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Living with arthritis
When I was eight I began suffering from stiffness in my knees and hips. I was diagnosed with juvenile idiopathic rheumatoid arthritis at the age of ten, after extensive tests, including x-rays, CT scans, blood tests and once, painfully, the extraction of fluid from beneath my knee-caps. Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic inflammatory disorder that ( Read more... ) -
Stone Giants
In Norse mythology and that of the British isles, giants are associated with hills and mountaintops. Ancient, ruined structures and stone circles were sometimes attributed to giants' attempts at building. The giants are also fond of stone-throwing contests. Standing stones were sometimes said to be the remnants of these contests ( Read more... ) -
Adventures in Academia
One tends to expect a certain degree of competence from published books, particularly collections of academic articles. But no.
Today in my reading I came across Women in Indian Politics (Sinha, Niroj ed., Gyan Publishing House, New Delhi, 200). The article I was particularly interested in here was "Women's Participation in National Freedom ( Read more... ) -
"Vicariously"
All of this news over the Upcoming Royal Wedding prompted a look tody into the word "vicariously". Te largest dictionary in my house is also (I believe) the oldest, a two volume 1950 shorter Oxford in faded blue cloth covers. It says that 'vicarious' means substitution, representation, and a passaage I found particularly interesting, "of ( Read more... ) -
The dangers of multitasking
Me: I have an essay due tomorrow...
James M: Essay on what? On spies?
Me: On a play about stars. Whoops, pies. Fuck, spies. -
(Untitled)
Diana Wynne Jones helped shape my brain. I'm not sure how else to say it ( Read more... ) -
Five Things
1. I am, as of the beginning of March, a university student. Oddly enough, this hasn't felt like a particularly big change in my life. I suppose I have experienced larger, and this particular change is, at least, one I was ready for ( Read more... ) -
A conversation at a music lesson in 2010
"-because modern song lyrics suck, have you noticed that? It's always the same set of fifty or sixty words and tired phrases. Cat Stevens once wrote a song called 'I love my dog as much as I love you', and sure, it's not exactly romantic, but you can appreciate the honesty. In the fifties they just wrote songs about anything -" because the world ( Read more... ) -
Oh, I almost forgot
On Monday Jenny's German class went to the cinema to watch a film. It was called Goethe, or possibly Goethe!, though I think it would benefit from losing the exclamation mark. It is basically a fictionalised account of how Goethe came to write The Sorrows of Young Werther. In fact, from what I read on the wiki, it seems the film was highly ( Read more... )
