July’s Challenges (by sarah)

June's challenges I managed suprisingly easily and now is another month and another set of challenges.

I am setting myself the task of working on a 100 000 word novel for the Terry Pratchett Prize. The plan is to try and write 5000 words a day or at least 2000 words. The second challenge is going to be spending another 30 hours on art - there are several projects that need to be finished off and some fimo stuff I want to start basically.

I also have my paintings going up in Cheltenham this coming week for Art in the Park - which I am excited about 🙂

A Nice Number for a Birthday! (by sarah)

Well if your American at least! My birthday this year according to those from across the pond:

01/11/10

At The Turning of the Year (by sarah)

This New Years Eve sees both a Lunar eclipse which is currently occuring - my camera is annoyingly doing the thing of deciding it's too cold to take photos 🙁

It is also by some definitions a Blue Moon! For real! I'm serious 🙂

The number of full moons in a year alters and if there is more then the 12 corrasponding to our months which all have names etc... the extra moons get the name Blue Moon. So if there are two full Moons in a month one of them gets called Blue!

There are other definitions of this such as the Lent Moon being the Betrayer Moon which sounds like blue in Hebrew or something but still we have a blue moon and an eclipse on the turning of the year and the start of a new decade 🙂

And yes I know that the turn of the year is actually at the Shortest Day but this is the night that everyones celebrating so ner!

The Oozy Decade (by sarah)

So the first decade of the New Millenium is drawing to a close. Due to the the zeros involved in the dates it was dubbed the Nuaghties but I always prefered the Oozies instead.

And that is what this decade has done it has oozed - political wars shifted countries without the general public apparently noticing what the governments had done. Political parties in the Uk at least seemed to all merge into various forms of the same thing - New Labour=Old Conservative etc... Back paddling on polices.

I would say the banks and finiacial industries have oozed as has the printed book industry with plagerists getting short listed for prestigous prizes and those who should be getting the prizes rediculed becuase they are the wrong genre (like genre has anything to do with the power and talent of the writing?).

IT has oozed into all our lives - a process that started more in the nineties it is true but it is now ingrained and with this the degregation of geeks in the mind of the managers begain in ernest.

Spin doctoring has oozed its way into science and academia. And the apathy of the general public has oozed itself into discontentment.

Yes this is depressing but look where we stand at the end of this decade - look at the Copenhagen fiasco and ponder the future! Look to the fungus' and stuff hitting the Asian bread bowls and the vanillia plants due to greedy farming methods and think where we are dragging humanity in this 'New Millenium'.

One of the things I have discovered is that none of this is new - the more history I read as research for the Punk storyline the more I find humans have been oozing in their cesspits of civilisations for... well forever.

But I think it can be changed I think the oozing totalitarism can be stopped and humanity freed. And now the glitz of the nuaghties has started to tarnish perhapse substance will become important once more.

10 Year Ago (by sarah)

Ten years ago I had just finished my first term at university - Imperial College London, Royal School of Mines, The Huxely School ect... and I had worked hard to get there.

But my first term had been foiled by me managing to get a weired virus (turned out to be glandular fever mixed with a very bad chest and water infection duo). So I spent the Millenium sitting at my parents house feeling like death warmed up and thinking I'd stuffed up my one chance at a career.

I wore a Hong-Kong Fooey t-shirt and red colderoy skirt and felt vague misgivings about it possibly being the end of the world but mostly awed and excited as I watched the different cultures around the world celebrate in their own ways.

Though I had by this point already damaged my first year at uni almost beyond repair with some help (called being allowed to repeat the year) I got my degree. The world is still here though I'm going to remain cuatious untill 2012 is over, a thought that rumbled through my mind in 2000.

In 2000 I was was also looking forward to going to Kenya which was a milestone as much as Uni was and was startled by the realisation that I appeared to have lots and lots of friends!

Alaric ten years ago I believe was here cooking leopard pie in a broken suacepan and setting off military surplus pyrotechnics with his extended family. He was wondering if NetBSD on his laptop was Y2K safe (I believe this is what geeks call the millenium bug) - it was.

I banged the New Year in with suacepans and watched fire works over the roof tops and lots of other people came out including one woman screaming at everyone becuase it was late and we'd woken her kids up :/ She even threatened us with the police!

Ten years on we are here with a throwing up Jean and lots of nice noms and me feeling that I've stuffed up my one chance of having a career... erm...

Cyclic?