Dear Early Medieval England,

All I want to do for the rest of my life is study you.

Love,
Jessica

I got an answer from York about the Medieval Archaeology and Cultural Heritage Management MA courses! They seem really nice and hopefully I can go up to York on 2 December for the postgraduate open day--I've booked a place but still need to get authorisation from my work. I might be able to prevail upon my manager seeing as he is actually quite supportive of staff wanting to do stuff other than work in customer service all their lives, so long as while they are working in customer service they do their best. Which I do :^D And otherwise I'll just arrange to go speak to the department another day.

Anyway, from the module lists (Medieval and CHM) it looks like I would probably want to choose almost the same content for both options; I could certainly do both core CHM modules in the Medieval MA as my supplementary modules, and though it doesn't say so on the main page the programme specification guide on the CHM page suggests I could take the Medieval core modules as the supplementary classes for that MA as well. Given that the CHM MA also includes a placement, and is more likely to qualify me to work in museums, I'd probably go for that one. As long as I can study the Vikings again I'll be fairly happy, and I might be able to bend my dissertation specifically towards the management of medieval heritage sites and objects, which is, after all, where my interest mainly lies.

So yes; provided I can confirm I'd be allowed to take a module on Vikings, I'd be very happy with the Cultural Heritage Management MA programme, I think. I might be allowed to sit in on lectures which interest me in other modules too, for a bit more archaeological content.

In other news, Imogen and I are going walking in Epping Forest tomorrow--oh wait--I've just seen the clock--today. It should be delightful if I'm not absolutely exhausted, so I'd best be off to bed. Night all.

Had a fabulous weekend with wyrd_pixie (whose lovely house we all descended on), firstedition, salmakia and lykanthropoi. I arrived rather late because I had to go to a heritage management class, but we stayed up till about 3am so I got the best out of a short visit! We watched Merlin and Harry Potter youtube videos, ate yummy homemade chicken nuggets (very impressed with Hanni's ingenious flour-and-herbs recipe) caught up and generally geeked about.

It's been two years since we saw each other all together last, which came as a surprise to me; for some reason I thought it was just a year. I suppose that's what you get if you're used to seeing your friends, well, never; the meetup two years ago was the first time I'd met Saskia and Charlotte, and I'd only met Izzy and Han a few years prior to that. And I've known them all since I was 13! I really think we--the GHMB crowd--are one of the internet's great success stories. Forget instant news updates, facebook and youtube: I'm struggling to come up with any one site (particularly when it comes to social networking) whose effect on my life has outlasted that of a free message board filled with dorky Harry Potter fans.

Ten years ago I made four amazing friends who I feel closer to now than anyone else I knew at that time, and a lot of people I've met since. This is exactly what the internet is supposed to do, what it's supposed to bring to our lives; not just access to information and the ability to poke and throw sheep at people we've never met, but give us a means of forming real, lasting friendships with people all over the world.

So, I'm really proud of us. We did it right. And none of the smirks from people who don't understand and accusations that I must have wasted my youth online (or even the occasional twinges of repetitive strain injury) will ever change that.

OMG! How did I not know about this? They found an ENORMOUS ANGLO-SAXON HOARD in Staffordshire, back in July! Just look at all the shiny shiny things! There is over three times as much precious metal as was found at Sutton Hoo.

In related news, York's got its Viking silver hoard back. So exciting--can't wait to go and see it!

Oh, I just can't wait to work in an environment where I get to deal with these kinds of objects!

I've signed up to NaNoWriMo 2009. I will do it this year, dammit, if it kills me and destroys my wrists with RSI, but I'm sick of going, "Oh! There's sarahtales's novel! I'll just put it on my shelf between blackholly and cassandraclare's books. If only I had written a novel! Even if it remained unpublished forever, that would be a step towards attaining a Major Life Goal."

Of course, now that I'm getting serious about it I realise how dreadful my idea and plot is. It's not that bad, for a first novel; I'm aware this effort is going to be embarrassingly awful. It's just that there are so many stories I like better, and I hope at some point to be able to join up awesome characters + gripping plot + good writing to create something I can fangirl over. In fact, fangirling over my characters (the main one, at least, is very cool) is a major strategy for finishing this thing; I'm hoping I can get into a fan-fictiony mood about it, and feel like I'm writing about something I really love.

Behold, an ancient NaNoWriMo icon! I'll probably get a new one closer to November. But this one tickles me, and prompts one to revisit this video.

If I had some nail varnish remover, and a spare Oyster card, and a stick, I could put the chip from the travelcard in the stick and then I would have a magic wand with which I could go on the Underground, tapping the card reader and saying "Alohomora!" as the barriers opened AS IF BY MAGIC.

This would be the coolest thing in the history of time and I've been thinking about it for the past three days. Unfortunately Imogen says doing it would void any credit on the chip so I'd have to bring a Muggle friend along to touch an extra card to the reader in case the ticket people came to check¹. Or, I could buy a one-day ticket and just carry that around--it would totally be worth the expense.

But in the meantime I should probably get back to doing my job application, which is one of those bloody annoying ones they haven't thought through properly so it asks the same question three times and by the time you get to the third way of saying that you're good at teamwork your example has devolved into explaining how you were digging a hole at the seaside with some friends and it kept filling up with water so you took charge and told one person to scoop out the water, another to build a barrier against the tide and another to get ice-cream while you kept digging. And you were six.

¹Which, in two years of almost daily travel on the Underground, they never have. I feel like I've wasted an awful lot of money. Hence my plan to walk one way to or from work--cheap and healthy, hurrah! Let's see how long that lasts.

Back from North Wales, which was lovely. There were lots of sheep with very fluffy tails, we climbed Snowdon (well, most of it) and saw more stars in the night sky than I've seen for years. I'll post more, possibly with pictures, later. In the meantime, here's a bit of what I've been reading the past week:


Die richen kameraere      sach man vor ir gan
die hochgemuoten degene      diene wolden des niht lan
sine drungen da sie sahen      die minneclichen meit
Sivride dem herren      wart beide liep unde leit

Er dahte in seinem muote:      >>wie kunde daz ergan
daz ich dich minnen solde?      daz ist ein tumber wan
sol aber ich dich vremeden      so waere ich sanfter tod<<
er wart von den gedanken      vil dicke bleich unde rot


They saw richly dressed attendants walk before her
But the high-spirited heroes would not desist;
They pressed forward till they saw the lovely maid
Siegfried at once turned hot and cold.

He thought to himself: "How could it come to pass
That I might become your lover? It's a mad fantasy.
But if I am instead to avoid you, I would rather be dead."
He paled and reddened at these thoughts.


So, anyway, Das Nibelungenlied is amazing so far, absolutely brilliant, makes Beowulf look like something off fanfiction.net¹ and I highly recommend that all of you read it. In the original if possible (this is easier than it sounds, if you speak a little German), otherwise there's a new translation coming out early next year. It's worth it!

¹ Okay, I take this back. But, Beowulf is much shorter and nowhere near as epic, and the characters aren't nearly as sympathetic.

OMG YOU GUYS I JUST PREVENTED A CRIME!

I woke up and heard smashing glass--not much, like a bottle being smashed and then another--and then I heard something heavy being rattled against something else. I looked out of the window and there was a Youth^(TM) pulling at a bike locked to the railings opposite my building.

Jess: Oi!
Youth: ...Yeah?
Jess: ...Is that yours?
Youth: (defensively and clearly lying, as the bike is a ladies' bike, for ladies, AND HE IS NOT A LADY) Yes!
Jess: Then can you be quiet please, it's the middle of the night.
Youth: Oh. Sorry. (saunters away down the road, sans bike)

Despite being three floors above him it was exhilarating. It's half past three in morning but I'm wide awake now. I feel like a vigilante! I feel like Spider-Man!

As I mentioned previously, Torchwood causes me considerable anguish, and never more so than in the episode that was on tonight. Augh.

( Two icons. Spoilery. )

"The one piece of advice I would give to any actor is, if you want to go out on the street without being recognised, without even being looked at, go out with a 6ft 8in beautiful transsexual. No one gives you a second glance. Especially when you're 5ft 5in. I'd love to play a drag queen or transvestite, but not just because of the costumes. Wait, what am I saying? Yes, because of the costumes! If the script was good - I wouldn't just do it because I got to dress up. Although I maintain that I look good with eye make-up."

-Daniel Radcliffe

Oh, Harry Daniel. I forgive you for not having read the books yet when you started the films, I do. <3

According to an email sent around by the principal at my work, there is a possibility of a flue pandemic in London.

OMG YOU GUYS THERE ARE CHIMNEYS EVERYWHERE!!!11!!1

Dear large-ish internet retailers of computer hardware and accessories,

If you offer me the option of picking "Miss" or "Mrs" but not "Ms" as a title at checkout, I will assume that you a) don't want women who choose not to define themselves by their marital status to buy anything from you, and b) are morons.

No love,

Jessie


I sent them a more nicely-worded note to this effect, but I doubt they'll do anything about it. Oh well. Fortunately the products' manufacturer doesn't care what my title or gender is, and now has my money instead. Yay, replacement graphics tablet nibs for me! And a carry case, because I got over-excited, and decided to make my snubbing of the minions of the patriarchy at tabletworld.co.uk a bit more... snubby.

...Actually I just wanted one because it looks nice. But shh. I'm battling injustice here.

Last night I went to see the RSC's production of The Taming of the Shrew with Michelle Gomez in it. It was very good; I've not seen or read the play in its entirety before, but from clips and reviews I've seen it seems to me a lot of directors try to turn it into Much Ado About Nothing, with banter and jollity and all. This was much darker; Petruccio absolutely demolishes Katerina, and she's left empty and unresponsive at the end of it. Everything was in period costume, so you really got the feeling Kate was responding to her desire not to wed in the only way she could in that time--by acting out to the very limits of acceptability and rebuffing men before they got close. And then Petruccio comes along and doesn't care, and she's powerless; there's nothing she can do to stop him. The men in this play were such a creepy cabal of power-holders; they outnumbered the women three or four to one, and there was (I felt) a perpetual air of menace in their dealings with the women. It should have been called The Taming of the Shrew; or, Why The Patriarchy Sucks. Very powerful; it's not on much longer, but if you're in London I'd recommend you try to see it; there are under-25 tickets for £5 and we actually got upgraded to very close the the front with ours.

I'm doing a short nonsense-writing course at the moment, which I'm really enjoying. I think, more than the nonsense aspect, I'm just loving writing a little again. I should probably do more. Perhaps I'll post the last short story I wrote here, and see what y'all think of it...

Finally, Mark and I are going to York the weekend after next! There will be vikings and old things and OMG HOGBACK STONES </geek> and much fun shall be had. Huzzah!

So, I’ve recently started to watch Dexter, partly because Michael C. Hall is made of win, and partly because both my flatmates like shows about forensics and people being horribly murdered, and it makes a nice change from CSI. Anyway, watching it last night there were two things—one in the show and one in an advert—that irritated me.

( Dexter )

( Virgin Atlantic's ad )

Please spread word that the Disasters Emergency Committee is running an appeal for all victims affected by hostilities in Gaza, and that you can donate here: http://www.dec.org.uk/

In what I think is a thoroughly disgusting move, the BBC has decided not to air a DEC appeal for Gaza.

The Disasters Emergency Committee is a completely impartial organisation of 13 UK charities. It raises money on a crisis-by-crisis basis, and has recently appealed for money to help people in the Congo, Burma and Darfur. It's not an organisation that jumps on a bandwagon for causes: each of its appeals is focused and only launched when the situation following a crisis of any kind is deemed to be critical. In the case of Gaza, the DEC issued a statement saying the devastation in Gaza was "so huge British aid agencies were compelled to act". The DEC is the only charity I donate to when it comes to international aid; I know they'll coordinate aid efforts effectively and not deny anyone help on grounds of political conviction, or any other factor.

The BBC has claimed that showing the aid appeal would compromise their impartiality. This is utter rubbish; they have shown other DEC appeals on political situations in the past, and as far as I am concerned they have now contributed to the severity of the disaster by blocking attempts to send aid to the victims affected. As a TV license-payer, I shall be be sending a strongly-worded letter to the BBC. Far from proving its impartiality, the channel has shown its ignorance; if there was any way of owning a television without paying a license fee which goes undeservedly to the BBC, I would switch straight away. My license is coming up for renewal and I shall pay it through gritted teeth and clenched fists.

Anyway, because the BBC has refused to air the appeal, other channels have followed suit. Please, please, please spread the word of the appeal by mouth and by blog instead and donate here if you can: http://www.dec.org.uk/

My clarinet finally--finally--has a name. She’s called Tabitha. It sounds very cat-like to me, and it suits her, because she can be as sulky and stroppy as the stubbornest cat¹, but can also be utterly delightful at other times. In any case, it took a long time to wring it out of her, but I think this name will stick.

I’ve been designing flash cards to help me learn the names of notes; I’m completely lost if my teacher tells us to start on the C. The one you play with the thumb and three fingers on your left hand, you say? Of course! The one that sits astride the first extra line under the stave, you say? Can do! But C? Where the hell is that?²

Anyway, knowing the names of notes will be helpful in class, but I reckon I’ll also need to know them in order to do a grade 1 exam, hopefully at the end of this class and before I start the next. I’m considering doing a prep test with ABRSM to prepare--what do you think, my musical flist? Good idea or will I just look like a complete idiot surrounded by the five year-olds the test is mostly aimed at?

In any case, I've just bought two enormous books of popular clarinet music; hopefully I'll be able to play a couple of songs in them.

¹ See also: A poor workman always blames his tools.
² I am that rubbish: until I checked, I thought the note described here was an E.

I thought K.A. Applegate's Everworld series was cancelled after book 9--but it turns out there are three more installments! Joy of joys, I was so pleased by this news that I bought the last three books in the series at extortionate prices off Amazon marketplace. Well, not that extortionate. More than I would usually pay for 200-page A6 books, but well worth it given that they appear to be out of print and Everworld is all that I can seem to read at the moment. I've started about five books in the past two weeks and haven't been able to keep my attention on them--I didn't even fancy re-reading Harry Potter or Twilight, or anything else on my Top 5 books/series evar¹. So teen fiction with characters from bastardised Norse, Aztec and Egyptian legends and aliens will have to do. Highly recommended.

Saw Slumdog Millionaire with Imogen and Liv yesterday; it was good, but not so good that I would see it again. It has the Indian kid from Skins in it, who looks perpetually confused, and a very good soundtrack.

My clarinet lessons start up again tonight; I'm looking forward to it, even though I haven't practiced as much as I should have over the holidays. I thought I would have to miss next week's class, as Imogen and I are going to see the RSC's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, but the class finishes before I need to get to the theatre, which is really close to my office. Quite excited; Imogen has introduced me to the fact that the RSC has £5 tickets available for anyone under 25, so I plan to see every RSC production in the next two and a half years.

¹ In no particular order: Harry Potter; 1984; The Beach²; Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrel; His Dark Materials
²If you liked The Beach, try The Raw Shark Texts; awesome in a similar way.

Having just watched Stella Duffy's sort-of documentary on writing a Mills & Boon novel, I'm actually kind of tempted. I might read a couple of the books--after all, I really enjoyed Twilight, and it's the same basic fantasy/wish fulfillment stuff, just with uglier covers. My mum reckons writing them is pretty lucrative, too. Maybe I'll give it a go. I think it could be rather fun; it sounds like the rather indulgent, emotional kind of writing I love doing.

In other news, I totally figured out the mystery in tonight's episode of Jonathan Creek about fifteen minutes into the show. Step aside, poodle boy and Janet-from-Two-Pints; I am the new super detective!

Jess: Hallo, ich möchte gern ein Billet fur Australia reservieren, um viertel nach acht, kann das?
Kino-mann: Ja klar Lady, nur ein Billet?
Jess: Ja.
Kino-mann: Okee Lady, ihre Nummer...
Jess: Uh, meine Nummer ist--
Kino-mann: Lady, Lady, sie sind zu jung für mich. Ihr Reservationsnummer ist 209399.
Jess: *blushes furiously*

I can't believe it's Thursday already! Mark and I got back from Iceland on Sunday evening and I started my new job on Monday. But more on that in another post. First, ( Reykjavik! )