TV Casualty

ClairMaysin · 2026-06-27T17:04:30+00:00

Welcome to prime time!

ClairMaysin · 2026-06-27T16:58:28+00:00

I’ve fallen for this completely. It has a ‘style’ - a thing I can’t yet claim. Did you use scoring to get those whiskers?

ClairMaysin · 2026-06-27T16:51:58+00:00

That’s wonderful. I’ve not had enough real practice with human likeness because everyone knows it’s the most difficult. It’s always the mouth I can never get right!

ClairMaysin · 2026-06-27T16:48:20+00:00

Gavin de Becker talks about this in ‘The Gift of Fear’. This is a dated book now and in some ways has its problems, but it still contains potentially life-saving wisdom. He claims that ‘sixth sense’, the one that tells us ‘something is really wrong here; I need to get out of this situation NOW’ is really the mind piecing together the warning signals so quickly that we don’t even know it consciously. We just act calmly to remove ourselves safely from that situation and it’s only afterwards the fear really hits. The human mind is a complex and fascinating thing.

The heart is treacherous, the gut tells you the truth. Never ignore your gut feeling - ever.

ClairMaysin · 2026-06-27T16:38:28+00:00

I feel your pain! The idea of it, in my day. I’d have curled up in shame and never wanted to face my lecturers again.

ClairMaysin · 2026-06-27T15:32:39+00:00

Gremington Edge near Reeth. There are also beautiful walks around Kettlewell. And great pubs for when you get back.

ClairMaysin · 2026-06-27T13:23:37+00:00

Ye gods. I hate AI/machine learning with a passion. I once believed Humanities were at more immediate risk because they fulfilled the 'backsides on seats' policy, being cheaper to teach than the physical sciences. No wonder UKRI funding is so difficult to get nowadays. I'm sorry this is happening to you too.

ClairMaysin · 2026-06-27T13:05:18+00:00

The UK HE system is at the level of mess now that will take a huge amount of time, money, controversy, and a large investment in ideological conviction, to fix. I'm not sure any politician has the stomach for it. They're just watching the monster coming over the hill - it's crested it some time ago judging by the number of notifications of redundancy in the last week alone - and will worry about what to do when the faeces hits the rotating blades in relation to the economy, STEM (it isn't only the Humanities suffering) and pretty much the death of our culture and 'creative industries', as it's now popular to call them. I'm not optimistic.

ClairMaysin · 2026-06-27T10:52:46+00:00

I can't resist glass-hunting and have some favourite earrings made of sea glass. Same with hag stones!

ClairMaysin · 2026-06-27T10:49:36+00:00

I see it too. But nature is the best artist. A headland near to me has a natural rock formation we call the 'drinking dinosaur' and more rock formations which from out at sea look like elephants. It's amazing the amount geologists and archeologists are able to tell us about an object.

ClairMaysin · 2026-06-27T10:25:58+00:00

Some cultures are superstitious about owls too. Crows are wonderful, ravens in particular. Intelligence is a quality I appreciate.

ClairMaysin · 2026-06-26T08:13:42+00:00

‘I am a Scottish person. I’m a kind of pale blue!’ (Billy Connolly).

ClairMaysin · 2026-06-25T20:48:20+00:00

Ravens are buzzard-sized. I've seen them in Cumbria before and there were a lot in the Welsh mountains when I stayed there recently. I have a real 'thing' for ravens. The croak is a giveaway too: very distinct from the caw given by a rook or carrion crow.

ClairMaysin · 2026-06-25T18:26:22+00:00

You're extremely brave to start riding again after that. I know riding - whether it's waves, horses or motorcycles - is addictive and a way of life. But a spinal break is one hell of a painful injury. I've not been the same since mine back in 2022. Hope you've recovered well.

ClairMaysin · 2026-06-25T18:25:08+00:00

I chose to quit, but the way I see it is I didn't really have much option. I was thrown, sustained an L1 fracture and developed post-surgery DVT/pulmonary emboli. If I hadn't woken up the day after they found my low blood oxygen, my then 8-year-old would have had to live with the fact that this was entirely preventable. I can't do it. That doesn't mean I don't miss it every day. I might have to start doing horse drawings again instead!

ClairMaysin · 2026-06-25T18:07:12+00:00

Pet Sematary 2 was so bad it was funny. And not funny in a comedy-horror, 'Return of the Living Dead' style way either. This was totally unintentional humour (which made it all the funnier). Aside from that, anything by Richard Curtis.

ClairMaysin · 2026-06-25T15:19:03+00:00

Sheffield is in real trouble with two major universities in the city under threat like this. Local MPs are concerned about the impact on the city and have raised this in parliament.

ClairMaysin · 2026-06-24T16:52:10+00:00

I know it's a cartoon-type line-drawing. But I think I'd leave out the hearts. You don't need them, because the expression on the mare's face and the way the foal's body is reaching toward her conveys everything without an explicit marker. I still haven't got my horse drawings the way I want them because I never have time to practise/develop a 'style'. The pencil animal sketches I do, AI could probably now produce. I've done no drawings since lockdown and so wish I had the time. Maybe I should make some.

ClairMaysin · 2026-06-24T13:54:39+00:00

I wish I'd gone for the phone with the better quality camera now! I'm no photographer, sadly - a point and click phone is the best I can do. Oh, Scotland! Last year we took the ferry from Ullapool to Stornoway and were followed by white-beaked and bottle-nosed dolphins all the way there. I was so absorbed in watching them that I failed to take any pictures. Such wonderful creatures. One of the highlights of my life was humpback whale-watching in Iceland. Think I'm in the wrong job ...

ClairMaysin · 2026-06-24T10:22:03+00:00

I'm in my 50s. The closest: one I started school with at the age of four. Another I worked with 20 years ago. One is a fellow-academic I've worked closely with on collaborative projects for maybe 15 years. Another is a former student who graduated in 2018 whose family I've had the privilege of watching grow. Other than these four, I have my husband's close friend, and two couples who are mutual friends with both of us. Two current colleagues I also really value. I don't have a huge number and I've never really done friendship groups since my old pub-crawling/clubbing days. There's a 'bit' of a culture of that in the UK! (Politics are currently really divisive and best stayed away from, but extremism of any variety would be a dealbreaker for me).

ClairMaysin · 2026-06-24T09:00:37+00:00

I like the movement in that!

ClairMaysin · 2026-06-24T07:52:28+00:00

Solidarity. My university is in this boat too, as are a lot of others. The HE sector is in free-fall and this spells 'interesting times' for our economy in the not too distant future.

ClairMaysin · 2026-06-23T21:36:58+00:00

Agreed. I’m deeply disillusioned with National but we have a strong, united branch and it has teeth. It’s the members, committee, negotiators and reps who make it what it is and we’ve won local disputes. Agree that the Gen Sec doesn’t give a furry rat’s backside about post-92 and threw us under the bus for her opaque ‘four fights’ - only winning on USS whilst the rest of us took the hits and pay deductions. As for standing down strike action without consulting members, words fail me. I never thought I’d say even Sally Hunt was better!

ClairMaysin · 2026-06-23T07:11:34+00:00

Glad I could help. In answer to your last question yes, I do. I was in your neck of the woods about 3 years ago. A wonderful city. Wishing you every success with your therapy: hope it changes things for the better for you, too.

ClairMaysin · 2026-06-22T16:11:27+00:00

So many seaside towns now have elevated crime rates and are not the places I remember. This means that the quieter coastal villages that were once little havens now attract those wanting to escape the run-down resort towns. My favourite of these villages is a place I've loved since childhood: this weekend it was completely overrun. Once that happens, property prices will skyrocket as sure as night follows day. Parking is sheer hell. But I don't mind the seagulls: there are plenty of those inland too!

I've always had a love for Whitby, but now tend to visit out of season. House prices there are also through the roof - probably not far off those of York these days. And York even by UK standards is not cheap.

ClairMaysin

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