The Life and Times of Miblo del Carpio

Were it not for your articles on the subject, Monsieur Walrus, the appearance of the word 'Phorm' on Wikipedia's article about them may not have been entirely enough to dissuade us from signing up with TalkTalk.

But it did take some serious-ish research to discover this piece of intelligence: the lovely girl who came bawling her wares revealed nothing about Phorm, naturally; TalkTalk's website avoids the word like the plague it is; and I haven't had the heart to navigate around the toxic site of Phorm itself to see if their information corroborates that found on the Wikipedia Article.

Perhaps unwisely, my parents, who had upon the girl's appearance called me over for what assistance I could offer, registered an interest with them, upon which the girl - let us say 'salesperson' - apparently (for I had since retired to the kitchen after giving what advice I could) asked to use our telephone in order to register the interest with the company, and went on to give their bank details to the other salesperson presumably sitting in TalkTalk headquarters, upon the information that bank details are only required to check that the owners aren't 'blacklisted' or thing like that.

I think the moral of the story is to be ever-vigilant, and to always do ones research before so much as offering a salesperson a crisp. These people will do anything they can to squeeze as much money out of whatever information they can gather. Protect your information - nobody else will do it for you.

Word of the Week

Thank

thank /θæŋk/ v. & n. —v.tr. 1 express gratitude to (thanked him for the present). 2 hold responsibility (you can thank yourself for that). —n. (in pl.) 1 gratitude (expressed as heartfelt thanks). 2 an expression of gratitude (give thanks to Heaven). 3 (as a formula) thank you (thanks for your help; thanks very much). [OE thancian, thanc f. Gmc, rel. to THINK]

Definition courtesy of the Concise Oxford Dictionary

For those of us who like to write, having a blog can be, as I'm sure we agree, a wonderful incentive to practice this skill. Our blogs can take a variety of flavours, depending on our tastes and purposes: from diary-esque dealings of our daily lives, to predominantly informative blogs detailing the current goings on in the world at large, to my own aim for my blog as a sort of playground for me to play with language and with ideas and subjects that I find interesting. However, one aspect of the form which remains constant is that it is predominantly a public medium. Although we have the option to publish our articles privately - either for our friends enjoyment, or only for ourselves - what distinguishes blogs from diaries (besides being digital as opposed to physical) and so provides their purpose for being is the ability of their being published for everyone on the internet to visit and read.

In such a situation, we as bloggers must be aware of this fact and of the responsibility we must exercise towards (can we be responsible towards? It's not necessarily for) our audience. Personally, I have little interest in peeping into people's personal diaries, prefering much rather to respect their privacy than to pry, and so it is with blogs, with my shying well away from entirely personal detailings of people's waking, eating, walkling, shagging, worrying, sleeping habits, in preference to blogs intented to, if not stimulate educational/intellectual thought, at least to entertain with creativity. This may be my own personal taste, and I acknowledge the possibility of some people positively feasting and thriving on the goriest of outpourings, thus the question arises: how intimate and revealing can we be before it becomes merely turgid self-important waffling? Particularly on the subject of our mental woes, what are we to do with those? It is said by psychologists that a good way to relieve any psychological pains is to put them into words and write them down. But surely the intention is entirely personal, and not to be for public consumption via a blog. My own method, in the context of my blogging activities, is merely to touch briefly on these issues, drifing past them in the course of writing about something which I feel is more suitable (i.e. entertaining) for my audience, especially using euphemisms so as not to jarr and appear too incongruous in the midst of the article. Not that I'm uninterested or afraid of writing about my psychological state, I just feel it would be one of the more self-indulgent subjects about which I could write, and wouldn't make very good reading.

Thus the question: Are we completely entitled to write about our woes (you see, a euphemism), or are they much too personal for public consumption?

Yesterday was a day deserving of nothing less than unreserved congratulations for America's new President Barack Obama, but the evening before had delivered something of a disappointment, the cause of which being in its turn partly responsible for my not producing a Word of the Week last Wednesday, all this needing to be got out of the way before moving on with the next planned brace of delights.

The assignment on Wordsworth's 'Nutting' over which I toiled the week before last, handing it in nicely on time on Thursday the 8th, was marked and returned to me by my tutor Marian on Monday. With a not unreasonable amount of anticipation did I navigate my way to page where I'd collect my returned assignment, for in my satisfaction with the finished piece I was expecting a mark better than the 74% I'd achieved for both the first and second TMAs (Tutor-Marked Assignments). In short, the thing turned out to be a mild failure. Marian and I disagree on numerous points, one fine example being that a particular passage she praised as 'Good' I was unhappy with and considering completely rewriting or removing, to replace with (significantly) some analysis of the poems Imagery, on the lack of which in my assignment Marian and I agree.

Never mind. A mild failure, but they are all to be learned from. 'Let me make my own mistakes', is all I ask.

Word of the Week

Failure

failure /ˈfeɪljə(r)/ n. 1 lack of success; failing. 2 an unsuccessful person, thing, or attempt. 3 non-performance, non-occurrence. 4 breaking down or ceasing to function (heart failure; engine failure). 5 running short of supply etc. 6 bankruptcy, collapse. [earlier failer f. AF, = OF faillir FAIL]

Definition courtesy of the Concise Oxford Dictionary

Nothing more than a reminder for my future self of this momentous day is this supposed to be. Had I the knowledge, the insight, the words to put the importance of today in context, the poignancy of the moment at 17:05GMT (12:05 local time in Washington), five minutes after schedule, when President-elect Barack Obama swore his oath of office, and went on to deliver his inaugural speech as President of the United States of America from the Capitol to the people stretching far along the Mall and watching on televisions all around the world, speaking of freedom, equality and generosity, it would be much more substantial. But I will say one thing: if this be wishy-washy, namby-pamby liberalism, then I for one am proud to be liberal.

Join me in welcoming the first African-American man to become the leader of America, President Barack Obama, as he begins his first four-year term in office, bringing on his arrival a brighter future for our world.

With no small amount of anticipation did I sit down in front of the television this afternoon to welcome in the new incarnation of Countdown. The new title sequence, the new bright blue, but not (too) gaudy, set, the two new presenters, Jeff Stelling and the lovely Rachel Riley, all combining to make it a fairly exciting affair. Unexpectedly, it is all beginning with the 13th Champion of Champions tournament, with two very familiar contestants, David O'Donnell and James Hurrell, in the chairs, the ever wonderful Andrew Sachs with the luxuriant Susie Dent in Dictionary Corner, and David to start us off with the first set of letters.

'Twas a reasonably good game, though not overwhelmingly high-scoring, with the full recap of it being readable at c4countdown. Plenty of nervous excitement could be detected in the studio, and my new darling Rachel even made a little mistake in the third numbers round, initially (and quickly correcting herself) suggesting that 6 be added rather than taken away from the final calculation, so it will be nice to see how it all goes over the coming months as they all settle down and get on with enjoying it.

Incidentally, a little touch of trivia: I now have a small connection with Countdown, in that I'm only three days older than Rachel Riley. How wonderful!

Today had already gone...

At least I was on time for the tutorial.

Before we run completely out of today, just a little note to say that the assignment, entitled 'TMA03 - An Analysis of 'Nutting' by William Wordsworth', was finished and submitted on time, and now I just await its return from my tutor Marian, with her comments and score. No word from Ruchelle, though - we'll have to hope she finished and got hers in on time.

A valuable, if slightly more cumbersome since the Train Timetable Change, journey to Oxford Road was performed this morning, for a tutorial with (obviously my tutor Marian, and) the rest of my A210 classmates in Manchester Met's John Dalton Building. 'Twas very useful to learn that line references are barely necessary for shorter poems, since it will usually be a fairly obvious task to locate from where quoted lines are quoted. And we also compared and contrasted Charlotte Smith's 'To Melancholy' and Keats's 'La Belle Dame sans Merci'.

Excellent! Now to wait for the return of my assignment.

My dear old darlings,

While I nurse my aching upper left arm from the Hepatitis A and Typhoid jab it received earlier today, that time of the month has come again, when your humble blogger transforms into one of those fuckers who delight in complaining of the busyness of their lives, the type who would drawl, 'I've got to go, I'm so busy. I've got so much to do, there just isn't enough time. I certainly don't have enough time for you.' My dear old thing, you can at least rely on me for the truth, and that is that I merely have an assignment on Wordsworth's poem 'Nutting' to write before midnight tomorrow.

However, you can rest assured that, once done, you will have the pleasure of reading about my latest acquisition, a coming travelling adventure, and maybe even a little snippet of some new music I've been working on.

A very Happy New Year to us all, and let us hope it is fantastic.

All my love,

from Miblo.

Word of the Week

Aspire

aspire /əˈspaɪə(r)/ v.intr. (usu. foll. by to or after, or to + infin.) 1 have ambition or strong desire. 2 poet. rise high [ME f. F aspirer or L aspirare f. ad to + spirare breathe]

Definition courtesy of the Concise Oxford Dictionary

I must say, it is lovely to be able again to chose what subjects to write about.