I’ll write another post here, including the second trailer for the movie (the first one is in this post) and a deleted scene from the movie as well (unless I have better luck between now and then the subtitles might be in Thai though… sorry). Until then enjoy this trailer:

This American Indian scarecrow was sheltering under a doorway but still looked rather unhappy at being drenched. (I only recently found out I’m not supposed to say Red Indian because it’s insulting, which is quite odd because in this country at lest it’s a much-loved term with absolutely no malice behind it whatsoever. Does this mean the Peter Pan song is meant to be bad too? it’s a shame if it is). So much effort must have gone into making this scarecrow’s costume, and he looks magnificent! The headdress and the trousers in particular are lovely.

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While some scarecrows looked sorry for themselves, others took matters into their own hands. This amazing magician scarecrow was obviously too tired to cast a spell that would make the rain go away, so he resorted to a flowery umbrella I think this is one of my favourite scarecrows.

Just as I was about to leave one scarecrow really caught the feeling of the moment. I was cold, soggy, and feeling really very sorry for myself when I found a scarecrow demonstrating the Great British Summer it made my day. The sun lotion tucked into the shirt is a particularly nice touch ^_^

For anyone who wants to know more about it (and as a way of saving a quick link for me) there’s a teachers’ pack intended for secondary schools, sixth forms, and university students. It contains notes on the geology of the area and how the rock formations developed, the vegetation of the area and how it came to be, and it even contains some sketch maps and cross-sections. It’s a really good resource and comes from the official Bolton Abbey Estate webpage. The teaching pack can be found here in .pdf format.

Tsukurimashou, tsukurimashou,

Sate sate nani ga dekiru ka na.

Hai, dakimashita!

Looking through my photos I found the first ever Coffee and Walnut cake I baked ^_^ it was made a few months ago and was rapidly demolished by my family and me. There’s no real reason for me posting this other than in a ‘look at me!! look what i did!!’ sort of way, so I guess I’m just posting it because I’m proud of it. I love making coffee cakes because of using the always fun Camp Coffee, the history of which is incredibly cool. I even found this advert from the 1890s, it’s quite arty and I’d love to get this as a print.

As well as terrariums (like those below on the left) she also designs gardens from small glass-bound aquariums (below right) to giant landscape gardening projects. She’s designed a large number of gardens in America (for a list of these and details of exhibitions/projects etc. you can look here). Each of these pictures links to the full-sized photographs, because tiny resized images don’t really do them justice!

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A little of her work is currently being shown in the MetroTech Center in Brooklyn, USA. She also has some rather odd, but still compelling, works for sale at the moment.

Apparently in English it’s now called Shrill Cries of Summer (ひぐらしのなく頃に is the Japanese title, apparently), but the fan groups who will like it most in the west are probably always going to know it as Higurashi. There are also two websites for the film that I found:

「ひぐらしのなく頃に」実写映画化決定 – oyashirosama.com

映画「ひぐらしのなく頃に」公式サイト – higurashi-movie.com

They’re both in Japanese, but they look so good! I love the aerial view of Hinamizawa in particular, but it’s all really artistic and fun ^_^ All I will say is that one of them seems to play the sound of cicadas calling, and since I’m sitting up on my own late at night, I’d forgotten the speakers were still on, and I didn’t realise what was going on at first (since I opened the site in a new tab) I think I almost had a coronary. Quite unsettling.

I found this picture of the main cast of the film (well, at least the main child cast):

Something really sticks out about this for me: Satoko and Rika look like they’re the wrong way round! Aside from looking a bit too old for the characters they’re meant to be playing (although I can sort of understand that, since this really isn’t the sort of film you could cast really little kiddies in) it seems to me that their Satoko has the slightly other-worldly and contemplative look that Rika needs, and their Rika has the mischeivious playful look that Satoko needs. The pictures might be deceptive though. I’ve also heard there was a Christmas special out there at Christmas, a thirty minute anime special to prepare us for the live action movie. I’ll have to do a bit of research to see if I can find it, and I’ll update at some point with what I find.

I want the Higurashi movie! >_<

Zombie Loan is a short – 11 episodes – anime seriees based on the manga Zombie-Loan by Sendo Banri and Ebara Shibuko (a.k.a Peach-Pit) and is about the lives of three highschoolers. Kita Michiru is a girl who has shinigami eyes, seeing a grey ring around people’s necks which gets darker and darker as their death approaches, finally becoming black. At the beginning of the story she sees that two boys from her school, Akatsuki Chika and Tachibana Shito, have black rings round their necks but aren’t dead. It quickly emerges that the boys were supposed to have died some time ago but made a deal with a company, Zombie Loan, to become legal zombies who worked for them to eliminate illegal zombies. Michiru was, predictably, drawn into the company and the lives of these two boys by a set of bizarre circumstances far beyond her control.

(NB/ The strips of pictures have had to be resized, so each is linked to the original sized version)

At this point I genuinely thought this anime had potential and I was really excited about it. For a while it only seemed to get better (and odder) as lots of possible directions for the anime were hinted at, with suggestions that there was a lot more to a couple of the characters than had already been shown and that their boss was not what he appeared to be, then there was a glimpse of a much darker group operating in the shadows. I hoped I’d found a cracking little series. It really really didn’t live up to its promise. I can’t remember ever being this disappointed by an anime before. Instead of actually following up any of the possible storylines that had been hinted at they were all just left up in the air in favour of the worst ‘climax’ to an anime series I’ve ever seen. You know those disaster films where utterly incomprehensible problems arise one after the other for no apparant reason and with no attempt at explaination, before a random jumps out of the shadows with magical solutions that are utterly divorced from anything that’s been shown before? Well, that’s exactly what Zombie Loan is like. I watched in horror as defeat was convincingly snatched from the jaws of victory.

It wasn’t all bad, especially if you ignore the last few episodes. It was pleasant enough nonsense and the odd animation was quite fun to watch (despite the fact that everyone was ridiculusly elongated) and the colours are an interesting mix of garish in some scenes and very subdued in others. Plus there was the highlight of the series: Chibi Death!!!! ^_^ Kawaii! I loved him so much! (he’s in the picture below, but I really need to try and get a better picture of him). Is it wrong to love Death and want to cuddle him? but even Chibi Death was marred a little by the fact that his chibiness made no sense!!! Just like the glasses that Michiru uses to stop her power: what were they? where did they come from? why did they work? and why on earth was there an inexplicable split-personality lesbian who seemed to be able to channel goodness knows what to be able to see… the present? Grrr! It *might* be better after a second watching, but I’m still too disappointed to get up the drive to watch it again. It would be worth reading the manga to see what’s been done with the story there, because it really does (or did) have potential. Zombie Loan is incredibly frustrating because it could have been so good if it had only had a little bit of care and attention, however we have been left with gift wrapped fail which gets a very generous six out of ten from me.

I found a great thing on the internet the other day: Digitile. It’s a company which can print any picture you want onto tiles, which is how the wall map in the picture above was created. Their site has loads of different images (landscapes, Japanese art, flowers etc.) which can be ordered as tiles, wallpaper, or even as carpet tiles, but they will print any picture/image/design that a customer gives them. The company has been running for ten years and has even created a wallpaper mural which was used at Tate Britain. However, my favourites are the tiled map on the wall (above) and this awesome space carpet created for a school computer room. I want one!!

Meet my newest teddy bear, Hunter! ^_^ When Peter-lita-(pumpkin-eater) graduated yesterday (I mentioned it in an earlier post) my parents came back from the ceremony with a gorgeous present for me – a cuddly teddy complete with bow tie! He’s named after the surgeon John Hunter, a legend in the medical world. I couldn’t even begin to describe what he’s done for medical science in this post, there’s just so much!

This really is just a random post to show off my new teddy. Sorry if you were hoping for more, I’m just so pleased with him and think he rocks.

Buenos Aires and Baden, and is awesomel It was made by a large-scale street artist known as Blu, and his website looks odd enough to be interesting. I think I might be a fan.

He’s also just toured North and South America for an art project/documentary-like thingy called Megunica. It looks quite interesting.

As a quick aside here’s one of my favourite quotations from de Quincey:

Thou hast the keys of Paradise, oh just, subtle, and mighty opium!

Back to The Various. I adore these books, they’re lovely stories and very well written, and I’m sure I’d love them all the same even if they didn’t have cool fairy-like people and a beautiful tiny pegasus horsey (well, almost the same anyway ^_^). However, a few months ago I was shocked with myself that I missed something blatantly obvious on the front cover. After two years, TWO YEARS, of owning this book, reading it twice and seeing it almost daily, Mumzilla handed it back to me having borrowed it to read and I was shocked by something I’d never noticed before…

Oh yes, it took me two years to spot the small winged figure sitting on the tree branch. Probably the central focal point and single most important part of the cover, and I missed it. I’m ashamed I hadn’t noticed it but I’m also dumbstruck that something so blatantly obvious could escape my attention.

In other news, following on from my massive sort out I managed to get all of my Tales of Redwall books together (Brian Jaques is an author people must read. Each book is a master class in dialects, I can honestly say I’ve never read another author who can convey accents and dialects as well as he can), but there are too many for my Redwall shelf! *whimper* it looks like they’re going to have to stay broken up after all.

The first thing to do is to finish some of the short stories I’m a stone’s throw away from completing. I have no idea why I abandoned them except that I don’t think they’re much good, and the only way that’s going to improve is by continuing to write. This one’s pretty pointless, since I don’t allow people to read them, but it means something to me at least.

I’m going to start actually doing something with my hair for once! What’s the point in having long hair if it just sits there? Cool plaits might be fun to play around with. I’ve also decided to lose weight, and since it’s been three weeks now and I’m half a stone down methinks I’m doing ok here.

I am going to learn some Japanese. My foreign language skills are absolutely rubbish, not because I really struggle to pick something up (which, admittedly, is not unknown) but because I can learn something really well and then I simply forget it. All of it. My French only stays bareable because I spend so much time listening to Édith Piaf. My Spanish was actually quite good when I learnt it for a year in school, but since French was compulsory I didn’t want to screw up two GCSEs instead of one, and now I can barely remember a dozen words. During my A-levels, where I did all the sciences and mathematics, I fancied a break and taught myself Russian. Having managed to get it to a decent conversational level I left the school and lost access to the library, so now I remember diddly squat. For a few months at Durham I also taught myself some German, but I didn’t get very far because of spending loads of time at lectures. My theory is that I watch enough anime that I’ll constantly be bombarded with reminders of the language and won’t just collapse into a pile of fail having learnt something useful.

Finally, I hope to make fewer posts all about me.

…and if this seems at al biased it’s because most of the articles I’ve found on the subject only put forward the points of view of Brook and the Family Planning Association. I did find one from the Telegraph that was quite good though.

For my part I completely disagree with women being ordained into the clergy at all at any level. I was baptised Anglican but when I was still a baby my family became Catholic because my parents disagreed with the ideas being put forward in the Anglican Church (the ideas which have gone on to divide the Church very neatly in two) and I couldn’t agree with their descision more. Belief-wise I fall decidedly into the conservative end of Catholicism. Priests are the successors of the apostles, and all of the apostles were male. I know people argue that it was a different time and women wouldn’t have been listened to, but Jesus was a controversial enough figure at the time and if He had wanted any women to be His apostles I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t have bothered Him.

In other Church related news our parish priest is retiring We’re all going to miss him a lot and it’s very sad to see him go, especially since he’s been with us for 18 years (which is a phenominal amount of time to stay in one parish). On a happier note we were doing the count at Church again on Sunday and there’d been a second collection again for a charity which helps children with leukaemia, and I’m pleased to say it was the largest second collection I’ve ever encountered (I think it was even greater than the main offetry! …but after three and a half hours of counting money there are some details which are escaping me).

Finally, and perhaps most oddly, the Doctor Who series finale (which I thought would have been better as a less rushed double episode rather than stuffing everything into one) contained one thing which I absolutely loved and will never forget:

German Daleks!

Win!

My eldest brother’s coming down for another graduation ^_^ it’s either his third or fourth, and there’s another one due later this year too, I think. I’m frighteningly excited about seeing him again (since it’s been far too long) but now I have to tidy up and move my boxes of stuff from his room – so for the remainder of today and tomorrow I shall be the busiest Alfirin in the whole wide world!

There is a good side though: my stuff was in his room because I’m having a massive tidying session in my own room. W00t! I’ve managed to clear a little over five long (about three and a half feet each?) shelves of space to put some of my books into, in the hope of eliminating the random piles of books throughout my room. Did I succeed? Did I hell.

One smallish pile of books has gone, and the most I’ve done with the other piles is make them slightly shorter and therefore slightly less likely to fall over. On the one hand this is great, because I’ve never much fancied the idea of dying in a crumpled heap below an avalanche of books, but on the other hand it’s reminded me just how many of them I have. I personally have somewhere in excess of a thousand books (so goodness knows how many there are in this house in total) and simply can’t find the room for any more. They’re piled high on the shelves, stacked solidly under my bed and slipped in the gaps under my dressing table. They line my old crib, form an interesting obstacle course whenever I try and go to bed, and they take up a healthy portion of the book cases by the front door. They’re even spreading to the living room now in the form of an oddly-shaped mountain  that can just about be hidden behind a chair (but only when the door is open and can aid in hiding them). Something tells me I need to buy fewer books.

On the other hand I’m currently rereading Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, by Thomas de Quincy. Words can’t describe how much I love that book. Superbly crafted and full of a heavy dose of crazy, it’s easy to see how the book could go on to influence so many great writers.

Sorry it’s so tiny.

Sadly there was no time to sing the Azumanga cookery song (mimicking Chiyo-chan is always a passtime full of indescribable yay), so I’ll have to e-sing it now! ^_^

Tsukurimashou, tsukurimashou,

Sate sate nani ga dekiru ka na.

Hai, dakimashita!

Just a normal sponge with jam and butter icing filling. Not particularly exciting, I’ll grant you… but it’s almost all gone now

The question is: should I come back later today (when I wake up) to add links to some of the random anime references I’ve made?

Probably – but we’ll see

It gets better though! Alfirin and a girl doggy had puppies together! ^_^ Kawaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!!!!! They’re so cute! There are several videos of them at their owner’s videos page on Youtube, and I definitely suggest you should go and have a look.

By the way, any jokes about me sharing my name with a dog will result in disembowelment.

I don’t think I can trust myself to comment on that.

Microsoft have released their new version of Word. After people were annoyed with them for the Microsoft Works Suite – which managed to screw up Word, Excel, and several other things – they’ve come up with Word 2007. They’ve now managed to make it incompatible with every single other version of Word that’s on the market. Great.

I think the University of Durham may have switched, at least in part, to this new system. Since Durham is close to my heart and I have bucketloads of sympathy for any student there who may fall foul of this update, I’ve decided to post a helpful little guide to show people how to open .docx files (the new filetype that Word 2007 saves its documents as), and to open the new Excel and Powerpoint files too:

Older Versions of Word:

For anyone who uses a PC but doesn’t have access to Word 2007 (or the new Powerpoint etc.) there’s a very simple solution that lets you open and edit the files as proper Word documents – as .doc files. There’s a file converter program (The Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and Powerpoint 2007 File Formats) where you download it and follow the ridiculously simply instructions to install it. When you then try to open .docx files they will open like magic.

The file converter can be found at this link here.

I would suggest then clicking ‘Save As’ (on the File menu at the top right, for anyone who doesn’t use computers much) and choosing the ‘Word 1997 – 2003′ or similar file type option in the dropdown menu at the bottom.

Mac Users:

For people who use a Macintosh computer there’s another simple solution, but since I don’t have a Mac I’ve not been able to test it. It’s a desktop widget which sits happily on your computer’s display, and when you have a .docx file to open you simply drag it over and drop it into the file converter. The file will be saved automatically into the same place as before but as an HTML file. The widget also updates itself automatically, which is rather handy.

The desktop widget can be found at this link here. 

Since I’m rather cautious with things like this, and since I’ve not tested this widget, I personally would save two copies of the file as a .docx file and only convert one of them. That way you can’t possibly lose any data at all.

Other Operating Systems, and People on Shared Computers: 

If for some reason you can’t download and install either of the previous bits on your computer, or if you use Linux or some other operating system, then there’s another simple solution you can use. A .docx converter website which is frighteningly easy to use. On the right hand side of the page (covered by an advert when I opened it – just click on the ‘X’ to get rid of it) there’s a box where you can select your file and type your email address in. The document will be sent to your email address in HTML format.

The online converter can be found at this link here. 

The only downside of the last two links given is that they lose any fancy formatting that was present in the original file by stripping the data to HTML form. That’s why it’s best to save two copies of the .docx file – then you always have the original data.

On a pretty and shiny-full note I saw this the other day and decided I’m not very fond of the people who could a) afford it, and b) were actually aware of limited edition pretty whilst the limited edition pretty was actually available:

Kawaii! I never ever pay attention to mobile ‘phones, but this is the first ‘phone I’ve ever actually wanted in my entire life. It’s just so pretty ^__^ It’s a Samsung mobile decorated with a pretty design and charm by Anna Sui (a fairly famous dealer in pretty) and seems to be crafted from purest Win. It’s rather annoying that I’m two or three years too late to bankrupt myself in order to own unnecessary pretty. I might have to petition to get the pretty to be made again. It’s bound to work, because big companies always listen to what a single random student-type thinks would be a pretty yet probably profitless idea.

Click on any of these images to see them in their original size.

Kawaii! It’s a custom My Little Pony made by some talented stranger (whoever you are – I love you!!!) as a homage to Edward Scissorhands. Goth ponies are always fun (I should really get some more pictures of them) – and I’ve been told that most proper My Little Pony fans of about my age are actually goths! That’s rather fun ^_^

It’s taken me ages to post this – torrents really do slow down the internets.

It’s impossible not to love Danny John Jules as the Rastafarian Merry Man. Hmm, I really need to get hold of some episodes in full – it’s really good fun ^_^ Right, back to pancake eating!

It should really be pointed out that the chipmunk is actually a prairie dog – and the video the dramatic chipmunk clip was taken from is here.

All that was created by simply putting chalk to pavement. Wow. There’s a time-lapse video of the genius at work here, if you’re interested.

The familial resemblance is striking. Shouldn’t she be hounding that poor Earth girl like the others? Actually, I really liked this scarecrow and think the person that made her did an incredible job. There were lots of scarecrows where I looked at them, recognised them, and walked off – with this one I actually stopped and spent a long time studying her. The one which actually gave me the creeps the most was the fella’ below:

Oh Rena, how we love thee

Whatever will I do with my life now that Higurashi no Naku Koro ni and Higurashi Kai are now finished? Here’s hoping Umineko no Naku Koro ni will be available soon! Hmm,on the other hand I could always wait a few months for… a live action film of Higurashi!!!!!! Now I have to wait for this as well as the L movie. I can’t cope! >_< It looks like it’s going to be released in Japan in April this year. Yay!

“A live-action movie for the “Higurashi no Naku Koro ni” franchise has been announced for 2008. The film, which is being directed by Ataru Oikawa, begins shooting on the 14th(Aug).

“Higurashi” started out as a series of visual novels, but has so far been adapted to manga, anime, and other media. The film is said to be initially opening on a single screen, with the hope that its popularity will spread by word of mouth, much like the original games.

The cast includes Gouki Maeda, Rin Asuka, and Airi Matsuyama”

Here’s hoping they keep in the blood and violence, because it’s really rather central to the impressive storyline. I found this clip on the interwebs and thought I’d be all nice and share it (did I mention I’m rather excited?). Enjoy! ^_^

EDIT: I found out some more about the movie, so I’ve now made a second post about it.

Who wouldn’t want a Doomkitten? It’s gorgeous! ^_^ If you haven’t already done so I suggest you sign up for a DragonFable account. The graphics are lovely and the dialogue is really rather entertaining. There are a lot of small adventures you can go on within the game, with new ones being added periodically by the people who make it (the same people behind AdventureQuest). There seem to be almost weekly updates in content and levels, along with lots of special events, although it’s been a while since I was last at the site.

The land in which DragonFable is set gets bigger all the time and is all fully animated, allowing your character literally to be able to walk anywhere you wish. You don’t really interact with other players (unless you use the forums – I’ve been too scared to look there yet) but on the other hand it does mean that you can play as frequently/infrequently as you want to. It has quite a good storyline too. I know it probably won’t impress hardcore gamers, but I’ve really enjoyed it

There’s a bit about the physics of these bubble rings here, which includes some spectacular pictures and some cool physics equations of awesomeness. This is fluid mechanics at it’s best and most stunning.

Dolphins appear to learn how to do this by watching each other and copying closely. Apparently it doesn’t happen when they’re older, or when there are far more adults than children in the group. Maybe it’s just that when there are more children around they’re more likely to have chance to copy each other, but it could also be that the smelly adults won’t let them play I’ve also heard it suggested that they use sonar to locate the rings when they’re playing with them – that would be amazing!

Anyhoo, I was going to write about the Hatton fight and write a mildly mean review of Zombie Loan but it’s late and I’m sleepy – so here’s a picture of a bunny with a pancake on its head! ^_^

…and a strange old picture of Katrina and me added for humour. Katrina appears to have beer glasses sprouting from her head, and both Katrina and James are either making the Victory sign at the camera or being rather uncomplimentary about my fine self. How rude!

I couldn’t agree more with this anonymous reviewer of one of the greatest books ever written: Le Grand Meaulnes. This masterpiece by Alain-Fournier should be treated as literary royalty, so imagine my surprise when my family bought another copy (to replace one lent to someone many years ago. Grrr!) and found the only copy available was a Penguin book which had a plain white front cover with a bright sticker for you to peel off emblazoned with the words Design Your Own Cover.

Their idea is simple: people will make their own front covers and enter them in for a competition. This has been going on for over a year without my knowing it, and although I can see why it could be popular for some people I can’t help but feel a bit cheated. Good book covers, as far as I’m concerned, become one with the book itself. A familiar cover is the first sign that you’re about to revisit an old friend, and I feel as much affection for a few (admittedly slightly battered) mountains of rather bold colours as I do for The Hobbit itself, so it upsets me a little that something which could have been so lovely is taken away for the sake of a promotional trick. On an even more serious note the idea of purposefully making marks on a book distresses me somewhat.

How much more fun it would be to go out and buy a book which looks like these (the one on the right is the cover I can’t even look at without yearning to pick it up and read):

It would seem they got the idea from a Beck album in which the cover was left bare but there were stickers provided inside for buyers to decorate it. They even got Beck to design one of the example covers for Le Grand Meaulnes! Oh, as a quick aside I thought I should just mention why I’ve not been replying too quickly to comments – my internet die-deaded! Oh noes! Not entirely dead, but it’s been taking about 12 minutes to load a page! Not good for blogging, and definitely not good for playing Warbook (the size of my kingdom was reduced by almost 60%! that’s way over 10,000 acres lost). It gives me more time for reading though ^_^

To give you a bit of an idea what the Little People are like here’s a tiny workman digging up a road (very slowly). If you look closely you can see him in the second picture too. I really like this one

They’re not just on random stretches of road either, some have been in rather well known places. This particular one was outside the Barbican. This one’s a bit trickier to spot (unless you look for the kite) so clicking on the second picture will lead you to a (slightly) higher resolution image.

I was sent this by a friend and thought it was too good not to share! Aside from a slight error it really is absolutely excellent and has made my day   To the person that made this: I will love you forever.;

This really made my day ^_^ I love that film. The magnitude! The horror! The plasticine!!! What more could anyone ask for?

The film is called Behemoth The Sea Monster and dates all the way back to 1959. Amongst its cast (of thousands, apparently!) was André Morell, better known as Professor Quatermass of Quatermass and the Pit fame, and who also voiced Elrond in the animated version of Lord of the Rings He even played Doctor Watson in a version of The Hound of the Baskervilles in the same year that he was attacked by a large blob of plasticine! It’s a small world.

Since then it’s been letting me onto the homepage but rarely further. I can see the number of messages in the inbox growing, I’ve had a couple of alerts about wall messages I can’t read, I’ve… I’ve had to realise there’s a life outside of Facebook! The only thing that does frustrate me a little is that I can’t even read, let alone reply to, my messages. This highlights a rather substantial (and obvious) flaw in keeping everything in one place: when one thing breaks it all breaks. The more functions people pile onto anything the more danger there is of it breaking. It’s true for sending all messages/photos/news across facebook, it’s true for admittedly cool gadgets like the iPhone, and it is, for some obscure reason, true for washing machines. On the face of it the iPhone is brilliant (ignoring how restrictive it can be). You can have a mobile ‘phone, a camera, TV and the internet all in one place… but when something goes wrong you won’t just have a broken camera, or a ‘phone that’s not working properly – you’ll have no ‘phone, camera, or internet.

It’s a very simple fact that the more things you have which can go wrong, the more of them will go wrong. I saw washing machines for sale which had a mini computer in them so you could enter all the details you wanted for the pre-wash, actual wash, and spin cycles: it organises and controls it all so you don’t have to. Splendid! …except that a soppy little bit of computer power is far more likely to go wrong than a piece of solid machinary, and since it’s all cleverly set up so that you don’t have to do anything the end result is that you can’t do anything when that small component is broken.

Basically I’m sulking because my Facebook account’s a bit broken ^_^ My writing also seems to be getting worse by the second, so with that encouraging thought I’m off to write more for my dissertation! Unless there’s something fun on Youtube

This year Remembrance Sunday actually falls on the 11th of November, which is rather a rare event. It was rather nice that the usual Mass I attend on a Sunday is the 11am one: the silence actually fell on the 11th hour of the11th day of the 11th month – which was rather lovely. The picture I’ve used is another scarecrow from the villagers at Kettlewell. Sealed off alongside the war memorial (understandably closed where so many people were in the village) was a lone soldier saluting toward the memorial. Tastefully done, and a rather lovely touch.

Teikyo University (帝京大学) is a university in Japan which is renowned for what are known as ‘cultural exchange programmes’, where many of the students will travel abroad for a year for a mixture of activities. During the year students go on holiday outside Japan, attend language school, and study at a university – which brings some students to Durham! The Teikyo Festival is their annual festival of Japanese culture and everyone is always welcome to come along and join the fun. They all put a lot of effort in, and it’s definitely worth it

The entire Teikyo building is decorated and various events are held in the rooms throughout the day (along with food being served outside all day long – proper Japanese food ^_^). Unfortunately I only set up my camera after the sword demonstration and after already having eaten, and also I missed the traditional tea ceremony (a must see – it’s gorgeous) and the kendo demonstration. There’s so much on at the Teikyo festival though, it’s almost impossible to catch everything.

The wishes written by people who visited were strung out and made a fascinating and rather lovely display. They were funny, touching, and sometimes witty – also just plain odd, as Beth wrote “I love coffee more than Nao from alice nine (I want all the coffee in the world)” As well as this and other displays around the building there were activities in each of the rooms. The ghost house was terrifying! You could hear screams all down the corridor, and I spent the entire time clinging onto Ruth (a friend of mine from the Anime Society) – she’s completely fearless and awesome ^_^

There was a room where Japanese lessons were being given to people with no prior knowledge of Japanese, and one where Teikyo students would take you through making an origami piece of your choice (no experience necessary. If I can do it then you can – believe me ^_^). There were also complicated origami pieces for sale either on their own, or as decorations on things like hair grips.

There was a room where you could learn calligraphy and try writing some using paints as well. The room had temporary ‘wallpaper’ in the form of Japanese newspapers, peppered with Kanji along with their translations. There was even a random picture of Doraemon Outside there was even a chart of the Chinese zodiac which members of the Anime Society know well having watched the wonder that it Fruits Basket Then a few of us bumped into our friend Yu, who was about to dance in the Soran bushi dance! Time to go and watch that…

This is taking a rather long time to write, so I’ll add this to the blog now and start on part 2 immediately ^_^

The post about that is going to have to wait until later though. The festival went on until about 4pm and was amazing, and since then I’ve cut my hair! I now have a pseudo-fringey thing that I’m actually quite pleased with …I look like a human for once!

Now I need to get ready (and don nekomimi) for an outing with the Anime Society. Pictures and coolness will follow ^_^ Jaa-ne!

In this story I learnt of new student juries and a National Student Forum where students can advise ministers on what’s best for them. It’s new, it’s enticing, it’s pro-active, it’s forward-thinking. It’s putting our voices “at the heart of government”, and we’re going to be engaged with like consumers.

Am I the only person lamenting this education system?

Completely ignoring that we’re going to be engaged with ‘like consumers’ (words cannot describe my facial expression whilst reading that, so use this to help you guess) this step has the feel of all those patronising student committees in schools, where school children jump to the chance to change things and have their opinion heard, failing to realise not only that they will have no more attention paid to them than before, but also that they are being used as part of a propaganda war to make the school look better.

I want to be wrong. I *really* want to be wrong. Not least because there are lots of issues that are ignored because students hold no real power (we’re the in-between stage where our parents can’t legitimately kick up a fuss for us, but we’re also not in proper ‘grown-up’ society ourselves). For one thing, what about the way that interest for student loans is calculated?

I want to do a follow-up to this post – one where I mock myself for having been cynical, and where I can see that people are being listened to even a little bit. I just have a horrible feeling that the follow-up post will come when I’m earning, and that I’m being rather idealistic now, thinking that the public have any more say when they’re no longer students.

Using an amazing site called Your World Map it was very easy to mark out places visitors had and hadn’t come from. The full version of the map is shown on their site and is full of very pretty colours, so the more countries people visit from the prettier this map will be ^_^ The only properly populated continent I seem to have had no visitors from at all is South America! How shocking! Slackers…

Anyway, while this was interesting and fun enough to pass the time it also happened to help me discover a gem of a site. Far from being simply a map site, Your World Map provides information about the countries you click on too! A little fact file comes up, not only giving standard information (distance from you, capital, population density, flag, etc.) but it also gives you the coat of arms, details ofwhat the weather is like, links to a detailed map of the country you chose, and it even tells you what kind of plug adaptors you would need if you went to visit that country!!!!!! This site gets 10 thumbs up from me, and is easy to use and informative for *anyone* who wants to look at the site. As perfect for school children doing geography projects as it is for elderly people planning holidays. Although they have trouble spelling weather :S

Click on the fact file below to view it in full size:

What prompted this bit of rambling? Well, I noticed in the logs for alfirin.com that someone had viewed my page in French using google translator. The page can be found here, and actually made my day it’s rather cool, after all.

The return of Genshiken was greatly anticipated by many people who saw the first series, and though I’ve only seen the first episode of Genshiken II so far it certainly doesn’t disappoint ^_^. Genshiken’s going to be granted a post of its very own, but it was because of watching the first episode that I decided to watch Doujin Work.

Having finally taken note of the word doujin (despite almost certainly having come across it before) I found this series and a few reviews that said it was rather good: little did I know that this was about people who wrote… um… dodgy manga. Well, I almost gave up after the first episode.

Doujin Work is 12 episodes long, and each episode is a little under quater of an hour in length. It follows the adventures of a girl called Najimi Osana as she decides to make her fortune as a doujin artist. Somehow she ends up drawing adult manga, so the series is basically pleasant nonsense involving repeated embarrassment when the main character is caught ‘researching’ into making better manga.

I’m glad I decided to watch the second episode (and continue for the remainder of the series) despite my initial distaste, because it became evident that there was nothing bad in the anime itself – when people read the manga you only have an idea that it’s not children’s stuff because of the reaction people have when they read the books. It’s actually a nice little story which simply takes the mickey out of’ero’ manga (even the name of the lead is a pun: osananajimi means ‘childhood friend’ – a common theme in anime). So if you’ve got some spare time I’d suggest watching Doujin Work, because it’s actually rather good fun ^_^

You’ll be pleased to hear I wasn’t homeless in the end, but I’m going to be leaving Durham forever later this month because I’m incredibly old and should really be doing something… productive? However, I have no internet now so for the time being updates may be scarce, but I’ll do everything I can to try and keep posting. In fact, here’s something rather interesting as a reward for still checking here after my apparent exit from society:

Do you notice anything in the rather cluttered picture to the left? Apart from the beautiful stained-glass window, of course. The little gaping hole in the wall is actually incredibly important, and something very similar to it is found in all Catholic and Anglican Church buildings.

It’s called a piscina. Its purpose is to dispose of water which has been used as part of a sacrament. The hole in the wall here drains directly into the ground, and in many Churches the piscina takes the form of a small sink. The only materials which pass down the piscina are water used for sacraments, and also the water used to wash the vessels used for the eucharist.

The idea is that it would be awful for the body and blood (bread and wine) which are used in communion to be washed down a normal sink (and presumably go through water treatment plants etc.), and that it would be far better for them to be returned to the earth they came from. In much the same way if any bread, once blessed, falls to the floor it then has to be buried in the ground; this is for exactly the same reason.

So next time you go into a Church you should try and see if there’s a little hole in the wall. It will be a very special little hole, since it’s deemed important enough to carry very sacred items back into the ground.

I could become the littlest hobo!!!!! ^_^ That would be awesome!!!! Actually, I’m really rather worried

Alright, so this one may not be as genuine as the others. It still amused me though ^_^

Also: I posted this early yesterday morning (10th September) , but with a time delay. I’ve never done a time delay post before, so fingers crossed that it will work!

If you’ve read my first post on this subject you’ll know that the funds raised during the week that the festival is on go partly to the Church, and it’s certainly a gorgeous Church. Unsurprisingly the Church too was jam-packed with scarecrows

The first you see of the Church is the gorgous Church tower peeking out from between the various stone walls and bits of greenery that really make Dales villages stand out from the crowd. There’s a welcoming party for all visitors too: a scarecrow wedding party (absolutely stunning ones too, with lots of details, including well-dressed hair made of straw). It’s a mystery to me how the dresses could stay so perfect even after having been out in the rain!

There were scarecrows throughout the Church as well as in the Churchyard, and I’ve added them all to a slideshow below so that you can see just how much effort has gone into the entire vilage. Apparently the Church was home to an entire choir of scarecrows last year! They must have looked gorgeous, and I’m really sad that I missed it. I hope you enjoy looking at these guys as much as I do ^_^ and as always, there are many, many more to come

The theme of the Church this year was lambing time, and it really couldn’t have been done better:

Not only did he write his own name (‘it gets worse?’ I hear you cry) he was also kind enough to save the police the trouble of sifting through various Peter Addisons (such as this one here, who seems to be a rather talented artist) by writing the name of the ‘gang’ he’s in (The Adlington Massiv!) on the wall as well. I actually feel quite sorry for the boy: he’s never going to live this one down.

When I am an old woman, I shall wear purple,
with a red hat that doesn’t go, and doesn’t suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
and satin candles, and say we’ve no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I am tired
and gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
and run my stick along public railings
and make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
and pick the flowers in other people’s gardens
and learn to spit.

We can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
and eat three pounds of sausages at a go
or only bread and pickles for a week
and hoard pens and pencils and beer nuts and things in boxes.

But now we must have clothes that keep us dry
and pay our rent and not swear in the street
and set a good example for the children.
We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.
But maybe I ought to practice a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.

It’s obvious that the scarecrows would be delightful for children, which is why I wans’t surprised to hear that this fellow had been walked around the village all day by a children’s TV crew! Apparently an art program for children had come to film at the scarecrow festival, and decided to use this little chap as their ‘mascot’:

I warn you all that there are lots more scarecrows to come. I’ll try and put some of them together in posts, put some into normal posts (when the themes overlap) and give some of the more impressive ones entire posts to themselves! I’ve already written a few of these posts and given them future timestamps so they don’t all come at you at once. Hope you enjoy them ^_^

Since 1994 this village has completely opened its doors for a week every year in order to raise money for their school, village hall, and Church. Residents all make imaginative scarecrows which spend a week in people’s gardens, up lampposts, outside shops, on the sides of buildings, in hedges, in car parks… in fact, pretty much everywhere you look there are scarecrows. Everyone in the village seems to pitch in , with the result that the village looks absolutely stunning, and is completely jam-packed with tourists – the people that actually live there must be exhausted by the time us ‘outsiders’ have left

Everyone is very welcoming, and a great deal of thought is put into the festival as a whole. There are maps with trails on them and clues to figure out; one for adults, and one for kiddies, each with its own theme of scarecrows. You can buy small scarecrows, scarecrow festival pencils, and a whole host of things, and there are plenty of tea rooms around the village to cater for visiting tourists.

I made a very big mistake though. Every year my parents and I have had reason to drive through Kettlewell en route to some other part of the Dales, but we’ve never stopped and got out to view the festival properly (we’d been worried about parking: we didn’t realise they had people helping you park in a large field nearby, and who were present in that car park all day). So I assumed there would be, at most, about 40 or 50 scarecrows – and I promised myself then that I would photograph every one and put it up here. There will have been over 200 at least, and those are only the large ones. This means they’re really not going to fit into one post, even if I were to use slideshows.

A promise is a promise though – which is why there is now a new catagory in my blog of ‘Kettlewell Scarecrows’. Some posts in this catagory will just have one, some will have several, probably in slideshow format – so you’re going to have to watch this space to see how inventive the inhabitants of Kettlewell have been

(Oh, and I apologise about the pictures: they’re ok full size, but they’ve gone a bit strange when I tried to make them smaller – also, I’ve put some information about opening dates/location at the end of this post)

Firstly, the setting is magnificent. Since this museum is located within the train station itself, it has to be where the railway tracks are… up on a level with Ribblehead Viaduct, in rather bleak moorland. Since it was cold and wet this time – some other visits have had better weather, but it’s always fairly windy there – it was hard not to feel sorry for the people who worked throughout the year to build the railway line.

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The museum has interactive maps and timelines about the construction of the viaduct, and generally gives you a good idea of the area and what was going on back in the 19th centuary. You’ll also get some odd bits of information: did you know that Ribblehead Viaduct was originally called Batty Wife Viaduct? or that the first manager of the building work (Mr Ashwell. Later succeeded by another Mr Ashwell) was incredibly enlightened for his time, and ‘lost’ a lot of money by looking after his employees? (very basic things, like giving masons tarpaulins to lie on so they wouldn’t get wet)

Aside from being informative and being in a gorgeous setting, another strong point of the museum is that it is in situ, so to speak. Since Ribblehead viaduct is a very famous feat of Victorian engineering it’s understandable that it would get mention in museums across the country, but none of them could have quite the same feel that this little cottage, a station house at Ribblehead, has. Not only is it almost on top of the viaduct itself, right where the people were all those years ago, but this means it’s also very near to other places connected with the history and construction of the railway – like St Leonard’s Church in Chapel-le-Dale: the Church where the Midland Railway Company helped fund a memorial for those who lost their lives building the tracks and the viaduct.

As you may have guessed, I was a fan of the decorated windows – even though the pictures have suffered from a mixture of poor lighting and resizing. I guess I’ll just have to go back again to see if I can do a better job

**INFORMATION FOR IF YOU WANT TO GO THERE**

The museum is completely free to enter, and is open every day apart from Mondays (except bank holidays, which it does open on). It’s in the little station building which you get to up a small road opposite the Station Inn pub (which you really can’t miss, it’s right next to the viaduct). If I’m not mistaken, steam trains go around the whole train route (through Horton, Appleby, Carlisle, etc.) at weekends, so there are several chances to see/ride them on Saturdays and Sundays.

They’re terrifying! Apparently you’re meant to rest the upper metal arch above your eye, and then to close this scissor-like things over it until your eyelashes are trapped in the middle. I’ve not had the courage to try it. As a rule I don’t use things that look like mediaeval torture devices, and certainly not when they’d be coming into close contact with my eyes.

Something else occured to me while I was casting suspicious glances at that strange metal contraption: some girls curl their eyelashes every day. Every single day. I know I fit the opposite end of the spectrum (the only makeup I actually own being about a decade old, and hailing from my time doing dancing in Centre Stage Theatre School, in Grays), but really – surely there are more interesting things to do with your day than curling your eyelashes. Think of how long it would add up to over the course of a year!

This was taken from inside a moving car too! Which is why it’s a bit blurry. I could only get half of the rainbow, but at the time the whole thing was visible. It was pretty ^_^

For this one you’ll have to wait until about a minute in when the words of the song start, but this video is absolute genius! The song is by Daft Punk, and the video just gets better the further in it gets.

This is absolutely hilarious and incredibly impressive. A gentleman in a suit which is covered in horns, and who ‘plays’ his suit by moving. I’m going to have to do a little more research to figure out what’s going on here, but it’s gone midnight, so research shall have to wait. Enjoy!

Commissioned by the Scottish Sculpture Workshop, the dead knights (for dead they indeed are) will be on display at Harewood House until the 28th of October. They’re definitely worth seeing, because they’re really well done, detailed, and downright odd. Where they all lie around in such a grand setting they really make it feel like you’ve stumbled upon some Alice in Wonderland-type place. The only problem is they’re meant to be deep, serious, and to make you think: but I keep expecting to see the Mad Hatter having lunch on the lawn behind them.

The sculptures are collectively known as Armour Boys, and are meant to show the harsh reality of children forced to fight in wars; in which case getting an initial (and prolonged) response of laughter, from not only my own family but the several other families which were present at the time, simply shows that ‘depth-wise’ it has been a stunning failure. The proportions are wrong for children, the armour removes any sense of humanity, and they look like they’re peacefully asleep (someone else seems to agree with me, considering their review). The only real attempt to show the harrowing nature of war was, from what I can tell, that one of them had broken legs… sadly that was the one we all laughed at most of all, because it was, quite simply, funny.

These lovely sculptures, which actually made my day because of the fantasy world they seemed to put you directly into the middle of, have been destroyed by what seems (to my incredibly untrained eye) to be pretention. Giving these sculptures a grand and hard-hitting subject to ‘make you think’ is completely unnecessary and actually distracts you from how good they really are.

If everything goes wrong when I try to make these changes, I apologise. I’ll probably pop pictures from the same line together on paint and add them again as one image, but if it looks like the layout’s gone funny and that I’m blissfully unaware in my internet-explorerey stupor, then just say

You can use the arrow keys on your computer to change the direction you’re looking in (across a full sphere) and you can zoom in/out using page up and down. The software automatically shows a view of the sky according to the time of day, but you can speed up/slow down time as much as you wish, then just sit back and watch the sky ‘turn’ ahead of you.

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You can zoom in and out at will, but since time is never completely stopped you need to click on a specific object to select it, and then hit the space bar so that that object is ‘fixed’ and won’t move offscreen while you’re trying to look at it. This is perfect for children or the casual observer to use: it’s interesting, pretty, and just plain fun.

Selecting specific objects is made easier by the ‘search’ facility, but also came up with an unexpected delight. Far from ‘just’ being good for the casual user, Stellarium could be a handy little tool for students and astronomy geeks alike – not only are the graphics spectacular, but selecting any feature in the sky will provide you will a host of details. When selecting a star you’re given, amongst other things, the following; name, distance from Earth, spectral type, parallax and even altitude-alzimuth! I am officially impressed.

The two examples above I took by looking at the star Deneb (the image on the right is just zooming in on the top left-hand corner of the screen.

I would definitely suggest that you download this program – at present I can’t find a fault with it at all! It’s an absolutely wonderful tool that’s very user-friendly, and even though it’s got a lot of scientific content, it doesn’t try to scare off the average person with it. Ten out of ten, in my book!

For those of you who haven’t read the books, please do! They’re absolutely wonderful. This little fellow is called Arkadion and is (according to The Golden Compass website) my dæmon ^_^ He’s so lovely!!!! A dæmon is like taking the idea of a familiar to the next level, it is essentially a person’s soul which lives outside the body. Dæmons can communicate with their human and with other dæmons, but not with other humans (and vice versa). Which is why I’m rather glad that my dæmon is an incredibly cuddly-looking snow leopard, it means I would get to cuddle him!

For those of you wondering where the rest of the holiday posts are, I’m filling them in gradually, but thought it would be best to start normal posts again too. I’ve also been informed that someone trying to view this site using Firefox couldn’t see the ‘Older Posts’ link at the bottom. Is this problem widespread?

In other news I’ve just bought the domain name alfirin.com ^_^ It just redirects here at the moment, but I may put this blog up there properly when I have the time.

George Winterburn woke up in the morning, yawned sleepily, stretched… and then remembered he was going on an adventure today! A very important adventure – he was going to visit Harewood House! It’s a large stately home in Leeds, with sprawling gardens. Bristling with excitement, he pulled back the covers and got out of bed.

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He knows that the most important meal of the day is breakfast, so George Winterburn goes into the kitchen to have a breakfast fit for a King! A bowl of breakfast cereal which is almost as big as George Winterburn himself!

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There’s just one thing left for him to do: it wouldn’t do at all to be an untidy teddy, because George Winterburn is very vain. Before he leaves the house he wants to make sure that he looks good, so he goes to the rather grand mirror in the hallway and makes sure his fur is in a lovely condition.

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As soon as he arrives at Harewood House, what does he see? Penguins! George Winterburn has spotted the penguins at the entrance to the bird gardens, and couldn’t be happier. “The rest of the gardens will have to wait” decides George – he wants to see all the different birds before he goes to look at the flowers.

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There were lots of different birds in the gardens, and George Winterburn had a marvellous time wandering round and meeting them all. He even made a friend! Since the birds mostly just see birds and humans there was a lot of interest in George Winterburn – they all seemed rather excited about meeting a teddy ^_^

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As well as meeting lots of new feathered friends, George Winterburn stumbled upon something quite interesting. On little wooden posts throughout the bird gardens were little squares of metal, and a metal ‘pen’. If you put a piece of paper over the metal square and rub the ‘pen’ over the top, a picture appears like magic! Next time he visits, George Winterburn is going to bring more paper.

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Phew! This has been a long morning! He has a spot of lunch before going any futher, because George Winterburn knows that all good teddies need to keep up their strength. He finds a nice little picnic table with a very pretty view, and sits down to eat. It’s time for George Winterburn to leave the bird garden and go to see some flowers!

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On his way out of the bird garden he spots an ice cream van! “Well”, thinks George Winterburn, “what day out would be complete if there was no ice cream?” – how true. So he got a yummy ice cream and sat back in the sunshine to eat it. By now he was a very full teddy, having had both lunch *and* ice cream! As is often the case having had lunch, George Winterburn began to feel sleepy.

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Nevertheless, he managed to go all the way up to the gardens in front of Harewood House. They were simply gorgeous, and George Winterburn was busy admiring them when… how odd!

“What’s this?”, he thought. He found what appeared to be a dead midget knight. This was somewhat unexpected. The more he looked the more of these knights there appeared to be! They were in the flower beds, by the stairs, on the grass, by the fountain… where had they all come from? What were they doing here?

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The more he searched, the more knights he found… until he realised that they were all sound asleep! George Winterburn suddenly remembered how tired he felt, so he lay down and had a nap on the grass alongside some of the knights.

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Awww, sleepy George Winterburn. It’s getting late – time to head off home.

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So as night fell slowly onto West Yorkshire, George Winterburn returned to the cottage. It was quite late, so he ate his dinner as soon as he got home (fish and chips! yummy ^_^), brushed his teeth, washed, and went straight to bed. It had been such a long day that George Winterburn was asleep even before his head hit the pillow. His bed is very comfy, after all. That night he dreamt of the adventures today had given him – and he was excited too, because he was going to the Kettlewell scarecrow festival soon!

The station itself is a lovely building, with House Martins nesting at the edges of its roof. I was surprised to find it’s actually inhabited as a private home as well as a museum/train station. The gentleman who lives there was really nice – he runs the museum as well as the station, and he was very kind to everyone who came by (I couldn’t do his job – I’d get annoyed that there were people at my house all the time!). When my parents and I were checking the opening times of the museum it was cold and rather damp outside, and he unlocked the door to the entrance bit so we could stay in the warm  which was lovely. He even told us we were in time to see the final steam train of the day!!

So we waited for the train, and I felt unnervingly like an anorak. A happy anorak though I was quite surprised to see a lot of other people standing around and waiting too, and they were all really lovely. Everyone was excited when we heard the train in the distance. What was really odd was that, as we were taking pictures of the train coming over Ribblehead Viaduct, you could see the windows of the train light up randomly for a split second each: it was so odd to see the people inside taking pictures of the scenery!

Eventually the train went by the station, and everyone was waving! The people on the platform were waving, the people in the engine bit were waving, and the people on the train were waving. It was completely surreal, and utterly shattered all the stereotypes of trainspotters that the media has fed me. So here she is: The Dalesman. Well worth the wait, and I would encourage other people to go and see her too.

The Church itself is gorgeous. It doesn’t appear to have been modernised in the way many Churches have. The old beams and stained wood almost make you think you’ve walked into the Church as it was a centuary ago. There are some clues that you’re still in the 21st century though: the electric lighting, for one, and also, to make sure a vase of flowers was tall enough to be seen, it rested on an upturned plastic pot. Cottage cheese, in fact. Despite these little details destroying the illusion of time travel, the interior of the Church is cosy and has a really nice atmosphere. It’s in sharp contrast to the nook it inhabits though – we went there on a Summer day, but the place was still cold, damp, and moss-covered. It may be pretty, but it had a rather oppressive feel to it; I suppose that would make the cosy Church seem even more inviting by comparison, but I get the feeling I wouldn’t want to go there in the Winter.

This photograph, taken looking down the Church towards the entrance, was taken by my Daddy. At the centre you can see the old stone baptismal font (the flowers inside are the ones which were propped up). The two people to the left hand side of the centre aisle are my Mummy (in black) and myself (in Grey – hehe). You can also see the monument which brought us there – the stone plaque dedicated to all the people who died during the building of the railway. This isn’t the only evidence of the railways in the area though: amongst the books for sale are several about how the history of the Parish and the railway were intertwined, and one which listed people who had passed away . In most Churches that kind of book would list those killed in the World Wars, but this one was different. It listed the people who were involved with the railway and died during its construction.

Unusually the contents weren’t confined to people who had actually been working to build the railways, instead it included family members who had been living in the shanty towns which housed many of the workers. The most touching thing about the book is the sheer volume of entries for infants and young children. All listed by their full name, age at death, and shanty town: some of them were only days old. The bodies of many of those who died building the railway were taken to this Church, and the graveyard had to be extended so that the graves could actually be built. This could explain why the graveyard was so… odd. There were some sections where there were clearly more graves than there were headstones, and where the headstones didn’t quite match the grave plots. I’ll have to do some research on this to see what I can discover.

Anyway, St Leonard’s Church is definitely worth a visit, and I’ll end with a picture of what brought me to the Church in the first place. This marble memorial was paid for jointly by the workmen of the railway and by the Midland Railway Company.

Firstly things needed to be wrapped up nicely in Durham. I sorted out some of the plants in the laboratory I’m studying at, packed up my suitcase, collected the books I wanted to take with me, and carried out a very important task: I watered The Duchess. She’s a gorgous little Duchess of Nuremburg (a succulent), and never having owned one before I’m not exactly sure about how much to water her, or what she’ll look like if she’s feeling offcolour. She’s a grand old girl though, and I hope she’ll be alright for the week while I’m gone. I’ve moved her out of direct sunlight, so hopefully she won’t be scorched.

My brother and my sister-in-law live in the gorgeous little town of Lanchester, which isn’t far from Durham, so there was enough time for a visit there before setting off on our adventures. It was also a rather special visit: Happy Birthday, Mummy! My eldest brother even came up from Leeds, so we all had dinner together and enjoyed ourselves lotsly. We even managed to make friends with a passing moggy. A rather cuddly moggy, at that! Now it’s Adventure Time!

For those of you with keen eyesight, well no, for those of you who are actually paying attention, yes; the lighting is wrong. Our visitor was sitting on the shed bat-like. As upside-down as… the day he was born? Regardless of the disrespect our insectoid friend has shown for gravity, he’s rather made me homesick. Not in the bad, upset way. Just that I’m thinking of home in a way I don’t normally let myself.

 All that aside: look at the pretty!!!!!!!!!!! ^_^ *squee*

It turns out that Fake Steve Jobs is, in fact, a gentleman called Daniel Lyons. A senior editor at Forbes magazine. He seemed to have been using the blog to see what would happen if a big company executive kept an open and honest journal. He’s managed to get quite the following: even Steve Jobs and Bill Gates have admitted to reading his work

 A man named Brad Stone (an employee of the New York Times) discovered the root of this mystery, leading to Fake Steve Jobs posting, yesterday, that he had been found out, and declaring his true identity. Kudos to the behorned Brad Stone  - I have no idea how on earth he found out who it was; and since his blog looks all pretty and has birdies and doggies on, I shall forgive him ^_^. I’m a little disappointed though, because I didn’t even have time to get into this mystery properly before it was publicly shattered   Brad Stone, you smell. Really, really bad.

The fake diary is going to remain open, abeit linked properly to Forbes now, and I, for one, will still keep reading. Hopefully it will continue to cover such wide-ranging topics as the latest cleansing diet used by Fake Steve, the public ‘firing’ of employees, and, of course, a constantly satirical take on current news in the world of technology. All from the viewpoint of a man at the top.

This year there may have been no grand proclamations of pony love, but I remembered and again refound my love for the bestest of toys ever ^_^ As I write more posts on this blog (yes, it *will* happen) you will learn to accept ponies as the single greatest earthbound force on this planet.

 From their creation in the early 80′s (their first official release as MLPs being in 1982) They have been known and loved by children worldwide. The first wave of ponies, known as G1 (there have been three generations in all) are by far the most iconic, and were a must-have on every little girl’s Christmas list for over a decade. I was lucky enough for Santa to oblige, and have never looked back. The ponies tend to be girls, and babies almost always used to look identical to their mothers (as with Mummy and Baby Moondancer —>), there have, however been a wide range of ponies; Earth ponies (normal ponies), Unicorns, Pegasii, Boy ponies (e.g. the Big Brother Ponies), and Sea Ponies.

These ponies have in turn been accompanied by various humans, dragons, and a whole host of other friends throughout their many adventures. The funniest thing about their adventures though, it must be said, are the bloopers. Every single My Little Pony episode ever made has a whole host of tiny errors which just makes them even more enjoyable to watch. A pony might suddenly acquire a unicorn horn for a scene, or her hair might change colour completely depening on the animators. Sometimes the voices are even swapped by accident, leading to some rather confusing moments for the casual viewer.

If you think the good old days of the My Little Pony phenomenon are at an end, then think again. Just take a look at all the fan sites out there, all the pony listings on eBay, the custom ponies (with new hair, symbols, and paint put on them) created by fans who took pity on ponies who’d said goodbye to their youthful days – and, of course, check out the My Little Pony Trading Post. Widely accepted as the single greatest meeting place online for all lovers of these great toys.

This post really has to end here. If I actually start to talk about ponies properly this post would become several feet long. Just remember our great friends from Ponyland, and there’ll always be another rainbow! Happy IPD one and all!

Oddly I found an entire blog dedicated to their dances; they’ve done so many routines! It’s quite something, particularly considering that just watching a couple of their ‘shows’ it’s obvious that there are some genuinely talented dancers in there. I just wonder what they did that made them go into prison :S

WHAT IF THEY’RE TEDDY THIEVES?????????????????

It’s ok though. The Bunny is watching them.

  (\(\
  (=’.’)
o(_”)”)

He couldn’t have chosen a better song either: Crucify my Love, by X-Japan. Thank you for making this, Raizersabre – you are a genuis, and have made me very happy ^_^

The series follows events surrounding a 10-year old boy in a town called Trinity, which is completely under the thumb of an evil Sheriff, Lucas Buck. Under normal circumstances I’d hesitate to use the word evil, but these aren’t exactly normal circumstances. American Gothic deals with evil as a real and present threat. How? Not as some black-garbed creature with horns, a tail, and a fondness for fire – but as a man and his effect on other people. The Sheriff owns the local people by getting them into his debt; he’ll promise, and give, them what they have requested, but the price is higher than they should be willing to pay. He owns them by making them hate themselves, feeling self-loathing at what they’ve done to get just a little help: and in order to make these things happen he uses methods which normal humans could not. The best thing about this series is that things which don’t need explaining fully are simply left open to debate. There are many ways to interpret the roles that supernatural power, religion, the occult, and human weakness have, and you’ll find yourself viewing the story differently every time you watch it. Another thing which sets this series apart from the others is that the characters actually have depth. It’s not done in the same coarse way as most series (where characters tend to have one dimension until a particular episode is dedicated to revealing their inner traumas by suddenly showing you their past), it’s far more elegant than that – and makes this series one of my favourites.

To my surprise I actually remembered many of the 26 episodes very well.  I was one of the people lucky enough to have first seen the series by watching all episodes in the correct order. CBS did this series a great disservice: not only did they only air 22 episodes, but they aired them in the wrong order because apparently they knew best… This leads to my one and only complaint about the DVD set: it’s in the wrong order!!! Instead of using this release as a chance to list the episodes in their intended order, they have been put back in the order CBS originally showed them. The four episodes which were cut have been put… right after the end of the series *rolls eyes*. Something tells me this release wasn’t a labour of love. This leads to plot inconsistencies which, while not devastating, are rather annoying. If you want to watch it in the right order there’s a fair bit of disc swapping, but it’s well worth it. I’d been worried at first having read a review that said the DVD kept skipping and that the image quality wasn’t good: having watched through all of the DVDs it didn’t skip once, and as for the image… it’s not the same clarity you get with brand new series made for HD televisions, but it’s still incredibly good. If anything the occasional dark bordering-on-grainy scene simply adds to the darker and more twisted moments. If you haven’t seen this series yet, now is the chance.