Problems in Concentration

Over the past few days I thought that I had been getting enough sleep but now I am beginning to wonder as I seem to have great difficulty in staying awake during lectures! This may not be too big a problem for most of you but when you consider that there are only 10-15 people in my lectures then falling asleep is kind of noticable. I have tried drinking lucozade but this doesn't help and I have tried drinking caffine filled drinks but again to no effect. What can I do? I don't even think its a problem with the lectures as they are generally quite interesting. Perhaps there is a lack of ventilation in the Glamorgan building. Or perhaps Smellon's ability to fall asleep anywhere and everywhere is rubbing off on me. Eeeek!

Pembrokeshire

Some of the Malawi team went to Sam's house this weekend to report back to his church about our trip to Malawi. It was a great weekend but I think there must be something strange in the soup:




as there was a lot of craziness:



Random nap taking:



And even some dancing:



We shall test the soup theory as the team head to Frome this Sunday and London next weekend!

An Evening of Randomness Cosmeston Street Style

You will need:

1 camera
At least 2 crazy housemates
2-3 meters squared of floor space
2-3 Hours of previous boredom

Technique:

Experiment with as many different ways of holding each other up as possible

The Results:



The Consquences:

An inability to move so that you have to sleep where you end up:

Anti-Sexist Language

I had to go to a study skills session today as part of the induction week for my new masters course. It was a complete waste of time, although it has provided me with some inspiration for this post. As part of the pack we were given, we got a British Sociological Society guide to using non-sexist language. I don't know if its just me but I think some of the "sexist" words are a bit ridiculous. Anyway here's their list and the alternatives they suggest:

Sexist / Non-sexist

layman ....non-expert
man-made ....synthetic, manufactured
Chairman ....Chair
Foreman .....Supervisor
Manpower ....workforce, labour force
Craftsman ....Craftsperson
Manning ...staffing
Manhours .....workhours
forefathers .....ancestors
masterful .....domineering; very skillful
master copy ....top copy/original
disseminate.... broadcast, inform, publicise
seminal .....classical, formative

It seems that whenever the letters MAN appear in a word it is now considered sexist so why can you still use management and manager? Personally I wouldn't mind being called a chairman or anything like that, its better than being referred to as a piece of furniture. My old headmistress would always make us say Madame Chairman which is perfectly correct. Perhaps using grammatically correct English isn't necessary anymore. Anyway rant over, just in case you offend anyone you shouldn't use the term 'short' anymore - the person is vertically challenged! So watch your language!