So, it is party time again, folks!

[wiseheart]

Each year this time, we launch my virtual birthday party, which starts on October 1 and ends on October 9 at midnight, sharp. The goals of the party are to post as many comments and collapse as many threads as possible, on as many new pages as we can. It is always great fun, as you can see if you check out the similar entries of the last few years.

This year, I'll also throw the real party at mid-time - and post the recipes of all the food that will be there for you, so that you can all participate if you want to. Virtual food has no calories.

Fandom-related discussions are as welcome as the ones about coffee or chocolate (just to name a few favourites from previous years), and, of course, pictures and recipes of birthday cakes. ;)

So, drop by, tell your story, post your pics or silly poems, ask questions you always wanted to ask and have a good time!

Soledad, in excited expectation




Oh, and by the way, to provide birthday gifts hobbit-style, I've got a revived story and a Kansas 2 update for you.

Enjoy!

Comments

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

There is a version of The Canterville Ghost with Patrick Stewart in it? I will have to go searching for it; I love that man! He isn't just a great actor, he seems to be a genuinely good man, too. His work to with Amnesty protect women from violence, for example, saying if society listens to old white men he will use the fact that he is one to speak up for those it doesn't listen to.

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

If no one beats me to it, this should be comment number 600!

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

We have reached 600 comments, on the 4th page! And on that note, I shall sign off, hang up my laundry and go to bed. Back to work tomorrow! (I did end up taking today completely 'off', just doing house-hold chores, like mowing the lawn, gathering up the leaves that had piled up in the front yard, and doing the laundry.)

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

It is. You won. :)

[solanpolarn.livejournal.com]

Yay! Chocolate for me! \o/

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

Yay!

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

Goodnight!

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

Yes. :)

Although, seeing the GA in Picts and Martyrs makes me have some sympathy for her too - especially when she puts everyone firmly in their places after the search and thus doesn't find out out what is going on.

[sammydragoncat]

Impressive - I have only managed to do some laundry, and a bit of house cleaning; I should do some gardening, but it is too hot hear to be working in the yard.

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

It is so much easier to see the mistakes in your own work, I find. Partly because of knowing what it was supposed to look like I guess.

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

Plenty of time, and it is fun :)

[jen-rock.livejournal.com]

The past two months have been very hectic but now everything is much calmer. Hopefully, I can have more time to write now. If I wrote up everything in my head (not just stories but ideas for blog posts) I'd be posting all the time.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Good night to those at CET who have to work tomorrow!
Welcome to those on the other half of the globe!

I've put up the alerts to a triple update in my most recent journal entry (two entries above this), just in case someone feels like having some Dr Who, some Sherlock, some Babylon 5 or some Star Trek: Voyager, or any hair-raising combination thereof. :)

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Indeed!

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

I'd recalled some of the bad ones...

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

Ah, so that's where you live!

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

Hmm. To a native speaker it all feels quite logical (well, I'll give you the occasional pronounciation nightmare -- 'Cholmondeley' near us is pronounced 'Chumly', for example).

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

Ah, that makes sense.

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

Well, speaking of when I did A-levels, it was uncommon to do sciences without at least AO maths. The most common patterns among my science-studying friends were three sciences plus AO maths among medics or biologists; chemistry, biology & maths/stats among biologists; or physics, chemistry, maths & further maths among physicists/mathematicians. What annoyed me is that no-one bothered telling me that A'level physics (in my day & with the syllabus we did) was a waste of time -- it was completely trivial -- while missing out on doing further maths effectively prevented me from studying university-level chemistry.

I'm not sure quite how true your statement is for biomedicine -- whilst the mathematically illiterate will struggle, there are many niches with little maths much beyond O'level. Also I worked in my vacations in a QC chemical lab where most of the permanent employees had no maths qualifications; the various spectrometers that measured the results were all completely automated.

I've been thinking about maths is the language in which we express science and I think it explains why I became increasingly disenchanted with hard sciences -- I don't find mathematical descriptions at all satisfying unless I can get some sense (at least occasionally) of how the system really is (for some sense of 'really is'). At A'level, the qualitative descriptions gave me occasional numinous feelings that I understood how (parts of) the universe really worked. Whereas, say particle spin, as far as I understand it, has no physical meaning -- it's just a convenient fiction; that didn't feel satisfying.

Sorry this is long, I've been mulling this over all day!

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

I think it might work better in some subjects than others -- with the molecular pathology I read in my final year, we were expected to be completely conversant with current published research -- including stuff published after we'd been lectured on the topic -- so it's not clear how much more advanced it was possible to get without undertaking a more-prolonged or self-directed research project.

But in long-established subjects such as mathematics, a fourth year diploma was required as a prerequisite to starting a PhD, at least in my university, and I don't think even after the diploma students were up to speed on current research even across the topics they'd specialised in.

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

Are you having to do a lot of work with the noms sorting? It all seems rather organised this year? And sorry to hear you've been ill -- hope you are feeling better now.

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

I hope you don't feel we hijacked your party in your absence -- we did some serious boogying yesterday evening after you went to bed!

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

I suppose the answer is gardening -- it's been nice to be finally starting to get the garden under control again after most of a decade when other responsibilities removed that time.

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

I've found it's often quite repetitive, but this exchange had quite a good spread of characters and settings. There are a few clunkers as ever, but most of the stories were worth a try.

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

I stopped reading them too, perhaps a little older than that, but there was a BBC adaptation of several while I was a student (which was generally mediocre but had Tom Baker as Puddleglum), which brought them back to mind.