Do you still think that way about me now?

jellostar!!! How did I NOT know you made userpics?!?!?

*pours over glass_icons like a big pour-y thing*

:D

These picture books, written by Brad Meltzer and illustrated by Christopher Eliopoulous, sound adorable - look at Lincoln and his ickle beard!! Images are taken from this entry in Neil Gaiman's blog where you can also find out some more about the books themselves.

On a slightly different note, learn some of the traditional names for each month's full moon as given by the Algonquin tribes of the northern and eastern US. So evocative; I particularly love the Strawberry Moon :D

(Please note the article was published in 2012 and all dates and times for full moons are in reference to that year. I came across this info via the Astronomy Picture of the Day website.)

In 2013, I...

- turned 33.

- asked a lot of mysterious and random questions of my LiveJournal friends, as I fact-checked elements of a story.

- got slooooowly back in touch with Ruth, Lesley and LJ, my old university friends, in an attempt to make human contact outside of work.

- discovered the time-wasting potential of TrendHunter.com...

- ... and via the above, discovered the joys of mash-up fan art by Amy Mebberson, Karen Hallion and Hyung86.

- spent more money than I ought to in The Works.

- realised that I need to put a time limit on how long I write, because spending too long leaves me grumpy and depressed. On that basis, I made a deal with Mum to stop her nagging me about writing, but she has recently started again...

- tidied my wardrobe (well, most of it).

- went on holiday to Jersey and learned that four-star hotel menus are not all that.

- got new bosses at work and watched an already-bad situation get worse, ugh.

- and as a result of the above, got more and more cynical and sharp-tongued.

- got rid of the task of clerking the Coleraine family courts!... then got it back again, thanks to said new bosses >.<

- got obsessed with paint colour names and colouring-in books.

- read a lot (but then, I do that every year).

- re-started using my local library, although most of the time I borrow books with absolutely no intention of reading them. *guilty look*

- bought a re-useable calendar of "calming thoughts" and promptly started to disagree with them.

- watched Strictly Come Dancing for the first time and loved it. My only quibble is that it's on too early in the evening, which leaves you scrabbling to find something to watch from 8 o'clock on...

- watched "The Day of the Doctor" on 23 November and fell in love with Doctor Who again (I had drifted away from the show following a... family incident which had been started by this episode).

- started listening to my pop and rock CDs again, after several years of only playing instrumental and classical music. I blame the pop radio station which my workmates tune into (and which I can't stand).

- applied for two new jobs and a transfer... didn't get any of them.

- got a bonus woohoo!

- gave up on taking packed lunches to work.

- did NOT join any dating websites... but thought about it. A lot.

- made a necklace.

- bought the same style of shoes as I had last year.

- wrote in pink.

- FINALLY got a passport. And still haven't used it.

- err, downloaded spyware like an idiot >.< Luckily in the middle of doing so, I mentioned what I was doing to my brother, so he got straight on to removing it.

- wrote this list.

Whoops. I figured I'd better show up here again and explain that I'm not dead. Travelling up and down to Belfast to take my classes and reading up for my viva has taken up my time.

My students are depressing me this year. None of them stand out for me. Last year my two Thursday groups were brilliant; the students were talkative and interested, and some of them came out with points I'd never considered. This year I get the impression that all of them are here because they couldn't be assed to get employed or go on the dole for three years. Which I suppose is hypocritical of me since that was one of the reasons I did a PhD (oh how I learned my lesson there!), but trying to engage students who don't want to be engaged is draining.

Part of the problem is the new way of taking attendance. Before, I had to do a roll call - very school-ish but it let me get to know my students, associate a name with a voice and face. This year, we have sheets which we hand round and the students sign in, then we hand the sheets in to the school office. No natural chance for me to join names with faces, which leaves me (never good with names and faces to begin with) with a class full of anonymous faces and a list of strangers' names.

The Wednesday morning class is particularly draining. I'm not much of a morning person and perhaps I should have known better than to put a class on so early. I still haven't had everyone turn up for that class; there could be people who are supposed to be in whose faces I haven't seen yet. And it's not like they were shoehorned into this morning class by administration; this year the students were allowed to pick which tutorial slot they wanted to go into. They decided that 10-11am would be suitable for them. *tears hair out*

On a different note: my sister (12) has got a hankering to go on Neopets. Considering the addictive qualities of Neopets and the fact that we only have dial-up, I'm sceptical about how practical this is. My mum, meanwhile, is worried about security and when I mentioned that I knew people who played Neopets, she wanted me to get some more details. Things like who knows or can access personal details, how players get in contact with each other, what these competitions and stuff is about. I've looked round the site myself but my mum prefers people feedback, which I understand.

Has anyone else seen this?

http://www.ubu.com/concept/racter.html

( A sampler )