When on Google Earth #15

Since I guessed right with #14, I get to host the next one.

Q: What is When on Google Earth?

A: It’s a game for archaeologists.

Q: How do you play it?

A: Simple, you try to identify the site in the picture.

Q: Who wins?

A: The first person to correctly identify the site, including its major period of occupation, wins the game.

Q: What does the winner get?

A: The winner gets bragging rights and the chance to host the next When on Google Earth on his/her own blog! Tag it with "WhenonGE".

Edited 20.3.09... since no one is even hazarding a guess.

And as a extra hint, the place is known in mythology for all its women killing the men (although this myth is not related to the site).

New year... another one?

Hard to believe another year is over, 2008 was good.  Now we just have to see what 2009 will bring.

Knitting

I recently rediscovered knitting and am probably driving people* crazy with clicky-clacky needle noises all the time. [*The hamster is also being driven crazy as she cannot stand the noise of the knitting needles clicking together]

It was due to the fact that a friend of mine mentioned some yarn made from Bamboo which made me curious. And me being me, I decided to go and have a look at it. Amazingly it is incredibly soft and I decided to get some and knit up a new scarf for myself.... and one for J...

I got mine finished quite quickly and started J's straight after... He wanted his to be much wider and chunkier - which caused some complications.

- First cast on... kept dropping stitches

- Second cast on... more dropped

- Third time... got it started properly this time, but pattern wasn't working

- Fourth & Fifth... more dropped again

- The Sixth attempt actually worked... but then I realised I need more wool because of the width, which I managed to get. Now all I need to deal with is the regular cries of 'Is it ready yet?'

While all this was going on, my Mum came up for graduation and oh, look more wool as she wants a scarf too.

The upshot of this is that I've found something to keep me occupied when I'm not working and which is also productive. So I figured I'd see if I could get a book of patterns to use.


After some searching (you have no idea how many naff patterns there are out there) I found a book which had a range of projects, not all of them are nice (applique flowers anyone?) but there are a number which have potential. Whilst looking for patterns, I came across a book which had knitting patterns for pets. Curiousity got the better of me, I looked in the contents just to see if there was anything for hamsters. I imagined the book would have a lot of dog coats in, that sort of thing. Even the pattern book I ended up buying had a dog coat in, charmingly called 'Doggy Doodle'... which was immediately rechristened by my Mum as 'Doggy DooDoo'..

Alarmingly there was a hamster-related knitting pattern. You too can knit a hamster house... the only question is why?

Big News

I graduated...

Better late than never...

We now have blue sheep... these were dyed for St Andrews Day.

Gotta love RYS

This job ad just appealed.

I never was good at remembering...

Especially when it comes to updating this thing.

There are a few things happening. Semester is nearly over, and while I don't have any work lined up in the department for next semester. Hopefully though my courses at the adult education centre will be running.

I've completed one batch of first year essays - usual mix of lack of spell-checking and proofreading, plus a large number who failed to actually answer what the question was asking, and a very small number who didn't answer the question at all. What really irritated me was the fact that in the first group who I returned the essays to, had divided themselves (no idea how) so all the people who had reasonable grades were together and those who did not were all together. They were not happy. They actually said I had graded too hard out loud in front of everyone else. All of our grading is checked before being returned by the course convenor so there was not question over being overly harsh. Then I heard the comment as they talked to one another - 'oh I didn't think we needed all of that sort of thing, I assumed you would know it'. The number of times I've heard Undergrads use that excuse is ridiculous - it actually seems like they do not realise the purpose of setting essays - to test their knowledge, not ours. The rest of the classes went fine, the other groups just seem to be a little bit better at taking things on board.

So thats 40-odd essays done, now I have another dozen or so for the second year class, plus another 40-odd second first year essays in a week or so, and some other coursework for the second level. Oh joy.

I've started reading a new column in the Independent, 'Diary of a Fresher'. This has been quite entertaining... especially the transition to what University expects and how you fit in. I'll post the links at the bottom of this post as they're worth a read.

Even better... I graduate next week.

-------------
Diary of a Fresher
9 Oct, 'I get one chance to be an undergrad, so I don't want to mess up'
23 Oct, 'We eat together and discuss the evils of investment banking'
30 Oct, 'The handout reads like a mistranslated computer manual'
20 Nov, 'I've an eclectic bunch of friends – and all my lecturers are dotty'

Sheep

I thought I was seeing things a while ago on the M8.


There is a Pyramids Business Park, with (you've guessed) a row of pyramids parallel with the road. I wasn't driving and suddenly saw a load of red sheep. I wondered if I had imagined them, but no, on the way back, the existence of red sheep was confirmed.

Funky, aren't they?

Apparently it was all done for a bit of a laugh. You can find the full story here.

Now the same business park has 'set free' a giant red stag in the same location... but apparently that statue has a history of changing location, or as quote in the BBC story puts it, "He's a bit of a wanderer so I'm not sure how long he'll stay at the Pyramids for and I wouldn't be surprised if he popped up somewhere else in the near future."