Plucky little pony

Not sure I can really justify why this tickles me so, it just does. One of life's mysteries.

Google Reader: a retrospective

When I first heard, I admit I was furious. I don't normally set much store by interweb facilities. Sure, I enjoy Facebook for the photos, LinkedIn for the networking, Gmail/Rocketmail/Hotmail for the communications, but apart from some very light blogging and tweeting (as evidence by this neglected blog) I really could say I'm cyber-lite. I don't have such capabilities on my mobile telephone. I access the internet by a slightly more advanced version of dial-up or visit the local internet-enabled cafe (and use gallons of bandwith/electricity for a very reasonable 40p bottle of spring water). I never even text, let alone send photo messages - do you know how expensive they are?

So, when I learned that the one crucial site that I used LOADS was disappearing for no good reason, I was fuming.

I joined this petition. I grumbled to people lengthily. I was very sad. I had used my Google Reader account for as long as it had been available. I had stored there all my subscriptions to comics, blogs, job searches, news updates, etc. I thought it would last forever. I actually thought what a fun insight it would provide should I ever leave this mortal coil unexpectedly early, my nearest and dearest taking comfort in all the funny cartoons I enjoyed and serious political debate on which I kept tabs.

I knew that good ol' Google wouldn't be persuaded. Someone had mentioned the costs of keeping it alive and compared it to the revenue possible, but we GReader scamps weren't cross-posting or tweeting or blogging or promoting enough. We could have been punished another way. Make it slower. Fill it with ads. Do a YouTube and make us watch a commercial before we could get to the good stuff.

Instead there was just a steady reminder to back-up, download, collect and otherwise archive the information lovingly contained therein before the big power switch in the sky was turned off.

Resignedly I searched for alternatives. I tried Old Reader, but it didn't float my boat. I'm now using Feedly, but I'm still not convinced. I wanted more functionality for free, but maybe I'm just greedy.

I'm no longer angry. Strangely, it subsided pretty quickly. Feedly is now my go-to site after Facebook and my various email providers.

However, I'm beginning to think Google's Do No Harm promise is ringing hollow...

UNICORN PLAN-IT: It's so close now, I can almost touch it!

Thanks to Alice for this image from the gif competition

Hip-hip-hooray, UNICORN PLAN-IT starts today!

Yes, my lovelies, the exciting new webseries by the gorgeous people at Autostraddle and their beauteous pals has already garnered accolades, tweets and posts aplenty - - and it hasn't even started yet! No need to wait! Yup, Monday August 1st (TODAY) is the world premiere of this scripted show's first two episodes.

Here is how it all started...

Temped to tune in? You should be! Need more persuasion? Here is a synopsis of the show and the teaser video where Ashley explains The Ho Bag!

"The show centers around an events planning office in LA, lesbian owned and operated. It's character centered, around J (Sherri D. Sutton), the boss, her lover Harmony who is also a spiritual healer (Haviland Stillwell), and her employees, player Vick (Ashley Reed), emotionally promiscuous Keesha (Sarah Croce), and the lone gay boy (Amir Levi). The business and the relationship are at a crossroads, so Harmony brings in a big piece of business -- her former college "roommate" Bambi (Catherine Wadkins) is getting married, and the UNICORN PLAN-IT team has to get their shit together and plan it! We refer to everyone as Unicorns, because gay people love them, because they are magical and lovely, and also, they are really just lesbian horses. Obvs. Holler. UNICORN PLAN-IT...Get horny."

Already love it? Good! You should check out Unicorn Plan-It's facebook page, youtube channel and twitter feed! You want to know more RIGHT NOW? Okay, how about this? Insider info, from a starlet in the know, reveals that the show is made by almost entirely gay ladies (crew, cast, etc.). So if you want to support it just because it has great queer and feminist ideals, then that would be wonderful, too!

Let's take a closer look at these wonderful people...

SARAH CROCE (actress, Girl Talk, Autostraddle's Miss April)
Stalking opportunities: Facebook twitter tumblr youtube model portfolio
Top Google search suggestions:

ASHLEY REED (writer, upcoming film HARTS LOCATION)
Stalking opportunities: Facebook twitter
Top Google search suggestions:

HAVILAND STILLWELL (TV/Broadway actress, recording artist)
Stalking opportunities: Facebook Facebook page Facebook group twitter website
Top Google search suggestions:

SHERRI D. SUTTON
Fascinating facts: Sherri was six years in a cult, fighting her queer identity but luckily for her (and us!), she went through "lesbian remission" and is now a successful comedian and theatre teacher. You can stalk her here: Facebook

The other cast members include: Amir Levi (Facebook Facebook page twitter), Catherine Wadkins (Facebook), Malcolm Devine and Rachel Paulson.

 

Last but by no means least: Sara Croce guarantees a ride on her invisible horn in exchange for cashola! Ooh, the sauce! You heard it here - - verbal contracts are binding! Want to contribute and secure that magical moment avec La Croce? It's too late! *sad face* but you'll have the link for when they start fundraising for season 2! Click here to help the lasses and see a bigger version of this wondrous rainbow-pooping beast!

The girls in La La Land are SO excited about their new show; let's make it a success... And if you happen to be near M Bar 1253 Vine Street, Los Angeles tonight head to the premiere party!

Homosexy people! Use the force of the queermos to get the word out!

[*This delectable delving into the latest endeavour by the creative wonders at Autostraddle.com was meant to go live over the weekend, but then 'Blogger autosave' tried to ruin my world. Luckily I found out about pmdump.exe and strings.exe, so whilst a lot was lost, at least I learned a new retrieval skill!*]

Unbelievably sophisticated developments for e-lectures from Yale University

YaleCourses are an excellent education innovation. They are uploaded regularly with clear sound and image - a plus. But they are also subtitled - which is fantastic. But the most amazing thing is that there is an interactive transcript accompanying the film. You can search within the text for keywords, you can click on that line and the video jumps to that place. It is the future of teaching developments and they are streets ahead.

 

Check out this Judith Butler lecture to see it in action.
 
Well done, Yale.

UPDATE: Apparently, the interactive transcript is a Google/YouTube development, not Yale's - but still...yay!

Unexpected geekery: 1££75?£4X

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I don't use coded language much, but when I do I use capitals and lowercase to change the phonetics of letter pronunciation:
hA how R U? cN U hLp mE?
Hey how are you? Can you help me?

A = ay
B = be
C = see
D = dee
E = ee
F = ef
G = gee
H = aitch
I = eye
J = jay
K = kay
L = el
M = em
N = en
O = oh
P = pea
Q = queue
R = are
S = ess
T = tea
U = you
V = vee
W = double you {NB not often used in conversation, I have to admit}
X = ex
Y = why
Z = zee

wE nEd 2 gO 2 hLp mI frNd, Qpid. NE1 cN come!
We need to go help my friend, Cupid. Anyone can come!

See, this is how my morning starts... I read Wikipedia and I cannot help but fall down the rabbit hole...

The truth will out!

There's nothing worse than not being believed, is there? Even more terrible is to be called a liar! You remember the scene quite clearly, you can hear them say those words, you can recall them reacting to yours - then you recount the situation later and no-one remembers it like that and you are in the wrong. Maddening! Now, memories are famously faulty, but I was always convinced that I was right and desperately wanted a tool to prove to my doubters that I did present the correct version of the event. I wanted someone to put a microchip in my brain, or a miniature camera in my eye to record all that happened to me and, if my truth was called in question at a later date, I could provide instant replay and prove them wrong.

I got superexcited when I learned about Steve Mann, "the world's first cyborg", whose 1994-1996 art installation/surveillance project was carrying a camera and recording his life for posterity (whilst live streaming it online, too). He is said to have invented blogging, too, calling it cyborGLOGGING! ShootingBack is a documentary about him making his life into a documentary - very meta and the rebellion and activist ramifications are not ignored: "Possible T-shirt design (to be worn by individuals entering establishments where video surveillance is used): 'For YOUR protection, a video record of you and your establishment is being transmitted and recorded at remote locations. All criminal acts prosecuted.' " -  - There was also the guy who was turning his brainwaves into music, but that was just weird.

Now, Canon have released an insight into future photography technology which will prevent those moments I hate so much. Truth will have a new meaning. Truth will have to become our interpretations of the facts provided by visual evidence. Doubting Thomases no more. Interpretation of memory will be eradicated. No need for memory. In fact, our brains may evolve to other functions, maybe learning to telepathically communicate or cook our dinner like a sonic microwave oven...

Anyway the new camera is set to record, in massive detail, digital video of any scene. Then you can zoom into any still of that video and identify within that scene items that previously escaped your attention. If there was some sort of audio-zoom, then it would be truly AWESOME!

Imagine a wedding videographer capturing the first dance, who pans the grinning audience, pleased parents and...the bridesmaids swapping whispers in the corner - ZOOM - and you see that the brunette's bra straps are showing and that the short one has forgotten to put mascara on her left eye, but more importantly, you hear how they are both noting that the bride's gown choice makes her back-fat worse!

Here is a handy preview of the technology (via Towleroad):





According to this video's narrator, a new camera like this will reduce the current status of photographic art because it wont be so specialist and technical. Capturing the perfect shot wont be either skill or luck, it will be the Canon camera capturing every scene in remarkable detail and with the ability to direct focus, after taking the shot, in any direction within the frame. So a mountain scene that focuses on the middleground can also capture a bird in the air and the frog in the grass in the foreground. Marvellous - it will make us all into spies, like the GoogleMap StreetView dudes in their weird little cars.

Plus it will provide me an endless supply of opportunities to say: 'See I told you, just like I said...'

I will be intolerable.

:)

Internet memories

My first foray into the internet was my Hotmail email address. I chose a moniker that my 18 year old self thought was funny and unique and was able to get it without having to add a number on the end like so many of my peers. I even got xxxxxxxxxxxxxx@hotmail.com - whereas lately there was a request to shift to hotmail.co.uk to free up the main domain names.

I must have signed up, created profiles and gotten email addresses to about fifty sites, at a conservative count.

The blog entries here that are entitled 'Comments on other blogs' are an attempt to round these ether identities into a tidy basket. It is not easy. Three Facebook identities, three hotmail email addresses, three Gmail addresses (one of which has been taken over by my father now), a rocketmail address (Yahoo), two work addresses, two Blogger identities, Wikipedia identity and countless other identities to get access to certain features of websites (full article access, the right to post comments, etc.). These are all connections with faceless and location-unknown computer servers that have little pieces of knowledge about me in them. Together they might form a general impression of me as a person.

I rarely give my exact date of birth - I tend towards Jan 1st 1979, because that is the easiest to enter when required in the 'sign up' form. I pick some sort of play on my name - I have used about twenty, I think, some with numbers, mostly without. I might choose some hilarious question for the inevitability that I will forget the correct log in details for these infrequently used sites.

Should I know where all this knowledge is? Should I try to track it all down?

Web 2.0

The consumers of information and entertainment on the internet are becoming the creators. Dilbert mash-ups. Vimeo movie reviews. Youtube fan clips. Wikipedia entry edits.

We are creating our world. We might be producing information that no-one else is consuming. We might be making more than we are taking in. Our output might be outpacing our input. Does that matter? If we are not informed before we produce, we have the pleasure in knowing our work is naively original - we cannot possibly have copied or been influenced - we haven't seen the other output.

But to what extent is our perhaps ill-informed produce worth anything? Can it be called truth?

When information is modified in Wikipedia it is either changed automatically or on flagged pages there is a pause, a debate between self-nominated experts, a professional over-seer moderates and then we have alterations (if permitted). There is a checking system and it works - mostly. We are not by nature a society of liars. We do not want to produce inaccuracies (other than when we are compelled for commercial or personal reasons). We like to have contributed to helping improve global understanding. We want to have been pivotal in making something better. We want to be seen as knowledgeable, clever. We want to show off.

That is why I think there is just cause to believe in Wikipedia. Eventually we will use it as a resource and cite it. GoogleNews was planning on doing just this and conducted an experiment into its efficacy. In another article it is stated that:
"it’s hard to argue with the idea that many Wikipedia pages — which are often more comprehensive and updated more quickly than some news sites — offer background and context on current events that could be beneficial to Google News users."

This is probably the main point. With citizen journalists on the spot and giving us a street view of incidents, we can be there immediately. We can judge for ourselves. There is no editor, script writer, teleprompter reader. We can see for ourselves.

Academia's main bugbear is that it takes two years to review then publish scholarship. The information may well be old, based on outdated research and outmoded data. The purpose of publishing is thusly not for the benefit of Mankind to improve knowledge, but to add to someone's CV/resume, to make them closer to tenure. If we have a moral obligation to make our research available to everyone, then we should be publishing in Wikipedia or on our blogs. We might need to sell journals and books, but we might care more about letting humanity know a little bit more sooner rather than later.

Maybe information overload would be a problem. Putting all the research out there, for magazines to paraphrase in brief articles, where nuances are lost and inaccuracies flourish, might be pointless. The white noise wall of information may become too much and deter people from engaging or even listening. Perhaps after a serious debate in conference tracks, journal counterarguments and rival books, there might be a more solid argument produced, a more refined, joint understanding. This might be what should be fed down to the general populace. The average Joe doesn't want to have to grasp ten years of chemistry teaching to know that the new pharmaceutical might help his condition, as long as he avoids caffeine and doesn't have the trigger gene.

Are we protecting the public from being overwhelmed with information, or are we creating knowledge strata? Limiting those deliberately to make the information seem more valuable; information that is released only in the rarefied air expelled by other scholars.

Should we trust information produced by multiple persons working without financial gain (unless they are promoting a theory that one can learn more about in a handy pocket-sized classic available for only £5.99!) and viewable to the multitude who can join in as editors if so moved, or allow the information to remain unchallenged if they believe/know it to be fact?

Here is a site that talks about a documentary that was made on this very topic - it includes an embedded version of the documentary. Well worth watching!

Update: I have just found this on Claire O'Farrell's blog: "Scholarly work is essential in order to guarantee certain standards of truth and accuracy, of value to the social body. But popular books are also essential to communicate ideas to a non-specialist general public...A book does not stand alone, it is intrinsically bound up in a social network of work done by others." Interesting...
Also, there is this academic article that explores the issue of trust in Wikipedia contributions.
Ian Bogost thinks that academic output should be for the general public:

"But wait, you might say, why would a discipline of philosophy need or want to explain itself to a general population? This is the domain of specialists, and some will hold that we cannot or should not "simplify" our nuanced positions for the unwashed masses. This is wrongheaded. I'm of the general belief that academia has a responsibility to the public interest, but more than any other philosophical movememt in recent memory, OOO stands to benefit from the deep engagement of ordinary people, since it returns the attention of philosophy to the real, everyday world."

More random info

The longest web address that actually pertains to something real is named after that famous village on the isle of Anglesey: http://www.llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwyll-llantysiliogogogoch.com/

Also another Welsh link: if you like the nursery rhyme 'Mary had a little lamb', you might want to pop to the lady's grave and help tend it, as it is falling to wrack and ruin. There is a website dedicated to the cemetery in which it resides - click the Mary Hughes tab.

Aliens in the...no, wait, Zombies in the...

Funnily enough, the first post of 2010 is about computer games - I feel such a nerd. Cyber-geekery isn't normally my thing, but I was driven to it - honestly. My H2B was chilling after a stress submission deadline, playing some online RPG and I was nattering about how I remembered playing games like that in years gone by - musing about what ever happened to those games - were they still played somewhere, at retro gaming conventions, perhaps? I started to search for old favourites - Captain Comic, Crystal Caves, Duke Nukem, even The Simpsons: Bart vs. Space Mutants. Then I was stuck - there was another game I loved, but I couldn't remember the name... I wracked my brains that day, overnight and this morning I was at the end of my tether. I searched online fora, looked at walkthroughs on youtube, tried Wikipedia, then resorted to asking for help. I was getting SO frustrated - I knew all about the game, but I couldn't find any trace of it anywhere. Finally, I found a gallery of screenshots - and there it was. The Catacombs Abyss! Hurrah! I loved that game! I might just have to play a wee bit for old-times' sake...

Crusties, porn and more

A completely barmy but well-intentioned woman, Liz Jones, writes about her hatred for crusties. " I’ve watched hippies in India actually bartering with a naked child who earns 20p a day." "How do you respond to someone who thinks poverty is OK, that the developing world doesn’t need globalisation? The crusties think they want poverty, too, only a homogenised western type so they can still dial 999 if they get in a pickle. Crusties fail to remember they are ultra privileged, and with privilege comes responsibility."

This other Sunday article about children's frightening access to porn on the internet

Also randomly I found my first fuck on facebook... weirdness

For the love of language...

Check out the Wiki article on polari, the language used by Romany and theatrical types with a huge queer slant, based on Romany and thieves' cant. How many of the words from the glossary do you use? I use LOADS! I was really surprised!

Ever wondered what would happen when the apocalypse comes, when you are really hoping for Utopia? Then utopalypse is for you! What a great word!

Too many books? Then copy this artist and make them into sculpture. The photographs are awesome...

If you have too many social media connectivity network app's then Digsby, Tweetdeck and Skimmer might be for you... I used all three, but am thinking of trying Nomee - this claims to do all the other links and SO MUCH MORE! Now, if I can get youtube, gmail, google reader, hotmail, msn messenger, facebook, LinkedIn, Hi5, Where are you now?, FriendsReunited, blogger dashboard, iGoogle, academia.edu and the other gazillion sites I meant to be a member of, then I would be sorted!

Learning to love the word cunt: a young teacher gets a lesson in language from his LGBT students

Needing help to step out of the closet? This handy-help guide is the answer.

Miraculous absence of a hangover...

I naughtily indulged in Sunday drinking shenanigans (and drunk dialled the latest girly - oops), but feel FINE today. Hooray!

Decided not to wear a bra today as I don't need to go outside (no-one should go outside the house if there is a chance of a chill-wind causing nipple exposure...that's what padded brassieres are for ladies!) and I like my masculine silhouette - almost boi-ish...

I wonder if I can have days when I am butch despite having blonde hair to my waist - need I put it up, or can I fulfill my criteria for butchness, with flowing locks? I certainly like to mix it up - girly dresses whilst wearing man's cologne - it feels scandalous, pushing boundaries...so risque!

Links of loveliness:
I may never have mentioned it before, but I should have - an excellent daily art update is available on your iGoogle homepage as well as by just clicking on their website: www.artistaday.com - fabulous images and uses snippets of information on the creations...

Scary stuff in the form of more snooping and surveillance which I don't think is over-hyped or hysterical like a lot of Big Brother bullsh*t stories running rife in the media. In an article about a GhostNetwork which has hacked governmental computers, they write that:
In this case, the software also gave hackers the ability to use audio and video recording devices to monitor the rooms the computers were in. But investigators said they did not know whether or not this element had been used. (@ BBCNews Website)
Holy crow! That is super-scary...

More dire warnings that new interconnectivity through social networking is more surveillant than we might have thought...

...and a hilarious story about one son's saucy contribution to his parents' home decor...

Finally, I think I might have found the people for whom I'd like to work once my PhD is finished... the Information Warfare Monitor (IWM), which comprises researchers from Ottawa-based think tank SecDev Group and the University of Toronto's Munk Centre for International Studies.

Monday Musings

Thanks to Riese and her new website, I've discovered a new artsy website for keeping myself updated on the latest shennanigans.

Also it was a fantastic suprise to see HALF the front page of The Independent newspaper here in the UK covering a story about us winning the World Cup for women's cricket...AND the headline (perhaps just for lack of space) just said WORLD CUP rather than giving it the caveat of, 'oh, it's only women's cricket'.

Why, oh, why do Natasha Richardson's son always look like they are smirking in any recent photographs of them since their mother's death?

Ooh, I think I forgot to mention...

Each morning after checking iGoogle (UK news, queer news, tech news, Dilbert, word match up, art of the day, twitterfeed, facebook, quote of the day, Japanese word of the day, English word of the day), browsing a paper edition of The Daily Mail, checking my work email address and avoiding my personal one, plus logging out of the auto-sign-in MSNMessenger, I routinely check Marie Lyn 'Riese' Bernard and crew's new website. It is splendiferous and I recommend anyone with an interest in things pertaining to queer women give it some serious attention.

Today those lovely ladies sent my tumbling through the internet with the following links:
SXSW Update
Bitch magazine's 'women in science' link to Flickr
Jezebel caught up with the 'ladies loving ladies late' trend

...and then I was wondering: what ever happened to Beth Orton? The answer is here.

... and then I was glad Feministing had this article on the missing gender discussion regarding the recent German school girl shooting.

More of the same...

Lack of respect for the body and human life:
Woman gives birth in airplane toilet - then tries to leave the baby on board | Mail Online

Euthanasia UK: Outcry as Hewitt leads campaign to protect those who help the sick end their lives | Mail Online

HARRIET SERGEANT: Why does the NHS hate the elderly so much? | Mail Online

All homosexuals should be stoned to death, says Muslim preacher of hate | Mail Online

Euthanasia support article

and the opposite - people expressing respect for their own bodies:
Asexual lifestyle

...and for their nation:
Amanda Platell

and just for fun...
Email panic button
Website builder

Cartographic Crush

How have I lived so long on this wonderful planet having never heard of lovemaps before?

Also from WIKIPEDIA:

Genderfuck is a politics of identity stemming from the identity politics movements of the 1950s and 1960s, a guiding principle of which is the idea that the personal is political.^[3]

The term dates at least to 1979, when an article by Christopher Lonc, entitled "Genderfuck and Its Delights", appeared in the magazine Gay Sunshine. Lonc wrote "I want to criticize and poke fun at the roles of women and of men too. I want to try and show how not-normal I can be. I want to ridicule and destroy the whole cosmology of restrictive sex roles and sexual identification."^[4]

and...^{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_Faeries}

Genderbending films!

^{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Victoria}

^{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connie_and_Carla}

Ooh, and one for the calendar: Gay Shame ...goes girly!

One more for the road...

Beautiful unisexual photographs from a talented Parisienne...

Genderfork: The place to absorb and question - rather like pomoworld, but mellower... Though saying that, check out their Dance Party video!

Bugis have a fascinating five gendered societal spectrum... check out the video

Such gender non-conformity is finding favour in traditionally conservative China...

How can I expect a woman to understand me when my parents don't?

Six things for tonight's ponderence:

• My father needs to accept me as a sexual being.
• My parents are addicted to me and are not letting go despite me being on the brink of thirty and them fully-retired for the second time! Thereby preventing me from blossoming into the fullness of self that I ought. Therefore incurring mental breakdown from stress - like 1ton Son.
• Movies with cartoon/animation opening credits that is not repeated in the rest of the film: Honeymoon in Las Vegas, City Slickers, Ruthless People, 1st Wives' Club, Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead, Mad House.
  
• Theory that the first movies that a person sees moulds their funny bone - for me The 'Burbs and Inner Space - they are so well remembered, so familiar, that they feel real.
• There needs to be a reverse googlewhack generator - to establish if your website is a googlewhack and if so for which words - I'll talk to Google about it.
• Also in this confusing cyber age of multi-personalities, identities, passwords, homepages (facebook, match.com, friendsreunited, twitter, blogger) we all need an expert ID thief to hack into our lives with permission to establish who we are online...
  

Smoothie-goodness

Three satsumas and a banana with a glass of water to emolify (emoliate and mollify - I thought there would be a word like this but no!) - delicioso!

Also: Great organic, fair trade, super-lovely online store: www.simplyfair.co.uk - MASSIVE sale! Boxes of 25 teabags for 10p! AMAZING!

Further ideas for future career - please note that there is no need for me to make any money in this way, as I am lucky enough to be independently wealthy thanks to my very hard-working family, however, I would obviously like them to add happiness and fulfillment to my life as well as improving the world at large:
Clothes designer/manufacturer
Model - either by going to Japan and getting one of those instant contracts all blondes get offered, or by signing myself up for speciality shoots - maybe torsos, or necks for showcasing jewellery - maybe those 'ordinary model' agencies...
Flotilla Hostess/Captain
Guide on holiday/clubbing trips with deafblind or deaf people like Mandy
Sensory foster carer/Sensory respite care centre manager
Academia and book-writing - this is actually the one to which I am heading right now
Dancer/entertainer, or hostess at such a venue (bar, club, restaurant, cafe)
Corporate or government advisor
Speed-dating/matchmaking service for disabled people
'Religious' minister/vicar
Marriage celebrant
Security consultant
School headmistress
Palliative care consultant

Oh, and whilst channelling the Bard, I was thinking many deep cod-Shakespearean thoughts:
Where dost thou go? T'is nearer to trek the world's width than to ask favours of thine children. Never was it necessary, when seed did care for the flower in its autumn days. But with each new moon the fervour increases; A fever in the breast that compels to obtain for thine own use that which is destined for thine fathers. And on the day when the well runs dry, and strong hands abandon the mill to fetch water from further afield, the calf will protect and suckle the bull and the steer as they did in their day for the calf.

I also hope to set up the following activities: Best garden in a saucer; Orangery producing own juice.

Movie comparisons:
Erin Brockovich vs. Silkwood: Corporate chemical catastrophe costs lives
Mulan vs. The Worst Witch - young girl having to save the day after being rejected by peers

Words I want to incorporate in my thesis:
abnegate: to deny oneself something
accrete: to grow together; form around/on something
acoupe: to blame, accuse
acrasial: adj excessive, disordered, irregular
adamantine: adj stubborn, resistant to persuasion
adjuvant: adj helpful, ancillary
adonize: to beautify or adorn oneself
adumbrate: vb indicate or describe outline of something
adventitious: adj accidental, unintentional
acolaust: noun Derived from the Greek, the word acolastic(ke) means "a prodigall person" or "one that liveth under no correction, riotous." An acolastic is "incorrigible, not better by chastisement." These are all 17th century usages. The definition given by the OED of acolaust is "One the revels in sensual pleasures (like the prodigal of the parable)," as indicated by the 17th century quotation: "The acolaust loathes the service of that churl, that allowed him no better diet than husks."
tziganologist studies Hungarian gypsies.
euphony
sybarite
voluptuary
prescient
desultory
importunate
fiascoid (fiasco-like)
dilatory
dilotante (S.Plath's spelling - actually, dilettante)
aquiline
phalanx
beignet (type of French doughnut)
provenance
emaciated
faddish
flaccid
imbecilic
verjus (acidic juice from unripe grapes - Middle French = green juice)
ostensibly