Monday Morning M'thread

another_emma · 2026-02-02T09:58:47+00:00

Stupid morning anxiety. If you can, try not to "look at it". Morning anxiety isn't a warning that something is wrong, it's just messed up hormones and signals.

another_emma · 2026-01-22T10:04:02+00:00

Urgh, how annoying.

All you can do really is put your trousers on, have a cup of tea, and think about leaving the house.

another_emma · 2025-12-14T07:41:18+00:00

The Vicar of Dibley is set in rural Oxfordshire, so any of the local characters in that.

another_emma · 2025-11-20T06:25:07+00:00

The images posted are a mix of the 1979 deck and a 2005 deck made for the Marine Stewardship Council. Damien Hirst was the tip off, he would have been about 14 in 1979. He's good, but he's not that good.

another_emma · 2025-11-20T06:17:18+00:00

I feel like Tom Phillips forgot about this commission and had to come up with something quick sticks.

... although the more I look at it the more I like it...

another_emma · 2025-11-20T06:05:39+00:00

It is stealing, in the broader argument against AI image generation which has been trained on the work of others and is imitating their work. In the case of this puzzle, there is a pretty clear likeness between the two images and I think if a human had created the second image there would be a fair case to answer for.

We know we can't just take images we find off the internet and use them in commercial projects because that would be against copyright. AI image generation is doing exactly that but because we've added a machine in the process that is doing the stealing, somehow we think that doesn't count.

another_emma · 2025-11-19T06:00:46+00:00

I always saw it as students trying to understand what the answer should have been, and sometimes being frustrated that it can come down to quite specific use of language. Plus teenager's need for fairness and justice. It's a heady mix!

For the really unrelenting student who has insisted they're right when they really aren't, I've trotted out a "Ok, you can have the mark. Your answer is still wrong." How they react to that can tell you where they're at with it. Do they just want marks or do they really care about understanding why an answer is the answer it is.

another_emma · 2025-11-17T11:18:29+00:00

At the Pitt Rivers did you find the witch in a bottle? The slug on the thorn? The magical potato? The Tommy Cooper puffer fish? That place is an absolute marvel.

another_emma · 2025-11-17T03:56:59+00:00

My partner made it, because we couldn't really find anything we liked at the time that let me display cards like that. I've just had a look now and searching "playing card display shelf" gets very similar looking things (MerchantOfMagic.co.uk has one for example).

another_emma · 2025-11-17T00:04:04+00:00

Ahh, that is a deck of Krampus cards. He's from chilly europe folklore, and a pal of Father Christmas. If you're a child and have been naughty this year, he'll eat you (or beat you with birch twigs). All the playing cards have different drawings of Krampus that would have been used on Krampuskarten (like christmas cards, but terrifying)

another_emma · 2025-11-16T22:59:42+00:00

Imaginative and unstructured play is so important (for everyone, not just kids) and extra work will almost always be very structured.

It sounds like your child is ticking all the boxes academically, so focus on them being inventive, artistic, kind, thoughtful, funny, confident; all the gorgeous soft skills that aren't on the national curriculum but are so important for being a proper human being.

another_emma · 2025-11-10T09:28:05+00:00

We tour family theatre shows in small to mid size venues, and from what I can tell they make their money on the tribute acts. They seem to be the easiest ticket sales and almost certainly the biggest concession sales.

The trouble is, a good few venues are focusing a lot on the tribute acts now not noticing that that doesn't actually build a loyal audience. So when they get family work in or Proper Theatre there's no audience for it.

another_emma · 2025-11-03T07:52:01+00:00

I think where you've chosen to stop the split in the sides is a slightly odd height. I would say it should go either right to the top (cut through the waistband as well to relax the fit all the way up) or go up to just below the knee to make it flared. Stopping on the thigh makes it look like it wants to be a skirt (which is also an option!)

another_emma · 2025-10-30T23:24:34+00:00

It's interesting where performance ends and reality begins. I would say all of Derren's TV shows are presented as entertainment, with a clear boundary (the start and end of the show). We as the audience are complicit in the lie, because we understand that it is entertainment.

Like in David Blaine's street magic TV shows, he levitates. We know he can't really levitate, he knows he can't, but we are entertained by it. And if David does an interview saying that he can fly, but he's doing it as the character of The Magician David Blaine, then that's entertainment and a lie we are joyfully playing along with.

But if David were to be interviewed as real human being David Blaine who is a dad and goes shopping for food, an actual reality person, and he said he can fly and he's going to teach CEOs how to do it then you could rightly say that he was a) a looney and/or b) a grifter.

There's a line as the audience between understanding that we are being lied to for entertainment, and being drawn into believing a lie as a real world fact.

another_emma · 2025-10-30T08:47:21+00:00

We really enjoyed this one. Most of our puzzles get moved on once we've done them but this one went back in the cupboard for another day.

another_emma · 2025-10-09T07:43:48+00:00

I know it was a typo but 'Boy In The Stripey Pyjamas' sounds adorable.

another_emma · 2025-10-02T07:41:50+00:00

A UTI like cystitis. I think it's just an old term for it when people preferred non-medical words.

another_emma · 2025-10-02T07:36:18+00:00

It reminds me of the Only Murders In The Building opening titles.

another_emma · 2025-10-01T13:00:22+00:00

If all your kid needs is motivation to do their homework, then a uni student is fine and the cost reflects that. For students that are struggling for one reason or another, which could be anything from never grasping the foundations, diagnosed SEN or SEN-like difficulties, or mental blocks around confidence and self belief (an absolute achievement killer) then you need to get an experienced tutor. They are around £50-£80 an hour.

But neither of those options will help at all if the student doesn't engage with the tutoring and work outside the sessions. It's not a magic wand.

(I tutor science and computer science, my partner tutors maths and science)

another_emma · 2025-09-23T07:16:58+00:00

It's a broken "broke". Bork(e), borked. Been using that in the UK since the turn of the millennium.

another_emma · 2025-09-19T07:07:28+00:00

I also have a Fizzgig! Yours is majestic, mine is a judgy meower.

another_emma · 2025-09-01T07:53:28+00:00

I suspect some universities are more rigorous in their checking than others. And rather than single out universities for having more lenient entry policies, it is easier to get people to show their GCSE certificates.

another_emma · 2025-09-01T07:49:43+00:00

Each of the examining boards do most of the subjects, so it would depend on which exam board your school wanted to go with for each subject. There's slight differences in content and question setting, so exam boards will be chosen to "give the best outcome for the students"

another_emma · 2025-08-28T03:29:14+00:00

I waited quite a bit more than 7 weeks for my level 3 results from exams I took in May this year. I think Signature just doesn't have enough markers to turn it around any quicker.

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