early/late/tired

I love blogging because a few of my favourite people in the world also blog, and one day I'm going to list my friends' blogs down the side of mine. It's great because I have running conversations with various people on their blogs and also on their friends' blogs. And I love seeing the different things people write about. Some are very serious, some are political, some are very silly (you know hwo you are. Yes, all of you). I keep in touch with friends from uni and also see what Matt's been up to. Here it is, 4.30am, I've just got in, and I check blogs to see if anyone's written anything new. Partly, I suspect, because Matt's on nights so it's an empty house... Partly just because I love my friends...

No, I haven't been drinking...

I've been out to a comedy night, Mark Steel talking about Che Guevera. Both funny and educational. I was plesaed to find out that all my friends were annoyed by the woman in front of me, who was laughing very obviously and loudly at things that weren't that funny, to impress the guy sitting next to her. It was an event organised by the Socialist Workers Party, in support of their paper, which gave the event an odd feel.

Then I volunteered at Nexus, which is a night cafe serving coffee and ordering taxis -s omewhere safe, warm and pleasant to get a taxi and/or a hot drink. It was very quiet and very dull for a couple of hours, then completely manic, and the coffee machine temporarily broke, there was confusion over taxis, and too many customers too fast. And then they all went away again, we washed up and shut up shop and all went home. It's fun, though tiring. I'm glad I wasn't in charge - it's nice to have someone else to ask questions...

Good night

What does 'dog' mean anyway?

Not last night but the night before, as I was lying in bed, I started wondering 'does Matt still have a beard?' I just had a weird suspicion that he might not have. However, being a good person and having a modicum of self control I didn't reach over and pat his chin to find out.

Lo and behold, when he came home from work yesterday I scrutinised his chin and he had no beard. When did it go? 2 or 3 weeks ago... Did anyone else notice? Apparently not!

I'm working on my essay. I'm slightly behind with my reading - I'd hoped to have read all the stuff on my reading list for the seminar on constructivism by now and spend the next week writing up a vague outline which I could then build on, but I haven't managed it. I'm going to finish reading this afternoon, move on and hopefully come back to the reading later. Just remembered there's one very important article which I didn't finish reading because I hated it so much.

Constructivism is concerned with language and meaning. One thing constructivists argue over is what words refer to. Depending on your view of the world, there seems to be three options.

1. Words refer to things (referential)
2. Words refer to 'shared templates' - shared ideas
3. Words refer to other words

I'm confused.

Making the world

I've started reading for my essay and am really enjoying it. I'm considering the idea that political economy is a world made up of social relationships and that these can't be treated like natural science. It's based on shared understandings (intersubjective is used quite often) which are developed through the use of language.

It is fascinating, but slightly difficult to really get hold of in my head. As well as writing my essay on it, we'll be discussing it in the seminar tomorrow. I'll see how it goes, but hopefully it will help me with my thinking.

I've also been enjoying googlefight - sadly, 'Sarah' loses to 'Matt' - and being a zombie. It was Matt's birthday yesterday and Erin graduated (/cheer) so we went out on Saturday night for some drinks and then played Monkey Arena (disappointing) and Munchkin (would have been better if I won). All in all, a good weekend.

All done!

I did my seminar presentation today and it was... ok. I won't be sure how it went until I speak to my tutor tomorrow. I feel slightly disappointed - I don't think I presented the arguments as well as I think the argument deserved and well enough to represent the sheer amount of time I've put into this. However, I've learnt loads through doing this: how to organise a piece of work, how long it takes to write something, and that I need to be more confident of my argument if I want to present it well. We also had a fairly heated debate afterwards - gender is an issue which most people have some sort of opinion about.

And Matt and I are having a small celebration tonight - we started going out 5 years ago today! Good timing as I can finally enjoy having some time off. But only a little - my essay is due in in less than 9 weeks...

Happy to be a loser!

I would like to draw your attention to this. £26.39, eh?

Getting worried

It's my seminar presentation on Tuesday and I'm starting to feel quite worried. I've been working really hard and found this really interesting theory about gender being socially constructed and hierarchical, which legitimises other hierarchies. Therefore, gender is a really useful analytical tool. However, I've only read stuff by one person which says this. I don't think it would be very impressive to do a seminar presentation where I, in effect, present someone else's theory. So now I'm panicking and trying to expand my seminar presentation somewhat. As I'm away this weekend, I have tonight (no Sanctus for me tonight, unfortunately) and tomorrow after work. Then I can work on Friday morning, read on the train there and back, and do some re-jigging Monday night. Not good though.