Marina Hyde

Marina Hyde in the Grauniad

This woman is wonderful:

Simon Cowell the first post sentient human

Can't say anymore, laughing too much

great site

Utterly surreal and very funny...

http://xkcd.com/77/

good writing vs bad writing

Yes I'm worried about writing on the net, but what about this incomprehensible gem:

Since I had started to break down all my writing and get rid of all facility, and try to make instead of describe, writing had been wonderful to do.

It's Hemingway. Worrying? Oh yes.

A day later: it's still puzzling me; though I think if you stress the words make and describe it almost makes sense; almost.

Is this the level of writing we are descending to on the web

This is taken from a well-known 'how to do stuff' type website- I won't say which but it sounds a bit like a cowboy yell..... anyway, read this gem.

How to Design Your Own Beach House Landscape

When deciding how to draw or design a beach house landscape for a cartoon, picture or any other sort of animation or drawing, it is best to keep the main elements of a beach house--weather, water and open area--in mind.

So true , but then of course, it is best when cooking a chicken casserole to keep in mind that you will need some chicken: but I probably didn't need to tell you that, did I?

And anyway who is this aimed at?

how to draw or design a beach house landscape for a cartoon, picture or any other sort of animation or drawing?

I despair.......

I'm not interesting enough .....apparently

The day I finally had it confirmed that I am simply not interesting enough it came to me as a bit of shock, I must admit. I'm well educated with a brace of degrees, I read, go to the cinema, am reasonably au fait with the visual arts, an accomplished guitarist and speak fluent Italian. Not earth shattering but a reasonable CV I would have thought. There are blank spots, of course. My knowledge is totally lacking when it comes to football and in fact, sport in general, a factor that I do not consider a disadvantage, and some might consider a positive benefit along with my total lack of interest in soap operas, reality television and anything to do with Simon Cowell.

So how did this revelation come about?

I'd received a call from a journalist on a National daily newspaper. They wanted to do a piece about a web-based venture which I had launched a month or two before. We discussed the project in some detail. Satisfied that there was more than enough to do a piece, the discussion turned to taking a photograph. Are you married? asked the journalist. I replied simply no (not wishing to get into the divorced versus single discussion) after a pause she responded with Have you got any children? I replied no. There was a longer, more poignant, pause before she said with a slight air of desperation in her voice any pets? Fortunately I was able to say yes, though I believe that my cat, Archie would probably consider himself a co-habitee rather than in the deferential role of pet'. So with a sigh of relief she suggested a time for the photographer to call at my house. So my existence and my interest factor had been confirmed. But why do I need partner, offspring or pet to be valid'?

I was thinking that the era of people, in particular women being identified by the nature of their husband's work was long gone. Then I remembered a story a good friend told me some years ago, about a visit to the hairdressers. After the usual preliminaries about what you doing this weekend? where do you live? etc The hairdresser asked my friend the $64,000 question.
"So what does your husband do?"
"He's a nuclear physicist." she replied truthfully.
After a pause the hairdresser asked (innocently)
"So does he work for himself?"
Hmmm.

I still maintain that when the proportion of people living alone has trebled over the last 40 years, it is anachronistic to define people according to their associations, but then I don't have to worry anymore, as I'm married now and my wife said she loves me, whether I'm interesting or not.... and I think that's alright......

It made me laugh.....

Sometimes you wander aimlessly around the web for what seems like days (but is actually close to a fortnight) and find nothing but then something makes it worthwhile.. sort of

This was posted on Twitter by someone called Stephanie.
"I read the headline "Pope visits Africa" as "Elderly cross-dressing virgin lectures AIDS-stricken continent about dangers of condoms."

Even this gem doesn't quite justify the 2.7 million clicks I've probably done this week but anyway.

Reviews of Classics when they were issued ...

Nice piece on The Word podcast abut album reviews: I’d like to add a couple of golden oldies from a long defunct magazine called Beat Instrumental. Here are a couple of excerpts from reviews by John Ford.

Nov 1968
Music from Big Pink
‘It has that beautiful amateurish sound the Americans capture so easily.’

Dec 68
Electric Ladyland
‘…of course, this is a chart and artistic success. And let us not forget the cover with all those lovely ladies there upon.’

I’m not quite sure which I prefer most; the ‘damning with faint praise of’ the first or the quaint use of ‘there upon’ in the second.

Rowland

www.reallyaccessiblememory.com

depressing thought....

I read today that Twitter membership has gone up by 33% in one week: from 6 million to 8 million people!

The thought is this: there are millions of us out here: but how many direct contacts do we actually get? If everybody is writing articles or 'content' --God I hate that word, makes it sound like the newly rich who used to buy books by the yard to fill their 'libraries'...

Anyway if everybody is writing articles with SEO in mind, then the sole purpose of that type of 'writing' is to attract the 'bots, so you may as well write a list of keywords, if all you want is to appear high on the Search Engines.

So I ask myself, what does it have to do with writing....