Advogato blog for marnanel

The St Nick's Feast

Sun, 27 Nov 2011 11:11:57 GMT

Yesterday, Kit did me the honour of being my guest at the annual CUHaGS St Nicholas' Feast, which was held in the hall at Caius:

One of the particularly interesting things about Caius is that there are memorials to famous Caians around the place. There is an oil painting of Stephen Hawking, a stained-glass double helix to commemorate Francis Crick, and a stained-glass Venn diagram to commemorate John Venn.

Also in attendance were a bishop in his robes, a Wing Commander sporting many medals and an impressive moustache, several PhDs in full-dress gowns, and the usual characters. The food was good and the wine was very good. There was a proper boar's head carried in to the Boar's Head Carol; the President then found that nobody had a knife and had to borrow a sgian-dubh from a nearby Scotsman, which was well-suited to the purpose. Afterwards there was much loud singing of carols and other songs; I was rather happy to find myself joining in an impromptu rendition of Dives in Omnia . The end of the evening came too soon, as always, and although several people invited us to carry on to an after-party, we thought it prudent to leave while we were still standing.

A wonderful night, and I hope there are many more to come.

Now entering Pennsylvania. Wait, what?

Sun, 16 Oct 2011 18:03:37 GMT

Now entering Pennsylvania. Wait, what?

Signs that I am actually just a character in a rather good story

Fri, 23 Sep 2011 16:03:39 GMT

I had to go out at lunchtime to buy some computer stuff for work. It was a hot day, and as I went to buy a sandwich I thought, "I'd like a milkshake. I haven't had one for months." But the sandwich place didn't have milkshakes, so I got something else and went on to the computer shop.

On the way I passed a herd of cows grazing on the common. So I phoned Kit to tell her about the cows. I said, "They're awesome. They're all hairy and scruffy and they have horns like handlebars."

She said, "They're DAIRY BIKERS?"

I said, "I think they are. And I think they're even wearing leather jackets."

When I came out of the computer shop, I took another way home down a street I haven't been down for a while, and a milkshake shop was right there in front of me. It was the kind where they sell all kinds of chocolate and they'll mix it into a milkshake for you. Since this was obviously the fulfilment of my previous wish, I went in and had a Fry's Orange Cream milkshake, and it was very good.

In front of me in the queue was a biker. He was scruffy and wearing leather and pointy bits, even on such a hot day. Obviously he was *actually* a dairy biker, since he was waiting for a milkshake.

The biker said to the man behind the counter, "What kind is this one, then?"

"Fruits of the forest," said the man.

"Oh," said the biker. "Which forest?"

"ALL the forests."

"Where do you get them from?"

The man laughed. "I was out in that forest at six o'clock this morning foraging for fruits, I'll have you know."

"Ah, right," said the biker. "So, tell me, do they still do those peanut butter Kit-Kats?"

"No, I'm afraid they don't," said the man. "Sorry."

The biker sighed. "Ah, for the good old days, when the sun never set and you could get a peanut butter Kit-Kat."

I said, "To be fair, it was kind of hard to sleep back then, what with the sun not setting and all."

The biker thought this over, and said, "Yeah, but who needs sleep when you have peanut butter Kit-Kats?"

I conceded the point.

Next on the History Channel

Sat, 11 Jun 2011 00:03:05 GMT

Next on the History Channel: Michael Finnegan: the true story. Did the wind really remove a man's whiskers? (Viewers are warned that this programme is infinitely long.)

Gloss

Tue, 7 Jun 2011 16:03:27 GMT

I was looking at the way they used to gloss the Vulgate in manuscripts, and I was playing with doing the same in PDF. I don't know whether this would be useful to anyone; I could do it with any language pair, really. Apologies in advance to anyone who would like to correct my Greek. :)

Time blew away like dandelion seed

Tue, 31 May 2011 21:03:19 GMT

I haven't been around much, recently.

I wanted to mention that I am going to make a print-on-demand book of about a hundred of my formal poems. You can download the PDF for nothing and read it that way if you like. At some point in the near future there will be a printed version of the same thing. I always welcome comment and criticism.

Facebook and my writing

Mon, 16 May 2011 22:15:36 GMT

I've recreated the fan page on Facebook for my writing. If you enjoy my work and you're on Facebook, please like the page. (I need 25 fans to get a plain URL.) I'm probably going to post discount codes and previews on there, so it should be worth your while. Tell your friends, as well.

Dear lazyweb

Sun, 24 Apr 2011 03:08:42 GMT

Dear smart people: can you recommend me a book on the particular cultural problems faced by migrants to the UK from the countries that acceded to the EU in 2004?

You know the drill

Tue, 19 Apr 2011 17:10:21 GMT

Back from the dentist. All is well; it was remarkably quick and relatively painless. I have a wad of gauze in my mouth to stop it bleeding everywhere, which I am occasionally gagging on.

from the sequel to "Not Ordinarily Borrowable"

Tue, 19 Apr 2011 01:10:36 GMT

The way to the market lay across the river, which was frozen solid. Children who did not specially want anything to happen were happily skating, and the ice obligingly did not break for them. Beside the river was Midsummer Common, where in warmer weather you could often find cows. But at this time of year, the cows were gratefully eating hay in their warm byres. Maria thought of them with envy.