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May. 21st, 2009

puddleglum

Writer's Block: Same Name

Have you ever met or known someone who has the same name as you (first and last) but is not a relative?


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I have a very unusual last name - I've never come across someone with it who I'm not related to. My first name, while a common enough name with a standard spelling, well I don't often meet people with my first name on it's own. Definitely never met anyone with my first AND last name in person, BUT there's two other on facebook with my name, one of whom lives in the same city. I'm guessing I'm related to that one if not both of them. Don't know how distantly though.

Mar. 2nd, 2009

not an icon

I'm not unique! :(

So, therekinator, your LiveJournal reveals...


 

You are... 0% unique and 45% herdlike (partly because you, like everyone else, enjoy writing). When it comes to friends you are normal. In terms of the way you relate to people, you are keen to please. Your writing style (based on a recent public entry) is intellectual.

Your overall weirdness is: 27

(The average level of weirdness is: 29.
You are weirder than 59% of other LJers.)

Find out what your weirdness level is!



But at least I'm weirder than the majority of you! :P

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Feb. 5th, 2009

puddleglum

Writer's Block: Seven

Which of the seven deadly sins—sloth, greed, lust, gluttony, anger, envy, and pride—are you most likely to commit?


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Either sloth or gluttony. Probably sloth more than gluttony.

Nov. 14th, 2008

nanopic

So....

Yeah, I use this LJ a lot. I'm posted a whole 2 entries in the last year. Impressive, eh?


But enough of that! Only what this post is really about!

1264
21
lab.drwicked.com

*points* I dun did writing!



And the widget says... Nearly at 30K for NaNo *nods*

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Jul. 26th, 2008

puddleglum

Writer's Block: Phobias


Do you have a remarkable phobia? Does your phobia have a large impact on your life?

Submitted By [info]bitter_melodee


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I have a few, but one of the main ones that sticks out in my mind in butterflies. Yeah, butterflies. As in the colourful fluttery things that couldn't possibly do you any harm. No, it's not some obscure slang, I am genuinely terrified of butterflies.

I have been for longer than I can remember as well. My parents have told me that when I was little I completely freaked out when they took me in a butterfly house at the seal sanctuary near where we always used to go on holiday. They couldn't work out any reason for why I was freaking out at the sight of butterflies, I just was. I still do to this day.

And strangely enough, most people who are scared of butterflies (yeah, there are others who are too!) are scared of moths too. Me? I like moths. I think they're cool! We should keep the moths. Just get rid of the butterflies and all will be well.

At least until I see a spider.

Nov. 25th, 2007

puddleglum

(no subject)

146,553 People


And in other news, I completed my 50,000 words for NaNo on the 15th. Right now I'm just try to write as much as I can before the end of the month, and I'm currently one about 57,000 words.

Nov. 2nd, 2007

your/you're errors

(no subject)

Completely unrelated to anything, but I like it anyway!










 Elect Natalie! 
 
QuizGalaxy.com
 
 
I need money so vote for me
 
 
'What will your campaign slogan be?' at QuizGalaxy.com


In other news, my NaNo's up to 6588 words.
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nanopic

NaNo Prologue

Heehee, my excitement over NaNo's calmed down a little bit, but I reached 5,000 words this morning. I'm up to 5,018 words now, according to MS Word. I'm not sure I trust it's word count, but I'll accept it for now.

I've also remembered now, that I want to post the novel as I go along. I'll probably post chapter by chapter though. Right now all that's complete is the prologue - and that's a grand total of 135 words. I'm posting that now though. I might as well.

And that's all I got for it. Oh well, it's long enough for the prologue, I think.
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Nov. 1st, 2007

nanopic

NANO'S HERE!

NANO'S HERE! NANO'S HERE! NANO'S HERE! NANO'S HERE! *does happy dance* It's finally here!

*blushes* Okay, I'm a little excited, but NaNoWriMo's finally here! The month and a half of planning I've done's finally going to be realised, and the months I've spent waiting because I didn't hear about it in time to start last year are finally paying off and I can get my novel written.

I've already been awake about three hours or so, writing. I'm up to about 2,129 words. I'm a little tired, but that's mostly down to not getting a full nights sleep - I was so excited I kept waking up every hour on the hour ready to start - it was like I was a little kid at Christmas again. It was great!
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Oct. 18th, 2007

nanopic

NaNo Make Brain Dead

Urgh, I think I just killed my brain. I just did a quick trial run of NaNo. It turns out it takes me 57 minutes to write 1668 words off the stop of my head without breaks. It looks like I'll be needing to put aside a little over an hour each day next month, possibly more, to get my daily word count in. I think it may make my head explode by the end of it.

On the bright side my half term is here so I get to relax for the next week or so. Now if only I hadn't agreed to go shopping with friends in Birmingham tomorrow. I could sleep instead.
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Oct. 15th, 2007

nanopic

NaNo Friending Meme Thingy I borrowed

Well this NaNo friending meme thing's going around a bit (does 2 people on my flist count as a bit?), so I thought I'd give it a try.

Name: Nat
NaNo username: therekinator
Age: 17
Location: Leicester, England
How many years involved in NaNoWriMo: One if this year counts
How many won: None so far
This year's genre: Fantasy
This year's story idea, if you have one:  There's a war going on between three nations, each of which can control a different element. It basically follows four friends through their lives after they get separated after they come into their powers, each going to a different nation because that's the power they gained. Eventually the war stops and they get reunited, hopefully after I reach my goal.
Word count goal: 50,059 - what? I didn't want a round number
Word war?: I'm not sure if Word Wars and Word Races are the same thing, but I'm doing a word race, there's about 6 of us in it so far, all from BoolProp.com
Interests: Music, reading, writing, Harry Potter, Doctor Who, Death Note, Sims 2 
Favourite fandoms: Harry Potter, with a little Daria and Buffy too  
About you: Well I'm an English teenager with way too much time on my hands which is why I'm doing NaNo. I love writing and I want to be a published author some day but I don't have too much hope for that
What's in your journal?: NaNo stuff, fanfiction and the odd ranty-essay thing
Other journals you want people to add (ex. writing journals): --
Anything else?: Sandwich

Oct. 11th, 2007

nanopic

NaNoWriMo

Well I may not have posted anything here about it, but I'll be taking part in NaNoWriMo this year. It'll be my first time, and I've got to say I'm a little nervous, as well as annoyed at myself for making the plot I've chosen so complex. Not fun.
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Sep. 30th, 2007

puddleglum

Knickers

With the amount of fanfiction I've been reading the last few days, I'm surprised that I've managed to find something like this, but nevertheless I've found one little niggling detail  mentioned in most of the fics I've read. What is it? Knickers.

Now, I've seen it referred to just underwear in general, and usually men wearing it. That conjured some interesting images, let me tell you. Why? Well knickers are specifically something women and girls wear. They're women's underwear only, if men wear them then it's their choice, but they're most likely to be wearing boxers or the like.

Sep. 12th, 2007

puddleglum

Slang, Dialect and Swearing

Like every country using a language, British English uses slang, swearing, insults and other things. There are lots of examples out there - even dictionaries out there specifically for it like with the slang and such of most languages. I've even got a few linked. But to quote [info]limeysugar on [info]fanficrants a few days ago, "I should, however, bloody well tell you that we don't bloody go about saying 'bloody' all the bloody time."

Now I'm not so sure about other British-based fandoms, but the Harry Potter fandom certainly has a problem with misusing British slang. I'm sure Doctor Who, Torchwood and all of the others do too, but HP's where I spend most of my time and it's where I notice most of the errors as a result. So let's have a go at correcting them, shall we?




Truthfully there's probably a lot more I could add to this list, but I can't really think of them right now.

Jul. 28th, 2007

puddleglum

(no subject)

Yeah, another fic. But this one is brand new! And a WIP. And HP/LV. I'm kinda nervous about it, actually, it's a very strange feeling. But whatever, here we are.

Title: The Most Valuable Thing
Rating:
Probably PG-13 for the moment
Disclaimer: Nothing is mine, sadly. It all belong to JKR and various publishing companies and the like,
Warnings: Nothing yet
Pairings: HP/LV
Summary: The flows of time never stops, even for those who are sent back through it.


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puddleglum

(no subject)

Title: The Talk
Rating:
G or PG, never really understood the rating system anyway
Summary:
Draco has a little talk with his son.
Characters:
Draco malfoy, Scorpius Malfoy, Narcissa Malfoy
Disclaimer: Sadly they're not mine, I just borrow them.
Warnings:
Implied slash and the obvious DH spoilers
Notes:
Yeah, I know, not one of those essayish posts, a fanfic instead. Shockingly I do write them. I've already posted this a couple of places already, and got a fairly positive response. Not bad for my first slash fic.


The Talk )

Jul. 23rd, 2007

puddleglum

How Far Should Britpicking Go?

It's a simple question, wouldn't you agree? What should you and shouldn't you Britpick? Is there anything that should avoid at all costs? Or something people won't really bother with? Well, I'm going to try and answer that.

puddleglum

Exams, Qualifications and Other Schoolish Things

Okay, last post I went over the English School System. Now it's time to go onto something similar: exams.

Now before you fill with dread, envisioning yourself in your underwear, allow me to remind you that you won't be sitting these exams. All better now? Then I'll begin.

Please, bear in mind that the exams mentioned include both past exams that are no long taken, current exams and a few other things. Also bear in mind that the government is fond of changing the education system every few years, and the modern day exams listed will probably be changed in the future. And don't forget that this is England-only again.


Old Exams )

 


The above cut has all of the old exams that I can think of. It isn't the longest list, but then I'm too young to remember any of them and only know about them through references on TV. The Cut below has exams that are used today.






And that, I believe, covers most things to do with schools and education before university.

Jul. 20th, 2007

puddleglum

Schools

ONe thing that gets posted fairly frequently in communities such as [info]fanficrants is High School AUs. The ones that are usually ranted about are by American and are for anime fandoms, usually set in Japan. These rants point out that the American and Japanese education systems are not the same. On occasion it also gets pointed out that other countries have different education systems and cultures to America. This is true.

Now in my main fandom (Harry Potter) I've seen very few High School AUs and the ones I have seen were pretty were done. However that doesn't mean there aren't lots of them. One the contrary, a quick search of FFNet gave me 184 results for the phrase 'high school' specifically for HP, and I haven't checked the other British fandoms. Many of those may be well done, but I don't have it in me to check, and I seriously doubt they would have taken much of the English Education System into consideration, let alone the Scottish and Irish ones.

So I'm going to give a little overview of the English education system. Sadly I know nothing about the Scottish and Irish ones beyond that they're different to the English one, and I don't even know if the Welsh one is the same or not. But I'm sure you could find that information if you looked hard enough - in the links post from earlier there's bound to be some information about it, and there are forums where you can ask.

That being said, let's get on with it.

School Ages

This is pretty simple really. It is the ages you attend school. I believe this is pretty much standardised, but if something's wrong then it's down to regional variations.

To start with we have the 'cut off date'. This isn't the official name, but I'm referring to the dates which decide what year you are part of, so if you are born after a certain date you are in one year, but if you are born before you are in the year above.

In England, as far as I know, this date is 31st August.

I know, I explained that badly, so here's an example:

I was born on 3rd March 1990. That placed me firmly in my year. However I have a friend who I shall refer to as Smithers to protect his identity. Smithers was born 31st August 1989. This placed Smithers in the year above me, but only by a few hours. I have another friend, who I shall call K, who was born on 1st September 1990. This placed her in the year below, but only by a matter of hours. Even though I was born about 6 months between each of them, all 3 of us are in different school years.

Got that? Good.

Now we start school at 4 years old, meaning we have to be 4 years old to start school. Before that we have Nursery School or Play School, both of which are voluntary and are more childcare/pre-school environments.

At the opposite end, we have school leaving ages.Legally we are required to attend school until the end of the school year 11, which is the year we turn 16. After that everything is optional, although the government is going to change this so that education is compulsory until age 18.


The School Years

Compulsory Years

4-5 years: Reception
5-6 years: Year 1
6-7 years: Year 2
7-8 years: Year 3
8-9 years: Year 4
9-10 years: Year 5
10-11 years: Year 6
11-12 years: Year 7
12-13 years: Year 8
13-14 years: Year 9
14-15 years: Year 10
15-16 years: Year 11

The above are the ares of each year group, after which compulsory education stops. Of course this is rather... simplified.

For starters, I haven't split them into Primary and Secondary schools, or anything similar. That makes it slightly more complex as you have to account for regional variations, as well as variations from school to school, but I'll try my best.


Primary Schools


Reception through the Year 6 are usually lumped together as Primary School. Each class has their own room which they do not move from, and only one teacher for the most part. Why for the most part? Well, my Reception was a little odd, as there were 2 classes of us, they assigned half of the students out of each class to Red Group and the other to Blue Group, and each group was taught each day by one of the teachers. But bear in mind that's just a plain old anecdote and doesn't represent the majority of schools.

However the Primary school label doesn't apply to all schools. On occasion you come across Infant Schools (for Reception and Years 1 and 2), and then Junior School for Years 3-6. Other Primary Schools still will complicate again by referring to Reception through to Year 2 as Lower School, Years 3 and 4 as Middle School and Years 5 and 6 as Upper School, as mine did, though I think this is pretty rare (actually I think my school was the only one in the area that did...)

Primary schools may mix each class group us each year, or they may keep them the same all the way through the students time at the school unless there are major problems. Either is fine, and personally I wouldn't say ether method is better than the other.


Secondary School

Okay, your character has made it through Primary School or whatever the school calls it. The next lot is secondary school.

Without getting into the whole public/private/state school thing (will be explained later) there are 2 basic types of Secondary School (we'll ignore the anomalies like my own for now).

First you have those that allow students to carry on their education passed the age of 16 with them, and then you have those who don't. Either way they usually chuck Years 7-11 on the same campus in the same areas, though no 2 years are in the same Form/Tutor Group (which is simply the group we have some lessons with, go to registration with and assemblies with). Form/Tutor Groups normally stay the throughout Years 7-11 (except for the anomalous schools). Secondary Schools are often called Comprehensives or High Schools (Stonewall High, for example)

My school and a few others in my area are what I've called the Anomalous Schools. I know of very few other places that are like this, but it's pretty simple.

In these schools the first 3 years of Secondary Education is spent in one school which in my experience catered for the village the school was in and the nearest one. For Years 10 and 11 the students all go off to another school which accepts the students from nearby villages (maybe 2 schools, and students from 4 villages on average). In my case the school I went to for years 7-9 was called a High School, and then I went off to the Community College for Years 10 and 11. Confusingly both were on the same campus, but were separate schools and had separate names, having little to do with one another (except to borrow rooms for exams, and when the High School borrowed the Comminity College's Swimming Pool).

But, like I said, those schools are anomalies.


Post-16 Education

Post-16 Education is, as I've mentioned, voluntary. In Year 11 students have to choose what they'll do after their exams. They can choose to get a job, go into an apprenticeship, or go into NVQ's and A Levels, all of which I'll probably explain in detail in the future.

Students aged 16-19 are collectively known as the Sixth Form. This stems back from when Year 7 was First form, and each following year was the nth Form. We got rid of that, but Sixth Form remains.

Sixth forms can be attached to a secondary school, or a completely separate school. If the Sixth Form is part of another school then often the school has a separate area for the Sixth Form to spend their Break and Lunch times if they so wish, sometimes called the Sixth Form Centre (Ingenius eh? We'll leave out individual school's names for it though).

In some schools the Sixth Form is divided into the Lower Sixth and Upper Sixth. The Lower Sixth are the students taking their AS Levels, whilst the Upper are taking their A2 Levels. Of course, this isn't true for all schools.

A lot of schools won't use the Upper and Lower Sixths. Mine uses Years 12 and 13, and for a few people each year, Year 14, and this is true for many schools. Year 12 refers to a students first year in Sixth Form, 13 their second and 14 their possible third. People only enter Year 14 if they failed their exams for one/all subjects, or decided at the end of Year 12 that the subjects they chose weren't for them.

During their last year of A Levels students can apply for University, and usually do so using a service called UCAS. I'll have only gotten to this stage in September, so I can't exactly say a lot about it right now, but basically students use it to find a course they wish to do at a university, and use that form to send out an application that's standardised to them to those Universities. They're then accepted or not, and if a student gets the right marks on their A2 exams they can go off to uni. If not they have to go through clearing (ringing up universities to find out if they could be accepted there instead).




And all that is just the bare bones of English Education before University, without even going into the subjects, exams and qualifications, let alone anything else. They'll come at a later date.
puddleglum

Helpful Links!

Okay, if you read through my little introduction then I commend you. It was a pain to write. Now onto a slightly less essay-like post: Links!

All of the links I'm about to give are either communities/forums that I know Brits go to/wrote/founded, and they're dedicated to helping other people improve their writing or show a few cultural differences. This list is by no means complete, and I'll probably be adding to it eventually. But until then, these places along with here will give some help.


General Links
The Very Best of British
Dictionary of English Slang and Colloquialisms of the UK
American to English Dictionary
Separated by a Common Language
Truly Picky British-To-American and American-To-British Giveaways
Britpicker's Guide (Not completely accurate, focuses mainly on Scotland and many of the things mentioneds aren't completely true, but a good starting point)
A Guide to Britain for the Confused (More accurate than the one above. When it asks for a username and password just click cancel, you should still be able to access it)
Britticus Totallus
The Common Errors Guide By Akinaria
A Rant on Nutters by Akinaria (Be warned now, Akinaria's rather passionate about both of these topics and has been accused in the comments of not being Politically Correct)
Britpicking (For differences in speech between Americans and Brits amongst other things, may apply to other countries too)
[info]crystalfic's Illustrated Anglo-American Reference Guide

LJ Communities
[info]britpickery
[info]dw_britglish
[info]hp_britglish

Fandom Specific Forums
FictionAlley Park Britpicking Board (Harry Potter Specific, but okay for general questions)

As you can see there's very little on this list. I will add to it as I discover new links, but that may be slow going. If anyone has anything that could be of use then please leave a comment or something so I can add it.
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