Bicycles on the brain

Sooner or later, my thoughts turn to bicycles. I'm not sure why. I never used to have this problem, but it's been plaguing me for some years now.

I'm in the market for a new bike. There is an element to which I am always in the market for a new bike, it's just that I can usually remind myself that I have two perfectly good bikes at home (and an assortment of other bike-like things for my own personal amusement). Lately, though, I have come to conclusion that I don't have two perfectly good bikes at home. I have one bike that has served me well and is now in need of a well-deserved retirement, and one bike that never really did what I wanted it to do.

I had wanted a bike that would serve as a touring bike, but also as a commuting bike and maybe, when I felt up for such things, could also be called into service as a mountain bike. I was told the Giant Sedona would cover those bases, but it's really only any good as a commuter (you need a little off-road capabilities to commute by bike in Townsville). Having ridden it for a couple of years, I wouldn't want to tour or try my hand at cross country with it.

Plus, as it was the first bike I had owned that wasn't women's specific in the design, I decided to play it safe and get a size smaller than I should have - just to ensure clearance. I have come to regret that decision.

So, now I find myself needing to replace one bike and wanting to replace the other.

I've been eyeing off the Salsa Fargo as a replacement for the Giant Sedona, and I was all set to go and order one when I became thoroughly distracted by the Brompton folding bike.

Folding bikes intrigue me, and I think it might be an idea to replace the old faithful city bike with something I might be able to take on a plane. The Fargo wouldn't really be an easy bike to take on a plane...

So I think I've talked myself into putting off the 29inch wheels in favour of a bike with 16inch wheels. Just for now. I'm still looking at having the Fargo or something like it, but there's a limit to how many $2,500 bikes I can get at once.

But the other night I had the strangest dream that there was a folding bike club located at the university, and they all had bikes that were in traditional Nerf colours. I blame the Nerfpunk people. Sadly, in this dream, I wasn't cool enough to hang out with the nerf-coloured-folding-bicycle crowd. They told me where I could find the application forms to join, but made it clear they didn't think I'd get approved.

It's probably just as well. In my dream I couldn't figure out how to ride a bike past a street lamp.

By the way, is it weird that, even though I'm not involved in the cosplay scene, I still want to buy a Nerf gun and make a steampunk prop out of it?

Or, alternatively...

Alternatively, I'd also like to keep exploring the things I've been looking at for my last Masters - that is, materials for supporting Language Learners.

Only, this time, rather than looking at what materials should be held by a library, I'd like to look at the design of the materials. What are the theories behind modern language textbooks? How has that design differed over the last 50 years?

And, to get into the nitty gritty of things, is there a remarkable difference in the way people design material for languages from different language families (and if not, should there be?), and is there a difference between materials designed for Modern Languages and those designed for Ancient or Old Languages?

This is particularly concerned with the introductory level. Could/should the same approach used to teach beginning German to school students also be used to teach beginning Anglo-Saxon to undergrads? Is the way most Introductory coursebook material is designed suitable for complete beginners?

I've mentioned in other places that I've found a book called Learn German (which has since been re-formatted and published as Easy German) particularly useful as an introductory text (possibly more so than my Introductory German text book) as it does a better job of taking learners from nothing to something. In the same place I mentioned that I was intrigued by the fact that the exact same book is also used for French and Spanish - the same layout, context and structure is used, with only the language notes and dialogue altered to suit the next language.

I would love to see the same thing for Estonian - but could it work? German, French and Spanish are all from the same language family, could Estonian (which is from a different family) be substituted as easily, or would the differences in the way the language works mean the format would have to be significantly altered?

I've been thinking a lot about Anglo-Saxon lately, because that was my token "ancient language". I actually studied it to become more familiar with English, and because it was the oldest language offered at my university. I would have done Latin, if I could, but I went through the Australian system where we don't teach anyone anything that might be hard.

It wasn't really taught as a language, either. It was more focused on the literature, and the subject covered just enough of the language to cope with the texts. However, I feel what I learnt in that class has given me a slight leg-up for learning German. I wanted to go back and refresh my memory of the language, but realised the texts I have access to aren't designed for a "quick dip", as it were. I've grown used to the way modern language textbooks present information in easily navigable chunks, while the texts for Anglo-Saxon/Old English are designed for scholarly study.

So, what I would also like to do, is explore the options of creating learning material for an Ancient Language that mimics the design of material created for Modern Languages - teach the dead language as if it were still up and running.

A 12,000 word thesis covering the design question accompanied by an Introduction to Anglo-Saxon text book that would be accessible to high school students or first year undergrads...

Would that be an MA (or MPhil) in English or Linguistics (or an MEd)? And, considering I wanted to do another Masters so I could play with literature, why am I currently most excited by an idea that has very little to do with literature at all?

I just want to do everything at the same time. Is that a problem?

Just do the darn work

So, here's a fun one:

A PhD candidate "heard somewhere" that you don't need to cite a website as long as you have the full URL in text.

Clearly, he thought to himself "that sounds easier - I'll just hope it's right" and proceeded to refer to quite a large number of websites in his text without checking if it was, in fact, what he was supposed to do.

In APA Style, of course, you aren't supposed to mention the URL in text at all unless it is part of the sentence, and you have to cite it correctly and put it in your reference list just like you would any other piece of information.

So, essentially, he was faced with the option of spending a couple of minutes early in the project looking up what was actually expected of him, and then spending a couple of minutes doing it the right way as he was putting the thesis together, or just closing his eyes and hoping the easiest option was going to be "okay" and that he wouldn't be giving himself several hours worth of extra work at the end of the project.

He chose the wrong option.

To save himself two minutes here and there, he cost himself several hours at the end.

If there is one thing I have learnt over the years - one thing I can share with any student working on an assignment or a thesis - it's that things are always "easiest" when you work out what is expected of you ahead of time and just do the darn work as you go along, rather than hoping the lazy route will actually work out well for you (I've made that mistake myself - although with formatting rather than referencing - and it's never worth it).

A stitch in time saves nine, and all that jazz.

Bonox

“Which beverage has more beef extract: tea, coffee or Bonox?”

I thought that question was hilarious when Shaun Micallef used it in Talkin’ Bout Your Generation some months ago. It’s probably less funny regurgitated in a blog, but you get that. Most things aren’t funny when regurgitated.

I’m a fan of Bonox. I can’t bring myself to think of it as a beverage, though. Yes, I have been known to mix a teaspoon of the stuff with a cup of hot water and drink it – but in that format it’s an instant beef broth, and that’s more like a soup than a beverage. It occupies the same space in my head as a packet of cup-a-noodle soup, not tea and coffee.

Like Vegemite, Bonox is a bit of an acquired taste. You have to give it a few goes before it becomes something you actually enjoy. Then it becomes something you oddly crave on cold afternoons. Especially when you have a cold.

I used to keep a jar of it in the cupboard when I lived in Tasmania. Meatloaf just doesn’t taste as good without a teaspoon of the stuff mixed in, and it’s perfect for making gravy. Plus, there’s that whole “instant beef broth” thing.

Tasmania is the reason why I took the time to acquire a taste for the stuff. I found myself constantly wanting something warm to drink, but occasionally over tea and coffee. Every now and then you want something a bit salty. Yes, I know I sometimes put salt in my coffee, but I didn’t do it back then – and you never put enough salt in the coffee to make it taste salty anyway.

I’ve always wondered why you don’t have to refrigerate it. It’s made out of beef extract, right? It’s some sort of weird goopy liquid, right? Don’t you usually need to refrigerate goopy liquids made from animal products? Or do the yeast extract and vegetable gum act as preservatives? Who knows?

I’ve probably described it in a way that’s sent any vegans, vegetarians or people-who-turn-pale-at-the-thought-of-kidneys away to hug something near and dear. Sorry about that.

I haven’t had the stuff for years, but with this current cold I’ve just been craving it. I finally managed to pick some up on Saturday, and it was just lovely sitting in the sun with a cup of warm broth on the weekend.

I must remember to take some with me the next time I go camping. It’s nourishing in a way that tea isn’t.

When I picked it up in the supermarket, I noticed another brand next to it. Can’t remember the name of it at present. There were just the two beef-extract-beverage-thingies, and I vaguely considered buying the second one because it came in a smaller container (more likely to use it all before it passes the use-by date), but then I remembered Marmite.

If you’ve grown up on Vegemite, Marmite tastes horribly, horribly wrong. Someone once served me Marmite instead of Vegemite, assuming there was little difference. They were wrong, breakfast was ruined and I’ve never touched Marmite since. I suppose I should give it another go. I’ve managed to talk myself into liking a whole range of things I once hated. But then, I can’t even remember the last time I saw Marmite in the shop. This is Vegemite country, after all.

I figured that, if it was Bonox I knew and loved, and Bonox I was craving, buying a different brand was a bit like reaching for the Marmite when you wanted Vegemite.

This post isn’t going anywhere at all, really. I’ve just been spending the better part of a week thinking “Mmmm. Bonox. I could really do with a cup of that right now” – which isn’t all that useful when you don’t have any Bonox in the house.

Got some now, though, so it’s all good.

Glutton for punishment

So, I'm toying with the idea of doing another Masters. This time in Arts or whatever they offer that's similar.

I really enjoyed (perversely) doing the last one, and I learnt a heck of a lot from it, but I want to do one in Literature.

The trouble is, if I do a Masters by Research (which is probably what I'm going to do), then I have to write something like 40,000 words on my chosen subject, unless I can work out some kind of fancy-pants project with whatever institution I do my Masters with.

At the moment, the four areas I'd like to look at as a Masters project are:

"Tarzan and the Lost City" - Looking at the role of lost civilisations in popular literature in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries and, in particular Edgar Rice Burrough's strange tendency to use that particular plot device over and over again.

"A Garden in the Antipodes" - Using Ursula Bethell's From a Garden in the Antipodes as a starting point, looking at the depiction of Australia and New Zealand domestic life in verse (particularly as depicted by women poets)*.

"Liiv vs Yeats" - juxtaposing the life and writings of Juhan Liiv and William Yeats.

"Language Learner Literature" - examining whether graded readers and adapted texts can be considered a distinct form of literature, exploring "texts in adaptation" as opposed to "texts in translation" and looking at what considerations go into creating a new field of literary study.

Could I milk 40,000 words out of any of these? I have grave doubts.

So would I be better off doing a Masters by Coursework and adapting one of these as a project or dissertation, rather than a full blown Masters thesis? And, if I were particularly clever, would I be able to combine it with one of the things I'm already studying? I've noticed a couple of the subjects I want to do for my Diploma of Languages also pop up in the list of potential subjects for a Masters by Coursework if I go through UNE...


*Actually, what I'd really love to do is "edit" a new publication of this - with an introduction at the front and essays at the back, but lots of pictures of English flowers in New Zealand gardens and illustrations around the poems and all sorts of prettiness. Maybe with a CD of recordings of the poems as well. I wonder if I could convince someone to let me do that as a Masters project?

Sports Pages (or, Support the Team in Green)

It's very strange, having a football team and then not having a football team.

I spent two years of my life reading the sports pages of the news papers looking for any reference to the A-League and caring where people were on the ladder. Now I still feel vaguely compelled to read the sports pages, but I can't say I actually care about any of it.

Especially the A-League. Before they gave me a football team and then let it whither and die, I more-or-less followed the Brisbane team and was vaguely interested in what happened to them. Then there was My Team, and Brisbane didn't interest me as much anymore.

So, now I read news about this competition, to which I paid an insane amount of attention for two years, and I can't figure out if I care about it or not. It's as though part of me is compelled to know what is happening, but the compulsion wears off within seconds after I remember that I don't have a team in that competition any more.

And I have developed an irrational hatred for Melbourne Heart. I don't see why they should still exist when My Team was so brutally put down. If they couldn't afford to keep My Team afloat, then they had no business supporting another team in Melbourne. They should have put that money and energy into making the Fury work, not starting another expansion club.

The sense of ownership (My Team) that I once gave to the North Queensland Fury has been more-or-less transferred to Canberra United, which is in the W-League, so you never hear about them in the sports pages anyway.

I'm thinking of joining the club, though. It's much cheaper than joining the Fury would have been (and I was going to do that if they were still around), and then I'll get a hat and a newsletter. Also free admittance to all of their home games... which would probably be more useful if I lived in Canberra.

When FFA decided to torture the Fury to death, they lost a lot more than a team - they also lost a lot of the supporters of that team, who now harbour not-very-pleasant feelings about Australian football. Thankfully I found the W-League, which is keeping my footballing interests onshore.

Now, if only the sports pages would actually report on women's football occasionally, I'd be happy.

Inappropriate Gifts

Part of me just really, really, really wants to give this to someone for a baby shower:

Butter

Now, if I were vegan, I would not have thought the butter was worth keeping. Then I would not have put it in my pocket to take back to the office. Then I would not have forgotten about it. Then I would not have dairy products smeared all over my wallet and keys.

Then again, if I was smart, I would probably have managed to avoid this fiasco anyway.

Woe is me, then, that I am both omnivorous and not-very-intelligent.

Not learning Italian

There are several reasons behind why I am not learning Italian.

I don't have time for such shenanigans, I'm never going to use it, there isn't anywhere where people speak Italian where they wouldn't speak English or German (or French), I don't know anyone who speaks Italian, the Australian-Italian Festival in Ingham is boring (I'm sorry, but it is*) and, aparently, I already know Italian (although I'm not convinced).

Besides, the language is almost entirely gendered. There is no true "it", per se, in Italian - almost everything you see is either a "he" or a "she" (there is an "it", but it comes in two forms: masculine and feminine).

That was the one thing that was easier about Estonian than other languages like French and German - the language is gender neutral. Heck, Estonian doesn't even have separate words for "he" and "she" (everyone's an "it", baby!). Languages which, like German, insist inanimate objects have genders and require specific articles (etc) based on that gender are just a little bit daft, really.

And at least, in German, a few things are genuinely neutral (one of those things, oddly, is the word "girl").

And, from what I can tell, The genders Italian uses for inanimate objects are different from those used in German ("chair", for example, is masculine in German but feminine in Italian), and wants more of the other words in the sentence to agree with the gender. (Okay, French is like that too, but I'm complaining about Italian at the moment. French will have to wait).

A chair is neither masculine nor feminine, people! To apply a gender to it is entirely arbitrary, which is why neighbouring countries can come up with different genders for the same words.

Italian! You are English's biological father! German! You are English's mother! Why can you not learn from your children and start applying genders only when they are physically appropriate? Or, better yet, follow the lead of your Finno-Ugric cousins and do away with them entirely!

I truly believe the world is a better place when you only need one word for "the" and I can discuss my chair without saying "I sit on him".

Trying to face this nonsense with German is bad enough. Trying to deal with the same nonsense, only with completely different nonsensical applications? That hardly sounds like a fruitful use of my limited cognitive space.

So, definitely not learning Italian.

And, ah, I'd kind of appreciate it if you didn't ask how I know about the gender thing for Italian. It's, um, "complicated". Yeah, complicated. Not because I'm learning Italian. I am so not learning Italian.




*So is the Greek Festival in Townsville, by the way. Then again, maybe they'll both prove me wrong this year.

He's my what?

So, it turns out that, apparently, Juhan Liiv is my great aunt's first cousin once removed's wife's sister's husband's niece's husband's uncle.

Who said online family history whatsits were a complete waste of time?

Change of Place(name)

Well, folks, I've been thinking of doing this for a while, and so I'm just going to give it a try.

If I'm successful, I'm going to change the URL for this blog tomorrow from sharonbryan.blogspot.com to sharonbrambles.blogspot.com. Well, actually I'm going to try to transfer the whole blog over to a new blog, with a different URL and a slightly different name.

I have no idea how this is going to pull off, but you have to try things sometimes.

I've always been ambivalent about having my name as the URL, so I'm finally going to do something about it.

Maybe. My next post could well be along the lines of "Well that was a stupid idea - back to normality".