August drought

The weirdness of August culminated today in a bank holiday library closure. It's amazing how discombobulating I find these rare occasions. The UL is such a staple of life here that when it's shut for bank holidays or for Christmas or the dreaded (and forthcoming) annual inspection, I feel enormous panic about the absence of my little drop-in centre. So much so that I panic-borrowed on Saturday... and now have 9 books on my ticket. Slight overreaction?!?

Postel's Law

So far, I haven't really found a voice for this blog: I've been surprised how wary I've been to post here. My "friends-only" blog is full of my wittering and I suppose that's the crux of it. When I witter, I tend to reveal aspects of self that I'd rather not display to the wider world. And I'd cringe at the thought of people who know me, but don't know me well, making assumptions about me from my random stringing together of words on all sorts of silly topics.
I'm hopeful that I'll grow into this blog and think of things to discuss. In the meantime, I'm taking Postel's Law as my motto, having read it in an article today and immediately having seen its resonance for the internet and beyond:
“Be conservative in what you do; be liberal in what you accept from others.”

declining interest

I should have realised that I was doomed to a life of academic navel gazing in my first Latin class, aged 11, when I felt absurdly happy to realise that my name belonged in the first declension of nouns.

netiquette

A friend has commented recently on the necessity of politeness in email-land: 'there's no excuse not to reply to an email'. I agree with this absolutely in principle. But an exchange I initiated with an academic earlier in the week prompted me to wonder what happens if we take this to its logical extreme: would email exchanges just go on and on ad infinitem? how do you know when the last message has been sent?

PhDs and sunshine

sunny day in Cambourne
Originally uploaded by LindyB28

With so few days of sunshine each year in the UK, the idea of remaining indoors working instead of soaking up some vitamin D is not appealing. So the bookchair, the laptop and I have come outside to sit in the garden while making sense of Lydgate.

You can make your own mind up about whether it's aiding my concentration; if you're really kind, you'll ignore the fact that typing a blog entry and playing with PhotoBooth do not count as work.

Books

Books
Originally uploaded by LindyB28

i tried blogging a photo last week. I wrote a very long thoughtful post. But it got lost somewhere between Flickr and here.
Maybe this will work.

Got hope?

According to a poll published in yesterday's Guardian, Britain's backing Obama
Leaving aside the fact that I wear my Obama 2008 T shirt with pride (if I'd been polled, I'd have certainly been one of the 53% "voting" Obama), this article interested me because I think it reflects the current state of politics in this country.

It's depressing.

With economy drooping, inflation rising, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, MP expense claims subjected to intense scrutiny, detention for 42 days without charge, the farcical by-election forced by David Davis, the farcical selection of a Labour candidate for the by-election in Glasgow East, general bewilderment that Boris Johnson has actually become the second most powerful politician in the country, Cameron failing to capitalise on the incredibly bad Labour position, the farce of the "knife carriers visit casualty departments" announcement at the weekends, there's very little sense that the situation here is going to change for the better. There's no election due, no sense of regeneration in the Labour party, and a bunch of Old Etonians as the official opposition.

So instead we're getting our hope vicariously, through the possibility of Dubya being replaced by Barack. Even if his voting record has been angering true liberals in the US, he still looks better than our lot.