... with a cardboard tube, it's probably time to start looking at where your life is heading.
◼️ Tom⇒|Maths||Museums||Astronomy||Learning||Education|
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#project365 day 31: When you find yourself beating a flake...
... with a cardboard tube, it's probably time to start looking at where your life is heading.
#project365 day 29: Diets, as everybody knows...
... don't count on Saturdays. Forgetting the week, being helped by colleagues!
#project365 day 28: I suddenly realised that...
... I left this old lady out of my guitar family photo the other day, so I thought I'd give her her own post. She was my first and though mostly retired takes pride of place on my living room wall.
#project365 day 27: For once I am...
... out of the house! Jammin' wid John and Barry. I'm extremely tired, but a tickle on the six-string is a good way to wind down on a Thursday evening. But now... Home. And bed.
#project365 day 26: The thing with delivery companies...
... is that they like to play games with you. Today's move was to actually deliver my new Kinect to my neighbour but not actually do anything about letting me know that they had done so, like putting a helpful note through my door, or even making a vague attempt to communicate telepathically.
Luckily my immediate neighbours are not morally cretinous and brought the package round as I arrived home rather than bagging themselves a free Xbox peripheral and keeping schtum.
#project365 day 25: This is what stands between...
... me and my new Kinect. It is a ticket, an 'admit one', for a quest of epic and unnecessary difficulty and complication. An invitation to run a gauntlet so unnerving, surreal and bedecked with unthinking bureaucracy that it's almost easier just to let them send it back: the undelivered parcel run fills me with dread every time. And with DPD it's even less convenient than it is with the Royal Mail!
#project365 day 22: Saturday, wait...
This photo pretty much represents everything I've done today- the only things missed off are the exercise bike and the baked potato.
#project365 day 18: Another weapon...
... in the fight against the flab! I try to do 10,000 steps every day, and usually manage it!
#project365 day 16: I hate...
... Sunday evenings. In fact, the only things that are worse are Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. And Friday.
Album covers
I don't often take part in internet memes, and even less often do I post them on my blog... but I like this one.
This is what you do:
This is what you do:
- Invoke Wikipedia's 'random article' function (clicking the link will take you straight to a random Wikipedia article- how nice am I?)
- Wave your magic wand over QuotationPage's 'Random Quotes' link (again I've saved you the trouble of having to look for it. Please refer me to your friends and family).
- Mystically chant Flickr's 'Explore the last 7 days' incantation (or, as before, just click the link).
- Choose the 3rd pic from the Flickr page, save it to disk and edit it (either in your favourite photo editing software, or uploaded it to Picnik) with the title of the first random Wikipedia article you landed on as your imaginary band's name, and the last few words of the final quote on your random quote page as the album title.
- Save, upload, share and enjoy.
The usual version of this, as always with memes, tells you to tag people that you want to have a go at it. I'm not going to do that. Instead, if you're of a mind to have a go please do so and comment with a link to your finished album cover!
Here's mine:
Some info:
- The photo is ©Dorian Susan and is used without permission, who is welcome to contact me and ask me to remove this picture, though I hope that doesn't happen.
- SMAUG apparently stands for Simulated Medieval Adventure Multi-User Game. Decapitalised (apart from the leading S, of course), it is the name of the dragon in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit.
- The full quote is "I can win an argument on any topic, against any opponent. People know this, and steer clear of me at parties. Often, as a sign of their great respect, they don't even invite me." by US columnist and humourist Dave Barry
#project365 day 15: Upon my doormat...
... landed some little books of algebra, devised, written and kindly sent to me by @icecolbeveridge, maths tutor. You can find out more or get hold of your own at littlemathsbook.com. This wasn't meant to be a plug, they just turned up today...
#project365 day 14: Friday night's alright...
... for Xboxing,drinking and eating in a way that thoroughly destroys the previous week's dieting.
#project365 day 10: I can't stand Mondays but...
... actually quite enjoy the teaching I do outside of school. I didn't have a session today but this is the notebook I take with me that doubles as my portable interactive demonstrations tablet.
Anyone out there want to pay me a salary to home-school your kids?
#project365 day6: My new toy!
This is my new toy, a HTC Wildfire! I'm still getting used to it, but enjoying myself so far!
#project365 day 5: The Kindle's new clothes
I was hoping to take today's pic on my new phone, but that's been scuppered by the delivery company (DPD) not allowing me the option to pick it up from their depot this afternoon and not having the facility to actually talk to a human being.
But this arrived instead: a new coat for my top Chrimbo gift, the Kindle. I think it looks good!
#project365 day 3: the trouble with entertaining...
... is that you have to clear up afterwards. Some time afterwards, usually, in our case.
#project365 : A note
Hi to those of you who have followed my posterous for the #project365 pictures! Just a note to warn you that only the pictures I take on my mobile will be posted here. Other pictures will be hosted somewhere else (probably flickr), but all of my #project365 posts will be posted over at my main blog, TeaKay's Blog, so feel free to head over there and subscribe!
Many thanks for following!
#project365 day 2
This is a monkey. On his shoulder is one of my young friend Bethany's Christmas presents. The monkey's name is Robin and was one of my climbing companions on 2010's Snowdon trip. This photo was taken today at our Mathssive reunion gathering at my house, which includes such notorious types as @astrogirl4242, @JoTorr and, of course, @squiggle7.
Breaking news: @tweeterwill83 is on his way!
#project365 day 1
Hi blogees, meet Henry Morgan. He's my Mum's dog. He's a seven year old Welsh Springer, and is lovely.
Hello 2011: Happy New Year, and some more resolutions
Happy New Year, one and all, may 2011 be filled with many and varied experiences, both good and bad (but the good very good and the bad not so bad) that will help to shape and evolve us all as human beings and citizens of Earth.
The new year is, of course, nothing special in any real terms. It's simply an arbitrary point in the path of the planet that we live on around its star that we have decided to label as the end of one orbit and the beginning of the next. With that in mind, it's worth considering that a new year marks not just the end of some things and beginning of others, but it is also a continuation: life is still being lived, plans are still being set in motion, things are happening just as much as they were yesterday. Change, should you want such a thing (and which of us truly does not, in some form or another?), is an ongoing, gradual thing, not a thing that happens overnight.
Arbitraryness doesn't mean we can't use the opportunity to sit down and take stock, though? What do you want to change? What's not quite right? Decide on a few things - not too many, maybe even just one or two - that you want to change and write them down. Then jot down some ideas of how to achieve this. These ideas needn't be to in depth; you can work on them and refine them as the year progresses. The important thing is to get them down in some physical form which represents your mind being made up to actually do them. I'll list mine in a sec, but firstly I want to suggest that you write a post about your resolutions: If they're displayed for the world to see, you've got to do them, haven't you? If you don't have anywhere to post them, I'll gladly host it for you here.
My resolutions, 2011
If you feel like it, you can compare these to last year's.
1. Lose 2 stone in weight
This was one of last year's that I failed to achieve. I managed most of it, but put a bit back on. I've finished this year with my weight the right side of what it was 12 months ago, but there's still a bit more to go. A 2 stone drop will just about put me in the 'ideal' weight range for my height according to BMI calculations.
I'll do this with commitment- my methods worked well last year, but my commitment to maintaining them tailed off. I'm armed with new gadgets and DVDs for distracting me while I'm exercising, so I can do this!
2. Sort out my working life
I'm not happy in my job, and something needs to be done about that. I need to either cut my hours, find a new direction within my 'chosen' career, find something else to do altogether or some kind of mixture of any or all of the above. In order to do any of these I need to expand my experience and find other things I can do to make money (life's not all about money, but unfortunately I need it to pay my half of the mortgage and maintain a quality of life that I'm comfortable with). I've already set some things in motion which seem to be working to various degrees. I don't imagine that I will have solved the problem completely within the next 12 months, but I hope to have improved my situation to some degree.
3. Keep up/ re-start my hobbies
Fairly closely linked with #2, an unhappy time at work takes over your whole life. I feel I could quite easily spend my entire waking life (and most of the sleeping bits as well) doing my day job (or worrying about it) and still not get it all done. This eats into time I should be using to do things for myself, but I'm so tired and fed up I end up just going to bed or staring at my laptop screen instead. This is the wrong way round. I am going to make myself spend more time on the things that I enjoy doing, and hopefully this will make the things I do not enjoy doing (but have to) feel more worthwhile. The things I enjoy doing include reading, astronomy (including updating Blogstronomy), photography, playing guitar and spending quality time with good friends, old and new.
4. Re-educate myself
I'm a maths graduate with a significant interest in many areas of science, yet I have let my knowledge and understanding of much of it slip for similar reasons as outlined in #3. My current employer is loathe to provide me with any training beyond how to use basic ICT applications that I've been using since shortly before I was born, so I've got to sort this out for myself. Luckily I'm a good self-teacher/learner, and I know most of it's in there already; I've just got to find out where. I won't be taking any courses because I don't feel that they'd be a good use of my time or money. Instead, I have already embarked upon some initiatives designed to give me the incentive to get off my lazy arse and re-learn all I have forgotten: I have started teaching it to other people. I have taken on two A-level mathematics students and a GCSE science student and these are forcing me to get to grips with it all again so that I don't risk letting them down. This has the happy effect of working towards #2 and, to a lesser extent #4 as well. 3 for the price of 1!
The new year is, of course, nothing special in any real terms. It's simply an arbitrary point in the path of the planet that we live on around its star that we have decided to label as the end of one orbit and the beginning of the next. With that in mind, it's worth considering that a new year marks not just the end of some things and beginning of others, but it is also a continuation: life is still being lived, plans are still being set in motion, things are happening just as much as they were yesterday. Change, should you want such a thing (and which of us truly does not, in some form or another?), is an ongoing, gradual thing, not a thing that happens overnight.
Arbitraryness doesn't mean we can't use the opportunity to sit down and take stock, though? What do you want to change? What's not quite right? Decide on a few things - not too many, maybe even just one or two - that you want to change and write them down. Then jot down some ideas of how to achieve this. These ideas needn't be to in depth; you can work on them and refine them as the year progresses. The important thing is to get them down in some physical form which represents your mind being made up to actually do them. I'll list mine in a sec, but firstly I want to suggest that you write a post about your resolutions: If they're displayed for the world to see, you've got to do them, haven't you? If you don't have anywhere to post them, I'll gladly host it for you here.
My resolutions, 2011
If you feel like it, you can compare these to last year's.
1. Lose 2 stone in weight
This was one of last year's that I failed to achieve. I managed most of it, but put a bit back on. I've finished this year with my weight the right side of what it was 12 months ago, but there's still a bit more to go. A 2 stone drop will just about put me in the 'ideal' weight range for my height according to BMI calculations.
I'll do this with commitment- my methods worked well last year, but my commitment to maintaining them tailed off. I'm armed with new gadgets and DVDs for distracting me while I'm exercising, so I can do this!
2. Sort out my working life
I'm not happy in my job, and something needs to be done about that. I need to either cut my hours, find a new direction within my 'chosen' career, find something else to do altogether or some kind of mixture of any or all of the above. In order to do any of these I need to expand my experience and find other things I can do to make money (life's not all about money, but unfortunately I need it to pay my half of the mortgage and maintain a quality of life that I'm comfortable with). I've already set some things in motion which seem to be working to various degrees. I don't imagine that I will have solved the problem completely within the next 12 months, but I hope to have improved my situation to some degree.
3. Keep up/ re-start my hobbies
Fairly closely linked with #2, an unhappy time at work takes over your whole life. I feel I could quite easily spend my entire waking life (and most of the sleeping bits as well) doing my day job (or worrying about it) and still not get it all done. This eats into time I should be using to do things for myself, but I'm so tired and fed up I end up just going to bed or staring at my laptop screen instead. This is the wrong way round. I am going to make myself spend more time on the things that I enjoy doing, and hopefully this will make the things I do not enjoy doing (but have to) feel more worthwhile. The things I enjoy doing include reading, astronomy (including updating Blogstronomy), photography, playing guitar and spending quality time with good friends, old and new.
4. Re-educate myself
I'm a maths graduate with a significant interest in many areas of science, yet I have let my knowledge and understanding of much of it slip for similar reasons as outlined in #3. My current employer is loathe to provide me with any training beyond how to use basic ICT applications that I've been using since shortly before I was born, so I've got to sort this out for myself. Luckily I'm a good self-teacher/learner, and I know most of it's in there already; I've just got to find out where. I won't be taking any courses because I don't feel that they'd be a good use of my time or money. Instead, I have already embarked upon some initiatives designed to give me the incentive to get off my lazy arse and re-learn all I have forgotten: I have started teaching it to other people. I have taken on two A-level mathematics students and a GCSE science student and these are forcing me to get to grips with it all again so that I don't risk letting them down. This has the happy effect of working towards #2 and, to a lesser extent #4 as well. 3 for the price of 1!
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