Winter Wonderland

We had an absolutely gorgeous morning today. Hardly a cloud in the sky and about -8C. The sun gave a golden light to everything.

Really the only point of this post is to show some of the beauty I saw today. So no more writing for a bit just lots of pictures.
The last two pictures were taken yesterday afternoon when the sunset turned the last cloud bank and the trees all bronzygold. Beautiful.

What was interesting was the correlation between the breaking up of the clouds and the drop in temperature. I was studying at the kitchen table right next to the thermometer. When I started around 10am the sky was a pearly grey and the temperature was 0C. By noon the cloud was breaking up and the temperature had dropped to -3C. At three when these pictures were taken it was -5C and by the time the sun had gone down it was -8C.

I have been tracking the temperature during the month of January so on Sunday or Monday I will be posting an entry on the different temperatures and what they have meant weatherwise.

Book Review: 1984

The first time I read Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell I was 17. I read it for my history class as an example of a totalitarian state. This time I am reading it for a Socio-Linguistics class.

The main character in the book is Winston Smith. A 39 year old resident of London, Airstrip One, Oceania. This was once Great Britain but is now a totalitarian state made up of, in large, the English speaking world. Winston is a Outer Party member who works in an office job in the Ministry of Truth where he 'corrects' wrongs in printed material in line with the Party slogan "Who controls the past (...) controls the future: Who controls the present controls the past" (p37). Winston has dangerous thoughts of rebellion against the Party and its front figure, the mysterious Big Brother.

The book is a frightening look at what could possibly happen in a world where everything is rigidly controlled by one entity, Big Brother. Big Brother plays the citizens off each other and themselves. Citizens are constantly watched through the ever present and turned on telescreen, through which the party can monitor the individuals and feed them propaganda. In addition to this the citizens are encouraged to inform on each other. Children are members of youth groups where they are taught to spy on their parents and each other and report any instances of unorthodoxy, so called thoughtcrime. Another facet of this dystopian society is the discouragement of sexual relations for other puposes than reproduction. The citizens live in constant fear of doing something that will get the reported to the Thought Police and taken away to the Ministry of Love (which really deals with torture).

Winston shows an intellectual resistance to the ideas of Big Brother. Through his job he is exposed to the reality of the falsifying of information. He also has a memory of seeing proof that former members of the party could not have committed the crimes of which they were accused off. The books other important character is Julia, a young woman, whos rebellion against Big Brother is more physical. She has the apperance of the perfect Party member, but as Winston discovers, rebels in her own personal way. The books shows Winstons decent into full rebellion and what happens next.

I found it really interesting to read paying special attention to a different aspect from the first time I read it. By paying attention to the language that Orwell used and to the ideas of 'Newspeak' that he puts forward I saw a whole new layer to the book. This layer made me appreciate the different nuainces of the English language. As an example I found the discussion on the precision of good vs. bad contra good vs. ungood very interesting. The book theorises that bad is technically not the oposite of good, it is in reality something completely different. Instead the more precise oposite of good is ungood. This is interesting to me as and ESL teacher because I often see the tendancy of students to use the prefix un- when they do not know the opposite of a word. To me, however, ungood, although technically the oposite of good, is not a good choice because something does not have to not good to be bad (not sure if this makes sense, it does in my brain but you never know...).

I might be overly optimistic but I do not believe that a society can be controlled by cutting down the amount of words in a language and defining them more precisely. I believe that human beings have an innate need to communicate and to create new words, especially to describe new phenomena or new uses for old things. Take the example of the word "to google". This verb did not exsist ten years ago but is now an excepted use. "To google" means to seach for something on the internet. One could argue that the phrase "to seach the internet" would suffice. However, I would argue that by using the verb "to google" we are actually describing what we are doing.

I would highly recommend that everyone reads this book at least once. I would actually say that everyone should read it every few years because there are so many layers to the book and as new things are learned and new events take place you see new things in the book.

Book Review: The Oxford Companion to English Literature

School has started back up and I am knee deep in the Renaissance. Since this is the first time I study lit history since high school I am having to sort through my brain and organise my previous knowledge about the time period and the figures in it. I don't want this to turn into a rant about my own schooling but let me just say that I can give you a clear idea about 20th century history but anything previous to that is sketchy at best. What I do know I have picked up in bits and pieces over the years from my own reading and from living in the UK and going to historical places there. So this said I need some pretty extensive hand holding when it comes to putting things into context. The school has provided us with some very good resources but perhaps the one I have found the most useful is a book we already had in the house:

The Oxford Companion to English Literature by Margaret Drabble

Yup a reference book is my lifesaver right now. It is providing me with short biographies of important people at the time. It is clearly laid out and very interesting. It is well written and gives pertinent information and the ability to continue to investigate the topic. I have to say that anyone who is a student of literature should have this book at hand. It is great. I am using an older version of the book but the newer version I have linked to also looks really good. Now what I really need is a good dictionary of history.

Martin Luther King Day 2009

It should be heard at least once in a lifetime. The first time I heard it as a teenager I was bowled over. It was one of those unforgettable moments in my awakening to the world.

Winter Wednesday: Colours of Winter

My contribution to Winter Wednesday:Colours of Winter over at Handbook for Nature Study.

At first I was a bit sceptical about seeing any colours other than brown, green and grey so I decided to look at the different shades of these colours that I could find. There were some really cool looking lichens on the old ruins in the woods across the pond. And I realised that there were some pretty different colours in them.

I really need to get a book on lichens to look these up because they were so cool. I love the star shapes on these ones. They look like little starfish.These little spikes were a redish colour so I guess they qualify for some winter colour.

Towards the end of my walk I did find some colour in different places. I have been trying to figure out what kind of bush this is:

The bush itself is about 2.5m high and the thicker branches are brown but the outer branches are red. I can't for the life of me remember what it looks like in the summer even though I go past it all the time.

I also found some lichens growing on our Elderflower bush in the back garden. That was a beautiful yellow colour.

And finally a beautiful sunset from a couple of days ago. It was taken out of my upstairs study window.

Wordless Wednesday

The Moon

Pictures and Observations

I am very fortunate in that I live in the countryside where we have little or no light pollution. This means that when the moon is full (or nearly full) we get this amazing light and when the moon is new we see the stars and boy are there a lot of them. Yesterday was a beautiful day here and I managed to take pictures of the moon at several points during the day and night.

At sunset. 15:10. Moon 96% full.

As you can see the moon is very bright even at this time of day.
This picture was taken from our downstairs window. The moon is in the north east part of the sky.

This next picture is taken at the same time of day but from an upstairs window.

I couldn't believe how bright the moon was at this time of day. It was pretty amazing.

This picture was taken an hour later at 16:10. Moon is now at 97% full. As you can see it is very very bright. This picture is taken without the flash which is what is causing the double moon. So incredibly bright.


This final image is taken at 23:20 with the moon at 98% full. The moon is now pretty much dead on in the south and the picture is taken from a third floor window where I had to lean out and up. At this point it was so bright I could easily have gone for a walk in the woods and been able to see things. Absolutely amazing. I tried capturing it in a picture but there just wasn't enough light to be able to do that.

About the Luna Phases

The lunar phases are caused by the angle of the moon to the earth and the sun. Depending on where in the orbit these bodies are we seen different parts of the moon. The time between the different phases of the moon is on average 29 days 12 hours and 44 minutes. This does vary at times however due to the moons elliptical orbit.

Myths of the Moon

The lunar phases of the moon has been subject to many myths and superstitions over the centuries. For example it is said that when the moon is full the werewolfs come out. It was also thought that the moon and magical powers or that it was made of cheese. Today we know that the moon does affect for example the tide.

Moon at its Perigee

Today when the moon is full it will also be at its closest point to the earth in its orbit and therefore this is the biggest the moon will be this year. This is called the moon being at perigee. Two stories about this phenomena one from NASA and one from MSNBC. Both links provide more information about the moon and different space missions. So if it is clear where you are today go out and look at the moon.