Journal Entries
Mental shopping spress
Posted May 27, 2007
For some reason, I just had a rather vivid daydream in which I won £3000 to spend on cds, dvds and books on amazon. As pleasant as this was, it was rather inconvenient as I'm supposed to be working, so hopefully writing down my list will stop me thinking about it! If this invites discussion over my choices, so much the better.
Cds
The entire back catalogue, minus what I already have, of:
Patty Griffin
Muse
Aerosmith
AC/DC
Madeleine Peyroux
Stacey Kent
Ludovico Einaudi
The Beatles
Eva Cassidy
Zero 7
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Oasis
Sigur Ros
Foo Fighters
The Shins
Selections from:
Damien Rice (9)
Amy Winehouse (Back to Black)
The Killers (Sam's Town)
Seth Lakeman (Freedom Fields) 
Bob Marley (Greatest Hits)
Dixie Chicks (Taking the Long Way, possibly some others)
Bonnie Raitt
Duke Ellington
John Coltrane (A Love Supreme)
Miles Davis
Maroon 5 (the new one, can't remember what it's called)
Fiona Apple (Extraordinary Machine)
Sarah McLachlan (whichever album has Angel on it)
Heather Small (Proud)
Snow Patrol (Eyes Open)
Bruce Springsteen (Greatest Hits)
Dvds
Box sets:
The West Wing (all 7 together - I've already got it, so this would be for my parents and possibly another one for my brother)
The entirety of Friends
The entirety of Buffy
House
Lost
Green Wing
Black Books
The Office (UK)
Maybe the new Doctor Who (Chris Eccleston and David Tennant era)
Individual films:
An Inconvenient Truth - not sure I'd rewatch it, but this would support the concept
Airplane
The Princess Bride
Schindler's List
Bowling For Columbine
The Incredibles
Gone With The Wind (how have I never seen this?)
Austin Powers 1 and 2 (and maybe 3, if just for the incredible cameos in the first 10 minutes, the rest is a bit pants)
Casablanca
Books
The major published works (minus what I already have) of:
Jane Austen
George Orwell
Philip K. Dick
Margaret Atwood
Individual books:
Catch 22
The God Delusion
The Lovely Bones
Notes on a Scandal
A good thesaurus
A good atlas
The Song of Roland (I need it for my dissertation as well as wanting to read it)
I'm sure more will occur to me, but I'm interested in what you would all choose. Don't worry about a money limit, I didn't add these up or anything. Choices are limited to cds, dvds and books! 
Discuss this Journal entry [23]
Latest reply: May 27, 2007
Music quiz from EMR, via Alex and Skanky
Posted Apr 11, 2007
Put your music player of choice on shuffle and post the first lines of the first 25 tracks to come up.
Guess the title and artist.
1) Life is so boring, it's really got me snoring
2) I have to stop saying "To be honest, it's not a real defeat"
3) Lonely in this white room, there are pads everywhere
4) Too low to find my way, too high to wonder why
5) A language of love slips from my lover's tongue
6) Come up to meet you, tell you I'm sorry
7) Catch me as I fall, say you're here and it's all over now
8) Don't hold yourself like that, cus you'll hurt your knees
9) Stay for life, for life, all you discover
10) Anger can make you old, oh yes it can
11) Welcome to the jungle, we got fun and games
12) I want you to know, I'm happy for you, I wish nothing but the best for you both
13) Sweet dreams are made of these, who had a mind to disagree?
14) Oh, had I a golden thread and a needle so fine
15) I'm, I'm so in love with you, whatever you want to do is alright with me
16) Mott the Hoople and the game of life, yeah yeah yeah yeah
17) I haven't ever really found a place that I call home
18) Don't kid yourself and don't fool yourself
19) When I first met you baby, you were just sweet sixteen
20) When I was a child, running in the night (not the original artist, the cover version)
21) The light is breaking through the window
22) All you kids get out the back door, I never seen her this mad before
23) You'll remember me when the west wing moves among the fields of barley (again, not the original artist)
24) I walked across an empty land, I knew the pathway like the back of my hand
25) Women of a certain age (I think this might have been done by several artists 
)
Some of these are very easy, some very difficult. Two artists/groups have two entries each. Enjoy.
Discuss this Journal entry [22]
Latest reply: Apr 11, 2007
Call to arms
Posted Mar 3, 2007
Apologies for those of you who are getting hit in the face with this message from all directions, but <./>PeerReview</.> is really struggling at the moment. The <./>ComingUp</.> page has the fewest entries I've ever seen on it and there are only a few pages of entries in Peer Review.
Put simply, the edited guide needs you! There are a fair few experienced writers doing what they can to increase the number of entries in PR but we can't do it alone. I'd like to encourage everyone to get some entries into Peer Review (make sure you check the Writing Guidelines first though!)
Write about something that interests you, your town, your university, your hobby, your favourite sport or team, your favourite computer game. Write a biography of someone you admire. How about the last book you read, or your favourite film? Are you a student? Perfect! Tell us what you're studying - it might even help you to remember it! If you are a student, perhaps you have some old essays or presentations saved on your computer that you can convert into h2g2 entries.
If none of those ideas appeal, try picking something from the Editor's Challenge (you can win a h2g2 tshirt!) or one of the other suggestions on Challenge the h2g2 commmunity. (A1293365). Go to the Flea Market (<./>Writing-FleaMarket</.> and choose an entry there.
There's plenty of help available if you're unsure if your entry is reading, put it in the Edited Guide Writing Workshop or ask here and I'll take a look for you.
Please, get writing!
Discuss this Journal entry [62]
Latest reply: Mar 3, 2007
Merry Christmas!
Posted Dec 22, 2006
I hope everyone has a great Christmas! 
Anyone doing anything particularly exciting?
Discuss this Journal entry [20]
Latest reply: Dec 22, 2006
States of the USA
Posted Nov 20, 2006
I know, I know, 2 journals in 3 days is unheard of for me!
Anway, I was testing myself the other day to see how many states of the USA I could name. I got 45 in about 10 minutes, and another occured to me the following morning.
So here is your challenge, should you choose to accept it - can anyone beat that? (Without cheating, competition not open to American researchers 
). I fully expect some of you can.
Here is my list in approximate alphabetical order:
A = Arkansas, Alabama, Alaska,
C = Connecticut, Colorado, California
D = Delaware
F = Florida
G = Georgia
H = Hawaii,
I = Indiana, Illinois, Idaho, Iowa
K = Kansas, Kentucky
L = Louisiana
M = Montana, Missouri, Mississippi, Maine, Michigan, Maryland, Massachusetts
N = Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, New Mexico, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York
O = Ohio, Oregon, Oklahoma
P = Pennsylvania
R = Rhode Island
S = South Carolina, South Dakota
T = Texas, Tennessee
U = Utah
V = Vermont, Virginia
W = Washington, Wisconsin, West Virginia
So, a gold for the first person who can tell me which I've missed out!
Discuss this Journal entry [7]
Latest reply: Nov 20, 2006
Elentari
Researcher U202814
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